Daryl hated himself as he recited it. He and Ding had been friends since seventh grade. But if he knew Dingo, and he did, Dingo would understand.
Stank wrote the address down in his phone.
“Anything else I can help you gentlemen out with?” Daryl asked.
“Yeah,” O’Keefe said. And punched him in the face.
Daryl felt his nose break as both Eddie and Stank began to pummel him, too.
“No fair, brahs, Ihelpedyou,” he tried to say, but something heavy hit him in the back of the head and the world went black.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Friday
Fiona’s mother had her eyes—blue and annoyed. In fact, the woman might’ve been Fee’s older clone, they looked that much alike—a fact that Dingo knew must’ve royally chapped Fee’s ass.
One of her fav topics of discussion had been how much she hated her mom.
“She’s not here,” the woman said flatly in response to Maddie’s politely asked, “Excuse me, ma’am, is Fiona home?”
She started to close the heavy wooden front door in their faces, but Dingo asked, “Is she at her da’s, then?” He leaned on his accent because Fee had loved thinking that he was Australian, and maybe she didn’t just look like her mother—maybe they shared some similar personality traits or at least a few major likes and dislikes, too.
And sure enough, the woman stopped and looked at him. “You must be Dingo,” she said. “Fiona warned me that you might come looking for her.” She looked at Maddie. “That makes you Maddie. The thief. At least that’s what she said. I’ve learned to take the things she says with a very large grain of salt.”
Dingo often went with his gut, and right now, his gut was telling him to be as honest as possible. “Fiona stole ten thousand dollars from a drug dealer in San Diego and framed Mads here.”
Fee’s mother laughed. “And I’m supposed to just give it to you, right? Is ten thousand dollars the going price for bribing the security guards at Longfield Academy? I’ll pass, thanks.” She started to close the door again.
This time Maddie reached out to lean against it, to keep it from shutting. “Wait,” she said. “We’re not here for money. I didn’t even think that was a possibility—”
“But as long as you mention it,” Dingo started, even as Fee’s mother said, “Step back from the door! Don’t make me call nine-one-one!”
“Dingo, shush.” Maddie stepped back, intentionally bumping into Dingo, no doubt because she knew that would make him immediately leap back toward the edge of the front stoop.No touching, no kissing—sweet Christ, he’d gone and kissed her last night, and now he was struggling to think about anything else.
Maddie was focused, though, and she begged the woman. “Please, Mrs. Clark—” that was her remarried name “—we just want to talk to Fiona. That’s all.”
“Well, you can’t,” the woman said. “Her father sent her to aboardingschool.” She made exaggerated air quotes. “The kind with locks on the doors.”
“Longfield Academy?” Maddie asked. “Is that here in Sacramento?”
“Honey, it’s out near Roanoke, Virginia.”
Virginia? As Maddie looked at Dingo in obvious dismay, he immediately found himself thinking maybe it would be okay if all they did was kiss and—Shit!Inwardly, he slapped himself.Snap out of it!
Meanwhile, he could tell from Maddie’s face that she was checking a mental map of the United States and trying to figure out how much money they’d need to drive to freaking Virginia. Shite, the idea of Fee living anywhere with the wordvirginin the name was like a bad joke. Also? It was hard to imagine her going into lockup without kicking and screaming. In fact…“She didn’t try to run away? You know, when Daddy saidboarding school?”
“The decision was sudden,” Fee’s mother said. “And unannounced. The school came out here to pick her up.”
He exchanged another look with Maddie, managing this time not to think about kissing her—except, shit, now he was thinking about it.Focus.What Fee’s mother had just told them sounded a bit like kidnapping. Violent, like. Hard to imagine Fiona hadn’t fought back—literally kicking and screaming. That must’ve been awful to witness.
Mrs. Clark must’ve known what he was thinking, because she added, “This particular school provides psychological and psychiatric support. They’ll get her off the drugs and back on the meds she needs to—hopefully—achieve some sort of balance, and, well, they started with that immediately.”
So…Fiona had been both surprised and then instantly sedated. That explained how they got her onto a plane—unless the “school” had its own private jet, which was entirely possible. As for the meds, was there truly a pill that would counteract sheer evil?
“Her father went with her,” the woman continued, and to Dingo’s surprise, her eyes filled with tears. “To get her…settled in. We both thought it was best if I stayed home. I seem to…set her off more easily.”
So yeah, everything nasty that Fee had said about her mother was probably as much of a lie as her telling Auntie Susan that the camera in the bathroom was his, and her telling Nelson that Maddie’d stolen his ten grand.
