Page 54 of Pretty Nightmare

He salutes her. “I’m afraid we’re done.”

“I missed all the good stuff again?” Maggie whines a little, but it’s not real. “Indie asked me—”

“Do not call her that,” I chastise. “She is your mama. You will call her Mama.”

“Fine. Mama asked me to come ask you boys if you want to go out to eat because Donovan is gone—”

“Where’d he go?” I interrupt.

“Town?” Maggie shrugs. “I dunno. Where does he ever go?”

“Town,” McKay and I both say.

“Right. So. I want pizza.” She tugs on my arm and makes fish lips at me. “Can we get pizza?”

“I’ll take some pizza,” McKay says. “But I’m gonna go shower real quick.” He gets to his feet. “I’ll meet you in the house.”

“OK,” Maggie says, smiling at McKay’s back as he walks down the dock. We’re silent until he’s out of sight. Then she says, “So… I’ve been thinking.”

“About?”

“You know that problem we have?”

“Which one?”

“The things your father left behind.”

“Oh, fuck! I totally forgot!”

“What?”

“Fuckin’ Wendy called me. Right before McKay came out. She said—fuck, what did she say? Some riddle, Mags. She had a riddle for me.”

“Oh. I love riddles. What kind of riddle?”

“I know you do. I was just gonna go find you and see if you could help me figure it out when I got sidetracked.”

She tsks her tongue at me. “Well, what is it?”

“Let me text her and get the verbatim. Hold on.” I text Wendy.

“OK, while we wait for that, I had an idea.”

“About the missing secrets?”

“Yup.”

“The suspense is killing me, peach. Spit it out.”

“OK. So the problem is that they have to be hidden somewhere close.”

“Yup. They have to be.”

“They’re probably here, Adam.”

“Why you gotta do that?”

“Do what?”