When the movie started, I tried to get engrossed. I wanted so badly not to think about Evan, but the harder I tried, the more he stormed my mind. I told myself he wasn’t worth it.
Then I asked myself what I could possibly do to help the police get their hands on him. I thought of Rick and wished he were there, but my shoulder was up against Cree’s, not Rick’s.
The movie got interesting and funny and I lost myself in it. It told about a divorcing couple that kept running into each other although they tried every which way to avoid it. Cree laughed and snuggled up to Ben. What could be so important that kept Rick away from me? Okay, he was a cop and people who needed help didn’t time their problems for my benefit. If Rick and I ever got hitched, this would be my life. I might as well get used to it.
After a surprising ending in which they didn’t get back together, the credits began to roll. That was a signal for people to surge, to be first through the doors, then first to the parking lot, the first to get home and pay the babysitter. We were in the middle of our row, so we waited.
The guy next to me stood up and pushed his way out to the side aisle. The lights came on and I sneaked a look since we’d been neighbors for almost ninety minutes.
He chose that moment to turn and meet my eyes. And to snicker.
O. M. G. It was no wonder I’d thought of Evan. Why didn’t I know?
How could he appear in public? How could he sit right next to me, knowing he must be police bait? Was it possible he really didn’t think he did anything wrong? I reached across Cree and gave Ben a poke.
Ben whirled around but by then Evan was lost in the exit crush. As we made our way up the center aisle, which was closer, I told them what had happened.
“You’re kidding,” said Cree. “How come you didn’t know?”
“It never entered my mind he’d be so brazen.”
“Call the police right now. Maybe they can catch him.”
“If this was Southbridge that might work, but it isn’t.”
In the parking lot, I looked for Evan. First, I looked for his car but didn’t see a yellow one with oversize tires. I had a kind of feeling he’d gotten something different. Something less conspicuous. I looked all over and didn’t see him anywhere. He couldn’t have gotten out that much ahead of us. Could he?
Maybe I hadn’t seen him inside the theater. Was that possible? Maybe it was someone who looked a little bit like him and, with Evan on my mind, that’s who I turned him into.
We were just getting into Ben’s truck when I caught sight of him again. He was leaving the parking lot, driving a dark, anonymous-looking car.
Or maybe I didn’t see him that time either. I must get him off my mind if I was starting to see him everywhere I looked.
* * * *
Tuesday was Ben’s last full day at home. Rhoda served blueberry pancakes for breakfast. She never made special goodies on a weekday. I wondered if she was trying to make sure Ben came back home now and then. Of course he would, if only to see Cree. She spent most of Tuesday at our house, helping him load his truck.
Ben took a look at the paper when he sat down to rest. Something on the first page caught his attention.
“So that’s what your boyfriend’s been doing.”
At first, I panicked, thinking he’d married Rosie, but it wasn’t that. It was a hostage situation.
Man Barricades Himself in Home with Woman and 3 Tots.
It had been going on since yesterday. How could people do such crazy things? Putting little children and my Rick in danger. Once I asked Rhoda why there were so many crazy people in the world. She couldn’t answer except to say that’s the way a lot of people are. Each person has his or her own viewpoint and too often those viewpoints clash. Well, duh, I could figure that out myself. I wanted to know why so many people have a viewpoint that goes against the grain.
Like Evan, for instance. I had long ago diagnosed him as a psychopath, but why? How did he get that way? Rhoda said people had theories but no one knew for certain what made psychopaths.
Oh God, Evan. If the police were tied up with this hostage-taker creep, no one was going after Evan. No wonder he felt secure enough to show up at the movies and bug me. Did he just happen to notice us there or was he following me?
Or was it, as I had almost convinced myself, not Evan at all?
I couldn’t discuss it with Rhoda just then. She was trying so hard to be brave about Ben leaving. He wasn’t exactly her firstborn, since he was adopted, which made me the actual firstborn. But he was her first child and the first to go off to college. His Asperger’s gave her something more to worry about, though on the whole he seemed to do okay in spite of it.
His truck was packed with computer, printer, CDs and CD player, a ton of books, and of course, some clothes. Most of it he squeezed into the back seat rather than the truck bed. On Wednesday, Rhoda made sure he had a sandwich for lunch.
And then she did break down. “I can’t believe it. Where does the time go?”
She had taken the morning off from work just for this. Ben said goodbye to both of us—Daddy had already left—and warned me to take care.
“I’ll try,” I said. “I don’t know if that was Evan at the movies, but I’ll be careful, don’t worry.”
Ben kissed me. He rarely did that. And then he was off to say goodbye to Cree.
Rhoda left for work. With no car, I was stuck at home. That was the pits. I hoped Barger Brothers would get the part soon. I hoped it would be cheap in price but not in quality. I didn’t even know what part it was.
I tried calling Cree for company, but she was busy blubbering and missing Ben. “Why couldn’t he go to Columbia or NYU?” she wept. “I just know he’ll meet a lot of girls at MIT and they’ll all be gorgeous and fascinating and—”
“No, they won’t. They’ll all be geeks,” I said.
“He’s a geek, sort of. But he’s a gorgeous geek.”
“Cree, will you stop being so insecure? He loves you.”
“Do you think he really does?”
“Trust me.” I hate when people say that. But I was doing the same thing she was, worrying about Rick and Rosie.
I thought of calling Glynis, but she beat me to it.
“Maddie, help! They’re all over!”
It wasn’t often that Glyn got so rattled. “Who’s all over?”
“Them. The football players, but not Evan. They’re all in front of the house and nobody’s home but me. What’ll I do?”
“Is your door locked?”
“All of them. And the windows, too.”
“Make sure they’re secure and call nine-one-one.” I was sure there must be some police not occupied with the hostage taker.
“What can I tell them? Nobody’s done anything. They’re just scaring me.”
“That’s the idea. I’d come and help you but I don’t have my car.”
“Don’t even think about it. You’d have to get past them and who knows what they’ll do?”
“I’m sure it’s just a warning. And it’s not going to help them because the police already know. Call nine-one-one. Tell them you’re being threatened. Then hang a big banner out an upstairs window that says repent, you sinners.”
“Will being threatened get me police protection?”
“You won’t know until you try it. Maybe they’ll arrest those bozos.”
I liked the banner idea. I pictured the same thing all over Southbridge. Not only sinners but criminals. I should have named more names in my article.
They’d already tried to claim Kelsey asked for it. I knew she didn’t, and that would be proven in court. Glynis could testify that she was in no condition to give consent. Furthermore, even if she asked for it, they didn’t have to give it to her. Assuming they had a conscience, which they didn’t. I should have put that in my article.
I listened for the sound of sirens. I would hear them coming up from the bridge and then on down to Overlook, where Glyn lived.
Fifteen minutes went by. Not a sound. Maybe they weren’t using sirens so as not to alert the scumbags. Maybe they were all too busy with the hostage thing. I wished Ben hadn’t left. I could do with some company.
I tried calling Glyn. Her phone was busy. Was she still connected to 911? Usually they keep you on the line until help gets there. I was trying her cell. I didn’t know her home phone and they weren’t listed.
As soon as I gave up, she called me.
“They’re gone,” she said.
“Who?” There were too many “theys.”
“Who do you think? Hey, a police car just came. Now I have to tell them the jerks are gone. I feel stupid.”
“Don’t. You can give them a report. Then they’ll have it on record. Rick always says it’s better to feel stupid than sorry.”
Sounds outside made me rush to the window.
“Glyn! Glyn, are you still there?”
She wasn’t. I checked to make sure both the front door lock and deadbolt were fastened. Then I rushed upstairs and looked out my parents’ bedroom window. It gave me a good view of our parking space. Two cars were there, and three guys.
They rang the front doorbell. Nobody thought to look up and see me in the upstairs window. “You’re got some nerve,” I muttered. They couldn’t hear me, either. How could they possibly think they hadn’t done anything wrong?
Even if it didn’t feel wrong to their psychopathic brains, they must have known that the law disapproved.
With the deadbolt and all, I was pretty sure they couldn’t get in. If they did, the dogs would eat them. How long would they stay out there? Didn’t they have anything better to do?
Petey and Pumpkin raged at the front door, barking and snarling and tearing it to pieces. How did they know these were bad guys? Was it my behavior? Or are dogs smarter than we give them credit for?
OMG, they could do it again. He undoubtedly told them to use a glasscutter, the way he did last year when he made a hole in the window of the mudroom door. Then he reached in and unlocked it. I had hurried downstairs to lock the inner door. We should have replaced that window with plywood, but who’d have thought it could happen again?
I stayed in the living room to keep an eye on things, and called 911. Maybe the police were still at Glyn’s house. It was a lot closer to me than the police station.
Maybe Rick would hear the bulletin wherever he was. Not to abandon the hostages, but just so he’d know. And think of me. And maybe worry a little.
I thought about that banner I’d suggested to Glyn, about repent, you sinners. I could whip one up with an old sheet and some markers, but it seemed kind of stupid now. I didn’t want them to think I cared enough to bother.
They had disappeared from sight but their cars were still there. I checked every window, all sides of the house, to make sure they weren’t setting me on fire.
Before I got back to the living room, someone knocked at the door. Then rang the doorbell. The door had a high-up window that I couldn’t see out of.
Then I heard them rush to their cars. I looked out another window in time to see their cars start up and almost crash into each other trying to get out to Lake Road. A moment later, a police cruiser arrived.
It was two officers, but not Rick and Rosie. I told them what happened and got a rueful smile as they realized it was the same crew they had just missed at Glyn’s house.
“I can give you their names,” I said, “if that’s any help. They’re the ones who raped Kelsey Fritz the other night.”
“How do you know it was the same guys?” they asked.
“Glynis told me who they were. She was there. I know it’s going to be hearsay because you’ll never get Kelsey to talk. She’s too traumatized. And you’d better not believe their story that it was consensual. There’s nobody in the world less likely to do that than Kelsey. I’ve known her for years and I know the guys, too. We all went to Lakeside. It’s a small place.”
No reaction. If nothing else, they would know Lakeside was a small place.
“How’s the hostage situation?” I asked.
“Still going on,” they said, and left.
Poor Rick. He must have been exhausted.
I was, too. I couldn’t relax until my parents came home, and that wasn’t until evening. When they did come, I told them, “I really miss Ben.”
“So do I,” Rhoda said. “I hope you got a lot done, anyway.”
“A lot of what? School hasn’t . . . oh.” My campaign. To make half the world’s population more aware that the other half are people, too. I’d forgotten all about it. Maybe that’s what those guys were trying to do—make me forget.
They knew Glyn had talked to me. Was it Kelsey they were trying to warn me about? Or did they know about my article even though it hadn’t come out yet?
Either way, I was to keep my mouth shut.