Under Cover (12 page)

“Want to bet your pop knows something? What
do you think he came for?”

“We don’t know how much Liam told him.”

“He told
you
a lot.”

“I beat it out of him. Well, sort of. He
didn’t know how much I already knew from the Internet.”

“And that’s where you’re gonna leave it,
kiddo.” She put her hand on the door.

I stopped her. “What would you do if you were
me?”

“What would I do? I’d let the cops handle
it.” With that, she took off.

Oh sure, let the cops handle it. What did
they have to go on except the body in Liam’s car? I could bet they
didn’t even know about the other guys.

So Liam would go to prison. It wasn’t fair. I
hated when things weren’t fair. I hated what they did to Johnny,
who I didn’t even know, and hated what they were doing to Liam.

That is,
if
Liam had told the truth,
and I kind of thought he did. With my personal experience, I knew
lying when I saw it. Or heard it, I guess is what you do with it.
And I couldn’t forget those tears.

I—hated—Aus. I supposed a psychopath couldn’t
help being one, but they really should try to control it. The
trouble is, they don’t see anything wrong with themselves. Maybe
they don’t know what it is they’re supposed to control, or how to
do it.

So, aside from being on the lookout, what
choice do the rest of us have except to wait until they commit some
horrendous crime and then lock them up?

Okay, Austen had done that. The only thing
now was to prove that he did it.

Chapter
Twelve

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
A
vengers, 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.