“Hello!” Dingo’s voice came out of the phone distorted but definitely male. “Thank you so much for helping my little Maddie-kins!”
Oh, ugh, Dingo, really?
“I haven’t yet said that I would,” Hiroko pointed out, and everyone froze. Well, everyone being Maddie and Dingo. Hiroko calmly bent down and picked up a glove that she’d dropped.
“Oh, well,” Dingo started to say, and Maddie quickly turned off the speaker before he could start stammering and blow this worse than she’d already apparently blown it.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said, “I know you need to go. I’ll talk to you later. Love you,mwah.” She cut the connection and slipped her phone into her back pocket, and then met GAH’s unwavering cool gaze. Clearly, she’d done this wrong, coming in all happy and shit. Now, she tried to match the old woman’s quiet dignity. “I apologize for assuming—”
Hiroko cut her off. “Who’s your friend in the car?”
“Oh,” Maddie said. “He’s just, um…a friend. Who sometimes gives me a ride when I need one.”
“I’m making breakfast. Scrambled eggs. Call him—use your phone—and invite him in,” the old woman said.
If she did that, he’d come up as a very visibleDadon her screen. “Oh,” Maddie said. “No, I’ll just…” She shouted. “Dingo! Hey, Ding! Want breakfast?”
Hiroko shook her head in disapproval, then started for the kitchen door as Dingo came galloping eagerly up the path from the car. “Hurry up,” the old woman said dourly, “or you’ll be late forschool.”
That emphasis onschoolwas not accidental. It was obvious that Hiroko wasn’t even remotely fooled by any of this. Maddie knew she shouldn’t go inside. She should grab Dingo and pull him back into the car and make him drive away.
Still,scrambled eggs! She and Dingo had just a few dollars left between them, and the idea offreescrambled eggs was too mouthwatering to turn down.
Besides, if GAH called “Dad”—even if she excused herself and went into the bathroom to secretly use the phone—Maddie would know it, and there’d be plenty of time to get away.
When Shayla opened the door, Mrs. Sullivan was using the phone back in the high school vice principal’s inner office. Peter stood waiting, his hat tucked up under his arm, file folder open on the long, room-dividing counter in front of him.
Nice arms.
Trust Harry to pop into her head and mention that.
Yeah, because it was weird, Harry pointed out.Nice arms?
She had no idea why Peter had said that, but he was talking to her, soshh.
“She knew Fiona immediately, from the photo,” the SEAL reported as Shay closed the door behind her.
They were alone in the room—aside from Mrs. S, who’d left that inner office door open a crack, and Harry, who was invisible to all of the uncrazy nonwriters in the room.
“Apparently there’s been some drama this past week,” Peter continued. “Fiona was living here in San Diego with her aunt, but there was a fire at her condo, and…apparently, she was shipped back home to her parents.”
“To Sacramento?” Shayla asked. That was where the girl had said she was from on her Facebook profile.
“I don’t know.” He couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes. “Mrs. Sullivan didn’t say it in so many words, but I could tell from her attitude that Fiona had been a problem for the school.”
“I’m pretty sure every child in this school is a problem for Mrs. S,” Shayla whispered reassuringly, reaching out to pat his arm—nice arms—which made him smile even as she shushed Harry and snatched her hand back, fast.
“Yeah, maybe,” he said. “But still, afire…?”
“Fires happen,” Shay told him.
“After which Fiona was shipped home.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s a budding arsonist,” she argued. “If her aunt’s condo burned, where’s she going to live? She may have gone home simply because she no longer has a place to stay.”
“Okay. You’re right.” Peter nodded. “But bottom line, Fiona’s gone. I find it hard to believe it’s a coincidence that Maddie’s gone missing at the same time that her only friend left town.”
“That’s probablynota coincidence,” Shayla agreed. “Even if it was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. Because remember, Fiona’s not Maddie’s only friend. There’s also Dingo. It’s possible that the emotional distress of Fiona leaving combined with Maddie knowing that if you found out about Dingo, you’d forbid her from dating him—as any parent would…”
