“Won’t take long at all,” Nelson assured her, “if you’ve got Fee’s money, honey.” He wheezed at his stupid rhyme, as if it was some kind of world-class joke.
“Fee’s money? What money?” Maddie asked, and Nelson madetsking sounds as again he spoke over her to tell Dead-Eyes, “I told you she was going to say that, that she was going to be allwhat-the-fuck.” He fluttered his hands in the air, as if imitating her, except she hadn’t moved her hands at all.
“You did, boss,” Dead-Eyes said.
“I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maddie said. “I don’t even know you. All I know is you’re some kind of friend of Fiona’s—”
“Fiona’s business associate,” Nelson corrected her. “Fee had to leave town unexpectedly. She said she gave you the money she owes me.”
“What? No!” Maddie shook her head. “I mean, maybe she meant to leave it with me if she told you she was gonna—” she didn’t want to get Fee into trouble “—but something must’ve happened, and…she didn’t. I haven’t seen her since Friday. Seriously.”
“She’s serious,” Nelson told Dead-Eyes. He turned to Maddie. “YouareMaddie Nakamura.”
“Yeah,” Maddie said. “But I don’t—”
“Fiona said she gave it to you on Friday,” Nelson said. “In cash.”
Dingo was now holding on to Maddie’s backpack in the bed of the truck, and she glanced back at it and him as she tried to remember how much money she’d brought to school. She was pretty sure she only had four dollars left in her wallet after the tragedy that was today’s lunch—assuming the skinheads hadn’t stolen it—but she had another forty-seven hidden in the pages ofThe Wind in the Willowson the bookshelf in the bedroom of the bungalow. The last thing she wanted to spend it on was paying off stupid Fiona’s stupid debts to her stupid drug dealer, but if she had to…“How much does she owe you?” she asked on a heavy sigh.
“Ten thousand dollars.”
Maddie nearly choked. “Tenthousand…?”
“She said her aunt kicked her out and was sending her home to her mother. She said she stopped at your house and dropped off the cash on her way to the airport,” Nelson told her.
“But she didn’t,” Maddie insisted. “Or, if she did, she dropped it when I wasn’t there—”
“She said you were.”
“You must’ve misunderstood or…or…somehow gotten the message wrong or—”
“I’ll play it for you—her message—so you can tell me exactly how I got it wrong.” Nelson had his phone hooked into the Bluetooth in the truck, and as he thumbed through his voicemails and hit play, the speakers clicked on.
And yes, that was Fiona’s voice coming through with crystal clarity. “So my fucking bitch aunt kicked me out for good. She’s shipping me home tonight, and there’s not enough time to come over to say goodbye. In fact, I’m on my way to the airport right now. I managed to stop at Maddie’s house. Maddie Nakamura? Remember, I told you about her, you met her, and you said she was cute? Well, I left what I owe you with her—I had to, I didn’t have another option. But I put it into her cute little hand and she promised me she’d give it to you on Monday morning, but heads up, she’s wily and a pathological liar and you might have to chase her. Tell Dingosorry. Oh, wait—” she laughed “—I’mnotsorry.Tell him I hope he eats shit and dies. Have a nice life!”
“She was lying,” Maddie said, her head spinning.Wily and a pathological liar…? She no longer felt the need to protect Fiona. “She’sthe liar—”
“She’s never lied to me before,” Nelson said.
“Well, she’s lying now,” Maddie insisted. She turned in her seat to look again into the truck bed where Dingo was sitting. “Dingo knows her even better than I do. Why would she leave that much money with me instead of her own boyfriend?”
“Because Dingler was otherwise occupied all day on Friday,” Nelson told her. “She tried, but she couldn’t reach him. And since you’ve been working with her for a while now—”
“Workingwith her?” Maddie was starting to feel like a parrot. “With Fiona? No! That’s not true!” She took her phone from the pocket of her cargo pants and unlocked the screen. “Look, check my history! No calls from Fiona, no texts either! Just a lot of me calling and her not picking up! She didn’t reachmeon Friday, either, and she certainly didn’t stop by while my father was home!” Fiona knew better than that.
But Nelson wheezed with laughter again. “You expect me to believe you don’t have a separate burner phone for business? Fee told me about your arrangement, weeks ago. She said you were one of her best sales associates, but she also said you were devious. And, yes, deceitful. That she had to watch you closely.”
Maddie looked at him, and in that moment, she knew. This wasn’t a mistake or a mixup or a misunderstanding. Fiona had taken his ten thousand dollars, left town, and framed Maddie. Not only that, but she’d planned to do it, weeks ago. She’d intentionally brought Maddie to Nelson’s garage so he’d know both her name and her face.
“You have forty-eight hours to ‘find’ the money she gave you, and return it to me,” Nelson informed her. “And that’s me being generous, and giving you a little extra time. After that, the interest rate kicks in, and it’s another thousand dollars for each additional day you withhold.”
“So, you, like,wantme to go to the police?” The words were out of Maddie’s mouth before she’d thought them through.
Nelson moved fast—faster than she’d dreamed an old, out-of-shape creeper could move—grabbing her by the throat with hot-dog fingers that were shockingly strong.
“You even think of doing that,” he said as she tried to breathe but couldn’t, so she started to flail, “and you’re dead.”
Dead-Eyes was still driving, but he moved his arm over to hold her in place, his elbow across her chest as he planted his hand directly between her legs, right on her crotch, and now she was struggling against that, too. But she couldn’t move and she couldn’t breathe.
