Immediately, I looked around for an escape route, but the only exit was the entrance at the front of the Starbucks. I knew I didn’t look my best: I hadn’t made a big effort that morning. My hair was pulled back, I wasn’t wearing any makeup besides a little mascara, and my hoodie was drab and dark. But I was trapped at the back of the store; all Aiden had to do was turn his head to the right and he’d see me.
Thinking quickly, I bent over and retrieved my backpack from the floor. I dug through it and pulled out the biggest textbook I had—chemistry—and opened it up on the table to partially conceal my face behind it. Listening intently, I heard Aiden’s somewhat husky voice rise and fall as he discussed a chemistry test he’d had that day. He and the two other guys were comparing answers. I smiled when I realized that he and I were basically studying the exact same section of the periodic table.
Then I heard a much more feminine voice say, “Hey, Aiden!”
I stiffened. Gripping the sides of the book tightly, I snuck a peek. A girl with long blond hair stood to the side of the three boys. Twirling a few strands between her fingers she said, “Can I add a caramel macchiato to your order?”
There were a lot of customers waiting behind the guys, and it was obvious the girl was cutting the line. The way she was staring at Aiden made me wonder if they were more than friends.
Aiden looked back at the line, offering an apologetic look to the person behind them before replying, “Sure, Kendra. What size?”
“A tall. I’m watching my weight,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm and swish her hips.
I stopped breathing. My insides felt gripped by a vise. The girl was pretty. Very pretty. Her hair was hanging loose in long blond waves, she wore lots of makeup, and her clothes looked soft, stylish, and oh-so-touchable.
I stared at Aiden intently. He added her drink to their order, and then he paid for everything—including hers. I didn’t quite know what to make of that. Was he just being generous?
Kendra kept on flirting with Aiden while they waited, and he smiled and nodded as she talked. It was impossible to tell if he was into her or only being polite.
But then, I couldn’t think of a reason why a guy wouldn’t be into someone as pretty as her.
The barista called Aiden’s name, and he and one of his buddies gathered the drinks. Aiden handed Kendra’s tall macchiato over to her, and in exchange she handed him a cardboard drink sleeve. I was confused—Aiden already had a sleeve attached to his cup—then I noticed a hint of black scrawl on the one she wielded, and realized she’d given him her phone number.
After touching his arm one last time, she was gone. I wanted to die. I felt so queasy and dizzy that I wanted a hole to open up in the middle of the floor and swallow me. But shortly after Kendra left, Aiden tossed the sleeve aside and motioned to his buddies to go.
They were out the door a moment later. I sat up, counted to ten, and left my chair to hurry over to the counter to retrieve the sleeve before someone either used it or tossed it in the trash. Sure enough, Kendra’s name and phone number were written in curly script across the middle.
I shut my eyes and held the small bit of cardboard to my chest, so relieved he’d tossed it and any interest in her aside. “Did you need something?” I heard, and my eyes flew open. The barista was leaning over the counter looking at me. She was close enough so that her deathdate read clearly: 3-30-2070. “No,” I said quickly, feeling my mouth lift into a jubilant smile. “Thanks, though. I was just leaving.”
The next couple of days passed in a bit of a blur. Stubby and I didn’t talk again about warning Payton, but that didn’t mean we were both happy about how we’d left it. I’d stayed up almost the whole night before trying to come up with a better idea than the birthday card, but nothing came from all that thinking. By Tuesday morning, I decided to let it alone and hope we’d done enough.
As of Wednesday, there were no updates in the Tevon Tibbolt case, and there was no story about a car accident involving Payton Wyly or about her sudden death. I called Stubs the minute the news was over. “I think we did it!” I said the second he answered. “Nothing on the news about Payton.”
“I know! I saw it too, and I think you’re right! We saved her!” But then he seemed to sober as he added, “We should go to the next Jupiter football game, you know, to make sure she’s okay. I’ll look online and see who they’re playing, but it’s probably going to be one of Grand Haven’s teams, and since they played us last week, it’ll be a home game for them. I’ll ask Mom if I can have the van for the night.”
“Awesome. I’m in,” I said. I was tingly with relief. I couldn’t believe we’d actually changed Payton’s numbers—I wanted to go to the game to see it for myself. And of course there’d be the added bonus of seeing Aiden again.
Donny called me later on that night to let me know he hadn’t heard anything more from the feds, which he thought might be good news, and sure enough, on Thursday when I rode up into my driveway, the familiar black sedan wasn’t behind me, and it wasn’t parked on the street, either.
Even Ma seemed to be doing better. She was given a few shifts at the Drug Mart, and she’d gotten through them okay, but I was still a little worried about her drinking on the job. I knew she was sneaking some liquor into her water bottle, and I was afraid her manager would find out.
Still, it was better than having her sit home and drink alone all day. Her job seemed to be giving her some confidence, and when I came in through the door on Thursday after hanging out at Stubby’s for the afternoon, I found her in the kitchen cooking us dinner. “I’m making stir-fry!” she announced proudly.
“Awesome!” I said, feeling that bubble of hope rise in my chest. I had good news to share, too. “I got a hundred on my U.S. History exam.”
Ma’s face blossomed into a beautiful smile, and she reached out to wrap me in her arms and hug me fiercely. It was the safest I’d felt in a long, long time.
After letting go of me she said, “Let’s eat in the living room.”
We arranged two TV trays in front of the couch and, after loading up our plates, sat down together. Ma flipped on the TV for the news.
The weatherman came on and waved his hand at the area map to show us that a cold front was moving in over the weekend, bringing rain and hail with it. “We’ll have to turn the heat on,” Ma said, her eyes glued to screen.
I ate my dinner happily while we sat together. I thought the stir-fry tasted even better than her spaghetti. I was so lost in thought about how good she was doing that I was hardly listening when the anchorwoman said, “Jupiter police are still puzzled over a missing teen who hasn’t been seen since yesterday afternoon. Payton Wyly was last seen on Wednesday around three P.M. when her mother and father handed her the keys to a new car for her birthday.” My head snapped up and I dropped my fork. It clanged loudly against the plate, and Ma startled.
“The young teen’s car was found only an hour after her parents contacted police, about ten P.M. last evening, parked at the side of the road near Westcott and Terrace Lake,” the anchorwoman continued. “The driver’s side door was open, the engine was still running, and there was no sign of the missing girl. If you’ve seen Payton or have any information on her whereabouts, police are asking that you contact a special tip-line they’ve set up, and that number is…”
I was breathing so hard that I was losing oxygen, and the room was starting to spin. I heard Ma calling my name, but my eyes were riveted to the screen, where a picture of Payton Wyly smiled out at me. On her forehead was the same set of numbers I’d seen at the Jupiter game.
“Maddie!” Ma yelled, and I realized she was tugging on my arm. “What is it?”
I shook my head to clear it, and did my best to focus on Ma, but I was way too upset to hide it.
“Do you know that girl?” Ma asked, pointing to the TV. And then she turned back to me and her eyes went wide. “Do you know what’s happened to her?” I knew she meant to say, Do you know if she’s dead?
I shook my head again. Donny’s warning came back to me, and I realized that Stubby and I had just involved ourselves in what might be another murder. If the FBI found that birthday card with its cryptic message…
“Maddie,” Ma said again, cupping my chin with her hand and looking me in the eye. “Tell me. What’s gotten you so upset about that girl?”
I had to move Ma’s attention off Payton until I could talk to Stubby and figure out what to do. “It’s not the girl,” I told her. “It’s…I forgot to bring home my algebra book, and I’ve got a big math assignment due tomorrow. Would it be cool if I went over to Stubby’s to borrow his?”
Ma blinked and let go of my chin. I didn’t think she believed me, but after a long pause, she didn’t push for a confession. “Finish a little more of your dinner first,” she said with a frown. “And remember tomorrow is garbage day, so put out the bin before you head over to Stubby’s.”
A few minutes later I was pedaling hard toward Stubby’s house when I rounded the corner to his street and almost immediately had to slam on the brakes. There was a familiar black sedan parked in front of his home.
“Damn it!” I whispered. Had Wallace and Faraday found our birthday card at Payton’s? Had they already traced it back to Stubby? We’d been careful to handle the card and the envelope using only our sleeves, but what if Stubby had somehow touched it and left a fingerprint?
I squinted down the street. Faraday and Wallace were still in the car. What they were waiting for I didn’t know, but I didn’t want them to look in the rearview mirror and see me, so I hustled up the driveway next to me and hid in the shadows. Taking a huge risk, I pulled out my cell and called Stubby.
“Hey,” he said jovially. “I was about to text you. My mom said I can have the car for the game tomorrow night.”
I sucked in a breath. He didn’t know. “Stubs…” I said, but my voice cracked.
“Mads?” Stubby said, alarmed. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I swallowed hard. “It’s Payton.”
I heard Stubby suck in a breath. “Was she…was she in an accident?”
I closed my eyes. “No, buddy. It’s way worse. She’s missing.”
Stubby sucked in another breath. “How do you know?”
“It was on the news tonight. They found her car late last night, but no sign of her.” I hesitated, unsure how to break it to him, but he’d hear about it soon enough. “They showed a picture of her on the news. Her deathdate didn’t change, Stubs. Payton died yesterday.”
My best friend was silent for so long that I thought my phone had cut out, but then I heard him sniffle. “Oh, honey, I’m so, so sorry,” I told him. I wanted nothing more than to go straight to his house to give him a hug. I needed one as much as I suspected he did.
“You’re sure?” he asked after a moment, his voice thick with sorrow.
“Yeah. I’m sure.” My gaze drifted back to the sedan parked in front of his home. “Listen,” I said. “I have something else to tell you—”
“Where are you?” he asked suddenly. I thought he might’ve heard the wind blowing through the phone.
“I’m down the street from your house.”
“Are you coming over?”
I didn’t know what to say. The feds would see me, but then I realized that wasn’t so abnormal. They already knew that Stubby and I were friends. I was about to tell him yes when the sedan’s brake lights went off, and Faraday and Wallace started to get out.
“Stubby!” I hissed.
“What? What?”
“Listen to me! The feds are in front of your house! They’re on their way to your door!”
“Oh, man!” Stubby cried, and I thought he might be on the verge of panic. “Maddie, what do we do?”
“I don’t know!” I whispered. “Listen, they probably found the card. Maybe…”
At that moment I heard Stubby’s doorbell ring through the phone. Wallace and Faraday were standing on the doorstep. In the background I heard Mrs. Schroder call to Stubby to see who was at the door, and I cringed. “I gotta go,” he said meekly.
“I’ll call my uncle!” I promised. “Don’t say anything to them until they tell you why they’re there!”
The line was silent and I called out to Stubs, but then I heard a beep and realized he’d already hung up.
Next, I dialed Donny, ready to confess to him what we’d done, but I got his voice mail. “Why don’t you ever answer my call?!” I snapped when the voice mail kicked in. I took a deep breath and left him an urgent message to call me back. Then I waited in the dark, watching Stubby’s house for a long time. At last the door opened and the agents came out.
I stared at my phone display anxiously, and as their car was pulling away, Stubby called me. “I think it’ll be okay,” he said.
“What happened?”
“They didn’t ask about Payton. They just wanted me to go over your alibi again for the day Tevon disappeared. Was I sure we were together? What time did you leave my house? What’d I get on the chem test? That kind of stuff.”
My brow furrowed. Why had they asked about all that again?
As I was contemplating that, Stubby added, “Oh, and they wanted to know why we were sitting in the Jupiter team’s bleachers last Friday instead of with our school.”
That was weird. “What’d you tell them?”
“I said our bleachers were too crowded, and we had a better view of the game from the visitor’s side. But then they wanted to know why we left early, and I said because you had a stomachache.”
I sighed with relief. “Maybe we’re okay.”
Stubby was quiet on the other end of the line, and belatedly I realized he was still upset about Payton. “Do you want me to come over?”
Stubby sniffled. “If it’s okay with you, Mads, I think I want to be alone for a while.”
That took me aback, and I couldn’t help but feel hurt. I was upset over Payton, too. “Uh…sure. Okay, Stubs. Call me later, though, if you want to talk?”
“Okay,” he said. And then he was gone.
Cold and feeling sad and alone, I began pedaling back home. My cell rang on the way and I answered my uncle’s call. “What’s happened?” Donny asked sharply, no doubt irritated with me for the voice mail.
For a moment, I didn’t know what to tell him. If I came clean about sending Payton a birthday card, warning her of her imminent death, he’d be furious and he might even insist that I move to Brooklyn with him, if only to keep me out of trouble. Then again, if the feds never found the card—if Payton maybe threw it away or we’d been careful enough and they couldn’t trace it back to us—we might be worrying over nothing. I decided not to risk angering Donny unnecessarily, and luckily, I now had a pretty good backup excuse for calling him. “The feds were just at Stubby’s house,” I said. Then I explained what they’d wanted. By the time I was done, I was home, walking my bike up the drive.
On the other end of the call, Donny was quiet for a long time, and that worried me. “Okay,” he said at last. “Keep me posted if you hear anything else.” With that, he was also gone. Sighing, I headed inside to get warm and tried not to let my thoughts linger too much on Payton Wyly. That proved impossible, though, especially when Stubs didn’t text me once the rest of the night.
Friday sucked.
There was no other way to describe it. Stubby texted me that morning that his little sister was sick, and he had to stay home with her because his mom had a meeting she couldn’t miss. Not having him next to me in the hallway made me feel small and vulnerable, and at lunch it was even worse. I sat by myself at a table in the cafeteria, eating quickly. The only bright spot was Mr. Pierce, who stopped me again on my way out of class. “You hanging in there, Maddie?” he asked kindly.
I didn’t feel like talking, so I merely gave him a halfhearted nod.
“Good,” he said with a warm smile. “And great job on the lab experiment today.”
I thanked him and hurried to my next clas
s. Still, it was nice to know that all my teachers weren’t against me.
Later, when I came out from school to get my bike, I found it once again covered in eggs and shells, but this time Stubs wasn’t around with his usual wad of paper towels and sunny disposition. It hit me how much of the sting he managed to take out of all those times I’d been bullied or made fun of.
After cleaning up my bike, I pedaled home. I’d checked the Web at lunch to see if they’d found Payton, or if there were any leads in the investigation, but nothing new was posted. I was anxious to follow the story, and by now I had a terrible suspicion that her abduction and death were somehow linked to Tevon’s, which meant that I could indeed be sucked into her murder investigation, too. It would also indicate that there was a serial killer on the loose.
Payton was a sixteen-year-old girl, and Tevon was a thirteen-year-old boy. They weren’t very similar as victims except for the fact that they were young. Still, something nagged at me, something dark and scary that again made all of those hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
When I turned onto my block, I saw Donny’s car parked at the curb. “Hey, Maddie,” Donny said out the window as I stopped next to the driver’s side. “Your mom’s at work. Feel like grabbing a bite?”
I looked at the display on my phone. “It’s only three,” I said.
Donny grinned. “Feel like grabbing a snack, then?”
“What gives?”
“We should talk,” he said cryptically.
I waited for him to say more, but he simply sat there looking at me until I gave in.
Donny drove us out of Poplar Hollow all the way to Parkwick. We entered a nice Italian eatery, which barely had any patrons because it was still so early. Sliding into a booth, Donny handed me one of the menus the hostess had given us and said, “Spill it.”
At first I didn’t know what he meant. “Spill what?”
“Your mom called me today and said that another kid in the area has gone missing. She said that when the girl’s photo came up on the news broadcast last night you looked like you were about to faint. She also said that you refused to talk about it, but then you bolted over to Stubby’s the first chance you got, so she’s wondering if maybe you read for one of the girl’s parents and we might have another issue with the FBI on our hands. So come clean, kiddo. What’re you hiding?”