“You two broke up.”
“Only because she thought her crazy was too much for me to handle,” she retorted.
Roxanne held up a hand and cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter now. The young lady is dead. The respectful thing to do would be to let her rest.”
Esmé shook her head. “I know Dana had visions of her before she died. I want to talk to her.”
“It isn’t like that, Esmé. I can’t talk to dead people. The Fran I’m seeing is the Fran in my mind.”
“Then how do you explain seeing her death?”
“I had a premonition of something that was coming for a live person. I can’t explain it, but I know that whatever I see in my visions isn’t the real Fran.”
We all look up as Sam comes slamming into the room. “Do we need to go to the hospital?”
“What the hell?” I glare at her. “No, we don’t need a hospital.”
Roxanne shrugs. “I texted her while you were having your fit. I thought she might have an idea of what to do.”
“It wasn’t a fit.” Glaring at Sam, I cut her off as she opens her mouth. “And it wasn’t a seizure.”
“I vote for the hospital,” Roxanne says.
“Forget it.” Planting my feet on the ground, I swing myself out of the chair and stalk across the room. “I didn’t have a fit. I didn’t have a seizure. And I don’t need a hospital.” Opening the front door with a huge, dramatic sweep, I lean back and narrow my eyes at Esmé. “And I don’t talk to dead people!” Storming out the door, I slam it behind me and take off down the hill. I wish I had a car. I could jump into it and gun the gas, throwing gravel and dirt into the windows as I take off. Walking down the hill, the exercise and the fresh air starts to clear my head. I’m starting to feel like kind of an ass. When I hear an engine coming down the hill, I make a game of guessing which one of them got to come after me.
Sam pulls up and motions for me to get in. Climbing into the seat, I pull on my seat belt and we take off. “Where are we going?”
She shrugs. “It’s up to you.”
“Let’s go to Brad’s house.”
On the way, I fill her in on Voldemort’s letter and her subsequent visit. When I finish, she shakes her head. “That’s bad news.”
“Yeah, I don’t know why she’s rearing her ugly head now, but it’s a hassle I don’t need.”
“On the other hand,” Sam says. “How friggin’ funny about shovel guy!”
“I know, right?”
“I love the fake fit thing. I’m going to have to try that sometime.”
“Yeah, next time you get bored at work.”
She maneuvers around a group of guys who are parked in the middle of the street, drinking beer and having a heated discussion. One of them yells something as she squeezes past but we both ignore him and keep going. Brad lives in the heart of what passes for a city on this island. When we pull up in front of his house, Sam just misses running over a chicken because she is dumbfounded by a large woman with S-E...X-Y written across her chest. The girth of her breasts is warping the letters. I elbow Sam and she grins. “Sorry, it took me a second to figure out the extra letters.”
The house is a dilapidated piece of wood construction that looks as if it will fall down at any moment. I don’t know how it has managed to hang on through the last couple of hurricanes, but every time we head down to check on him after a storm, it’s still here. Sam opens the door and we carefully pick our way around broken weed whackers, three legged chairs, old, yellowed pillows, crumpled up and stained pizza boxes, and stacks of magazines. Brad is sitting in a rocking chair near the window, listening to the neighbors argue.
“Hey,” I start, pausing as Brad raises his hand.
We all listen as the neighbors crescendo into a roar. The female voice screams at the male, the male screams back. There are various thuds and yells. I manage to catch a few words, “Whore. Fucker. Bastard. Cheater.” They are obviously both pissed, but it’s hard to tell which one is the wounded party in this fight. Finally, we hear a gunshot and then silence.
“Holy fuck,” Sam says. She digs into her pocket for her cell phone. “I’m calling the cops.”
“Don’t bother, don’t bother.” Brad waves his hand dismissively. “This happens all of the time. The cops will show up or they won’t.”
I’ve long since stopped fighting against the island madness, so I put the incident out of my mind and motion at Sam to put her cell away. She does so reluctantly.