Gordy needed them. Depended on them to find him. All their time and effort should be going into that.
Thankfully he’d ridden his bike to school. He’d get home earlier than if he rode the bus. Plus he had no desire to see the bus driver. She’d probably ripped Gordy’s picture down by now.
That was the problem, wasn’t it? Nobody was willing to take real risks. Don’t miss school. Don’t risk leaving early. Don’t find a reason to get a search warrant. Don’t create a way to search without a warrant.
He looked around the room. Jake and Kelsey were trying to hold back their laughter about something. What on earth was there to laugh about?
Miss Ferrand paced along the front of the class and eyed him without hesitating in her lecture. Teachers could do that. She could say one thing out loud to the class, while she said another thing to him with that look. And her message had nothing to do with Shakespeare. She was analyzing him. Telling him she felt they should talk. Great.
Cooper stared at the clock. He could send messages to Miss Ferrand too. Like, I can’t wait until class is over. Or, How can you teach about some guy who lived hundreds of years ago when Gordy is missing?
The second hand swept the face of the clock again and again. Cooper did the math. Thirty-nine hours. Gordy had been gone thirty-nine hours!
No ransom call.
No silver minivan.
Nothing.
And everyone just sat in the class like nothing was wrong.
Hiro cleared her throat. She never did that unless she was trying to get his attention. She glanced back for an instant and held up her spiral at an angle so he could read it.
Did she really think he was remotely interested in her Shakespeare notes? He glanced at the page. Coop, if I hear one more thing about Shakespeare I’m going to scream.
Cooper smiled. Hiro was just as annoyed. He stretched to read the rest.
I’ve been thinking about what your dad said about checking those houses. He’s right. If the police have no reasonable suspicion, they can’t go in. We shouldn’t either. We need to find a way for the police to go in legally.
She was backing down on checking the homes. Fine. And not exactly a shocker either. Her change of attitude last night had been almost too good to believe. But if they waited for a legal way, it might be too late.
Miss Ferrand paced down their row of desks, coming right toward Cooper. Hiro lowered her notebook and turned the page.
Ferrand gushed about how she’d toured England during the summer and had actually been to Shakespeare’s home.
Wonderful.
“I sat on a bench right there in the little village of Stratford-upon-Avon, sipping tea and looking at William’s house,” she said.
So now she was on a first name basis with an author who died like four hundred years ago? Creepy.
“At that moment,” she said, “I understood how he could write the way he did. It was the atmosphere of the whole place. One word came to my mind, and I wrote it on the napkin that came with my tea. I still have it. Can anybody guess the word I wrote?”
Miss Ferrand paused at Cooper’s desk and scanned the room.
Kelsey raised her hand. “Romantic?”
A couple of guys behind Cooper snickered.
“A good word,” Ferrand said. “But not the one I wrote on the napkin.”
Kelsey looked truly disappointed.
Emma Olson raised her hand. “Beautiful?”
Cooper thought it would be beautiful if Ferrand moved on instead of parking at his desk.
Miss Ferrand smiled at Emma. It was her way of letting Emma down gently.
Kelsey’s hand shot up. “Quaint.” She said it with a little nod, like she was sure she was right.
Ferrand smiled but shook her head. “How about some of you boys? Let’s hear from you. The home and village clearly influenced William Shakespeare’s writing. What one word described the town, and thus his works?”
Confused. Insane. Cooper figured either of those worked perfectly.
“Jake?”
Jake looked lost. “Classic?”
The back-row boys laughed.
Ferrand wasn’t fazed. Was this really part of her lesson plan?
Miss Ferrand raised her hands and lowered them slowly to quiet the class. “Let me increase the stakes a bit. I’m going to call on three people. If one of them guesses the correct word there will be no reading homework tonight—for the entire class.”
The class came to life with cheers and clapping. She held up her hand to quiet things down.
“Walker,” she said. “A word.”
“Nice?”
Ferrand shook her head.
Riley backhanded Walker with his spiral notebook. “Nice? What a moron.”
Cooper had to agree with Riley on that one. He had no intention of doing any homework—not when he could be out searching for Gordy. But it would be nice not to get behind either.
“Okay, Riley,” Ferrand said. “Let’s see how you do. One word.”
Riley stood and bowed to the class. “The one word would be awesome: a-w-e-s-o-m-e.” He spelled out each letter clearly, like he was competing at a spelling bee. “Awesome.”
Ferrand smiled slightly. “W-r-o-n-g. Wrong.”
Groans all around.
Ferrand scanned the room. Kelsey and Emma shot their hands up, stretching for the ceiling. “One more person—get it right and you’re the hero. Get it wrong and—” Ferrand shrugged.
The girls lowered their hands.
Ferrand looked at Cooper. “Mr. MacKinnon. A word.”
Great. Now this was riding on him.
“C’mon, Coop. Do it MacKinnon.” Encouragement came from all sides.
Kelsey leaned closer. “Wonderful. Try that. Or inspiring.”
It would have been wonderful if Miss Ferrand had picked someone else.
Hiro would have been way better at this. How could he possibly figure out the magic word Ferrand wrote on her napkin? Magic word. Magical. It was worth a shot.
“Magical?”
Miss Ferrand’s eyes widened. “Oh my goodness. You’re close. Very close.” She motioned like she was trying to draw the right word out of him. “The meaning is nearly the same, but a different word. I’ll give you another chance.”
“Go MacKinnon.” Riley clapped him on the back. “Don’t mess up.”
Terrific. No pressure. And no ideas.
Maybe Miss Ferrand saw the helpless look in his eyes. She walked up to the marker board. “I’ll give you the first letter.” She took a red marker and wrote a loopy capital E in some kind of fancy script. She looked at him like the word should be obvious.
Hiro half turned toward him. The look in her eyes told him she knew the word.
“Exciting!” Kelsey blurted out.
Hiro’s head shook slightly, but it was enough for Cooper.
“Can I get a life line here?” Cooper said
“Ask the audience? Phone a friend?” Ferrand shook her head. “I don’t think so, Cooper.”
“Not the whole audience. Just Hiro.”
Miss Ferrand looked apologetic. “Not this time.”
Hiro shrugged. “Sorry I couldn’t help. It would have been enchanting.”
Cooper pounded his fist on his desk. “Enchanting!”
Ferrand put her hands on her hips and looked at Hiro with a slight smile. She walked to the front of the class and wrote enchanting on the board in fancy script. “That is the word. So no reading homework tonight.”
The class erupted in cheers. Apparently they weren’t into Shakespeare any more than Cooper was. Miss Ferrand held up her hand to quiet the room.
“Thanks to Cooper, and Hiro,” Ferrand said.
Again the cheers. Jake leaned over and shook Cooper’s hand. Kelsey looked like she was about to cry. Cooper grinned and turned to see Gordy’s reaction. The desk sat empty—and everything flooded back. For just those few minutes he’d forgotten. Forgotten about Gordy! He had to stay focused. Fi
nd Gordy. He glanced at the clock just as the bell rang.
“Cooper,” Miss Ferrand said. “I need to talk to you before you go.”
Great. The class that would never end.
Ferrand sat on the front edge of her desk and motioned him over.
Hiro shouldered her backpack. “See you at lunch.” She was out of the room by the time Cooper got to Ferrand’s desk. Maybe she was afraid Ferrand would stop her too.
“How are you doing, Cooper?” She studied him, her gray eyes peering into his own as if she were trying to read his thoughts. And actually, he wished she could. Then she wouldn’t have asked him such a stupid question.
“I want you to know I’m here for you. You can talk to me.”
And what did she expect him to say? Gee, Miss Ferrand, my cousin was abducted before my very eyes Tuesday night. At first it was hard, but I’m really doing fine now. I think I’ll go home and read some Shakespeare. Have a nice day.
“I want to help, Cooper. Really.”
Finding a way to check the homes of those men on the website would be a real help. But he didn’t think that idea was going to fly with her. Cooper stared at his feet.
“Principal Shull brought in a counselor today. A trained professional in areas of trauma and loss like you’re experiencing.”
“You mean a shrink?” Cooper looked her in the eyes.
“A licensed psychologist. And I want you to talk to him.”
Give me a break. Not only was she not helping, she was going to slow him down. “But I thought schools only brought in guys like that after there’d been a shooting or an accident or something where students were killed.”
Ferrand tilted her head to one side and winced apologetically. Her eyes said the rest. She thought Gordy was gone too. Pitied poor Cooper’s naïve hope that he was still alive. Always proactive, the school had already lined up some kind of grief counselor.
“Gordy is alive. I know it.”
Again, those sad, puppy-dog eyes.
“I don’t want to talk to some shrink. I just want to find Gordy.”
“Of course you do. We all do. But sometimes we need a little help processing things. A number of students have already gone to see him.”
“I don’t need a shrink.”
“Cooper,” she said. “I’m not blind. You weren’t tracking with me at all today. Not until the very end.”
Cooper clenched his jaw and tried to keep from saying something that would only make things worse.
Miss Ferrand caught it. She had to. Her eyes flicked down to his cheeks.
“You were thinking about Gordy all through class, right?”
“He’s my cousin. And he’s gone. Some sick-o grabbed him and I couldn’t stop him. I tried. I tried. So how do you expect me to concentrate on some stupid author who wrote stupid stories when my cousin needs help?”
The words came out too fast and with too much force for Cooper to stop them. He took a deep breath. That little outburst wasn’t going to do him any favors.
“The counselor can help you.”
Cooper shook his head and backed toward the door. “No thanks.” The last thing he needed was another thing to delay him from searching for Gordy.
“Not an option. You’re going right after lunch.” She pulled out a small pad and made some notes on it like a doctor writing a prescription.
Terrific.
She tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to him. “The nurse’s office. Immediately after lunch. This is your pass.”
He read the paper. Cooper MacKinnon to see Dr. Dale McElhinney, 5th period, Thursday. A glance back at her told him this wasn’t open for discussion. But she wasn’t asking him to stay after school, so he couldn’t really come up with an argument anyway. It could be worse, which was exactly what would happen if he argued any more.
“Have some lunch. Then see Dr. McElhinney.” She stood and put her hands on his shoulders. “I’m worried about you, Cooper. You take things on yourself that somebody your age should never have to do.”
Ferrand smiled and tilted her head. She cared. Cooper knew that. But what he needed right now was more time to find Gordy. No, what he really needed was a miracle.
CHAPTER 28
Hiro sat at the lunch table but kept watching the doors for Cooper. She emptied her lunch bag and arranged the contents on the table. Bottle of water. Plastic bag of mixed carrots and celery. Plastic bag with an apple—precut into slices. And a fresh-sliced turkey sandwich with spinach leaves and tomato on whole wheat bread, cut diagonally. Everything organized and in its place, just the way she liked it. Too bad life couldn’t be that neat.
Gordy’s abduction. The fact that the kidnapper’s bait had fooled her—Hiro—the one who wanted to be a cop someday. Then there was the police investigation—turning over plenty of rocks but finding nothing. The trail had gone cold. She closed her eyes and a shiver ran through her. She couldn’t let her mind go there.
Her life was a mess. Chaos was a good word for it. Her mom was trying to put up a good front, but Hiro knew better. She dozed on and off watching the six o’clock news last night, but her bedroom light was still on well after midnight. Hiro noticed her crying while she cleaned the kitchen. Mom never explained, but the tears running down her cheeks spoke for her. She couldn’t imagine how bad things were at Gordy’s home. Or at Coop’s.
And Coop wasn’t doing well. He was starting to scare her. And Lunk wasn’t any help.
Posting flyers was smart. But visiting the homes of registered sex offenders? That was insane. Even considering checking their homes crossed a boundary. He’d left clear thinking behind, and he was headed someplace very reckless. And dangerous. She wished she’d never brought it up, never showed him the website.
If she could convince him to just check house-to-house to see if anyone saw the van. But Coop couldn’t let the license plate thing go. He couldn’t forgive himself for not catching that van.
Cooper couldn’t handle the thought of losing Gordy. Gordy could be dead already. She considered the idea, turned the thought around in her mind. She tried looking at it logically, like a good cop would. But Coop wouldn’t consider the fact that Gordy might be gone. In Hiro’s mind, it had been too many hours to ignore that possibility.
Possibility. That was the wrong word, wasn’t it? Realistically, it was no longer a possibility. It was a probability. And Coop could lose his life trying to find someone who was never coming back.
She had to play this smart. She’d go along with him to a point—if only to keep him from shutting her out. But there was no way she’d let him knock on the door of a registered sex offender. She’d blow the whistle on him first—and she wasn’t afraid to tell him that to his face.
The thing that scared her was how he might react. Would he pull away from her? Probably. And then who would be the voice of reason? He’d hatch some crazy plan, and she wouldn’t have a chance to talk him out of it.
Hiro pulled a manila file folder out of her backpack and spread the contents on the table. Page after page of printouts from the satellite views of the route the minivan had taken. They wouldn’t have much time at lunch, but even a few minutes might help.
Lunk sauntered over, tray in hand, and sat on the same side of the table as Hiro, with ample space between them. His plate was piled with four huge slices of pizza, surrounded by four cartons of chocolate milk. Just the kind of lunch Gordy would have chosen. She wondered what he might be eating if he was still alive. Was he eating?
Lunk scanned the cafeteria. “Where’s Coop?”
“Miss Ferrand wanted to talk to him.” She checked the entrance again. “I’m surprised he’s not here yet.”
“What’d she want?”
Hiro took a sip of her water. “I have no idea.” She tried to keep her voice even. Like it didn’t concern her. She kept her eyes on the cafeteria entrance.
Officer Sykes walked in and surveyed the room. When he noticed her looking at him, he headed their way.
�
��Nice lunch,” Lunk said, poking a slice of pizza at her sandwich. “That kind of food will kill you.”
“Really.” Hiro took her napkin and dabbed the top of one of his pizza slices. She held it up. “See this? Grease. Lots of it. You call that healthy?”
“Well, yeah.” Lunk looked at her like she was a little crazy. “That grease, as you call it, is a specially formulated lubricant to help the pizza get down your throat without causing a choking hazard.”
Hiro turned her head away. She didn’t want Lunk to have the satisfaction of seeing her smile. Officer Sykes was almost at their table, stuck behind Candy, Lissa, and Katie. The three beauty queens were walking way too slow, looking for a prime place to sit. Their plates were piled high with processed food. At that rate, they wouldn’t be beauty queens for long.
Candy stopped at the table and turned to get a better look at the pages. “What are you doing now, Hiroko?” She made a mock face of bewilderment.
“Hey,” Lunk said. “It’s the female version of the Three Stooges.”
Was he actually trying to stick up for her?
Candy didn’t even acknowledge that Lunk spoke.
Hiro felt her temperature rising.
Lissa nodded toward the aerial views. “Planning a treasure hunt?” Hiro smiled. Not because she felt particularly happy, but showing hostility was plain ugly. Candy and her friends were proof of that. “Yeah, it’s a treasure hunt. I’m trying to help find Gordy Digby, in case you’ve forgotten. And he is a treasure. Worth his weight in gold.”
“I can’t argue with you there,” Candy said. “But you have to admit, he had poor taste when it came to picking friends. I could never see the value in them.”
Lissa and Katie giggled.
Hiro was not going to let them get under her skin. “Treasures like Gordy are rare.”
“Not as rare as you think,” Lunk said. “These three ladies are a treasure too.” Lunk pointed. “If we combined their considerable weight and had that in gold, it would be worth a fortune.”
Candy glared at him. “Look who’s talking. You’re a real jerk, you know that, Lunquist?” The girls stomped off, chattering among themselves and shooting disgusted glances at Lunk.
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