“Dog,” Nick said. “He said, ‘Dog.’ It was the only word he said.”
“He wanted you to look after Orion for him, right?” Beej said.
Nick shrugged. “I guess.”
“Then what happened?”
“This is a waste of time.”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
Nick scowled at the camera. Beej held it steady on him until he spoke again.
“Mr. Schuster’s family showed up at the house the next night—his son and daughter-in-law and their kids.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting that. Orion was sleeping in his room. I was on the couch.”
“You were staying at Mr. Schuster’s?” Beej said.
“While he was in the hospital, yeah,” Nick said. “I figured he’d appreciate it if I looked after Orion. But his family acted like I was there to rob the place. The son, Elliot, started yelling at me. He wanted to know who I was and what I was doing in his dad’s house. I was pretty sure he was going to call the cops. I thought his wife would say something, but she didn’t. She just stood there and let Elliot give me the third degree.”
“What did you tell him?”
Nick didn’t answer.
Beej sighed. “Okay. And then what happened?”
“It was crazy. Elliot was quizzing me, Orion was barking up in his room, and then Claudia—that’s the wife—decided to go upstairs. If I’d known what she was going to do, I would have stopped her. She heard Orion barking. She must have been able to tell which room he was in. She should have known better, but she barged into his room. Then we heard her scream, and Elliot charged up the stairs. I’m not sure what happened, except that Orion bit her. At least, that’s what she said.
“It wasn’t serious. There was no blood or anything. Knowing Orion, it was more like a nip. He probably thought she was an intruder. He only ever met her that one time. And it didn’t help that she got so worked up.” He shook his head again. “I tried to get everyone to calm down, but every time Orion moved, Claudia freaked out, and that got Orion going all over again. Every time I gave the command and got him to be quiet, she’d start in, screaming at me to keep the dog away from her. And then he’d start barking again. It was a vicious circle.”
He sounded exasperated. “They’re terrified of him. Finally, Claudia started screaming at Elliot to call Animal Control. She said she didn’t care what Mr. Schuster said about Orion—”
“What did Mr. Schuster say?” Beej said.
“That he’s a good dog. That there was no reason to be afraid of him. He said that all the time, you know, because he’s so big and has such a deep bark. Claudia said it was obvious he was a vicious dog. She said he should be put down.”
Anger flashed in his eyes, and that scared me. Nick did stupid things when he got angry.
“Then what?” Beej prompted.
“Mr. Schuster’s granddaughter said that it would be wrong to do anything to Orion without telling him. In the end, Elliot told me to put Orion in the basement.” He looked disgusted. “Anyway, they must have talked to Mr. Schuster at the hospital the next day, because when I went to the house to check on Orion, Elliot hired me to look after him, walk him every day. But they insisted on keeping him in the basement.”
“Then?”
“Then nothing.”
“C’mon, Nick.” Beej was working hard to get the story out of him, but he wasn’t making it easy. “Something happened . . .”
“Yeah,” Nick said. “Three days later, Elliot fired me.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
Beej sighed again. “Okay, then what happened?”
Nick stared at the lens.
“What do you think?” he said.
“You got mad, right? Nick?”
His eyes shifted to the floor. “Maybe I did a few things I shouldn’t have.”
“And then?”
“A few days later, the cops busted me for breaking and entering and theft. Okay? Satisfied?” His temper flared again, and he stalked out of the frame. Beej switched her camera off. The end.
I stared at the blank screen. Breaking and entering? Theft?
I popped the DVD out of the player—and almost dropped it when I turned and saw my father standing behind me in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, his hair mussed from sleeping. I wasn’t sure how much of Beej’s film he had seen, but I was sure he’d seen at least some of it. He didn’t look terribly surprised.
I thought about Beej peering through the window of La Folie . . .as if she’d had a pretty good idea she’d find me there.
I thought about my dad in the kitchen earlier that morning, hanging up the phone and giving me that peculiar look.
“She called here, didn’t she?” I said.
He didn’t ask who I meant.
“What did she say, Dad?”
“She wanted to know where she could find you.”
“Why didn’t she just ask for me?”
“She said she wanted to give you something, but she was afraid you’d hang up on her.”
“So you told her I was going to be at La Folie?”
He nodded. I glanced at the TV.
“Did you see the whole thing while you were standing there?” I said.
“I caught the end of it.”
“What should I do?”
“Is there anything you can do?” my dad asked. “If you want, I could ask around, see how serious it is.”
I set the DVD on top of the player and headed for my room—well, the room that my dad calls mine when he’s not calling it the guest room. As I opened the door, I heard Nick’s voice again in the living room: “What’s the point?”
“Do you think we could go inside before I freeze my butt off?” Morgan said. She stamped her feet and hugged herself with mittened hands.
“You go ahead,” I said. “I’ll be up in a while.”
Morgan eyed me suspiciously. She had surprised me by showing up at the library ten minutes early instead of her usual ten minutes late. Beej, on the other hand, was nearly half an hour late, which left me unsympathetic to Morgan’s complaints. I had been freezing my butt off for at least three times longer than she had.
“What’s going on?” she said. “Who are you waiting for?”
“Who says I’m waiting for anyone?” I said. The DVD case Beej had given me had her number inside. I had called the number and left a message telling her where and when to meet me. So far, she was a no-show.
“You’re meeting that girl, aren’t you?” Morgan said.
“What girl?”
“That girl,” she said, pointing. Beej was swinging down the street toward us, wearing the same clothes she’d had on the day before. “You watched it, didn’t you?” Morgan said.
I nodded as Beej came to a stop in front of me.
“So?” Beej said. She didn’t apologize for being late.
I glanced at Morgan. “Why don’t you go inside and get warm?” I said. “I’ll catch up with you soon.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stayed where she was. Well, she was my best friend. I turned to Beej.
“He has a lawyer, right?”
“Nick needs a lawyer?” Morgan said.
“He’s got some public defender,” Beej said. “But you know what they’re like—overworked, underpaid, and not very good. Otherwise, they’d be making the big bucks.”
She obviously didn’t know what she was talking about. My mother had represented Nick in the past, and she was a very good lawyer. But I let it slide.
Beej continued. “And since the cops found him with stolen property and the crowbar used to pry open the side door, I bet the lawyer’s going to push him to plead guilty.”
“Nick stole something?” Morgan asked.
“He didn’t do it,” Beej said.
“Did he tell you that?” I asked.
Beej looked angrily at me.
“In the DVD you gave me, you asked him, but he didn’t answer,” I said. “Did he come out and tell
you he didn’t do it?”
“Not exactly,” she admitted. “But I only talked to him that one time. Besides, I know Nick. He’s not a thief.”
“If he didn’t do it,” Morgan said, “why’d he have stolen property on him?”
Beej ignored her. “Do you really think Nick would steal from Mr. Schuster?” she asked me. “When he was in the hospital?”
“They arrested Nick for stealing from Mr. Schuster?” I said. As far as I knew, the only thing Nick had ever stolen was some money. That had happened a long time ago, back in middle school, and his stepbrother Joey had been the one behind it. But that didn’t mean that if I tried, I couldn’t imagine him stealing to get even for something—like, say, for being fired. But stealing from Mr. Schuster?
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Beej said.
“Even if I did believe you, what difference would it make? I wasn’t there. There’s nothing I can do.”
“You could go and see Nick. You could talk to him.”
“What good would that do?”
“I’m worried about him,” Beej said. “He’s been different ever since he got back to town. Quieter than usual. You saw the DVD. You saw what he’s like. Getting him to say anything is like pulling teeth. I’m afraid of what he might do.”
“If he wants my help, he can ask me himself.”
“He acts like he doesn’t want anyone’s help,” Beej said. “He’ll kill me when he finds out I told you.”
“In other words,” I said sourly, “not only does he not want my help, but he doesn’t even want to see me.”
Beej shook her head. “You don’t get it,” she said. “You know Nick’s record. The cops’ll lock him up for sure. Someone has to do something.”
“He doesn’t hide his problems from you,” I said. “He obviously considers you his friend. Why don’t you do something?”
“I am his friend,” Beej said. “But I can’t get near him.”
“Why not?”
“Because we were together when he was arrested.”
“What do you mean, together?”
“The day before he was arrested, I found out he was sleeping in a warehouse by the docks. I’d assumed he was staying with his aunt, but he wasn’t. He was sleeping rough. So I told him he could stay at my place.”
“You mean at the squat?” When I’d met Beej last year, she’d been living in an abandoned building. It couldn’t have been any warmer than Nick’s warehouse.
She shook her head. “I share a house with a bunch of people now. Nick was gonna stay there until he could figure out what to do. But the cops showed up and arrested him. He only got released because his aunt agreed to make sure he showed up at court and stuff.
“When his aunt caught me at her place making that DVD, she threw me out,” Beej continued. “She won’t even let me talk to him. How am I supposed to help him?”
“What was stolen?” I said.
“Mr. Schuster’s coin collection. It was worth a lot of money.”
“Define ‘a lot.’”
When she told us, Morgan whistled softly.
“And they found the collection on Nick?” I said.
“They found a few coins in his backpack,” Beej said. “And they found the crowbar at the place where he’d been sleeping. They say it’s the one used to pry open Mr. Schuster’s side door. I know it sounds bad . . .”
“What about Mr. Schuster?” I said. “What happened to him?”
“Nick says he had a stroke. It’s too bad. He’s a really nice guy.”
“You know Mr. Schuster?”
“Sure,” Beej said. “Mr. Schuster hired me to walk Orion while Nick was gone.”
Nick had disappeared while I was out of town on a school trip. I’d been worried sick. I’d asked everyone I could think of if they’d seen him. I’d even called Mr. Schuster, who’d told me that he didn’t know where Nick had gone. I’d tried to track Beej down so I could ask her too, but the couple of times I’d ventured into the dilapidated building she used to call home, there had been no sign of her. But apparently she’d known all along that Nick was leaving. He’d even made arrangements for her to look after Orion, but he hadn’t bothered to let me know where he was going or why. A dog was more important to him than I was.
“How is Mr. Schuster?” I said, determined not to let Beej see how hurt I was. “Is he going to be all right?”
“His family won’t tell me anything,” she said. “I went over there with Nick a couple of times before Elliot fired him. I was nice to them too. I even took some pictures of them for Mr. Schuster, you know, while he was in the hospital. But they know I’m a friend of Nick’s so now they treat me like poison. I know he’s back at home—that has to be a good sign, right?”
“Maybe. What makes you think I can do anything?”
“His aunt and that . . .guy she lives with think Nick messed up again. The cops are positive they’ve got the right guy. I’ve done everything I can. You’re the only person I could think of that his aunt might let see him. You also know Mr. Schuster. I thought maybe you could find some way to help Nick. I don’t know what happened between you two—that’s one more thing he won’t talk about. But it’s obvious you still care about him.”
I stared at her. “What makes you say that?”
She shook her head.
“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have watched the DVD,” she said. “You wouldn’t have called me.”
CHAPTER THREE
“Y
ou’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Morgan said after Beej had left. “You’re going to see Nick.”
“We’re going to go and see Nick,” I said. “This is your fault. I left that DVD in the restaurant. You had to pick it up and bring it to the library.”
“And you’re the one who fished it out of the garbage. Come on, Robyn. You know you wanted to watch it.”
“And you know you want to come with me to see Nick.” I didn’t know how I would feel once I was face-to-face with Nick again. “I don’t think I can do it alone, Morgan.”
According to Beej, the judge had placed three conditions on Nick’s release. He had to stay at his aunt’s house until his court date, he wasn’t allowed any contact with Beej, and he wasn’t allowed to go near Mr. Schuster or his family. Nick’s aunt had made it clear that if Nick violated any of the conditions, she’d call the police. Nick would be held in custody until his trial. I wondered if she would let me see him. If she did, would Nick even talk to me?
Nick’s aunt wasn’t home. Her live-in boyfriend, Glen, answered the door. Glen was a cop. He didn’t like Nick. The feeling was mutual.
“Is Nick here?” I said.
Glen eyed me critically. Like a lot of cops, he knew my father. “Your dad’s a smart guy,” he said. “Your mom must be pretty smart too. She’s a lawyer, right?”
I nodded.
“So how can a girl with such smart parents be dumb enough to waste time on a loser like Nick? They’re going to put him away this time. They got him on breaking and entering, theft, assault . . .”
“Assault?” Beej hadn’t mentioned that.
“First, he steals from a sick old man,” Glen said. “Then, once he’s been released, he forces his way back into the old man’s house. When the daughter-in-law tries to stop him, Nick assaults her.” He shook his head. “He’s breaking his aunt’s heart. He never learned how to control himself. I keep telling her, I’ve seen dozens of kids like him, and sooner or later, they all self-destruct.”
“Can I talk to him?” I said.
Glen studied me for a moment. “What the heck,” he said. “If Bev were here, she’d let you. I think she was hoping you could change him.” He snorted.
Glen opened the door and let us in. “Five minutes, no more. He’s in the basement. We figured if he has to hang around here, he might as well clean up the place, make himself useful. It’s through that door.”
Morgan and I unbuttoned our coats and headed for the basement.
/> “What a jerk,” Morgan muttered in my ear.
The main part of the basement was an entertainment room with a bar, a sofa, and a big-screen TV. But Nick was in the unfinished area, which contained a washer, a dryer, and a wall of shelves. He was kneeling on the concrete floor, sorting through a box of clothes. I stopped in the doorway between the rec room and where Nick was, unable to make myself go any farther. I gripped the doorframe to steady myself.
When Nick saw me, he sprang to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
Some foolish part of me had been hoping that he would be happy to see me, but he obviously wasn’t. He looked taller than I remembered, maybe because he’d lost so much weight since he’d been gone. I remembered what Beej had said. He’d been sleeping rough. He probably hadn’t been eating properly either.
My mouth was dry. I felt like I was choking.
“Beej said—” I began.
He shook his head in disgust.
“I knew it was a mistake to talk to her stupid camera,” he said.
He looked down at the ring I was wearing. Ben had given it to me. Ever since I’d found out that Nick was back in town, I had been wondering how much he knew. The look he gave me answered that question. But how did he feel? Peering at him, I couldn’t tell. Maybe he’d decided before he left town that he wasn’t interested in me anymore. Maybe that was why he had left.
“It sounds like you’re in trouble,” I said. “Again,” I added—because of the cold way he was looking at me, because I was angry with him for abandoning me, because I wanted to hurt him as much as he had hurt me.
“I didn’t ask you to come over here,” he said. “So why don’t you leave?”
I stayed put.
“I mean it, Robyn.”
Our eyes locked. I saw nothing but fury in his. He raised a fist and hammered it against the metal shelving. Empty jars rattled. Morgan yelped in surprise.
“Hey!” Glen roared from upstairs. “What’s going on down there?”
I looked at Nick. Maybe Glen was right. Maybe he was out of control. Maybe he had lashed out in rage when Elliot fired him. Maybe he was self-destructing.
I drew in a deep breath. Even though I was angry with him, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him.
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