Page 62 of Catching Fire

His mother called him then. Of course, the girls had told Mom what a dipshit he was being. But the sound of her voice was soothing and he hadn’t realized until he let go of the last of the tension that he’d still been carrying it.

“You got an email from Deja?” his mother asked, and he explained the whole thing for a third time.

“I think my phone resent me the same email from three years ago.”

“You know I’m taking my meds. I have no intention of going through that again.” She paused. “Why would your phone do that? Does it send you old emails often?”

“Never before this.”

They chatted a little while and he realized he was overheated and must stink of stress sweat, but he headed into the gas station for a sandwich and a soda before turning around and aiming the car back toward Redemption.

This time, when he stopped at a light in Lincoln, his mother’s words picked at his brain.Why would his phone do that?

He pulled up the email again, and when he opened the details he saw that it wasn’t even from Deja. He frowned.

It was from a University of Nebraska .edu address. Had Seline emailed him and the system had swapped out an old email for the new one? He’d had glitches where the screen didn’t change. But this was the old email, and everything else was lining up.

The light changed and he pulled forward.

The email was weird. And on a whim, he called the Redemption Library. Ivy Dean’s cheerful voice answered the line and Kalan asked what she knew about wonky emails.

“I don’t know much about email delivery glitches. Not off the top of my head, but hold on. Oh! Tell Seline her book came in.”

“I will.” He listened to her tapping on the keys and she said, “What specifically happened?”

“I'm sure it's nothing.” He realized even as he said it that more ominous words might never have been spoken. But he explained everything about the email.

“Well, I’m glad your mother’s okay!” He could almost hear Ivy clutching her pearls. Not that she wore pearls, but there was something old school about her despite her young age.

“Me, too.” He thanked her, but her information was that this wasn’t any known glitch with his carrier. Before he hung up, Kalan had another idea. Since he had her on the phone and something about the email was bothering him. He needed to distract himself. “Hey, have you still been looking into Sanders’ history?”

“I have.” Her tone perked at his request about her research. She seemed to love having all the knowledge of the library at her fingertips. “I don't think I've really found anything else more of use, but I did track down another odd death and another property in the family. The property sold and a new family lives there. So it's not like he would have access to it and I didn’t find other abandoned properties that would be useful.”

They chatted a few moments longer and this time when he thanked her, Kalan actually managed to hang up. He was pulling up in front of Seline’s house at last. Aside from him needing a shower, and not getting that new shirt, maybe the evening would be salvageable.

But her car wasn’t there. Had her meeting run this long?

It shouldn’t have.

Kalan didn’t like the way it was adding up. Seline running late, not answering messages. Him getting sent out of town on a wild goose chase … But maybe it was all just coincidence and growing paranoia.

He reached out to Sebastian. “Hey, man, is Seline with Maggie?”

“No, Maggie’s in with her last clients of the day. She’s been booked solid.” But the question in Sebastian's voice told Kalan maybe he should worry. He pushed it down.

“Gotta go.” He hung up on Sebastian as he threw open his car door.

He crossed the street and by the time he arrived at the passenger side window, Verner and Rossi had both looked up from their freshly unwrapped burgers with questioning frowns on their faces.

“What do you need?” Verner asked him at the same time Rossi rolled her eyes and scolded him. “We aren’t under cover if you’re chatting at the car window.”

“Seline’s not home.” The words gushed out.

“That’s fine. We watch the house, too. We already checked the mailbox before we parked.”

“I got a strange email from a university address. It sent me running out of town.”And where was she? Why hadn’t she responded to his messages?Between getting halfway to Omaha and back, it had been hours. “Seline should have been home long before this.”

Leaning hard on the edge of the passenger window, he fought to get the words out. “I can't find her.”

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