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“So why are you in my car, then? What happens now, if I can’t help?”
“I don’t know. ” The way he said it, I thought for a second that he was going to start crying. I was glad he didn’t. I wouldn’t have known what to do with it. “And you can tell the cops if you want to, if that’s what you’re going to do. But I was only trying to buy some time. ”
“For what? For things to get worse?”
“Sure. And it is going to get worse. Eventually, you’ll be able to see it too. You won’t be able to pretend it isn’t there, and then maybe you’ll get involved. ”
I shrugged and rolled my head back and forth on the headrest. “And then what?”
“Who knows? But they sure as hell won’t believe me. ” He tried to peer through the rain sloughing down the window, but the shapes out on the library steps were only half-formed blotches of color. “They won’t believe us. ” He waved a hand at the other skaters on the steps.
“And why do you think that is?” I asked, half serious and half accusing.
“I know why people think what they think. But I can’t change it now, not in time to fix this. ”
Under different circumstances, I wouldn’t have put up with his cryptic weirdness for nearly so long; but I had a niggling thought that wouldn’t go away, and he was stroking it—whether he meant to or not.
“I need to talk to Lu,” I said out loud.
“Your aunt?”
“Yeah. I need to talk to her. ”
“About this?”
“Not exactly, but maybe. ”
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“I need to find out why she really doesn’t want me moving down by the river. It’s like you said—when the river rises, maybe it brings something with it. ” I shook my head and gripped the steering wheel, just so I had a place to put my hands. “Lu and her sisters, they grew up over there—on the other side of the river. In North Chatt. I wonder if she knows something she isn’t telling me. I wonder, if I tell her what you’ve told me, if she’ll change her story at all. ”
“Can’t hurt to ask. ”
“That’s how I see it. ” Another long pause hung between us. I broke it first. “Get out of my car. ”
“What?”
“Get out. Go back to your playmates. I’m going to go back up the mountain now. I’m going to corner Lu before Dave gets home. Divide and conquer, in case it matters. Dave might not know. He doesn’t care if I take the apartment. She’s the one giving me a hassle about it. ”
“Are you going to call the cops? Not like you’ve got any proof or anything, but if you send them my way, just do me the courtesy of warning me first, would you?”
“I’m not going to call the cops. ”
“Or your buddy down at Channel Three?”
“Not him either. Get out, and shut the door fast behind you. ”
He finally did as I ordered, leaving me sitting alone in front of the library. I wouldn’t have given his conspiracy theory a minute’s thought if it weren’t for Lu. I had no good reason to think there was anything linking her reluctance and Christ’s warnings, but there were enough tiny similarities to make me wonder.
The drive home took me longer than it sometimes does, because rain makes people drive stupid—on the mountains more than in the valley, I think. People never take those hairpin turns faster or meaner than when it’s wet outside, so I had to be careful.
Lu was there when I got home, as I thought she probably would be. I found her on the back porch, sipping something icy that smelled like sweet rum and watching the rain.
“Welcome back. How’s it going?” she asked, doing a little toast in my direction. “You saw the newspaper this morning. ” It wasn’t a question. She knew I’d seen it; I’d taken it with me when I left the house.
“I saw it. Thanks for leaving it out. I went down there, actually. ”
“Did you?”
