Cutter made sure Ru was out of the building before he switched from texting and gave Rider a call. As the phone was ringing, he stood and walked to his door, closing it, just in case anyone was listening in. Rider answered on the second ring. “What’s going on? How did it go?”
“Well, the good news is, she agreed to go out with me tomorrow.”
“Oh, you’ve turned it into a date then have you?” Rider teased.
“No, not exactly,” Cutter replied, sitting back down. Not that he would mind dating Ru, though her comment on not dating coworkers was about to be taken to a whole ‘nother level. “But something else happened you need to know about.”
“Yeah, I saw your text.”
When Ru had walked in, he’d been in the process of trying to explain to Rider what had happened with the car. There was a distinct possibility he had taken things too far too quickly. “I had the opportunity to give her a bit of a clue, just to see how she’d react.”
“What did you do? Levitate? Set something on fire? Cause a blackout?”
Cutter chuckled. “No, nothing that drastic. I moved her car. Without the keys.”
“You moved her car—like you floated it somewhere?”
“No, no,” Cutter replied, quickly cutting him off. “I mean, I was supposed to drive it to a new parking spot, but I didn’t have the keys, so I improvised.”
“You started her car without the keys?” Rider clarified.
“Yes, and unlocked it.”
“And… how did she react to this?”
“She freaked out a little.” Cutter had to be honest with his cousin. “And I guess I can’t blame her," he told him with a shrug.
“I’d say not. Well, did you get her calmed down?”
“I’m not sure. At first, I tried to convince her that I did have the keys, but she’s too smart to fall for that.”
“Oh, good. We’re not dealing with a complete moron then. Did you really think she wouldn’t know if she gave you her keys?” Rider asked doubtfully.
Cutter ran his hand through his hair. “No, not exactly. I mean, we were in the hallway when I said I’d move it, and she was in a hurry to get to a meeting, so I thought I might be able to convince her that she’d given them to me. But I didn’t try to actually convince her convince her.”
“I should say not. The last thing we need is for her to think we are playing mind tricks on her.”
Knowing the risk of doing so was what had convinced Cutter not to try in the first place. They needed Ru to trust them, and actually using his powers to sway her mind wouldn’t help with that. “So… I told her I’d explain it to her tomorrow.”
“Well, I wanna be in the next booth at that Applebee’s. You’re gonna have to light the place up to get her to believe you.”
Cutter had considered where he should take her to have the type of conversation they needed to have. The idea of being in public wasn’t the best one. “I haven’t quite sorted all of that out yet,” he admitted.
“Whatever you do, we need to get a move on it. Mrs. Delvecchio died two weeks ago, right in Reaper’s Hollow, and then Mr. Sturgeon two blocks away from the school last weekend…. He knows something.”
This wasn’t the first time that Rider had pointed out these facts to him. “I know. That’s why I decided to go ahead and talk to her.”
“Hopefully, Nat will wait a day or two before he strikes again, and maybe by then we’ll have more clues as to what he’s up to.”
“Maybe,” Cutter said, but he doubted it. Even if they talked to Ru tomorrow night, it would take time not only to convince her but to train her. “All right, I have some work to finish up, and then I’ll head home.”
“Okay. Make sure you give all the little kiddies good grades. No sense in starting them off on the wrong foot. You could scar them for life.”
“Talk to you later, Rider.” Cutter hung up, chuckling at his cousin’s recommendations. All of his housemates had their opinions about how Cutter should handle his teaching assignment, and he’d said more than once he’d like to see any one of them take over. Teaching definitely wasn’t easy. He’d known it wouldn’t be going in, but it was even harder than he could’ve possibly imagined. And Ru made it look so easy. It was a shame he was about to rip that life away from her.
Ru sat on her sofa, her legs extended down the length of it, her laptop open in front of her, with Piper curled up at her feet. Spotify was blaring The Clash from her favorite punk playlist. Most people would be shocked to hear that she listened to this type of music, but it had gotten her through some dark times.
Her keyboard had a very thick, plastic protector on top of it, and the rest of her laptop was not only in the thickest case she could find, she never set it directly on her lap, always putting a blanket or pillow between herself and the electronic device. So far, she’d only blown up one computer, and that had been years before. Replacing a hairdryer was one thing, but buying a new MacBook Air was another story.
She’d been home for three hours, and most of that time had been spent researching special powers on the Internet. So far, she hadn’t found much reliable information. Other than some guy in Poughkeepsie who claimed he could move objects with his eyes and a few kids playing around with bending metal, for the most part, everything she looked at seemed more than a little fake, and neither of those stories seemed particularly credible. Was it possible that Cutter actually had her keys, and she just didn’t remember it correctly? She doubted it. Ru would never be one to tout her strengths, but she did have a good memory.