Nowhere to Turn

by Norah McClintock

  Claudia edged around Orion and followed her husband down the stairs. I stayed a little longer so that Mr. Schuster could visit with Orion. I watched as he scratched Orion affectionately and the dog licked his hand. I hated to take Orion away, but he needed his walk.

  “I’ll bring him back to see you tomorrow,” I said.

  “Can I walk him with you?” Isobel asked.

  “If you want to.”

  She looked at her grandfather. “Do you mind, Grandpa? Maybe I can get to know Orion as well as Robyn does. Then maybe I can look after him for you.”

  The old man beamed crookedly at her. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek before following Orion and me downstairs.

  Isobel was braver than I had expected. She even tried to help me with Orion’s booties, until one of his nails got caught on the fastenings and he yelped. She jumped back, startled.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve done that myself a couple of times. He’s fine.”

  But she stood at a distance and waited while I secured the rest of the booties.

  “Do you want to hold the leash?” I asked Isobel.

  She looked warily at the big dog but finally extended her hand. I gave her the leash, and she wound it around her wrist as she had seen me do.

  “The only thing you have to worry about is if he sees a—”

  Roowf-roowf! Orion was off like a shot, yanking Isobel almost off her feet.

  “—squirrel,” I said.

  Isobel scrambled after Orion, her arm extended out straight in front of her. I raced after her, calling for Orion to stay and sit. He didn’t listen. He didn’t stop galloping, either, until the frightened squirrel had taken refuge up a maple tree. Orion stood at the bottom of the tree, barking excitedly as if he thought it would encourage the squirrel to come back down and play some more.

  “Orion, sit,” I said again, more firmly this time.

  He kept barking.

  “Orion! Sit!”

  The big dog plunked his rear end down into the snow, but I think that was only because the squirrel had vanished from sight. After he had calmed down, we continued our walk. When Orion couldn’t find any more squirrels, he seemed content to trot along at Isobel’s side. I kept pace with her. She relaxed a little.

  “You’re right,” she said. “He’s not so bad once you get to know him.”

  “Now if you could just convince the rest of your family.”

  Isobel looked doubtful. “My dad may change his mind, but there’s no way my mom or Connor will. Especially not Connor.”

  “Because Orion bit your mom?”

  “Connor was attacked by a dog—a Rottweiler—when he was nine,” Isobel said. “Came out of no-where and dragged him off his bicycle. It took three guys to get the dog off him. Connor was in the hospital for a week. You should see the scars on his leg.”

  I knew how he felt. I’d been afraid of dogs too as a result of being bitten. But a nip on my bottom was nothing compared to an all-out attack.

  “They put the dog down,” Isobel added. “Ever since then, Connor has insisted that he hates dogs, but really he’s afraid of them, especially big ones like Orion. That’s why I’m worried about what will happen to Orion if Grandpa doesn’t get better. Mom still wants Dad to hand him over to an animal shelter. But Dad says he wants to wait and see how well Grandpa recovers.”

  We walked for a few moments in silence, Orion trotting along happily beside us, pulling on his leash now and then so that he could sniff yellow patches in the snow.

  “I wish we visited Grandpa more often,” Isobel said with a sigh. “I feel bad about seeing him only now that he’s sick.”

  “When was the last time you were here?”

  “Maybe three years ago? Before Grandma died.”

  “You haven’t seen your grandfather in three years? Is that why the whole family came instead of just your father?”

  She shook her head. “My mom offered to come by herself to look after Grandpa. My dad has his own business, so it’s hard for him to get away. But Dad said no. He said Grandpa is his father, so he should come too.”

  “What about you and Connor? Aren’t you missing school?”

  “Mom made arrangements with our principal. We get our assignments by e-mail, and Mom is making sure we keep up. She says she’s glad we all came. I think she feels bad about what happened when Grandma died.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mom and Dad were away on a trip for my dad’s business. My dad wanted to go to the funeral, but he just couldn’t. Grandpa got really mad. When Grandma was alive, she and Grandpa used to phone us every Sunday. But after Grandma died, Grandpa stopped calling. He keeps in touch with Connor and me, but he and my dad hardly speak to each other.”

  “You seem to have a good relationship with him,” I said.

  She smiled. “He e-mails me almost every day and tells me about what he’s been doing and who he meets. And he and Connor are always e-mailing each other about coin auctions and shows. Connor is as crazy about coins as Grandpa.”

  “And you’re not?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t find them as fascinating as he and Connor do. I didn’t understand what the big deal was until one night when my dad said he’d heard about a coin that had sold for thousands of dollars. He said it was too bad that Grandpa didn’t have any like that. You should have seen the look on his face when Connor told him that Grandpa had a couple of them—and a lot of others that were worth even more.”

  “I guess the whole collection must have been pretty valuable,” I said.

  “So valuable that when my dad found out that Grandpa had promised to leave the whole thing to Connor, he freaked. He said a collection like that was far too much to leave to one person and that it should go to the whole family. Connor didn’t like that. He’s the only one besides Grandpa who knows anything about coins. He says he loves them because of their history, not because of what they’re worth. I think he was more upset than anyone else when they were stolen.”

  No wonder Connor had grilled me about Nick. Mr. Schuster’s coin collection was supposed to be Connor’s one day.

  “Did your parents suspect Nick right away?”

  “I’m not sure. But when the police came, they asked if there was anyone besides the family who knew that Grandpa had a coin collection, knew where he kept it.”

  “Where did he keep it? In a safe or locked up somewhere?”

  She shook her head. “In the back bedroom—the one my parents are using now. The police also asked if anyone else had been in the house. That’s when my dad told them about Nick. He said that he’d fired Nick but that Nick had kept coming around.”

  “He did?”

  “The first time he came, he and my dad got into an argument. Nick wanted to see Orion. He tried to tell Dad that he’d changed. He said there were people Dad could talk to, if he didn’t believe him.”

  “Your dad didn’t go for it, huh?”

  “He threatened to call the police if Nick didn’t leave.”

  “And Nick came back again after that?”

  “That’s what my dad said. He told the police that he wouldn’t be surprised if Nick had a grudge. Then Connor told them that Nick knew exactly how much the coins were worth.”

  I could just imagine how the police had reacted to that information.

  “How did Connor know that?” I said.

  “Grandpa e-mailed him about Nick. He said he was teaching Nick all about coins.”

  One more reason for the police to be suspicious.

  “When my dad heard that, he got really mad. He said Grandpa had been foolish to let Nick in the house. He said that once Nick knew how valuable the coins were, of course he would want to steal them. I guess the police must have thought so too. My dad said that because Nick is a youth, probably the most he’ll get is two years. Dad’s really mad about that. He says it’s not nearly enough.”

  I wanted to spring to Nick’s defense, but without any facts to back me
up . . .

  “Robyn, why are you so interested in Nick?”

  “We’re . . .friends.”

  “You used to be more than that, didn’t you?” Isobel said. She smiled gently. “When I saw that picture of you and he said you were just someone he knew, I knew there was more to it than that. I could tell by the way he said it.”

  “We used to go out,” I admitted. “But that’s over.”

  She looked at me as if she didn’t believe me. But she didn’t say anything else about Nick.

  We walked home in silence. I don’t know what Isobel was thinking about, but my mind was on Nick. Two years may have seemed like nothing to Elliot, but to Nick, it would sound like a lifetime. He’d been doing so well lately. He’d worked hard at getting his life on track. What would he be like after two years in jail, especially if it was for something he hadn’t done? Would he ever get over the anger he’d feel? Would he ever be able to get back to a normal life? Would he even want to?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  M

  organ came over after supper, and we settled at my dad’s enormous dining table to work on our project. Morgan seemed to be making good progress, but I was just going through the motions. I couldn’t get Nick out of my mind. After a while, my dad brought us tea and cookies.

  “Okay, that makes it an official time-out,” Morgan said. She reached for a cookie. “How’s the dog walking going?”

  My father glanced at me on his way back to the kitchen, but he didn’t say anything.

  “It’s okay,” I said.

  “Have you found out anything?”

  “Just that poor Orion spends most of his time locked in the basement. And that it doesn’t look good for Nick. Everyone is convinced that he stole Mr. Schuster’s coin collection.”

  “Everyone?” she said. “Does that include you?”

  I gave her a sharp look.

  “I didn’t think so,” she said. She took another sip of tea. “Have you talked to him again?”

  “I tried calling, but Glen wouldn’t let him come to the phone.”

  “So now what?”

  “That coin collection didn’t just walk away,” I said. “Someone took it.”

  “Obviously,” Morgan said. “But who?”

  I’d been thinking about that too. But even if I was on the right track, how was I going to prove it?

  “I’m working on it,” I said.

  “What about Ben?”

  “What about him?”

  “Does he know what you’re up to?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Not exactly?”

  “Okay. No, he doesn’t know.”

  “Does he know that Nick is back in town?”

  I shook my head.

  Morgan didn’t say anything as she took another nibble of the cookie, but sometimes silence is louder than words.

  “Come on, Morgan. You saw how Nick acted when we were there. He’s not interested in me anymore.”

  “Nick saw you with Ben. If Billy’s right, he saw you take off the necklace he sent you and put on Ben’s ring instead. Maybe he acted the way he did because you broke his heart.”

  “Well, if I did, he broke mine first. He’s the one who walked out on me.”

  “You didn’t even ask him why he did it.”

  “What’s the matter with you?” I said. “You were the one who kept telling me to forget about him. You told me Ben was the perfect guy for me. Over and over.” I couldn’t believe how angry I was. I stared down at the table and took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm down.

  “I’m sorry,” Morgan said quietly. “I should have kept my mouth shut. But you were such a mess after Nick left. I just wanted you to be happy. I just want you to be happy now.”

  “In that case,” I said, “we should get back to work.”

  It was late by the time we finished, so my father offered to drive Morgan home. When he got back, I was still sitting at the dining table. My laptop was open in front of me, but I hadn’t looked at it the whole time he was gone. Instead, I’d been staring up at the moon through the raised skylight in the ceiling over the table. I’d been thinking about Nick.

  “What’s this about walking a dog?” my father said after he’d hung up his coat.

  “I got a job as a dog walker.”

  That earned me a raised eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like dogs.”

  “I’m doing it as a special favor.”

  “Really? Whose dog are you walking?”

  I hesitated. “Mr. Schuster’s.”

  “I see.” My dad sat down at the table opposite me. His expression was somber. “Nick really got himself jammed up this time, Robbie.”

  I swallowed hard. He wouldn’t be saying that if he didn’t know something.

  “Who did you talk to?”

  “I know one of the arresting officers.”

  I was afraid to ask: “And?”

  “And, on the night in question, Mr. Schuster’s family went out to dinner.” He dug into a pocket, pulled out the notebook he always carried, and thumbed through it. “They left the house at seven thirty. When they returned a little after nine thirty, Claudia Schuster went into the kitchen and noticed that the kitchen window was open a few inches. She swore it had been closed when she left the house.”

  “I thought the thief came in through the side door.”

  “He did,” my father said. “The theory is that he tried the kitchen window first. The screen was already loose. But according to Mr. Schuster, that window has been broken for years. It only opens about six inches. No way anyone could have got in that way. Then Elliot Schuster went down to the basement to check on Mr. Schuster’s dog and noticed something amiss with the side door. The lock was broken. Pried open.”

  “With a crowbar,” I said.

  Dad nodded. “The family also discovered that Mr. Schuster’s coins were gone. As far as they could tell, it was the only thing missing. They called the police. During the investigation, Nick’s name came up. When the police finally tracked him down, they found some of the stolen coins in his backpack, together with a thousand in cash.”

  Nobody had mentioned that. “Where did Nick get a thousand dollars?”

  My father did not look happy. “Apparently he declined to explain.”

  That didn’t sound good. It didn’t sound good at all.

  “There’s more, Robbie. They also found the crowbar that was used to pry open the door. And Nick was seen in the area earlier that day.”

  I already knew that. Esther had told me.

  “He was probably just trying to make sure that Orion was okay,” I said. “He loves that dog, Dad.”

  “Nick has no alibi for when it happened, Robbie,” Dad said softly. “He can’t account for his where-abouts. They’ve offered to reduce or even drop some of the charges if he tells them what he did with the rest of the coins, but he isn’t cooperating.”

  “But did he confess? Did he admit he did it?”

  My dad shook his head. “He maintains he doesn’t know anything about it.”

  “You don’t really think he did it, do you?”

  “I haven’t talked to him, Robbie, so I have no basis to form an opinion. I’d like to think that he didn’t. But based on what the arresting officer told me, if this were my case? I would have arrested Nick too and I’d feel sure I had the right person.”

  I’d been hoping my father would answer differently. I wanted someone—someone besides Beej—to believe in Nick’s innocence. I wanted someone to tell me that I was right to believe in him.

  “Mr. Schuster’s coin collection was insured, Dad. But when I was there today visiting Mr. Schuster, his son said that the insurance company was asking a lot of questions because they had been insured only recently. Why does that matter?”

  “It depends. How recent is recent?” my father said.

  “I don’t know. What difference does it make?”

  “Has Mr. Schuster had his collection for a long time?”

>   “His granddaughter told me that he’s been collecting for years.”

  “I see.”

  “See what?”

  “Okay, example one: A person has a valuable coin collection. Has had it insured for, say, ten years. He pays the premiums every year and nothing happens to the coins. Then, after ten years, his house is broken into and the coins are stolen. He calls the police and they make an arrest. In that case, the owner of the coins probably wouldn’t have any trouble collecting from the insurance company.”

  “I still don’t—”

  “Example two,” my father said. “The same person has the same valuable coin collection but hasn’t had it insured the whole time it’s been in his possession. Suddenly he decides to buy a policy. One month later, he reports that the collection has been stolen. He tells the police that he thinks it was taken by a boy who worked for him, who he knew had a criminal record.

  “In that case,” my father continued, “the insurance company might be justifiably suspicious. They might think that the person took out the policy because he planned to make a claim.”

  “You mean that he was planning to report the coins stolen when they really hadn’t been stolen?”

  My father nodded.

  “But Mr. Schuster’s house really was broken into. And the police made an arrest. Why wouldn’t the insurance company believe the police?” I was wondering—hoping—that the company’s doubts might mean something, something that could help Nick.

  “I’m sure they do believe the police, up to a point,” my dad said. “There’s no doubt that Nick was caught with stolen property. But the police found only a few coins in Nick’s backpack. And according to my source, they were the least valuable coins in the collection.”

  “So . .?” I said.

  “So victims of theft sometimes try to take advantage of the situation. For example, say a person leaves his phone in his car. Someone breaks a window and steals it. The person calls the police and reports the theft. But he tells the police that there was also a brand-new iPad in the car or maybe an expensive camera. After all, who’s going to know? He thinks, I’ve been paying insurance premiums for years, why shouldn’t I get something back?”