Back Before Dark (11 page)

C
ooper sat up when he heard dad plod down the hallway, probably getting ready to go out searching again. He checked the clock on his desk: 3:35. Cooper rubbed his eyes. Had he dozed off? He must have, but he couldn’t have gone very deep for this to wake him up.

Thoughts of his excursion to the park seemed like a dream. It was crazy. Reckless. Stupid. But going to that spot—so close to where Gordy had been taken—going
there
to pray had been powerful. He knew he could pray anywhere and God would hear—he got that. But there was something about being there that made him feel closer to God—and to Gordy.

He didn’t think he could explain that to anybody if he tried—not that he had any intention of telling a soul. Mom would put him on house arrest.

Hiro would understand, but she would try to make him promise not to do it again—and certainly not alone. But he didn’t want to make that promise. And if he hadn’t been alone, he wasn’t sure he’d have felt the same connection. The raw fear he felt in the park added intensity to his prayers that he might not have had if someone was with him.

He was better off not mentioning this to anybody. It was a very
private experience, and he needed to keep it that way. Especially if he went back.

The thought of going back made his pulse speed up. Would he do it? That wasn’t a decision he had to make. At least, not yet. He was glad he’d gone but even happier to be home. And besides, Gordy would be found soon.

What he really wanted to do was talk to Dad.

He swung his legs over the bed just as the rain started drumming the roof again. Terrific. It would definitely make Dad’s job harder. When was it ever going to end? Cooper stood and tip-toed down the stairs.

Dad stood in the kitchen with the fridge door open, squinting at the light inside, like the bulb was an oncoming car with its high beams on.
How was Dad going to drive?

“Dad?”

In a whirl, Dad grabbed a bottle of ketchup and held it up like a club.

Cooper jumped backward. “Dad, it’s me!”

Obviously, Dad’s exhaustion had affected his judgment, but his reaction time hadn’t slowed a bit. He lowered the bottle. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.” He put the ketchup back on a shelf and got the orange juice. “What are you doing up?”

“Just seeing how you’re doing. Need some help?”

Dad shook his head. “Not yet. Just going out looking.”

“For the van?”

“Yeah. And no.” He poured a glass of juice and took a swallow. “I’m not sure what we’re looking for.” He shut the refrigerator and leaned against the counter.

Cooper could barely make him out in the darkness.

“Sure, we’re still looking for the van. But it looks like the guy didn’t switch vehicles after all. Gordy was still conscious, and the taser would have worn off in seconds. He’d have to keep his eye on him and taser him again if he needed to. With you chasing him,
he couldn’t risk taking time to swap vehicles. And he sure couldn’t stop to tie Gordy up.”

Cooper pictured Gordy struggling to get up off the floor of the van, and the kidnapper tasering him again. “So you think he’s out of the area?”

“That’s my guess. We should have found that van by now.” He raised his head to drain the glass, then set it on the counter. “Every time I turn a corner or head down another street, I keep thinking we’ll see him. That he broke free and is running for his life.”

Cooper could see it too. Wanted to see it.

Dad shrugged. “It keeps me going.” He turned and looked Cooper square in the eyes. “We’re all doing what we can. And the biggest thing you can do for me is to stay safe—like we talked about. Are you calling Mom every thirty minutes?”

Cooper nodded. And somehow Cooper had to get the focus off the things he should be doing to stay safe. He didn’t want Dad to think of any more restrictions to put on him. And he really needed to talk to him about Raymond Proctor, Michael VanHorton, and the others on the website.

“Dad?” Cooper didn’t know how to start. “Hiro did some checking online. Did you know there are registered sex offenders right here in Rolling Meadows?”

“Actually, I did. Seven of them. Mom and I checked it online the night we got home from the police station.”

Cooper felt instant relief. “So what are you going to do?”

“Not much we can do. The police have talked to every one of them and feel they’re clean. Uncle Jim and I cruised by every house, several times—just in case.”

“You mean they’re not going to search their houses?”

Dad paused. “Not unless they have a solid reason to.”

Cooper couldn’t believe it. “But what if one of them has Gordy?”

Dad stepped over and put a hand on Cooper’s shoulder. “Not real likely son. They’d know the police would check them first.”

“Exactly. It’s so obvious no cop would believe he’d abduct someone in his own neighborhood. It’s a perfect cover.”

Dad didn’t answer. Either he was thinking it over, or he wasn’t convinced. Cooper needed to take another swing at it. “This guy, whoever he is, took Gordy with three of us around. He’s not afraid to take a risk.”

“Look.” Dad slipped his shoes on. “Uncle Jim and I will keep checking their houses. We have a little route we do. And not just for the guys registered in Rolling Meadows. Also Palatine and Arlington Heights.”

“But the police should get inside their homes. Make sure Gordy isn’t there.”

Dad shrugged on a light jacket. “There are laws. Unless they get a tip or have a good reason, a cop can’t go barging into their homes. That policy is in place to protect a citizen’s right to privacy. You understand, right?”

“I guess so.” Of course, Cooper understood, but nothing was going to stop him from doing some checking himself.

M
iss Ferrand’s class was the last place Cooper wanted to be Thursday morning. He shouldn’t be at school at all. He should be out with Dad and Uncle Jim. Or checking out those homes.

Riley Steiner, Walker Demel, and Trevor Tellshow sat in the back, pretending to pay attention. Walker said something, too quiet for Cooper to make out. Riley laughed but immediately morphed it into a fake-sounding coughing fit.

Miss Ferrand kept up with her lecture as if she hadn’t noticed a thing. She was a good teacher, even if she was gaga over Shakespeare.

Hiro sat directly in front of Cooper. Jake Mickel, one row to Cooper’s right. Kelsey Seals sat in front of Jake. Everybody in their usual places, but without Gordy, everything seemed out of place.

Miss Ferrand droned on about Shakespeare. Hiro leaned over her desk, taking notes as usual. Which fried him just a little. How could she sit there and pay attention to a lecture about a long-dead writer? Cooper wasn’t about to take notes. Not one. It would be a betrayal to Gordy.

Gordy needed them. Depended on them to find him. All their time and effort should be going into that.

Thankfully he’d ridden his bike to school. He’d get home earlier than if he rode the bus. Plus he had no desire to see the bus driver. She’d probably ripped Gordy’s picture down by now.

That was the problem, wasn’t it? Nobody was willing to take
real
risks. Don’t miss school. Don’t risk leaving early. Don’t find a reason to get a search warrant. Don’t create a way to search
without
a warrant.

He looked around the room. Jake and Kelsey were trying to hold back their laughter about something.
What on earth was there to laugh about?

Miss Ferrand paced along the front of the class and eyed him without hesitating in her lecture. Teachers could do that. She could say one thing out loud to the class, while she said another thing to him with that look. And her message had nothing to do with Shakespeare. She was analyzing him. Telling him she felt they should talk. Great.

Cooper stared at the clock. He could send messages to Miss Ferrand too. Like,
I can’t wait until class is over.
Or,
How can you teach about some guy who lived hundreds of years ago when Gordy is missing?

The second hand swept the face of the clock again and again. Cooper did the math. Thirty-nine hours. Gordy had been gone thirty-nine hours!

No ransom call.

No silver minivan.

Nothing.

And everyone just sat in the class like nothing was wrong.

Hiro cleared her throat. She never did that unless she was trying to get his attention. She glanced back for an instant and held up her spiral at an angle so he could read it.

Did she really think he was remotely interested in her Shakespeare notes? He glanced at the page.
Coop, if I hear one more thing about Shakespeare I’m going to scream.

Cooper smiled. Hiro was just as annoyed. He stretched to read the rest.

I’ve been thinking about what your dad said about checking those houses. He’s right. If the police have no reasonable suspicion, they can’t go in. We shouldn’t either. We need to find a way for the police to go in legally.

She was backing down on checking the homes. Fine. And not exactly a shocker either. Her change of attitude last night had been almost too good to believe. But if they waited for a legal way, it might be too late.

Miss Ferrand paced down their row of desks, coming right toward Cooper. Hiro lowered her notebook and turned the page.

Ferrand gushed about how she’d toured England during the summer and had actually been to Shakespeare’s home.

Wonderful.

“I sat on a bench right there in the little village of Stratford-upon-Avon, sipping tea and looking at William’s house,” she said.

So now she was on a first name basis with an author who died like four hundred years ago? Creepy.

“At that moment,” she said, “I understood how he could write the way he did. It was the atmosphere of the whole place. One word came to my mind, and I wrote it on the napkin that came with my tea. I still have it. Can anybody guess the word I wrote?”

Miss Ferrand paused at Cooper’s desk and scanned the room.

Kelsey raised her hand. “Romantic?”

A couple of guys behind Cooper snickered.

“A good word,” Ferrand said. “But not the one I wrote on the napkin.”

Kelsey looked truly disappointed.

Emma Olson raised her hand. “Beautiful?”

Cooper thought it would be beautiful if Ferrand moved on instead of parking at his desk.

Miss Ferrand smiled at Emma. It was her way of letting Emma down gently.

Kelsey’s hand shot up. “Quaint.” She said it with a little nod, like she was sure she was right.

Ferrand smiled but shook her head. “How about some of you boys? Let’s hear from you. The home and village clearly influenced William Shakespeare’s writing. What one word described the town, and thus his works?”

Confused. Insane.
Cooper figured either of those worked perfectly.

“Jake?”

Jake looked lost. “Classic?”

The back-row boys laughed.

Ferrand wasn’t fazed. Was this really part of her lesson plan?

Miss Ferrand raised her hands and lowered them slowly to quiet the class. “Let me increase the stakes a bit. I’m going to call on three people. If one of them guesses the correct word there will be no reading homework tonight—for the entire class.”

The class came to life with cheers and clapping. She held up her hand to quiet things down.

“Walker,” she said. “A word.”

“Nice?”

Ferrand shook her head.

Riley backhanded Walker with his spiral notebook. “
Nice
? What a moron.”

Cooper had to agree with Riley on that one. He had no intention of doing any homework—not when he could be out searching for Gordy. But it would be nice not to get behind either.

“Okay, Riley,” Ferrand said. “Let’s see how you do. One word.”

Riley stood and bowed to the class. “The one word would be awesome: a-w-e-s-o-m-e.” He spelled out each letter clearly, like he was competing at a spelling bee. “Awesome.”

Ferrand smiled slightly. “W-r-o-n-g. Wrong.”

Groans all around.

Ferrand scanned the room. Kelsey and Emma shot their hands up, stretching for the ceiling. “One more person—get it right and you’re the hero. Get it wrong and—” Ferrand shrugged.

The girls lowered their hands.

Ferrand looked at Cooper. “Mr. MacKinnon. A word.”

Great. Now this was riding on him.

“C’mon, Coop. Do it MacKinnon.” Encouragement came from all sides.

Kelsey leaned closer.
“Wonderful.
Try that. Or
inspiring.”

It would have been
wonderful
if Miss Ferrand had picked someone else.

Hiro would have been way better at this. How could he possibly figure out the magic word Ferrand wrote on her napkin?
Magic
word.
Magical.
It was worth a shot.

“Magical?”

Miss Ferrand’s eyes widened. “Oh my goodness. You’re close.
Very
close.” She motioned like she was trying to draw the right word out of him. “The meaning is nearly the same, but a different word. I’ll give you another chance.”

“Go MacKinnon.” Riley clapped him on the back. “Don’t mess up.”

Terrific. No pressure. And no ideas.

Maybe Miss Ferrand saw the helpless look in his eyes. She walked up to the marker board. “I’ll give you the first letter.” She took a red marker and wrote a loopy capital E in some kind of fancy script. She looked at him like the word should be obvious.

Hiro half turned toward him. The look in her eyes told him she knew the word.

“Exciting!” Kelsey blurted out.

Hiro’s head shook slightly, but it was enough for Cooper.

“Can I get a life line here?” Cooper said

“Ask the audience? Phone a friend?” Ferrand shook her head. “I don’t think so, Cooper.”

“Not the whole audience. Just Hiro.”

Miss Ferrand looked apologetic. “Not this time.”

Hiro shrugged. “Sorry I couldn’t help. It would have been
enchanting.
”

Cooper pounded his fist on his desk. “Enchanting!”

Ferrand put her hands on her hips and looked at Hiro with a slight smile. She walked to the front of the class and wrote
enchanting
on the board in fancy script. “That
is
the word. So no reading homework tonight.”

The class erupted in cheers. Apparently they weren’t into Shakespeare any more than Cooper was. Miss Ferrand held up her hand to quiet the room.

“Thanks to Cooper,
and
Hiro,” Ferrand said.

Again the cheers. Jake leaned over and shook Cooper’s hand. Kelsey looked like she was about to cry. Cooper grinned and turned to see Gordy’s reaction. The desk sat empty—and everything flooded back. For just those few minutes he’d forgotten. Forgotten about Gordy! He had to stay focused.
Find Gordy.
He glanced at the clock just as the bell rang.

“Cooper,” Miss Ferrand said. “I need to talk to you before you go.”

Great. The class that would never end.

Ferrand sat on the front edge of her desk and motioned him over.

Hiro shouldered her backpack. “See you at lunch.” She was out of the room by the time Cooper got to Ferrand’s desk. Maybe she was afraid Ferrand would stop her too.

“How are you doing, Cooper?” She studied him, her gray eyes peering into his own as if she were trying to read his thoughts. And actually, he wished she could. Then she wouldn’t have asked him such a stupid question.

“I want you to know I’m here for you. You can talk to me.”

And what did she expect him to say?
Gee, Miss Ferrand, my cousin was abducted before my very eyes Tuesday night. At first it was hard, but I’m really doing fine now. I think I’ll go home and read some Shakespeare. Have a nice day.

“I want to help, Cooper. Really.”

Finding a way to check the homes of those men on the website would be a real help. But he didn’t think that idea was going to fly with her. Cooper stared at his feet.

“Principal Shull brought in a counselor today. A trained professional in areas of trauma and loss like you’re experiencing.”

“You mean a shrink?” Cooper looked her in the eyes.

“A licensed psychologist. And I want you to talk to him.”

Give me a break.
Not only was she not helping, she was going to slow him down. “But I thought schools only brought in guys like that after there’d been a shooting or an accident or something where students were killed.”

Ferrand tilted her head to one side and winced apologetically. Her eyes said the rest.
She
thought Gordy was gone too. Pitied poor Cooper’s naïve hope that he was still alive. Always proactive, the school had already lined up some kind of grief counselor.

“Gordy is alive. I know it.”

Again, those sad, puppy-dog eyes.

“I don’t want to talk to some shrink. I just want to find Gordy.”

“Of course you do. We all do. But sometimes we need a little help processing things. A number of students have already gone to see him.”

“I don’t need a shrink.”

“Cooper,” she said. “I’m not blind. You weren’t tracking with me at all today. Not until the very end.”

Cooper clenched his jaw and tried to keep from saying something that would only make things worse.

Miss Ferrand caught it. She had to. Her eyes flicked down to his cheeks.

“You were thinking about Gordy all through class, right?”

“He’s my cousin. And he’s gone. Some sick-o grabbed him and I couldn’t stop him. I tried. I
tried.
So how do you expect me to concentrate on some stupid author who wrote stupid stories when my cousin needs help?”

The words came out too fast and with too much force for Cooper to stop them. He took a deep breath. That little outburst wasn’t going to do him any favors.

“The counselor can help you.”

Cooper shook his head and backed toward the door. “No thanks.” The last thing he needed was another thing to delay him from searching for Gordy.

“Not an option. You’re going right after lunch.” She pulled out a small pad and made some notes on it like a doctor writing a prescription.

Terrific.

She tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to him. “The nurse’s office. Immediately after lunch. This is your pass.”

He read the paper.
Cooper MacKinnon to see Dr. Dale McElhinney, 5
^th
period, Thursday.
A glance back at her told him this wasn’t open for discussion. But she wasn’t asking him to stay after school, so he couldn’t really come up with an argument anyway. It could be worse, which was exactly what would happen if he argued any more.

“Have some lunch. Then see Dr. McElhinney.” She stood and put her hands on his shoulders. “I’m worried about you, Cooper. You take things on yourself that somebody your age should never have to do.”

Ferrand smiled and tilted her head. She cared. Cooper knew that. But what he needed right now was more time to find Gordy. No, what he really needed was a miracle.