“Uh…no. Isn’t he home?”
I could almost feel the anxiety from Mrs. Schroder radiate through the phone. “No. No, he’s not here, and I don’t know where he’s gone. I came home from the grocery store with Sam and Grace, and Arnold wasn’t in his room and he didn’t leave me a note.”
“Maybe he’s out boarding,” I said, and then I remembered that Stubby had thrown away his skateboard. “Oh, wait,” I added.
“He threw his skateboard away,” Mrs. Schroder said, and then she sniffled. “He’s been so depressed lately, Maddie. I’m very worried about him.”
“Maybe he went for a walk or something.”
“That’s why I’m worried. With that killer still on the loose…”
I wanted to reassure Mrs. Schroder that the FBI knew who the killer was and that he was probably on his way to Canada, but I didn’t know that for sure. The truth was I had no idea where Wes Miller was. He could be roaming the streets looking for unsuspecting teens to abduct, torture, and kill.
“Maybe you should go look for him,” I said.
“Will you come with me?”
I glanced over at Faraday. I didn’t think he’d mind if I left to go search for Stubs, but I’d need Mrs. Schroder to come pick me up, and I didn’t want to worry her about why I was there. “Sure. I’m at the hospital right now, uh…visiting a sick neighbor, so could you come pick me up?”
Faraday was still talking on his phone, so I wrote him a note that said I’d gotten a ride home, and he nodded and waved good-bye.
While I was waiting for Mrs. Schroder, Donny called me. “Hey, kiddo,” he said with a weary sigh. “Man, have I had a day!”
I smirked. I could bet him I’d had more of one but decided to tell him about it later. “What’s up?” I asked.
“My car broke down. I had to get it towed and the guy can’t work on it till Monday.”
“Are you staying in the city?”
“Yeah. But I don’t want you in that house alone. You go over to Mrs. Duncan’s house and spend the night, okay?”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure, Donny,” I told him because I didn’t want to argue and possibly make him mad enough to rent a car and drive up to babysit me when he really needed to deal with his car.
“Good. I’ll call you in the morning.”
Stubby’s mom pulled up then, and I waved to her as I clicked off with Donny.
Mrs. Schroder had Stubby’s two siblings with her, and they were making a racket in the back. Her face was creased with worry. “We’ll find him,” I promised.
We started our search in Poplar Hollow, going street by street from the Schroder residence out toward my house and beyond. We tried the park, and the school, and then it started to get dark.
I didn’t get seriously worried until about seven o’clock, when we still saw no sign of Stubby. We got Grace and Sam something to eat and continued our search, but he was nowhere.
At last we headed back to the Schroders’ and I helped put the kids to bed, then I waited with Stubby’s mom in the kitchen, willing him to come home, but the hours ticked by and there was still no sign of Stubs.
When I couldn’t take it anymore I got up from the kitchen table and said, “Mrs. Schroder, does Stubby still have that scooter in the garage?”
She nodded and wiped her eyes. She’d been crying steadily now for over an hour. “I checked. He didn’t take it.”
“Can I borrow it?”
She gave me a puzzled look and I explained. “There’s one place we haven’t looked where I think he might be. It’s over in Jupiter.”
“Take the scooter, Maddie,” Mrs. Schroder said. “But please be careful. There’s a helmet on a hook in the garage. You have to wear that. And please call me if you find him?”
“I will,” I promised, and she fished around in a drawer for the keys to the scooter. Taking them from her, I hurried out.
It took me only about ten minutes to make it over to Jupiter, and then I had to crisscross through a neighborhood to the skate park, which was always well lit until eleven at night. I’d had a thought that, even if Stubs hadn’t gone there to skateboard, maybe he’d gone to watch the other boarders.
As I pulled up into the lot, I saw one lone kid zipping up and down the ramps. I knew immediately who it was.
I reached into my pocket and called Mrs. Schroder. “I found him,” I said.
“Oh!” she cried. “Oh, Maddie! Where is he?”
“He’s at the skate park in Jupiter. I’ll bring him home in a little while.”
After hanging up with Stubby’s mom, I sat on the scooter for a long time and watched my best friend whiz up and down on what appeared to be a brand-new board, doing twists, turns, and other tricks.
Something had changed in Stubby—he was far less clumsy and stiff on the board. It was as if he’d lost the fear of screwing up and was committing himself to every stunt, as if he didn’t care what happened. That courage proved to be exactly what he needed to land the trick.
When I was so cold I was starting to shiver, I walked over to the ramp. Stubby flew up the opposite side, flipped his board around with his feet, landed perfectly, and whizzed back down out of sight only to reappear at the top of the ramp closest to me and land his board on the rim. I looked at him in amazement as he grinned down at me—his eyes still black and blue and his nose swollen, but grinning all the same. “Mads!” he exclaimed, clearly happy to see me—and I knew that my friend was back.
“Nice board,” I called, pointing to his new ride.
He stepped off of it and onto the rim of the ramp, then did a little kick with his foot, and the board flipped up to land neatly in his left hand. “I got it today!” he gushed, already moving toward the stairs.
I waited for him at the bottom. “Your mom’s been worried sick about you,” I said when he landed next to me in the grass.
His face fell and he eyed the skyline. “Aw, man! How late is it?”
“It’s after ten.”