Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(83)

“Let me be the judge.”

“Papa, no!”

She ran for the door and out into the hallway.

He followed her, walking fast. There was no escape for her here. No need to worry.

His feet clicked across the tile as he steadily pursued her. Past the empty room where Terry Ives should be, incubating what was to be his finest achievement. Then they passed the room with the flaky man Ken, followed by the most promising of their interrogation research subjects, Gloria, and, finally, Alice. Eight stood in front of Alice talking fast and gesturing wildly.

So that was who she meant.

He put his hand on the doorknob and turned it.

Alice’s mouth fell open as Kali disappeared again.

“I know you’re in here, Eight,” he said, entering the room. “Come out now…”

“Eight?” Alice asked.

He raised his eyebrows. The irony of these women and their concern over names. “Kali, I’m not angry…”

What was it Eight had said? That her other friend was “like her.” Was Alice hiding secrets? Were her monsters…real?

“You’re friends with Terry Ives, yes?” Dr. Brenner asked, instead of his actual questions.

“Yes,” she said, and the words rushed out. “She’s going through a hard time, you shouldn’t worry about her not being here. You should just…leave her alone. Let her live in peace.”

How sweet.

He took a step further into the room. “Eight, come out now.”

“Honey, you’d better do what he says,” Alice said, spooked.

“Are there monsters here now?” he asked her.

Alice only nodded. She means me. He laughed. No wonder Eight liked her so much; she’d probably told the girl he was a monster.

“I’m not a monster,” he said. “But if you want to think of me as one, go right ahead. Kali, come out now, we’re going.”

“Bye, Alice!” Eight sang as the door opened once more. But she reappeared and turned in the threshold, hesitating. “You’re sure the monsters aren’t here now?”

Alice didn’t seem to want to answer. But when Eight refused to leave, she did at last. “I’m sure.”

“How long has she been coming to see you?” Dr. Brenner asked Alice.

She held her chin high. “Not long. I won’t say anything…about what she can do.”

“Oh, I know. And we would know the moment you did. We’ll be going now. Bye, Miss Johnson.” Dr. Brenner caught Eight and took her shoulder, so she couldn’t give him the slip again that easily. In the hall, he asked her, “So that’s your friend?”

“She’s like me. She sees things. But she says they’re not now. They’re from the future.”

Monsters in the future? He wasn’t sure he believed it, but suddenly he knew exactly how to get Terry Ives back where she belonged.

And he’d keep the mechanic close enough to learn if any of the secrets she’d been keeping were of value.





7.


Terry hefted a last box of clothes to carry up the stairs at home, only to have Becky pluck it away from her. “You need to stop lifting so many heavy things,” her sister said.

It wasn’t that Terry actually wanted to carry the box. It was the principle of the thing. “And you need to stop fussing. I’m pregnant, not mortally wounded.”

Becky frowned at her. “Come on, you’re taking a nap. But I want to talk to you first.”

“Oh, no. A talk. Help, someone, help.” Terry’s spirits had marginally improved. She’d managed to pass her finals, and Stacey had overseen her packing and moving so efficiently that Terry barely lifted a finger. Instead she just carefully curated a box or two, which in her mind she called the Disappearing Boxes.

Why pack twice in close succession? It comforted her to have a worst-case-scenario contingency plan. Not that she’d figured out the making money part of it. She had a fake name picked out if she needed one: Delia Monroe, who died of TB at age six. Running might have to be enough.

Becky lugged the second of the Disappearing Boxes up the sturdy wooden stairs without even knowing it. Terry trailed her, taking her time on the steps. Now that she knew she was pregnant and couldn’t chalk being tired or achy or cranky up to life, she seemed more aware of all the nuisance pains.

“Sis,” Terry said, “I never told you how grateful I am you didn’t lecture me. And I’m not just saying that to stave off a lecture, if that’s about to happen.”

They reached the top of the landing. Becky kept walking and put down the box with the rest on the floor in Terry’s room. All her comforting pictures from childhood, the family portraits, the patchwork quilt her aunt had made when her mother was pregnant with her. She’d already transferred the Polaroid of her and Andrew to the vanity, right over her jewelry box with its tiny ballerina. Becky had already started decorating the nursery. It was set to be across the hall.

If we’re here and not gone.

Once they’d been gone long enough, she could chance coming back for Kali.

Becky turned and put both her hands on Terry’s shoulders so she could look her in the face. “Terry, you’re my sister. What am I going to do? Turn you out on the street? I’m not going to lecture you. Andrew was a good man. I didn’t expect you to wait until marriage, and…” She hesitated.