Seventeen
Jack

My fingertips felt numb as I knocked on Wendy King’s door for the second time. I looked over my shoulder at Chloe and Finn, who looked even more nervous than I did. We’d left Libby still sleeping in the car. Chloe bounced forward onto her toes and then back onto her heels in a nervous kind of bob and weave. Her short hair swung with the motion: forward into her eyes, and then back out of them again. After a few seconds, Finn reached out with both hands and pushed down solidly on her shoulders until she settled onto the balls of her feet.

“Sorry,” Chloe muttered, and Finn went back to frowning deeply at the door handle.

This Wendy had to be home. We’d just called her. It was only nine o’clock at night. The sun had just gone down half an hour ago. One day gone already. If she wasn’t here, we’d just have to wait until she came back home. And we didn’t really have time for that …

The door handle turned and the door opened, but the face that greeted us definitely wasn’t someone named Wendy. It was a man in his forties with neatly combed brown hair. He looked at us with a wary frown, the kind people wore when they didn’t know what you were going to say but they were still relatively sure they didn’t want to hear it.

“Can I help you?” he asked pointedly, as we all just stared at him without speaking.

“Yes.” I spoke up fast. “We’re looking for Wendy King. Is she here?”

He took a step back like he was going to get someone, then hesitated and said, “You aren’t selling something, are you?”

“No.” All three of us spoke at the same time, which only made him more suspicious.

“I think she might have known my—my dad.” I went ahead with the truth, thinking that we were desperate and it couldn’t hurt anyone anymore … not in the same way, at least. No one could use him against me, or threaten to hurt me to make him do things. He was free of that now—I guess we both were.

The man nodded and partially shut the door as he turned toward the interior of the house. “Wen! There’s a group of kids at the door for you!”

There was no response, and after a few seconds he looked back out at us. “I’ll go get her.”

I nodded and Finn said “Thank you” as he shut the door.

A few minutes later, we heard voices coming from inside.

“Kids?” a hushed female voice said, and all three of us leaned closer to the door, listening.

“Teenagers,” the man’s voice responded.

“What do they want?” she asked, sounding confused even through the door.

“I don’t know. Did you want me to have them fill out a questionnaire?” The man was clearly exasperated. When I looked over at Chloe, she was grinning.

The door swung open and we all stood up straight, trying not to look like we were eavesdropping. Wendy was around the same age as the man and had jet black hair pulled away from her face in a ponytail. She had flecks of red on her hands and shirt, and it took me a minute to realize they were paint. I wondered if she was an artist like Mia, or if she was the one responsible for the green fence outside and was now working on some other project.

“My name is Jack, and these are my friends Finn and Chloe. I think you might have known my dad. I’m trying to get some information.” I smiled smoothly, trying to mimic the way Parker used his charm to convince people to see his side of things. It was a genuine talent … one I apparently lacked. She looked even more skeptical than before.

“What makes you think I know him?” Her words came fast. It was like she wanted us to know we were interrupting something and she needed to get back to it as soon as possible. She still stood in the doorway, her hand on the knob in case she decided to slam the door in my face.

I really needed her to not do that.

“He grew up around here and had your name written down in some old papers. His name was Daniel. Daniel Chipp.”

As soon as I spoke his name, her hand rose up to her chest and I knew we’d found the right Wendy. Suddenly it was more like she was holding onto the door handle for support.

“You remember him.” I stated it quietly, a fact, not a question.

“Yes, of course.” Wendy was slightly pale, but she looked much more welcoming now than she had before; definitely a good sign. She gestured toward a picnic table and chairs on one side of her front yard. “Why don’t we sit down for a minute?”

Finn went to check in on Libby to see if she was awake yet. Chloe and I followed Wendy over to the table. Her husband, who she introduced as Aaron, joined us.

I studied them closely as they spoke. Could they both be Night Walkers? Which one was a Builder?

Wendy asked the question I knew was coming.

“You’re talking about Daniel in the past tense … ” She didn’t look like she wanted to finish the question.

“He passed away a few weeks ago.” My stomach rolled within me at the words I’d just uttered. It felt so wrong to use that phrase to describe an ending so violent. It felt like it dishonored him somehow.

“That’s terrible.” Wendy shook her head and reached out to pat the back of my hand. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled. It was difficult to resist the urge to jerk my hand away. I knew she was just trying to be nice, but I didn’t like accepting comfort from others. I didn’t need their comfort … or at least, I didn’t want it to look like I needed it.

Chloe was sitting beside me, and although I didn’t see her move, I felt a slight squeeze of her hand on my wrist beneath the table. It was completely unexpected and caught me off guard. The warmth of her fingers felt like an electric current to my skin, sending tingles shooting up my arm that were incredibly distracting. But more than that, it was the way she was doing it that made my head spin. Under the table where no one could see and no one knew but me—the message of it had an impact on me. I didn’t know how this girl could possibly understand me like she did … but she really seemed to. Did she get all this from, as she had put it, studying her enemy?

When did I stop being that enemy to her?

More importantly, when would she stop being mine? Or had she already?

I cleared my throat, surprised and embarrassed by the sudden confusing emotion I felt rising inside me. Immediately, Chloe’s hand lifted away and my skin felt naked where it had been. I missed it … and I kind of hated myself for it. I forced my mind into motion. Parker was counting on me. “Do you mind if I ask how you knew him?”

“Not at all.” Wendy gave me a sad smile. “We went to school together. I would say he was my first love. We were young, only in middle school, and it was very innocent … but he was brilliant even then.” She turned and winked at Aaron. He reached out for her hand. “I’ve always been attracted to smart men.”

I calculated in my head—middle school. Dad would’ve developed his Watcher abilities around that age. She knew him at that time. Maybe she was another Watcher and Aaron was a Builder she’d ended up with later … or vice versa.

Wendy continued. “As we got a little older, though, we drifted apart and he moved away. I saw him the last time a couple of years ago though. I’m a pharmacist at a local pharmacy and he came into my shop. It’s such a small world, and it was so great to see him again! He said he’d become a chemistry professor. I wasn’t at all surprised.”

She stared off into the distance behind me, reliving some pleasant memory as I analyzed every word she said. Wendy was a pharmacist, and Dad wasn’t on any regular medication. So unless he’d actually been sick and just happened to wander into her pharmacy—unlikely—he’d probably planned out seeing her again to reconnect and tell her about the ingredient. In fact, he often worked with pharmacists to obtain ingredients for his compounds and formulas that were difficult to get otherwise. Maybe she was even a source he’d used?

But then why not just come out and tell me? Why the act?

Maybe she didn’t trust that I was who I said I was? Or maybe … her husband didn’t know? Maybe he wasn’t a Watcher; maybe he actually wasn’t a Night Walker at all. He could be normal and married to a Night Walker and have no idea. That happened all the time. If she was a Builder, that would make perfect sense—Builders didn’t need Watchers; some didn’t even ever realize what they were. It was absolutely possible he had no idea what she was.

I gave a slight cough and put my hand to my throat. I deliberately looked away from Wendy and straight at Aaron. I knew she might volunteer to get it anyway, but I thought if I made it obvious enough, that he might do it. “I’m sorry. Is there any way I could bother you for a glass of water?”

He raised an eyebrow and then glanced at his wife. She started to stand, but Chloe reached out directly in front of her and pointed over Wendy’s shoulder toward the fence. “I noticed you have paint on your hands. Did you do the fence? It’s a beautiful color of green.”

Wendy froze in a half-standing position looking at Chloe’s arm in front of her nose for a half a second before smiling widely and sitting back down. She glanced over her shoulder toward the vibrant fence. “Yes! I just finished that last week. It used to be white, but the paint was chipping and it really looked more gray than anything. I thought a splash of color could liven it up.”

Chloe nodded vigorously. “It’s gorgeous! Are you planning to paint the house, too? I think it would look incredible with a brick red or something to compliment the fence.”

I turned my eyes on Aaron and gave another slight cough. He got to his feet and walked toward the house, mumbling, “I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he was out of earshot, I turned back toward Wendy and knew I didn’t have much time. “You know what he was, right?”

Wendy looked jolted by the sudden change in the conversation and her mouth was frozen in an odd half-smile in response. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Daniel, my father.” I spoke fast, leaning forward and keeping my eyes on the house in case Aaron came back. “You know he was a type 2.”

She stared at me blankly. No recognition in her brown eyes, no response from her lips.

“He was a Watcher?” I said the only other words I knew to identify it, but still nothing even hinting of understanding came from Wendy.

“What are you talking about?” She leaned backward, looking at both of us now with a newly suspicious quality to her expression.

“Forget about it.” Okay, so she either wasn’t a Night Walker or she was an extremely good liar. I was getting desperate.

Through a window, I saw Aaron walking toward the front door with an armful of bottled water. “When you saw my dad, did he tell you anything important?” I asked quickly. “Did he ask you to remember anything or talk about ingredients at all?”

Wendy was frowning now and starting to look upset. “What are you talking about? No, he never asked me to remember anything like that.”

“Did you supply him with any drugs or chemicals from your pharmacy without a prescription?” I spoke the words hastily as I watched Aaron walk out the front door. When I turned my eyes back on Wendy’s furious brown ones, I knew I’d made a big mistake.

“How dare you?” She got to her feet and glared across the table at me. “I don’t know anything about you, but I know Daniel would’ve been ashamed to have raised someone so rude.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Ki—” I sincerely hadn’t meant it like that and her words stung, even though it was clear she hadn’t known Dad like she thought she did.

“No. Please go.” She turned and stomped back toward her house, just as Aaron dropped the water bottles on the table.

I picked one up and opened it without looking at him. “Thank you.”

Chloe stood, and I was a little surprised as she made apologies for us and shook Aaron’s hand as I walked back toward the van. Why did everything have to be so difficult? I didn’t know what to do now. How could Dad’s clue have led to such a dead end?

I pulled sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on as a last ditch effort. I’d made eye contact with Wendy last. I would try to find out something from her dreams tonight. Maybe she was a Builder or a Watcher and she was lying about it. Maybe she wasn’t either, but she was hiding something else. Either way, if there was anything she wasn’t telling me, I would uncover it in her dreams.

No one could hide anything from me in there. It was the only place in the world where I had all the power.