“The size from the imprints at the crime scenes,” I said.
“Yep. Oh, and his wife said that after quitting for twenty years, her husband was back to smoking again. He’d started up again this past summer, and his brand of choice was Marlboro Lights. By the time I finished interviewing Mrs. Kane, it was going on seven o’clock. I tried calling your house, but I got no answer, so I sent a patrol car out there to watch over you until we could find Kane or his cousin.”
Faraday stopped talking again, and he dropped his gaze to the floor. I had the sense that he was feeling guilty over the patrolman. “Anyway,” he said, after clearing his throat, “to be sure I was on the right track, I headed back to the office and checked your notebook. I found Kane’s name in there, and his deathdate was for yesterday. I didn’t quite know what to make of that, but after I called his wife again, she told me he liked to go hunting and fishing up near the Waliki River. It took us almost two hours, but we found the hunting shack, and Wes Miller’s body, but no sign of Kane. I didn’t believe for a second that the suicide note and the confession Kane left for us to find was real. So I had dispatch look up Kane’s vehicle to put out the BOLO, and wouldn’t you know it, he also drove a pickup—but his was charcoal gray.”
“It all fits.”
Faraday nodded. “Yep. I tried calling you again to ask you if you remembered reading for Kane, but I couldn’t get an answer on your line and I didn’t have your new cell. Your uncle wasn’t picking up my calls, either,” Faraday said with a frown.
“Donny probably went out with one of his girlfriends, and he doesn’t always hear his phone when he’s out,” I told him. I didn’t want him to think badly of Donny. None of this was his fault.
Faraday shrugged and got back to his story. “I tried to get patched through to the patrol officer assigned to watch your house, but I couldn’t get him to pick up his cell, either. I was worried he’d fallen asleep on the job, so I drove over to straighten him out, but when I pulled up I found him slumped over the wheel. It was a minute or two before I realized he’d had his throat slit. And, right as I was about to call it in, I heard a crash from inside your house….”
Faraday seemed to end his story there, and I dropped my gaze to my lap again. When I felt I could talk I said, “Thank you, Agent Faraday.”
I felt his hand on mine. “Hey, Maddie?” he said, and there was a little humor in his voice. “I shot a bad guy for you tonight. The least you could do is call me Mack.”
Donny arrived at the hospital around three A.M. as I was being wheeled out to Mrs. Duncan’s car. He pulled up driving one of those Smart cars, and to see him squeal to a halt and jump out wearing only his boxers, a T-shirt, and a panicked look on his face sent all of us into hysterics.
I knew I shouldn’t be laughing, but it was just so freaking funny that I couldn’t help it. Belatedly I also realized he had a sleepy-looking woman in the car, and I knew he’d been on a date and hadn’t had a choice as to how he got up to Grand Haven. It was her car or bust.
Once we’d all had a good laugh, Mrs. Duncan invited Donny and his girlfriend to stay at her house, but the girlfriend didn’t seem to want to go for that idea, so Donny checked her into a hotel and then came back to be with me and Mrs. Duncan.
She settled me into her daughter Janet’s room, and I lay back on the soft pillow and nestled into the flannel sheets and thought there was no way I was going to sleep that night. A moment later, I was out cold.
AFTER THE ATTACK I DIDN’T go back to school for a few days. All I wanted to do was sleep and let Mrs. Duncan take care of me. Also, I was having a hard time keeping my emotions in check. I’d start crying for no reason at all, and a lot of my dreams were more like nightmares. Donny made an appointment for me with a therapist named Susan Royce (12-30-2055), and after hearing what was going on with me, she told me that everything I was feeling was perfectly normal, but I had a few issues that she thought we could work on. I was a little surprised to hear that one of the issues she wanted to work on with me was Ma.
Still, after talking with Susan a couple of times, I started to feel better. I had fewer nightmares, and I felt okay about going back to school.
Stubs helped me a lot, too. My first day back to school, he picked me up on his scooter, and as a joke he wore his red cape. I laughed until my sides hurt.
At school there was a big shift in attitude toward both of us. Stubby and I were pretty banged up, but word started to spread that the serial killer, Rick Kane, had attacked both of us, and we’d fought him off until he was shot by the feds. Stubby did nothing to try to correct the rumor, and neither did I. We walked the halls with our heads held high, and I thought my dad might be proud.
And then, one afternoon right before Christmas break, there was a surprise assembly and the whole school was herded to the gym. Stubby and I sat next to each other on the bleachers, and we were shocked to see the person standing at the podium up on the stage was none other than Agent Faraday.
He didn’t look at either of us, but after everyone was seated he started his speech, and Stubby and I were blown away. It was all about us. Faraday told the whole school that Stubby and I had played a critical role in stopping Rick Kane, and if not for the two of us, more lives might’ve been lost.
I felt the whole school turn their eyes to Stubs and me, and for once it felt amazing. Stubby puffed his chest out and winked at me. And then Faraday said, “Maddie Fynn and Arnold Schroder, would you please come up here?”