“Donny, I swear, we only called her! He’d never go to her house after she threatened to call the police on me.” When his eyes widened I added, “I tried to explain to her that I was for real, but she wouldn’t let me talk, and she threatened to call the cops if I ever called her again.”
Donny frowned. “See, this is the problem I have with what you’ve just told me, Maddie. You didn’t know Stubs had gone to see Payton until the feds told you about it, and now I learn that he looked up the Tibbolt’s info on his cell? You may not know your best friend as well as you think you do.”
“Donny, he didn’t do it! Before their bodies were found, he had no idea that Payton and Tevon were going to end up missing! I didn’t even know Payton was missing until I saw it on the news, and I didn’t know that Tevon had been abducted until Wallace and Faraday came to the school!”
Donny stood up and paced the kitchen floor for a minute or two until he seemed to come to a conclusion. “Okay, Maddie. I trust you, and I’m sorry if I upset you, but I had to play devil’s advocate to find out how much you really trust Stubby. I’ve seen way too many of these cases where a defendant suddenly points the finger at his innocent best friend to risk having that scenario happen to my niece. Still, I think you’re right about Stubs, and I promise I’ll do my best to represent him. But if either of you two lies to me ever again, all bets are off, got it?”
I swallowed hard, both hugely relieved and guilt-ridden. Sighing with relief, I said, “Got it, Donny. Thank you for helping him. I’m really sorry about lying to you.”
He nodded and reached into his pocket. He shocked me even more when he pulled out a large wad of cash. “Here,” he said, shoving the bills into my hand.
“What’s this?” I asked, staring at the money, which I knew we could use, but couldn’t accept.
“Your mom lost her job,” he said. “And I’m keeping you from making money on readings. Cheryl refuses my offer to help every time I ask, so I’m bypassing her and giving you a little nest egg.”
I shook my head, trying to hand back the cash. Ma would totally freak if she found out I’d accepted the cash. “Donny, I—”
Donny pushed the cash more firmly into my palm. “I’m not taking no for an answer,” he insisted, finally letting go to walk to the door. “Hide that somewhere your mom won’t find it,” he added. And I knew he meant that I should keep it away from her so it didn’t go for booze. “I gotta go back and see about Stubby. Do me a favor, though; don’t write down any deathdates until we get this cleared up, okay?”
I hung my head. “I will. Sorry. I should’ve told you.”
Donny came back to the chair and kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay, kiddo. I have to figure out a way to convince the feds to lay off you two and start looking in another direction.”
I thought back to the accusing look in Faraday’s eyes as he held my deathdate notebook. “How’re you gonna do that?”
Donny moved once again toward the door. “I’ll need to reach out to one of my contacts to do some research. I don’t know if it’ll pay off, but if it does, it’ll hopefully take the focus off you two.”
“What is it?” I was desperate to know—or, more accurately, I was desperate for some kind of hope.
Donny’s face softened. “Let me worry about it, okay? I gotta go see Stubby, and then I’ll come back and we can heat up Mrs. Duncan’s lasagna. After dinner we’ll go out and get you a new cell phone. I want to be able to get ahold of you if something develops.”
Then he was gone, and I was left alone with Donny’s wad of cash still in my hand. I looked around the cluttered kitchen for a hiding place, and my eye landed on the Garfield cookie jar. We hadn’t used it in years. I went over and lifted the ceramic lid. Inside were several stale-looking Double Stuf Oreos. Ma kept the jar only because my grandma had given it to us one Christmas. I knew she’d never think to look inside, so I stashed the cash under the Oreos. After that, I got busy putting the house back together, periodically checking on Ma, who was nursing her wounds with a fresh bottle of vodka and the TV.
It took me several hours to get the house straightened up, and during much of that time, Donny’s devil’s advocate argument filled my thoughts with ever darkening storm clouds.
THE NEXT TWO DAYS WERE TERRIBLE. The local news media had run a story that Stubby had been arrested for Payton’s murder, and there were unconfirmed reports of a female accomplice. I knew that everyone at school would know the reporter was referring to me. When I got to school Monday morning the rumors were flying, and I started to notice that more and more kids were looking at me with real fear in their eyes.
I couldn’t believe my life was starting to spin so out of control. And the teachers weren’t immune to the affects of all those swirling rumors, either. By fourth period I was asked to sit at the back of the class, well away from the other kids, because I was “causing a disturbance.” If by that, Mrs. Napier (5-23-2036) meant that I’d come into class, slunk down in my seat, and hid behind my textbook while all the kids in class whispered, then yeah, I was causing a huge disturbance.
Things got worse the next day. Tuesday morning I tried to go to Principal Harris for help when I found my locker had been filled with shaving cream, but he wouldn’t even come out of his office. I overheard one of the secretaries say that if I wanted the principal’s help, next time maybe I shouldn’t have my uncle call and threaten to sue him.
That shocked me. I hadn’t realized Donny had called Principal Harris, but he had been furious when he found out that Harris had let the feds talk to me in his office.
Later on, I was even given detention by Mr. Chavez for walking into his class right as the bell sounded. Never mind that Stephanie Corbin (11-4-2080) walked in behind me and didn’t get in trouble.