CHAPTER ELEVEN.

"How can anyone bear the light? It burns, burns."

Madeleine L'Engle I was sitting with Brian in his office on Monday afternoon, updating the case file-so much of this investigation consisted of grueling paperwork- when his phone rang. He motioned to get my attention and put it on speaker.

"Thanks for getting back to me, Mrs. Moore. I was beginning to wonder if I had the right number," Brian said.

"It's Ms. Davis. I don't go by Moore. Call me Shannon, please. What did you want to talk about, Detective Keller?"

"I need to ask a few questions about the time you lived here in Albuquerque with your ex-husband, David Moore. It pertains to the Ashley Hayes case. Were you aware her body was found?"

"Yes. That even made the news here. I don't know what I can tell you. I didn't know anything at the time and I don't know anything now."

"What was your relationship with Ashley Hayes?" Brian asked.

"She was our babysitter. That's it."

"How often did she babysit for you?" Brian continued.

"Oh, at least once a week. Sometimes so I could get the shopping done, sometimes so David and I could go out."

"When was the last time she babysat for you before her disappearance?"

"Oh, Detective, that was so long ago, I don't remember," she sighed.

"Please try, Ms. Davis. It could be important. She disappeared on a Tuesday."

"Um, let's see...I think she might have babysat for us on Sat.u.r.day night. I can't be positive."

"Ms. Davis, did you know about Ashley's pregnancy?"

"No. Oh my goodness, that poor girl," she breathed.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Brian asked as I pushed a note toward him. He looked at it and nodded.

"I don't really remember. It must have been the day before. I seem to remember seeing her as she came home from school."

"Do you remember what time that was?" he pressed.

"Well, it must have been the usual time, around three o'clock."

"But you didn't see her arrive home at that time the next afternoon?"

"No. I had taken the girls to visit their grandparents in Las Cruces. We stayed overnight. I remember hearing about Ashley's disappearance the next evening, when we got back."

"One more thing, Ms. Davis," Brian took the note I had written. "Did you know her boyfriend, Scott Alder?"

"Well, I didn't know him, but I had met him briefly and I saw him bring her home quite often," she replied.

"What did you think of him?"

"Oh, well, I guess I thought he was a nice boy. I don't know, I never really thought about him that much."

"Well, thank you for your time, Ms. Davis." Brian hung up. "What do you think?" he addressed me.

"I don't know. There's something she's not telling us. My Spidey-sense is going off," I said.

He laughed. "Yeah, mine too. We usually call it a hunch around here. I really want to talk to her in person. I may need to take a little trip out to sunny California." He was quiet for a moment. "Ally, can I talk to you about something else?"

"Sure," I said it more as a question than a statement.

"I know this is awkward, but I'm getting desperate. Ally, your mom won't talk to me. She ignores my phone calls and messages, and when I stopped by her school to see her, she had the secretary tell me she was in a meeting and couldn't see me. She's never done that. She used to sneak out of meetings to see me. Has she said anything? Is she seeing someone else?"

All right, so maybe what I did next was wrong. Maybe it betrayed a confidence, but I couldn't sit by and let my mom make the biggest mistake of her life. Maybe I simply had a pathological need for somebody's love story to end well, I don't know. I leaned forward to get right in his face. "Brian, she's not seeing anyone else. She has been really emotional lately, is constantly tired, her b.o.o.bs have gotten bigger, and she barfs regularly in the morning. Now, why don't you use your mad detective skills to put it all together? Or you could Google the symptoms."

His reaction was almost comical. He thought about it for a minute, then sat back in his chair. "Oh, s.h.i.t. She's pregnant," he breathed.

"Got it in one, Sherlock. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

"Why didn't she tell me?" He sank his head into his hands and groaned.

"I don't know, Brian. She's afraid, I think. She thinks you'll think she's trying to trap you or something crazy like that. But you're not gonna think that, are you, Detective Keller?" If that last bit came out sounding a little bit like a threat, well, that's how I intended it to sound.

"G.o.d, no. Look, Ally. I'm sorry about this. This is really awkward. I didn't mean for you to know."

"To know what? That you and my mother are having s.e.x? Or were, rather." I crossed my arms and stared at him.

"Ouch," he said, putting his face back into his hands. "What do I do?"

"Well, Brian. I think you man up. You're going to have a kid. You had better not leave her to deal with it on her own, like my dad did."

He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a small black jewelry box and handed it to me. I opened it to find a decent-sized diamond engagement ring. "I've had that for weeks, trying to work up the guts to ask her. I want to marry her, Ally."

"Why are you so scared to ask her?" I stood up to pace in front of his desk.

"I'm forty-two years old, I work as a low-paid civil servant, your mom is the first woman I've dated in over five years, and she is so independent. Why would she want to marry me?"

"Because she loves you, you big dope. G.o.d, and I thought teenagers had issues. Brian, take this ring and go hunt my mother down. She should be at school right now, so go find her. Don't let her send you away. Barge into her office if you have to, get down on one knee, and beg." I handed the ring back and he took it, put it into his pocket and stood to leave.

"Thanks, Ally. I owe you one."

Mom came home later that evening-much later. I guess they had some making up to do. Eww. Gross. Not thinking about it. She was wearing the engagement ring and a huge smile. I didn't know if I would be in the doghouse for spilling the beans, but she gave me a huge hug and whispered 'thanks' in my ear.

"So, for obvious reasons," she said as she rubbed her still-flat tummy, "We are not going to have a long engagement. We're thinking early June, as soon as school's out, for the wedding."

"Since I'm getting all my romance vicariously these days, I want to hear how he proposed. I think I deserve to hear the whole story because if it wasn't for me b.u.t.ting my nose in, there would be no engagement," I said.

Mom gave me a sympathetic look and said, "Well, it was quite the movie moment, let me tell you. He burst into my office with my secretary chasing after him. He pulled me out from behind my desk, kissed me thoroughly, and then went down on one knee and proposed."

"What did he say?" I pressed.

"He said, 'Jennifer Moran, I love you and have been carrying this ring around for weeks trying to get up the nerve to ask you to marry me. Please do me the honor of becoming my wife. Oh, and I know about the baby and I don't feel the slightest bit trapped, so don't even go there.' Thankfully, my secretary had backed out of my office and closed the door while he was kissing me. That's not the way I want to inform my co-workers about my pregnancy."

Grams and I both laughed and hugged her. "Oh, Jen, I'm so happy for you," cried Grams.

"Yeah, Mom, me too. I'm really trying hard to hold back on the 'I told you so,'" I said.

"I can see that," Mom said wryly. "But I will give credit where it is due: you were right, Ally. I was wrong. And I was a basket case. Can we please chalk that up to raging pregnancy hormones and forget it?"

"Forget what?" I said as I hugged her again.

With Brian in California to interview David Moore's ex-wife in person, I had a lot more time on my hands. Luckily, Remy was only too happy to fill in the gaps. He took me to a concert at the Launchpad, a venue in downtown Albuquerque, and somehow managed to get us into the 21-and-over area. I don't even want to know how he did it. He took me back to teen night at Graham Central Station, the dance club we had enjoyed before. I really appreciated his efforts to keep me cheered up because I was still having such a hard time getting over Jack. It was so d.a.m.n difficult to see him at school every day and not be with him, talk to him, touch him. I tried several times to get him to talk to me, but he always managed to make an excuse and slip away. I would feel like I was starting to get over him and then something would happen to remind me that my heart was still ripped into shreds inside my chest.

I was coming out of the library Tuesday after school, having asked the librarian to help me locate some scholarly critiques of King Lear, which we were still reading in my English 1102 cla.s.s at CNM. I was starting to seriously hate that play. All the characters in it let horrible things happen to them, as if they had no control whatsoever over their own destiny. Maybe it hit a little too close to home for me. Anyway, I wasn't looking where I was going and b.u.mped into a hard, solid someone who was turning into the library. Of course, with my luck, it was Jack. He grabbed my upper arms to steady me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking hard into my face.

I couldn't form words. I looked up into his handsome, yet weary face and bit my bottom lip.

"Ally," he shook me slightly. "s.h.i.t," he breathed.

I looked down at his hands gripping my arms. He wasn't wearing the Claddagh ring any more. That hurt. I had been keeping a glimmer of hope alive as long as he continued to wear the ring I gave him for his birthday, but he had finally removed it, along with the last hope I had for our relationship. I brushed his hands away, finally recovering my wits. "I'm fine. Sorry. I didn't mean to bother you." I walked away, my stomach twisting in pain.

"Ally, wait," he called after me.

I stopped but didn't turn around.

"I'm sorry," he said after long minutes.

"Me too," I whispered and jogged away before I cried in front of him.

On Thursday afternoon, Remy met me at my house so we could watch movies and order pizza. He was turning out to be a fun guy to hang out with, but I hoped he wouldn't get any romantic notions about me. I needed a friend, not a new love interest, and I was still very hesitant to touch him or let him touch me. We were about halfway through Olympus Has Fallen-Remy loved American action movies-and I had paused it to get a refill of c.o.ke from the kitchen. I didn't realize he had followed me until I turned around, literally into him. He caught me by the upper arms and stared hard at me for a moment before swooping in suddenly to kiss me. It wasn't a very romantic or sweet kiss, just a hard pressing of his lips against mine, and it made me furious. I tried to pull away, but he held me in his iron grip, his lips pressed tight to mine, not moving. Suddenly, my mind felt invaded and I realized I was able to see into his mind as well. I saw him walking along a river, I a.s.sumed in France, and I saw him arriving in Albuquerque, meeting so many new people, but looking for me. I saw the day we met in the counselor's office through his eyes; his shock at finding me so soon after his arrival. It was startling to see it through his viewpoint, to see his preoccupation with getting to know me. A word appeared in my mind: Jessamine. I had no idea what or who it was, but I had never felt anything so strongly and knew it was important. I thought about how much Remy had been lying to me all these months and immediately I was incredibly angry and felt it burst out of me.

"Ow!" Remy pushed me away, his hand going to his lips. "What did you do? It felt like you shocked me! Did you do that?"

"Ugh! What the h.e.l.l? You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You're a G.o.dd.a.m.n Seer!" My anger had physically shocked him, which I found oddly satisfying, although I had no earthly idea how I had done it. I had felt intense anger and then I had given Remy an electric shock.

"Oui. And so are you," he accused, chest heaving.

I was so mad I couldn't even think what to say next. So, I punched him in the face, my fist hitting him right in the jaw. The pain was intense and radiated up my arm. I said a very bad word.

"Merde!" cursed Remy, holding his jaw. "What was that for?"

"For lying to me all this time. For kissing me without my permission. And for generally being a jerk," I yelled, cradling my hand against my body.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to lie to you if you hadn't been so afraid to be touched. I've never met a girl as skittish as you before. You've sensed from the beginning I was psychic, haven't you?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know what I sensed. Mostly not to trust you, which was clearly accurate. G.o.d, my hand hurts."

"Let me see," he ordered, motioning to my hand.

"No!" I turned away from him. "I'm mad at you!"

"Yes, I got that. Punching me was a big hint. Now stop acting like a spoiled child and let me see your hand. We have much to discuss." He took my hand in his. "Where do you keep your antiseptic? You've split the skin. We need to clean this up so it doesn't get infected."

While he administered first aid to my hand, I calmed down enough to ask him what was going on. He said he was in Albuquerque for the sole purpose of finding me. I finally put it together that France equals Gaul and Remy was from the other group of Seers that developed in ancient Gaul, now France. Sheesh, I could have saved myself so much trouble if I had Googled the word 'Gaul' when I first heard it. In his group or clan, boys and girls could be born with powers, but it was very random. Many were born with no powers whatsoever. He had been sent by the Oracle to find me.

"You've met the Oracle?" I asked. "Ouch!" I hissed as he poured antiseptic on my split skin.

"Don't be such a baby," he reprimanded. "You didn't have to hit me, you know. Yes, I know the Oracle. She is my grandmother."

"What? She got married? But you guys stole her or kidnapped her or something, right?"

"Don't believe everything you hear, cherie. The real story is she ran away with her lover so they could be together. Her clan was trying to keep them apart. There was no kidnapping. She has lived in France voluntarily with my grandfather for many years. She wants to meet you." He finished bandaging my hand.

"Oh, great. Does she think I'm the next Oracle, too?" I asked as I got a bag of frozen vegetables out of the freezer for his face.

"Thank you," he said as I handed him the makeshift icepack. "So you know about that, eh? Well, good. It saves time. I don't know exactly what she thinks, but she received a prophecy and it led to you. You were not too difficult to track down, but it did take a while to get all the paperwork and identification I needed to become a high school-aged exchange student."

"Wait. You're not really in high school? How old are you?" I demanded.

"I'm 22," he admitted quietly.

"What? Oh my G.o.d, everything about you is a lie!" I fumed, walking away from him to sit back on the couch in the living room. Well, at least it explained how he was able to get into the 21-and-over area at the Launchpad. I had to a.s.sume he used some other type of persuasive powers or something to get me in without an ID.

"It was necessary, cherie. Things are happening which are very concerning to us. My grandmother may not be with us much longer, and she needs to see you before she pa.s.ses. It is urgent, Ally. You must come back to France with me."

"You have got to be kidding me!" I was still yelling. "I can't just pack up and leave! I'm supposed to be going to Ireland soon. The Seer Council wants me to go to Ireland over spring break and are insisting I spend time there this summer."

"Well, we'll have to start planning how to get you to France instead. Don't worry. I can be very resourceful."

I had calmed down quite a bit by now and realized he was in as much of an awkward position as me. "So, are you going to stick around? Will you finish the school year? I mean, you're actually a grown-up and you're stuck in high school. G.o.d, that's miserable."

"It's not so bad. Of course I'll stay. I still need to figure out how to get you to France. Besides, I like it here. I like my friends." He said this last bit with a pointed look at me.

I smiled at him. "I'm sorry I punched you, Remy. You didn't deserve that. Is your face okay?"

"It's fine. Probably better than your hand. I'm sorry I kissed you, but I was desperate. I dread what Jack will do to me when he finds out." He laughed ruefully.

"Jack? He doesn't care anymore. I can kiss whoever I want to kiss," I bl.u.s.tered.