Sight Unseen(11)
Kendra smiled. She and Olivia had met as children at Woodward Academy, the school for the blind in Oceanside. Among the many emotions that greeted Kendra upon regaining her sight was the sadness and strange guilt about leaving Olivia behind in the darkness. Olivia, whose vision had been taken by a childhood traffic accident, was not a candidate for the regenerative corneal procedure that had given Kendra her sight. Olivia, for her part, had expressed nothing but support and happiness for her friend. But Kendra knew that Olivia spent a lot of time scouring the Internet for experimental procedures that might one day give her back her own vision.
Olivia tossed back her glossy dark hair, her beautiful face suddenly lit with a mischievous smile, as she picked up a palm-sized object and aimed it at Kendra. “Stay still for a second.”
“So you can tase me? If I’m on the floor twitching and wetting my pants in the next ten seconds, I will be very angry with you.”
“It’s not a Taser. Just wait.”
After a moment, a man’s voice sounded from the device. “Aqua blue.”
Olivia lowered the gadget. “Is that right? You’re wearing an aqua top?”
Kendra looked down at her shirt. “Yes. That’s impressive.”
“It’s for picking out clothes, sorting laundry, or maybe even to help connect audio or video cables. There are some bugs, but it works pretty well. I just uploaded my review.”
“Cool. You get to keep all this stuff that the manufacturers send you?”
“Most of it. It’s good exposure for them. I just don’t have enough time to review it all.” She stood up and moved across the room to the sectional sofa where Kendra was sitting. “But enough about that. How was your date last night?”
“Good. Mom kind of knocked it out of the park. He’s smart, kind of funny, good-looking…”
“Uh-oh. I sense there’s a ‘but’ coming.”
“No ‘but.’ I had a nice time. I’ll probably see him again.”
“A nice time. Hmm. Tell me you didn’t do your Kendra thing on him, where you disturbingly told him his entire life story?”
“Well…”
“I knew it.”
“It just happened. He didn’t mind.”
“Of course he minded. That freaks guys out. Not just guys, but everybody. People like to parse themselves out to dates that they’re just getting to know … You know, they like to wait a few dates before they discuss the STDs, the rotten credit history, the six hyperactive kids who…”
“Or the prison time?”
Olivia’s face froze. “Seriously?”
“Yes. It was a drug thing in college. It’s long behind him.”
“If you say so.”
She was silent a moment. “I actually have some bigger news. I saw Adam Lynch just a few hours ago.”
“And there’s the ‘but.’”
“No, why do you keep saying that? There’s no ‘but.’”
“Oh, yes. The hunky government agent from your past appears, and the new guy pales in comparison. That’s your ‘but.’”
“If we can move past my ‘but’ for a second, Lynch tried to recruit me for another job.”
Olivia nodded. “Of course he did. You told him to go to hell, right?”
She smiled. “I used those very words.”
“Good. How many times do you have to tell them you’re not interested in this stuff? I don’t see how they have the nerve to—”
“Actually, I kind of inserted myself into this one.”
Olivia went still. “And how, exactly, did you do that?”
Kendra told her about the Cabrillo Bridge crime scene, her observations, and her conversation with Lynch.
After she finished, Olivia didn’t speak for a moment. “The envelope he gave you … is that what I heard you put on the coffee table?”
“Yes.”
“I have a paper shredder near the desk. Go ahead and put it in.”
“I’ll take care of it later.”
“Take care of it now.”
“I—I don’t know what’s in it. They might need it back.”
“Do you really think they took a precious, one-of-a-kind piece of evidence, dropped it into an envelope, and gave it to you without even telling you what it is? And didn’t you just tell me his exact words were, ‘open it, don’t open it, whatever’? That doesn’t sound like something they need back.”
“You’re right.”
“So go over there and shred it.”
Kendra picked up the envelope but didn’t move from the couch.
Shit. She couldn’t make herself do it.