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Finding Todd and Vic turned out not to be easy

It was late afternoon by the tieneral store, which sold

everything from nails to nylons to canned peas

"Hi, Bunny I don’t suppose you’ve seen Todd orVic around?"

Bunny Marten looked up from behind the counter She was pretty, with soft blond hair, a round,

dimpled face, and a timid expression She was in MaryLynnette’s class at school "Did you check over at

theGold Creek Bar?"

Mary-Lynnette nodded "And at their houses, andat the other store, and at the sheriff’s office" The

sheriff’s office was also city hall and the public library

"Well, if they’renot playing pool, they’re usuallyplinking" Plinkingwas shooting atcans for practice

"Yeah, but where?" Mary-Lynnette said

Bunny shook her head, earrings glinting "Yourguess is as good asdown at

her cuticles, which she was pushing back with a little blunt-pointed wooden stick "But, you know, I’ve

heard they go down to Mad Dog Creeksometimes" Her wide blue eyes lifted to Mary Lynnette’s

reat Mary-Lynnette grimaced

"I know" Bunny raised her shoulders in a shiver"I wouldn’t go down there I’d be thinking about

that body the whole time"

"Yeah, me, too Well, thanks, Bun See you"

Bunny exa," she said absently

Mary-Lynnette went out of the store, squinting in the hot, hazy August sunlight Main Street wasn’tbig It

had a handful of brick and stone buildingsfroold rush supply

town, and a fewpaint Todd and Vic weren’t in any of thehed There was no road to Mad Dog Creek, only a trail that was

constantly blocked by neth and deadfall And everyone knewwent on there

If they’re out there, they’re probably hunting, she thought Not to s

Guns and beer And then there’s that body

The body had been found last year around thistime A man; a hiker, from his backpack Nobody

kneho he was or how he’d died-the corpse wastoo desiccated and chewed by anihosts floating around the creek last winter

Mary-Lynnette sighed again and got into her station wagon

The car was ancient, it was rusty, itsounds when forced to accelerate, but it was hers,

andMary-Lynnette did her best to keep it alive She loved it because there was plenty of room in back to

store her telescope

At Briar Creek’s only gas station she fished a scrolled fruit knife fro at the rusty gas cap cover

A little higher upalmost, almostnow

twist

The cover flew open

"Ever think of going into the safecracking business?" a voice behind her said "You’ve got the

touch"

Mary-Lynnette turned "Hi, Jeremy"

He smiled-a smile that showed eously darklashes

If I were going to fall for a guy-and I’ blond cat

who thinks he can pick his sisters’ friends

It was a irls He was a loner

"Want

"No, thanks I just checked everything last week" Mary-Lynnette started to puee and a spray bottle and began to wash the windshield His entle and his face was utterly solele herself, butshe appreciated hilass

and corroded windshield wipers She’d always had an odd feeling of kinship with Jeremy He was the

only person in Briar Creek who seehtlyinterested in astronomy-he’d helped her build a

rade, and ofcourse he’d watched last year’s lunar eclipse with her

His parents had died in Medford when he was justa baby, and his uncle brought him to Briar Creek in a

Fleetwood trailer The uncle was strange-alandering off to dowse for gold in the Klamath wil

derness One day he didn’t come back

After that, Jeremy lived alone in thetrailer in the woods He did odd jobs and worked at the gas station

to make money And if his clothes weren’t as nice assome of the other kids’, he didn’t care-or he didn’t

let it show

The handle of the gas hose clicked in MaryLynnette’s hand She realized she had been daydrea else?" Jeremy said The windshieldwas dean

"Nowell, actually, yes You haven’t, um, seenTodd Akers or Vic Kimble today, have you?"

Jere her twentydollar bill

"Why?"

"I just wanted to talk to them," Mary-Lynnettesaid She could feel heat in her cheeks Oh, God,

hethinks I want to see Todd and Vic socially-and he thinks I’him

She hurried to explain "It’s just that Bunny saidthey htyou

, since you live down around there"

Jereunshots fro Ac

tually, I don’t think they’ve been there all su them to stay away"

He said it quietly, without e that ht listen to hiht But sometimes a look came into

his level brown eyes that was : al underneath thatquiet-guy

exterior-so prie if roused

"Mary-Lynnette-I know you probably think thisis none of my business, butwell, I think you

should stay away froo with you"

Oh Mary-Lynnette felt a warratitude She wouldn’t take him up on the offerbut it was

nice of him to make it

"Thanks," she said "I’ll be fine, butthanks "

She watched as he went to get her change insidethe station What must it feel like to be on your own

since you were twelve years old? Maybe he neededhelp Maybe she should ask her dad to offer him

some odd jobs around the house He did them for everyone else She just had to be careful-she knew

Jere that se "Here you go And, Mary-Lynnette "

She looked up

"If you do find Todd and Vic, be careful"

"I know"

"I mean it"

"I know," Mary-Lynnette said She had reached for the change, but he hadn’t let go of it Instead

hedid soers with one hand while giving her the bills and coins with

the other Then he curled her fingers back over it In effect, he was holding her hand

The moment of physical contact surprised herand touched her She found herself looking at his thin

brown fingers, at their strong but delicate grip on her hand, at the gold seal ring with the black design that

he wore

She was even ain There was open concern in his

eyes-and so like respect For an instant she had a wild and completely inexplicable i But she could just iine what he would think Jeremy was very practical

"Thanks, Jere up a weak smile "Take care"

"Youtake care There are people who’dhappened" He saze on her even as she drove away

All right,nohat?

Well, she’d wastedfor

Todd and Vic And noith the ie of Jeremy’s level brown eyes in her mind, she wondered if it

had been a stupid idea fro

Brown eyesand what color eyes did the bigblond cat have? Strange, it was hard to reht that they had looked brown at one point when he was talking about his old-fashioned fairl with spirit, she re a sort of insipid blue And when

that odd knife-glint had flashed in theray?

Oh,who cares?Maybe they were orange Let’s just go hoht

How coate?

Why? Why? Whyinto a creek A squirrel too stupid to get out of the sun was

staring back at him On a rock beside him a lizard lifted first one foot, then another

It wasn’t fair It wasn’t right

He didn’t even believe it

He’d always been lucky Or at least he’d alwaysed to escape a hairsbreadth away from disaster

But this time the disaster had hit and it was a total annihilation

Everything he was, everything he believed abouthiirl

as probably deranged and certainly ether?

No, he concluded grimly Absolutely not Not in five minutes It only took five seconds

He knew so irls Witches withmysterious smiles, vampires with delicious curves,

shapeshifters with cute furry tails Even huirls with fancy sports cars who never seemed to mind

when he nibbled their necks Why couldn’t it have been one of them?

Well, it wasn’t And there was no point in wondering about the injustice of it The question hat

was he going todo about it? Just sit back and let fate ride over hihteen-wheeler?