Dylan

13. Visitor Surprise

Tierney had just turned off the sidewalk to start up the path to the Rhode front door when she heard a car horn sound loudly behind her and a voice shouting, 'Hey!'

Tierney turned her head and saw a flashy sports convertible just pulled up by the side of the road. An equally flashy woman, about Tierney's own age, was leaning out of it and waving at her. 'Say', she called out, 'can I get some directions?'

Tierney turned round and walked back to the sidewalk. 'Depends where you want to go. Say, you're not going to offer me a modelling job, are you? The last people asking me for directions offered me a modelling job, but I haven't got the time for that.'

'I can't spare time either, not for that kind of nonsense. I've got an address here I have to get to', the woman called out. She picked up a handbag from the passenger seat and began rummaging through it.

'I think I know you', said Tierney. 'Were you at Lawndale High a few years back?'

The woman pushed back her sunglasses and looked at Tierney like something she'd scraped off her shoe. 'I blew this popsicle stand as soon as I could. I've been a Charlotte Lady Cat for as long as I like to remember'—she held out her left hand, which sported a large diamond ring—'that is, until Big Bill came along. I mean, until then I truly thought I'd given my heart to cheering for the Bobcats, but what girl could say "No" to a man like Big Bill?'

Tierney pointed at her. 'I remember now. You're Connie Sheridan, right?'

'Sheridan for another six weeks', she said loudly. 'After that, it's Mr and Mrs!'

'You were captain of the cheerleading squad. Mr Chung made a big deal out of it. There was even a school assembly or something.'

Connie Sheridan laughed. 'Ha! High school! Yeah, with me there they won the State championship. I suppose a high school principal would think that was a big deal.' She laughed again. 'Who are you, anyway? You weren't on the squad, were you? Not that I'd expect to remember somebody like you.'

Tierney gave a half-laugh of her own that turned into a cough. 'Nah, cheerleading wasn't my thing.' She half-raised the guitar case she was still holding. 'I'm Tierney Rhode.'

'Tierney Rhode?' Connie Sheridan stretched out a finger to point at Tierney. 'Weren't you trying to put together some kind of band or something?' She laughed again. 'I bet you still haven't got a job—living with your parents and playing support gigs at cheap nasty dives on Dega Street. I guess some people have what it takes to make it in the big time, and some don't.'

'So let me get this straight', Dylan said to Rod. He walked to the Rhodes' front window and looked out again. 'You were at home and you heard the car pull up outside, so you came to the window to take a look.'

Rod nodded. 'You don't often hear fast cars like that around Lawndale, and I couldn't think of any reason why one was pulling up in this street. Plus, it happened at just the same time I was expecting Tierney home.'

'You were expecting Tierney? Punctuality isn't exactly her best-known quality.'

'I came to the window anyway. I was bored. I didn't have anything better to do.'

'And Tierney was actually talking to Connie Sheridan? Did you recognise her?'

Rod shook his head. 'Not from this distance.'

Dylan walked across to the couch and sat down. 'But you kept watching anyway. You couldn't hear the conversation, could you?'

'Too far away. But it was visually interesting. Cars looking like that, you don't see often. Or women looking like that. And the contrast with Tierney and Tierney's car was intriguing.'

'So you were watching when …' Dylan didn't finish the sentence with words, just raising one hand above his head and then bringing it down with a sudden sharp motion, ending with a spasmodic vibration.

Rod joined Dylan and dropped into the seat beside him. 'Well, I didn't get a view from close up, the way Tierney did, but I was looking at the exact moment the lightning struck.'

'What did Tierney do?'

'She tried to help, but there was nothing she could do. Nothing anybody could do. I ran outside, but Tierney just sent me back in to call the paramedics. When they got here, they said she would have been killed instantly. Probably never knew what happened to her. Freak accident, they said, but these things do happen. Apparently a regular car is approximately like a metal box, which means you're fairly safe from lightning inside—so long as you're not touching any metal part yourself, that is. But this was a convertible, so there was no top to the box, and anyway Tierney said she was leaning out of the car with her arm against the side.'

'So.' Dylan looked at Rod. 'Don't you want to show me? What are you waiting for?'

Rod looked back at Dylan innocently. 'Show you what?'

'Come on. This is me you're talking to, Dylan Brocklethwaite. How long have I known you?'

'Not that long. Not even one whole year.'

Dylan gave Rod a weary shake of his head. 'Long enough. Look, what do you want? Do you want to make me ask you? You know you want to share this.'

Rod heaved a melodramatic sigh. 'Okay.' He shrugged exaggeratedly. 'I'll show you the photographs.'