“You think someone kidnapped him?”
“I don’t know. Derek couldn’t find anyone’s scent in the house. It was like Dad just walked away, which he’d never do. Derek wanted to take off. Again I screwed up. I thought there was some logical explanation—maybe Derek misunderstood Dad’s message. The next morning, I gave in and we left, but it was too late. They caught up with us the next day.”
“The Edison Group?”
“They said they were child services. We believed them. They took us back to the house to see if Dad had returned, and when he wasn’t there, they said that we had to go into a group home until they figured stuff out. Since we’d been born in Buffalo, that’s where they put us. Which should have seemed weird, but we didn’t know better. So that’s how we ended up in Lyle House.”
Simon continued, explaining that, since we’d escaped, he’d been casting some kind of seeking spell his dad taught him, but he couldn’t detect him. Using library computers, Derek had searched on their dad’s name and aliases, but found nothing.
“And now, with all this about the Edison Group, and Liz and Brady and Amber murdered…” He looked out over the parking lot. “I’m starting to think it might be a waste of time. That he’s not out there. That they killed him.”
“But Aunt Lauren was sure the Edison Group wasn’t involved in your dad’s disappearance. And she seemed certain he’d still be alive. Do you know any other place he could be? Or anyone who might know something?”
“I thought about going back to Albany, maybe talk to people he worked with, our neighbors, someone who might have seen something that day…”
“We could do that. We have enough money.”
“Derek doesn’t want to.”
“He wants to stay here?” That didn’t sound like Derek.
“No, he just doesn’t see any point in going back—and says it’s probably dangerous. But there is someone we could go to. This friend of my dad’s. Andrew Carson. He lives outside New York City. Dad said if we were ever in trouble and he wasn’t around, we should go to Andrew.”
“Have you called him? Maybe he knows something about your dad.”
“That’s the problem. Dad put his number on our cell phones, but they took those when we were tossed in Lyle House. We know his name and where he lives—we’ve been there plenty of times. But when we tried looking him up on a computer, we couldn’t find anything.”
“His number must be unlisted. Or he’s using an alias.”
“Or he’s not there anymore. It’s been a few years since we saw him. He and Dad had a falling-out.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t contact him then.”
Simon crumpled his wrapper. “I shouldn’t say ‘falling-out.’ A disagreement. Dad and Andrew kept in touch; we just didn’t go visit him anymore. He was still our emergency contact. So we should go see him, like Derek says. I’m just…not ready to give up on finding Dad. But with you and Tori here, and your picture everywhere, Derek’s ready to buy the bus tickets.”
“How about another solution? I need to get out of Buffalo. You need to talk to this guy. What if Tori and I go find Andrew while you and Derek look—”
“No. I don’t trust Tori with you, especially after last night. Derek wouldn’t go for it either.”
I wasn’t so sure. He might jump at the chance to get rid of me.
Simon continued, “Even if Tori’s not homicidal, she’s careless and reckless. Worse than me, which is saying a lot. We’ll find another way.”
Twenty-six
FOR MOST OF THAT day, both Derek and Tori steered clear of me, like I had a bug they didn’t want to catch. I didn’t see a lot of Simon either. He went off with Derek to the library, still trying to find their dad or his friend Andrew. Tori tagged along. I stayed put in a lovely dank alley Derek had chosen for me. Simon left me with a movie magazine, snacks, a hairbrush and soap, and promised they’d get me to a bathroom after dark.
It was mid-afternoon when I heard footsteps tromping down the alley and I scrambled up to meet Simon. Derek might be bigger, but it was Simon who made all the noise. Derek was only loud when…
Derek stomped around the corner, scowling.…when he was mad.
He had a newspaper rolled in his hand, bearing down on me like a puppy that had piddled on the carpet.
“Bad Chloe,” I muttered.
“What?”
I’d forgotten his bionic hearing. “Bad Chloe.” I gestured at the rolled-up paper and put out my hand. “Get it over with.”
“You think this is funny?”
“No, I think it’s tiresome.”
He slapped down the paper. In the bottom corner of the front page was the headline “Missing Girl Spotted” with a picture of me. I skimmed the short paragraph, then turned to the rest inside.
It had happened last night, when Derek had been yelling at me after my run-in with the street girls. The windows around us may have been dark, but a woman had been watching from an apartment over a shop, drawn by Derek’s voice. She’d seen “a girl with light hair and red streaks” being yelled at by “a large, dark-haired man.” So now police speculated that I might not be a runaway but a kidnap victim.
“Well?” Derek said.
I folded the paper carefully, my gaze down. “Guess you shouldn’t have yelled at me in public.”
“What?”
“That’s what caught her attention. You chewing me out.”
“No, what caught her attention was your hair. If you’d kept your hood up like I said—”
“Of course. Totally my fault. After nearly getting my face carved up, how dare I forget my attacker yanked down my hood. Bad Chloe.”
“So this is a joke?”
I looked up at him. “No, it’s not a joke. It’s a serious problem. The joke is this.” I waved from him to me. “You’ve been sulking all day, brooding—”
“Brooding?”
“Just itching for me to screw up so you can rip me a new one, your favorite pastime. You couldn’t just come back and calmly say we have a problem that we need to discuss. Where’s the fun in that?”
“You think I enjoy—”
“I have no idea what you enjoy, if anything. But I do know what you’d like. Me, gone.”
“What?”
“I’ve served my purpose. I got Simon out of Lyle House. Sure, you were willing to make a half-assed effort to find me, so it looks good for Simon—”
“Half-assed?”
“You showed up hours late. Left a hidden note. Came by once a day. Yes, half-assed.”
“No. Ask Simon. I was worried—”
“I’m sure you faked it well. But, unfortunately, I found you and, worse, I showed up with Tori in tow and a price on my head. So it’s time to activate the backup plan. Make me so miserable and unwelcome that I slink away.”
“I’d never—”
“No, you won’t.” I met his gaze. “Because I’m not going to slink away, Derek. If I’m too much of an inconvenience to keep around, then at least have the guts to tell me to get lost.”
I brushed past him and walked away.
I didn’t get far. I bumped into Simon and Tori, and Derek caught up with us. And then he got his way. Not about driving me off—he still had to work at that. But this new development gave him all the ammunition he needed to persuade Simon it was time to go to their father’s friend’s place. The bus left at four. First, though, the half-million-dollar runaway needed a disguise.
Derek took me to a restroom in the park I’d seen from the roof. The building was locked for the off-season, but he easily broke the locks and got me in. He made sure the water hadn’t been turned off, then slapped a box of hair color on the counter.
“Gotta get rid of that,” he said, pointing at my hair.
“I could just keep my hood—”
“Already tried.”
He walked out.
I strained to see by the bit of light coming through a row of tiny, filthy windows. It was hard to read the instructions, but it looked similar to the red dye I’d used, so I applied it the same way. I couldn’t tell what color Derek had chosen. It looked black, but the red dye had, too, so that didn’t mean much. I didn’t think too much about it until I washed out the dye, looked in the mirror, and…