She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be - J.D. Barker Page 0,140

she calmed you down and then she called me, that’s all. Were you drinking, Jack? You’re not supposed to leave campus without telling me. If you were drinking, tell me. I’ll get you help. I’ll help you get past it, like I did in Pittsburgh.”

I could see the Geary entrance from here. I watched for Kaylie as I spoke. “Tell Matteo whatever you want. I don’t need a babysitter.”

Willy’s voice dropped lower. “The police called looking for you, Jack. Something happened to the woman who lived across the hall from you in Brentwood. I told them you pulled an all-nighter in the library. I said I was there most of the time, too. Come back to the apartment. Tell me what’s going on.”

I heard something behind him. Soft, barely audible. A whisper? Another voice?

“Is someone else in the apartment, Will?”

“What? No. Of course not.”

This time I was sure I heard it. Another voice behind his. A female voice.

Across the quad, near McKean Hall, a girl in a white coat stood. I saw another, a boy with dark hair and glasses and a white windbreaker on a bench outside the biomechanics lab. He had a book in hand, but he wasn’t turning the pages.

I hung up.

I quickly walked the block and a half to the student union and withdrew all the cash in my account, a little under three thousand dollars.

Two of the people in line wore white coats. I tried not to look at them.

Back in my car, I drove off campus. At one point, I thought I saw a white SUV behind me so I got on 26, followed the highway to Lamont, then pulled a fast U-turn in a Circle K parking lot before doubling back west. They continued east. I kept an eye on my rearview mirror after that, but I didn’t see another. I followed 26 back to I-99, then took the highway for about twenty more minutes, getting off in Port Matilda. I stopped at a McDonald’s, ordered a Big Mac, large fry, and a Coke, and I sat near a window where I could watch the traffic. I was starving, but as each bite of food hit my acidy stomach, I thought for sure it would come right back up. Somehow, I managed to keep everything down. Although three white vehicles pulled in—a Toyota Camry, a Jeep, and a station wagon—none of the people in them wore white.

I got a room across the street at the Aldean Motor Lodge. The hotel was rundown, at least twenty years past its prime and in desperate need of a coat of paint. The heavyset man with greasy hair behind the counter allowed me to pay for the night with thirty-nine dollars in cash and didn’t ask for ID. He gave me the keys to twenty-three and said the room was on the far end of the building. I parked my car in the back so it wouldn’t be visible from the street.

The room smelled of stale lemons. The walls were covered in cheap, dark paneling with prints of ancient sailing ships hanging crookedly from nails. The carpet was a shag yellow with hints of brown and orange and worn thin at the door. A note above the television promised free HBO, but the crack running the length of the nineteen-inch tube put an end to that. The bathroom had no door, and the toilet looked like it hadn’t been scrubbed since Carter was president.

I sat on the bed for a while, cradled my aching head, and wondered just what the fuck I was doing.

Eventually, I shucked off my clothes and took a shower. I probably stood under the water for nearly an hour as the stink of the cemetery, and the filth of the past thirty-six hours circled the drain and eventually disappeared. After, I dried and changed into the last of my clean clothes.

I’d either have to go home or buy more. I hadn’t decided which yet.

The bottle of Jameson sat on the nightstand.

I reached for it, changed my mind.

Fuck.

Not now.

I dropped onto the edge of the bed and blew out a breath. I pulled the two books from my father’s grave close.

In the top drawer of the nightstand, I found a Gideon Bible, a pad of paper with Aldean Motor Lodge printed at the top, and a cheap ballpoint. I grabbed the pad and pen and leafed through the Penn State yearbook. I scribbled out a list of the circled people:

Perla Beyham

Cammie Brotherton

Jaquelyn Breece

Jeffery Dalton

Garret