The tall spiky-haired girl they were looking for was hard to miss. She wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“I like that shoe over there,” Kitally said as she headed to another display and then picked up one of the shoes. “Genuine leather, and look at the cool zipper on the side.”
“Those are men’s shoes,” Hayley pointed out.
“Cool.” Kitally’s smile disappeared. “I see the Ghost,” she told Hayley. “It’s definitely her, straight across from us, right along the far wall. Don’t turn around.”
“Can I help you?”
Perfect, Hayley thought. Now you take an interest in us.
“No, thanks,” Hayley said, using the clerk’s appearance as an excuse to turn toward the Ghost. There she was, just as Kitally had said. “We’re just looking around.”
The Ghost looked up just then. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes, and then she was tearing for the front of the store.
“Shit!”
Hayley took off after her. No way would she let her get away. She’d tackle the skinny bitch if she had to and then grab her wallet and take a look at her ID. At least then she would have a name. Maybe an address, too.
“Hey, you!” Hayley shouted as she ran out of the store and down the middle of the mall. “Stop right there!”
The Ghost could fly; Hayley had to give her that. She took an escalator up, two stairs at a time. Hayley did the same.
The Ghost disappeared inside a dimly lit shop, the kind that sells lava lamps and posters.
Kitally caught up to Hayley before she stepped inside and muttered something about needing a pair of those running shoes she’d just been looking at. Gasping for breath, Kitally told her she’d wait outside the store in case the Ghost got by her.
Hayley stepped inside. The shop was dark and had long strings of neon-colored beads hanging at the start of each aisle. It was annoying. She’d made her way down two aisles when she heard a woman scream and then a string of curses right outside the store. She ran that way. A couple of people were helping Kitally and another woman from the floor.
“She shoved this lady right into me,” Kitally said. Then she pointed to her left. “She went that way!”
Hayley took off again, running at full speed, weaving in and out of shoppers.
She almost knocked a kid over. Someone shouted at her to slow down. Up ahead, she caught a glimpse of white hair right before the girl cut to the right.
The moment she made the same right, she spotted the Ghost standing at the railing, looking down to the bottom floor of the mall.
Finally. Hayley had her right where she wanted her.
The Ghost turned toward her.
“It’s over,” Hayley said.
The Ghost smiled, gave her the finger, then swiveled around and leaped over the barrier. She flew out of sight with her arms extended outward as if she had wings.
Stunned, Hayley ran to the railing and saw what the Ghost had done. That chick had balls. The clever piece of shit had easily landed on a giant Easter Bunny display that should have been taken down long ago. It was made of soft, squeezable foam and yellow fur. When the Ghost got as far as the bunny’s hind leg, she jumped to the floor and disappeared.
By the time Kitally caught up to her, Hayley was livid.
“It’s OK,” Kitally said. “We almost had her. We’ll find her again.”
“That bitch flipped me the bird. I should have jumped on her ass the moment we walked into that shoe store.” She threw her arms up in disgust.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. That girl has obviously been making herself scarce for a very long time. She’s good at this.”
“I’ve been chasing criminals for a while myself.”
“Well, I guess you’ve finally met your match.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dinner had been a quick affair at Skip’s Kitchen, where Tommy and Hayley both ordered big juicy hamburgers and sweet potato fries. The concert didn’t start until nine o’clock.
The burgers proved to be the evening’s high point. By ten thirty they were walking out to the fairgrounds parking lot in search of Tommy’s car. They weren’t the only ones leaving early. The band was a new one called Poetic Justice, and apparently they still needed some seasoning. At this point, they were basically a thunderous set of drums with some occasional screeching feedback whenever the lead singer tried to sing. Hayley could still feel the drummer doing his thing through the soles of her shoes as they crossed the blacktop.
Tommy opened Hayley’s door for her and then went around the front of the car and climbed in behind the wheel. She clicked her seatbelt into place. When she looked over at Tommy, he made a face and said, “Sorry about that. Epic fail.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” she said. And then they both burst out laughing.
“That was the worst band I’ve ever heard,” Tommy said.
“Agreed.”
He looked over his shoulder as he backed out of the gravelly parking lot. Once they were on the road heading home, he said, “Those were some bizarre sounds coming off that stage. My ears still hurt.”
“The best part,” she said, “was when they finished the first song and the lead singer gave his ten-minute rant about politics and everyone threw their glow sticks at him.”
“You’re right. That was the highlight of the night. I am so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I had fun.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded. “I really did.”
“I’ll do better next time. I promise.”
“Next time?”
He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road as he talked. “I like you, Hayley—you know that. I always have.”
She said nothing.
“What’s going on inside that head of yours these days?”
She snorted. “A whole lot of nothing.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute. You’re always up to something. Do you ever think about the future?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“The future is for dreamers.”
“You don’t have dreams?”
“I can’t say that I do. How about you?”
“I have a few.”
“Tell me.”
“All right.” He took a deep breath as if gathering himself, then let it out. “In my future, I imagine my girl and me living in a quaint house far from the city life. When you step outside the back door, you can hear the lazy trickle of the river. We have two wooden chairs that we keep by the river’s edge. Sometimes you—I mean, my girl—watches me fish and makes fun of me when I finally catch a trout and manage to let it slip right out of my grasp when I go to remove the hook. We watch the fish swim down the river, happy, glad to be free to live another day.” He grinned at her. “Should I go on?”
“Go for it.”
“On occasion, we share a glass of cabernet after dinner and talk about having kids someday, but we’re having too much fun living day to day to make it a reality just then. If it’s meant to be, it will happen.”
The long stretch of silence was too much. Hayley turned his way. “And then what happens?”
Tommy laughed. “And then we live happily ever after.”
“That’s it?”
“What else do you want to know?”
“The ending. I need to know what happens to you and your girl at the end.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“We go on to have four children. Two boys and two girls. It’s not easy raising four kids, especially after the economy spirals downward and my business goes under. My girl and me aren’t asking for much, but we refuse to give up our home by the river. So we start a little farm. You know, one of those organic farms, because we want to be together 24-7. At first, she’s a little worried about that arrangement, being that she’s sort of a loner and likes her space, but it isn’t long before she realizes how easygoing I am.”