* * *
Matthew came home with Stephanie when they usually did and went straight to the fridge for his orange juice. Anderson and Barbara had been declared missing that day and for the second time in a week, Sergeant Bradley had been his companion for some hours in Mr. Pebblestone’s office.
He couldn’t comprehend why the policeman suspected him, nor could he appreciate the reason behind the disappearing act Fat George and the others were trying to pull. What were they up to? Where were they hiding? Were they hiding to prevent their going to school? What was really going on?
Sergeant Bradley had told Mr. Pebblestone that his men had searched the woods and the lake to no avail. This simple fact perturbed Matthew and rubbished his proposed reason for the disappearance of these naughty classmates of his. At least he could now understand why the sergeant suspected him and had embarrassingly searched his foster parent’s house. They were all his classmates.
He just wanted things to go back to the way they used to be. His life had been turned upside down by all this, and he wasn’t seeing any reprieve in the near future. His friends in school thought he was a murderer and Nora accused him of drawing attention to her ‘quiet’ life. He was even beginning to question Stephanie’s sanity whenever she entered his room, and the adults thought it would all soon go away. Phew!
Suddenly, it started raining, and the doorbell rang.
“Matthew, someone’s at the door,” Stephanie yelled from her room.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it,” Matthew told her and went straight to the mahogany structure with Gavin, the dog.
They both looked like Nora’s friends.
“You must be the adopted guy,” Leonard said before checking himself and Peter chuckled. The boy at the door frowned. “Can I see Nora?”
“No?”
“Why not?”
“She’s not in,” Matthew replied. He refused to invite them in despite the rain. He’d been insulted by strangers.
“I—I need to see her,” Leonard begged. “Where can I find her?”
“I don’t know. Check later?”
“Right.” The quarterback turned to leave with his companion. Both boys were drenched.
“Wait,” Matthew said. “I need to know your names, right?”
“Leonard?”
“And Peter,” the fat boy supplied.
“I like your car,” Matthew said and closed the door.
“Thanks,” Leonard replied.
“You shouldn’t have told him what you said back there, Leonard,” Peter admonished as both boys went back to the Cobra.
“What?” Leonard began.
“Adopted guy? Nora could be in there for all we know now.”
“We could check their garage.”
“And how do you think we should do that?”
“Well,” Leonard began. “We could just go and have a look? See if Nora’s car is parked?”
“Wake up, dude. These guys are rich? They lock their pets with a remote?”