by Lois Duncan
When he had come out to the car earlier to retrieve the gun, he had been too preoccupied to notice where Doug Carver had parked. He was happy now to discover that the Carvers’ car was not blocking his own in the driveway, but was sitting instead at the curb in front of the house.
Except for that unoccupied car, the street was empty.
At the edge of the driveway, Brad let the paper sack slide out from under his arm so he could use his left hand to open the back door of the Chevy. As he was settling Mindy on the seat, he heard the door to the house slam closed, and a moment later Tracy joined him at the car. Her arms were piled with a blanket and a pillow and the second bag of clothing and she was gripping the rifle gingerly with both hands.
Brad took the sack from her arms and tossed it onto the floor of the car, and then he took the gun and laid it carefully on top. He spread the blanket over Mindy. “That does it,” he said. “So, good-bye, Winfeld!”
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” Tracy asked quietly. “What’s going to happen to me when you take off with Mindy? Doug knows now that the two of us were in this together. The plan about leaving me tied up here isn’t going to work.”
“I haven’t forgotten about you at all,” Brad said hastily, realizing with a rush of guilt that he had done just that. His mind had been totally occupied with his sister. “Of course you can’t stay here,” he improvised. “You’ll be coming with us.”
“All the way to New Mexico?”
“Is there any reason not to?”
Tracy considered a moment and then shook her head.
“No, I guess there isn’t. There’s nothing to hold me here. My aunt and uncle will probably be relieved to get rid of me.”
“Then, get in,” Brad said. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
He opened the front door of the car and slid in behind the wheel.
Tracy got in beside him, and he started the engine.
Chapter 12
I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT. Doug should have been back long before this.” Sally Carver threw a worried glance at the steak and baked potato that sat cooling in front of the empty seat across from her. “His dinner’s going to be ruined by the time he gets here. I can’t imagine what’s keeping him.”
“Maybe he couldn’t find the tickets,” Kenneth Mahrer suggested, shoveling a forkful of french fries into his mouth.
“He said he knew where they were—or, at least, he thought he did. I wonder if I ought to try calling again.”
“Doug’s cell’s apparently turned off, and the landline’s been busy every time you’ve tried to call it. That must mean Doug’s left the house and is on his way back over here.” Kerry Mahrer reached across and gave her friend’s hand a reassuring pat. “No sitter would have the nerve to stay on the phone like that if her employer was right there watching her do it. Who is sitting tonight, the Arquette girl again?”
“No, Katie takes driver’s ed on Fridays,” said Sally. “We’re using somebody new, a friend of Gavin’s roommate. We’d planned at first for Gavin to stay with Cricket. Then, the other evening, some girl called while he was at our place and invited him to go to a concert tonight. Of course, Doug and I encouraged him to accept. As depressed as he’s been, he needs to get out and do things.”
“It’s hard to imagine being depressed at the Continental Arms,” Kenneth remarked. “From what I’ve heard, that’s heaven on a platter for singles.”
“That’s why we suggested Gavin move in there,” said Sally. “A young bachelor who works with Doug was looking for a roommate, and we hoped life in a singles atmosphere might lift Gavin’s spirits.” She laughed ruefully. “A great idea, but it didn’t work. Gavin’s so wrung out he couldn’t care less about dating. He spends all his free time at our house, mooning over Cricket.”
“He seems to be awfully attached to her,” Kerry commented.
“Far too attached to be healthy, in Doug’s and my opinion. He needs to put the past behind him and start his life over. That’s why we were so pleased when that girl invited him out. We felt it was important for him to go.”
“If he’s that much of a homebody, why didn’t he stay married?”
“That marriage was a lost cause right from the start,” Sally said. “I think the only reason Laura married my brother was because she couldn’t exist without a man to take care of her. You’ve never seen such a helpless female in your life. She thinks the term ‘woman’s movement’ means a trip to the beauty parlor. Nothing Gavin did for her was ever good enough. When he took her on a cruise of the Bahamas for their honeymoon, she wouldn’t go out on deck for fear she’d get sunburned. When he bought her a sports car for her birthday, she refused to drive it because it ‘made her nervous.’ She complained about Gavin so constantly to that son of hers that the kid considered his stepfather some sort of ogre.”
“What a shame!” exclaimed Kerry. “He’d probably have made that boy a wonderful father.”
“Of course he would. That’s obvious from the way he dotes on Cricket. It was Gavin who suggested he and Laura have a baby of their own. He thought if they had a child together, it might cement the family. That was another fine plan that didn’t work out. According to Gavin, the boy got weird once the baby came. He acted as though she were his mother’s and his private property. All Gavin was allowed to be in that family was a wage earner.”
Sally nibbled at an unbuttered roll and glanced at her watch. “On the subject of cars, do you suppose Doug might have had car trouble?”
“If that had happened, he’d have called us,” said Kenneth. “Poor guy, he’s sure missed out on one fine meal. We’d better get the waitress to pack it up in a doggie bag.”
“I bet he’ll arrive within the next few minutes,” Kerry said optimistically. “Let’s order coffee and talk about something pleasant. Tell me, Sal, how is Cricket enjoying nursery school?”
“I called again, and the phone’s still busy,” Irene Stevenson told her husband, sinking down into the armchair across from his.
“She’s probably telling Brad how unreasonable we are. That’s the sort of teenage discussion that could last for hours.”
“You’re sure it was Tracy who called?”
“No, I’m not sure, Rene. I only told you I thought it might have been Tracy.” Cory Stevenson pressed his right thumb against the channel turner, and the picture on the TV screen changed abruptly from a red-haired boy brushing his teeth to a cat eating Meow Mix. “There was a man’s or boy’s voice in the background. I thought I heard him say Tracy, but maybe he didn’t.”
“It might have been somebody talking on television,” said Rene. “There’s no reason for Tracy to call here and hang up without having said anything. That would be a senseless thing for her to do.”
“You’re right about that. What do you want to watch?”
“Anything. It doesn’t matter.” She paused and then continued, “Tracy’s not stupid, Cory. She doesn’t do senseless things.”
“Missing dinner without checking in with us, I’d call that pretty senseless. She had to know it was going to get her in trouble.”
“I wish you hadn’t thrown such a scene,” said Rene.
“She’s living here now. She has to conform to our rules.”
“Maybe we’re being too strict. After all, we’ve never been parents before.”
“And we’re not parents now,” Cory said. “She made that point in no uncertain terms—‘My father’s paying you to let me live in your house.’ She considers herself our tenant, not part of our family.”
“She’s so bitter,” Irene said with a sigh. “It’s frightening to see a young girl so bitter. She made up her mind before she ever got here that she was going to hate Winfield and everybody in it.”
“She misses her mother.”
“Of course she does, poor dear. That’s natural enough. What concerns me, though, is the way she’s built her mother up in her mind to the point where she remembers her as too perfect to have been human.
Danielle was talented and beautiful, it’s true, but she did have faults. She never could stand to be overshadowed by anybody. Even back when we were children, if I ever owned anything she didn’t, Dani would find some way of wrecking my pleasure in it.
“I remember one time—now this is going to sound silly—I spent three weeks’ allowance on a box of underpants. Those were the days when little girls wore white cotton underwear, but these panties were all the colors of the rainbow. Sad to say, they also had the days of the week embroidered on them, which was something I hadn’t realized when I bought them. Danielle made terrible fun of me in front of our school friends. She’d say, ‘Pull up your dress, Rene, and let’s see what day it is.’ It wasn’t long before I started hating those panties. I ended up dropping them into the incinerator.”
“You think Richard left her because she made fun of his underwear?”
“Cory, stop teasing. I’m serious; I do think that trait of hers had something to do with why their marriage ended. She couldn’t stand it that Richard’s career took off faster than hers did. The way she treated that man during the last year they were together, I wasn’t surprised at all when he finally divorced her.”
“After Danielle died, I’d have thought Richard would have jumped at the chance to take Tracy to live with him,” Cory said. “Especially when he had tried so hard to get custody.”
“He seems to have matured a lot since the time of their divorce,” Rene said. “Dani’s murder brought home the fact that the world can be a dangerous place. No responsible father would leave a teenage girl alone in a city like Los Angeles while he spent months at a time away on location.”
“You think that’s why he let us have her?” asked Cory.
“Yes, I do,” Rene said. “Danielle’s death was a terrible shock to him. I don’t think he’d ever really stopped loving her. Calling that night to ask us if we’d take Tracy was probably the hardest thing Richard ever had to do. I’m sure he’d love to have his daughter with him, but he thinks we can give her a safer, stabler home life.”
“Well, we’re trying our best.”
“Yes, we are, but a lot of good it’s doing!” She sighed and then said abruptly, “I know this is dumb, but I’m really worried about that funny phone call.”
“It probably wasn’t even Tracy.” Cory flicked the turner again. The cat disappeared from the screen, and a sitcom came on. A man and woman and two obviously biracial children were sitting at a family dinner table, chatting and laughing.
Rene said, “There are so many shows about people adopting children, and they all seem so happy and well adjusted. What’s wrong with us that Tracy isn’t able to love us?”
Cory Stevenson flinched at the note of pain in her voice. “It’s not us, Rene, it’s Tracy. She can’t love anybody. There’s too much hurt and anger bottled up inside of her. Maybe someday something will happen to break down that wall she’s put up around herself, but until then, she’s not going to let anybody get through to her. We’ve just got to keep on doing the best we can and hope she knows we’re here for her if she needs us.”
“I’m going to call the Carvers again,” Rene said. “If the line’s still busy, I think we ought to drive over there.”
“You know how mad that will make her.”
“I want to go anyway. I have this feeling something isn’t as it should be.”
“What a mother hen you are, Rene!” her husband said fondly.
He pressed another button on the box in his hand, and the television set went dark.
“Ed, do you know where Jamie is?” asked Barbara Hanson.
“Out in the garage, working on the car, I think.” Her husband glanced up from the sports section of the evening paper. “Have the boys run out again without cleaning up the kitchen?”
“No, it’s not that. They got the dishwasher loaded. There’s just something I feel I ought to discuss with Jamie.”
Barbara went back into the kitchen and out through the utility room door to the garage. The ceiling light was on, and as Ed had predicted, the lower portion of the youngest of their four children was protruding from beneath the hood of an ancient Dodge Charger.
Barbara gave the blue-jeaned rump a friendly swat.
“Hey, hon, can you haul yourself out of your favorite playground? There’s something bothering me, and I’d like to talk about it.”
“Sure, Mom. Hang loose for a sec, and I’ll be right with you.”
There were some clanking sounds as an unseen tool struck repeatedly against something metallic. Then Jamie came inching out from under the car hood, disheveled and plastered with grease but looking triumphant.
“I think I may finally have figured out what the problem is. And Brad was so sure I’d never get this running!”
“It’s Brad I want to talk to you about,” said Barbara. “I can’t get that phone call from him out of my mind.”
“I’m sure he feels bad about waking you up like that. If you and Dad wouldn’t be so stubborn about making us kids turn off our cells at night…”
“That’s not what worries me,” said Barbara. “It was the way he sounded. His voice—he was all worked up. You know, almost hyper. He didn’t sound like someone who’d spent the day fishing.”
“You don’t know how excited Brad gets when he’s had a good catch,” said Jamie.
“Yes, but, still …” She hesitated, trying to decide how to pave the way for the question she had come out to the garage to ask. Knowing how defensive Jamie always was about Brad, she feared that no matter how she phrased it, it would be considered an unforgivable accusation.
“You know how fond I am of Brad,” she began tentatively. “He’s been in and out of our house for so many years, I’ve come to feel that he’s almost an extra son.”
“What are you getting at, Mom?” Jamie asked suspiciously.
“It’s because I love Brad that I’m worried about him,” said Barbara. She drew a long breath and took the plunge. “Brad isn’t acting normal these days. I think he ought to be getting some counseling. It’s as though he isn’t living in the same world with the rest of us.”
As she had anticipated, Jamie became immediately hostile.
“You know how much stuff has gone wrong for him in the past few years! First, out of the blue, his father drops dead of a heart attack. Then his mother marries a guy Brad can’t stand. They get a divorce, and that awful thing happens to Mindy. Isn’t that enough to make anybody spacey?”
“From the things Laura Brummer’s told me, ‘spacey’ is an understatement,” Barbara said. “She says Brad won’t even let her give Mindy’s clothes away. And he won’t let her take down the high chair. He wants it kept at the table, as though that baby were still there to sit in it.”
“Brad’s mother’s got no right to pass judgment!” snapped Jamie. “She’s an emotional mess herself and always has been!”
“Granted, Laura’s unstable. Still, she isn’t crazy. She’s managed to accept what’s happened to Mindy, and Brad hasn’t.”
“Are you trying to say Brad is crazy?”
“No, of course not. You don’t have to be crazy to crack under pressure. It seems to me Brad is looking at life in a twisted way. What I’m worried about is that he might lose all touch with reality.”
“Just because he called here later at night than he should have? It’s natural to lose track of time when you’re up in the mountains.”
“I don’t think Brad was in the mountains,” said Barbara. “I do think he was calling long distance—I could hear the hum on the line—but I don’t believe he was calling from the Pecos. He said he was phoning from a twenty-four-hour convenience store. There isn’t any such store in the village of Terrero.”
“How do you know there isn’t?”
“I asked your father. If you’ll remember, he was up there last fall during deer hunting season. He says there’s a grocery store and a gas station, and they both close at six.” She paused, waiting for Jamie’s reaction. When t
here was none, she continued, “Where is he really? The two of you always tell each other everything. He must have filled you in on where he was going.”
“What he told me was just what he told you on the telephone,” said Jamie. “He said he was going up to his dad’s old cabin. He said he needed to get away by himself for a while, and he’d be back for school next Monday.”
“Was there anything else he told you?” Barbara prodded. “Believe me, dear, I’m not trying to stir up problems. I’m concerned that Brad may be in trouble. I know how loyal you are to him, and I hate to ask you to break a confidence, but I really do think it’s important for you to tell me.”
The silence that followed this statement seemed interminable. Then, just as she was beginning to think no answer would be forthcoming, Jamie suddenly blurted, “A couple of weeks ago …”
The sentence hung there between them, aching for completion.
“What happened a couple of weeks ago?” Barbara asked gently.
“Brad asked me if I’d go with him to help find Mindy. He said he thought Gavin had taken her to Texas.”
“He wanted you to help find Mindy!” Barbara struggled to keep the horror out of her voice. “Brad asked you to do that, and you didn’t tell his mother!”
“How could I?” Jamie responded. “You know she couldn’t handle it.”
“You don’t have a choice. You’ve got to go over there and tell her tomorrow. Dear Lord, now I really am sure there’s something wrong with Brad!”
She braced herself for a hot denial.
Instead, Jamie said miserably, “So am I, Mom.”
Chapter 13
THEY HAD BEEN DRIVING for over an hour in total silence. Tracy sat with her head resting against the back of the seat, watching the highway unwind in front of them in the beam of their headlights like a strand of thread from a swiftly rolling spool. The lights of approaching cars struck her eyes and fell away again at irregular intervals, becoming less frequent the farther they got from Winfield. On either side of the car lay great masses of darkness, broken only occasionally by a flicker of lamplight from the window of a distant farmhouse.
