Freddie was already waiting for me. He sat at a table and waved his fingertips when I pulled open the door.
“Where are your buddies?” I asked.
“What do we need them for? Where’s yours?”
“You mean Maddie? Sometimes we go our separate ways,” I said. “I know she does a lot of work at home, typing for her father. He’s a lawyer.”
“She gets paid for it?”
“Of course. I wish she’d send some of it my way. I could use the income.”
“Why don’t you get a job of your own?” He sounded pleasantly curious, not at all judgmental.
“I’ve been trying. There’s nothing.”
“There’s gotta be something.”
“I even tried Burger King. And—and an ice cream parlor where Maddie’s brother works. How’s Austen doing? Isn’t he about to graduate?”
“Maybe. Why do you care?” Freddie said.
“Because—he’s somebody I know. And I was there when it all happened. What do you mean, maybe?”
“Aren’t I somebody you know?” He seemed hurt.
“Of course. I want to know about you, too, but I started with him because—because—I can sort of relate. I have a missing parent, too.”
“Which one? I thought you talked about your folks buying a house. As in folks plural.”
I really should get my story straight.
“That was my stepfather. My real father’s in California. I wonder if he knows Austen’s mother. What name does she go by?”
“California’s a big place, Peggy.”
“Yeah, I know.” I looked down at the red vinyl tabletop. It terrified me to realize I had almost fallen out of my alias. A person really has to keep their wits doing this undercover stuff.
“You want to eat?” he asked. I felt as if he was watching me closely. Maybe not. He looked up at the door in back of me. I heard it open.
Aus and Sam. I didn’t bother turning around.
It wasn’t Aus and Sam. It was only one person, a female. I noticed the legs first as she passed by. And then the brown flaring shorts.
I turned away as far as I could. I examined the salt and pepper shakers and the bigger one that held red pepper flakes. If only she would leave and not take a table.
I dared one peek and saw her at the wall cooler that held bottled drinks. I saw her choose one and go to the counter to pay for it.
Didn’t they have drinks at Frosty Dan? This might have been her day off. Maybe she lived in Hudson Hills. Ben wouldn’t tell me where she came from, if he even knew.
She was coming back. Facing my way. I stayed turned away, with my hand on the side of my face.
She stopped. Right by our table. She peered at me.
She, who had barely said two words to me, suddenly decided to get friendly.
“Hello, there. You’re Ben’s friend. Cree, um—Penny, is it?”
I took the hand away from my face and looked straight at her. “I think you must have me confused with someone else.”
She didn’t leave. She stayed there and studied me even more closely. “No, I’m sure I remember you. Cree Penny. You told me that once.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I never saw you before.”
Inside I was dying, and prayed it didn’t show. I looked at Freddie, shrugged, and tried to smile. As if I were being accosted by some nutcase.
Freddie’s eyes were huge and very intense. They looked capable of drilling a hole in me.
“Do you want to go somewhere else?” I asked him.
His mouth opened. All it said was “Uh—”
“I’m trying to find a job,” I told him, to make conversation, “so I can get a car. Maybe I’ll have to wait till we move here.”
Sandy Boyd gave up on me and left the store. She had no idea what she had just done.
Freddie asked, “What was that all about?”
“Whoever she is,” I said, “she’d better get her eyes examined.”
“I don’t see how anybody could think you’re somebody else. Not with that hair.”
He meant my waist-length red-brown hair. I brought a lock of it around where I could see it. “Must be somebody else in the world with hair like mine. Who’d have thought?”
“Cree Penny? Maddie calls you Cree sometimes.”
“Because I’m part Cree Indian. I never heard of anyone else named Cree. I thought I was unique.”
“Nobody’s unique. Are you any relation to Liam Penny?”
“Who?” I couldn’t go on much longer. I just knew I’d have a heart attack.
“I think you know who it is.”
Freddie had changed. He’d lost that mischievous twinkle. His look now was hard. I felt like crying for the Freddie I used to know. What good would it do?
Any minute I would break out in a sweat. Do people really do that? I was glad the pizzeria had its air conditioner on.
Suddenly the twinkle came back. He leaned forward with half a smile. “Feel like eating anything?”
“Not unless you do.” I was still trying to figure how to get out of this.
“I’m just going to go and—you know, like wash my hands, as you ladies say.”
“Take your time.” Thank God the old Freddie had returned. But I still worried.
He went up to the counter, exchanged a few words, and then continued down a hallway where I supposed the restrooms were.
I could still see him. He didn’t actually go into any room. He had something pressed to his ear.
His cell phone.
I didn’t wait to see what he was doing. I got up fast and made for the door.
He beat me to it, getting in front of me. “Where’re you going? I just ordered pizza.”
Somehow I didn’t think he had ordered pizza.
“I—forgot,” I said. “My grandmother’s having some people over and I told her I’d help.”
A stupid excuse but it was all I could think of. I almost forgot I was Peggy Mellin.
“Where’s your friend with the car?” he asked.
“I, um, took the bus.” I looked at my watch. It was forty-five minutes until the next bus.
He had hold of my arm. “Don’t worry about it. Aus’ll take you.”
I didn’t want Aus. Not after that phone call and Sandy Boyd’s unwitting betrayal. Wait till I told Ben…
“How can Aus get a car after yesterday?” I asked. “I’ll just take the bus.”
Before I could get out of that one, a black car came along Main Street. I recognized it. How did he get hold of it again?
Even the traffic light didn’t stop him. It turned green just as he reached it. He made a U-turn that was probably illegal and came up on our side.
Sam McCallum was with him in the front seat. Freddie got me into the back with himself beside me. I heard a click as Aus locked all the doors. I could feel my heart pounding and my head whirling.
“Okay, now,” Aus said, loud enough for the world to hear. “Where shall we go?”
“School,” Freddie suggested.
“Not yet.”
“Freddie,” I asked softly, “why are you doing this?”
He answered, not so softly, “I’m not doing anything. You wanted a ride.”
“I did not. I said I’d take the bus.”
“A ride’s better.” He settled back and smiled.
Aus didn’t head toward Southbridge. He made another U-turn. Where were the cops when I needed them? He went back along Main to the street that became the overpass into the park.
If anything, my heart beat even louder. It was midday on a beautiful Friday afternoon. There would be people in the park. Or there wouldn’t be. I only hoped Austen didn’t have his coat hanger.
Curses on Liam for not talking to the police. Curses on me for taking it upon myself to do that for him. If only I had talked to Dad and found out what he was doing about it.
Double curses on Sandy Boyd.
We reached the overpass. Austen sailed right over it into the
park. Right toward the spot by the water’s edge where Mr. Franzen said the death car had been. I tried frantically to think of a believable lie about who I was. Nothing came to mind.
We stopped just before going into the river. Freddie asked, “You ever been here?”
“No, I haven’t.” I thought I told him that. My voice came out calmer than I would’ve expected. I wanted to continue the lie by raving about how nice it was, but I couldn’t say that.
I had thought of coming here with Ben sometime. I thought of our beautiful date last week, the night I wished would never end. Now I wished more than ever that it hadn’t.
Austen turned in his seat and fixed me with a faint smile. “Now, then. What’s this about you being Cree Penny?”
“Where do you get that?” I said. “I told you I’m Peggy Mellin. Or, if you want to be formal, Margaret Mellin. I always have been.”
He peered at me with those beady eyes of his. “I have it on good authority that somebody called you Cree Penny.”
“What good authority?” I glanced at Freddie, who barely looked at me. “Do you mean him? Because of that girl in the pizzeria? What does she know that I don’t know about myself? I never saw her before.”
“You kept turning away so she wouldn’t see your face,” Freddie pointed out.
Curses. Why did he have to be so observant?
“I did? I didn’t look at her because I didn’t know her. Did you know her?”
“Your hair,” said Austen. “You’re hard to miss with that hair.”
“That’s what I told her,” Freddie said.
I said, “Don’t you know a lot of people have long hair? Girls, that is. Personally, I don’t care for it much on a man.”
I did all my talking as if this was just a casual conversation. It took a lot of effort. I was glad none of them had long hair.
Austen hiked his knees onto the seat so he could turn still more without a crick in the neck. “What’s Liam Penny to you?”
“Who?”
“Liam. Penny. He must be some relation.”
“I told you, my name is Mellin. Like a watermelon, as you once pointed out. Or somebody did. Why don’t you believe me? Why do you take the word of that stupid girl who doesn’t know me from Adam, over my word?”
“We have our reasons,” Austen said.
“Do you mind sharing them?”
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
My pounding heart went clunk and fell over in a dead faint. If I’d been telling the truth, I might have been more convincing. Or not. People can tell the truth and still get in trouble.
People can lie and not get in trouble. Why didn’t it work for me?
Austen said, “Let’s take a vote. Anybody believe Miss so-called Mellin? Or do you believe the girl in the pizzeria? Sam?”
Sam hadn’t been there. How could he possibly know?
“Pizzeria,” he said. “Freddie?”
“Uh—pizzeria. She kept her face turned away.”
“Who did?” Austen asked.
“Peggy. Uh—Cree Penny.”
Austen said, “Let’s see some identification,” and reached for my handbag.
I gave it to him. I had taken out everything that identified me as Lucretia Penny. What I hadn’t done was put in a phony ID. I’d been meaning to but didn’t know where to get one.
Austen found no incriminating evidence, only the absence of any ID, and handed back the bag. He started his engine. My heart pounded again.
Sam finally spoke. “You’re a cousin, or what?”
“I don’t have any cousins,” I said.
That much was true. Maybe I should have invented some. In Idaho, maybe. It was too late now.
“Then what relation are you?” he persisted.
“Who, this Penny person? None that I know of. I never heard of him. Or is it a her?”
Austen ignored me. He was busy driving. I watched the now-familiar Main Street go by until we were at the school.
It didn’t look open. Probably the semester was over. All they had left now was Commencement.
The others were getting out of the car. Freddie gave me a gentle prod in the back. I got out, too, and stood looking down at the river.
Suddenly it wasn’t there anymore.
Neither was I.
Chapter Twenty
My face rested on a cold, hard surface. All I could see, all around me, was gray. I felt and smelled concrete.
It made me think of basements. Liam’s basement. I thought I’d gotten out of there. So where was I now? Maybe I’d only dreamed I’d gotten out.
I lay on the floor with my hands in back of me and my head thundering. I thought it might be broken.
I tried to move my hands. They were tied together. Something was there between them and me. I couldn’t feel what it was because both my hands were numb. My arm, too, from lying on it. How long had I been I there? Where was I?
My head hurt so much, I felt sick.
I moved my feet. They were free, but the rest of me wasn’t. My hands were tied around something. Whatever it was, they slid easily up and down but not away from it.
All I could see in that dark gray room was a tall thing at my back, looming above me. That seemed to be what I was tied to. It went all the way up to the ceiling, like a pillar. In fact, it might be holding up the ceiling. They have those in big open spaces like a basement.
But not Liam’s basement. It didn’t have the same tight feel as his. Or the dusty windows or even quite the same smell.
It might help if I could remember how I got there. Who would do this except Liam? Obviously, I had blacked out, but where was I, and what was I doing just before that?
I remembered Katmandu, and being out on the highway. Maddie was there. And somehow I felt that it happened a while back, like yesterday or before.
I raised my head. That made the pain worse.
A shiver went through me. Something or someone was there. I heard it move. There was a rustling sound and then a scrape on the concrete. Not loud, but enough to scare me. I lowered my head and stayed quiet.
What about rats? Were there rats in Liam’s basement?
Or mice. I could stand mice better than rats, even as I imagined those tiny feet scuttling across me. Better that than a rat’s feet and teeth.
Did my daddy know I was here? A sob went up through my throat. I pushed it down.
The sound came again. I heard a grunt. And then a voice.
“Hey. Cree.”
It was Liam. I held my breath.
“Hey. Cree. You awake?”
What would he do if I was? Or if I wasn’t?
“Cree! Say something!” He sounded angry.
I didn’t know what to expect, but thought I’d better answer.
“I’m not Cree. I’m Peggy Mellin.”
“Don’t give me that. I saw you.”
He was somewhere close by, but where? I twisted around, nearly breaking myself in half. All I could see in the dark was another pillar and a lumpy shape at the foot of it.
“Where are you?” I asked, then lay down on my arm to rest that headache.
“I’m right here. And I know where you are.”
He had the advantage. I didn’t know anything. I asked, “What are you going to do?”
“How can I do anything, stupid?”
I was only making him angry and I didn’t know how not to. “Is this your basement?”
“School basement,” he said.
The HH school? I had a very faint memory of being there. With Austen and Freddie and Sam. Was that yesterday? Today?
“How did I get in the basement? Why am I tied up and why does my head hurt?”
That made him furious. “What the hell were you doing with those guys? What the hell?”
“I was trying—to find—”
“Find what? Are you crazy?”
“Maybe that’s what I was trying to find.” My voice came high and watery. “And the answer is yes.” I gulped down a sob.
“Too late,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I almost didn’t want to know. “What’s too late?”
He took a breath and blew it out. “You not only did yourself in, but me, too.”
“Did—what?” I pretty much knew. My predicament said it all.
He confirmed it. “You think we’re going to get out of this? You’re crazy. You don’t know Aus.”
“Austen Storm?” I couldn’t believe it.
“You really are stupid.”
I kept rubbing my hands against each other. My hand with Ben’s ring. I felt the outline of the tiger and thought of Ben. That whole evening came back to me in a huge wave. It was over. I would never see him again.
But I had his ring. They hadn’t taken it. Maybe they would after I was dead. I could try telling them to give it back to him. Or give it to Maddie. They could leave it on the doorstep with a note: From Cree. They wouldn’t have to identify themselves.
I doubted they’d give me a chance to tell them all that.
“What do you think he’ll do?” I asked.
“How the hell do I know? At best he’ll leave us here to rot. And believe me, that’s the best.”
I tugged at my bonds, trying to see if I could loosen them. All that did was make them tighter. They felt fibrous and bristly, like the twine people use for tying up packages. I rubbed at it with my knuckle, twisting my hand until it hurt.
“If this is a school,” I said, “won’t there be custodians coming around?”
“It’s summer, stupid. After today, the school is closed. What do they need custodians for?”
I thought that was naïve, but didn’t argue. Even in summer, custodians have things to do. Maintenance, repairs, cleaning the furnace and stuff. All getting ready for the next year. I didn’t bother pointing that out.
Instead I asked, “When did you see me?”
“Who cares?”
“You said you saw me. When was that?” I kept on rubbing my knuckle against the rope. I had a wacky idea that, since it was Ben’s ring, I might get a telepathic message through to him. I knew that was crazy, but it was all I had.
It took Liam awhile to answer. “They brought me here. The three of them. You were tied up and out of it. They asked if I knew you. They didn’t believe me when I said no.”
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