“Those guys from Springdale… I hope the police catch them,” Macie said.
“Did you happen to see anyone around the scoreboard?”
“No.” After a thoughtful pause, Macie added, “But they had to have planted it long before the game.”
“I guess so.”
This was the most conversation she and Macie had shared for quite some time. Caroline didn’t want to spoil it by bringing up what she’d come up here to say. She put it off by sitting on Macie’s bed and saying, “I think we should go see Sam next weekend.”
Macie stood in front of her dresser, braiding her hair. “I can’t. I have volleyball practice on Saturday.”
Surprised, Caroline looked up. “I didn’t know you’d gone out for the team.” When had Macie stopped telling her everything? The answer came easily: when she started seeing Caleb.
“It’s no big deal.”
“That’s great. I’m proud of you.” Caroline stood, put an arm around her sister, and noticed the thin, sharp feel of her shoulders. Where Macie had always been softly curving, she was now hard and angular. Caroline looked into her sister’s eyes in the mirror. “It must have been difficult, getting on the team for the first time as a senior.” And Macie must have been working out like a maniac to get into shape.
Macie shrugged.
Caroline gave her sister’s shoulder a squeeze. She tried to sound offhand when she said, “You’re getting bony. Gonna have to start the ice cream diet.”
It had been a running joke in the Rogers family. Their mother had been so thin that she’d constantly battled to keep weight on; when her weight would slip, she’d start the “ice cream diet.” Once, when Caroline was too young to realize she couldn’t have inherited her adoptive mother’s hummingbird metabolism, she’d matched her mother bowl for bowl. Her mother’s weight had remained the same, while Caroline gained ten pounds.
“No way,” Macie said. “I have to compete to keep my starting position.”
“You’re a starter?”
“Well, yeah, why else would I want to be on the team?”
Caroline laughed and patted her on the back. “Be sure and mention that on your applications to Duke and Princeton.”
After a short pause, Macie said, “I’ve been thinking about a California school.”
“Stanford?”
“Maybe. Maybe UC Santa Barbara.”
“Why on earth—” Macie had never even mentioned a California school. “This have anything to do with Caleb?”
“I’m just thinking… It can’t hurt to apply, just in case it turns out to be the best choice.”
“There’s no way UC Santa Barbara is going to be the best choice. You can do so much better.”
Macie pulled away and faced her. “How do you know? I’m not even sure what I want to study! Why does it always have to be about what you want?”
“What I want is what’s best for you! I don’t understand why you’ve developed this… attitude. We never used to fight, we talked.”
“You talked. You talked and I ended up doing what you wanted. Maybe I’m tired of you telling me what I want; maybe I just want to have some say over where my life is going.”
“Seriously, Macie!” Shock edged Caroline’s voice higher. “You can’t really think that.”
“Why? Because you don’t want me to?” Macie spat the words out so hatefully that Caroline took a step backward.
“I think we need to sit down and talk about this.”
“I thought we were talking.” With a jerky movement, Macie pointed at Caroline. “Or do you mean you want to tell me how I’m supposed to think, to feel, what I should do?”
These recent outbursts were wildly out of character. Macie had always been so careful with her actions and her words. She’d been easy to talk through her problems. She’d been eager to please. Suddenly, Caroline worried that need to please was being directed at a person who might not have Macie’s best interest at heart.
Caroline swallowed her anger and her fear, calmed her tension, and smoothed her expression. She didn’t want what she had to say to sound like it was said out of spite.
“Please, sit down,” Caroline said softly, motioning Macie toward her bed.
Macie’s brow was still creased and her mouth drawn, but she sat down, crossing her arms over her chest.
“First of all, if I’ve made you feel… pressured into doing anything, I’m sorry. I truly do want what’s best for you. Sometimes, when a person is as young as you are, it’s easy to get on the wrong road. I just want to help you avoid that.”
“When have I ever made a decision like that, Caroline? Just because Sam is a screwup doesn’t mean you have to treat me like I’m one, too.”
Biting down on words in her own defense, Caroline took a breath. “Macie, I came up here to talk to you about something. Something that could impact you. I’m not telling you to try to ‘control’ you.” She reached out and brushed a lock of hair that had fallen free of Macie’s braid away from her face. Macie’s expression remained hard. “Tonight, at the game, I heard something disturbing about Caleb’s older brother.”
“From who?”
“That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Caleb’s brother is in prison because he nearly beat another boy to death.”
“What? That’s ridiculous! Who would have said something so stupid? Nobody here even knows his brother.”
“You didn’t know anything about this?” Caroline watched Macie’s face carefully.
“It’s not true. He would have told me. His brother is living in California—he surfs.”
“Macie, I’m fairly certain it is true. It’ll be easy enough to verify.”
“Why do you keep looking for things wrong with him? Why don’t you want me to be happy?” The undisguised contempt on Macie’s face tore a new gash in Caroline’s heart.
“I do want you to be happy. But I want you to be safe, too.”
“Caleb would never hurt me. You don’t know him. And you don’t know his family either. You’d rather listen to gossip because it makes you right. You always have to have things your way!”
“What I want has no bearing on this.” Caroline kept her voice even, unemotional. “Either Caleb’s brother is in prison, or he isn’t. Macie, you’re a beautiful and trusting person. You deserve to be involved with someone who is honest with you, who respects you.”
“Caleb respects me! You don’t know how different he is from all of the other guys.”
“I hope you’re right. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“You can’t control everything.” Macie flopped on her side and hugged her pillow close to her chest.
After a few seconds, Caroline got up and left the room, wondering if she and her sister would ever have a completely civil conversation again.
Although not in the mood to concentrate, Caroline made a contact sheet to pick the photos for tomorrow’s newspaper. She’d have to have them at the paper first thing in order to make deadline.
She took her magnifying glass and studied the shots. Of course, the lead photo would have to be one of the explosion. Oddly, the one she’d taken accidentally was the best of the bunch. “Doesn’t say much for talent and skill,” she muttered. “A monkey could have taken that shot.”
There were a couple of other pictures that had potential, but it was late, so she decided to go with the sure thing. She put that negative into the enlarger and finished the print. As she hung it up to dry, she took one last look.
Turning the light onto the photo, she looked carefully. Everyone was reacting to the explosion, those closest leaning away or ducking, those farther away looking toward the source of the sound. But right there within four feet of the base of the scoreboard was a tall guy looking not toward the scoreboard, but toward the field. He wore a hoodie over a baseball cap and his hands were tucked in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. It was the same guy who had bumped into Caroline after the explosion—the guy who had looked directly at her and
smiled.
Caleb sat in the alley behind Macie’s house for an hour after he saw Caroline’s bedroom light go out. His toes were numb and his nose was running from the cold. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Macie. She’d called him just as the Tonight Show was over. He’d been floored when the first words out of her mouth were to ask him if his brother was in prison.
Without thinking, he’d said, “How did you find out?”
There had been a long silence; then she’d hung up on him and shut her cell phone off.
Nobody around here was supposed to know. This was supposed to be a new start—one without everyone looking at him like he might turn into a flailing maniac at the slightest provocation. That promise was how his parents had gotten him to move for his senior year.
He moved through Macie’s dark backyard with his stomach in knots. The night had clouded over, which for some reason had made it brighter. The branches of the trees were dark against a light gray sky. He knew if his parents found out he’d snuck out, his ass would be fried. They’d been all over him since Carter had gone apeshit on that kid. Every move he made got analyzed and reanalyzed; like they were worried that he could go bad at any moment. They’d even made him do counseling for a while—and he hadn’t done anything.
He had to talk to Macie—even if it meant getting grounded for the rest of his life.
One of those slatted wooden roofs covered the patio in Macie’s backyard. He stood on the patio table and pulled himself up onto the top. Stepping carefully from one horizontal beam to the other, he made his way to Macie’s bedroom window. Her light was off.
With his fingernail, he tapped lightly on the glass. “Macie,” he whispered.
She pulled the shade up so quickly, he knew she hadn’t been asleep. She said, “Go away.” He couldn’t actually hear her, but it was easy enough to read her lips. Then she dropped the shade.
He tapped again and waited. She didn’t return, so he tapped again.
The shade popped up. He stood there until she raised the sash.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“I have to talk to you,” he whispered back. He started through the window, but she stopped him.
“I don’t really want to talk to you right now.” She looked toward the bedroom door. “If Caroline catches you here, she’ll have a shit-fit.”
“I wouldn’t have had to play Romeo and climb up your balcony if you’d just left your phone on.”
“I turned it off for a reason.” But she stepped back and let him come inside.
They stood facing one another in front of the window. He could see she’d been crying. Lightly, he touched the corner of her eye. “I don’t want to be the reason you cry.”
She looked away. “It’s not you.” When he put his hand on her shoulder, she admitted, “Well, part is you.” Then she looked at him again. “You said you love me—but you must not trust me, or you would have told me about your brother.”
He backed up and sat on her bed; it was still warm from her lying on it. Running his hands through his hair, he said, “When people know about him—what he did—everything changes. I didn’t want us to change.”
Macie’s heart melted as she witnessed his misery. She sat down next to him and put a hand on his back. “You aren’t any more responsible for the things your brother has done than I am for the things my brother has done.” She sighed. “But I hate it that you didn’t trust me.”
What she hated more was that Caroline was right. Macie had trusted Caleb; she’d trusted her own gut—but Caroline had been right.
When Caleb lifted his head and looked at her, tears shone in his eyes. He didn’t let a single one fall, but they were there.
She touched his cheek and it seemed that time stopped right then and there. It didn’t matter what Caroline thought—Macie knew Caleb’s heart.
He kissed her, gently at first; then he leaned closer, kissing her harder and moving her backward until they were lying down. He laid his head on her pillow, facing her. One of his hands rested on the curve of her waist. He was close enough that she breathed in the air he exhaled.
“I love you, Macie.” He kissed her again. “And I trust you.”
The overhead light came on.
“It’s three a.m.! What in the hell is going on in here?” Caroline’s voice was as angry as Macie had ever heard.
She and Caleb jerked up as if puppets drawn on the same string.
Macie said, “Caroline, it’s not what it looks like.”
Caroline took three steps into the room. For a second, Macie thought she was going to grab Caleb. Instead she fisted her hand beside her. “It looks to me like I’m going to be calling Mr. and Mrs. Collingsworth and getting them out of bed.” She started to leave the room.
“Wait!” Macie said. Caleb’s parents were even stricter than Caroline; they were sure to ground him for eternity.
Caleb stood and silenced Macie. “I know I shouldn’t have come. But we weren’t doing what you think we were. We were just talking.”
Caroline spun on him so quickly that Macie flinched. “Save it for someone stupid enough to believe it. You can tell me your phone number, or you can piss me off more by making me look it up in the phone book.”
He recited the number.
Macie grabbed Caleb’s hand when Caroline picked up the phone and dialed.
Chapter 14
Dawn was breaking by the time Caleb’s parents had collected him and Caroline had finished lecturing Macie. As the first rays of sun streamed through the kitchen window and touched the table, both Macie and Caroline had run out of steam. They sat staring at one another, hollow-eyed and angry.
Caroline finally asked, “Can I trust you while I’m working today?”
Macie threw her head back and growled. “Good God! What do you want, blood? We didn’t do anything! You’re treating me like I’m a sixth grader. I’m grounded. Caleb’s grounded—and probably headed to military school, from the sound of things. You’ve forbidden me to see him without ‘supervision.’ Can you screw things up any worse?”
“Hey! I’m not the one who screwed up.”
Macie huffed a breath. “Let’s not start with that again.”
“Go to bed.” Caroline set her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. “I’ll call and check on you later.”
Macie stomped out of the room.
Caroline put on a pot of coffee, rubbed her sleep-deprived eyes, took three Tylenol, then headed to her studio to gather the prints for the newspaper.
By eight o’clock she’d delivered the photos and was at the Redbud Mill police department sitting across from the police chief.
She laid the enlarged photo that included the suspicious man in the hoodie on the desk in front of the chief. “I cropped the one for the newspaper, just in case you don’t want this guy to know he was caught on film.”
The chief picked up the print with his thick fingers. “So you think this guy in the background had something to do with the bomb? He looks too old for a high school student.”
“He isn’t a student. He’s maybe thirty, thirty-five. I saw him up close after the bomb exploded. I didn’t realize I’d photographed him until I developed the film.”
“Tell me again why you think he was involved.”
“See how everyone in the photograph is reacting to the explosion? But this guy is just standing there, not even looking toward the source of the blast—which is nearly over his own head. He’s looking at everyone else’s reaction. And here”—she pointed—“his hands are hidden in his sweatshirt pocket; maybe he had a remote detonator in there.”
The chief didn’t look particularly convinced.
She tried again. “What made me most suspicious was the way he smiled at me. I mean, kids were screaming and crying, running everywhere, and he was… calm. It was really creepy.”
“Ms. Rogers, we can hardly arrest someone because he’s creepy.”
Her head was throbbing and he
r patience thin. It was all she could do to keep from reaching across the desk and snatching his shirtfront. Not that she could have gotten a handful—the shirt was stretched so tight across his middle that the buttons strained against their holes.
She said, “All I’m saying is that this might give you a clue. He seemed off to me when I saw him, but then when I saw this…” She tapped the photo.
“You can’t really tell anything about him from this photo. Could be anybody.”
“Maybe someone there saw him.”
He leaned back, pulled his glasses off, and tossed them on the desk, giving her a pointed look.
She raised her hands. “I’m not trying to do your job. I just thought this might be of some help.” She stood up.
The chief stood, too. “And we do appreciate it. From all indications, it was kids… a real amateurish explosive. But I’ll keep this in mind if nothing pans out in the direction the case is going.”
Caroline nodded and started toward the door. In her gut, she just knew that guy had something to do with the pipe bomb. She supposed it wasn’t really her problem… still.
“How’s your brother getting along?” the chief asked, stopping her in midstep.
She turned around and looked at him, wondering if he was being a smart-ass, but he appeared sincere. “He’s fine. Getting settled in at college.”
The chief put his hands in his pockets and grinned. “Tell him hello for us. We sorta miss him around here.”
“I’ll tell him.” With a final good-bye, she left.
Once on the sidewalk in front of the city building, she wrapped her jacket tighter. The air was heavy with a damp chill that made it feel much cooler than the actual fifty-three degrees. Thick gray clouds tumbled and rolled across the sky, hurrying along on a brisk west wind.
“I need more coffee,” she mumbled, and headed toward Madeline’s Cafe in the middle of the block.
The warm, cheery interior of Madeline’s enveloped her as she entered, soothing the cold, sharp edges of her fatigue. She really had to get herself together before the wedding job this afternoon; brides could be very trying.
Most of the morning rush had come and gone, leaving only two people at the counter sipping coffee, and tables covered with crumpled napkins, toast crumbs, and plates with egg yolk smears.
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