Read Online Dead Wrong by Patricia Stoltey - Free Book Online Page A

Grace over to Blue’s care. She left the phone on the table, but moved the fat man’s laptop case to the floor between her chair and Grace’s.
    “Who are you, Blue? Are you really a student? Why should I trust you to watch out for Grace?”
    Blue reached into her backpack again and pulled out a woman’s wallet. She lined up her driver’s license, voter’s registration card, two credit cards, and a photo identification card from Colorado State University. All were in the name of Teresa Young.
    Grace pulled the driver’s license closer and peered at it. “You’re twenty-three years old?” She stared at Blue. “Are these fake?”
    Lynnette took the driver’s license and examined it carefully. She set the license on the table and looked at Blue. “Well? Are they fake? I figured you were about sixteen.”
    “No. They’re real.”
    “Then why all this?” Lynnette waved her hand up and down to indicate Blue’s makeup, tattoos, piercings, and clothes.
    “You don’t look like you’re twenty-three,” Grace added. “And you don’t look like you ever went to college, either.”
    “It’s a long story.”
    “You better start telling it,” Lynnette said with a quick glance at her watch. “I’m not letting you take Grace anywhere unless I’m sure she’ll be safe.”
    “Okay. I’m a grad student at CSU. Sociology. I’m working on a thesis about crowd behavior, so I go places where crowds hang out. I go to concerts and political rallies and—”
    “Looking like that?” Lynnette said.
    Blue sighed, reached up to grip her black hair at the crown, and pulled off her wig. Her short reddish-brown hair clumped close to her head. She dropped the wig on the table and ran her fingers through her hair to fluff it up. Then she stuck her index finger in her mouth, wet it, and rubbed the tattoo of a heart on her forearm. The color faded and disappeared.
    “Wow,” Grace said. “Aren’t any of them real? They look real. Can I get one like that little dragon on my leg?”
    “I need more,” said Lynnette, ignoring Grace’s excited chatter. “Do your parents live in Fort Collins? Who are they? Do you live at home? Do they know you’re wandering around the country like this?”
    “Yeah, I’m officially living at my home. That’s the address on my I.D. My dad lives just outside Fort Collins. He knows what I’m doing, but he’s not super happy about it. I check in with him about five times a day so he doesn’t worry so much.”
    “Your mom?”
    “They’re divorced. She lives in San Francisco. I spent summers out there until I got my bachelor’s degree. When I started on my master’s, I decided to take summer classes, too. Working on the thesis gives me a little more freedom to go around, do research, you know?”
    Lynnette glanced at her watch. Time was running out. She looked at Blue’s collection of cards again before pushing them across the table along with the napkin. “You can put the cards away. Write down your address, just in case.”
    She turned to Grace. “Will you feel safe with Blue?”
    “Sure.”
    “Will you do everything she says?”
    “Sure, unless it’s something bad.”
    “I won’t tell you to do anything bad,” Blue said. “You’ll be fine.”
    Lynnette turned on the fat man’s phone. When she had a signal, she dialed her own number. The guy answered on the first ring. He sounded furious. Lynnette imagined him, flushed with rage, a gun in his shoulder holster and a knife at his waist. That was ridiculous. He couldn’t have carried a gun and knife onto the plane. She had to stop with the crazy thoughts.
    “You turned off my phone, you bitch. I been trying to call you.” The guy’s voice increased in volume until he yelled, “If you touch anything in that case, I will not only kill you, but I will cut you up in little pieces first! I’ll find everyone whose name and address is on your phone or in your email and I’ll kill them all!”
    Lynnette had the passing thought