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I shake my head. “Where are the tools?”
The girl directs me to a storage room. I hook a tool belt around my waist and get to work. The girl and Scully sit in the second row of the theater seats making eyes at each other. It doesn’t look like Scully needed my help in getting the girl interested; he just needed someone to do the work for him. I flip the hammer in my hand a couple of times and decide that I’ll just fix a few things before I go see Sadie.
“Tell me when it’s ten to the hour,” I instruct Scully. He salutes me, and I get to work. The time goes by pretty fast, and before I know it, Scully is telling me that it’s time.
“Just put the tool belt back in the storeroom,” the girl says to me.
“Oh shit, my phone is dead,” Scully says. “Bro, let me use your phone to text my dad. He’s supposed to pick up flowers for Mom today because it’s her birthday. I was supposed to remind him.”
I glance toward the girl.Use her phone, I telegraph.
“It’s just for a minute,” he whines.
Fuck me. I need to put these tools away and then haul ass to meet Sadie for lunch. “Fine.” I toss him the phone and then walk to the storage room. The door shuts behind me as I hang the belt up on the back wall and place the hammer, measuring tape, and screwdrivers on the shelf. My task completed, I turn to leave, but the door doesn’t budge. I jiggle the doorknob, but it only turns about halfway. “What the hell?” I pound on the door. “Scully, something’s blocking the door.”
Silence greets me. I pound harder and yell louder, but still nothing. That prick. When I get out of here, I’m going to take his kill book and shove it down his throat. I turn back and grab the hammer. The hinges are on the inside so it’s easy enough to remove the door, but it takes time, and when I finally heave the heavy wooden thing to the side, it’s nearly quarter after. My phone is lying on the edge of the stage. I pick it up and shoot a message to Sadie.
Me:I got stuck in the storage room in the theater department. Long story will tell you when I meet you. Sorry for being late.
I tuck my phone into my pocket and haul ass to the lunchroom. It’s emptying out when I arrive, and Sadie is nowhere to be found.
I call her, but I’m sent directly to voicemail. Great. She probably thinks I stood her up. I check her schedule and see that she’s supposed to be in an AP class in ten minutes. Smart girl. Probably too smart for me. I burst into the classroom, but hardly anyone is there. The teacher looks up and frowns. She doesn’t recognize me. “I’m here to see Sadie xxx.”
“Sadie? Oh, the new girl. She’s absent today.”
“What do you mean? She was here this morning.”
The teacher shrugs. “Things change.”
“Where is she?”
“I can’t say. It’d be a privacy violation.”
“I live with her. How can it be a privacy thing?”
The teacher raises an eyebrow. “If you live with her, you can ask her yourself.”
I growl in frustration. Who would be at the house at this time? Fischl? I give her a call, but that goes straight to voicemail too. What the hell?
A cold chill seizes me. Is she at the hospital? Are they both there? Frantically, I call my dad. He answers on the second ring. “You need something, son?”
“Yes, is something wrong with Fischl?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because she’s not answering her phone.”
“She took some paid meds, and it knocked her out. I turned off her phone so she wouldn’t be disturbed. What made you call?”
I thrust a frustrated hand through my hair. “Sadie’s not at school, and she’s not answering her phone.”
“Ahh, she’s in her room resting. She called and said her shoulder was hurting.”
“Why didn’t she tell me? I would have driven her home.”
There’s a long pause before Uncle Coop says, “I don’t know why she didn’t come to you, Dunc. I hope you two aren’t having any problems.”
There’s a warning note in his voice, something that tells me I better pick my next words carefully. I grind the back of my teeth before replying, “No problems, sir.”
