Back Before Dark (22 page)

C
ooper turned on his battery-operated camping lantern, and set it on the table of
The Getaway.
His legs felt like rubber, and he collapsed on the bench. Hiro sat on the bench opposite him, hugging herself.

“I just ran from the police,” she said. She looked miserable. “I assume the house was empty?”

Cooper nodded.

“So that’s it.” She fingered the police star necklace. “We’re done.”

Cooper didn’t answer. Were they done? Right now he couldn’t think of a next step. Another place to try. But he
would
think of something. He had to. Checking the house, like he just did, was scary. Really scary. But there was something way worse. Something that brought to life a terrifying panic buried deep inside him—the thought that there was no place else to check. “We’ll think of something. We have to.”

“This was it for me,” she said. Tears pooled in her eyes. She blinked and they trailed down her cheeks. “I’m done. That was the last thing I’m doing for you on this.”

“For me?” Cooper felt his face heat up immediately. “This is about Gordy.”

She shook her head. “I did it for
you.
And you’re getting reckless. Dangerous. You’re going to get yourself hurt—or one of us.”

The thought that Hiro could get hurt made him cringe inside. Cooper checked the window again. “I’m not quitting until I find Gordy.”

Hiro angled her head to one side slightly as if she were reading his thoughts. Her chin quivered. “Promise me you won’t ask me to do one more crazy thing like this.”

Cooper studied her face, and a sadness came over him.

“Promise me,” she whispered. “Say it.”

He held up one hand like he was taking an oath of honesty in a courtroom. “I won’t ask you to do another
crazy
thing to find Gordy.”

She tilted her head slightly. “You didn’t say ‘I promise.’ I need to hear the words.”

A flash of pain stabbed at him. He’d lied so many times last fall that she’d lost trust in him—and he’d worked hard ever since to win it back. Were they going backward here?

“I promise,” he said. And with all his heart he was determined he would keep that promise. He wouldn’t ask her to do any more risky or dangerous things to find Gordy. Not one.

But it was clear to him that she wanted
him
to be done, too. That meant she might actually start working against him. Hadn’t she been doing that already? He’d wanted to check out VanHorton’s house, but Hiro had stopped that one cold. Thankfully, Lunk found a way around that. And she’d tried to stop them from going into Stein’s house—but they did it anyway. It was like she tried to undo every plan he’d had so far. The only way he could be sure she wouldn’t undermine his plans was to keep her out of the loop. When he figured out what he needed to do next, he definitely wouldn’t talk to her about it. “What are you thinking, Coop?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.” Nothing he wanted to talk about, anyway.

He had to avoid her eyes. Cooper picked up a rag and wiped
a handprint off the window. Lunk pulled into the backyard and closed the cedar fence gate. “Lunk made it.”

Lunk pumped his fist in the air a couple of times. Even in the dimness of the moonlight Cooper thought he could see Lunk grinning—like he had totally enjoyed his brush with the police. Cooper wished Hiro could share that feeling, even if only for a moment. Lunk ran toward
The Getaway.
A moment later he was thumping up the ladder.

Lunk burst in the cabin, still carrying his bat.

“I can’t believe you made it,” Cooper said, happy for the interruption.

“No problemo,” Lunk said. “Sometimes the best way to get away is to go right at ‘em, see?” He demonstrated with his hands. “Cause a little confusion.”

“I saw you heading right into his headlights,” Cooper said.

“Exactly. What’s he going to do? Run over a kid?” Lunk laughed. “At the last second I veered to the passenger side so he couldn’t open his door and clothesline me. By the time he turned the car around, I was cutting through the backyard of a house across the street. I don’t think he ever saw me again.”

He looked totally proud of himself. “And you have to admit, Lunk’s little concrete-filled persuader got you inside Stein’s house pretty efficiently.” He held the wiffle-ball bat out for Hiro to inspect. “What do you think of these babies now, Hiro?”

“Sorry.” Hiro brushed it to the side. “Still not a fan.”

Lunk grinned. “Without these bats, we might still be there. All three of us.”

“Mr. Lunquist,” Hiro said. “We shouldn’t have been there in the
first
place.”

Cooper knew who she was really directing
that
comment to. “I had to know.”

She raised her chin slightly. “And now you do.”

Cooper didn’t want to get her going again. What he really needed was to get going on another plan. He stood and studied
the satellite photos of the abduction area. Except for the houses that were for sale and empty, the area had been covered pretty well. Especially with all of Officer Syke’s efforts.

“Where are you, Gordy?” Cooper whispered it, forgetting for a moment that Lunk and Hiro were in the cabin, close enough to hear. He turned. Lunk suddenly got interested in the wood deck at his feet. Hiro held his gaze with sad eyes.

He turned back to the views of Rolling Meadows. Cooper felt a lump massing in his throat. Burning. He tried swallowing it down. The burning reached to his eyes. His vision blurred. Stein’s had been his big hope. His last one. He turned to study the aerial view again. “We’re missing something. We just need to figure it out.”

“Coop.”

He didn’t turn to look at her. He couldn’t. He tried to blink back the tears. If he wiped his eyes she’d know he was losing it. And he couldn’t lose it. Not now. Gordy needed him. This wasn’t a time to feel sorry for himself.

But everything Cooper tried to do to find Gordy had failed. Gordy was still gone, and that was all that mattered.

“Coop?”

He blinked a couple times to clear his vision and turned.

Hiro looked at him, but it was different this time. “You okay?”

He nodded. But that wasn’t what he felt. Why did he cover up? Hide his feelings? No. He wasn’t okay. Because
Gordy
wasn’t okay.

“We did everything we could.” Hiro spoke with such finality. Obviously the search was over for Hiro. A closed case. Cooper looked at Lunk. He still had his eyes locked on the planking below his feet. They were in agreement.

Cooper shook his head. Kept shaking it.

“He’s gone,” Hiro whispered. Tears welled up in her eyes and escaped down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

Cooper stepped away, his back now pressed against the inside of the hull. “Do you have a
feeling
about that?” Was this just her
guess—or was it that sense of intuition she had? Coop didn’t understand it—but she was usually right.

Hiro shook her head. “Not a
feeling
feeling. Just the pure logic of it. Something I just know.” She tapped her head. “In here.”

“Well, in here”—Cooper thumped his chest—”I think he’s alive. So I can’t give up.”

She smiled at him with an expression that looked more like pity than anything. Like he was just a naïve kid. “Forty-eight hours. No ransom. No minivan.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “No—”

“No way am I giving up.” He blurted it out. Said it too fast. Too strong.

Hiro blinked twice.

Cooper tried to soften his tone. “Quit if you want to, but I’m still in.”

“Quit?” Hiro’s back stiffened. “I’ve gone along with all your crazy ideas. And it’s over. We don’t have any more ideas. We’re done.”

“You’re
done.” Cooper shook his head. “Not me.”

Lunk looked up but didn’t say a word. Like he knew he shouldn’t.

“You’re right.” Hiro stood. “I’m done. And you’re saying you’re not? What else is left to check? We’ve canvassed the neighborhood with flyers. We’ve searched parking lots. We’ve checked registered sex offenders. We broke into Joseph Stein’s.” The words flew out of her mouth.

Hiro took a step closer. “And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve slowed down the police investigation by making them raid VanHorton’s house and chase us all over Rolling Meadows. Am I missing something?”

“Yes.” Cooper almost shouted it. “We all are.” He turned to the bird’s eye view of Rolling Meadows. “We’re all missing something.”

“And what would that be?”

“I don’t know.” Cooper traced the minivan’s escape route down School Drive. “You’re the one who wants to be a cop, Hiro. You tell me. What are we missing here?”

Hiro pointed at the pages taped together like giant map. “We’ve done everything we possibly can.” She glanced at him. “And more.”

Cooper wanted to scream. He wanted to escape. Hop on his bike and ride and ride and ride until he couldn’t ride anymore. But there was no escaping from himself.

What to do next
? That was the question. Cooper peered at the map again.

“Stop beating yourself up.” She put her hand on his arm. “You couldn’t have stopped that abduction.”

Cooper swallowed. He knew where this was going.

“For your own sake,” Hiro said. “You need to stop.”

No. No. That was wrong.
He needed to get some air. “I gotta let Fudge out,” Cooper said. It was lame, and he knew it. But he had to get out of there. Hiro had already made him promise not to ask
her
to do any more. Now she was going to try to make him promise not to do any more searching himself.

It was one thing for her to feel
she
was done checking. That was her choice. It was another thing for her to tell
him
to stop. That was
his
choice.

L
unk almost wished he’d joined Coop to let Fudge outside. Not that he’d become a dog-lover all of a sudden, but he suddenly felt very awkward sitting in the cabin cruiser with Hiro. She was in another world and hadn’t said a word since Coop left. And that was fine with him. Lunk had a pretty good idea what was going on in her head anyway. He stared at the floor. Stared at his hands. Actually, he didn’t know what to do with his hands.

“Thanks for helping me get away tonight,” Hiro said. “I probably sounded pretty ungrateful earlier.”

So she was going to talk. “You’re welcome.” He decided to leave it at that.

“Did you think Gordy was in Joseph Stein’s house?” Hiro asked. “Before we went there, I mean, did you think it was a possibility?”

“Honestly?”

Hiro gave him an annoyed look.

She was asking him for the truth. So he’d give it to her. “Nope.”

Hiro raised her eyebrows. “Then
why
did you agree to breaking in?”

How could he explain that to her? “Because Coop is my friend.”

“And he isn’t
my
friend?” Hiro’s eyes flashed. “A real friend helps keep his friend from walking into trouble.”

“Sometimes.” Lunk nodded. “Or is willing to walk through the trouble
with
his friend, if he has to.”

Hiro looked at him like she was processing that. “But he doesn’t have to do this. Gordy is—”

“Gone?” Lunk finished the sentence.

Hiro nodded, her eyes filling with tears.

“You and I know that, but Coop doesn’t.”

She swiped at her tears like she had no intention of caving to grief. “He doesn’t want to see it. He won’t listen.”

“And who could blame him?” Lunk jammed his hands in his pockets. “He’ll figure it out soon enough. And checking Stein’s was all part of it.”

“He’s on the edge,” Hiro said. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

Apparently, she had her worries too.

She stared out the porthole. “Pulling you over the fence to free you from police custody? Strapping a knife to his leg? And now
this.
Breaking into the home of a man wanted for robbery and several counts of attempted murder? It’s beyond dangerous.”

Lunk heard Coop climbing the ladder against the transom.

“It will stop,” Lunk said, lowering his voice. “When he has some answers about Gordy, or accepts the fact that he’s probably dead.”

Hiro nodded like she already knew that. “But how do we keep him from getting killed in the meantime?”

A
fter locking Fudge back in the house, Cooper climbed back aboard
The Getaway
and ducked inside the cabin door. Lunk and Hiro were strangely quiet—like they’d just stopped talking about Cooper—which they probably did.

Hiro looked down at the floor, like suddenly the planking interested her. Cooper couldn’t blame her for feeling that anybody missing for over forty-eight hours was never coming back. Her reasoning made sense. But this was Gordy they were talking about.
Gordy.
He wasn’t going to give up, no matter how ridiculous it seemed.

Hiro was done. He got that. But he couldn’t have Hiro interfering with his own efforts. So he needed to back off. The more desperate he appeared, the more she’d try to stop him “for his own good.”

Cooper checked the time on his phone. “I think we should hang it up. Nothing more we can do tonight anyway.”

Hiro looked relieved.

Lunk stood. “I should check on my mom, anyway.” That sounded kind of weird at first, but it made sense. Lunk had been watching out for her for years.

Cooper doused the light, and they climbed out of
The Getaway
together.

With a wave, Lunk hustled for his bike. “See you in school
tomorrow.” He slid his bat into the makeshift rack, pushed off, and was gone.

Cooper walked Hiro through the backyard, around the house, and to the front driveway where she’d left her bike.

“Hang on, I’ll get my bike,” Cooper said. No way was he going to let her bike alone. Not even a few blocks.

Hiro shook her head. “I’m a big girl. I don’t need an escort.”

“Big?”

Hiro gave him a mock glare. “Big enough to take care of myself.”

Which made him smile. “Be right back.” He jogged over to his bike, mounted, and followed Hiro down the drive.

Riding past Gordy’s house melted the smile from his face, and he rode the rest of the way to Hiro’s without saying a word. He didn’t want to talk. Not even to Hiro. Because deep down she felt Gordy was gone, and Cooper couldn’t think that way. Never.

She obviously figured that Joseph Stein, or whoever did this to Gordy, was long gone. Probably lived far away—maybe another state. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been so casual about riding home on her own. She felt Rolling Meadows was the same safe place it had always been. Cooper wasn’t convinced.

They pulled up to Hiro’s drive. The lights inside looked inviting. Normal. The way things should be.

“Thanks, Coop.”

Hiro’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. For a second, he had no idea why she was thanking him.

“For the escort.”

It was amazing the way she seemed to guess what he was thinking sometimes. Was he that easy to read? And it looked like she was trying to read him right now.

“Where are you, Coop? Honestly.”

He wished he knew. Cooper shrugged. “Lost.” And unless Gordy was found, he feared he always would be.