Chapter 28
Donny was waiting outside the gate to Lily’s townhouse complex with his skateboard tucked under his arm when Shana arrived on bus 52. “I thought we’d go in together. Why didn’t you ride?”
“Didn’t feel like it. Have you seen Dean lately? Did he ask about me?”
“Um, that would be two counts of no.” Donny pushed the button for Lily’s townhouse. Without answering, Lily released the gate lock so they could enter the complex.
Lily lived in the end unit across the lane from where they entered. Terrace Gardens consisted of townhouses terraced in groups of three stepping uphill along a curving lane. Each triplex was separated by either an access lane or walkway to the parking at the back. Lily’s end unit was at the bottom of the first terrace near the gate.
Lily opened the door and stepped out when she and Donny reached the porch. “Mom insists on meeting both of you before she’ll let me hang out with you. It’s all because of what dad did. She’s afraid someone will kidnap me in revenge or something. Sorry.”
“We’ll have to do it with my mom, too, or this might be the only time I can come over.”
Donny left his skateboard outside.
Lily brought them into the living room, which had an arched opening leading to the dining room, which had a four-foot wide doorway leading to the kitchen. The townhouse was smaller but similar in layout to her house and flipped 180 degrees. With the living and dining rooms and the kitchen, and a tiny nook at the back now that she could get a better view, on the detached side of the townhouse, the Wiley’s could at least get a better sense of being separated than the townhouse caught in the middle. There was a window over the sink in the kitchen that gave them a view of the entrance to the complex. It would be missing in the middle townhouse. Little natural light would get into that kitchen.
She was going to end up doing renovations for a living. It was getting into her blood and wouldn’t come out.
Linda Wiley, wearing an emerald-green jacket with a matching skirt and a pale-yellow blouse, wasn’t the short, slender figure of a woman her daughter was. She stood beside the small, gas-powered fireplace sipping a glass of white wine and playing hostess to the only members of Dominion society she could hope to entertain anymore: her daughter’s few friends.
“Mom,” Lily said, “this is Donny Nguyen. He goes to Lincoln High. I’ll be in classes with him. He’s been helping me get ready. And this lovely young lady is Shana McGowan. Her mom is the new sheriff.”
Linda Wiley was unable to keep her eyes on any of them. “Your mother is Joan McGowan, formerly Joan Kirkpatrick.”
“She is, yes.”
She finished her wine. “I was two years ahead of her in school. I was Linda Drake back then. I took piano lessons from her mother.”
Shana blushed.
Linda Wiley scanned Donny, or else she scanned something on the wall behind him. It was hard to tell. “I heard about your father. I’m sorry.”
She went to the dining room and placed her glass on the table. When she came back, she said to Shana, “Lily is right about you, but you still look younger than these two.”
“I’m fourteen, Mrs. Wiley. I met Lily and Donny at the mall Tuesday and they offered to take me under their wings.” She shivered a bit.
Linda Wiley simpered. “I imagine it would be a better fit if they hid under your wings.”
She pulled her mother’s card out of her pocket and held it out to Mrs. Wiley. “My mom says you can call her anytime to arrange a meeting.”
After taking the card, Linda Wiley took a flitting glance at it before placing it on the faux mantle over the fireplace. “I haven’t the time at the moment. I have a job interview with Cheryl Redding at Redding Management Consultants this evening.”
Shana supposed she was supposed to know who and what that was because it sounded so god-damn-almighty important.
Linda Wiley picked lint off her suit, kissed Lily good-bye, picked some lint off her, and left through the front door.
“She has the attention span of a housefly,” Lily said, “but she did leave money for pizza.”
They agreed on a large veggie pizza with tomato sauce, black olives—Lily took a bit of convincing for that—green and red peppers, and mushrooms, all covered with mozzarella cheese. She and Donny wanted onions, but Lily wouldn’t budge on that option, so they deferred to their hostess. To go with the pizza, they also ordered chicken wings, ten pieces in honey-garlic flavor. Again, Lily tried to lord it over them by insisting they get BBQ flavor, but she just stood up and insisted right back. For dessert, they got cinnamon sticks, two orders of eight pieces per order. Donny ordered a large Coke, Lily ordered a vanilla milkshake. She decided against getting coffee, though it would ease the headache, and settled for a butterscotch milkshake.
The pizza came in twenty minutes, as promised. Donny knew the girl who delivered it and gave her a large tip.
Lily scowled and muttered, “That’s mom’s money.”
Lily’s complaint wasn’t really about the money, given that she hadn’t protested until the girl gave Donny a kiss on the cheek after he handed over all the cash.
What should have been a large meal quickly vanished into three hungry teenagers. When they were done, they sat around in the living room playing with the last of their drinks. They all had that in common as well as absent fathers.
She reclined on the loveseat, the largest chair in a living room that was about only ten by ten, and made loud noises while trying to suck up the last of her thick milkshake through her straw, which only made her headache worse.
She shivered again when she realized Donny and Lily could have still been at the mall when the security guards brought her back in. Had they seen her? Would they tell her if they had?
Donny sat on the floor beside Lily, totally oblivious, blowing bubbles in the ice water that was left at the bottom of his cup. Lily, still totally bummed out, gave up with her straw, took the lid off her cup and drank the rest of her milkshake.
“I don’t mean to be awkward or anything,” she said to Lily, “but are you living here because of your dad?”
Lily nodded. “This place belongs to Uncle Wilbur, the groper. He’s, like, the millionaire slumlord of Dominion. Mom won’t ask him to fix any of the holes in the walls or the dripping faucet in the downstairs bathroom or the knob on my bedroom door or the garage door opener that doesn’t work because she’s afraid her own brother will molest her and send me off to some white-slave harem in Africa.”
“Gross. I can fix those for you.”
“She’s checked the whole house for hidden cameras.”
“Double gross. I can fix all of it except for maybe the door opener. I might be able to fix that, too.”
“I heard you the first time.”
“And that’s why you have to go to Lincoln High?”
“All dad’s and mom’s bank accounts were seized. She has to work for the first time—ever—in her life.” She set her cup on the coffee table. “But I was on my way out of Lafleur before dad got arrested.”
Donny put his empty cup on the table beside Lily’s. “She’s very good but very naughty.” He burped as quietly as he could.
Shana sat up. “What did you do?”
“A counsellor there called in my parents to tell them I wasn’t thriving in the dynamic environment that was Lafleur. I would just wander off to be by myself and I spent far too much time alone on my tablet.”
“That can’t be good.”
“She told them I had a great imagination and was a good writer, but I could be grotesque sometimes and gauche. What’s wrong with a story about a girl abandoned by her parents in the woods to die as a baby, but is rescued and raised by trolls, then kills everyone in the village in revenge once she’s queen of the trolls?”
“It’s operatic and sounds like a blockbuster.”
“She called me introverted, like it was some disease you could get shots for.”
“The bitch.”
r /> Donny said, “So she sent this worm through both Lafleur and the Thatcher Arts and Science Institute. It erased all their records.”
“All of them?”
“Every last teeny, tiny bit.”
“Whoa, guru girl. Can you change my grades? I need to do better in math.”
“Reformed, I’m afraid. I took a vow of computer celibacy. No more hacking; just the occasional white-hat ninja stuff.”
“That sucks.” She got out of the chair in one quick motion. “We better clean up.”
Donny gathered up the pizza box. “Yeah, we don’t want your mother arresting us for littering.”
“Don’t put it past her.” She picked up the three cups and started for the kitchen. “She’s desperate to prove she’s worthy. She might do anything to make a good impression.”
And her daughter might have made that impossible if not for Kelly Strickland. She blushed again.
“Out of the way, amazon,” Lily said and squeezed past her through the doorway with whatever she and Donny had left behind. She led them to the garbage can under the kitchen sink.
Donny looked out the kitchen window after dumping his load. “What’s wrong with this picture?” He burped again, louder this time. “‘scuse me.”
She let Lily get in front of her before they looked out.
Two boys were cycling past on BMX bikes.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Lily said.
“Except that they’re full grown men,” Donny said. “One of them is taller than Valkyria.”
They went to the front hall to get another look. The two men riding the bikes had stopped on the sidewalk across from the townhouse. Two other men, not on bikes, joined them.
“Do you know those guys?”
“We moved in only two months ago. Mom’s far too busy to fraternize with the local rabble. I have no interest in getting to know any of them. I’m too introverted.”
Shana leaned closer to look out through a small clear section of otherwise frosted glass beside the door. “The tall one’s pointing at your townhouse. I can’t hear what they’re saying, though.”
Donny said, “Maybe they know your uncle?”
“That would be just too cruel.”
“That tall one is doing most of the talking.”
As the man talked, he continued jabbing his finger at the townhouse. The other three men had been nodding their agreement with whatever he was saying at first, but now they were trying to calm him down. He pointed in turn at each one of them and said something that stopped them from interrupting him anymore. He tossed down the BMX and started for the townhouse.
“Shit. Back up, back up, now.”
She took hold of Lily and Donny and backed them into the shadow beside the stairs. The only light on in the house was in the kitchen on the other side of the hallway wall.
The man came up the steps to the porch. If he peeked in and they didn’t move, he might not see them. He didn’t bother to peek in. At first, as if following his lessons in civility, he rang the doorbell.
“That’s the only thing that works in here,” Lily whispered.
“Shh.”
He knocked on the door and then pounded on it. “Hey,” he shouted as he pounded, “is anyone in there?”
Lily whispered, “My phone’s upstairs being charged.”
Shana whispered, “Mine’s in my bag in the living room.”
Donny pulled out his. He belched loudly before he could cover his mouth. “Sorry.”
The man shouted again, “I know you’re in there, Wiley.” He kicked at the door, banged against it with his shoulder. “Let me in!” He banged against it again.
The door rattled and creaked. All he had to do was break the frosted glass beside it and he’d be able to reach both the bolt and the locked doorknob.
She grabbed Donny’s phone. “I’ll call mom.”
“No, wait.” Donny closed his hand around hers. His was hot and sweaty.
The three other men came running up onto the porch and grabbed the man. He struggled to break free, but they held him as tightly as they could. One man slid or fell down and grabbed hold of his legs.
The man shouted, “I’ll get you for what you did, Wiley. I’ll break your fucking neck.”
One of the other men shouted back, “Mel, he’s not even here.”
The one holding Mel’s legs said, “We better go. Someone might have called the sheriff.”
They released Mel, who took a vicious kick at the door before stomping away. The three other men followed. One of them picked up a rock and flung it at the door. It ricocheted off the frosted glass with a brittle ping but didn’t break anything.
Lily was trembling. “God, dad, what did you do?”
Donny put his arm around her.
“Just what did he do?”
“It was some kind of investment scheme that conned thousands of people out of all their money. And now it’s all missing.”
A wallet was small-time compared to that but it still offered the potential to cause much suffering.
“And made grown men determined to find out where you live, ride their sons’ BMX bikes over and try to break in.”
“The FBI offered to take us away, but mom refused.” She covered her face and shook her head.
“Are you all right?”
“Come on.” She took them up to her bedroom.
Shana tried for a few minutes to get the doorknob to work properly. It was garbage. “I can still call mom.”
“And tell her what; to look for four men, two of them used to be clowns in the circus who rode those little bikes?”
Lily retrieved her fully-charged phone, sat down at her small desk and opened her laptop. In a few seconds, she had called up the Colter farm website.
“What are you doing?”
“Just taking a look to see what makes him so creepy.”
“I thought you were celibate now.”
“I haven’t done anything yet, have I? Besides, that’s more of a guideline than a real vow. I haven’t had any reason to hack anything.”
Donny said, “That’s not what you told me.”
“Get over it.”
After about a minute of scanning the website, Lilly said, “He can’t possibly be creepy, he’s too boring.”
“Boring can be creepy.”
Donny said, “That boring farmer definitely creeped out dad. He liked going there as much as you like going to the dentist.”
“Let’s try this.” Lily did some fast clicking with her mouse, some even faster typing on her keyboard, then some fast clicking with her mouse again. “There, that’s better.”
The Colter farm appeared on the screen.
“What did you just do?”
“I tapped into one of their CCTV camera feeds. I noticed they were using them to transmit images to their website.”
“How did you do that?”
“What do magicians never do?”
“That’s not fair.”
“I told you she was good but naughty.” Donny pulled up a chair to sit next to Lily. “Shouldn’t you be using your VPN?”
“He’s a farmer. What can he do to me?”
“Pride comes before, you know.”
Shana stood behind and peered over Lily’s head.
“Look at this.” Donny pointed to men marching onto the screen.
The men appeared to be carrying rifles and were lining up like an army unit in five rows of five each. They all wore camouflage gear and stood at attention once everyone was in place. The twins stood at the front of the assembly.
Colter came out of a building wearing a military uniform that wasn’t from any branch of the US armed forces.
“What is that?”
Donny said, “Either they’re about to go into a paintball battle or creepy Colter has his own militia.”
Colter inspected each line of men. Each man saluted and was saluted in return.
“My money is on militia,” Donny said. “Th
ose don’t look like paintball guns.”
“Could your dad have seen them doing that?”
“He never said anything to us about it, but that would definitely make him nervous.”
Lily said, “Someone else has been eavesdropping, or at least trying to. But they’re not a cyber-mage like me.” She opened a window and started keying lines of code. “Maybe I can find out who’s been . . . hey!”
Lily’s laptop screen went black.
“We’ve just been flamed,” Donny said. “Has that ever happened to you before?”
Whatever Lily did, she couldn’t get her laptop back up. Finally, she turned it off and back on. It took a long time to reboot, advising them it had to do a system check for bad sectors. Once its scan was over, it flashed the results indicating nothing bad had been found or needed to be fixed before displaying the sign-in screen.
Lily keyed in her long password too fast for Shana to follow even if she wanted to.
“They’re going to pay for this,” Lily said. “It may take a few days, but. . . .”
When her laptop finally came back up, instead of the picture of Bambi that she normally had as a background, there was only a red screen. When Lily pressed return, a black silhouette of a howling dog superimposed itself over the red.
“That’s Colter’s sign,” Shana said.
The silhouette vanished. Capital letters large enough to go from top to bottom scrolled across the screen: ICU2.