THE WINDALE MEDICAL Center is in the northwest part of town, on Raspberry Street. It’s only a few blocks from my house, and I’m nearly there when I hear the familiar yawp of a patrol car siren behind me. The whole way here, I walked with my head down and my hands in my pockets, took side streets and alleys where I could. Didn’t matter.
It’s Dad, I think, turning with my eyes squeezed shut and my shoulders up by my ears. It’s definitely Dad. There’s no way it’s not Dad.
It’s not Dad.
Rebecca Conner steps out of Car Two. She leaves the bubble lights flashing and the door ajar so she can hear the radio. It’s silent for now. She starts to close the distance between us, hands on her gun belt like an Old West sheriff, and I decide to meet her halfway. She’s going to take me home anyway, so I might as well make it less work for her.
“What’s going on, kid?” She says it casually, as if she doesn’t already know exactly what’s going on.
But this is our banter, so I play along. “Not a lot,” I say. “Just the usual.” My voice breaks a little at the end.
She nods heavily, as if it’s a struggle just to keep her head up. “Yeah. The usual. I think we left that behind a while ago. Right about the time I got the call from Clark Webber about his cattle.” She’s looking off to the east, toward Dagger Hill, even though most of it is obscured by the stretch of row homes we’re stopped in front of.
“What’s happening over there?” I say, daring to ask the question.
“Nonsense,” Rebecca replies. “A whole bunch of nonsense, that’s what’s happening. The Triangle is crawling with MPs taking witness reports from everyone. And that colonel…” She trails off, shivering despite the heat.
“Yeah, you’re telling me.” I pause, waiting to see if she’s going to jump right into her reason for stopping me. When she doesn’t, I ask, “What have they said about the plane?”
Rebecca levels a serious stare at me. “You want to be careful about what you say and how loudly you say it.” It’s not a request.
I swallow hard. “Rebecca, they lied to me. I didn’t even ask about the plane, and they just voluntarily told me that it came from some base in Washington where they do scientific experiments. Why wouldn’t something like that be confidential?”
“It should be,” Rebecca says, her voice low. “Your dad confronted Higgins about the plane, and she fed him the same half-baked line. She threatened to have him thrown in jail if he questioned her authority again.”
“Bet that went over really well,” I scoff.
“It’s been a long morning, let’s just say that. But my point is that Higgins is off the rails. That plane was at TerraCorp Friday morning. We all saw it. And I don’t know what it was carrying, but there’s no way it was anything good with the way they’ve put a gag on this town. We—” She stops, shuts her eyes for a moment, then goes on. “We could be in some serious trouble here.”
“And what about Kimberly?” I can barely bring myself to say her name. Because if anyone is in real trouble right now, it’s her.
Rebecca shakes her head. “Nothing yet. This morning, though, it was all Higgins could talk about.”
“Really? She didn’t seem all that interested yesterday.”
“Well, she should be. If this is really some kind of … I don’t know … cover-up, then Kimberly is a loose thread. And they won’t stop until they make sure it’s tied.”
Except they might not get the chance, I think. Somebody else already has her.
“Now,” Rebecca goes on, straightening up, adjusting her belt. Her voice is back to its normal, authoritative volume. “Am I taking you back to your house or back to the station to see the chief?” She only ever calls him the chief to me when I’m in trouble.
“Uh … neither?” I raise my eyebrows and put on an innocent face. “I was just going to see Charlie.”
“But your dad told Mel and me that you were on lockdown. Not to leave the house until further notice.” She gestures to the open world around us. “This is not the house.”
“You’re right.”
“And don’t tell me you asked your mom, because I know she wouldn’t have given you permission, either.”
“I won’t,” I say, feeling the defeat rise in me.
“Good,” she says. “Thank you for not lying.” Then she turns and heads back to the patrol car. “I’m heading over to the video store to check out a weird call. I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see you. Don’t make me regret it.”
With that, she swings her legs back inside the car, revs the engine, and drives away. All I can do is watch her with a goofy smile as she goes.