Snatched (11 page)

“Fine by me.” They were walking side by side, kicking stones at the edge of the road. “Do you have any money?”

“I have five bucks. How about you?”

“I have a couple of dollars. What do you want to eat?”

Roni’s eyes lit up. “Let’s go to Bratten’s. Today is French donut day—my favorite.”

“That doesn’t sound like lunch.”

“It’s the new all-carbohydrate-and-fat diet,” Roni said.

 

 

At Bratten’s Café and Bakery, Roni ordered three French donuts and a cup of coffee. Brian ordered one French donut and one American donut, just in case the French donut was too froufrou for him. He also ordered a cup of coffee.

“You kids grow up too fast,” said Mrs. Bratten as she rang up their purchases.

Brian had never ordered a cup of coffee in a restaurant. For that matter, he had never had a cup of coffee at home. The few times he had tasted his dad’s coffee he hadn’t liked it. Too hot and bitter and sour. But it seemed the thing to do when you were eating donuts out in public while working on a big investigation. Besides, he didn’t want Roni to think he was a little kid.

They took their coffee and donuts to one of the small tables by the front window. Roni bit into her first French donut. “Now
this,
” she said, munching, “is elixir of the gods.”

“Doesn’t an elixir have to be a liquid?”

“Shut up and eat,” she said.

Brian did, taking a huge bite from his French donut. Roni was right. Elixir of the gods, even if it was a solid. He watched Roni pour cream into her coffee and then add a packet of sugar. It was worth a try. He poured in a slug of cream, which changed the color of his coffee from black to beige, then tore the tops from two packets of sugar and dumped them in. He stirred. He lifted it to his lips and tasted. Hmm, not bad. Kind of like burnt hot chocolate. He added another dollop of cream and two more sugars. Even better.

Halfway through her second donut, Roni said, “Okay, let’s assume that Driftwood Doug abducted Alicia. The question is,
why
?”

“Love, money, or revenge,” Brian said.

“He didn’t seem like a love, money, or revenge sort of guy.”

“I agree. And why would he tell us that story about seeing Alicia with Mr. Thorn?”

“Maybe he was lying about what he saw. Or maybe he kidnapped Alicia to protect
her
from
them.
”

“Now, that’s completely crazy,” Brian said.

“We already know he’s crazy. All that Bloodwater Curse nonsense.”

“Maybe it’s not nonsense. Just about everybody who ever lived in that house died. And crazy doesn’t necessarily mean guilty.” Brian took another gulp of coffee. The top of his head was vibrating. He could grow to like the stuff.

“The only thing we know for sure is that Alicia got beat up last Friday,” Roni said. “If Doug was telling us the truth, then Alicia got beat up in her own backyard by Mr. Thorn, or by the guy that Driftwood Doug saw running away.”

“Who was probably Maurice.”

“So if it was Maurice or Mr. Thorn who hit her, she was lying to the police when she told them a stranger had attacked her in the park.”

“Which makes no sense at all.”

“Sure it does. Alicia might have been covering. I’ve heard of kids doing that. She didn’t want anybody to know that her stepdad was a jerk, or that her boyfriend beat her up. Maybe Little Miss Perfect Tennis Star Alicia wanted everyone to think her life was all peaches and cream.”

Brian sat back. “Me-ow,” he said, clawing the air like a cat.

“Shut
up
!” Roni scowled. Then she laughed. “Okay, she bugs me a little.” Roni took out her notebook. “Let’s lay it out. Who are all the possible suspects?”

Brian said, “First, there’s Mr. Thorn.”

Roni wrote Thorn’s name at the top of the page. “But why would he kidnap his own daughter?”

“The Curse drove him insane.”

“You mention that curse one more time and you’ll drive
me
insane. Seriously, why would Mr. Thorn snatch his own stepdaughter?”

“Maybe she was going to report him for child abuse.”

“A possibility. Who else?”

“Maurice. Because he’s a jerk and he’s in love with her and he couldn’t stand it that she broke up with him. An
if-I-can’t-have-you-then-nobody-can
thing. He lied about being in class that afternoon, so he must be covering up something.”

“Who else have we got?”

“There’s Alicia’s real father in Mankato. My mom thinks he’s the prime suspect. Real dads are always stealing their kids.”

Roni wrote that down in her notebook.

“And, of course, Driftwood Doug,” Brian said.

Roni added Driftwood Doug and a few more names to her list.

Brian read the three new names she had written: Mr. Nestor, Tyrone Eakin, and Mysterious Stranger.

“Why Tyrone?” he asked.

“Maurice thought Tyrone had a thing for Alicia. That was why he keyed Tyrone’s car.”

“Oh. And Mysterious Stranger?”

“Just what it says.”

“What about your buddy Hoot?”

“Hoot wouldn’t kidnap anybody.”

“Write him down anyway. How many have we got?”

Roni frowned at the list of names. “Too many,” she said.

“Who’s your favorite?”

Roni pushed out her lips and stared at the list.

“My personal favorite? Maurice is pretty cute . . .”

Brian had just taken a big gulp of coffee and at the final two words, a laugh exploded from his belly, sending coffee up his throat and out his nose and across the table in a milky spray, which made him start coughing and laugh even harder. Roni wiped off the piece of paper and then she too started laughing. At first it was a small tremor, but then it gathered force and became an all-out guffaw.

They were surprised and a little offended when, a few seconds later, Mrs. Bratten walked up to their table and asked them to leave.

“Come back when you’ve grown up enough to behave yourselves,” she said.

“That was certainly humiliating,” Roni said.

“At least she let us keep our donuts.”

“Of course she did. We paid for them, didn’t we?”

“I guess.” Brian reached into the bag for his second donut, a chocolate-frosted, glazed-raised with sprinkles.

They walked for a few minutes without talking. Brian ate his donut slowly, his jaw working in time with his feet. Roni, fists buried in the pockets of her trenchcoat, was lost in thought. But she seemed to know where she was going.

Brian finished his donut, then asked, “You really think Maurice is cute?”

“Of course he is.”

“So do you
like
him?”

“Of course not.”

“Would you go out with him if he asked you?”

“If I wanted to go out with him
I’d
ask
him.
”

“Oh.” Brian licked his chocolatey fingers. “Are you gonna?”

Roni stopped abruptly. “Are you stupid, dense, or halfwitted?”

“Are those my only choices?”

“Yes.” She started walking again, faster this time.

“Where are you taking me this time?” Brian scrambled to keep up.

“To find some answers.”

“Where? Are we going to Maurice’s house?”

Roni laughed. “Where did you learn to be so irritating?”

“From my mom.”

“Figures.”

“So where are we going?” Brian asked again, although he thought he knew the answer.

“I’ll give you one guess.”

A few minutes later they were standing outside the fence surrounding Bloodwater House.

“Did you know that Driftwood Doug’s wife hanged herself from this fence?” Roni asked.

“I’ve read about that,” Brian said. “But I didn’t know she was Driftwood Doug’s wife until today.”

“I wouldn’t want to be a cop,” Roni said. “Way too much yuck potential.”

“I think you get used to the spattered blood and guts after a while.”

Roni made a face. “No thank you. My mom’s meat loaf is as close to blood and guts as I want to get. In fact, I don’t even want to get
that
close.”

“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here?”

“We’re going to interview Ted Thorn. I want to find out if Arnold Thorn is the sort of man who would beat up his own daughter. You press the buzzer on the gate and see if you can get Ted to open up.”

“What about you?”

“I’m afraid if Mrs. Thorn sees me she’ll pop a gasket. I’ll sneak around back and wait by the swimming pool. You and Ted can meet me there.”

 

After Ted Thorn buzzed the gate open, Brian marched straight up to the front door while Roni followed the flag-stone path through the side garden that led to the back of the lot. Looking at the carefully trimmed hedges, the weedless pathway, and the precisely ordered rows of rosebushes, Roni wondered how expensive it must be to maintain such perfection. Maybe it was worth it. The roses must be beautiful in season.

She looked up at the house, at the limestone walls, the leaded glass windows, the gables, the slate roof. There was no other house like it in Bloodwater. No other house even half so impressive. How many rooms did it have? At least thirty. Maybe fifty.

But the house itself was far from perfect. The stone walls were cracked and stained. Several of the windows were missing panes, and had been patched with plastic and tape. And the old iron gutters and downspouts had long since rusted through.

Nick had called the place a “money pit,” and had suggested that the Thorns were just about broke. Roni wondered why they had spent their time and money on the garden when the house itself needed so much work. Maybe it was all they could afford to do.

Or maybe they were driven mad by the Bloodwater Curse.

If there was such a thing.

Which there wasn’t.

Roni came around the back corner of the house onto the patio where only yesterday she had nearly been attacked by Mrs. Thorn. Maybe things would go better today. She walked to the edge of the pool and stared down into the water.

She wondered if Alicia would ever turn up. Every year, teenage girls disappeared, never to be found.

I never got a chance to apologize for beating her up, Roni thought.

“Well, well. Who do we have here?”

Roni whirled and almost fell into the pool.

“Careful now,” said Arnold Thorn, reaching out a hand to steady her.

Roni shook off his hand and backed away.

Mr. Thorn chuckled. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“That’s okay.”

“You’re one of Alicia’s friends, I take it?”

“That’s right. Have you heard from her?”

“I’m afraid not.” Thorn reached into his breast pocket and brought out a flat gold cigarette case. He opened the lid, took out a cigarette, fitted it to his thin lips, and lit it with a matching gold lighter. This was Roni’s first good look at Alicia’s stepdad. The last time she’d seen him there had been too much going on.

Arnold Thorn should have been a handsome man. His features were regular, his hair was thick and blond, his eyes were blue, and he had a trim physique. He wore a soft gray suit and a pair of gray lizardskin loafers. His problem was that he looked
too
perfect. His smile had an artificial curve, as if it were painted on, and even his flawless skin had the smooth plasticky look of a store mannequin. A scar would have improved his appearance considerably.

Roni could see where Ted Thorn had learned his wrinkle-free ways.

She said, “I hope she turns up soon. Everybody’s really worried about her. But I hear the police have a suspect.”

“They do?” He glanced around, then fixed her with a hard stare. “The police need to keep us better informed. Who is this suspect?”

Roni couldn’t think of a reason not to tell him. “Driftwood Doug,” she said.

Thorn looked at her sharply. His eyes were an opaque, impenetrable blue, as if they had been painted on. Like his smile.

“That disgusting derelict? How do you know so much?” he asked, squinting at her through a veil of cigarette smoke. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

Roni tried to imagine this elegant mannequin man punching Alicia in the face. She looked at his hands. In his left hand he held his cigarette loosely between his long fingers. His right hand was in his pocket.

Roni took half a step back. She wished Brian and Ted would show up.

“I have friends in the police department,” she said.

Mr. Thorn took a step toward her. “And they think this Driftwood fellow had something to do with Alicia’s disappearance?”

“Did you know he used to own this place?” Roni said quickly.

“Who?”

“Douglas Unger. Otherwise known as Driftwood Doug.”

“He did?”

“Yes. Ten years ago.”

Mr. Thorn looked at her for several seconds, then flicked his cigarette to the patio and ground it out with the tip of a lizardskin loafer.

“You know a great deal for such a little girl,” he said.

Roni took another half step back, which put her at the edge of the pool. She could feel her heart beating. If she yelled, would they hear her from inside the house? Where were Brian and Ted? Mr. Thorn loomed over her. If he got any closer she would have to jump in the pool.

Roni whipped out her notebook and clicked her pen and said, “Would you care to comment on the rumor that you like to beat up girls?”

That made him take a step back.
“What?”
His face darkened. “What did you say?”

“I heard you beat up Alicia. Is it true?”

“That is a vicious lie!” he said—but the mannequin mask slipped, and for a moment Roni saw straight through those opaque blue eyes.

She saw that he was afraid.