“I like to keep up on social events in our community. You know what a community-minded fellow I am.”
“May I assume that was the cause of your tardiness? Let’s you and I have a social event after class.” Captious turned and pattered to the front of the room. “Now students, when I count to three, you may begin. Three!”
And he wondered why people failed his class. I picked up my pencil, read the first test question, and got to work.
Forty-two minutes later, the bell rang.
“Pencils down,” Dr. Captious yapped from the back of the room. “Hand me your papers on the way out the door.”
As the other students filed out, I sat at my desk, watching Kathryn touch up her makeup. Mason gave me another noogie on his way past and pressed a folded piece of paper into my hand. I gave him a nasty look as he walked away, and opened the paper.
Oh. Wow. I turned to Kathryn. “A smiley face. What is he up to?”
Kathryn rolled her blue eyes. “It’s probably poisoned. Rin, every time we’re in this class, I rub all my makeup off. Cappy gives me anxiety. I think I need to transfer.”
“I know, it’s like he emits caffeine rays or something. Okay, we’re out of here!”
We turned to leave the empty classroom when the sound of hushed voices in the hall stopped us.
“This is not common knowledge, Mason. How did you know about Erica?”
“Angel knows the family. She stopped me on the way to class.”
“Who else knows?”
“Probably the whole school. She’s been out of control lately. Don’t know what she’s into.”
“Wonderful. I would like you to find out. Fill me in tonight.”
Footsteps clopped down the hall. Then the late bell rang and Kathryn said, “Oh, crap!” Late is one thing we never were. We rushed toward the classroom door.
“Dr. Captious,” I said, handing him my test. “May we please have a late pass?”
Captious’s gaze went to me, then to Kathryn. He smiled a poodley little smile.
“Of course, ladies. I trust you did well on the test? I believe you’ll both be extremely successful in my class.” He pulled a pad from his pocket, scribbled on it, and handed it to me. “In fact, I’m certain of it.”
“Thank you,” we both chimed as we headed down the hall. I crammed the late slip and Mason’s smiley face into my pocket, wondering what was up with Captious. Suddenly, my head went wacky. Pictures flashed through my mind like a choppy old movie.
A fat man in a dark office.
His hair matted with sweat.
Reminded me of the stalker. Then I realized…it was Munificent.
His bloodshot eyes moved in quick jerks.
He crammed something into a drawer.
“How could I let it happen again?” he said. He turned when the door opened.
An unseen man’s voice echoed through the room. “You couldn’t stop it the first time.”
“Didn’t know who you were back then,” Munificent whispered. He drew his gun. “I do now.”
“Timing is perfect.” A hand stretched out unnaturally far and disappeared into Munificent’s chest.
Munificent dropped the gun, clutched his heart and struggled for breath. His eyes rolled into his head. He dropped to his knees.
The room spun slowly and stopped on a man’s reflection in a mirror. He was dressed in black, and in place of his face was a skull.
“Earth to Rin. Earth to Rin.”
Kathryn’s voice snapped me back. My heart was racing. I didn’t know where it came from or why, but I was pretty sure I had just had a vision of the same person I saw in the stalker’s mind. If Andy was right, that was my parents’ killer. Memories of the night they died began to surface, but I forced them down. I realized I was shaking.
“You okay?” Kathryn touched my shoulder.
“Yeah, just daydreaming.”
“About earthquakes?”
I changed the subject. “Hey, what’s up with Mason and Captious?”
“They’ve been buds for a while. They both hang out at the Shadow Passage.”
“Not possible,” I said. The Shadow Passage was a video-arcade-slash-gym. “Captious wouldn’t know a video game from a dump truck, and his idea of a workout is reaching for his next Twinkie.”
“True.”
“So, why does he hang out there?”
“Works with troubled youth. Molding young minds, and that sort of thing. It’s also the Official Hangout of the Cool of the School. They even have their own section.”
I patted Kathryn on the head. “Remind me not to go there.”
“Rinnie!” a voice called from behind.
Tish walked toward us, followed by a boy I knew only as Whatsisface. He had the most oddly shaped body I had ever seen. His neck was excessively long, his shoulders narrow and sloping, hips and belly very wide. He tottered on unnaturally short legs. A Friar Tuck hairdo rested like a beanie on his undersized head. No wonder he was a major target of Mason’s goons.