Clarence ditched his bike in the trees behind the gas station. He then bought a ticket to an action film at the City Place Stadium Cinema complex right on Main Street. With a tub of popcorn and a box of Junior Mints, he found a seat in the middle of the theater.
As the coming attractions played, Clarence shut his eyes and allowed himself to soak in his success.
He would now spend two hours watching spaceships destroy the great cities of the world with the help of robots that had turned against humanity and joined the alien invaders.
It was heaven on earth.
And just what he needed.
20
The boys were alone in the house in the middle of the day when the doorbell rang.
Riddle was in the living room, carefully looking at one of his learn-to-read books. Jared was upstairs avoiding him.
Felix the dog immediately started barking with the kind of urgency he only exhibited in the middle of the day, giving Jared the opportunity to shout at the top of his lungs: “Answer it, Riddle!” It made him feel like the boss if he could tell the alien space invader what to do. But Riddle was already up before Jared even got the last syllable out.
Riddle opened the door to find Beto Moreno standing on the porch. He went to school with Jared and could run faster and jump higher than kids two years older than him. This was just one of the reasons Beto was the most popular person in his class.
Jared had been working on winning Beto over as his best friend for years, but so far none of his efforts had succeeded. Even giving Beto his gaming system on extended loan didn’t change his attitude.
Riddle now found Beto holding a shopping bag. “I’m dropping this off. Jared wanted me to try it out.”
Riddle took everything literally. “You tried out a bag?”
Beto smiled. “Yeah. But with an Xbox inside it.”
Most people were afraid when Felix started barking and jumping, because Felix was a big dog. But Riddle noticed right away that Beto didn’t seem at all intimidated. “I got bit once by a German shepherd, but it was my fault. I was running across the parking lot of a gas station, and I think he was trained to keep people from doing that.”
Riddle looked down at the dog in a new way. “Maybe he’s been trained to dig. He makes a lot of holes in the backyard.”
Riddle decided that the kid looked friendly. And he knew Jared. So he said: “You can come into the house.”
Beto stepped inside, laughing. “Yes, I can.”
It was almost an hour later when Jared came downstairs to get a new battery for his robotic ball. Right away he heard talking.
Jared froze in his tracks to listen.
“You really can’t read that?”
“No. I’m just learning the sounds. And that’s too many letters.”
“What kind of school did you go to?”
“I never went to school.”
“No way.”
“Yes. Way.”
“So you were taught at home?”
“No.”
“Were you raised by wolves or something?”
“There weren’t any wolves. But I saw a bear up close once. And lots of other animals.”
“You crack me up, Riddle.”
“Thank you.”
Jared instantly knew the voice. It was Beto’s. What was he doing in the kitchen, talking to Riddle? This was crazy. But before Jared could get into the room to stop things, he heard:
“Riddle, you wanna come with me to the park? I’ve got batting practice in twenty minutes.”
Jared couldn’t believe it. All he’d ever wanted to do was hang out at the park with Beto. And now Beto was inviting Riddle to do that?
Life just wasn’t fair.
The three boys ended up spending the rest of the day together. Riddle made chocolate tacos, which were waffles folded in half, stuffed with ice cream, and topped with nuts and cherries that were supposed to look like salsa.
He also gave his two cats a bath. Beto was fascinated watching Riddle wash the cats in the kitchen sink. Riddle made low cooing sounds that seemed to calm the felines, who submitted to the procedure with surprisingly little resistance.
Jared did his best to take every opportunity to point out how weird and strange Riddle was.
But it backfired.
It felt like the more Beto realized how different Riddle was, the more he was interested.
Finally, after hours of mounting an assault, Jared went silent when it was time to go over to the neighbors’ house and feed the fish. Jared was certain that Beto would take off for home, but instead he crossed the yard with them and watched as Riddle removed the key from under the brick at the bottom of the Binghams’ back stairs.
“How come you don’t just take the key to your house and give it back to them when they get home?”
Jared couldn’t help but snap, “They told us to do it this way.”
Riddle knew Beto had a good point. People hid keys outside all the time. His father had been an expert in finding them. But that was a thought he didn’t share.
Once inside, Riddle went straight to the fish tank.
Jared dropped to the couch. He was exhausted. Trying to cause trouble was a lot of work. Even when you weren’t successful.
Beto walked around, going from room to room looking at the Binghams’ stuff while Riddle shook the food flakes into the tank. The fish swam to the top of the water and greedily gobbled the floating meal.
Riddle thought back to all the times when he was hungry. His entire childhood until he met the Bells was one long wait for something to satisfy him.
Now, watching the fish, he couldn’t stop himself. He stuck his fingers into the tin and took a big pinch and then put the food into his mouth.
It did not taste good.
It was salty. And sharp. It had a metallic edge, which surprised him.
Jared felt euphoric. This was exactly what he needed Beto to witness. But from across the room, Beto burst out laughing. “Did you just eat fish food?”
Riddle nodded as he carefully put the container back on the shelf.
Beto came closer. “Why?”
“I wanted to know how it tasted. It’s not very good. It was like when you have a penny in your mouth.”
Jared and Beto both watched as Riddle then picked up the mail off the floor where it had dropped from the slot. He organized it on the countertop in order of size.
He next checked the soil in the rubber tree plant and leaned close as he whispered to the broad, shiny leaves. “Tomorrow you will get a drink.”
And then he headed for the door.
When they were outside, all Beto said was, “Riddle, if my family ever goes anywhere, I want you to watch over our house.”
Riddle nodded. “Of course, Beto. I’d be happy to.”
And that was the moment Jared knew the battle was over.
If watching the alien invader eat fish food didn’t turn Beto, nothing would.
It was still hot outside long after the sun went down.
The heat had baked the town all day long, and upstairs at the Bells’ house the rooms were all stuffy and too warm.
Emily didn’t turn on the light in her room as she came in and took a seat on her bed. Sitting in the dark, she tried to figure out what was bothering her.
Why did it seem like a big deal to quit Ferdinand’s?
Leo, the owner, didn’t like her.
She hadn’t gotten any better at juggling the barrage of requests that seemed to assault her at every shift.
Since she was only busing tables, not waiting them, the tips were just a fraction of what she had expected.
And there was the humiliation of getting locked inside the freezer, which still brought on daily teasing from the dishwashers and the cooks.
They didn’t understand that the metal box still traumatized her.
And finally, Robb Ellis and now Destiny were both working there.
So she should have felt relief, even joy, to have an easy job
with set hours where she could read a book when things got slow.
She would no longer have the stress of potentially scalding a person by spilling hot coffee, which had already happened once.
She should have felt grateful that her boyfriend had been looking out for her enough to go out in the world and find her a new job.
Sam had picked her up at the end of her shift, and he’d presented the whole plan as a done deal. Destiny’s job was available, and now it was hers.
He had the telephone number of the woman from the gift shop for her. He said Emily would start the next day because the training was minimal.
But the truth behind it all was obvious: Sam didn’t want Emily to work with Destiny. Or Robb Ellis. Maybe that’s what was really bugging her.
Emily could hear Riddle in the hallway, explaining to Jared and his friend Beto that he wanted them to bake crescent rolls stuffed with peanut butter and jelly inside.
She couldn’t see Jared’s face, but she was certain that he wouldn’t be interested in cooking anything. So she was surprised when she heard Jared say, “Okay, I can help you measure the stuff.”
For a second their conversation took her mind away from Sam and the restaurant and her new job and Destiny.
But when she returned to that swirl of thoughts, she could suddenly see the dilemma in a different way.
Sam and Riddle had been so reliant on her family. They had basically been quiet, docile, and compliant.
But maybe that was changing now.
Maybe this was the time for the tables to turn.
It was possible that the strong ones weren’t really that strong.
And perhaps the weak were tougher than it seemed.
21
The news outlets in California were reporting that a dangerous convict had fled earlier in the day from the Merced Medical Center.
But he had only one leg, and the circulating theory was that he was hiding somewhere on the grounds of the large health-care complex.
The Merced police department had sent its entire canine unit to a training session in San Francisco, so a request had been made to the division in Modesto. They were out in the field and would take two hours to get there.
Clarence’s time in the theater had brought an unknown stroke of good luck that could never have been calculated. Or even wished for.
An Amtrak train had derailed going up the Central Corridor route, and there were injuries.
Local law enforcement suddenly switched their priority from looking for the criminal to aiding the sheriff’s department in an emergency situation eighteen miles out of town.
That distraction, coupled with Clarence’s ease at blending in, allowed him to shop for a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt, both nondescript but with a certain sense of style.
Looking good was always important.
And now that he had the copper-colored hair, he was going for a more Californian, upscale-urban presentation.
After he paid for the two items, he asked if the salesclerk could cut off the tags. He wanted to wear the outfit home to surprise the Wife.
Back in the dressing room, carefully putting on the new jeans after removing his artificial lower leg, he found the opportunity to slip a lightweight, cream-colored cashmere summer sweater under the tissue in the store bag.
Minutes later, outside on the street, with the expensive sweater slung casually over the new T-shirt, he strolled off to the best hotel in town. When he wanted to, he could walk without a limp. It was all a matter of focus.
In front of the hotel, Clarence made small talk with the doorman, explaining that he was waiting for his business partner.
When several cars arrived and the two overworked parking valets were both on the move, Clarence lifted a set of car keys from the never-locked lockbox that stood at the curb—the one that he’d been so casually standing next to.
He then went inside the hotel, exited through a door in the back, and entered the parking lot from the rear entrance.
He was pleased to see that his keys, marked with the number ninety-eight, matched a clean, silver, new-model Honda.
And even more rewarding was the fact that inside the vehicle were a large bottle of water, a bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips, and a baseball cap. Clarence had claimed the car of a traveler, and if things continued to go his way, the owner wouldn’t even try to collect the vehicle until the morning.
He put the keys in the ignition and drove out of the lot, giving a friendly wave to the valet, who barely even noticed him.
Clarence then traveled in the Honda up Route 99 to Stockton, picking up the northbound 5 Freeway. He pulled into Sacramento late that evening, parking on a side street with a nice view of the state capitol building.
He wanted to make a statement to the government.
Clarence Border was no longer a guest of the penal system.
22
It didn’t take much for Destiny to get Robb Ellis to use his credit card for a weekly room at the Starlight Motel on West Sixth Street.
The place had a movie-star theme, but they were silver-screen heroes from long ago. Robb and Destiny didn’t recognize any of them, and not just because the pictures pinned up behind the registration desk were really faded.
No movie actor or TV personality or even Internet sensation had ever set foot in the motel.
The original owners had put the names of their three favorite stars in the now cracked concrete walkway in the courtyard. Small pebbles spelled out the names Burt Reynolds, Donna Mills, and Richard Chamberlain. The little rocks were the size of jelly beans, and more than half of them were missing.
Destiny’s room was in front of the pitted Donna Mills star. The accommodations featured a room with one tiny window and a bed that pretty much took up all the space, because you couldn’t even open the door all the way without hitting the corner of the yellowy mattress.
Robb Ellis was creeped out by the whole place, but Destiny looked very happy and said that she’d pay him back once she got her first paycheck from the restaurant.
She also said that he could spend the night whenever he wanted.
He couldn’t believe that part.
And so he went straight out the door to the front office and had the twitchy woman behind the desk charge him for two weeks, not one.
He’d think of something good to tell his parents when the credit-card bill came.
Like maybe that he helped a homeless person, because that was the truth.
And that got him thinking about whether this was something he could put on his college applications.
Maybe he would start a foundation to encourage teenagers to find ways to shelter homeless people and get them off the streets. If they were all as hot as Destiny, he imagined he could find lots of his friends to be part of the program.
But the first night didn’t turn out the way he’d planned.
After they’d picked up Destiny’s stuff from the dorm and moved it into the Starlight, she didn’t want to strip down to her leopard underwear and roll around on the bed, like he’d imagined.
She said that she was too hungry.
So they went for cheeseburgers at Gary’s Burger Shack. They brought along a six-pack of beer from the market and somehow finished it all. Then Destiny said she was too tired to do so much as keep her eyes open and that she’d see him in the morning.
Before he knew it, Robb found himself outside, on the Donna Mills star. The light switched off in her room, and it was so dark that he couldn’t see anything through the motel window.
As he walked to his SUV he decided that it was a good idea to take things slowly.
Robb looked up into the night sky, and right above him was a shooting star.
And he felt certain it was meant just for him.
23
Clarence met Lindy Braverman at a bar in downtown Sacramento called Smiling Faces.
He went in because of the name.
He figured only women with self-esteem issues would go to a
pickup place with the audacity to call itself “Smiling Faces.” And that was the kind of woman he needed to meet.
Lindy was a cat person, and that meant she had pet hair from her six beloved felines stuck in the creases and folds of most of her boldly patterned clothing. She was a walking hairball, and it was enough to give people sensitive to cat allergies attacks of prolonged sneezing.
But Lindy was unaware of this. She was unaware of many things.
So when the good-looking, gangly, copper-haired man leaned against the bar and almost purred, “Why don’t you buy me a drink?” she did.
Her horoscope that morning had said it was a day to be bold and make new friends.
Several hours later, when the two were alone in Lindy’s cramped apartment with just the cats, she didn’t even notice that part of Clarence’s left leg was man-made.
Lindy had had too much to drink, and she was too happy about the fact that Tom Baker, as the crazy-handsome man was named, was a Kings supporter. She had been wearing her Kings superfan underwear, and he had congratulated Lindy on her team choice.
Several hours later, when Clarence left Lindy Braverman’s apartment at three thirty in the morning, he had an antique diamond ring that he’d taken from a small leather box in her underwear drawer, most of the cash that was in her wallet, and all the leftover prescription pain medication for her gum surgery, which was on the second shelf in the medicine cabinet.
And then, for the icing on the criminal cake, he opened a window in the kitchen to create a bigger distraction.
He gathered up Lindy’s six beloved cats and herded them out onto the sidewalk. The two small ones ran right back to the closed door, terrorized to be outside in the dark of night.
The other four cats set off to explore the brave new world.
24
Emily woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep.
She couldn’t remember ever having an enemy.
But wasn’t that what Destiny now was?
Maybe rival, she thought, was a better word to describe the girl. They were competing for Sam’s affection. Only, the crazy part was that Emily had already won.