“She won’t be awake. Her alarm goes off at five in the morning. Try her then.”
“You’re going to stay here overnight?” Artemis said.
“No one else is going to pick me up.”
“I have to decide what I’m going to do with you first, anyway,” the chief said. “A ticket, at the very least. Trespassing. I imagine it’s not the first time you’ve been there, either, so count yourself lucky that this is the first time Iknowabout, and don’t let me catch you doing anything like it ever again.”
And she disappeared.
Artemis sank against the wall, boneless. I rested my elbows on my knees and bent over until my hair shielded my face, then took several long, deep breaths. I wasn’t going to jail. It was a possibility, but I’d avoided it this time.
“Do you think this is going to go on my record?” Artemis asked.
“I dunno. Why?”
“I’ve never had anything on my record. I don’thavea record.”
“Congratulations, cherry popped.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“I’m not surprised to hear you say that.”
“Why, because I have a decent sense of humor?”
“No, because you look like you got thrown up by a teen Christianity magazine.”
“At least I don’t look like a raccoon that crawled out of Joey Ramone’s garbage can.”
“I do love ‘Blitzkrieg Bop.’”
Artemis let out an irritated scream and threw her hands up. “How can you be so flippant about this? If that footage gets out, Addamsville will be flooded with tourists. And it’ll be worse than them just tearing up our buildings and our stories—they’ll go to the mine. TheDMWcrew might be going back in thereright now. We’re supposed to be protecting them!”
“No,” I snarled, “I’msupposed to be protecting them. Don’t talk to me like I don’t know my own job. When was the last time you ran someone over with a car or chopped off their head? You can’t evenseeghosts. Your mom made you think you’re so damn important. You’renot. If theDMWcrew or anyone else dies, it’s my fault, and you’ll get off free, like you always do.”
“That’s not true. I’m here to help. I want to help—”
“Shutup.” I flopped over and rolled away from her. “Why do you think I fought that firestarter alone last time? You’re a liability; you’ve never fought them before. You’ll just get in the way and get yourself killed. Go play with your EMF meter and leave me alone.”
There was a beat of silence that stretched, and stretched, and stretched, until I realized Artemis didn’t plan to reply.
Greta arrived half an hour later in a contemptuous fury. Her hair was up in a curled Hallmark-movie ponytail, her makeup perfect even at this time of night, and her shoes made ringing clacks on the floor. Most of that anger was for me. Somethingabout delinquency, poisoning her daughter, and not doing the memory of my mother justice.
I did catch the last thing she said.
“If you don’t start doing something about yourself, you’re going to send the whole town up in flames.”
I refused to move out of spite.
“You were right,” Chief Rivera said after they’d gone. “I got Sadie’s voice mail. Is there anyone else who can come get you?”
I sat up. Grim probably would, but I didn’t want to bother him; he had enough problems in his life. The Happy Hal’s gang might come, but I didn’t want them to know about this sooner than absolutely necessary. They’d trust me less than they already did. And that was the end of my list of people I could call.
“No, it’s fine,” I said.
“Then you’re here till morning. I left Sadie a message, but we’ll try her again after five.”
I scooted back into the corner and curled up. “Thanks, Chief.”
