Tempestuous (21 page)

“It’s not completely adding up,” I said as we sprint-walked down the corridor. “He wasn’t carrying any of the loot from PC Pro when I bumped into him around the time of the robbery there.”

“Where exactly did you see him?” Ariel pressed.

“At the corner near that kids’ clothing store, Rockin’ Tots … which is right across from—”

“—the door that leads to the loading dock!” Ariel and I were on the same wavelength now. “He must have just dropped off his stash there and was booking it back to his office to get his ‘alibi,’ my cake!”

“The jewelry store incident happened after I sent him to go look for bolt cutters. No wonder he didn’t have any luck. He’d been otherwise occupied during the concert!”

“What about Mike? Why tie him up in the janitor’s office if all he wanted was to rob the place?”

“I remember seeing Grady down by Treasure Hunt when I arrived at work, but you’re right. Tying up Mike seems a bit extreme for someone who’s trying to stay under the radar.”

By now we’d reached the far side of the mall where my Eastern Prep classmates had originally encamped. It had thinned out considerably since the helicopter flyover-turned-dance party. More than half had absconded to the food court for the Drunk Butlers concert, never to return. What few people remained down this way had long since abandoned Teasers and were zonked out on cots and in sleeping bags inside the entrance to Worthington’s. Keeping our eyes peeled, Ariel and I crept past the vacant faux-wood hostess stand at the “fine dining” establishment and immediately heard the sound of raised voices coming from the back end of the open kitchen. The restaurant’s bustling epicenter usually gleamed with white subway tile and sparkling stainless steel cookware, but it now seemed dark and desolate in the absence of overhead lighting.

My comrade and I scurried into an oversized u-shaped booth with high privacy walls. Crouching ourselves under the table as if in a foxhole, we could just make out the sound of Grady’s voice. He’d dispensed with his “aw, shucks” colloquialisms and now assumed an almost diabolical tone of voice.

“Who do you think they’re going to believe? It’s my word against a bunch of teenage hoodlums,” we heard him say. “Besides, no one—apart from the two of you—has any inkling I’m the guy. I slipped up in covering my tracks once, but it won’t happen again. That’s why I brought you down here.”

It was instantly, upsettingly clear that Caleb and Chad had stumbled upon the truth of Grady’s guilt, though I wasn’t certain how. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I had a lucid enough mental picture to realize the situation was heading due south. Holding my breath, I strained to hear the continuing conversation coming from back near the dishwashing station.

“Why’d you do it, Grady?” Caleb’s voice was measured and unfaltering. “Why tonight, with so many people still in the mall?”

“Chaos breeds opportunity. The po-po can’t respond on a night like this, and I’m surrounded by dozens of other would-be suspects. You kids have done enough looting tonight on your own that, frankly, my crimes don’t even seem that out of place.”

“Borrowing a few things to pass the time hardly equates to ripping off diamonds, computer equipment, and cash register tills,” Chad said. “And none of us beat anyone bloody, come to think of it.”

“Scratches,” Grady said. “But don’t worry, pretty boy. Your face will be spared. Too bad I cut the phone lines earlier tonight, huh?”

“Why do I get the feeling tonight’s string of robberies isn’t your first rodeo?”

“Well, aren’t
you
on the ball?” Grady said. “It’s true; I got sprung from the big house about two years back after doing a stint for check fraud.”

“Now you’ve moved on to fencing stolen goods.
En garde
!”

“Go ahead, joke,” Grady said. “That’s what they all do. You think I’m not aware of all the clever nicknames you punks have for me? The humiliating pranks? The endless ridicule? The spitwads thrown down at me from the upper floor? Everyone just thinks I’m some joke, some loser. I’ve put up with it my whole life.”

“Yeah, you and the millions of other people who got teased at recess. Boo-hoo. Getting picked on isn’t what makes you a loser. You’re a loser because you never figured out how to get over it.” Typical Caleb. His blunt response likely wasn’t going to help matters.

“This badge may not have ever earned the respect it deserved, but maybe a loaded weapon will.”

“Doubtful.” I cringed inwardly.
Caleb, just shut up!
“But if you were really as good at your ‘moonlighting gig’ as you seem to think, you wouldn’t have had to tie up Mike in the janitor’s locker room. Are you contemplating branching out into kidnapping?”

“No, idiot.” Grady seemed even more on edge now. “It was never part of my plan until he struggled with me and yanked off my ski mask. Stashing him out of sight was a bit of improv—until I could figure out what to do with him. Although I wouldn’t have had to resort to such extreme measures if I’d known that hitting him in the head with that bowling trophy would give him partial amnesia. But enough with the running commentary. I don’t owe you any explanations. No more talking.”

“Seems the damage is done,” Caleb shot back. “You’ve just spilled everything to us.” Grady let out a laugh that seemed gravely unbefitting the situation.

“You really don’t think I’d allow you to go to the authorities after this, do you?”

Ariel shot me a nervous glance. I knew she was expecting me to “pull a Miranda” right about now, but to be honest, I didn’t know what to do. Charging a gun-toting ex-con didn’t seem like the most prudent option.

“If you shoot us, everyone next door at Worthington’s is going to come running,” Chad said.

“Oh, but I’m not a
killer.
At least, not in the sense of someone who would ever get caught. Now oblige me by stepping into the walk-in freezer so we can conclude this nasty business.”

“Hate to break it to you pal, but you’ve tried this tactic on me already,” Caleb said. “It didn’t work.”

“The stock room at Radio Hut wasn’t kept at minus-ten degrees. And you don’t have that little tease, Miranda, to help keep you warm.”

“You leave Miranda the hell out of this!”

“Maybe I will and maybe I won’t. She’s certainly complicated what should have been some pretty cut-and-dry loot boosting. But I wouldn’t worry about her or that little Twinkle Toes she calls a friend. You’ll have a lot more to worry about when your bodies enter a state of profound hypothermia. You’ve heard the saying: Revenge is a dish best served cold? Rest assured, I’ll return periodically to check on you, and when I see that you’ve finally cashed in your chips, I’ll drag you out to a nearby snowbank. ‘An unfortunate weather-related accident,’ they’ll all say.”

Ariel gasped, but I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You don’t want to do this,” I heard Chad say before the freezer door slammed with a thud.

Had we not found the three of them when we did, Chad and Caleb might have been goners, but luckily, I knew we could fetch the guys from the freezer as soon as Grady left. I thought back to the game of chess Caleb and I had played earlier that night as I planned my strategy for freeing them, trying to think a few steps ahead. Grady would come unglued the minute he realized Chad and Caleb were missing, and we had to be prepared for his next move—but first things first.

I brought my fingers to my lips, signaling to Ariel that she shouldn’t move a muscle, and willed myself to be patient. Grady was still poking around the restaurant, and we both crouched lower to avoid detection. After a few minutes, the room grew quiet, and I slowly emerged from underneath the table, reasonably certain the coast was clear. Ariel was about to follow my lead when we heard a clattering from in the kitchen. Instinctively, I bolted on tiptoes to a nearby hall leading to the restrooms. (Thank god the floors were carpeted!) Ariel remained stranded under the table, when to my horror, Grady sauntered into the dining room casually holding a beer in his hand! He took a seat at a table only seven or eight feet from where Ariel crouched, and his back was to us as he sipped contemplatively from his bottle. If he so much as glanced around the room, he could hardly miss my barely concealed coworker. I stared in agony at my friend adrift out there in Grady’s midst, wishing I’d been gifted with the power to make her invisible.

From what I could tell, Grady seemed absorbed in his thoughts—it was now or never. I beckoned from the hallway for Ariel to make a run for it, but she just stared back at me with eyes like saucers, paralyzed with fear. I motioned to her again, more insistently now, prompting an ever-so-faint sound that filled me instantly with dread.

“Ding-ding-ding.” As Ariel shook her head vigorously in refusal, she’d inadvertently triggered the high-pitched knell of the dainty bell earrings that hung from her lobes. Things had just gone from bad to catastrophic.

Grady was instantly on his feet, nabbing Ariel by her spindly elbow before she could make a break for it.

“What are you doing here?!” he said, enraged, while shaking her like a snow globe.

“Nothing! I was just, er, sent down here to score some Grey Poupon. All we have is that bright yellow stuff, and the gourmands were revolting.”

“You were looking for mustard…?”

“Uh-huh!” Ariel gave one of her award-winning grins, a desperate-but-valiant effort.

“Under the table…?”

“Yeah! Well, no,” Ariel said, fumbling for words. “I lost my earring right around here, and oh—here it is! Duh! Well, I’d better be going, so—”

“Not so fast. Miranda would never have sent you down here alone.”

“Actually, Miranda didn’t send me. She’s been fast asleep behind the Hot-Dog Kabob counter for the the last forty-five minutes or so. Poor girl’s had a long night.” My heart was in my throat realizing that she was trying to save my butt. A more loyal friend could not have existed. Unfortunately, Grady wasn’t buying it.

“She’s here, you brat, isn’t she? Tell me where she is!” His back was still to me, but I was sure that within seconds, he’d be upending the place trying to find me. If I got caught, we’d all be SOL, and standing here in this dead-end hallway wasn’t going to protect me for much longer. There wasn’t time to deliberate or hatch a plan. I just had to act, and fast. While Grady continued trying to shake the truth from Ariel, I slipped sight-unseen toward the kitchen, heading straight for the walk-in freezer.

With as little sound as possible, I opened the door to Caleb and Chad’s cold crypt, holding a finger to my lips to warn them that silence was critical. As I whispered Ariel’s perilous circumstances, they locked eyes and, without words, seemed to form a joint plan. Then, like a commando in an elite Navy Seal team, Caleb motioned Chad forward and indicated that I should follow them.

The miscreant was still giving Ariel the third degree when they tackled him from behind. Caleb grabbed Grady’s gun from his waistband and pointed it at him while Chad bear-hugged him to the ground. (Seems I didn’t give football players enough credit!) Everyone in the room was panting for air by the time Grady was pinned face-down with the business-end of the pistol pointed firmly against his skull.

“What do we do with him now?” I said. “It could be hours—or longer—before we can finally get the authorities here.”

“We’ve got to lock him up somewhere.” I could see it was an effort for Chad to keep the struggling captive restrained as he said this. I fretted over the possibility that Caleb might actually be tasked with using the gun on Grady if he managed to break free, and I was fairly certain Grady would be willing to call his bluff.

“Do you think there’s any rope or a chain somewhere around here to tie him up with—at least until we can figure out a better solution?” I scanned the dining room. A more vindictive person might have suggested putting him in the freezer like he had planned to do with Chad and Caleb, but that option was off the table. If I’d learned one thing today, it was that justice was always preferable to revenge.

“Miranda, you’ll have to go to Camperville and try to find something that’ll work,” said Caleb. “They’ve gotta sell some climbing rope—strong duct tape might even hold. Something to keep him immobile until the
real
cops can get here.”

“No way. I’m not leaving you. We’ll find something here.”

“Hey, guys—” Ariel said.

“Dude—quit wriggling if you don’t want an elbow in your face,” Chad warned Grady. He wasn’t going to be able to keep him pinned much longer.

“Hey, guys—” It was Ariel again, but I was onto another idea.

“If we could get those curtains down off the rod, we might be able to use them to truss him up … the fabric’s a little thick, but—”

“GUYS!!!!!” Ariel’s voice silenced us all, even Grady, who’d been taunting us and grousing this entire time. “Why don’t we use the handcuffs?”

“No way am I letting Caleb get chained to this guy,” I replied.

“Great idea, babe,” Chad smiled up sweetly at his girl. “But we can’t get even get the handcuffs open.”

“We don’t have the key,” Caleb said. Ariel glanced nervously at both Caleb and me, a rueful smile wavering tentatively on her face.