Chelsea wasn’t at school the following day, and I couldn’t find out anything from her mum, who was a blubbering mess when I called her. I was so not good around highly emotional people. If I could, I would avoid them at all cost.
My own mother knew more than she was letting on, and I was going to get it out of her one way or another. But that would have to wait until later. Aiden and I were at his house, waiting for Anna and Dave to get back to let us know if they were able to figure out anything about my vision.
“Why do we have to wait for them to come here? Can’t we just go to them?” I asked. Even at the best of times, I was not good at waiting. All this sitting around and doing nothing was doing my head in. I wanted to be out trying to find Chelsea. And if my vision was really a vision, then she was in some serious trouble.
“Neither I nor you can teleport yet, so we’re just going to have to sit and wait,” Aiden said, not taking his eyes off the TV. He was playing some car racing game on Xbox, which was really starting to get on my nerves.
Aiden’s phone rang—it was Ben. “What’s up?” he said, answering the phone.
His expression quickly went sour. Aiden didn’t say anything, he just listened to Ben, who sounded pretty pissed off. I couldn’t hear well enough to make out what he was pissed off about. All I could pick up were snippets, and it was something about Chelsea.
“Why don’t you come over to mine?” Aiden suggested. “Yep. See ya soon.” He hung up the phone.
Aiden switched the TV off, then turned to me. “You’re not going to believe this. Ben has just come back from the police station.”
“What? Why?”
“They were questioning him about Chelsea’s disappearance. Apparently, someone said that they saw him with her the night she disappeared.”
I was gobsmacked. There was no way Ben could have taken Chelsea. That boy worshipped the ground she walked on. And why the hell would he abduct her after he’d finally gotten her to like him? It just didn’t make any sense.
“I know, I know.” Aiden looked as bewildered as I felt. “He’s coming over now, so he can tell us all about it when he gets here.”
Dave and Anna suddenly appeared before my eyes. They were sitting almost exactly where they had been just before they disappeared yesterday.
“Ben!” they exclaimed in unison. I guess they had already heard about him from our thoughts. At least we didn’t have to waste time explaining.
“I don’t know who would have told the police, but there is no way it could have been him,” Aiden said.
Dave scoffed. “Of course it wasn’t him.”
The front security intercom buzzed. I could see the video monitor from where I sat. It was Ben. “Geez, that was quick,” I muttered. He had only called a few minutes earlier.
“He was just around the corner when he called,” Aiden said, getting up to let him in.
A moment later, Aiden returned with Ben, who looked seriously pissed.
Aiden ducked into the kitchen, while Ben joined Anna, Dave, and me on the sofa.
“I suppose you all heard I’m officially the prime suspect,” Ben said, running his fingers through his sandy blond hair before folding them behind his head.
“I heard that the police questioned you, but prime suspect... how?” I asked.
He thought for a moment before answering, “I dunno. Apparently someone reckons they saw me with Chelsea around midnight the night she disappeared. That basically means that I was the last person to see her, and that makes me prime suspect.”
Aiden came back into the living room with his arms full of bottles of Coke. He handed them out, then sat down beside me and gave me mine.
“I wasn’t even with her at midnight,” Ben continued. “I was at home, in bed, sleeping. But apparently, that’s not a good enough alibi. They said that I could have easily snuck out in the middle of the night.” He stopped to take a swig of his Coke. “And the worst part of it is, they won’t even tell me who the bloody person is who reckons they saw me.”
“Of course they won’t,” I muttered to myself, which I wish I hadn’t because everyone heard, and it just made Ben more upset.
“How can they not? This person is accusing me of something I didn’t do!”
“They’re protecting their informant,” I explained. “And yeah, it sucks big-time when you’re innocent,” I added, letting him know I believed him.
Ben threw his head back against the sofa and stared at the ceiling without saying another word.
Moments later, Anna’s voice appeared in my head. “He’s definitely innocent.”
I jumped. I had become used to hearing Aiden’s voice in my head, but hearing Anna’s startled me. Thankfully, Ben was too caught up in his own problems to notice my reaction.
“Sorry,” Anna mouthed to me.
“Don’t worry about it. You just took me by surprise.” I hoped that what I said came through to her as mental speech rather than just as a thought she was overhearing. I wanted to be a part of their world, and I needed to hone my abilities so I would be included in their silent discussions.
Anna gave me a barely noticeable thumbs up, confirming I did it right.
“That’s my girl.” Aiden’s voice shone with pride.
“I don’t know what to do,” Ben said, still looking up at the ceiling. He was completely oblivious that there was another conversation going on that he wasn’t privy to. And to think that only a few days ago, I was just as ignorant as him.
Anna scooted over to sit next to him. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll help you get this mess sorted out.” She placed her hand on his arm in what looked to be a comforting motion, but I knew better. I was sure she was sending some of those feel-good endorphins pulsating through his body. I just hoped she wasn’t going to give him an overdose like she had to me.
Almost instantly, Ben’s mood picked up. The worry lines that plastered his face disappeared.
“Don’t worry, I’m not about to make that same mistake again.” Anna laughed in my head. “And besides, I don’t want him hitting on you, or me for that matter.”
I stifled a laugh, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment at how openly I had wanted her son, and now his father knew, too.
“So what are we going to do?” Aiden asked, changing the subject.
“Hey, why can’t you two just transport to wherever Chelsea is?” I asked.
“It's actually teleport,” Anna corrected. “And I wish we could, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You see, we can only teleport ourselves to places, not people. We have to know the exact place that we want to go to, hence why Aiden has to call us to tell us where he wants us to meet him.”
“Oh,” I said. I knew it had been too good to be true, but I’d still hoped. “So what can we do?”
“First, we have to find out who told the police they saw Ben, and then we may be able to find out something that might help us find Chelsea,” Dave said matter-of-factly.
“And how do we do that?” I asked, hoping there was an easy solution to finding the person.
“The only way we can find out who this person is is by listening to everyone’s thoughts,” Aiden said.
“That could take forever,” I said.
“Unfortunately, it’s the only way,” Aiden said.
Something clicked inside my brain. Call it intuition if you like, but for some reason, I suspected that my mother was more than just occupied by her usual busy workload. I was sure she was avoiding me. Maybe she knew who the person was. If so, that probably meant that I knew the person who had told the police they had seen Chelsea with Ben the night she disappeared. Why else would she be avoiding me?
“Not a bad theory,” Dave agreed.
“Why are you all so quiet?” Ben asked, looking between the four of us with a confused look on his face.
“You hungry?” Aiden asked, avoiding his question. “We can go out and see if I overhear anything.”
“What have you got?”
“Let’s go out f
or dinner instead,” I quickly suggested. I didn’t like our chances of actually finding anything out tonight about who’d told the police about Ben. But at least we would be out there trying.
“Come on, let’s go,” Aiden said, pulling me to my feet.
Chapter 10