Pinewood Corner Kitchen Chapter 23
They met Casey at his truck in Worcester that afternoon. He was also a little banged up, though not nearly as bad as they were. And a touching amount of relief crossed his face as they all got out of the van. “You three scared the hell out of me, you know that?” he said as he came over. “They’re pushing me down the hall, I can see they’re doing the same to you. I feel like my brain is melting. Then the ceiling caves and it all stops. And I’m just certain that I didn’t get there in time. Like maybe the vision came an hour too late to do anything.”
“Thank you for getting help,” James said.
“It was a team effort,” Casey said, nodding toward Madelyn and Bradley. “They got Foundation help while I called an ambulance.”
They were all silent for a second as a couple cars honked at each other further down the parking lot. “I heard about the Chapmans,” Casey said. “It’s horrible.”
“Really?” Gabriella said. “I’m surprised to hear you say that.”
“Because they made my life a living hell?”
“Well, yeah.”
He shrugged. “I know,” he said. “But that doesn’t make it not tragic. So that’s the end of the case?”
“Yeah,” James replied. “Just paperwork from here. How about you?”
Casey shrugged. “I’m sure someone’s going to blame me for their deaths. But I’ve got plans in place, don’t worry.”
Gabriella wasn’t sure she’d be able to help it, but he didn’t seem overly concerned. “Thank you,” Casey said. “For listening to me and not just assuming they were right. A lot of people would’ve just stuck with their clients.”
Gabriella nodded, unsure what to say. Casey looked at Graham. “You good?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Graham said. “I think I am. I think I figured out the web.”
“Good.”
Then Casey sighed. “Hey, bud, is there something you want to say?”
They all looked at each other, but Casey wasn’t talking to any of them. At first Gabriella had thought maybe it was Bradley’s face or something, displaying yet more skepticism. But Casey was looking behind them.
“Alright, listen, I have to tell you guys something,” Casey said, running a hand over his thinning hair. “There’s a spirit that’s been following you around this whole time. Not every single time I’ve seen you, but enough that he’s definitely connected to you. Do you want to tell them something?” he asked the spirit. “Is that it?”
Gabriella went still, locking eyes with James. There were so many possibilities. It wasn’t the Chapmans if he’d been following them this whole time, but it could still be someone from a case. So many deaths, so many cases that hadn’t worked out how they hoped. Some immediate deaths, some later. And some from people they’d never even met.
If it was someone from a previous case, then did that case reopen? She wasn’t sure about any of this and, judging by the look on his face, neither was James.
Casey stayed where he was, listening for a moment. “He’s not saying anything.”
Bradley looked like he certainly wanted to say something, but managed not to. Meanwhile everyone else looked confused.
“He isn’t giving me his name,” Casey said to James before looking back at the space behind him. “But okay, maybe you’ll know him. Tall, thin guy. Really sad looking. He’s got a mustache, like a…”
He traced a thin mustache over his own scruffy face and the bottom fell out of Gabriella’s heart. She looked at James, who was doing a terrible job of hiding the fear on his own face.
“What?” Casey said as Gabriella looked at the other stunned faces. “You can tell me, I’ll pass it on.”
He looked at Gabriella. “He says he’s sorry, Gabriella.”
The smell of the forest was overwhelming right now, more pine here in this parking lot than anything she’d smelled these past several days, and she reached out desperately for anybody’s hand, anyone who would reach back. It was James, of course it was, who gripped her tightly, his glove soft against her shaking hand.
“He says it broke him and that’s no excuse. He’s sorry. To all of you.”
Gabriella looked around at the others. Amelia and Madelyn seemed close to tears as Madelyn gripped Graham’s hand. But Bradley looked pissed.
“Really?” he snapped at Casey. “What’s the catch?”
“What do you mean?” Casey asked wearily as Bradley glared at him.
“I mean, what’s it going to be? Did you hear about what happened from someone at the Foundation? It wasn’t exactly a secret, even if they fucked up their own investigation into Robin’s death.”
“You’re Robin?” Casey asked the empty space.
He turned to James. “He says it wasn’t him,” he said, then paused. “No, hang on. Those first times, it wasn’t him. In the gray room, it was him? Does that make any sense to you?”
It didn’t make sense to Gabriella, but James’s grip on her got tighter. “Yeah,” he said. “It does.”
He cleared his throat. “I thought I saw him a few times after he died. He was – I mean – he looked like he did in the wreck. But when, um, I mean, during the antidote sequence, I saw him again.”
“You saw a lot of things then,” Bradley said, his voice gentler now.
“But I saw Robin. Gabriella, you were asleep in the other bed. I was…I mean, I was-” James swallowed hard. “I was restrained in bed. I was strapped in and I woke up and I saw him there. He wasn’t a monster, he was just himself. Just Robin. And I knew it wasn’t like the others. I know it was real.”
There was a second of silence as James tried to compose himself. Then Bradley went back to Casey, moving closer to the other man. “Do you fucking get off on this or something?”
Casey narrowed his eyes, but Bradley didn’t falter, even if Casey was significantly bigger than him. “This shit’s traumatic for them and you’re just using it to do whatever the fuck it is you’re doing,” Bradley continued. “So what-”
“He says it was him who told you about Polly Grace.”
Bradley stopped, but still glared at him. “I had to do an ESP test,” he said. “The details were in the report. Someone’s feeding you information.”
“He says he needed to tell James,” Casey said, his voice calm as his eyes stayed locked on Bradley’s. “And God help him, you were the only one he could access. He could access your dream. Only yours and you know exactly why. He didn’t want to, but it was an emergency and there was no other option. You were the only one who would be able to help.”
Bradley continued to glare at him, breathing faster now. “Maybe that was in the report,” Casey continued. “And maybe I’m a big old fraud. But he says he could hear it too. After the screaming. After you shouted for James. He could hear James telling you it was time to go, when he was on the porch, but not. And you couldn’t hear him tell you she was trying to get in, but he knew that you understood.”
Bradley was even paler than usual. “It’s alright,” Casey said, his voice almost tender. “It’s real and that’s okay.”
Casey smiled and gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. Gabriella was pretty sure Bradley might take a swing. But apparently that last statement had hit its mark, because he looked far more stunned than angry now. Beside her, James looked like he was trying to remember something, but it was eluding him.
“He’s been here all along,” Casey said. “And he knows he doesn’t deserve forgiveness and he’s not asking for it, but he wants you to know he’s sorry.”
Gabriella wasn’t sure how long her shaking legs were going to hold her up. She looked at James. What was she supposed to do now? Forgive him? Did she forgive him?
Would she get another opportunity to forgive him if this moment passed?
Robin had brought her onto the team to die. She was a tool, nothing more. And he’d manipulated her, isolating her from the rest of the group to make that easier to do. To make it easier to kill her.
She could see James having the same dilemma right now. But she also knew that, no matter how he actually felt, he’d never grant that forgiveness if she didn’t do so first.
Robin had been driven to it. He’d made his decisions and even in death, he was owning them. The same way she’d made her decision to blame James instead of thinking for herself, Robin had made his decision to reach desperate, murderous measures to get the team what they needed. Unlike James, there had been no mind control, nobody else pulling the strings. His bosses had chipped away at him and everything he could do until all that was left was that desperation.
And she didn’t have to bond with him. She didn’t need to form a relationship with Robin that wasn’t built on deception and manipulation. And it wasn’t like he was going to come back from the dead and do it to someone else if she said she forgave him. She could feel that sympathy for him. Those tears in his eyes as he tried to kill her still haunted her.
Maybe she was fucking stupid, who knew? But she looked at James, raising her eyebrows. He didn’t look surprised. Beyond him, the others were trying not to show that they were watching.
“Where is he?” she asked Casey.
Casey motioned toward the space behind James, who turned as well. “I can’t speak for everyone,” Gabriella said, her heart racing. “I’m not, like, the spokesperson or anything. And what happened was fucked up. You tried to kill me to save, like, Worcester County or something? Really? They were never going to give you what you needed, even if I died. And the way you tried to do it was…” Gabriella actually laughed. “I don’t have words. I might never have the words. It fucked me up forever, but I’m working on it. But I forgive you.”
“Same,” James said, his voice rough.
He’d said he’d never forgive him, she remembered suddenly. They’d been walking together in the cemetery and she’d asked where Robin was buried. James had said he’d never forgive him for what he did to her. Not to him, not to anyone else. To her. But here he was.
She didn’t expect the others to say anything, and technically, no one did at first. Amelia kind of half-smiled, half-grimaced with a nod and a shrug. Madelyn was in tears, but she nodded too. Graham seemed to be keeping a slight, respectful distance that Gabriella didn’t think was necessary. Then Bradley, still looking shocked, let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I guess so.”
She wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen next. She’d seen ghosts cross over before, she’d helped a lot of them do it. Was Robin going to? Sometimes they just needed to hear that and then they were gone in a puff of smoke or nothingness. And other times, more was needed.
Assuming that was his goal here.
“See, man?” Casey said to the space behind James, where she assumed Robin still was. “You can let go now.”
Another moment of uncomfortable silence, then Casey shook his head. “I don’t see him anymore.”
“Does that mean he’s gone forever?” Gabriella asked.
“Not necessarily,” Casey said. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. But for what it’s worth, I know it helped him.”
“We should get back,” James said.
Hopefully he was planning something more along the lines of actually taking a break, not just moving on to the next case. But Gabriella also suddenly didn’t want to be standing here in this hot parking lot, thinking about what had happened two years ago. So with a handshake for Casey, they got back in the van and headed back toward headquarters.
