Semi-Psychic Life (Glimmer Lake #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,45
on the television for some white noise as she wiped down the tables and married the ketchup bottles in the dining room. The buzz of a local gardening show hummed in the background, and she nearly missed her phone ringing a few minutes after three thirty.
Val smiled when she picked up her phone. “Hey, kiddo.”
“I got your message”—Jackson was talking with what sounded like a crowd in the background—“but do you mind if we head home? I’ve got a paper I need to work on and all my notes are at the house.”
“Do you want to drop Andy off here?”
“Nah, he’s okay. It was library day today. He won’t get in my hair.”
“Ah.” Library day meant Andy with new books, which meant he’d be completely out of it until he read all his new finds. “Okay. Well, I guess if you don’t want to hang out with your supercool mom, then you can just go home and be boring by yourself.”
Jackson laughed. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Hey, out of curiosity, if I picked you up at school wearing a Princess Leia costume, would you be too embarrassed to speak to me?”
“Which Princess Leia costume?”
“Just the regular white-robe one. Not the bikini.”
“Good. If you wore the bikini, I’d have to deal with Carter drooling over you, which would just be gross.”
Val blinked. “What?”
“Never mind. He’s one of the guys who thinks you’re cool. Don’t wear a Princess Leia bikini, Mom. I gotta go. I’ll see you at home.”
“Okay, but tell—” The phone cut off and Val frowned. He’d never actually told her if he’d speak to her if she showed up in a Princess Leia costume. She was going to assume he would.
After all, she was the cool mom.
Ha!
She caught a familiar name being shouted on the television and turned to look.
“Sheriff Sullivan!” A reporter was chasing Sully’s back. “Do you have any more information about the woman whose car went off the road today?”
They must have interrupted the gardening show to cover the accident that had shut down the road. In Glimmer Lake and Bridger City, things like that were huge news.
“She is alive and being transported to Bridger City right now. I don’t have any more information that I can share with you at the moment.” His expression was written with worry. “As you can imagine, we’re still in the process of contacting family, so we’re asking all the media”—he looked directly into the camera—“to please respect that. Even if you get a name, let’s just hold off on reporting anything like that until we can be sure the family of this woman has been notified.”
Val knew that he’d be heading up any accident notification. He took his job personally, and Glimmer Lake was his home.
“Is there any more you can share at this time?”
“I can tell you search and rescue did an incredible job and got the driver to the hospital in Bridger as quickly as they could.” He looked up. “Especially in weather like this, we want to caution all drivers to slow down, be careful, and watch for ice. Even on sunny days, if you hit a shady spot in the road, the results can be tragic.” He nodded at the camera. “Thanks, Kim. I can’t say anything more right now.”
The tapping on the door distracted her. “Val?”
It was Don. The produce delivery had finally arrived.
She waved him toward the back through the window and walked to the back porch to unlock the door. “Hey, Don!”
“Sorry about the time.” The older man immediately began unloading his truck. “Bad scene on the highway.”
“I just saw Sully on the TV.” She reached for each crate and set them on the picnic table. “Did you see who it was?”
“I didn’t see the accident, but I saw the car they pulled out.” Don finished unloading the full crates and reached for the pile of empty plastic lugs Ramon had set out from the previous week. “Some fancy little silver thing. Most likely a tourist. Can’t imagine anyone around here driving a silver convertible in the winter.”
“A silver convertible?” Val felt the blood in her face drain away. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Don frowned. “One of your friends drive something like that?”
She wasn’t exactly a friend. But Val only knew one flashy silver convertible on the mountain, and it belonged to Savannah Anderson.
Chapter 15
Val drove home without checking the news. She made sure her phone ringer was on high and resisted the urge to call Sully. He would be busy. She was probably wrong. There