***
After a week and a half of hiding behind bushes and parked cars, Anna finally had a complete route from the school to Fredrick’s house. It had been very difficult – more so than Anna would have imagined, but that just made it all the more satisfying for her when her work was finally done.
On Anna’s first day of surveillance, she’d seen Fredrick turn down a street two blocks from the school. So, armed with this knowledge, on her second day she ran as fast as she could down to that corner so she could see where Fredrick went next. There were some bushes lining the yard of the house on the corner, and Anna only felt a little foolish hiding behind them. Fortunately, Fredrick’s car was distinctive enough that she wouldn’t have too much trouble spotting it, even with her view obstructed by branches.
Anna didn’t have to wait long for his car to fly by. As soon as he passed her, Anna snuck her head out to see where he went. She watched him go straight for several blocks before making a left down a street with an ugly salmon-colored house on the corner. All of this went into Anna’s map as well.
On day three, Anna had barely managed to find a place to hide before Fredrick’s car whizzed by. So, the next day she decided to borrow a bike from Carmine. This way, she could get to the next corner faster – hopefully before Fredrick did. It worked out quite well, but the day after, again, she only just made it before Fredrick passed her by. She knew there’d be no way she could keep this up – she’d need help.
In order to give Anna time to get to where she needed to be, she enlisted the aid of Mina. Over the next several days at school, Mina tried various tricks to stall Fredrick, eventually resorting to jamming his locker when she couldn’t think of anything else.
It was on this day that Anna finally figured out exactly where Fredrick lived. She had been standing incognito at a bus stop in the middle of a residential area, pretending to wait for a bus, when Fredrick passed by. She watched as the car turned about a block up from where she was standing, and she quickly made her way to the corner. When she turned onto the street, there were cars in the driveways of a lot of the houses, but no one outside of any of them; the street itself looked completely deserted. Anna listened, and realized she couldn’t hear his car off in the distance as she normally could. She casually walked down the street, trying to look like she was walking home. But as she walked, she was scanning diligently to see if she could find Fredrick’s car. It was a long shot, she knew, but this was a residential neighborhood. If he didn’t live on this street, he had to be close. How far could he have gone before turning off his engine?
As she walked down the street, she suddenly stopped in surprise. About four houses away from where she now stood, she saw it. Sitting in the middle of the driveway in front of a small stucco house was Fredrick’s car. Even though she’d been half expecting to see it, she still had a hard time believing her eyes. Could she really be done with her search? She walked closer to the house to get a better look. She could hear the creaking of the cooling engine as she carefully studied the car from across the street. Despite knowing next to nothing about cars, Anna knew she had the right one; after following this car for so long, she knew it well.
Now that Anna knew where Fredrick lived, her big plan was to follow him until he attacked someone. And, with any luck, Jacqueline would be there, too. Since Anna started hanging out with Mina, she’d discovered it was a lot easier to hunt in pairs. And since Fredrick and Jacqueline obviously knew about each other, Anna thought it was likely that they hunted together as well. She would just have to follow them every night until she caught them. There was just one problem: if Anna and Mina were following Fredrick and Jacqueline around all night, when would they hunt themselves? It looked like they were going to have to start hunting during the daytime – the worst time to hunt, as far as Anna was concerned.
Chapter 28: In the Park
You Were What You Eat Page 37