Austen wasn’t going to turn himself in—that was for sure. He had it all worked out, including a willing patsy. Maybe not so much willing as resigned.
I couldn’t leave it there. And I didn’t know what Dad was doing about it, if anything. The wise thing would have been to ask him, but I knew what he would say. Be a good little girl, butt out, and let the Big Boys handle it. I would be surprised if he didn’t pat me on the head.
Big boys, hmpf, as Grandma would say. In the past year I had done some sleuthing myself. I’d found what I was looking for, but not without putting myself in danger. Could be, that came with the territory. I would just have to be careful.
To begin with, I needed to get more familiar with Hudson Hills. I couldn’t pretend I belonged there, because I didn’t. They would see right through me. So I made up a story.
I also couldn’t keep borrowing Archie. Grandma would worry about me wearing him out, or even worse, she would want to go with me. To get around that, I would take the bus.
The more I thought about it, the more nervous I got. Those goons had already killed. They say killing gets easier the next time, especially when you need to protect yourself from people snooping around about the first time. It called for extreme subtlety on my part.
Maybe I didn’t have to do it alone. Back when I first met Maddie, we were each on a mission. Mine was to find what happened to the Hurlow baby. Maddie’s was to rescue Ben from the neurotic girl who accused him of stalking and from the school juggernaut that had no brains about dealing with Asperger’s syndrome. Maddie and I helped each other and thought of calling ourselves the Revengers. We wanted to be the Avengers, but that was already taken. I hoped she wasn’t too busy to help me again.
Monday on our way to school I told her about my weekend. And Liam.
“A brother? You have a brother? Oh, Cree! Oh! Oh! What’s he like?”
“He’s not as good-looking as yours,” I said.
“But what’s he like?”
I didn’t want to use the term wimp. I said, “He’s in big trouble and he’s feeling beaten down. Anybody would.”
Maybe Ben wouldn’t. I tried to imagine what he would do. What I couldn’t imagine was Ben getting into that sort of trouble to start with.
I outlined the situation in detail, adding, “It’s a job for the Revengers, don’t you think?”
“Oh, Cree.” She looked stricken and nearly missed our turnoff for the school. “Cree, I hate to let you down but I have a hundred fifty pages to type by yesterday.”
“I could help you,” I offered.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to parcel it out.”
“Who’s going to know? I could put it on a flash drive and you can add it to yours so it would look the same.”
I thought it was a brilliant scheme, but she didn’t. “I don’t know. It might not come out in the right places. Could you wait a few days?”
“No. It’s an emergency.” And a lot more important than any old legal paper.
I sort of understood her point of view. But I didn’t think she was trying to understand mine. I wished I could be charitable and not think she just didn’t want to share the income. Tuesday afternoon, instead of going home, I had her drop me at the bus stop.
It was in front of Carney’s Candy Shop and you could buy your ticket inside. Grandma and I used to do that before she got her car. The reason was, Hudson Hills had a movie theater and Southbridge didn’t.
The buses ran every hour. I caught the 4:10. As it trundled along the highway, I thought how ridiculous this was. I didn’t know what the guys looked like and I couldn’t ask Liam. I would have to get there much earlier and hang around the high school. Even then, out of more than a thousand kids, how would I find those particular ones? And what would I do when I found them?
Okay, I could start with research. I could find River Edge Park and get my bearings. From there I could trace Liam’s route to his house. He’d said he walked all the way home after they ditched him. It was the middle of the night and he’d just been through an experience so insane he had a hard time believing it. Knowing the route and what was along it might help me picture the whole thing.
As I got off the bus I asked the driver, “Can you tell me how to get to River Edge Park?”
“Seems to me it’d be down by the river.” He grinned, showing tobacco-stained teeth.
I couldn’t see the river from where I was. There were buildings in the way, but I knew it would be west. And down. The driver was right about the down part. The bus wheezed on south, which meant west was that way, and there was the sun to prove it.
I walked to the nearest corner and then I could see the river. I started toward it, down a hill. Everything sloped toward the Hudson. I could see the Metro-North railroad tracks, but no park.
What was I doing? I felt like going to Liam’s house and shaking him until his teeth rattled. Didn’t he realize, if the whole family was behind him, there wasn’t much Aus could do?
Or maybe Aus could. Anybody who thought nothing of strangling someone with a coat hanger…
That got me even angrier. I thought of Johnny’s mother. I had never been a mother, but I imagined someone hurting Jasper, and I could put myself in her shoes. Aus, being a psychopath, didn’t know what it was like to love somebody. What was more, he didn’t care.
I would have to put a lid on my hatred if I was going to accomplish anything.
When I reached the tracks, I looked to my right and my left. Right was the station, not too far away. That gave me another option. I could take a train instead of the bus.
Left was an overpass leading to some greenery. A park? I hiked several blocks to reach it.
The overpass was for cars but it had a sidewalk, too. It crossed the tracks and ended up on a spit of land that I supposed was River Edge Park, jutting out into the Tappan Zee. That was the widest part of the Hudson. “Zee” is Dutch for “sea” or a wide expanse of water. It was several miles across. Southbridge was on it, too. I grew up thinking that was the way rivers were supposed to be. Anything smaller was only a brook.
A male voice startled me. My first reaction was goons, but it was an older man talking to his dog. When the dog finished watering a tree, they came in my direction. The man gave me a pleasant nod and a polite “Afternoon.”
“Can you tell me,” I said, “is this River Edge Park?”
“That’s right. You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Southbridge,” I told him. “Mostly my experience with Hudson Hills is the movie theater.”
The dog, an Irish setter, came over and sniffed my hand. I explained that I had a dog, too, and tried to figure out how to approach my subject. Why not directly?
“Is this where the murder took place?” I asked.
The man had a round face that was ruddy and cheerful. As soon as I said that, his cheerfulness disappeared.
“This is it.” He pointed to a spot where the road looped toward the water. “Right there.”
I remembered the newspaper article. A man walking his dog. “You wouldn’t be the one who found it, would you? The car?”
“A morning I’ll never forget.”
“That must have been horrible for you.”
“Well—it wasn’t fun, I’ll say that.”
I thought of Maddie, who wrote for our school paper. If she couldn’t come with me and be herself, I could be her.
“I’m writing a story for our school newspaper,” I said. “Can you tell me more about it? Did you know any of the people involved?”
“Not personally,” said the man. I tried to remember his name. It had been in the paper.
“The victim,” he went on, “I knew by sight. He was a neighbor, more or less.”
“You knew him? And you found him dead? How horrible.”
“I can’t say I really knew him. Only by sight,” he repeated. “My son is more in that age group. You should talk to him, if you could, but he jumped the gun on graduation and went and joined the Navy.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. Shocked his mother and me. I think he was trying to impress a girl.”
I wondered what I would do if Ben joined the Navy. “Was the girl impressed?”
“I haven’t discussed it with her. I’m sorry I can’t tell you any more about the murder.”
“You’ve been very helpful.” Not exactly true, but it seemed a nice thing to say. “I don’t suppose you know Mrs. Kinsser, if she’s a neighbor?”
“I see her around now and then. Not since it happened.” He took a step backward. “I’d better get Gilly home and give him his dinner. Nice talking with you.”
I couldn’t let him go yet. “What about any of the others?”
“Others?”
Oops. I almost gave away my source. “I understand there may have been others in the car.”
“Not that I know of. The only one I saw was Kinsser. Somebody must have been there to do the deed, but they didn’t stick around.”
“I don’t know where I heard that,” I mumbled. “It was nice meeting you. Have a good dinner—Gilly?”
“Short for McGillicuddy.”
I was glad Gilly’s daddy didn’t ask any more. I just remembered that the article said his son knew the owner of the car. That was getting too close.
Still, I wished I could talk to his son. I needed him more than the Navy did.
* * * *
I hesitated to call Maddie and get an earful about how many pages she had left to type. Later that evening I was surprised when she called me.
“Did you get anything?” she asked.
“Not much. I found River Edge Park and the man who discovered the body.”
“What did he have to say about it?”
“He doesn’t know anything. He just happened to come along walking his dog the way he did that morning.”
“What were you doing at the park? I thought you were out to find killers.”
“Maddie, I don’t even know what they look like. How can I possibly find them?”
“Yearbook. Do you know their names?”
“I know Austen Storm. Liam told me the other two, but I don’t remember them. If I could hypnotize myself, which I don’t know how to do, it might help.”
“Then start with Austen Storm. Library. Yearbook. He might even show up there while you’re looking.”
“In the library? Not a chance. He’s an illiterate goon.”
* * * *
I took the next afternoon off from school. Maddie drove me to Carney’s Candy at noon.
“I wish I could go with you,” she said. “It’d be a lot more fun than all that legal claptrap. I just don’t want to let Daddy down.”
“I understand.” At least I tried to.
Besides candy, the shop sold maps and atlases. I had to buy a whole regional atlas to get any details on Hudson Hills. Maybe in Hudson Hills they would have some dedicated maps.
I studied it on the way over. I found the park and I found Salt Street. That was quite a hike Liam took that night, having just seen his friend murdered by other friends. I really couldn’t blame him for still being shook up. Especially when the police were laying it all on him. Nor could I blame the police when all they had to go on was the car registration.
Then who was to blame?
No question about that. And I was going to get him. Somehow.
I got off a block from the high school. Right across the street was Taco Bell. I thought of taking Ben there once this whole thing was over. That is, if the outcome was favorable and if Ben was still mine to take anywhere. That was a worrisome thought. It almost made me lose track of what I was doing.
School hadn’t let out yet. When I tried to go in, a guard stopped me. He had a neck as wide as his face and wore a blue shirt with a badge. I gave him the story I’d concocted. “I live in Southbridge and my family is planning to move here over the summer, so I’ll be going to this school. I’m not enrolled yet but I wanted to see what it’s like and look up something in the library.”
“Do you have some identification?” he asked.
I pulled out my driver’s license and realized I was in the process of cooking my goose. I’d invented a name to go with the story—actually my mom’s name—but my license still said Lucretia Juliette Penny. Luckily I hadn’t told him anything, and hoped none of this would get back to the goons. But what was this guy going to think of Penny? Hudson Hills’s own jailbird.
I hoped he wouldn’t notice, but how could he not? He brought it up close to his face and asked, “You any relation?”
I gave him my innocent look. More than innocent, I looked as stupid as I could. “Relation of what?”
“Just asking.” He waved me on in.
I took a step and turned back. “Can you tell me where the library is?”
“Down those stairs, first door on your right.”
His station, along with the front door, was on a landing with stairs going both up and down. I prayed he would keep his mouth shut and not talk about me, especially give my name. I would have to get a phony driver’s license. There must be some way to do that.
The librarian took a minute from stamping things to show me where the yearbooks were. She said I could look at them but not remove any from the premises. She actually said premises.
I figured Liam must be a senior. He had to be older than I was. The others were probably also seniors, or near it, so I tried those first.
And there was John Kinsser. He had a mop of dark hair and was looking off to one side, kind of smiling. Nice-looking in a pleasant sort of way. I thought of all the things Liam said about him: making a pest of himself, always goofing around, too thick-skinned to understand that he didn’t belong. Too bad he wanted to. Somebody should have warned him. The caption under his picture called him Johnny the Joker. He belonged to the Photography Club and the Men’s Cooking Club. My heart squeezed and I paged on.
I found Liam Penny next. He wasn’t smiling, but looked calmer than I’d seen him. If Johnny wouldn’t be graduating with that class, I wondered if Liam would, shut up at home with an ankle monitor. One life destroyed, another in shambles. It made me more determined than ever to make shambles out of Austen.
A couple of pages later, I found him
Hard, dark eyes were the first thing I noticed. They looked slightly downward, not at the camera. His hair, too, was dark, and on the longish side. He wore a white shirt, open at the neck, and no tie. The other males wore ties. All about him I sensed an air of dissatisfaction. It wasn’t apparent, but I felt it, I don’t know how. After all I’d been thinking about him, it was odd to see him actually there. Those eyes. The rest of his face wasn’t bad, but not good, either. It was thin and bony, making his features stand out. A sharp chin and high-bridged nose. Not too much of anything, but it was a face you’d know if you saw it.
“Psychopath,” I whispered. You can’t tell a psychopath by looking at him. It’s what they do that sets them apart. I memorized that face as best I could.
The librarian stopped by to ask if I’d found what I was looking for.
“Sort of.” I didn’t want to say too much. “The thing is, I don’t remember all their names, but I’m pretty sure I’d know them if I saw them.”
“Good luck.” She went back to her desk.
My head split from trying to remember. I went through all the seniors, but nothing else clicked. Maybe the other two weren’t seniors. The lower grades didn’t have individual pictures, only each class together and all their names in the captions.
I tried the juniors. There were three classes of them and a lot of extracurricular activities. I skimmed through the captions.
And stopped.
A row of them sat on a bench with the end guy holding a soccer ball. I had heard those names only once, but it was enough. Especially as they sat together and their names were next to each other. Sam McCallum and Fred Gravitz.
Liam had called him Freddie and he looked like a Freddie, small and dark, sort of elfin, with a sassy face. I thought he must be a fun person. What was he doing with a psychopath like Austen? How could he be mixed up in a murder?
Sam McCallum was bigger, with a squarish face and lighter hair. He looked as if he’d have blond eyebrows and probably freckles. Did either of them seem like the sort of person who would hang out with a person like me? That was the only way I could get anywhere.
Maybe Grandma was right and I should let Dad handle it. Dad and the police. But the police had already pinned it on Liam with no other suspects because Liam wouldn’t talk.
I felt another wave of fear. How could I manage it all by myself? I had come this far and I didn’t see any future for it.
Curses on Maddie’s project. She should be doing this. She had a lot more nerve than I did. She went up against the headmaster of her former school for not understanding about Ben’s Asperger’s. A headmaster was Authority. I could never have done what she did. Maddie had self-confidence. Why couldn’t I have some?
I took another look at Austen Storm, then the two juniors, and left the yearbook out because the librarian told me to. Both the wall clock and my watch said it was almost three.
I reached the front entrance and went down about six steps, just as a bell rang and kids began to trickle out. I was glad the security guard had gone. The trickle became a flood.
This was stupid. I was looking for three faces out of more than a thousand. What if I missed them? That was more than likely, and it would mean coming all the way back to try again. If I cut too many afternoons, my school would send a note home and Grandma would ask what I was doing. She would want to come with me and that would ruin everything. Who hangs around school with their grandmother?
What if Liam saw me here? He had that ankle monitor. Maybe he couldn’t get to school.
His senior year.
Hey, people, he didn’t do it. Let him graduate.
I was so busy fuming, it took me a moment to register the shout I heard in back of me. Somebody calling. “Hey! Dude!”
That voice. I didn’t know whose it was, but I remembered it. “Hey, dude! Got any beer?”