Experiment in Terror 04 Lying Season (27 page)

Hence why we would need to get more footage. We just didn’t have enough to go on.

“
What about the EVP, have you listened to that yet?” I asked, my mouth close to his ear. He shivered slightly at my breath and I took a little bit of pleasure in that.

“
Not yet,” he said. He turned his head to look at me out of the corner of his eye. Our faces were so close that I could count the pores on his nose. “I’d say we could give it a listen now, but we don’t have enough time.”

I stood back. “Why, where are we going?”

“
I’ve got some errands to run and then we’ve got dinner plans tonight with some friends.” He pushed pause on the footage and saved all of his work before shutting off the monitor.

“
Am I included in these dinner plans?” I asked wearily, sitting back on the bed. The thought of having to go out for dinner with more strangers was tiring. I just wanted to hang out here and keep an eye on Dex.

“
Of course you are. You’re my prisoner this week, don’t you remember? Personally, there are a million other people I’d rather introduce you to. Sarah and Jorge are really Jenn’s friends more than mine, but, you know, compromise and all that bullshit.”

“
Dex Foray knows how to compromise?” I said. “You learn something new every day.”

“
Yes, you do,” he said, and got up. He saw the shoes in the bag. “You went shopping with Rebecca?”

“
Yep,” I said, pulling the shoes out of the box.

His brows went to the heavens. “Wow. Those are like…Jenn shoes.”

“
These are not hooker shoes,” I said defensively.

“
Well played,” he said. “You going to wear those to dinner?”

I told him no. I wasn’t even going to change since I already looked nicer than usual for the lunch date. But I didn’t mention the whole clubbing thing with Jenn. I was afraid there was a small chance he might think the whole thing was a good idea.

Unfortunately, Jenn didn’t keep her mouth shut about it. She was in the middle of parking the Mini near the restaurant when she brought it up to Dex.

“
Did you see Perry’s shoes?” she asked him as she ran the back wheel onto the curb. Worst driver ever.

“
I did. Dangerous looking things.”

“
I want her to wear them clubbing later. She needs to break them in.”

Dex’s hand flew out and caught Jenn’s arm as she straightened the wheel and attempted parallel parking for the second time. “Hold up. What? Clubbing?”

He looked behind him at me. I tried to shake my head as subtly as possible but Jenn said, “Yes, I thought some girl time would be great for us.”

“
Is Rebecca going?”

“
No,” Jenn said, scrunching up her nose in distaste. “Why would she? It’s just Perry and me. I thought it would be great to let our hair down and get to know each other. Isn’t that right, Perry?”

Now she had turned in her seat to look at me. Both of them were waiting for some sort of reaction. I could see that Dex knew how uncomfortable I felt but he didn’t say anything. A “oh, let Perry stay home tonight” would have been a sufficient touch from him, but no.

“
Yes,” I said monotonously. “Girl time.”

Dex shook his head, “You girls are fucking nuts. It’s a Wednesday night. Who goes clubbing on a Wednesday?”

“
Aww, Dexy Poo, are you jealous that we are leaving you out?”

Dexy Poo? Excuse me while I vomit.

“
Ha!” he said, slapping his knee. “I sure wish I could get hit on by douchebags all night, dance to asinine monkey beats and drink $20 beers… Jesus Christ, woman, you want me to park the car for you?”

Jenn was now going back in for a third attempt at parallel parking. She glared at Dex but managed to do it this time. Third time’s a charm.

I got out of the car, squeezing out between the seats and looked around me. I had no idea what part of Seattle we were in, maybe Bellevue? It was quite a smart-looking area with lots of little cozy-looking cafes and posh boutiques that were done up in twinkling Christmas decorations. It was another reminder that the season was upon us and Christmas would be here before we knew it. I just couldn’t get into the spirit for the life of me. It seemed like my whole life had boiled down to just this one week in Seattle. Looking beyond this trip seemed impossible.

It had stopped raining, too, which was good, but the wind was picking up and for once the air was fraught with winter chill. The kind of chill that smells like snow, like a massive breeze had stormed down a snowy mountainside and danced in and out between the city buildings. I held my coat close around me, stuck my hands deep in the pockets and joined Dex and Jenn on the sidewalk.

“
We’re a few blocks away, but at least it’s not raining,” Jenn said as we walked down the street together.

“
Heaven forbid you try to find a parking spot close to where we need to be,” Dex sniped from behind us.

Both Jenn and I turned and gave him a look that probably matched. Maybe mine looked more concerned than Jenn’s.

“
What the hell is up your ass tonight?” she asked.

“
Nothing,” he shot back but as he did so, he winced considerably.

I stopped and made him stop, too, by placing my hand on his chest briefly. I was starting to worry again. “What’s wrong?”

“
Nothing,” he said, calmer now. He avoided Jenn’s eyes but once he saw mine, he relented and said, “Just a sudden migraine or something.”

Uh oh. The guilt took hold of my heart and squeezed it.

Jenn sighed and gave him the keys to the Mini. “There’s some Excedrin in the glove compartment.”

He nodded thanks, wincing at the movement, and took off down the road back to the car. Jenn pulled at my arm, turning me around and led me on our way to the restaurant, walking slow enough for Dex to catch up.

“
Does he get headaches often?” I asked, hoping that he did. He never seemed to when he was around me. Maybe Jenn brought them on. That wouldn’t have surprised me at all.

“
Sometimes,” she said casually. “He used to when we first started dating. Not so much in the last year or so. I don’t know, I don’t really pay attention.”

No kidding
, I thought.

She caught the look on my face and explained, “You know Dex, it’s always something.”

That was true but he was still her boyfriend. Speaking of which…

I stopped and looked behind us expecting to see Dex heading back from the car. Only I couldn’t see him anywhere on the dark street.

I glanced at Jenn. “Where did he go?”

She shook her head and then had a quick look at her diamante watch.

“
I have no idea but we’re already running late.”

Yeah, cuz you can’t park worth shit.

And then she turned around again and started back on her way. I couldn’t believe it. I stood my ground and said, “I’m going to go find him.”

She sighed, long and exasperated, but it made her stop. She came back to me and said, “Fine.”

We hurried down the sidewalk, looking for him. Maybe he was back at the car. Maybe he popped into a store.

But the car was empty and the closest store was a linen shop. Not exactly Dex territory.

“
Dex?” I called out. A few passersby turned at the sound of my voice but kept walking.

“
Arghh,” Jenn growled, and pulled out her phone. “I’ll just call him.”

We waited for a few seconds. I could hear the phone ring through her phone. And then I heard Dex’s suddenly ironic “Final Countdown” ringtone ring out into the air. Jenn and I looked at each other and then took off down the street toward the sound, which was actually past the car in the opposite direction.

“
Dex?” she called as we looked around us.

We followed the sound, the ringtone that kept repeating, sounding more ominous with each tinny ring.

We turned a slight corner and found ourselves looking down a dirty, narrow alley. Halfway down, beside a Dumpster, Dex was sitting on the ground, his head between his legs, his hands covering his ears.

The sight shocked my heart. It apparently shocked Jenn, too, because she just stood there at the entrance to the alley, looking more annoyed and afraid then concerned. I gave her a crazy look and ran over to Dex as fast as I could go.

“
Dex!” I cried out softly and dropped to my knees in front of him, the cold wet ground immediately soaking me.

I placed my hands gently on his shoulders but he didn’t look up. I looked wildly at Jenn and couldn’t believe she was still standing there.

“
Jenn!” I yelled at her. I turned back to Dex and scooched in closer. I took a quick look at his body; he seemed fine, but was behaving like a little boy in the middle of a nightmare. I couldn’t see his face at all and it was unnerving.

I put my hands on his and lifted them off his ears. They were cold. I squeezed them and slowly tried to rub some life back into them.

“
Dex?” I whispered. “It’s Perry. Dex, are you OK? I’m here. You’re safe. Please just let me know you’re OK.”

I felt Jenn come behind me and stop.

“
He’s fine,” she said.

My jaw dropped and I whipped my head around to give her a vicious look. “How the hell do you know he’s fine?”

“
Because he used to do this. Didn’t you, Dex? I thought he was done with the panic attacks.”

“
Panic attacks?” I repeated and looked back at him. He slowly raised his head and looked at us. Me first, then Jenn. His eyes were red like he had been crying.

“
I am fine,” he said, emotionless.

“
See,” she said. “Now I’m going to the restaurant before Sarah and Jorge think we’ve ditched them.”

And then she just turned on her heel and walked down the alley, disappearing around the corner.

I wiped her behavior out of my head and turned my attention back to Dex. How could he be fine? He was sitting on the wet ground in a city alley, in the dark. He was the furthest thing from fine and even if it was just a panic attack, that was nothing to brush off.

He wasn’t looking at me anymore. His eyes were closed shut. I touched his cheek and laid my palm against his icy face.

“
What happened?”

He shook his head slightly.

“
Please, Dex,” I implored and leaned in closer. I put my other hand on his face and raised his head somewhat. He opened his eyes and looked into mine. My insides crumbled at how lost and scared he looked. Seeing him like this made brought the threat of tears to my eyes.

“
What happened? You can tell me. You can trust me. You know you can. Is it…your medication?”

I don’t know why I asked this since I was pretty sure that’s what it was, but I needed to hear it from him. This was turning out to be one terrible idea.

But he did that slight shake of the head again. It actually didn’t make me feel any better.

“
Perry,” he whispered, his eyes flitting to the right, toward the Dumpster. “Can you go look down the alley? And tell me if someone is there?”

“
Someone?” I asked. He just nodded and closed his eyes tightly again. “OK, no problem.”

I got up and peered down the alley. I couldn’t see anyone. It was a dead end, after all.

I even took a few steps toward the Dumpster. I looked around the edge of it but there was no one there either.

I turned around to go back to Dex.