Wallace and Faraday exchanged another look. I saw that they knew they weren’t going to poke any more holes in my alibi, which was good. For a minute I had hopes that they’d lay off, but then Wallace leaned over toward the file on Faraday’s desk and pulled something out from the back. He slapped it down in front of me. I stared at it, and it took my brain a few seconds to catch up to what my eyes were seeing, and by the time I understood that I was staring at a picture of Tevon Tibbolt, lying dead and bloody in pile of leaves and mud, it was too late to shut my eyes against it. Donny reacted by leaping to his feet and snatching the photo off the desk. I could feel my eyes water, the shock of what I’d seen had caught me totally off guard. “What the hell?” Donny roared, throwing the photo back at Agent Wallace.
I bit my lip and dropped my gaze to the ground. I’d heard the news reporter say that Tevon had many wounds and that he’d been tortured. But seeing it in the photograph was so, so much worse than anything I could’ve imagined. The kid’s face, torso, and arms were a mass of cuts, burns, and open wounds, and his throat had been slashed wide open. It was the most gruesome thing I’d ever seen, and it was playing over and over in my head, blocking out everything else, even the room I was in and the men who were in it.
I tried to hold it back, but a wave of emotion overcame me, and I bent at the waist and let out a gut-wrenching sob. Tears fell down my cheeks and I shut my eyes, fighting to forget what I’d seen. But the image kept on playing in my head. Tevon’s lifeless eyes staring fixedly up, his mouth curled down in a death mask of pain, his fists balled up over his head, and his hair matted with blood. And most of all, I couldn’t forget the dark black numbers hovering above his ghostly pale skin. 10-29-2014.
I got to my feet and swayed, feeling my stomach lurch while Donny yelled. Then I bolted out of the office, running along the corridor, trying to keep down the urge to retch before I could find a restroom. I spotted a ladies’ room on my right and I pushed my way inside, barely making it into the stall before losing my breakfast.
I hacked and heaved and clutched the bowl for several minutes, sobbing the whole time. “I didn’t know!” I whispered over and over. “I didn’t know!”
If I had known that that was going to happen to Tevon, I never, ever would’ve let his mother leave my house without convincing her that I was for real.
Finally, I sat back and grabbed some toilet paper, wiping my mouth and cheeks. It was that cheap, scratchy kind, but it was a relief to feel something other than nausea and regret.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the stall door and I jerked, knocking my water bottle on its side, where it rolled out under the stall door. I sat still for a couple of seconds. I hadn’t heard anyone come in. I then saw a shadow on the floor, and peeking out from under the stall door, I spotted a hand grabbing the water bottle. I managed to get up and open the door. There was a lady (8-14-2058) standing there, wearing a gold badge clipped to her waistband. “You okay?” she asked me.
I took a shuddering breath. “Yeah.”
She stared back doubtfully.
I moved to the sink, washed my hands, and splashed cool water onto my face. The whole time I was there, she watched me with a mixture of suspicion and sympathy. Still, something about her presence there felt off.
I wiped my face and hands with a paper towel and then turned back to her. She handed me a fresh bottle of water. “I brought you a new one,” she said. But there was something about the exchange that again felt off. “No thanks,” I muttered, hurrying out of the restroom. She followed me, and as I got back into the corridor, I saw Donny standing with his arms crossed and a furious look on his face. Next to him were Faraday and Wallace; only Faraday looked like he had an ounce of compassion for me.
Donny put his arm across my shoulders. “You all right?” he asked. I managed to nod, and he turned to the agents. “We’re done here.”
I was never more grateful in my life, and I leaned against him as we walked away. He didn’t let me go until we were next to his car, and he opened the door for me and shut it once I’d gotten seated.
“They pulled that stunt to gauge your reaction,” Donny said when he got in. He seemed to be beating himself up pretty good over it. “I’m sorry, Maddie. I should’ve expected they’d do something like that.’
“It’s okay,” I told him, wiping my cheeks because the tears wouldn’t stop.
Donny glanced out his window toward the building. “Those bastards,” he muttered. “If they ever try anything like that again I’ll file a complaint with the bureau director.”
I didn’t say anything. I simply wanted Donny to start the car and take me home. But he sat there a few more minutes, staring hard at the building. “Hey,” he said at last.
“Yeah?”
“Great job on that chem test.”
That got me to smile. “Thanks,” I said. If Donny was joking with me, then the interview with the feds couldn’t have been as bad as it felt.
He laid a hand on my head. “Do me a favor, though, okay?”
“What?”
“No more readings.” I gulped and dropped my gaze to my hands. “I mean it, Maddie. Even if the president of the United States calls and says it’s a matter of national security, you don’t give anybody their date.”
All I could think was, what was Ma was going to say? Donny was asking us to give up a lot of extra cash, and no matter how many times he’d offered, Ma had never once accepted money from Donny. I didn’t know how we were going to make it without the readings.
When I hesitated, Donny added, “Listen, kiddo, if you happen to read someone new who’s about to die, and the feds get wind of it…Sweetheart, I don’t even want to think about how bad that’s gonna make you look. You can’t do any more readings or tell anybody their date. Not a soul. Do you hear?”
I finally nodded reluctantly. “Okay.”
“Good girl.”
And then I couldn’t help adding, “The president doesn’t need to worry though. His deathdate isn’t for, like, forty more years.”
Donny ruffled my hair. “Smartass.” He chuckled. But then he nudged me in the shoulder, and when I looked up, he pointed to the cup holder between us. “Where’s your water bottle?”
I blinked. “The FBI lady who came into the restroom took it.”
Donny let his head fall forward to the steering wheel. “Well, I guess giving them your fingerprints and a DNA sample was inevitable.”