Dad slid his eyes toward me and pursed his lips hard. “For God’s sake, Maddy, given what’s been going on, do you think that was a good idea?”
He was right. “Sorry, Dad. I didn’t think.”
“Why would anyone slash your tires?” Unlike Mr. Farnsright, Dad didn’t doubt for a second that someone else had been there upsetting the horses, and had locked me in. He drove silently through the dark, but I knew his mind was processing, assessing, and considering.
Finally he said, “We need to decide what to do.”
“About what?”
“First Lucy, then Adam, and now this. Mom told me about the note. Do we keep you home? Or send you and Mom away someplace safe until whatever’s going on passes? I won’t take any chances with you, hon. You’re too precious.”
“But we still don’t know what’s going on. Maybe my tires were slashed by mistake. Maybe whoever did it thought I was someone else.”
But I could see Dad didn’t believe that. “I’m worried about kidnappers,” he said. “Lucy and Adam both come from well-to-do families. Just because a ransom demand hasn’t arrived yet doesn’t mean one won’t come soon.”
“But what about the note?” I asked. “And don’t kidnappers usually just kidnap one person at a time? Have you ever heard of something like this happening before?”
“I’m not sure you can apply the word usual to what kidnappers do,” Dad said. “What I do know is that kidnapping has changed. It’s become an international problem with drug cartels and terrorists getting involved. The terrorist angle is especially worrisome because it accomplishes two goals. They can get money for their activities and strike fear into the hearts of people everywhere. You know that’s always been one of my greatest concerns.”
M. Archer and Company was known for being associated with people of great wealth. While other kids were learning to look both ways when crossing the street, I was being taught what to do if I was ever kidnapped. What the general public didn’t know, and the police only suspected, was that the kidnapping of the children of wealthy parents happened more frequently than was reported in the news. Most wealthy families were much more concerned with quickly paying the ransom and getting their children back than solving the crime, and so the police were rarely notified. Instead, special “intermediaries” were used to negotiate ransom demands and deliver the agreed amounts. Only the lawyers of wealthy families seemed to know who these “intermediaries” were.
“I don’t want to go away, Dad. You have my word that from now on I won’t go anywhere alone.”
He didn’t reply. As we drove through the dark, I thought of something else. “Have you ever heard of an animal anesthetic called halothane? Something veterinarians use?”
“No. Why?”
“A detective was at the stables this afternoon asking Mr. Farnsright about it. I have to think it has something to do with Lucy and Adam, but I can’t imagine what.”
Dad was quiet again and I knew he was thinking about it. Finally he shook his head. “Sorry, hon. I don’t have a clue.”
* * *
Str-S-d #10
Something weird is going on. I wished Lucy would die, and then she disappeared. Then I wished Adam would die and I just heard that he’s disappeared. It has to be a coincidence, right?
10 Comments
Realgurl4013 said …
It can’t have anything to dooo with you, but it serves ’em right, if you ask meee.
ApRilzDay said …
That is TOTALLY weird, but I agree, it has to be some kind of coincidence. You can’t hold yourself responsible. But just between you and me, I think it could also be a SIGN that it’s time for you to STOP wishing people would die.
Tony2theman said …
This is so cool!
Tweenypie said …
My friend Tony told me to read this blog. Is this true? OMG! It’s so amazing! I mean, what if you have THE POWER?
Tony2theman said …
Where R U, Str-S-d? Could you come to my school? I’ve got some people you could get rid of for me.
ApRilzDay said …
I REALLY don’t think this is funny. And I don’t think Str-S-d thinks it’s funny, either. Maybe you guys could LAY OFF, okay?
Tony2theman said …
Who asked you?
Axel said …
This is BS. This Str-S-d chick made the whole thing up. It’s just a big attention grab. That’s why she’ll never say where she is.
ApRilzDay said …
I believe her. There could be A LOT of reasons why she won’t tell where she lives.
Axel said …
Yeah, right. Uh-huh. Sure.
You say she won’t wake up, Adam? That’s too bad. You want us to do something about it? What would you suggest? Oh, Adam, aren’t you being silly? Now, don’t get angry. See what we have in our hand? You know what happens when we use it. Oh, dear, what a nasty thing to say!
Oooh, it hurts when we do that, doesn’t it? So we think you’ll have to apologize for what you just said. Not ready? You will be.
Yes, look at you with tears in your eyes. We wonder how many people have ever seen the great Adam Pinter cry. Yes, we thought you’d apologize after that. Why are we doing this? Because you deserve it, that’s why.
What did you do to deserve it? We think you know what you did. We all can’t be born handsome and strong and talented like you. Didn’t you ever, for even a minute, stop to think about how fortunate you are?
Or, should we say, were?
chapter 14
Tuesday 8:50 A.M.
WHEN SCHOOL REOPENED on Tuesday morning, Mom had to drive me because the Audi was still in the garage. But we had an unexpected surprise. Mobile TV vans were parked on the street outside the school entrance and reporters were doing news reports with the school in the background. Groups of kids had gathered to watch.
“I don’t like this,” Mom grumbled as we drove past. “I want you to stay away from those cameras and go straight into the building.”
“I know, Mom.”
She stared through the windows at the news crews and sighed. “Don’t they realize this is only going to make it worse?”
In homeroom, Ms. Skelling was sitting at Mrs. Towner’s desk.
“Where’s Mrs. Towner?” someone asked.
“She’s had to start her maternity leave early,” Ms. Skelling answered. “Don’t get too comfortable. You’ll be going to an assembly in a few moments.”
“What’s going on?” asked Maura.
“It’s about the missing kids, dummy,” Jake snapped. “What else?”
“That was completely uncalled for, Jake,” Ms. Skelling scolded. “You can apologize to Maura immediately or go directly to Mr. Edwards’s office.”
The class went silent. Glowering, Jake hunkered down at his desk. Across the room, Maura’s face grew red.
“Well?” Ms. Skelling demanded.
“I’m so sorry, Maura,” Jake snarled sarcastically.
Ms. Skelling narrowed her eyes. “You think I’m joking? Not only will you go to the office, but you’ll sit here every day after school for the rest of the semester. Which means you can kiss lacrosse good-bye.”
Jake grimaced and stared down at his desk. “I’m sorry, Maura.”
“That’s better,” said Ms. Skelling. “I don’t know how Mrs. Towner ran this homeroom. But you will refrain from calling each other names in my presence. Especially during a crisis like this. We will treat each other with dignity and respect.”
The announcement came over the PA to go down to the auditorium for the assembly. I ran into Courtney in the hall.
“We missed you last night,” she said.
After what happened at the stable, I’d completely forgotten about the get-together. I decided not to tell her about my car. Things were already code red in the gossip-and-rumor department. “How was it?”
Courtney shrugged. “Pretty much what you’d expect. Everybody’s freaked. But it was better
than being alone, I guess.”
We got into the auditorium and took our seats. Wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, and red tie, Principal Edwards stepped up to the podium on the stage. “I assume you all saw the media when you came to school this morning,” he began. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about them as long as they stay off school property. We’ll just have to live with them until this situation resolves itself.”
He paused while murmurs rippled through the audience, then continued: “As I’m sure you all know by now, another student disappeared over the weekend. I don’t want to alarm you, but I would be acting irresponsibly if I didn’t take prudent steps to protect students until we all understand what’s going on. To that end, I am recommending that all of you participate in a voluntary curfew beginning each evening at dark.”
The fact that there wasn’t a single groan or peep of protest from the crowd in the auditorium was a sign of how seriously everyone was taking the disappearances of Lucy and Adam.
“If you must go out at night,” the principal continued, “I urge you to go with a friend or family member. Under no circumstances should anyone be out alone after dark. In addition, I would strongly suggest that you make every effort to curtail parties and keggers and all other forms of get-togethers that involve the consumption of alcohol.”
The principal paused and, in the silence that followed, the kids in the audience looked around as if expecting at least one wise guy to make a crack. But no one said a thing.
“On a more positive note,” the principal went on, “we don’t expect this situation to go on much longer. I spoke to Police Chief Farley this morning, and he told me they are making progress in the investigation. They have now identified a person of interest who they are eager to speak to. As you leave after the assembly, you’ll be given a sheet of paper with a sketch and some information. If you have seen this person, or know anything about him, please come to the school office immediately. You may go. Please proceed to your first-period classes.”
As everyone got up, whispers and muttering flittered through the auditorium. “This is unreal,” Courtney mumbled. “It’s like, can this really be happening? Here? I’m waiting for someone to pinch me.”
“At least they’re making progress,” I said as we inched our way toward the aisle, packed with kids slowly making their way toward the exits. Among them was Tyler in his black trench coat. Our eyes met, and he paused and waited for us. Despite all that was happening, I felt myself growing excited and nervous at the prospect of speaking to him.
“Crazy stuff, huh?” he said when Courtney and I joined him in the aisle.
“Totally,” Courtney agreed.
He gazed at me, as if awaiting my reply. “I thought we were going to be on the dispatching desk together on Saturday night,” I said.
“Oh, uh, yeah.” Tyler averted his eyes and stared at the floor. “Something came up.”
“Dave said you suddenly decided to go away for the weekend?”
“Uh, right,” Tyler mumbled, as if he’d forgotten.
I knew he was lying because I’d seen him in his car on Sunday afternoon. Then again, it wasn’t as if we were in a relationship where he was required to tell me the truth. We were hardly even friends at this point. But still, it irked me. No one likes being lied to.
At the exit, we were each handed a sketch of a man wearing a baseball cap. He was described as being about 5′10″ and weighing approximately 170 pounds. He had brown eyes and wavy brown hair. One of his front teeth had a chip in it.
“I bet this is the description Reilly gave at the police station,” Courtney said as we headed down the hall.
Tyler stopped. “She saw the guy?” He seemed especially startled.
“At the kegger Saturday night,” Courtney said. “Before Adam vanished. He asked her who the popular kids in the grade were.”
Tyler’s brow furrowed, and I wondered why this news would have such an impact on him. Our eyes met. “This is too strange to be true,” he said, although to my ear it sounded forced, as if he thought that was what we would expect him to say.
We kept walking. I felt torn between my attraction for him and my apprehensions. There was so much I didn’t know about him. Was it foolish to let myself feel the way I did?
Then, unexpectedly, Tyler said, “Hey, Courtney, think I could have a word with Madison in private?”
Courtney gave me a quick, searching look to make sure I wanted to be alone with him. I nodded, and she said to Tyler, “Be my guest,” then gave me a wink and angled off.
“You angry at me or something?” he asked once she was gone.
“What makes you think that?”
“Just the way you’re acting.”
I decided to be honest. “You told Dave you were going away for the weekend, but you were in town on Sunday afternoon.”
Tyler seemed taken aback. “Yeah, well, I felt like I had to give him a good reason to take my place.”
“So you lied?”
He frowned. “Whoa, maybe I lied to him, but not to you. I mean, what’s the big deal? Tell me you’ve never made up an excuse to get out of something last-minute?”
He was right. People made up excuses like that all the time. So maybe I wasn’t really upset because he’d lied. Maybe I was upset because he’d chosen to do something else rather than be with me. By now we’d reached my physics class. “I’m, uh, in here,” I said, once again feeling mixed up and uncertain.
“See ya,” Tyler replied tersely, and continued on, clearly annoyed.
I knew I wouldn’t see him again until lunch, and spent most of the morning trying to think of what I could say to make things better between us. Finally it was lunchtime, and I walked to the cafeteria more quickly than usual, only to be disappointed when he wasn’t there.
“Did you hear what happened after the assembly?” Courtney asked when I sat down. “A bunch of kids went to the office. Like, they all say they saw or talked to this guy? And it was always the same thing? He wanted to know about the popular kids?”
I stared at her, wide-eyed. So it was possible that the “mystery guy” had learned that Lucy, Adam, and I were friends. And that meant he could have left the note at the guardhouse. But why?
“I mean, how completely freaky is that?” Courtney asked.
I was too distracted to answer. The police were looking for this person because they believed he had something to do with Lucy and Adam. But I’d gotten the note before Adam disappeared. Why would the person who left the note want to warn me ahead of time that my friends were in danger? It seemed like that would have been the last thing he’d want to do.
“Hello?” Courtney gave me a little wave. “Earth to Madison?”
“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”
“Duh. So what did Tyler want before?”
It was an effort to drag my thoughts from one mystery to another. “Oh, I don’t know,” I said, feeling frustrated that he wasn’t in the cafeteria.
“Something wrong?”
I told her how I’d accused Tyler of lying when it wasn’t even me he’d lied to.
Courtney let out a “when will you learn?” sigh. “You don’t get guys to like you by accusing them of lying.”
Nodding woefully, I agreed. “I know. It was stupid.”
Courtney stared past me and her expression changed. Jen came out of the lunch line with Tabitha Madrigal and Cassandra Quinn and started toward us. “Look who’s bringing reinforcements,” Courtney muttered under her breath.
“Hi, girls,” Jen said cheerfully when she reached the table. “Okay if Tabitha and Cassy join us?”
I smiled and said hello to them, but Courtney was less enthusiastic. Not because she disliked the girls, but I imagined because she was irked by Jen’s blatant plan to step into the vacuum left by Lucy. As if Lucy was gone forever.
“So what do you think of the voluntary curfew?” Jen asked with a slight roll of the eyes to let us know what she thought of i
t.
I didn’t answer. Tyler had just entered the cafeteria. He took a seat by himself at a table near the window and opened a book. I purposefully didn’t stare, mostly because I didn’t want Jen to notice and start gossiping and spreading rumors about who I might be interested in. But then I felt Courtney’s elbow gently nudge my side.
“Be right back.” I got up and headed for the lunch line, then circled back toward Tyler’s table, hoping Jen wasn’t paying attention. Tyler was busy reading a book titled SERIAL KILLERS: The Method and Madness of Monsters.
I breathed deeply to calm my nerves and stood across from him until he looked up. He frowned, and then seemed to force an uncomfortable smile as he closed the book.
“No lunch?” I said.
“That’s what you came over here to say?” Tyler’s face was expressionless.
“No. I came to say I’m sorry. What you tell Dave is none of my business.”
Tyler blinked as if he was surprised. “Okay, thank you.”
I glanced back at my table where Jen was busy gabbing. She hadn’t noticed me standing across from Tyler, but she might soon. “Would you mind if I sat?”
“It’s a free country.”
I sat down and tapped the cover of the book. “Interesting reading.”
When Tyler nodded but didn’t reply, I began to feel even more uncomfortable. “Well, I just I wanted to say I was sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.” I placed a hand on the table and started to get up.
“Don’t go,” he said. “What do you think is going on?”
“I wish I knew.” I nodded at the book. “That’s what you’re thinking?”
Tyler shrugged. “It’s just an interest of mine.”
“Serial killers? That’s not exactly in the same league as video games or fantasy sports. What’s so interesting?”
“I guess because they’re just so different. So outside the norm.”
“You like things like that, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say I like it,” Tyler said. “Maybe I’d just like to understand it. It’s a lot more interesting than what’s inside the norm. Although, you’d probably disagree. You probably like the norm because it’s safe.”
Wish You Were Dead Page 10