Under Cover

by Caroline Crane

  “This is where it happened,” I said.

  “It?”

  “The murder. Right here.”

  “That murder?”

  “What murder did you think? Poor Johnny Kinsser. He was having fun with what he thought were his friends, admiring the moon on the water, and then whammo. It must have hurt, too.”

  Maddie said nothing.

  I said, “I don’t see how people can do things like that. Austen had it all planned in cold blood. How could he? You were right about psychopaths. They are weird people. And horrible.”

  Still nothing.

  “Mads?”

  She gave me a dazed look, as if she just woke up.

  “That was brave of you,” I said, “acting so natural with him after all you went through with the other psycho.”

  “They’re not crazy,” she said. “Not psychotic.”

  “They seem crazy to me.”

  “I know I like the term psychopath because it sounds as if they are. Psycho, I mean. But officially they’re not insane. They’re just—sort of—twisted.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “The difference is they’re not out of touch with reality. It’s just—it’s hard to explain.”

  “Well, Austen certainly is twisted if he could do a thing like that.”

  She stared out at the water and again said nothing. I stared at the water, too, thinking of how it must have been that night.

  Then she said, “I’m seeing him again.”

  “How can you?”

  She lifted her chin in defiance. “I thought that was the idea.”

  Now I was getting confused. “It’s the way you said it. As if you actually want to see him.”

  “I do. I—feel something there.”

  “Maddie!”

  “I can’t help it. He’s not like Evan Steffers, that psycho ex of mine. Evan struts. With Aus, I feel some kind of pain underneath.”

  “It’s not pain for Johnny Kinsser, that’s for sure,” I said.

  “I don’t know. It’s just there. A sort of hurting.”

  “Maddie, have you gone off your rocker? Not only Johnny, but my brother. How would you like it if somebody did that to Ben, what Austen did?”

  When I talked about Ben that way, it hurt.

  “I think if we got to know Austen better . . .” She started back toward her car, “we might begin to have some answers.”

  I hurried to follow her. “So you’re going to tackle Austen?”

  “Tackle him? What do you mean? You want me to confront him?” She turned on her engine and backed away from the river.

  “Absolutely not,” I said. “He mustn’t have any idea what’s on our minds.”

  “Then what are we doing it for?” She crept along the overpass and up to Hudson Hills’s main drag.

  “According to Liam,” I explained, or tried to, “Austen didn’t like Johnny Kinsser hanging around. So he decided to get him out of the picture permanently.”

  “That’s a stupid reason.” Maddie clearly thought Liam was rewriting the whole story.

  “It makes sense to a psychopath,” I said. “You don’t like the mosquito buzzing around, so you bop it.”

  “Not just because it’s buzzing,” Maddie pointed out. “You know it’s going to bite you.”

  I remembered something else Liam said. Austen claimed Johnny was a snitch.

  What did he snitch about? Something Austen did or was going to do? I wished I had gotten more information. I’d been too busy ranting even to think of it at the time. Now I’d lost my chance.

  For several miles, Maddie drove in silence. As we passed the green sign announcing Southbridge, she shook her head. “I still can’t see him as a killer.”

  I said, “You’d better believe it, lady.”

  “How can I, without proof?”

  I could, because—because—Liam was my brother?

  Because he was sincere. Somehow I just knew that. But it was hardly proof, so I didn’t say it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Grandma was in the kitchen when I got home. I braced myself and asked her if I could borrow Archie. Again.

  She turned from the sink where she was washing spinach. “What is it this time, kiddo?”

  “Just a short trip into town.”

  “This is town. What did you think it was?”

  “Um—I left something at school.”

  Grandma knew all about lying and she could see through me. “Think school’s still open?”

  “Somebody will be there.” Even if they weren’t, that wasn’t where I planned to go.

  She took the keys out of her purse, but held onto them. “Give it to me straight, kid. I want to know what’s on your mind.”

  “Nothing’s ever on my mind.” I took the keys from her and breezed out before she could stop me. She seemed to expect it. At least she didn’t yell.

  My destination was not the school, but the police station. I’d hoped Rick Falco would be there, Maddie’s boyfriend. He could be anywhere, but I wanted him there and I wanted him now.

  The officer at the desk was someone I didn’t know. In fact, I didn’t know most of our police force, except Rick. This guy had small brown eyes and a wisp of a mustache.

  Suddenly I felt stupid. My worry might have no basis at all, but I had come this far.

  “Can you tell me if Officer Falco is on duty?”

  “If you mean right now, he’s not.”

  “Could you tell me how to reach him? I mean right now. It’s sort of personal and sort of police stuff.”

  He took my name and called Rick, all the time keeping his eyes on me. This was stupid, and Rick would think so, too. I almost hoped he wouldn’t answer.

  No such luck. Officer Mustache held the phone out to me.

  Rick said, “Hi, Cree, what’s up? Is Maddie okay?”

  Would he care what Maddie was doing? What could I say?

  “She’s more than okay,” I said, “but she has me worried. It’s a long story. I’d rather not do it on the phone.”

  Rather not snitch was what I meant. What other reason did I have for telling him about Austen?

  I did have a reason. It occurred to me that this might be the only way I could tell anybody about Austen. I only hoped it was so roundabout that the goons would never find out where it came from.

  We agreed to meet at Tina’s Corner, a little coffee shop in the lower village near the train station. Grandma and I used to go there for ice cream. In fact, we still did sometimes.

  Tina’s was a girlie sort of place with ruffled curtains on the windows and on the door. It served ice cream and sandwiches, as well as coffee, tea, and crumpets. I’m making up that last one because I’m not sure what a crumpet is. I had chosen Tina’s because it was far from Maddie’s usual haunts and I didn’t think she’d see us there.

  Rick came in with an anxious frown.

  “It’s okay,” I assured him. “Maddie’s just fine and I’m not here to squeal on her.” Not much, anyway.

  I went on, “I didn’t mean to take you away from your time off. It’s just that I have this problem and she was helping me with it, but she—I mean—it’s not going the way I thought it would.”

  His worry turned to bafflement. Not too surprising. I was making a botch of the whole thing.

  He joined me at my table for two and ordered coffee for us both. I would rather have had ice cream, but kept quiet about that. I had a lot to apologize for.

  I started with Liam. And Dad. And what Liam was mixed up in. When I came to the part about the murder, I really caught Rick’s interest. He knew about it, of course.

  I could see why Maddie went for him. He was adorable and his eyes were the greenest you ever saw. Maddie and I first met him when we ran into each other at the police station, each with a problem of our own. Then Maddie had other problems and got to know him better.

  Rick listened without interrupting. Finally he grinned. “Your brother? You never knew you had one? That’
s cool.”

  “Yes, but the circumstances,” I said. “That’s not so cool. I’m sure you know all about the case.”

  “Not really. It’s not ours. I do know what’s been released to the public, as I’m sure you do, too.”

  “I’ve been researching. I want to do something, but Liam starts yelling if I say anything about the police. I can’t not do anything.”

  “Yeah, I can see that,” Rick agreed. “I’d feel the same way.”

  “What would you do?”

  “I’d go nuts,” he said. “No, seriously, I think what you need is a witness. Your brother saw it, but if he won’t talk, you’ll have to find somebody else.”

  “How can I? He named some people who were there, and I found them, but they’re Austen’s loyal followers. I thought Maddie could help. I didn’t count on—I mean—she and Austen really hit it off, I don’t know why.”

  As soon as it was out of my mouth, I wished I hadn’t said it quite like that. I caught a glimpse of shock and alarm and then he went into the deadpan mode that seems to come with cop training.

  He opened a packet of Sweet ‘n Low and poured it into his coffee. “This Austen must be quite a character.”

  How to explain? “He does have a certain kind of—of—drawing power, or whatever you’d call it. He’s got those other guys doing exactly what he wants. He scared my brother into keeping quiet and taking the rap. And Maddie—”

  Rick seemed to know what was coming. I saw it in the way he looked at me.

  “And Maddie?” he prompted.

  I told him about the day we had just had and the things Maddie said. Listening to myself, I wondered if I really was snitching. I was sure I came off as hopelessly jealous, wanting Austen for myself. No way. The only thing I wanted was for him to land in jail where he belonged.

  “The thing is—” I said, hoping it was the thing, “—if she’s even trying to trip him up, I didn’t think she’d get this far into it. I had all the background information and I was planning just what I could do to find out what I need, and then she—I mean she—I don’t know what I mean. She didn’t think Austen was so bad. She actually felt sorry for him. She’s even planning to see him again. Without me. I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing. It’s like she’s going against my whole plan.”

  “She might be trying to follow it in her own way,” he said.

  “Then why can’t she just tell me? We were supposed to be working together. I thought I could—I mean, I thought maybe—”

  The door opened and two girls came in. They were in my class. It made me glad Rick wasn’t wearing his uniform. That would have sent rumors flying all over the school and Maddie would hear them.

  “So, anyway—” Those girls had me all shaken. They went up to the counter, but kept looking back at me. I tried to smile and be friendly, but I didn’t think it worked.

  “So anyway—” I brought my focus back to Rick, “if she gets cozy with Austen, it’s going to ruin everything.”

  “Could be an act,” he said.

  Defending her, of course. I wondered what he really thought.

  “But that’s what I was going to do. I have the whole background more than she does. I would know what to talk about. I’d know what to ask.” And I was afraid of sabotage, but couldn’t make myself say it.

  He looked at his watch.

  “I’m sorry.” I was always being sorry. “Your day off.”

  “Not really. Just a few hours. They never last. I’ll see what I can find out from HH.” He got up from the table and paid the bill.

  I got up, too. “HH. That’s cute.” I felt monstrously ashamed. My complaint about Maddie didn’t seem nearly as solid as it once did. I’d only put myself over as a jealous bitch.

  Jealous of what? Couldn’t anybody figure out that my only interest in Austen was to see him in prison? I hadn’t gotten anything from Rick. He didn’t know even as much as I did.

  Maybe he could find out. I just hoped he would leave me out of it, at least my name.

  I could easily have walked to Tina’s Corner from home, but I’d needed Grandma’s car for the police station, so I already had it. It took me back and saved me the cardiovascular exercise of climbing those long steps. I was just getting out of it when Maddie’s red Chevy came whooshing down from Maple Avenue, turned in at our driveway, and stopped so close in back of Archie I thought she was going to hit him. Since that wasn’t her usual style of driving, I could tell she was furious.

  About Rick? About me? How could she have found out so quickly? It must have been those big-mouth girls. I didn’t even know she knew them. Or they knew her.

  She jumped out of her car. “Did you have a nice coffee break?”

  I could hardly deny I’d been having coffee with Rick. “Coffee wasn’t the point,” I said. “I’m worried.”

  “You should be.”

  “About my brother.” I still felt funny saying it.

  “My brother’s going to hear about this.”

  Probably mine would, too, if she knew where to find him.

  She could ask Austen. And tell him all about what we were doing.

  Panic time. I tried not to let it show.

  Or think about what Ben would say. He was more level-headed than Maddie, not as quick to jump to conclusions.

  “It was all business,” I said.

  “Sure it was.”

  “I wanted Rick’s advice. Maybe some help with the goons. Come on inside, I’ll tell you about it. Grandma made brownies.” If there were any left. She’d actually made them yesterday.

  “I don’t need brownies. And neither do you.” Her eyes traveled to my hips. That was a low blow. But I did have a slender waist.

  “We were only talking business,” I said again. “Hudson Hills business. He calls it HH.”

  I shouldn’t have said that. It reminded her, as if she needed reminding, that I’d been talking to Rick. “He said he’d see what he could get from HH.”

  “And you had to do this behind my back, why?”

  “I didn’t think of it as behind your back. He was just someone I knew. I went to the station first. He wasn’t there, but they called him for me.”

  This just kept getting worse. I tried again to invite her inside. Or at least make her understand.

  “Maddie, you’ve had a brother all your life. I just got one and I don’t want to see him go to prison for somebody else’s crime.”

  She stood resting against her car with no intention of going into my house. “How do you know he’s innocent? Just because he says so.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to find out. I told you that. I did get some advice from, uh, your friend. He said I need a witness. Those guys were the only ones there and they’re not unbiased. I was going to try and trip up Austen. That was my only hope.”

  Maddie folded her arms. “You’ll never trip up Austen.”

  “I know. He’s had plenty of time to work it all out beforehand. I just suddenly got hit with it.”

  She opened her mouth, probably to say I could leave the whole thing alone. But she knew I couldn’t.

  She seemed to thaw just a bit. “What did he say?” Meaning Rick.

  “That’s mostly what he said. That I need a witness and he’d try to find out where they’re at. The police, I mean.”

  “You know where they’re at, since your precious brother won’t talk. Maybe he wants to go to jail.”

  “I suppose it’s safer than being on the loose, with Austen around.” I gave it another try. “Come on inside. Brownie time.”

  She unfolded her arms and stood away from the car. “It’s more like dinnertime. I should go home.”

  “Just for a second. I don’t want us to fight.”

  “You should have thought of that before you talked to Rick.” But she went with me, anyway.

  We weren’t all the way back to normal. I still felt some chill in the air. She couldn’t bring herself to believe Austen was as guilty as I knew he was.


  She thought Liam was the one. But she hadn’t seen those tears.

  Since I no longer had my bike, or a car, we’d gotten in the habit of her picking me up for school. Ben had to leave earlier (so he said), which ruled out him coming for me the way he once did. I tried not to worry. We’d had that lovely evening at Waterside and later. It was all I could do to keep from thinking maybe it was a break-up date after all, in spite of the ring.

  The next morning I got to wondering if anybody would come and take me to school. I would wait until twenty-past eight and then I’d start walking. And I’d be late.

  At eight-fifteen Maddie showed up. I could tell she wasn’t all the way mellow, but she came. I said nothing about my worries. We talked about Austen instead.

  “He’s a lost soul,” she informed me. “You’d never get anywhere with him because your mind is made up.”

  “I can act as well as you can.” Probably better, but I didn’t say so. “I feel stupid, going all the time to HH. There’s got to be a better way.”

  “You can knock it off with the HH,” she said. “It’s not that cute.”

  It would have been cute if he’d said it to her instead of to me. I dropped the HH and repeated that I couldn’t keep showing up there. “Even if we both do, they’ll start thinking we’re a couple of fruitcakes.”

  “They’ll think we’re coming onto them,” she said. “They’ll be flattered.”

  “They’ll think we’re stalking them. And we are. They might even figure out why.”

  “I have a reason,” she said smugly. “Austen wants to see me.”

  It occurred to me why he might like her. Well, one of the reasons. She had a car.

  I had access to Grandma’s car, but not all the time. I didn’t want to ask for it too often or she’d get suspicious and poke her nose in my business. Furthermore, that bright metallic orange was way too conspicuous for undercover work. I couldn’t do surveillance or even just be there without getting noticed.

  I really wanted to try the Mulvaneys again. I wanted to see my dad and get his take on things, as well as a progress report. If there was any progress. But the couple of times I’d been to that house, Liam was there and Dad wasn’t. And Liam made it clear he didn’t want me around.