Under Cover (17 page)

“Somebody will be there.” Even if they
weren’t, that wasn’t where I planned to go.

She took the keys out of her purse, but held
onto them. “Give it to me straight, kid. I want to know what’s on
your mind.”

“Nothing’s ever on my mind.” I took the keys
from her and breezed out before she could stop me. She seemed to
expect it. At least she didn’t yell.

My destination was not the school, but the
police station. I’d hoped Rick Falco would be there, Maddie’s
boyfriend. He could be anywhere, but I wanted him
there
and
I wanted him now.

The officer at the desk was someone I didn’t
know. In fact, I didn’t know most of our police force, except Rick.
This guy had small brown eyes and a wisp of a mustache.

Suddenly I felt stupid. My worry might have
no basis at all, but I had come this far.

“Can you tell me if Officer Falco is on
duty?”

“If you mean right now, he’s not.”

“Could you tell me how to reach him? I mean
right now. It’s sort of personal and sort of police stuff.”

He took my name and called Rick, all the time
keeping his eyes on me. This was stupid, and Rick would think so,
too. I almost hoped he wouldn’t answer.

No such luck. Officer Mustache held the phone
out to me.

Rick said, “Hi, Cree, what’s up? Is Maddie
okay?”

Would he care what Maddie was doing? What
could I say?

“She’s more than okay,” I said, “but she has
me worried. It’s a long story. I’d rather not do it on the
phone.”

Rather not snitch was what I meant. What
other reason did I have for telling him about Austen?

I did have a reason. It occurred to me that
this might be the only way I could tell anybody about Austen. I
only hoped it was so roundabout that the goons would never find out
where it came from.

We agreed to meet at Tina’s Corner, a little
coffee shop in the lower village near the train station. Grandma
and I used to go there for ice cream. In fact, we still did
sometimes.

Tina’s was a girlie sort of place with
ruffled curtains on the windows and on the door. It served ice
cream and sandwiches, as well as coffee, tea, and crumpets. I’m
making up that last one because I’m not sure what a crumpet is. I
had chosen Tina’s because it was far from Maddie’s usual haunts and
I didn’t think she’d see us there.

Rick came in with an anxious frown.

“It’s
okay,
” I assured him. “Maddie’s
just fine and I’m not here to squeal on her.” Not much, anyway.

I went on, “I didn’t mean to take you away
from your time off. It’s just that I have this problem and she was
helping me with it, but she—I mean—it’s not going the way I thought
it would.”

His worry turned to bafflement. Not too
surprising. I was making a botch of the whole thing.

He joined me at my table for two and ordered
coffee for us both. I would rather have had ice cream, but kept
quiet about that. I had a lot to apologize for.

I started with Liam. And Dad. And what Liam
was mixed up in. When I came to the part about the murder, I really
caught Rick’s interest. He knew about it, of course.

I could see why Maddie went for him. He was
adorable and his eyes were the greenest you ever saw. Maddie and I
first met him when we ran into each other at the police station,
each with a problem of our own. Then Maddie had other problems and
got to know him better.

Rick listened without interrupting. Finally
he grinned. “Your brother? You never knew you had one? That’s
cool.”

“Yes, but the circumstances,” I said. “That’s
not so cool. I’m sure you know all about the case.”

“Not really. It’s not ours. I do know what’s
been released to the public, as I’m sure you do, too.”

“I’ve been researching. I want to do
something, but Liam starts yelling if I say anything about the
police. I can’t
not
do anything.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Rick agreed. “I’d
feel the same way.”

“What would you do?”

“I’d go nuts,” he said. “No, seriously, I
think what you need is a witness. Your brother saw it, but if he
won’t talk, you’ll have to find somebody else.”

“How can I? He named some people who were
there, and I found them, but they’re Austen’s loyal followers. I
thought Maddie could help. I didn’t count on—I mean—she and Austen
really hit it off, I don’t know why.”

As soon as it was out of my mouth, I wished I
hadn’t said it quite like that. I caught a glimpse of shock and
alarm and then he went into the deadpan mode that seems to come
with cop training.

He opened a packet of Sweet ‘n Low and poured
it into his coffee. “This Austen must be quite a character.”

How to explain? “He does have a certain kind
of—of—drawing power, or whatever you’d call it. He’s got those
other guys doing exactly what he wants. He scared my brother into
keeping quiet and taking the rap. And Maddie—”

Rick seemed to know what was coming. I saw it
in the way he looked at me.

“And Maddie?” he prompted.

I told him about the day we had just had and
the things Maddie said. Listening to myself, I wondered if I really
was snitching. I was sure I came off as hopelessly jealous, wanting
Austen for myself. No way. The only thing I wanted was for him to
land in jail where he belonged.

“The thing is—” I said, hoping it was the
thing, “—if she’s even trying to trip him up, I didn’t think she’d
get this far into it. I had all the background information and I
was planning just what I could do to find out what I need, and then
she—I mean she—I don’t know what I mean. She didn’t think Austen
was so bad. She actually felt sorry for him. She’s even planning to
see him again. Without me. I don’t know what she thinks she’s
doing. It’s like she’s going against my whole plan.”

“She might be trying to follow it in her own
way,” he said.

“Then why can’t she just tell me? We were
supposed to be working together. I thought I could—I mean, I
thought maybe—”

The door opened and two girls came in. They
were in my class. It made me glad Rick wasn’t wearing his uniform.
That would have sent rumors flying all over the school and Maddie
would hear them.

“So, anyway—” Those girls had me all shaken.
They went up to the counter, but kept looking back at me. I tried
to smile and be friendly, but I didn’t think it worked.

“So anyway—” I brought my focus back to Rick,
“if she gets cozy with Austen, it’s going to ruin everything.”

“Could be an act,” he said.

Defending her, of course. I wondered what he
really thought.

“But that’s what I was going to do. I have
the whole background more than she does. I would know what to talk
about. I’d know what to ask.” And I was afraid of sabotage, but
couldn’t make myself say it.

He looked at his watch.

“I’m sorry.” I was always being sorry. “Your
day off.”

“Not really. Just a few hours. They never
last. I’ll see what I can find out from HH.” He got up from the
table and paid the bill.

I got up, too. “HH. That’s cute.” I felt
monstrously ashamed. My complaint about Maddie didn’t seem nearly
as solid as it once did. I’d only put myself over as a jealous
bitch.

Jealous of what? Couldn’t anybody figure out
that my only interest in Austen was to see him in prison? I hadn’t
gotten anything from Rick. He didn’t know even as much as I
did.

Maybe he could find out. I just hoped he
would leave me out of it, at least my name.

I could easily have walked to Tina’s Corner
from home, but I’d needed Grandma’s car for the police station, so
I already had it. It took me back and saved me the cardiovascular
exercise of climbing those long steps. I was just getting out of it
when Maddie’s red Chevy came whooshing down from Maple Avenue,
turned in at our driveway, and stopped so close in back of Archie I
thought she was going to hit him. Since that wasn’t her usual style
of driving, I could tell she was furious.

About Rick? About me? How could she have
found out so quickly? It must have been those big-mouth girls. I
didn’t even know she knew them. Or they knew her.

She jumped out of her car. “Did you have a
nice coffee break?”

I could hardly deny I’d been having coffee
with Rick. “Coffee wasn’t the point,” I said. “I’m worried.”

“You should be.”

“About my brother.” I still felt funny saying
it.

“My
brother’s going to hear about
this.”

Probably mine would, too, if she knew where
to find him.

She could ask Austen. And tell him all about
what we were doing.

Panic time. I tried not to let it show.

Or think about what Ben would say. He was
more level-headed than Maddie, not as quick to jump to
conclusions.

“It was all business,” I said.

“Sure it was.”

“I wanted Rick’s advice. Maybe some help with
the goons. Come on inside, I’ll tell you about it. Grandma made
brownies.” If there were any left. She’d actually made them
yesterday.

“I don’t need brownies. And neither do you.”
Her eyes traveled to my hips. That was a low blow. But I did have a
slender waist.

“We were
only
talking business,” I
said again. “Hudson Hills business. He calls it HH.”

I shouldn’t have said that. It reminded her,
as if she needed reminding, that I’d been talking to Rick. “He said
he’d see what he could get from HH.”

“And you had to do this behind my back,
why?”

“I didn’t think of it as behind your back. He
was just someone I knew. I went to the station first. He wasn’t
there, but they called him for me.”

This just kept getting worse. I tried again
to invite her inside. Or at least make her understand.

“Maddie, you’ve had a brother all your life.
I just got one and I don’t want to see him go to prison for
somebody else’s crime.”

She stood resting against her car with no
intention of going into my house. “How do you know he’s innocent?
Just because he says so.”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. I told
you that. I did get some advice from, uh, your friend. He said I
need a witness. Those guys were the only ones there and they’re not
unbiased. I was going to try and trip up Austen. That was my only
hope.”

Maddie folded her arms. “You’ll never trip up
Austen.”

“I know. He’s had plenty of time to work it
all out beforehand. I just suddenly got hit with it.”

She opened her mouth, probably to say I could
leave the whole thing alone. But she knew I couldn’t.

She seemed to thaw just a bit. “What did he
say?” Meaning Rick.

“That’s mostly what he said. That I need a
witness and he’d try to find out where they’re at. The police, I
mean.”

“You know where they’re at, since your
precious brother won’t talk. Maybe he wants to go to jail.”

“I suppose it’s safer than being on the
loose, with Austen around.” I gave it another try. “Come on inside.
Brownie time.”

She unfolded her arms and stood away from the
car. “It’s more like dinnertime. I should go home.”

“Just for a second. I don’t want us to
fight.”

“You should have thought of that before you
talked to Rick.” But she went with me, anyway.

We weren’t all the way back to normal. I
still felt some chill in the air. She couldn’t bring herself to
believe Austen was as guilty as I knew he was.

She thought Liam was the one. But she hadn’t
seen those tears.

Since I no longer had my bike, or a car, we’d
gotten in the habit of her picking me up for school. Ben had to
leave earlier (so he said), which ruled out him coming for me the
way he once did. I tried not to worry. We’d had that lovely evening
at Waterside and later. It was all I could do to keep from thinking
maybe it was a break-up date after all, in spite of the ring.

The next morning I got to wondering if
anybody
would come and take me to school. I would wait until
twenty-past eight and then I’d start walking. And I’d be late.

At eight-fifteen Maddie showed up. I could
tell she wasn’t all the way mellow, but she came. I said nothing
about my worries. We talked about Austen instead.

“He’s a lost soul,” she informed me. “You’d
never get anywhere with him because your mind is made up.”

“I can act as well as you can.” Probably
better, but I didn’t say so. “I feel stupid, going all the time to
HH. There’s got to be a better way.”

“You can knock it off with the HH,” she said.
“It’s not that cute.”

It would have been cute if he’d said it to
her instead of to me. I dropped the HH and repeated that I couldn’t
keep showing up there. “Even if we both do, they’ll start thinking
we’re a couple of fruitcakes.”

“They’ll think we’re coming onto them,” she
said. “They’ll be flattered.”

“They’ll think we’re stalking them. And we
are. They might even figure out why.”

“I have a reason,” she said smugly. “Austen
wants to see me.”

It occurred to me why he might like her.
Well, one of the reasons. She had a car.

I had access to Grandma’s car, but not all
the time. I didn’t want to ask for it too often or she’d get
suspicious and poke her nose in my business. Furthermore, that
bright metallic orange was way too conspicuous for undercover work.
I couldn’t do surveillance or even just be there without getting
noticed.

I really wanted to try the Mulvaneys again. I
wanted to see my dad and get his take on things, as well as a
progress report. If there was any progress. But the couple of times
I’d been to that house, Liam was there and Dad wasn’t. And Liam
made it clear he didn’t want me around.

I kept asking myself how I’d gotten into all
this. Of course I knew the answer. It was my own doing. But there
wouldn’t have been anything to do if they hadn’t killed Johnny
Kinsser.