Under Cover (23 page)

Here there were more row houses, more spaces
in between. Liam headed toward one of them.

“No!” I shouted, and tried to stop him.

Austen followed us. In the light from a
street lamp I saw him laughing.

Liam quickly switched again. Austen had to
back up, but once he got turned around he could move faster than we
could.

We dashed across the next street. There
weren’t as many cars parked there. Austen followed easily. We
leaped onto the sidewalk.

So did Austen’s car. I didn’t see how there
could be room, but he did it, only knocking over a few empty
garbage cans.

Another crossing. Liam didn’t take it. He
turned the next corner and kept going. Austen knew where he lived,
if that’s where we were headed.

Where was everybody? There should have been
people outside on a summer night. They were all over gawking at the
school from however close the police would let them.

The street veered off at an angle. We had to
leave it, which meant crossing it first. As Liam hesitated, Austen
backed and readied himself. Did he really think Liam was so stupid
as to cross right in his path?

Psychopaths can be awfully full of
themselves, thinking they’re so clever.

We did an about face, dashed past where
Austen waited, and crossed in back of him.

He squeezed in a U-turn and barely made it.
He hurtled toward the sidewalk we had just reached when something
blue and shiny came out of nowhere.

It shot straight toward Austen’s car and
collided with a prolonged crunching of metal.

“Oh my God,” I said.

“Crazy,” said Liam.

Austen’s door opened. He had something in his
hand.

“Ben!” I screamed.

Ben ducked as Austen fired.

Someone else was in the truck with Ben. My
dad. He got out on his side and crouch-walked to Austen’s car.
Austen was focused on Ben. He fired another shot. Then two more.
Ben kept low. His door took the hits.

I saw Dad creep around Austen’s car from the
rear. I felt Liam go tense.

Austen tried to fire again. The gun only
clicked. He reached down and his car bounced as he put it in
reverse.

“Dad!” I screamed. He jumped out of the way
just as Austen shot backward, spun around, and drove off.

Ben emerged from his truck. “Is he gone?”

Dad said, “Gone.” He turned to Liam. “Where
in hell were you?”

“It’s a long story,” Liam said. “Let’s get
out of here. He’ll be back.”

I hugged Ben and he hugged me. “Your
beautiful truck,” I murmured.

“As long as it runs.” He looked to see if
anything dripped underneath. We all climbed in and he started it.
The front was bashed and the door had bullet holes, but it ran. Dad
insisted on sitting in front. He thought I would be safer in back
with Liam, who directed Ben to Salt Street.

We all watched carefully all the way. Austen
had a habit of materializing suddenly.

We made it to the Mulvaney house, then had to
tell the whole story to Mei and Mrs. Mulvaney.

“How did you hook up with Dad?” I asked
Ben.

“Your grandmother,” he said, which didn’t
surprise me, “got worried when you weren’t home. She thought you
might be with me. Then she thought you might be in Hudson Hills. I
remembered the phone number and she called them.”

“You remembered the phone number?”

“Yeah.”

Ben was good at that. He remembered the
address, too. Grandma lent him her GPS. He found the Mulvaney house
and they were in a panic because Liam wasn’t there. They called the
police, but just then the school exploded so the police had other
things to deal with. That left Ben and Dad on their own.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Phil Reimer found me at the Waterside
restaurant. I was there with my dad, and Mom, and Grandma, and
Liam, Mrs. Mulvaney, and Mei. Dad made sure to invite Ben and also
Maddie. Ben had to take off from work. He said it was worth it for
my birthday.

That time it really was my birthday. My
seventeenth. They all knew how close I had come to not having
it.

Reimer came up to our table and greeted
everyone, even those he didn’t know. Grandma batted her lashes.
Dad, ever generous, invited him to pull up a chair and join us.

Reimer declined. He had only come to deliver
some information. He’d already gotten plenty from Liam and me and
the story of our ordeal would be in Wednesday’s edition.

He looked at Liam and then at me. “I wanted
you guys to know that the perp has been apprehended.”

“Austen?” I said.

“Aus?” said Liam. “Austen Storm?”

Maddie flushed and looked down at her
plate.

“He’s in custody?” I said.

Dad was quicker. “Make sure he stays
there.”

“He will,” said Reimer. “The judge denied
bail. That last stunt took the cake, blowing up a school. Luckily,
nobody was inside.” He looked again, meaningfully, at Liam and me.
“As it was,” he added, “there were serious injuries from falling
debris.”

Liam sank down into his chair. “It was Cree.
She got us out, just in time.”

“You helped,” I said. “You got us
out.
Did you know that was going to happen?”

“I figured something was. I thought it would
be Aus coming to finish us off. Not the whole school. I think
Johnny had some idea.”

“Is that what he snitched about?” I
asked.

“He didn’t snitch, I don’t think,” Liam
replied. “Aus thought he would.”

“But why did he do it? I mean Aus.”

Reimer leaned closer. He knew all about our
escape, but he hadn’t yet heard the full story. Liam gave it to him
and to all the rest of us.

“See, they warned Aus a few times that if he
didn’t shape up, he wouldn’t graduate. Being Aus, instead of
bringing up his grades, he boasted that he’d show them. We all
heard him, but only Johnny had the sense to figure out he meant
something really serious.”

“Serious is an understatement,” Reimer
said.

“Monstrous,” added Grandma, and batted her
lashes.

“How did they find him?” I asked.

“They had a tip,” Reimer said. “Some cronies
of his. McCallum and—Gravich, is it?”

“Gravitz,” I said. Sam and Freddie. Good old
Freddie. I glanced at Liam, who said nothing.

“Just thought I’d let you know,” Reimer told
us. “You can rest easy now. And, uh—Happy Birthday, Lucretia.”

After Reimer left, Dad said, “I rather like
the name Lucretia. That was my idea.”

“Was not,” Mom countered. “It was my idea and
you agreed to it.”

“Is that what happened?” Dad seemed
confused.

“People, please,” I said. “No fighting.”

“That’s not fighting,” Grandma said. “You
should have heard your Gramps and me.”

I was glad I hadn’t. Ben, who sat next to me,
squeezed my hand under the table. We would never fight. Not ever.
He smiled at me just as the whole table burst into “Happy
Birthday.”

Our waitress, followed by the rest of the
wait staff, came from the kitchen with a lighted cake.

“To Lucretia.” Dad held up his glass. “She
almost didn’t make it to see this day. May there be thousands
more.”

“Happy ones,” added Mei.

Ben gave my hand another squeeze. Then he
leaned close and kissed my ear.

The End

About the Author

Caroline Crane
began her long writing career with six award-winning books for
young adults. After that came adult novels of mystery and suspense
and one nonfiction book,
Murder and Mayhem in the Catskills,
for The History Press. Her novels have been translated into several
languages, and some were book club selections. One,
Summer
Girl,
became a made-for-TV movie starring Kim Darby and Barry
Bostwick.

These days Caroline writes for both adults
and young adults, and also has some plans for middle-grade fiction.
She lives in the rural Catskill area, not far from her daughter and
family, and shares a home with her dog and cat.

Caroline invites you to visit her website at
carolinecrane.com

Other work by the author at Melange
Books, Fire and Ice

Twenty Minutes Late

The Long Sleep

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Now Hank himself is in a coma, like the
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Maddie suspects Evan Steffers, her jealous
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Nevertheless, he's been stalking her, sending flowers, messages,
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Maddie decides to carry on with the work that
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But it comes too late.

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