Page 36 of Blade

“Thanks for your help, Shannon,” I say. “And for being so kind to Grace.”

She lets out a small laugh. “Well, like I said. She’s one of my kids.”

When we get to the end of the hallway, to the front door, Shannon stops. Looking at the ground as she shakes her head.

“The way he was killed,” she says. “With the heel of a blade ... it made me think.”

The current runs down my arms.

“What about it?” I ask, remembering Indy and the story she told us. How we laughed about the image—me turning into a zombie and chasing Dawn. Shannon couldn’t possibly know about that.

She scrunches her whole face together like what she’s about to tell us is incendiary.

“Kayla Johnson,” she says, out of nowhere. “Do you remember her? Why she was asked to leave?”

Artis looks puzzled, his head swinging between the two of us.

“What does Kayla have to do with any of this?”

“She still lives in Pueblo. That’s just an hour from here,” Shannon says.

Artis is perfectly still like he’s making more calculations, adding suspects to the list. Suddenly I wonder if he’s already placed me and Jolene there. If Westin put the idea in his head. I begin to wonder if my trust in him is misplaced, a fellow lawyer, dissecting the facts, speaking the same language.

I can hear the ghosts coming down the stairs from the room on the second floor, all the way in the back. Down the stairs and the hall until they stand right outside the door. Shannon knows something about why Kayla left. Something I don’t.

“Why don’t you tell me, Shannon,” I say. “Tell me what you know about Kayla Johnson.”

Chapter Thirteen

Excerpt from Testimony of Kayla Johnson

Ada Olson: Two months after that night in the field, you left The Palace. Is that right?

Kayla Johnson: I was asked to leave, to be more specific.

Ada Olson: After you had an altercation with one of the mothers in the stands—a bleacher bee I think you call them. Is that right? Can you say what happened?

Kayla Johnson: I heard them talking about the night in the field. But it was more the way they said it. They spoke like we were beneath them. They had no fucking clue what we went through and what it did to us. To me.

Ada Olson: And what did you do?

Kayla Johnson: I’m not proud of it—but at the time, I couldn’t contain my anger. I walked up into the stands and started screaming at them. Telling them how pathetic they were, how their kids couldn’t skate and Dawn just wanted their money. Then one of them—Mrs. Finch—said something about my mother,and that’s when I lost it. I raised one of my skates in the air like I was going to kill her with the blade.

Ada Olson: And did that idea just come to you—using the blade as a weapon?

Kayla Johnson: No. It was an image I had in my head that never left—from a story one of the girls made up. It felt ridiculous when she told it.

Ada Olson: Which girl?

Kayla Johnson: Indy Cunningham.

Ada Olson: And did you ever tell any of them about the way you threatened Mrs. Finch—Jolene, Ana, Indy?

Kayla Johnson: No. I left and never looked back. I couldn’t let myself think about them. I loved them too much, and I’d learned that lesson before I even came to The Palace.

Ada Olson: What lesson?

Kayla Johnson: That love destroys you.