Back from the Dead by Carol Gorman

Author:Carol Gorman
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781453290682
Publisher: Open Road Media

11

“Is he dead?” Eve whispered.

As if in answer, a loud snore came from the prostrate man on the bed.

I spotted the whiskey bottle on the floor and pointed at it.

“He’s passed out.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Eve said.

“I want to see Heath’s room.”

“Are you crazy? Mr. Quinn might wake up!”

“Just a quick peek,” I said.

She rolled her eyes but followed me across the hall to the only room we hadn’t seen yet.

Its door was closed. I grasped the doorknob and pushed it open. We stepped into a small room. As in the rest of the rooms, the shades were pulled down and the room was filled with shadows.

A single bed was pushed up against the wall. There was no bedspread or pillow on it, only a thin blanket. A banged-up wooden desk sat next to the opposite wall. Posters for heavy metal and rap groups were tacked up on three sides, and two bookshelves lined the fourth wall. Papers and clothes were strewn around the room on the bed, desk, and floor.

Eve followed me to the bookshelf, and we read the paperback spines. They were mostly adventure novels for young boys. It looked as if Heath had stopped reading a long time ago.

I glanced down at his desk. A receipt from Petie’s, a convenience store down the street, lay on the desk.

I looked at it more closely.

It was dated September 15. That was three days after the fire!

“Eve, look at this,” I whispered.

She stepped up behind me.

“What is it?”

“Look at the date.”

“The fifteenth. Does that mean something?”

“The fire was on the twelfth.”

“So?”

“Heath bought stuff at Petie’s three days after the fire.”

“What do you mean? Heath’s dead. His father must’ve bought stuff at Petie’s.”

“Why would the receipt be in here?” I said.

“Because his dad put it down when he was in here,” Eve said.

I slipped the receipt in my pocket. “Ready to leave?” I said.

“Ten minutes ago!”

We hurried down the stairs and out the front door, closing the front door firmly behind us.

“Eve, Heath is alive,” I said.

Eve and I had decided to stop for a Coke before she drove me home. I sat opposite her at a table at Hardee’s.

Eve looked up from her soda. “Julia, that receipt isn’t proof that Heath is alive.”

“I know.”

Should I tell her what I know? I couldn’t decide. Maybe I could tell her part of it and see how she reacted.

“Nikki is sure she saw him last night.”

“Where?”

“Near the house.”

“That seems pretty unlikely,” she said. “She probably saw someone else.”

“We’ve also heard from him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Threatening notes.”

“From Heath?”

“I know it sounds crazy,” I said. “But I think he’s still alive. Someone else died in that fire.”

She stared at me. “How do you know Heath wrote the notes?”

“I checked the typing in the notes with a paper he turned in at school a week before he disappeared. It was written on the same typewriter.” I hit myself on the side of the head. “I should have looked for that old typewriter when we were in Heath’s house!” I sighed heavily.

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