Killer Flock (Kate Fox Book 11), page 18
“Oh.” She stopped, and I nearly bumped into her. “I’ll go with you.”
Poupon and I continued into the freezing hallway. It was really getting cold out here. If the storm didn’t let up and we didn’t get dug out soon, we’d all be huddled in the library, maybe using those Bunsen burners for warmth. I hoped the generator would keep kicking out at least some heat.
The glow from the library lights filtered out to the hallway, looking almost cozy. I guess I was reaching for any comfort I could find. I hated not knowing what was happening with Baxter. It had been about twenty hours since I’d last talked to him. Carly and Diane would be there by now. Maybe they’d found Aria. Maybe they were already planning their trip home.
I’d need to figure out the best way to help Louise and Norm and their family. Not sure I could do much about Dad and Deenie. Olivia was the only person left to interview. Then I would’ve done all I could do and I’d turn my notes over to Zoe and Trey Ridnour from the state patrol.
Poupon and I would head home to snuggle in our warm house. Maybe I’d make my own pot of chili and cinnamon rolls. I was doing a much better job of keeping food around my house these days. And that would give me all that time to worry and stress over Baxter.
I stepped into the library to find Kenneth/Benjamin dozing on the couch and Joyce/Eliana in the chair next to him, a hardcover book open on her lap. I’d need to pick which names to use for them and decided on Kenneth and Joyce. Since they didn’t know we knew and we weren’t ready to reveal that, it made sense to keep things simple. Although I could always revert to Mr. and Mrs. Howell.
Anna sat close to them, huddled into her thick wool sweater with her hands tucked into the sleeves. Her knees clutched together and her shoulders drawn forward, she looked like she wished to curl into a hedgehog ball and hide away. It appeared that she and Joyce had been talking but stopped abruptly when I entered.
Sean slipped past me on his way out. “I’ve gotta hit the john.”
Did he need permission or a parade? He got neither.
Aaron stood at the far side of the library opposite the windows. He’d been studying the bookshelf that lined that wall. Olivia walked to Binda’s desk, where her notebook and pen rested. Ford lay stretched out on his cot.
I looked toward the back of the library. I couldn’t see every inch of the room because of the shelves, but Deenie wasn’t around. “Where’s Deenie?”
Joyce blessed me with the disdain I’d come to expect from her. “How should we know?”
Aaron spoke up from across the room. “She said she was going to the restroom.”
Olivia gave him an annoyed look. “I never heard her say that. And she wasn’t in the science room.”
Ford sided with Aaron. “I heard her say that too. Maybe she went into it from another classroom so she wouldn’t interrupt your interview.”
She was part of the interview process; she wouldn’t worry about interrupting.
I quickly covered the floor in front of the three chest-high bookshelves to make sure she wasn’t camped out on the ground, maybe hiding from the others. She wasn’t at the table in back. “She came in here to check her phone. Where did she go?”
Anna glanced around as if surprised not to see Deenie. “She was here earlier. I don’t know when she left.”
There wasn’t anywhere for Deenie to go that wasn’t freezing cold, and even if she had left the library, she would have told me. I’d have seen her. And I definitely did not see her. My elevated heart rate must have alerted Poupon, because he perked his ears forward, a distinct spark of worry in his eyes.
Aaron meandered from the far wall. “Maybe she didn’t want to disturb you and went to nap in a classroom.”
That was ridiculous. And now my chest tightened in worry.
Sean opened the library door and slipped inside.
I spun toward him. “Did you see Deenie? Was she with Louise?”
He glanced at the others before talking to me. “Uh. No. Louise was working on setting up some kind of oven thing with the Bunsen burner and two pans.”
Aaron perked up. “Uh-oh. I think maybe I should go help her.” He rushed from the room.
I backed up, Poupon moving with me like a dancing partner. “You all,” I swept my arm around the room, “stay here. No one goes anywhere until I get back.”
Joyce folded her arms across her thin chest. “As if we’d risk freezing to death. It’s cold enough in here as it is. Can’t you turn up the thermostat?”
They could start burning the furniture, for all I cared. But not the books. Never the books.
I sped into the dim hallway and popped into the science room. “Deenie? Louise, have you seen Deenie?”
When I rushed into the center pod, Louise and Aaron were face-to-face. She looked as if she were guarding the dwindling collection of the green fuel cartridges, Bunsen burners and tubing, a Dutch oven and a cake pan, and who knows whatever else. “I saw this on a YouTube video about camp cooking.”
Aaron assessed her supplies and spoke like a therapist calming a rooftop jumper. “You’ve got the right idea. I’m here to help you execute it without blowing us up.”
She looked a little sheepish but still defiant. “It should work. You put the fire under here, and the cake pan here, and cover it all with the overturned Dutch oven, and it will bake.”
“Um-hm.” He reached in. “May I?”
She stood back.
“Have you seen Deenie since lunch? Did she come back here?” I sounded as frantic as I felt.
Louise watched Aaron work and said to me, “You would have seen her in the science room if she came back here.”
“Maybe she came from a different room?” I repeated Sean’s suggestion.
Louise looked over her shoulder at me, annoyed. “Really, Kate. I’m busy trying to get you people fed. If I’d seen Deenie, I would have told you.”
Poupon whined.
He picked a bad time to need to go outside, but when you get the call, you get the call. I could check the classrooms on the way back. “Come on.”
We jetted into the corridor and turned to the north, following the icy hallway to the outside door.
“Deenie!” My shouts echoed back to me in the empty school. Even though I’d spent chunks of my youth within these walls, both during and after school, I felt a creepiness now I’d never imagined back then. “Deenie!”
To my surprise, Poupon started to jog ahead of me. He let out a bark. A bark. From a dog who hardly ever made a peep, not even a growl when I nudged him off my couch.
He got to the door first and gave a single low whine while swiping his paw down.
“It’s an emergency, huh?” I’d given him sloppy joe leftovers last night for dinner and a couple of eggs for breakfast. “People food not agreeing with you. Sorry about that.”
I smacked the bar on the door and leaned hard, expecting the wind to give resistance. I nearly tumbled out.
Poupon barked, the sound spreading across the afternoon sky. But at least it wasn’t swallowed up with the jet-engine roar of wind. Maybe more like a teakettle whoosh. The sky was still milky, and thick snowflakes dropped almost like rain. But I could make out the whole pirate ship and even the tall triangle of the swing set.
But holy moly, was it cold. Like nose-hairs freezing, lung burning, instant finger-tingling cold. “Hurry up, bud. Let’s get back inside.”
He barked again, a high-pitched kind of yelp that wasn’t normal for him. It was enough to make me search around and look behind the door I held open.
“Oh my God!”
27
She lay on her side, lips blue, eyes closed.
“Deenie!”
Poupon barked again, this time putting up a loud racket.
I lunged back inside for the brick to prop the door open. It would be insanely ironic if I locked us out trying to help Deenie, and then we all froze to death. At least Louise would be right that someone got stuck in a snowbank.
Deenie had some weight on me, and she wasn’t able to help me at all, but by sheer adrenaline, I was able to drag her inside. Poupon jumped over her and was inside before I kicked the brick loose and the door slammed shut.
He set up barking again. Loud enough it brought Aaron and Louise on the run. And behind them, others rushed toward us.
“Deenie was locked outside. Help me get her to the library,” I shouted and shivered.
Deenie looked ghostly, and her breathing was shallow. Her skin felt icy. How long had she been out there? Long enough to get frostbite? Pneumonia? What if I hadn’t found her?
“Good boy, Poupon. Good boy. Good boy.” I kept repeating it under my breath as I slipped my arms under Deenie’s frosty shoulder blades to lift her.
Olivia shoved the others out of the way and slapped a camping cot onto the ground. “It’ll work for a stretcher.”
“That’s smart.” This girl could act in an emergency. A natural leader and problem-solver. I’d seen her be kind to Louise and affectionate with Poupon. Even though she seemed to take a dislike to me, I found much to admire in her. Not in a let’s-get-coffee-and-hang-out kind of way. Her intensity might be a bit much.
Aaron and Sean helped Olivia and me load Deenie onto the stretcher. It took Olivia telling Ford to grab hold for him to join us in transporting the cot to the library. The hallway had never seemed so long before. And cold.
I wanted to call Eunice Fleenor, the best EMT the world had ever seen. She would help Deenie, make sure everything was okay. With Eunice in charge, they’d rush Deenie to a warm, clean hospital, and she’d be comfortable in no time.
But we didn’t have Eunice or an ambulance, and Anna didn’t seem to be one to take charge, even if she did have medical training.
Kenneth hadn’t moved from the couch where he’d stayed tucked in a sleeping bag. But the rest of the crew gathered blankets and sleeping bags and helped me wrap up Deenie. Anna and I pulled Deenie’s arms out and began to rub her fingers.
Aaron nudged Sean, and they tugged off Deenie’s tennis shoes and rubbed her feet.
I looked up from her face, which had a bluish tint. “How did she get locked outside?”
Louise hovered above us. “Is she going to be okay? Maybe we could get some hot broth into her. I have some bouillon in my supplies. I can heat water in the pod.”
“It would be good to have something warm to give her when she wakes up. Thanks, Louise.” Giving my bossy sister something to do would help her, and the warm fluid would be good for Deenie.
Someone draped a sleeping bag on my shoulders, and I twisted my neck to see Olivia above me. “You looked cold,” she said.
Actually, I’d forgotten how frozen I felt, but when I pulled the cover around me, relief sank deep. Then I started to shiver. Maybe I ought to get some coffee, too.
Anna didn’t make eye contact. She kept rubbing Deenie’s hand. I let my gaze drift from each of them. Most looked away, like when Dad had gathered us all and asked who had ripped the gutters off the roof.
That had been the twins and Jeremy making a Ninja Warrior course. Jeremy, not more than a tot, had slipped off the roof, grabbed the gutter, and when it detached, rode it to the plank they’d laid across two sawhorses, broke that in two, and crushed the tomato plants underneath. After Dad determined the red goo all over Jeremy wasn’t blood and guts, he’d started his investigation.
I pressed them. “Anyone? How did Deenie get locked in the storm without her coat?”
Finally Ford started to mumble, his expression sheepish, “I don’t know how she got outside. But she…” He trailed off and glanced at the others.
“She what?” I demanded. Dang, I was tired of this bunch.
He took a half step back as if afraid I’d fly across the room and throttle him. He might be justified in that. “I gave her. Well, she asked. And I, like, I was happy to share. But maybe she’s not used to it. And I kind of thought I shouldn’t, but I didn’t want to be like, ‘I’m not going to share.’” Finally he stopped.
I couldn’t help raising my voice. “What are you talking about?”
In her soft voice, Anna explained. “I think maybe he’s saying Deenie asked for some of his weed, and maybe she had too much.”
Ford nodded at Anna. “That’s right.”
It felt like maybe Deenie’s skin warmed a little. I rubbed harder, getting angrier. “You’re saying she got high and wandered outside?”
Ford glanced around as if searching for assistance.
“How much did you give her?” Olivia asked.
Ford bent over to his backpack and pulled out a small brown bottle. “It’s a tincture. So, like, it comes out in a dropper. I take a couple of drops sometimes. It helps me relax. So. Yeah. If she took a bunch, then I don’t know.”
I couldn’t see Deenie asking for cannabis and then sucking down a bunch. It wasn’t that I was shocked she’d use some from time to time. She was hanging with Dad, who was a Vietnam vet. Mom was big into the hippie scene in the late sixties and early seventies. I hadn’t witnessed my folks using weed, but it seemed a pretty good bet they’d enjoyed it in their earlier years, and with its new acceptance, I supposed they still did.
Although, for the record, I didn’t give two beans for what Mom did these days.
Deenie stirred and gave a weak moan.
Louise rushed from the doorway, a steaming Styrofoam cup in her hand.
Aaron and Sean backed up. Anna and I kept hold of Deenie’s cold hands.
Deenie’s eyes pried open into slits as if they’d frozen closed. Her voice creaked out. “So cold.”
I let go of her hand and rubbed her arms vigorously from her shoulders to her elbows.
She closed her eyes again and whispered, “Thanks.”
Louise flitted above us like a miller moth I wanted to swat away. But she was worried, too.
Deenie worked her mouth, trying to speak, but the words were hidden in her throat. When she opened her eyes again, the pupils swallowed nearly everything, leaving a narrow rim of what should have been white but was pink.
Her confused glance started on Ford, then dipped to Sean and Aaron, round to Anna, over to me, then up to Louise. With a surprising lurch that at first I thought was a cough, she burst out with a weak bark of laughter. “Oh my God, Louise.” She wheezed in a breath. “You look like a Christmas angel we used to have when I was little. And Mom…” She started laughing and couldn’t finish the sentence.
How would Louise take being compared to an old Christmas tree angel in a way that seemed hilarious to Deenie? I braced for a sharp retort.
Instead, Louise leaned forward. “I’ve got some warm broth. Do you think you can take a sip?”
Deenie laughed harder. “See? Angel. I knew it.”
Louise propped Deenie up a little and held the cup close to her face. “Here. Drink a little of this. It’ll make you feel better.”
Deenie looked up and gasped. “Oh my God. I’m so hungry. This is wonderful of you. You’re such a good person. I love you. You know that? You’re the most lovable person. Why don’t you know that?”
She might have gone on longer, except Louise shoved the cup against her lips and Deenie sipped.
I glared at Ford. “How long will this take to wear off?”
Guilt spread across his face, and he popped his chin up to throw his hair out of his eyes. “No way of knowing. Everyone gets a different high.”
Deenie pulled her head back, and Louise took the cup away from her lips. “You haven’t had enough,” Louise said. She spoke in a gentle voice I’d only heard her use with her kids. And then, only in their most vulnerable moments.
Deenie shook her head. “I’m gonna sleep now.” She closed her eyes and lay back.
I shook her gently. “Deenie. Wait. Can you tell me why were you outside?”
She didn’t open her eyes. “I was outside? Snowin’ outside.”
I put my thumb and forefinger, which had to be like ice cubes, on her chin. “Why did you go outside?”
Her eyes barely opened. “Outside?” She started to close her eyes, then opened them again. “Walk. She held my hand. Lily of the valley.”
Louise sucked in a quick breath.
I ignored the absurd phrase that I knew jumped at Louise. Mom wore lily of the valley scent. “Did someone take you outside? Leave you there?”
Deenie wrinkled her brow. “Wanted…but. Then…and okay. Wouldn’t give me the red sweatshirt. And that’s…” She drifted off.
I wagged her chin. “Deenie. Red sweatshirt. Someone in a red sweatshirt took you outside?”
She didn’t open her eyes.
Aaron sounded musing. “Isn’t that interesting. A person in a red sweatshirt. This seems significant.”
Anna tucked the sleeping bag around her. “Sleep is probably the best thing for her.”
I slapped her cheek, not hard, even though I wanted to. “Deenie. Wake up. Tell me.”
She frowned and seemed to struggle to open her eyes. “Oh, Kate. Something to tell you. Something. Podcast. Pendergast. Pendergast.”
Olivia nudged me aside and plopped another sleeping bag on top of Deenie. “How’s that. Nice and snug?”
I shoved back. “What, Deenie?” I waggled her chin again. “Pendergast podcast? What’s that mean?”
She let out a tired giggle. “Not Jesse. Not James.” She laughed, ending in a cough.
Sean’s voice boomed, way too loud. “Louise, did you say we’re having beans? Did you grow them yourself?”
Louise didn’t answer.
All my concentration narrowed to the cot. “Come on, Deenie. Stay with me. Tell me this, and then you can sleep it off.”
Anna tapped my hand off Deenie’s chin. “She really needs to rest. You can talk to her later.”
Ford was quick to agree. “It’ll wear off faster if you leave her alone and let her sleep.”
Deenie opened her eyes wider than she’d done before, a playful glint to them. “Ford. See? First clue. Archer. Jesse James. We should have known.” She closed her eyes.
“Deenie!” I shook her, pretty forcefully. “I don’t understand.”
