There was something wrong with what she said. The rhythm, Spinner diagnosed; the rhythm was wrong. He took in the sentences and replayed them. He separated them, he elongated the pause between them, he broke them down to miniscule bits. No. It still didn't make sense.
"Wait, what?" His voice arrived at last.
Bravely, Kendra repeated, "I see dead people."
"What does that have to do with poison?" Spinner demanded. Or anything. Meaning had yet to seep in. "Dead people. What are dead people?"
"People who are dead." It was a spectacle in itself that Kendra could speak so calmly. She was handling this too smoothly. It was a joke. The realization blazed into Spinner's mind. A joke. That explained everything.
Spinner forced a knowing smile. "Ha, ha, Kendra. On a scale to ten of lameness, that has to be an eighty."
He turned back to the computer. Kendra's face flushed. She had confided her innermost secret, the secret she had prayed he never find out and he had the nerve to decide not to believe it.
She bounced up from the bed and shoved his chair back around.
"He put rat poison in that pie. If Rat Lady had not put that toy rat on top, we all would have died."
Spinner was putting effort into maintaining his disbelief, which was seconds away from dissolving.
"Who put the rat there?" Spinner latched on to the prank that had been puzzling him for days.
"I didn't get her name. She hasn't appeared since that night. She told me there was rat poison in it."
"And why would someone want to poison us?" Spinner asked, his good humor gone.
"The same reason someone would want to pull you in the lake or prop your CD case at the top of the stairs so you fell over it. The same reason someone would want to wreck your car in the exact same way both times."
He stood. "Kendra, do you know who's doing this?"
He was aware how panicked he sounded. He was panicked. Kendra confirmed that he had not been losing his mind, imagining that someone was after him. If she was right (a strain of doubt lingered), if she was right and someone was trying to kill him, he could not see that his situation was that much better.
"Not exactly," Kendra's calm slipped for an instant, but she regained it. "I know it's a dead person, but I haven't gotten any more information."
"You're saying it's a ghost!" Spinner paced, facing away from her. "I don't know what you're getting at but it's going too far."
"This isn't a joke." Kendra balled her hands into fists; her usual mantra of calm could not loosen them.
He dared glance back at her, eyebrows sloped in doubt. She withstood the doubtful look. He shook his head.
"Look, if there were ghosts going around booby-trapping stairs and poisoning pies, wouldn't we all be dead by now?"
"Well, they don't all want us dead. Just the one."
Spinner went back to pacing.
"This one is different," Kendra admitted. "He's more aware than they usually are. He knew to make sure - I didn't see him. By him, I'm generalizing, by the way. I don't know for sure that he's male."
"If - and I'm generalizing by the way - if he doesn't let you see him, how do you know he's there?" Spinner mocked her.
Hot blood surged through Kendra's veins. "The same way you know someone else is in the room when you aren't looking at them. For example, you know I'm in the room, even though you aren't looking at me right now."
Spinner turned to face her. His stare did not come easily this time; his head made a weird swivel so he would not have to meet her eyes.
Anger brimming over, Kendra burst out, "Didn't you have any clue about this? You had to know something was off about me. "
"No," Spinner sounded resigned. Withdrawn. Simmering. "No. I didn't."
"Then you never heard what would be one-sided conversations from my room? You never wondered why electronics always flick on and off by themselves? How could you not know?"
"You were working on your stories," Spinner shouted. He strode out of Cole's room and stopped by his door. "And this is just another of your convoluted stories. You always have to be the special one, don't you? The big exception. So freakin special just because you're adopted-"
"You know, forget it!" Kendra flounced after him. "I'm only trying to save your life here. There's no need to get snippy. But maybe you don't care. Not as long as Craig Manning and Jimmy Cooper are carrying a grudge."
"Too bad for you that unlike you, Craig and Jimmy have to live in reality." Spinner retorted, his face contorted in a mix of anger and grief. "And so do I."
He swept into his room and slammed the door.
For the next couple of days, Spinner did not speak to Kendra, and as a consequence, spoke little to Cole, as Cole was rarely apart from Kendra. Mentioning the argument to either of them, Cole quickly learned, was forbidden. So he let Kendra redirect his focus on Carolee, on Emma, on Rick, or on the unseen dead assailant.
Emma was absent from poetry class the next day. Mr. Simpson called in for her on the attendance hotline, claiming Emma was sick. Nonetheless, Toby invited himself over to the Simpsons' house for much of that day, and the following few days.
Meanwhile, Carolee's package was ready to send out. The plan was to mail the package from Vancouver. Kendra would rather not have it traced back to Degrassi, in case Roland Duke misinterpreted the gesture as a threat or a boast. And while they were there, they could stop in at the Bloedel Conservatory. Kendra had been neglecting her tour guide duties lately As it was, Cole had traveled three time zones and had nothing to bring from it except that he saw Silence of the Lambs twenty-seven times. (Not that Cole was complaining; he was just as absorbed in the multiple dramas as she was.)
They delivered the package to the closest post office to the train station. In contrast to Carolee's weepy parting (while the slender ghost hugged them with a crushing strength and Kendra and Cole agreed that if this plan did not work, then she was welcome to come back to the Masons' house), the drop off was uneventful. The clerks directed them to the mailboxes without more than a glance at the package that would be ferrying a dead woman home.
They returned to the sidewalk. Kendra negotiated in her mind whether it was better to walk to Queen Elizabeth Park or hail a taxi. She decided on walking; they could get there with a lot less of a hassle.
Cole wrested with his disposable camera he bought at the train station. His phone could take pictures, but a disposable camera would produce better images.
They passed by an outdoor cafe, with yellow umbrellas blooming out of every other table. Cole happened to peer through some of the umbrellas, and he stopped.
"Is that Spinner?"
Kendra whirled and spotted her brother at a table at the far end of the patio. He sat across from a girl. Teri. It took a minute for Kendra to recognize her.
"Who's that with him.?" Cole questioned.
"Walkingisanart," Kendra explained. "I guess that explains why Spinner never had any days off." She strongly suspected this was not Spinner's first clandestine meeting with Teri, though nothing in Spinner's present behavior hinted that the meeting was a regular thing.
A familiar shape had blurred into view. Kendra ignored it at first, but it caught her attention again as she retreated her stare.
Rick stood at the curb. His eyes were fixed right on Spinner and Teri. His face, already pale, took on a transparent hue. Eventually, he noticed he was spotted.
He took off.
"Crap." Kendra shouted "Stay here," to Cole, figuring the boy was much more likely to get lost if he joined her in chasing Rick.
She ran, her feet pounding hard on the sidewalk. She had retained Rick at the edge of her sight. He could easily lose her. He could just blink out, and she could never catch him even if she ran at light speed. That he did not have to rely on his track skills must have slipped his mind.
She cut across an intersection and finally cornered Rick in a narrow alley between two apartment buildings.
Rick panted, "I didn't know he'd be there."
"Are you all right?"
Kendra stepped into the shadowed half of the alley. She panted as well; her breaths synchronized with his.
After all, she had just run six blocks.
"I . . . didn't . . ."
She touched her finger to his lips.
He edged closer to her, though she did not see him move. The shadow in the alley messed with her sight. He folded his arm around her (his warm arm) and enclosed her body into his.
He had stopped gasping.
The kiss started before Kendra was aware of it. He had stroked her hand out of the way; clasped it behind his head. Lips smoldered together.
Rick finally released her. For a long while she was speechless.
"This isn't a relationship," she blurted.
Rick smiled weakly. Somehow that showed in the dim light that filtered into the alley.
"No," he agreed. "This is just chance. Two ships passing."
Kendra could not argue with that. She rotated her body slightly, her hip pushing Rick to a more comfortable distance. That centimeter made a difference, at least to her. Short-term memory was allowed to enter.
"About Teri . . ." she began.
Rick faded slightly. "It sucks," he admitted, his voice getting a tad rough, "but I'm not going to go insane and insist they don't have a right."
"They might not be doing anything," Kendra cautioned. "They might be just friends."
"I guess so." Pessimism shaded his agreement. It was possible, but his chest seized at the thought of Teri going anywhere in Spinner's proximity. Kendra's and Cole's connections to Spinner were much easier to swallow, being merely family members. His ex girlfriend falling in love with Spinner may be more than he could bear.
"I left Cole at the cafe," Kendra reminded him. She seemed reluctant to leave. "We're going to the Conservatory."
"Oh, right."
She noticed the smallness of his voice. "Do you want to come? See the tropical birds?"
"I'd rather not." Rick thought it over. He could not drum up the enthusiasm over tropical birds. There is no reason why he should tag along and ruin everyone's fun. "I'll go back to the house."
"OK." Kendra gave him a smile she hoped was encouraging. "See you tonight."
He had already faded away by the time she emerged to the sidewalk.
"Is something wrong?" Teri asked. Teri, the one person outside of his family and Jay that would still talk to him, laid her arms on the table.
Teri had grown a few centimeters since she moved from Degrassi, after being offered a plus-size modeling contract. She had had some reservations about taking that contract, but clearly those doubts were long behind her. She was still large by media standards, but her body was toned to a more pleasing firmness. She wore a navy short-sleeved shirt with a high collar, and her long hair, pinned back into a ponytail, curled into a loose crest down her back.
She looked great. Spinner could tell, by the concerned sweep of her eyes, that she was not about to return to compliment.
"No," Spinner answered, steeped too far in denial to count that as a lie. Teri frowned and rubbed her ring finger, which a silver ring adorned. She knew he was keeping something.
But, hey, aren't we all?
Spinner had hidden his confidences much better in the other meetings. He had told Teri nothing about the strange accidents that seemed to trail him. He had not wanted to risk alienating her by acting like a drama queen. It was bad then, when he could still tell himself the accidents were only accidents. Too bad he did not foresee how much he would have to hide now.
Nothing's wrong, Ter. This ghost wants to kill me. Probably because of what I did to your ex boyfriend. Hell, it probably is your ex boyfriend.
That had occurred to him that first sleepless night after Kendra dropped that huge bombshell about seeing ghosts. He could not summon up the nerve to ask her and face more accusations.
"You've been awfully quiet," Teri observed as their conversation fell flat again. She was trying not to push, but these awkward silences were getting to her.
"Um," Spinner tried to think of something to offer in explanation. He owed it to her for acting like an uncommunicative jackass this summer. "Uh. Kendra and I had a fight."
Teri's lower lip drooped sympathetically. "What happened?" she asked.
"It's hard to explain," Spinner said. "Things that have happened for a long time just blew up."
While Teri did not know about the revelation, she understood some of the long running family problems. Teri was an only child, and she always regarded her friends' sibling relationships with a mystical awe.
"Is there anything I can do?" she asked, for want of anything more useful to say.
"I don't think so," Spinner summoned a strain of optimism. "I guess it'll work itself out."
"Probably." Teri nodded again.
The tension cleared, they started on other subjects.
Later, Spinner arrived home to the dark house. Light glimmered from the Kendra's room. Either she was working on her writing or drawing or . . . never mind (though he did not hear any furtive whispers). Cole was in bed.
Spinner trudged upstairs and straight to his room. No detour to the bathroom or anything; he had no energy for it. He slammed onto his bed.
His head landed on something hard nestled within the pillow.
He swiped his arm under the pillow, but felt nothing but the sheets. Finally he lifted his head and switched on his bedlamp
A dark molten hole stained the pillow.
His hands moving under their own command, he dug into the hole and extracted a metal object.
A bullet. By its semi melted shape, it looked like it had been fired.
Kendra found the pillow propped against her door the next morning. A note lay on top of it.
One of your people, the note accused.
Holding the pillow like a waitress's tray, Kendra headed to Spinner's room. She knocked but did not wait for an answer.
"Spinner?"
She opened the door.
No one was inside. Spinner had already left for the day.