Under Cover

by Caroline Crane

  “I was still focusing.” I sounded as guilty as I felt. “No pictures yet. I was aiming for the street. I didn’t even see you.”

  “Is that true?” He stood very close, invading my space.

  “Of course it’s true. Are you camera-shy, too?”

  He moved back just a little. “A camera can steal your soul. Don’t you know that?”

  “I thought it was mostly primitive people who believed those things.”

  “It’s true.” His eyes narrowed behind the glasses. He wasn’t kidding.

  This was all so crazy. How was I going to get any facts?

  He could plead insanity. Maybe he really was—so insane he scared me.

  “I’ll take that now.” He reached for the camera.

  I handed it over. “It’s not digital. You can’t see what’s in there until they’re developed.” The same thing I’d told Freddie. I held out my hand to take it back.

  He tried to pry it open. If he succeeded, the film would be destroyed by light. That might have been what he wanted.

  He slipped it into his pocket.

  “Hey!” I said. “I paid for that.”

  He dug into another pocket and handed me a twenty-dollar bill.

  “What—”

  “Just making sure.” His smile was almost friendly. He looked at Freddie and then at me. “Where are you guys off to?”

  Freddie had lost his twinkle and seemed wary. “Nowhere. Just walking.”

  Austen walked with us. I almost forgot Sam McCallum was there, too. He never said a word. I finished my Coke and was about to toss the can into a garbage basket.

  Austen caught my hand. “Uh-uh. Recycle.”

  His charm came and went. He was like those days with swiftly alternating rain and sunshine. Grandma called them stripy days.

  “Where do I recycle it?” I asked.

  He turned me around, took my hand, and we went back to the two green dumpsters. One was for disposables and one for recyclables. With a hand on my back, he guided me to the second one. His other hand still held mine.

  “Aren’t these things supposed to be clean?” I asked.

  “Do you think most of the stuff in there is clean? The kitchen throws it out as is.” He brought my hand over the dumpster, which was nearly full, and I dropped the can.

  “You’re a good citizen,” I said.

  “Yep, that’s me. Good citizen. Thank you for cooperating.”

  “You’re entirely welcome.” Now can I have my camera back? I hoped he would think of it himself.

  We walked on, all four of us, back around to the front of the school. Not the street. No pizza this time.

  Freddie had fallen back with Sam and was very quiet. Austen still rested his hand on my shoulder. It felt warm. Both his hands were warm.

  The school did have a picturesque front. The main entrance had steps on each side running up to what looked like a terrace above the door.

  “What’s up there?” I asked.

  “Nothing.” Austen said.

  “Really nothing?”

  “You want to see it?” His hand went to my elbow and he guided me toward the steps. He wasn’t being fresh. It was more sort of—well, chivalrous.

  Austen? Chivalrous? I remembered how he had treated Liam. Not to mention Johnny Kinsser.

  We all trooped up the steps. It really was nothing, just as he said—a terrace with a low wall across the front and two doors going inside, one at each end. To break up the monotony of gray stone slabs were two rectangular pits, also walled, but those walls were very low. I assumed they were meant to be planters, though no plants were in them. Only a few cigarette butts and gum wrappers. I wandered over to the front wall and leaned on it, looking out. Austen followed.

  “What do you think?” he said. “Unimpressive, right?”

  I gazed down at the river. “Nice view. Do people hang out here much?” I could see they did, from the debris in the planters.

  He shrugged. “Now and then. It’s a good place to smoke until a teacher comes along.”

  “Do you smoke?”

  His mouth twitched in a faint smile. He didn’t answer.

  I really wanted to start on my digging, but didn’t know how. I had nothing planned. I’d wanted to test the waters first and see what came naturally. Obviously it wasn’t going to work that way. If I asked any questions it would be the same as it was with Freddie. He’d gotten pissed but not as much as Austen would. And how could I keep my face from going red with the lies? Or purple, or even green. I’d told Maddie I was counting on my acting ability, but where was it? Where was my brain?

  Austen backed me against the wall and studied me. “What are you thinking?”

  Could he see right into me? His voice was low and velvety. I’d never given a thought to its sound before. I’d been more concerned with what he said. The voice was—well, heck, it was seductive.

  “Not thinking anything in particular.” I said it as casually as I could. Sam and Freddie came to perch on the wall a few feet away.

  To my surprise, Austen picked me up as if I weighed nothing and sat me on the wall. He stood so close his knees almost touched mine. “How can you think about nothing? Doesn’t anything bother you?”

  “Um—a little.” It was now or never. “Every time I come here I can’t help thinking about that kid who was killed.” I tried to say it as if it just occurred to me.

  “Then why do you come here?”

  “I told you. I get nervous starting a new school. I wanted to feel more at home. Did you know him? The one they found in some guy’s car?” I forced myself to look directly at Aus. Into his eyes. He didn’t flinch or turn away. I almost did.

  “Yeah, I knew him. What’s it to you?”

  “It’s nothing to me personally,” I said. “It’s the sort of thing—you know—that sort of grabs you.”

  “It doesn’t grab me.”

  “I wonder how come?”

  “How come it doesn’t grab me?”

  “How come he’s dead?”

  “Because he died.”

  “Oh, funny.”

  “What?” he said. “You think that’s tasteless, making jokes?”

  “I didn’t take it as a joke. In fact, it’s a logical answer to my stupid question. I just wondered—I mean, if somebody killed him, I can’t help wondering why they did it.”

  “Why don’t you ask them?” He bumped gently into my knees and then pulled back. So far he seemed fairly cool. What if he didn’t stay that way? I slid off the wall just in case.

  “I can’t ask them if I don’t know them.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. “I was mostly just wondering out loud.”

  And making a mess of it.

  I looked at my watch. Forty minutes before the next bus.

  My head kept spinning. I moved farther from the wall and made a supreme effort to switch topics. “How about trading my camera for a twenty-dollar bill?”

  “Nope,” he said. “A deal’s a deal.”

  “I didn’t make any deal. It was all one-sided. And I’d really like those pictures, if they came out.”

  “Why wouldn’t they? Didn’t you know what you were doing?”

  “Not really. It was my first try at photography.”

  That gave him something to think about. I was glad we’d gotten off the subject of Johnny Kinsser.

  “Tell you what,” he decided. “I’ll develop the pictures, two copies each, and give one set to you.”

  Relief poured though me. I’d actually taken a few and he would find he could trust me. “That would be lovely. I’ll pay for my set.”

  I wondered if he really would do it. There was nothing incriminating on that film. No shots of Austen or even Freddie. I knew very well why they didn’t want their pictures taken. Criminals usually don’t.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Maddie worked like a fiend all weekend and got her project finished. For once, she didn’t have another to take its place.

  “I think my dad feels guilty
about how hard I work,” she told me over the phone. “He thinks I should take a rest. Too bad I couldn’t get that sooner, on the weekend. We could have done Hudson Hills and spent more time there.”

  “Maddie,” I said, “I wouldn’t know where to find those guys on a weekend. We have to catch them at school.” I remembered that Austen said he lived on Jade Avenue. I wasn’t about to go up and down Jade Avenue knocking on doors. He might not be there, anyway. He wasn’t stuck at home with an ankle monitor.

  On Monday, we both took the afternoon off. Maddie had qualms about that, she’s so law-abiding. I told her that was the only way to do it and it was for a good cause.

  “It’s for justice,” I said. “We don’t want the wrong guy punished. Even if he is my brother.”

  I felt weird, talking about a brother. I still wasn’t used to it. Almost seventeen years old and this was the first time I ever had a brother. Maddie had grown up with one. For her it wasn’t so strange.

  She did some primping before we set out. I reminded her once again, these guys were killers.

  “All the better,” she said. “How can we pull this off if we don’t get them interested?”

  She had a point there. I hoped she expected to keep our own interest where it should be.

  We didn’t try to get into the school. We pretended we were sightseeing and walked over to look at the river.

  “Magnifique!” Maddie exclaimed. “That’s the same view you can see from your house. You don’t have to come all the way here.”

  “It’s not why I came here,” I reminded her in a whisper, even though nobody was nearby.

  It seemed like forever that we stayed there looking at the river. We wanted to be where we could spring into action as soon as the bell rang.

  I pointed out River Edge Park. “We can go there later,” I said, and then remembered it was her car. “If you want to.”

  “Oh, I do.” She looked back at the school entrance, from which the student body would soon be pouring out and down the steps. “It’s too bad you don’t have some pictures of those guys.”

  “Well, I don’t. They wouldn’t let me. I think that in itself is suspicious. Don’t worry, I’ll recognize them.”

  The bell rang. We started walking toward the steps, with me scanning each face that came through the door. It wasn’t easy because there were torrents of faces. I wished I had told them when I was coming, but I hadn’t been sure.

  “There!” I said, as Austen appeared.

  I didn’t want to holler and wave. Instead I unclipped the barrette from my ponytail and readjusted it, shaking my head as I did so. Stacie used to do that before she cut her hair.

  Then I got embarrassed. It was such an obvious gesture. Stacie didn’t mind being obvious, but I did.

  Anyhow, it worked. Austen noticed. He was starting down the steps, but jerked to a stop and stared at me. With those glasses he might have been nearsighted. I had never thought of that. I walked quickly into the torrent of kids, stretching my neck as if looking for someone, but not him.

  They scattered away from him as he came striding toward me. I pretended to see him for the first time. “Austen! Is that right? Austen?”

  “And you’re—” He aimed a finger at me.

  “Peggy Mellin,” I said before Maddie could open her mouth. I was pretty sure I’d told her about the new me, but I didn’t want to take chances.

  “This,” I said, “is my friend Madelyn. She wants to see the place, too.”

  Maddie didn’t need an alias. She had nothing to hide.

  Austen eased us out of the crowd. “What are you ladies doing here? Don’t you have school?”

  Maddie said, “We got out early for good behavior.”

  Austen looked over his shoulder, maybe to see what was so fascinating about Hudson Hills High School.

  “It’s lucky you caught me,” he said. “I was thinking of taking some time off, too.”

  “What about exams and stuff?” Maddie said.

  “Hell with it.”

  His attitude puzzled me. Unless he was so brilliant he didn’t need to study. “Where are your buddies?” I asked.

  “They’ll be along.” He moved us still farther away, across the lawn to where there were picnic tables. What a school!

  Maddie said, “This is nice. We don’t have anything like this at Southbridge.”

  Austen put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. The two slaves came running. Fred seemed delighted to see me. Sam was more the unemotional type. I introduced Maddie and explained that she wanted to see their school. It seemed like an awfully stupid reason. We should have done better. When you’re snooping, your cover story has to make sense.

  “We can’t stay long,” Maddie told them. And then to me, “I should have brought a sandwich.”

  Austen peeled some bills from a wad in his pocket and gave them to Sam. “You guys go get a pizza. Large. What do you want on it?” he asked Maddie and me.

  “Uh—anything,” I said.

  “Whatever anybody else wants.” Maddie came close to batting her lashes. I noticed her eyes twitching. “And could you get me a diet Pepsi? I’ll pay for it.” She already had her wallet out. Austen made her put it away. He called on his cell phone, ordering the pizza so they could start getting it ready.

  “You were right, Cree,” Maddie said. “It’s a wonderful school. Wonderful people.”

  “Who?” said Austen, with a questioning look at me.

  I did a quick patch job. “She’s the only one who calls me that. Because I’m part Cree Indian. But I really prefer to be known as Peggy. Or Peg. Either one. I like Peggy better. Peg makes me think of those peg board toys that babies play with.”

  Maddie spent a few seconds looking abashed at her mistake, then rose to the occasion. “Not only babies. My father has a peg board in the garage for hanging his tools. It’s a little different from the baby kind.”

  I cut my eyes in her direction. Not too much detail, please.

  “You call Fred Gravitz, Freddie?” I asked Austen. “So now we have a Freddie and a Maddie. That’s cute.”

  “Adorable,” said Maddie.

  Austen got up from the bench where he was sitting and moved next to Maddie. “You live in Southbridge, too?”

  “Yes. Lake Road.”

  “It’s near Fremont,” I said quickly, “where I live. It goes off from it. But it’s easier for her than for me up in those hills. She has a car.”

  Austen looked pleased with that. And envious, I supposed. He’d had his chance, with a car and a chauffeur in the person of Liam, and he blew it. He should learn to treat the servant class with more consideration.

  The two guys came back, Fred carrying the pie and Sam, a box with our drinks. They’d gotten two toppings, half mushroom and half pepperoni. We had a feast, with Austen turning on his charm for Maddie’s benefit, and Maddie gobbling it up. I had noticed on my last visit that Aus actually did have charm when he wanted to. He kept leaning in close to her and murmuring. He laughed when she said clever things. How could he laugh when he was responsible for taking someone’s life?

  Because he was a psychopath. Other people’s lives meant nothing to him. After all the trouble Maddie went through with her ex, how could she want to get mixed up with another such person?

  Or was this all a big act on her part? If that was true, then it was, as Grandma would say, a helluva good one.

  “Is your graduation the same day as ours?” Maddie asked.

  Austen said nothing. Freddie said, “I guess so. End of the month, sometime.”

  “All of you are graduating?” She looked around at the three guys. Freddie shook his head. “Me and Sam have another year.”

  Austen only shrugged. Freddie gave him a strange look.

  Maddie kept up her questions. She must have read in some article that guys like to talk about themselves. “What are you aiming for?” she asked.

  “Aiming for?” Freddie said.

  “In the long run. Like I think I
might go into law, like my dad. But not real estate law. That’s his field. I’d want something more interesting. And, uh—” She’d forgotten my alias and almost said Cree. “—wants to be a ballerina.”

  “Not anymore,” I corrected her. “I might try child psychology.”

  “Psychology!” Freddie looked as if it gave him a bad taste. “What for?”

  “It’s interesting,” I said. “People’s minds. Are interesting.”

  “Doesn’t sound interesting to me,” said Austen.

  “To each his own,” I replied. “What’s your ambition?” If he had one.

  He rocked back and looked up at the sky. “I’m thinking maybe the priesthood.”

  “Really?” I tried to catch Maddie’s eye, and couldn’t. He might have been looking for absolution. I said, “Well—okay.”

  “It’s okay with you?” I couldn’t tell if that was a challenge or he was kidding.

  “Whatever makes you happy,” I mumbled.

  “Very happy.”

  Could Liam possibly have lied to me?

  The party lasted till almost five. Then we really had to leave.

  Maddie insisted on checking out River Edge Park, so I showed her the way. Just as we were on the overpass, a train went under it, rattling our bones. It blew its loud diesel horn to announce it was coming into the station. I was used to that, living not far from the railroad myself, but for Maddie it was new. “Ouch!” She slapped one ear and then the other. “How can you stand it?”

  She forgot all about it once we were in the park. “This is neat. I’m really liking Hudson Hills.”

  “You want to move here with me?” I asked, kidding, of course. “We could spend our last year of high school here.”

  “We could get an apartment together. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?”

  She must have been kidding. Who was going to pay for us to get an apartment?

  She drove along the macadam road until we were right by the water. Then she got out of the car, stretched her arms, and looked out over the Tappan Zee. “I don’t think I was ever so close to it before. There’s always that railroad track in the way. I don’t count being close to it on the train.”