“What?” I nearly shouted. “Donny! You have to help him!”
Donny sighed and drew a small circle on the table with his finger. “Hear me out for a second, will ya?” he asked. I glared at him, refusing to answer. He continued anyway. “Anybody who’s ever watched a crime show could figure out that this scenario sets up a solid case for reasonable doubt. It could turn into a classic case of he said/she said. I could head over there right now, sit with Stubby while he’s interviewed by the feds, and during that whole time I would advise him not to say much of anything. Even less than I’ve let you say, actually. And then I could leave, and the second I’m gone he could start blabbing. He could tell the feds that he’s waiving his right to counsel and that he wants to confess. He could say that you’re the crazy one. You’re the one who kept notebooks on when people were going to die. You’re the one who told Tevon’s mother that her kid was going to be murdered. You’re the one who said she saw the date when Payton Wyly was going to die. You’re the one who came up with the plan to send Stubby to talk to her and tell her that she was going to die on her birthday. And guess what, Maddie? The second he points the finger at you, I won’t be able to help you. I could recuse myself from representing Stubby, sure, but I’d be barred from representing you—because the courts would view it as a conflict of interest—having already represented the guy who’s now accusing my niece. They’d say that I had inside information or knowledge that might make Stubby’s defense vulnerable.”
I was shaking my head, hard. “Stubby wouldn’t do that!” I insisted. “Donny, please! You gotta trust me! He’s my best friend in the whole world. He’s the most loyal, honest, sweet, kind person on the planet! He couldn’t hurt anybody, and besides, he liked Payton. He was trying to save her. And he was the one who made me call Tevon’s mom before he went missing to try and get her to listen. He even told me that he’d wished he’d called her himself to vouch for me! It bothered him so much that her kid might die, that he was willing to do anything to try and save him!”
Donny’s expression became alarmed. “Did he contact Mrs. Tibbolt directly?” he asked.
I shook my head, but then I stopped and realized we’d called her on his phone. “No, but it might look like he did.”
“Explain,” Donny ordered.
“He looked up her information on his phone, and we called her on his cell,” I confessed.
Donny pressed his lips together and shook his head. “So he had her information?” he asked. I nodded. “Then he knew where Tevon lived.”
“Donny, I swear, we only called her! He’d never go to her house after she threatened to call the police on me.” When his eyes widened I added, “I tried to explain to her that I was for real, but she wouldn’t let me talk, and she threatened to call the cops if I ever called her again.”
Donny frowned. “See, this is the problem I have with what you’ve just told me, Maddie. You didn’t know Stubs had gone to see Payton until the feds told you about it, and now I learn that he looked up the Tibbolt’s info on his cell? You may not know your best friend as well as you think you do.”
“Donny, he didn’t do it! Before their bodies were found, he had no idea that Payton and Tevon were going to end up missing! I didn’t even know Payton was missing until I saw it on the news, and I didn’t know that Tevon had been abducted until Wallace and Faraday came to the school!”
Donny stood up and paced the kitchen floor for a minute or two until he seemed to come to a conclusion. “Okay, Maddie. I trust you, and I’m sorry if I upset you, but I had to play devil’s advocate to find out how much you really trust Stubby. I’ve seen way too many of these cases where a defendant suddenly points the finger at his innocent best friend to risk having that scenario happen to my niece. Still, I think you’re right about Stubs, and I promise I’ll do my best to represent him. But if either of you two lies to me ever again, all bets are off, got it?”
I swallowed hard, both hugely relieved and guilt-ridden. Sighing with relief, I said, “Got it, Donny. Thank you for helping him. I’m really sorry about lying to you.”
He nodded and reached into his pocket. He shocked me even more when he pulled out a large wad of cash. “Here,” he said, shoving the bills into my hand.
“What’s this?” I asked, staring at the money, which I knew we could use, but couldn’t accept.
“Your mom lost her job,” he said. “And I’m keeping you from making money on readings. Cheryl refuses my offer to help every time I ask, so I’m bypassing her and giving you a little nest egg.”
I shook my head, trying to hand back the cash. Ma would totally freak if she found out I’d accepted the cash. “Donny, I—”
Donny pushed the cash more firmly into my palm. “I’m not taking no for an answer,” he insisted, finally letting go to walk to the door. “Hide that somewhere your mom won’t find it,” he added. And I knew he meant that I should keep it away from her so it didn’t go for booze. “I gotta go back and see about Stubby. Do me a favor, though; don’t write down any deathdates until we get this cleared up, okay?”
I hung my head. “I will. Sorry. I should’ve told you.”
Donny came back to the chair and kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay, kiddo. I have to figure out a way to convince the feds to lay off you two and start looking in another direction.”
I thought back to the accusing look in Faraday’s eyes as he held my deathdate notebook. “How’re you gonna do that?”
Donny moved once again toward the door. “I’ll need to reach out to one of my contacts to do some research. I don’t know if it’ll pay off, but if it does, it’ll hopefully take the focus off you two.”
“What is it?” I was desperate to know—or, more accurately, I was desperate for some kind of hope.
Donny’s face softened. “Let me worry about it, okay? I gotta go see Stubby, and then I’ll come back and we can heat up Mrs. Duncan’s lasagna. After dinner we’ll go out and get you a new cell phone. I want to be able to get ahold of you if something develops.”
Then he was gone, and I was left alone with Donny’s wad of cash still in my hand. I looked around the cluttered kitchen for a hiding place, and my eye landed on the Garfield cookie jar. We hadn’t used it in years. I went over and lifted the ceramic lid. Inside were several stale-looking Double Stuf Oreos. Ma kept the jar only because my grandma had given it to us one Christmas. I knew she’d never think to look inside, so I stashed the cash under the Oreos. After that, I got busy putting the house back together, periodically checking on Ma, who was nursing her wounds with a fresh bottle of vodka and the TV.
It took me several hours to get the house straightened up, and during much of that time, Donny’s devil’s advocate argument filled my thoughts with ever darkening storm clouds.
THE NEXT TWO DAYS WERE TERRIBLE. The local news media had run a story that Stubby had been arrested for Payton’s murder, and there were unconfirmed reports of a female accomplice. I knew that everyone at school would know the reporter was referring to me. When I got to school Monday morning the rumors were flying, and I started to notice that more and more kids were looking at me with real fear in their eyes.
I couldn’t believe my life was starting to spin so out of control. And the teachers weren’t immune to the affects of all those swirling rumors, either. By fourth period I was asked to sit at the back of the class, well away from the other kids, because I was “causing a disturbance.” If by that, Mrs. Napier (5-23-2036) meant that I’d come into class, slunk down in my seat, and hid behind my textbook while all the kids in class whispered, then yeah, I was causing a huge disturbance.
Things got worse the next day. Tuesday morning I tried to go to Principal Harris for help when I found my locker had been filled with shaving cream, but he wouldn’t even come out of his office. I overheard one of the secretaries say that if I wanted the principal’s help, next time maybe I shouldn’t have my uncle call and threaten to sue him.
That shocked me. I hadn’t realized
Donny had called Principal Harris, but he had been furious when he found out that Harris had let the feds talk to me in his office.
Later on, I was even given detention by Mr. Chavez for walking into his class right as the bell sounded. Never mind that Stephanie Corbin (11-4-2080) walked in behind me and didn’t get in trouble.
At three thirty when I came out of detention, I found that all the spokes on both wheels of my bike had been cut and the frame and the seat were covered in ketchup, mustard, and toilet paper.
It was all a little much for me, so I left the bike and walked home. Once I got there I found Ma upstairs, sprawled out on the bathroom tile. I felt that familiar jolt of alarm like I did every time I found her facedown on the floor, but when I bent to roll her on her side, I saw that she was breathing normally.
It took a while, but eventually I managed to move her over to the bed and cover her with the blanket. On the nightstand were two empty bottles of vodka, and a third, half full. I took it to the sink and poured the clear liquid down the drain, knowing full well that it wouldn’t change anything.
Still irritated, I headed downstairs and found Mrs. Duncan’s casserole dish soaking in the sink. I scrubbed it until it gleamed, and by the time I finished, I was a little less angry. As I was drying the dish, my thoughts drifted to Stubby. I felt so guilty for getting him involved, and I wanted to help him so bad, but how?
Lost in thought, I moved to the kitchen table and sat down, thinking and thinking about any way I might be able to help him. I sat there for a very long time, wondering how I could convince the feds that I was telling the truth. Finally, the thread of an idea floated up in my mind, and I wondered if it was worth a try. Pulling out my new cell I called Donny, but as usual it went straight to voice mail.
After leaving him a message to call me, I grabbed my coat and the casserole dish and headed over to Mrs. Duncan’s.
It was starting to get dark, and when I reached the part in the driveway where I could cut over I heard a low rumble that reverberated somewhere down the street.
I squinted into the darkness—I could faintly see the outline of a large pickup truck, parked at the side of the road in the cul-de-sac at the end of the street. The truck’s engine was running, but the lights were off. My breath caught, and I held perfectly still. I wasn’t sure if the driver could see me in the dark because I was well out of the glow of the streetlight, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I was being watched.
Remembering the truck that’d chased me into the park, I turned toward Mrs. Duncan’s house and dashed up her drive to the back door, knocking loudly as I peered over my shoulder. Even before she answered it I saw a flash of black pass by, and I knew the truck had sped off.
She greeted me warmly and invited me inside. “Oh my, Maddie!” she exclaimed, taking a good look at my face. “Are you all right?”
I nodded and squared my shoulders. I didn’t want to worry Mrs. Duncan, especially since she lived alone. “Yes, ma’am,” I said, offering her the casserole dish. I really wanted to race back home and lock myself in my room until Donny called me back. “Everything’s fine. And thank you so much for the lasagna. It was awesome.”
She smiled proudly and put up her index finger. “Before you go running off,” she said, disappearing into her kitchen only to return a moment later with several Tupperware containers. “I made you and your mom some chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans,” she said. I was moved by her continuing kindness toward us.
“Mrs. Duncan,” I said, ready to refuse her offerings, because what could we give to her in return? “Thank you so much but—”
“Oh, and there’s some peanut butter cheesecake, too,” she said before I had a chance to say more. “Mr. Duncan used to rave about my cheesecakes!”
Her eyes sparkled every time she mentioned her late husband, and I realized that she missed taking care of someone. So I accepted the dinner as graciously as I could. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Duncan. Ma and I really appreciate it, and I’ll bring your containers back tomorrow.”
She beamed at me and waved as I left her house and ran straight across back to my own door, banging through it because I was still a little spooked. I tried to tell myself that it was a coincidence, but what if it wasn’t? What if the driver had somehow found out where I lived?
I shuddered as I set the containers on the kitchen counter, grateful to have something warm and delicious to eat for dinner. My phone rang as I was getting down a plate. Donny’s name flashed on the screen.
“Hey, there,” he said when I picked up. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just…I have an idea that might help Stubby.”
“Kiddo,” he said with a tired sigh. “I know this is hard for you, but anything you say or do can be used against you by the feds, so for now, let me worry about Stubs, okay?”
“Donny, please? Listen to my idea.”
My uncle sighed again. “Fine. Tell me what it is.”
“I want to give Wallace and Faraday a demonstration. If I can convince them that I really can see deathdates, maybe they’ll believe I’m telling the truth about everything else, and they’ll see that Stubby was only trying to help me warn Payton. I thought about it, and if we ask them to show me some photos of people who’ve already died and I prove to them that I can read deathdates in the past as easily as I can see them in the future, that might be a way to convince them I really see what I see.”
On the other end of the line Donny was quiet for a long time. Finally he said, “Listen, sweetheart, I don’t think it’s a good idea. It could backfire on us.”
“Donny,” I whispered, so frustrated and desperate I didn’t think I could stand it. “Stubby’s in jail with bad men. They could hurt him just for being weaker than they are.”
Donny was quiet for a bit. Then he said, “Maddie, I hate to break this to you, but Stubby may be in the safest place for him right now.”
My brow furrowed and I felt my temper flare, because Donny wasn’t listening. “What does that even mean, Donny? You think it’s safe for him in jail? Are you kidding?”
“He’s been getting death threats,” he said.
“Death threats?” I repeated. Was he serious?
“I’ve had a few come into my office, and his mother’s gotten one or two at her work. People are really angry about Tevon’s and Payton’s deaths. The media has hyped this whole thing up, and I’ve been worried as hell that soon they’ll get your name and we’ll have to move you out of there. All it takes is one unbalanced idiot who decides to turn himself into a vigilante.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “Do you think that’ll happen?” I asked, sinking down in a chair.
“I hope not,” Donny said. “But for now, it’s important for you to stay as far away from Stubby as possible. The feds are looking for ways to connect you two, and the media is trying to figure out if the feds are serious about bringing charges against this unnamed female accomplice. The minute they figure out you’re a person of interest, Maddie, I don’t even want to think about how bad it could get.”
“So I can’t even go visit him?” I asked, because that’d been a question I’d wanted to ask after telling Donny my idea. Stubby needed me, if only for moral support.
“No way in hell can you go see him,” Donny said. I blinked hard because I started to get a little emotional again, and I didn’t want Donny to know. This whole thing seemed so hopeless.
“Hey,” Donny said, probably hearing my sniffles. “I might have something that could help. I’ve got a private investigator working on something for me, and I don’t have all the facts yet, but I’m working another angle that could push the case in a new direction.”
I shook my head. Working another angle didn’t feel like enough. “Donny, please? Please let me try my idea?”
“No, Maddie,” he said. “Be patient and let me run this my way for now.” When I didn’t say anything, Donny added, “Maddie?”
“I’m here.”
Donny sighed hea
vily. I knew he was as frustrated as I was. “Kiddo, you need to cooperate with me on this. I need you to tell me you understand.”
“I understand,” I muttered, even though it was a lie.
It was Donny’s turn to be quiet. “Okay. For now, go to school, keep your nose clean and your grades up. The best defense we have is to show what a good kid you are, so keep being that good kid, you hear?”
“Whatever.” I knew I was being a brat, but I couldn’t help it. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and feeling like the life was getting squished right out of me. “Listen, I gotta go,” I said, wanting nothing more than to get off the phone with him.
“Okay,” Donny said. “But remember what I said.”
As I hung up, I wondered how he thought I could ever forget.
TWO DAYS LATER DONNY STOOD next to me in the parking lot of Poplar High, armed with his camera phone and a simmering anger that pulsed through the vein at his temple.
I’d never in my life seen him so angry.
“Show me,” he said, his voice flat and purposely quiet.
I cleared my throat and resisted the urge to put a hand to my eye, which throbbed in rhythm with Donny’s temple. “Over there, at the back entrance,” I said.
Donny took my hand, gripping it with great care. It was a cold day and I was grateful for the warmth of his palm.
We walked silently across the nearly empty parking lot. It was past five o’clock and most after-school athletic practices had already let out. I led him in a straight line, dreading his reaction. When we got to the bike rack he kept silent, but I saw the muscles in his jaw clench.
He took a picture of what had once been my bike and was now a ruined mass of metal, toilet paper, eggs, ketchup, mustard, and shaving cream. On the seat there was a smear of something brown and smelly, and it didn’t take a genius to guess that someone had found some dog shit and made use of it.