Under Cover (10 page)

He had a sort of wide mouth, but not too
wide. It opened partway and said, “Who wants to know?”

“Cree Penny. Is my dad here?”

“Penny?”

“Lucretia Penny. They call me Cree. My dad is
Jules Penny. He came to this house when we brought him from the
airport. Is he here?”

“What do you want him for?”

I returned the scowl. “Who wants to
know?”

“Me,” he said.

“And you are?”

“Hey, is he really your dad?”

I batted away a fly that kept trying to land
on my arm. We were talking through the screen door, which he
refused to open.

“So they tell me,” I said. “I’ve hardly ever
seen him, except a few years ago when he came for a couple of
weeks. Is he here?”

It was the third time I asked. And finally
got an answer.

“No, he’s not. So you can go now.”

“Thanks for the really warm welcome, whoever
you are. Tell Dad I stopped by. I brought his camera that he left
at our house.”

I unhooked the camera bag from my shoulder.
Just then Liam, if that’s who he was, went rigid. He was looking
down the sidewalk. With a ginkgo tree blocking my view, I almost
didn’t see them, a trio of guys headed our way.

Liam grabbed my arm and pulled me inside,
almost making me drop the camera. “If you know what’s good for
you,” he gritted into my ear, “you’ll find someplace to hide and
stay quiet.”

“Hide!” That was insane. “Why can’t I just
leave?”

“Too late for that. Where’s your car? Not in
the driveway!”

“It’s on the street, a little way over.”

He still had hold of my arm, and dragged me
down the hall. It happened so fast, I didn’t know what to do. In
truth, I couldn’t do anything. His grip was strong. I barely saw
where we were going, but I recognized a living room as he pulled me
through it. Next I saw a dining room coming up, but just before it
was a little nook in the wall, with a shelf that made a desk, and a
telephone. No room for anything else except a desk chair. He pushed
me inside. It had a door, and one tiny window that was closed. The
room already felt stuffy.

“Keep. Quiet.” He shut me in.

I heard voices. It must have been those three
guys. And Liam. I heard footsteps. They went past my prison. Going
to the kitchen, I supposed. One of them asked, “Hey, dude. Got any
beer?”

Liam mumbled something. After a moment or two
the footsteps came back and settled in the living room. I heard pop
tops popping. Another person asked, “How’s it going, dude?” He had
a carrying voice. “I heard you got a lawyer all the way from Japan.
What’d you tell him?”

How was a lawyer from Japan accredited to
practice in the U.S.?

“Nothing.” Liam’s voice cracked. He cleared
his throat and tried again. Not much better. He sounded really
nervous.

Where was this lawyer from Japan? They
couldn’t mean my dad!

“You’re keeping your mouth shut, right?” said
the second voice.

“Why’d you do it?” Liam sounded teary.
“Why—why me?”

“He-e-ey, now. It worked out good, didn’t it?
Your car.”

I missed a few words but got the important
ones. That voice was really forceful. The boss. The
capo.

“But why’d you…
mumble, mumble.
” Liam
was not forceful.

“What’d you tell the lawyer guy?”

Mumble, mumble.

“The one from Japan, stupid!”

“He’s not a lawyer and he’s not from
Japan.”

“Then what the hell—”

“He’s my father.”

Chapter
Ten

If my tiny prison had any room to fall off
the desk chair, I would have. As it was, I sat there trying to
breathe.

I should have guessed. I almost did, but had
to reject the idea. I was so sure somebody would have told me if I
had a brother. It was possible Grandma really didn’t know. But
Mom?

Maybe she didn’t, either. Because maybe Dad
didn’t tell her. Liam couldn’t have been much older than me. Was
Dad married to Mrs. Mulvaney and then Mom in quick succession? Or
was he not married to Mrs. Mulvaney and maybe not to Mom either,
even if Grandma insisted he was?

Maybe what Liam said wasn’t true. But it made
sense, Dad coming all this way.

The capo said, “You’re kidding, right?”

Liam mumbled something.

Capo again: “What’d you tell him? It better
be nothing. You-are-going-to-keep-your-mouth-shut, understand?”

I could tell from the way he said it that his
teeth were clenched. I pictured his hand clutching Liam’s jaw, his
fingers splayed and gripping, like an octopus. Funny, I didn’t even
know what he looked like, but just from the sound of him, I saw his
hand.

Liam made choking noises. Maybe the hand was
around his throat.

My stuffy little room had a telephone. I
could call 911.

No, I couldn’t. The goons would hear me. They
would rush in and kill me. The capo would con the police and Liam
would keep his mouth shut as he was ordered to do.

My brother. I still couldn’t believe it. I
always wanted an older brother. Never thought I’d have one. Now
that I did, he was in trouble. The things they said about the car
pretty much confirmed my suspicion that it had to do with the high
school murder.

“Remember that,” said the capo. “You gonna
remember?” I heard a thump, like a fist.

Now
would they leave?

What if I had to go to the bathroom? I didn’t
yet, but if I thought about it, I would have to. I tried not to
think about it.

A scream made me jump. They were hurting him.
I reached for the telephone.

“Keep that in mind,” said the capo. And then
the screen door slammed.

Had they all gone? Dragging Liam with them?
Or did he go voluntarily? I felt like trying to peek but I didn’t
dare.

I looked out the tiny window. All I saw was a
side yard and the house next door. It was yellow.

The window was too small for escape. I’d have
gotten stuck.

I panicked at a sound just outside my door.
It burst open. I jumped a mile.

It was Liam, alone, his face a mixture of
anger and pain.

“Get out of here,” he growled.

He was the one who put me there, but I didn’t
dare argue.

I was too slow getting up. He jerked my arm
and pulled me.

Even after hauling me to my feet, he wouldn’t
let go. “You,” he said, pointing a finger almost in my eye, “you
had better keep your mouth shut. You had better forget everything
that happened here and don’t come back. You talk to anybody about
this and you’re dead. Got that?”

I got it. “Just tell my dad—” That gave me a
funny feeling. It was his dad, too. “Tell my dad I brought his
camera, okay?” I showed it to him on the desk.

“Will you get the fuck out of here?”

“Gladly,” I said.

He marched me to the front door. There we
stopped while he opened the door a crack and looked out.

All was not well.

Swiftly and silently he closed the door,
locked it, and dragged me back the way we had come.

He opened a door opposite the little office.
It was dark. A basement.

“Get in there.” He gave me a push, almost
knocking me down the stairs. They were steep, the kind that had no
backs. It did have a rail. I grabbed it and stepped into
darkness.

“Get down there.
” He said it with
another push.

I clung to the railing. “I can’t see!”

“Move!” He closed the door. Now it was pitch
dark.

But not entirely. The basement had a couple
of dusty windows that let in some deep, gray light.

I took another step. He was right behind me,
nudging me with his knee. I crept down, glad I had rubber soles. He
didn’t have to tell me to keep quiet.

When we reached the concrete floor, he
stopped and looked around. There wasn’t anything to see except a
pile of shapes that might have been old furniture. He pulled me
down beside him on the bottom step. We were out of range from the
dusty windows.

I got up my nerve to whisper, “What was that
all about?”

“Shut up!”

I heard banging. And shouts. “Hey, dude! Open
up!”

His body tensed. I could feel it, right next
to me.

More banging. “We know you’re there.”

I leaned into his ear and whispered again.
“Do we have to stay here forever?”

His mother or my dad would show up. Did they
know about those goons? Were they as afraid of them as Liam
was?

I remembered the locked screen door and Mrs.
Mulvaney’s explanation of “a little trouble.”

“This is stupid,” I said.

“Shut up.”

I thought of his scream. I wondered if the
goons actually carried weapons.

His breathing came hard and loud. I leaned in
again and whispered, “Is it true that Jules Penny is your dad? I
heard you tell them that.”

He didn’t answer. I said, “It must be true.
He came all the way from Borneo. If he is, that means you’re my
brother.”

He hesitated a moment, then growled, “So
what?”

“So—well—we’re family. How come nobody told
me?”

He said, “I didn’t know about you,
either.”

“I kept asking who Liam was. And Hey Buddy,
and no one would tell me. What was so secret that they wouldn’t
talk?”

He glared down at the floor. I could barely
see him in the gloom, but I knew he was glaring.

“I’m not much to be proud of,” he admitted.
“Especially now. I’m just waiting for the police to arrest me and
then my name will be all over. Even though I—never mind.”

I dropped my head into my hands, shutting out
the dark basement. Okay, so Grandma didn’t know, and maybe Mom. But
my dad certainly did.

The banging started again. That time it came
from near the windows. “Hey, Penny! Open up!”

He muttered something that sounded like
“Christ Almighty.”

“You did lock it, didn’t you?” I said.

“You think that’s going to stop them?”

I pictured them setting fire to the house
with us in it. “Who are they?”

“Some people. Friends.”

“Friends?
Of
yours?
”

He didn’t answer.

I took a guess. “Of Johnny Kinsser?”

“Why don’t you mind your own fucking
business?”

I tried to keep my temper. “I seem be in the
middle of something and I would like to know what I’m in the middle
of.”

“If you’d stayed away, you wouldn’t be in the
middle.”

“I was only bringing back my dad’s camera.
How was I supposed to know?”

I’d had an ulterior motive in bringing it.
But this was more than I bargained for.

He took a few deep breaths. “I had nothing to
do with what happened. I didn’t even know until it happened. They
all knew. They bolted and left me there.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t tell that to the
police.”

“Are you crazy? You want me to end up like
Johnny?” He gave a low moan. “It’s going to happen, anyway.”

“But, why did Johnny end up like that? What
did he do?”

More deep breaths. “He hung out with us. With
them. With us. He was a pest. Aus couldn’t stand him.”

“What about you?”

“I knew they didn’t like him. But I wasn’t
expecting
that.
”

“So, why did he hang out if they didn’t like
him?”

“I said
I
knew they didn’t. He was too
thick-skinned to catch on.”

“You don’t kill somebody for being a pest.
Unless you’re crazy, or criminal-minded. So why’d you do it?”

He shook his head. I felt it more than saw it
in the dark. “Not me,” he croaked. “I didn’t see it coming.”

“Then who?”

“You don’t have to know.”

“Why not?”

“You’d snitch. Then I’m dead meat. And you,
too.”

“Who says I will?”

“Better if you don’t know. The less people
who know, the better.”

“How can you live like this if you don’t get
the police in on it? They’ll help you. That’s what they’re
for.”

“Bullshit. Leave it alone, will you? The
police know all about it. They think I did it. Just leave it
there.”

“I don’t believe this. You say you didn’t
kill him? Somebody did. You want to go to prison for somebody
else?”

He rested his chin on his knees and barely
murmured, “Better prison than dead.”

“People get killed in prison,” I reminded
him. “There you are with a bunch of criminals. They kill each
other.”

No response.

I asked, “Where were you when it
happened?”

“We were all in my car.” His voice dropped
almost to nothing.

They were still out there. If I leaned
forward I could just see one of the windows. I saw a pair of
high-top sneakers.

Again I spoke into Liam’s ear. “Where’s your
family? What time are they coming?”

He jumped. “Oh God!”

“Would they do anything, those goons?”

“What time is it now?” he asked.

“I can’t see my watch. And I have to get the
car back home.”

So Grandma could play bingo. If Grandma could
see me now…

“To hell with the car,” he said.

“It’s my grandmother’s.” I had an idea.
“Maybe she’ll call the police to come and look for me.”

That alarmed him. “She knows you’re
here?”

“I’m sure she can figure it out.”

He groaned.

My brother.
I still couldn’t believe
it. This was my brother. I actually had one.

He said he’d had nothing to do with the
murder. Didn’t know it was planned. Of course he’d say that. But I
remembered my logistics question.

“Okay,” I tried. “Tell me what happened. If
it was your car, you must have been in the driver’s seat. Is that
right?”

He nodded. I went on.

“They said Johnny was in the front, too. How
could you garrote somebody sitting right next to you? Especially
with a coat hanger.”

A shudder went through him. “I didn’t! I told
you I didn’t.”