“So you really think Gordy is still, you know, alive?” Jake looked at Cooper, then to Hiro and Lunk.
Obviously, he’d heard Cooper this morning, or heard about it. Cooper looked at Hiro and Lunk too. Their answer was all too apparent in their silence.
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “I think he is.” Begging God that he is.
“That’s good,” Jake said. “We all hope he is too.”
Hope. Like “wishing upon a star” kind of hope, or did they really believe it? Cooper didn’t want to ask.
“Gordy was a great guy,” Kelsey said.
Cooper looked at her. Was a great guy. There was that word again. So much for her level of hope.
Kelsey looked like she was in mourning. “Class just isn’t the same without him there.”
That’s why Cooper gladly stayed in the library all morning.
“If there’s anything we can do,” Kelsey said, “just ask.”
This really was sounding like a funeral.
The whole thing irritated him. “Well,” Cooper said, “we went online and found out there are registered sex offenders here in Rolling Meadows. We staked out one of those homes.”
Kelsey’s eyes grew wide. Hiro’s eyes narrowed, like she was trying to figure out what he was up to. Cooper knew he should stop. Knew it. But a hurting part of him wanted to make Kelsey squirm. Just a little.
“And then Hiro had a hunch about Joseph Stein being behind the kidnapping. You know, the former partner at Frank’n Stein’s?”
Kelsey nodded.
“Stein’s house is empty. For sale. So we broke in there—but no Gordy.”
“You broke in?” Kelsey’s mouth opened slightly like she’d just learned there was no such thing as magic lamps and genies who granted wishes.
“Lunk used a wiffle-ball bat filled with concrete. Smash. The window was gone. So, you interested in helping out like that?”
Okay, maybe it was a little mean. Apparently pain has a way of warping a sense of humor. Kelsey was doing her best to wish him well, but unless she actually had a magic lamp, he wasn’t interested.
Kelsey’s eyes darted to Jake and back. “Sounds … risky.”
Hiro leaned forward. “Insane is a better word for it.”
“Did you really do that?” Kelsey’s face paled.
Hiro glared at Cooper for a moment, then turned to face Kelsey and Jake. “Thanks, you guys, for your offer,” she said. “If we think of anything, we’ll let you know. I think we’ve done all the checking we can do for now.”
Cooper grabbed a napkin and scribbled his phone number on it. “I might have an idea for tonight, though. It will be really risky, but if you guys would like to join us, give me a call.” He held out the napkin.
Jake hesitated but finally took it. He folded it once, then tucked it into his pocket. “I’ve got to get going.” He backed away, and Kelsey followed his lead.
Jake and Kelsey hurried off.
Cooper waved. “Don’t forget to call.”
Neither of them turned around.
Lunk snickered. “Nicely handled, Coop.”
Hiro wasn’t smiling. “They were just trying to be supportive.” She fidgeted with her braid a bit. “You really have a plan for tonight?”
“Not yet. Wish I did.”
Hiro seemed satisfied. Maybe relieved.
Cooper opened his lunch and stared at his peanut butter sandwich. “He’s alive. I know it.”
Hiro took a bite of her sandwich, as if she needed to fill her mouth to keep from giving Cooper her opinion on that issue.
“And he’s in Rolling Meadows. Close.”
Hiro stopped chewing. “What makes you say that?”
Cooper shrugged. “We’ve covered most of this ground already.”
“I want to know what you’re thinking.” Hiro fingered the police star hanging from her necklace.
“I think he’s in one of those homes nearby. Who knows? It could still be Joseph Stein.” Okay. He was clutching at straws here. Trying to get Hiro back on the case. Get her into rescue mode instead of recovery. “The kidnapper is smart. And making a mad run for the border doesn’t seem exactly brilliant. Staying right in town, right under everybody’s nose, now that would be totally unexpected—which makes it very smart.”
“Driving along a park and luring someone to your car,” Lunk said, “is like one of the oldest tricks for abducting someone. But the guy was smart enough to put a little different spin on it, and turned it into the perfect abduction.”
“No crime is perfect,” Hiro said.
At least she was thinking again. That was something.
Cooper took a bite of his sandwich. “Something Detective Hammer said to me last night keeps rolling around in my mind.”
Both Hiro and Lunk looked at him, obviously interested.
“He said this guy was like a bug that crawls out from under a rock at night. He hides in the daytime, but at night, he comes out to hunt.”
Lunk seemed to be thinking about that one. “So how does that point to the guy staying close by?”
“Well, it doesn’t, not exactly. But I don’t think bugs go far from their rock.”
He half expected them to laugh, but they appeared to take his thoughts seriously.
Hiro shook her head. “Why didn’t the minivan show up? If he didn’t leave the area, how did the minivan disappear like that?”
Cooper shrugged. “That’s the big question. That’s why people keep thinking he left the area. But what if he didn’t?”
A crazy thought raced through his mind. A terrifying thought, really. Not a plan so much as an idea. If this was the kind of guy who hid under a rock—and crawled out at night to hunt, then one thing was for sure. He’d do it again. Hammer said as much.
And if he was local … Cooper’s mind focused on that thought. Likely he’d do something again locally. His foot started shaking under the table. He pressed his hand down hard on his leg to settle it down. A plan started to form. And he didn’t like it. Hated it. His mouth went dry.
“The key is the minivan,” Lunk said.
Hiro’s eyes widened. She sucked in her breath. It wasn’t much, but Cooper spotted it. “What?”
Hiro fished in her backpack for something.
“Hiro,” Cooper said. “You just thought of something.”
Her face reddened. “It was nothing. A stupid thought.”
Cooper studied her face, but she looked down like she was avoiding his eyes. “I’d still like to hear it.”
“I told you. It was stupid.”
The period bell rang, and Hiro looked relieved.
She was hiding something. Whatever it was, she didn’t intend to tell him. Not any more than Cooper dared tell her the thought lurking in the back of his mind.
CHAPTER 61
Hiro didn’t refuse Lunk’s offer to walk her to class. She needed someone she could talk to, even if it was Lunk.
Lunk seemed to have things on his mind too. He walked slowly, forcing groups of students to veer around them in their rush to class. “How do you think Coop will do with the shrink?”
Hiro shrugged. “Fine, I think. It can’t hurt.” She looked up at Lunk. His jaw muscles were working.
“Okay,” Lunk said, “what I’m really asking is how you think Coop is doing.”
Hiro shook her head. “Last fall you would never have asked my opinion on anything.”
He nodded. “Things have changed since then.”
“You’ve changed,” Hiro said. “You used to be, I don’t know, mean.”
“Me?” Lunk put on a surprised face.
“You’re a lousy actor, Lunk,” Hiro said. She raised her chin and nodded. “I think I’ve got you all figured out.”
“Care to share your theory?”
“We’d need more time than we have,” Hiro said. But it was more than a theory. She was sure of it. Lunk had acted like a bully partly to mask the pain and loneliness of his life. He’d needed a friend—and Cooper reache
d out to him like nobody else ever had. And Lunk had been trying to reach back, in his own way, ever since.
“I will say this, though,” Hiro said. “I appreciate how you’re trying to watch out for Coop. I know that’s what you’re doing.”
“Is this your way of asking me to make you a concrete-filled bat?”
Hiro laughed. “I do not approve of those bats, Mr. Lunquist, and you know it.”
Lunk smiled back, but it faded quickly. “You still haven’t answered my question. How do you think Coop is doing?”
Hiro looked at him. He was dead serious now. “What do you think?”
Lunk snorted. “Now you sound like a shrink.”
She stopped. “Okay. I think he’s still wrestling with guilt—although he shouldn’t. I think he’s grieving. And I think he’s trying to fool himself. He still won’t face the reality that Gordy is … well, that Gordy isn’t coming back.”
Lunk’s mouth formed a tight line, and he nodded.
She tried to read that look, but she didn’t know him like Coop. But something still bothered him. Or worried him. At least she could tell that much. “What is it? What are you thinking—right now, this very second?”
“Coop is my friend,” Lunk said.
And she was certain Coop was the first friend Lunk truly had. Hiro remembered how she’d resisted when Coop reached out to Lunk. Coop had definitely seen something that had totally escaped her.
She saw that look in Lunk’s eyes again. It came and went. Showed for a second, then he covered it up.
“What are you trying to say, Lunk?”
He looked down the hall. Then at the floor. Finally directly in her eyes. “Do you think he’ll do something stupid?”
“Ha.” Hiro smiled. “Everything he’s done over the last day or so could be described with that word.”
Lunk moved closer to a bank of lockers and stopped. “No. I mean really stupid. Like when he finds out about Gordy.”
His words knifed through her. “Like suicide?”
He shrugged.
“No. Absolutely not.” She pictured his meltdown this morning. She’d never seen him like that. Ever. But suicide? He’d never do that. “Not Coop.”
The bell rang. They were both going to be late. The halls emptied, but Lunk still stood there. Like he was thinking something through. Processing.
“Okay. Good,” he said, not looking directly at her.
But he had that look again. And this time she identified it. Fear.
CHAPTER 62
Cooper wasn’t afraid to see Dr. Dale McElhinney this time. Or maybe more accurately, he wasn’t afraid of the shrink seeing him. He had nothing to hide. Except for that thought he’d had in the lunchroom. He needed to process that one—later.
Right now he wanted to use the appointment to his own advantage.
McElhinney shook his hand. “How did your search go yesterday, Cooper?”
Answer the shrink’s questions—then get to his own questions. That was Cooper’s plan. “A total bust.”
McElhinney nodded. “How are you processing that?”
“I’m glad we did it, if that’s what you mean. And last night I talked some of the stuff out with my dad.” Cooper thought about how Dad had encouraged him after he got back from talking to Uncle Jim. Which got Coop really thinking about the guilt he was lugging around.
“Tell me a little more about that.”
What Cooper really wanted was to get some answers from the doctor. But if he tried to do it too fast, he might hoist some red flags.
“You were right about my motivations for finding Gordy. I’d been pushing back the massive guilt I felt, but it was there. And it definitely was a driving factor with the search.” It seemed right to confess it. Call it what it was. Put it behind him.
McElhinney didn’t say a word.
“People told me I shouldn’t feel guilty—but I think I finally started getting it.”
Something about the guy actually made it easy to talk. Made Cooper want to say more. How did McElhinney do that?
“And don’t get me wrong, I still wish I had done some things different when Gordy was taken, but it isn’t guilt that’s fueling me to keep searching for him. It isn’t about trying to make me feel better.”
The shrink crossed one leg over the other. “So what’s motivating your search now?”
Cooper hesitated. He didn’t want it to sound weird or anything. “Gordy is my best friend. My family. He needs me. The driving force now is, well … love.”
McElhinney nodded. “Congratulations. When love is your fuel, you’re talking about some high-octane stuff. Guilt makes a poor substitute.”
He was right. Totally. Cooper was beginning to see that—at least the things he said about guilt. But he had a feeling that he hadn’t fully grasped the power of love yet.
“I busted out crying this morning. In front of everybody.”
“I heard. That was good.”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind everybody looking at you like you’re losing it.”
McElhinney shook his head. “You’re not ‘losing it,’ as you call it. Your reaction shows that your love for your cousin is real. And there’s no shame in loving someone.”
That actually made sense when Cooper thought about it. He liked this guy.
“And when a young man like yourself is moved to tears, it shows how strong that love is.”
He would need strong love if he actually tried to pull off the idea that came to him during lunch. “A lot of people think Gordy is … gone. But I don’t. I honestly, deep down, feel he’s alive. Do you think I’m fooling myself, somehow?”
“Deep down, do you feel you are?”
Cooper thought about that for a moment. “No. I think I’m right. He’s still alive. We’re cousins—blood relatives. I think I’d feel something if he wasn’t alive. Like I’d know.”
McElhinney nodded.
“So you don’t think that’s a little …” Cooper circled his ear with his forefinger.
“Crazy?” Dr. McElhinney smiled. “Not at all.”
He seemed sincere, which gave Cooper just a bit more confidence. Something else he’d need to pull off the new plan. “Can I ask you a question, about the kind of guy who would take Gordy?”
McElhinney paused. “Shoot.”
“I’m thinking of him as some kind of predator. Hides during the day. Comes out at night.” Cooper’s leg started shaking. He placed a hand on his knee to calm it down. “Think a guy like that would do it again?”
McElhinney hesitated. Not like he didn’t know the answer, but maybe because he was trying to figure out why Cooper asked it. His eyes flicked down to Cooper’s leg. Obviously, he’d noticed.
“Yes.” McElhinney was watching his eyes now. Looking for something. A red flag, no doubt. “A true predator will almost certainly crawl out from whatever rock he hides under—and strike again.”
A chill flashed through Cooper’s body. He’d used almost the same words as Hammer. Whether the kidnapper was described as a bug, a predator, or a monster—it didn’t matter. He was a creature of the night. Hiding by day. Creeping out at night. Hungry for another victim.
Cooper’s heart thumped out a panicky warning in his chest. He glanced up at Dr. McElhinney—who was totally focused on him. Could he hear his heartbeat? See his artery pulsing in his neck?
“Cooper—why do you ask?”
A good leading question. One Cooper didn’t dare answer. He fought the urge to fill the silence.
Dr. McElhinney broke it first. “Are you afraid he’ll come for you?”
Cooper shook his head. Tried to act casual. “Just trying to build my own profile of the guy, I guess.”
McElhinney studied him for a moment. Like this was some kind of cerebral chess match—although Cooper had never played the game before. McElhinney wanted to get to Cooper’s deepest thoughts. And Cooper wasn’t about to let that happen. Even now he sensed the doctor was calculating his next move. Forming his next
question.
Someone knocked on the door. The doctor’s next appointment. Cooper stood to leave.
“Cooper, there are many things that motivate people. Greed. Power. Hatred. Guilt. Fear. Revenge. But there’s one thing you must know about love.” McElhinney paused, almost as if he was deciding whether or not he should bring it up. “Love is stronger than all of them combined.”
Cooper nodded but wasn’t sure he understood.
“It’s powerful.” McElhinney paused. “You must be careful. You must control it—or you can get over your head.” He pointed to Cooper’s collar. “You’re still not wearing a cape.”
Cooper reached for the door. “I’ll remember that.” He twisted the knob and stepped out of the room. He could feel Dr. McElhinney’s eyes still on him. Analyzing. Assessing. Calculating. Did the doctor suspect what Cooper was thinking? The plan that kept building itself in his head?
He couldn’t possibly. If he did, he wouldn’t have dared let Cooper walk out of the office.
CHAPTER 63
Cooper multi-tasked the rest of the afternoon at school. He went through the motions of attending classes, but his mind was someplace else. Working on the plan.
Normally, any kind of plan energized him. It gave him direction. That’s how he’d felt when they were going to hand out flyers. And when he decided to check the homes of Proctor, VanHorton, and Stein. It got the adrenaline going. It was like suiting up for a game.
This plan was different. It scared the pants off him.
But the thought of not going through with his plan scared him more. And he feared McElhinney would get an uneasy feeling and call him back for a chat before school was over. The shrink was smart. Given a little time, it wouldn’t be hard for him to figure exactly what Cooper was thinking of doing.
Cooper was even more afraid Hiro would see through him and know he was up to something—something she couldn’t be part of. Not just because he’d promised he wouldn’t ask her to do anything more. Deep down he had no doubt Hiro would be there for him if he needed her. But if she had any idea what he planned to do, she’d stop him. She wouldn’t let him go through with it.
Back Before Dark Page 24
