Duality: Vol 2, Euphoria (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (24 page)

I nodded, feeling numb.  This was bad.  This was
really
bad.  I was going to be put in jail right along with my fake father.  Sweat trickled down my back.

She fast forwarded a few seconds and then pressed the play button again.  “Okay, and here you are standing in line on the platform, right?”

I nodded again.  “Yes.  That’s me and Malcolm.”  I nodded at the screen.  “But it was my idea to go down there, not his.”

“Okay, and now here you are talking to someone.”  She pointed to the backpack man.  “Who is this?”

I  opened my mouth to speak, but the words didn’t want to come out.  “Uhhh … uhhh …”

“We have no idea who that guy is,” said Malcolm, angry.  “He’s the jerk that put the bomb on that train, though, I can tell you that.”

“And how would you know that?” asked the woman, folding her arms across her chest, the remote sticking out near her bicep.    The video was frozen on us talking to the stranger.  “Were you with him?  Did you participate in this bombing?”

“Hell no!” said Malcolm.

All the blood drained out of my face, but I stammered out an explanation, trying to head off the horrible train wreck that I sensed coming.  “Of course not.  No … no … we would never … we were trying to help you catch him!”  I gripped the edge of the table, my fingers going white with the pressure.  “Just look at the video, it will show you!”

“That’s the problem,” Valerie said. “The video isn’t clear.  You don’t need to panic, kids, we just want to get some answers, that’s it.  If I thought you had anything to do with the bombing you’d already be under arrest.”

I took a deep breath, trying to get my racing heart under control.   “Okay, fine.  Play the video, and I’ll explain what happened.”

She rewound it until it showed a single person going down the stairs.  The large woman in the purple dress.

“That’s the woman!  The one with the beehive!”  I looked at Malcolm for confirmation and he was nodding.  He was frowning too.

“Don’t you remember her?  I mean, how could you forget, really?  She was so bold.  That dress was amazing.”

“I remember her,” he said, “but there’s something wrong with the video.”

I looked back at it, realizing I’d missed the last few seconds.  “Could you rewind it, please?  Back to the spot before the woman comes down the stairs.”

The detective looked at the remote, pushing buttons to move the video back to a frame about ten seconds before the beehive lady came down the stairs.  We sat there in complete silence, waiting to see the man with the backpack come down.

The lady with the beehive appeared on the screen alone.

“What the heck?” I asked in a soft voice.  My brain was trying to understand the information my eyeballs were delivering. 
Where’s the backpack guy?

“What’s wrong?” asked the police officer.

“There’s something missing.  Back it up again,” said Malcolm, voicing my thoughts.

I looked at him while the detective pressed buttons again.  “Where is he?” I asked.

Malcolm shook his head slowly.  “I have no idea.  He should be there.”

“Who?” asked the detective, her thumb hovering over the play button.

“The guy.  The bomber,” I explained.  “He went down those stairs in front of that woman with the big hair.”

“Rewind it some more,” said the cop, gesturing at the screen.

“No, he was like,
right
in front of her.  They were practically touching they were so close,” said Malcolm.

“That’s exactly how I remember it,” I said.  “First he went down, and then her, almost at the same time.  They might have even been together, except I don’t remember them looking at each other or acting like they were.”

The detective pressed a button that rewound the video even more and hit play.  We watched as several individuals and a couple came down the stairs and then eventually the woman and her hair.

“Where’s the bomber?” I whispered, getting up and walking over to the screen, reaching out to touch it.  “There’s nothing.  Not even a shadow.”

“Are you saying he was there?  That you saw him enter
that
subway entrance?” asked the detective.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” I responded, turning to face her.  “I swear to God and everything that’s holy, I saw him go down those stairs right in front of that lady.”  I could feel the pulse pounding hard in my neck.  This just wasn’t possible.  I felt trapped.  Like I was being punked in the worst possible way.

“Maybe you have the wrong entrance.  You’re combining memories from two places, possibly,” suggested the cop.

I looked at Malcolm, wondering if I was losing my mind.

He was shaking his head. “Nope.  We only saw one entrance today.”  He pointed at the screen.  “That one.  And that guy was there, I swear too.  I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Okay, so explain this, then,” said the detective, fast-forwarding through the arrival scene and moving to the train platform one again.

The video showed Malcolm and I standing there, looking at the train car and then the man approaching us.  He stopped, stayed for two or three seconds, and then left us standing there.  Malcolm was clearly upset, his arms flopping around, and then he was looking out towards the crowd.

“That’s where the man told us not to go on the train.”  I looked at the detective and then Malcolm.  “Malcolm told everyone there was a bomb on the train.”

“How’d you know that?” asked the cop, leaning towards Malcolm.

“We saw him go down those stairs with a huge backpack on his back,” explained Malcolm.  “And then he went onto the train.  But then he got off again, and he wasn’t wearing the backpack anymore.  He caught us staring at him before he got on, and then he came right at us when he got off.  We weren’t the only ones who saw him.  He was walking into all kinds of people on his way.  He told us not to get on the train.  To run.”

“I saw that he stopped and talked to you,” said the female detective.  “What I don’t understand is how he got on there in the first place without any of our cameras picking him up at any other station, and why he came to you specifically and warned you away.  And I also don’t understand how you knew he’d left a bomb on the train.”

Malcolm shrugged.  “It just added up.  First a big backpack then not a big backpack.  He obviously had left it on the train.  And then he told us to run.  What else would it be?”

“Show them the other part,” said the cop.  “After this.”

The detective stared at us for a few seconds and then aimed the remote at the screen.  The video started playing again, and we watched the scene play out. They’d spliced some segments from different cameras together, showing me running through the tunnel.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Malcolm

I WAS PISSED.  WE WERE practically being accused of having something to do with the bombing when all we’d done was try and save people.  We’d seen on the news in the waiting area that no one had died, but that several people had been injured.  They credited an early warning with the lack of casualties.  That was
me
giving that warning, but here I was feeling like I should be locked up and put away forever.

The video was tracking Rae’s movements through the tunnel, in the moments after she’d left me.  She was chasing after the bald man, but the farther she got from me, the weirder the video became.

“Where’d he go?” I asked.

The detective froze the screen, backed it up, and played it again.  “That’s what we’d like to know.”

I watched again as the backpack man slowly but surely disappeared from the screen.  It was like someone had taken an eraser and slowly scrubbed it over his image until it wasn’t there anymore.

“Invisible man,” whispered Rae.

“What?” asked the police officer.

Rae sat up really tall and shook her had.  “Nothing.  I didn’t say anything.”

“You said invisible man,” said the detective, stopping the video again.

Rae pressed her lips together but said nothing.  I tried to distract them with the first thing that jumped to mind.

“So what’s the deal?  Are we in trouble or what?”

“Not exactly,” said the detective.  “But we need to find out what you know about this man and how he was able to cloak himself or get into our video feed and remove his image from it.”

“We have no idea.” I put my hands up in a gesture of surrender, trying to look as innocent as possible.  “I swear, we really don’t know any more than you do.  We saw the guy, he looked creepy, and then with the backpack thing … we just didn’t want anyone getting on that train when it looked so bad.  That’s why I told people to get off.  I figured the worst thing that could happen is I’d be totally wrong and maybe people would be late to work or whatever.”  Being late to work after lunch was better than being blown into bits.

“And did you see him after this point?” asked the detective.  She was looking at Rae but gesturing at the point in the video where he’d disappeared completely.

“No.  When I got there, I’d lost him.  I looked everywhere, but he was gone.  That’s when I saw the telephone and got on it to call.  I thought maybe someone above the subway on the street could stop him.”

“We did stop him, actually.”  The detective pressed a button on the remote and the screen went black.  She put the device on the table and sat down across from us.  “After you came up out of the subway and stood in line to leave, he appeared on one of our feeds again.  He was taken into custody right there on the scene.”

“So why don’t you ask
him
what happened?” I asked, wondering why all the cloak and dagger stuff had to go on with Rae and me in the middle of it.  Totally lame.

“Because he disappeared again,” said the cop.  “He was there in the squad car one second and gone the next.”  He snapped his fingers and looked at Rae.  “Just like the invisible man.”

Rae swallowed hard.

I laughed really loud, trying to exaggerate my response to make them feel stupid.  It was our only hope of getting out of this Twilight Zone bullcrap.  Influencers were one thing, but disappearing men?  No thanks.  “Ha! Ha!  Are you kidding me?  You
actually
think there’s such thing as an invisible man?  Geez, you guys are hilarious.  Can we go now?  I’m late for an X-Men convention.”

“Very funny,” said the detective, standing up.  “I need to get going.”  She looked at Rae first and then me.  “Make sure to leave your contact information with Officer Geedy here.  We’ll be in touch.”

“We can go?” asked Rae.

“Yes, you can go.  But like I said, be prepared to be contacted again.  I have a feeling you know more than you realize, but I don’t think you did anything wrong and I do think you’re telling us what you know about this guy.  My instincts are usually on target, and right now they’re telling me that you’re just two kids in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  She looked over at her colleague.  “You good here?”  She was pointing at us.

“Yeah.  I don’t have any reason to hold them right now.  We’re still working on the video feed to see if it was hacked from outside or possibly even inside.  I’ll get you the results of that later. Should be done by tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“Good.  Later, then.”

She left without saying goodbye to us, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted to get the hell out of there and never look back.  “Come on, Rae,” I said, standing and reaching out for her hand.  It soothed my temper and nerves a ton just feeling her fingers slide up against mine.

“I have your information from earlier, so you’re free to go.  Thanks for your help,” said the officer, standing and walking to the door.   He held it open for us as we walked through.  “If you think of anything else that you forgot, give me a call.”  He handed me a business card.

I shoved it in my pocket without looking at it.  “Sure.”  The chances I would call him anytime in the future were about ten million to one.  I wanted nothing to do with the law, invisible men, or putting myself in the spotlight.

Rae and I walked through the administrative area of the station and pushed through the door leading to the waiting area.  Two people were standing in there, facing the other direction.  As soon as I heard their voices, I knew our rescue party had arrived.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Rae

“JAZZY BUTTS!” I SQUEALED, RUNNING across the waiting room and grabbing her in a bear hug.

“Ack!  Public display of affection!  Help!”  Jasmine patted me on the shoulder a few times and then backed away, trying not to smile.  “Miss me that much, eh?”

“Oh, God, you have no idea.”  I wanted to pinch her cheeks but resisted the urge.

“Malcolm boring you to tears?  I knew that would happen.  All he ever does is go to the bathroom.”  Kootch held his arms open.  “Come to papa.”

I slapped his hands away and grinned.  “Careful.  My boyfriend might not like you being so touchy feely.”

Kootch’s face fell.  “You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’, I guess.”  He sighed heavily and then shrugged, turning his attention to Malcolm and perking right back up again.  “Oh well.  What up, dude?  Looks like you got a promotion while I was gone.  Guess you owe me one for letting her go with you.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Malcolm, walking over to fist-bump Kootch.  “Thanks for letting Rae go with me.”

“OMG, JB, you have no idea how happy we are to see you,” I said, bouncing on my toes, my hands gripped in fists at my sides.  “The last two days have been ridiculous.”  I glanced over at Malcolm to see if he was listening.  I leaned in and whispered in her ear.  “I need to girl talk.”

Jasmine nodded.  “Later.”  She looked over at Malcolm and reached up a hand.  “Skin me.”

He gave her a high five and then backed away.  A shadow moved across his face, and I had a feeling he was remembering what he’d done to her dad not that long ago.  It made me feel even more special to know I was the only one he could touch without feeling guilty or afraid.