“I can’t afford to pay for this.”
“I’ve already explained. You don’t have to pay for anything.”
Alicia had bought Jamie a set of fresh clothes in Fresno. He was wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt. It wasn’t his style, but the more striking the shirt, the less likely people would be to look at his face. At least, that was what Alicia had said. She had also bought him sunglasses and a baseball cap, the uniform of teenagers all over America. Even if the police were looking for him in California, they would never spot him now.
Jamie ordered a hamburger and the two of them sat in silence sipping freshly squeezed orange juice until their meal arrived. It was only when Jamie began to eat that he realized how hungry he was and wolfed the food down. Alicia ate more delicately. Jamie had already noticed that she did everything very carefully. Even making the coffee in the morning, she handled the cups as if they were made of expensive porcelain.
“We need to work out what we’re going to do,” Alicia said.
“Nightrise.” Jamie muttered the single word with a sense of dread.
“Think back to Reno, Jamie. You said there were four men at the theatre. How many of them do you think you’d recognize?”
Jamie thought for a moment. “The bald man. I’d know him anywhere. He looked creepy. And his friend – the one who got bitten. I’d know him too.” He tried to remember the sequence of events. Everything had happened so quickly. “One of the men, the driver of the car, got hurt. He cut his head. He’d have a wound.”
“The men in the car may have been local. Was there anyone else?”
“I didn’t see anyone.” Jamie had finished eating. Everything had gone, right down to the last salad leaf. He pushed his plate away. “What difference does it make, Alicia? Even if we catch sight of one of them, we can’t go to the police. They’ll just arrest me and that will be the end of it.”
“That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“I’ve got an idea – but I’m afraid I’m not going to do anything, Jamie. This is down to you.”
“What do you mean?”
Alicia put down her knife and fork. She thought for a moment, searching for the right words. “Look, I know you don’t want to talk about this,” she said, “but we can’t avoid it any more. You’re very special. You have a power. I know you don’t like it. But you can use it to find Scott.”
“How?” Jamie asked. But he could already see where she was going.
“We find one of these men – Banes or the other one – and you go up to him and you ask him where your brother is. Just like that. Of course he won’t tell you. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because you can read his mind. You can find out the answer without him saying a word.”
“No!” Jamie clenched his fists. He had shouted his refusal and two people at the next table turned briefly to look at him.
But Alicia wasn’t giving up. “Why not?” she insisted. “What’s the matter with you? Have you got any better ideas? Why don’t you want to help?”
“I’m not going to do it,” Jamie said. All the colour had drained out of his face and his shoulders were rising and falling as he caught his breath. “I’ve already told you. I don’t even want to talk about it.”
“But what about Scott?”
“You don’t care about Scott. You don’t care about either of us. You’re just using me because you want me to help you find Daniel.”
As soon as he had said the words, he regretted them. But it was too late. Alicia looked at him as if he had just slapped her across the face. “That’s not fair,” she said in a quiet voice. “Daniel is my son, it’s true. Of course I want to find him. I want it more than anything in the world. But do you really think I’m just using you? Do you think I’ll just forget you if I find my boy?” She paused, then continued more slowly. “I can’t even be sure that the same people have taken them both. We know people from Nightrise were there in Reno. But there’s nothing to say they were in Washington eight months ago. Maybe I’m just clutching at straws and Danny was murdered the day he disappeared. But that won’t stop me searching for Scott. We’re in this together now.”
“I still can’t do what you’re asking,” Jamie said.
“Fine.” Alicia sat there, rigid. “Then let’s go home.”
They drove back in virtual silence. In fact, Alicia only spoke once. As they reached the main intersection at Santa Monica Boulevard, she noticed a huge billboard. It showed a man in an open-necked shirt, leaning against what might have been a gate or a fence. The photograph looked casual, almost like a family snap. There was a headline: AN HONEST CHANGE. And, at the bottom, a straightforward announcement in black letters:
SENATOR JOHN TRELAWNY TALKS AT THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER. 8.00 P.M. JUNE 22
“That’s the day after tomorrow,” Alicia said. “I didn’t know he was coming to Los Angeles.”
Jamie wondered why she cared.
“I used to work for him,” she reminded him. “In fact, I still do.”
“I thought you said you resigned.”
“I tried to, but he put me on indefinite sick leave… until I found Danny. I still get a pay cheque every month. That’s how I can afford to go on.”
Alicia’s sister owned a pretty studio house – one of five that stood in a row, all of them designed in the Spanish style. At the front there was a courtyard with flowers spilling out of terracotta urns and twisted vines climbing the walls. A pair of cats stretched out in the sun and the air smelled of perfume. The house itself was very simple. A living room and a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom, all of them furnished simply. Fans circulated and cooled the air. Two framed travel posters and, on the coffee table, a model of an old biplane, were the only clues that the place might belong to a flight attendant.
“Can I get you a drink?” Alicia asked.
“No, thank you.”
“Do you want to lie down? You can watch TV if you like…”
Jamie looked around. “What’s your sister called?”
“Caroline.”
“Are you close?”
“We see each other when we can.”
Jamie and Alicia were standing in the living room. They both looked awkward. This wasn’t their house. And they still hadn’t quite absorbed the chain of events that had brought them together. “Look, I’m sorry. All right?” Jamie muttered the words. “What I said, back at the restaurant, that was wrong. You’re trying to help me. I know that. But what you want me to do – you don’t understand…”
“I’ll make some coffee,” Alicia said. “Why don’t we go outside?”
Ten minutes later, they were sitting together on the patio at the back of the house. Night had fallen but a full moon had come out, illuminating a stretch of decking, a tangle of plants. They were surrounded by other houses but there was nobody else in sight. It felt very private. Even the noise of the Los Angeles traffic couldn’t reach them here.
“I don’t like talking about myself,” Jamie said.
Alicia said nothing. She wanted him to relax, to begin in his own time.
“Me and Scott. We’ve always been…” Jamie held up a finger and thumb, almost touching, to show what he meant. “He’s the smart one. He’s the one who gets us out of trouble. He always knows what to do. I think of him as my big brother although I guess we’re twins.”
“You don’t know?”
Jamie shook his head. “We were found dumped near a place called Glenbrook, near Lake Tahoe. We were, like, babies in a basket, left by the side of the road. Except it wasn’t a basket, it was a cardboard box. We had no names. Nothing. Oh yes – this was really funny. Someone had given us a tattoo. Both of us, the same tattoo.”
“Where is it?” Alicia hadn’t meant to ask but she couldn’t stop herself.
“Here.” Jamie flicked a thumb over his shoulder. “On my shoulder. It’s a sort of circle with a line through it. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“So how did you get your names?”
“They called him Scott because the box we were found in was for Scott’s grass seed. I got called Jamie after the local doctor who examined us. They thought we had Native American blood. They asked about us on the reservations.”