Screams broke out, and Maggie watched as people started to scramble to their cars. She had to get out of Irene’s Cadillac. She couldn’t very well be sitting there when Irene and her friends piled back in. She pushed open the passenger door and hobbled out of the car on one red heel, not knowing where she was going but knowing her conduit was about to be invaded. She turned in circles, looking for a place to shield herself.
Maggie’s gaze fell on Johnny’s Bel Air. It sat serenely while cars and trucks peeled out around it, screeches and horns blaring the excitement of raging youth. Maggie seemed to have found the best hiding place of all. She was bumped and jostled as people scurried here and there, and nobody really stopped to take a good look, though she was wearing a bright red dress and only one shoe. She watched as Billy Kinross yanked open the door to his brother’s car and slid behind the wheel, a look of pure horror stamped on his young face. He seemed unsure of what to do first and sat with his hands on the wheel, looking around for his first clue. He didn’t have time to figure it out. Glass and metal complained mightily as Roger Carlton attacked Johnny’s car with a baseball bat. He swung again and then again, battering the shiny black showpiece. The front window exploded, and Billy dove out of sight.
Maggie screamed, the sound high—pitched and afraid, carrying across the distance to Johnny’s car, causing Roger to pause mid-swing. His eyes lit on her like a rabid wolf, and Maggie froze in her tracks. He instantly dropped the bat and strode toward her, pulling a little gun out of the back of his waistband. He pointed it at her, and his hand didn’t shake.
“Lizzie says your name is Maggie, and she doesn’t know anything more.” He said this in a high pitched soprano, mimicking the little girl. “She said I would never find you.” Roger smiled, that slow creepy smile that didn’t reveal any teeth. “How nice of you to find me.”
Maggie couldn’t take her eyes from the gun. She should scream or run, but deep down she believed Roger would shoot anyway. And he was close enough to make missing unlikely. The parking lot was still half full of kids who had decided to participate in or be spectators to the battle that raged beyond her right shoulder. If Roger did miss, someone else could very easily be hit. None of this was supposed to happen! Billy had been the one with the gun...hadn’t he?
***
Johnny forced his way through the swinging arms, landing a few shots and taking more than a couple on his way out of the writhing mass of fists and feet. Just as he thought he would break free, someone flew into him, knocking him down and wrapping him up in the thrashing legs and arms of several people. By the time Johnny had fought his way back out, his friends had the fight well in hand, and Johnny knew it was only a matter of minutes before the whole thing was over. But Carlton still hadn’t shown. Johnny had something to communicate to the bastard, and he wasn’t leaving until his message had been delivered loud and clear.
Johnny’s eyes swung left and right, and then swung right again and stopped cold. His car was still parked where he’d left her, but the driver's side door was hanging open as if Billy had suddenly changed his mind about leaving and bailed out in a hurry. The doors were dented and the front head lights were broken in. It looked as if someone had taken a bat to the windows, too. Rage pounded in Johnny's temples. He had no doubt who had inflicted the damage.
He was going to hurt Roger Carlton when he found him. And where the hell had Billy gone?! He was supposed to take the car and go! Then Johnny saw him. The walkway to the entrance of the school was lit up, and Billy Kinross was running toward the front doors at full speed.
“Billy,” Johnny roared, yelling at the top of his lungs. Billy didn’t even turn, but slipped through the double doors like the late bell had already chimed and he was tardy for class; the doors had been left unlocked. Something cold and desperate slithered down Johnny’s spine. He knew that what waited beyond those doors was something he wanted no part of -- and he had no choice but to head for them at a run.
The double-doored entrance opened into a large three story rotunda with gleaming tiles and a great staircase that swept upward to twin balconies that edged the second and third floors.
"Billy!' Johnny called out, suddenly uncertain as to where to go. The school seemed silent and untouched, and all at once he doubted the wisdom in coming through the doors. If the cops caught him in here he would have more than a few bruises and a black eye to explain. Breaking and entering maybe, even though the doors had been open...
A gunshot rang out, interrupting his second thoughts. Johnny ran forward, taking the stairs three at a time, hurling himself up the wide expanse. Oh, God, please no....no... no....the words pounded through his head as he cleared the stairs and skidded to a stop on the third floor, eyes searching both ways down a long wide hallway that ran beyond the balcony to corridors and distant rooms. Suddenly, Billy was running toward him, his shirt untucked, his glasses gone, his face a mask of terror.
"He's got a gun, Johnny. He's got a gun!" Billy looked over his shoulder and then past Johnny, as if expecting a full on attack from every direction.
"Who's got a gun?" Johnny was looking for blood and bullet holes. Billy seemed unharmed, but he was clearly terrified. "Billy!" Johnny reached out and grabbed onto his frantic brother, detaining him, trying to muscle him back toward the stairs. He needed to get him out of the school.
"Roger Carlton has a gun! He shot out a window back there! A bunch of his friends were in here, and when they saw the gun they ran! It made him mad, I guess. He shot out one of the windows, and he's got a girl, Johnny! I don’t think he saw me, but I just can’t leave her there. I heard him tell her he’s going to shoot her!”
“What girl? Who?” Call him cold-hearted, but Johnny decided he would worry about the girl after Billy was out of danger. Again he tried to steer Billy back toward the stairs.
“I don’t know her. I saw her once with Lizzie Honeycutt.” Billy rubbed his head in distress. Johnny’s stomach fell to his knees, and his breath caught in his throat. He knew what Billy was going to say next. “Roger called her Maggie.”