Shine (32 page)

“No, Robert. And I don’t want you saying that.”

“Does that mean he did those thing fags do? Love on other guys and stuff? ’Cause that’s
nasty
.”

I checked my watch. We were forty minutes from Black Creek. We could be at Bailee-Ann’s house in thirty-five, but I wanted someone there
now
. Because Beef had called Robert
special
, and then Beef had dropped him cold. Because Robert was a master eavesdropper, and I’d just told him the best, most powerful secret ever. It wouldn’t be long before he realized it.

“Robert, tell me where your sister is,” I commanded.

“Was Patrick really his boyfriend? Is that what you meant by
more than normal friends? Did he
kiss
him, like how boys kiss girls?” His hilarity dropped a notch. “Aw, you’re just messing with me, ain’t you?”

“Yes,” I said. “I was messing around, and it was a bad idea, and I’m sorry.”

“I was right, wasn’t I?” he said. “I
said
Beef beat up Patrick, and he said no he didn’t.”

“Okay, but we don’t know that he did. Not for sure.”

“He lied to me,” Robert marveled.

Tilting the phone, I said, “Go faster, Jason. Oh God, I don’t care if we fly off the mountain. Go as fast as you fucking can.”

Jason looked at me, perhaps shocked by my language, and flexed his thigh muscle to press down on the accelerator.

“He’s a liar and a faggot, and he hurt his friend, too,” Robert said. “Why would he hurt his friend?”

“Robert . . .”

His voice changed. “I can’t wait to see his face when I tell him. I’m gonna ride my bike to Huskers right now.
Ooo
, he’s going to be in so much trouble!”

“Robert,
no
,” I begged.

“What’s he saying?” Jason said.

“Do
not
go to Huskers, Robert. Do you hear me?”

There was a whole lot of nothing.

“Robert!”

It was no good. The line was dead.

“No
!
”
I cried.

“Call Huskers and see if Bailee-Ann is there, or even Dupree,” Jason instructed. “Use 411 to get the number.”

So I did. Beef answered lazily, saying, “Huskers, best sammies around. What can I do you for?”

I hung up. I felt cold even in the no-air-conditioning Malibu.

“All right, then call Tommy,” Jason said.

“Tommy?”

“He’s the one who got his friends together to talk to him, right? So he’ll understand.” He banged the steering wheel, not understanding my reluctance. “
Call
him, Cat.”

His insistence pulled me out of my stupor. I punched in 411 again because I sure as heck didn’t have Tommy’s number memorized. I asked for Ronald Lawson, and computer lady said to hold on. As the call went through, sweat popped out under my arms. My heart hammered crazily in my chest.

“Yo, wassup?” Tommy said. I would recognize that voice anywhere.

“Hello?” he said.

I couldn’t form words.

“Hello? If you’re there, say something. Otherwise I’m outta here.”

I hated Tommy more than anyone in the world, and for three years I’d grasped onto that as my whole identity. For three years, I’d stopped talking because of him, and now, if I
didn’t
talk, he was going to hang up.

“Tommy, it’s Cat,” I managed. “I need your help.”

I JUMPED OUT OF THE CAR AS SOON AS WE GOT to Huskers, with Jason close on my heels. Tommy was inside, along with an anxious Bailee-Ann. Dupree, hovering near the counter, pulled a dishcloth back and forth through his hands.

“Robert’s with Beef,” Bailee-Ann said.

“What?
No
.” I shook my head, trying to corral my thoughts. “How do you know?”

Tommy jerked his head at Dupree. “Says Robert showed up here, and then he went off with Beef on his motorcycle. Says there didn’t seem to be anything bad going on.”

“Nothing at all, man,” Dupree said. “Robert came in, and he and Beef took off, leaving me to take care of the store all by
myself.” He gestured at the sandwich shop, empty except for us. “But that’s what buddies do. They cover for each other, right?”

“I don’t know. Do they?” I snapped.

“Whoa,” he said. “Don’t jump on me, man. You’re getting worked up over nothing.” His Bob Marley shirt had ketchup on it, and he looked stoned as always. And yet he kept dragging that dishcloth through his hands.

“Did you know that your
buddy
left a cow tongue on Cat’s pillow yesterday night?” Jason asked.

Dupree noticed Jason and blinked. “Bro. Who are you?”

“He’s with me,” I said, stepping closer to him. It felt better being near him. “
Did
you know that, Dupree? Did Beef get it from the walk-in or something?”

“Hey, Cat, chill,” Dupree said. “I saw him wrap it up in newspaper, but he told me it was a joke. He didn’t mean nothing by it.”

“He left it on top a note,” I informed him. “It said, ‘Stop flapping your tongue, or I’ll cut yours out, too.’”

Bailee-Ann made a small sound. Tommy pulled her close.

“Uh . . . he didn’t mention a note,” Dupree said, looking less sure. “But it was supposed to be funny, for real.”

Beef had Robert
. We didn’t have time for this.

“Dupree, did Robert say anything when he came in?” I asked. “Did either of them say where they were going?”

“Uh, jeez, lemme think,” Dupree said. “Well, Robert rode up on his bike, and goddamn does he have skinny legs. Little
cricket legs inside those fluffy shorts he’s always wearing. We laughed at that, me and Beef.”

“Not that part,” Bailee-Ann said impatiently. “Tell them the rest.” Without giving him a chance, she told us herself. “Dupree said Robert
was
hyper—“

“Per usual,” Dupree interrupted.

“And that he was dancing around saying, ‘See? I called it, didn’t I? I
so
burned you, dude.’ And more, like how Beef couldn’t lie to him anymore because of how he was onto him.” Bailee-Ann’s eyes were huge. “I’m scared, Cat.”

So was I, and if Robert was here, I’d have shaken him for being so dumb. What was he thinking, that taunting Beef would make Beef pay attention to him again?

My throat tightened.

“How did Beef respond?” Jason asked him.

“He was fine with it, bro,” Dupree said, holding up both hands like he was swearing in front of a judge. The gray dishcloth, dangling limp and soiled, made me think of dead things. “He shot me a look like,
Get a load of this nut job, huh
? But he wasn’t mean to him or nothin’.”

His gaze went to each of us in turn, and it seemed to me he was trying a little too hard to convince us. “Beef’s
never
mean to him, although there’ve been times I’ve wanted to jerk a knot in his tail.” He focused on Bailee-Ann. “Uh, no offense. He was squirmier than a dog with two dicks, that’s all.”

Bailee-Ann looked like she couldn’t decide whether to cry or spit. I tried to get him back on track.

“Was Beef high?” I asked.

Dupree’s heavy-lidded eyes opened wider than they probably had in years. Then he went back to fooling with that dang dishcloth. “Well, uh, that’s maybe none of y’all’s business.”

“Maybe it is,” Tommy said, stepping closer. Tommy could be menacing when he chose to be, as I well knew. He chose to be now.

Dupree stepped back and bumped into the counter. “What the hell? We
all
party. Nothing wrong with that.”

“Was Beef high, today, when Robert came in?” Tommy demanded.

“Listen,” Dupree said. His eyes got slippery. “Just listen. He mighta been, but it was a good high. He was singing and attacking the dishes like there was no tomorrow. We were having fun.”

“Meth?” Tommy said.

Dupree gave Tommy a wounded look. “What, is it my turn now to be
intervened
with?”

Bailee-Ann gave up on Dupree. She clutched my arm and said, “Cat, we have to find him.” Her brown eyes shone. “He’s so little, and he’s always showing off, and . . .” Her desperation made it hard for her to talk.
“Please?”

I searched my brain for where Beef would have taken him. Asheville? Unlikely, unless he planned on bashing in Robert’s skull with one of those stone woodland creatures the rich folks put in the gardens of their mountain homes.

God, why would I think that? I put my hand to my stomach,
feeling queasy again. Like when Jason was driving too fast down the mountain, and I saw the ground dropping off steeply just feet from the car.

Okay,
focus
. Where else might Beef have taken Robert? The woods? His house? Somewhere completely unexpected, like the dump? Beef loved the dump, and I was sure Robert did, too. I had yet to meet a boy, young or old, who didn’t.

When it came down to it, we had no idea where Beef and Robert were. I had a gut suspicion, but I didn’t want to say it in front of Bailee-Ann. At any rate, we weren’t going to solve anything by standing around with thumbs in our mouths.

“Jason and I’ll head up into the forest,” I said. “Tommy, you and Bailee-Ann go to Beef’s house. Look everywhere. Call out Robert’s name, call it real loud.”

Tommy nodded tersely. They headed out.

I turned to Jason and said, “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” Dupree called. “What about me? What should I do?”

I looked over my shoulder, unwilling to waste more time when so much could happen in the blink of an eye. “Um, try calling Beef on his cell, and keep trying. Call anyone you can think of who might have seen him. Other than that, just stay at the store, in case they come back.”

I fired out Jason’s cell phone number. Dupree hustled to find a napkin and scrawled it down.

“If you learn
anything
, call us,” I told him.

“Where to?” Jason said once we were in the car. He revved the Malibu’s engine. It died, and he twisted the key again. This
time, when it caught, he roared out of the parking lot and took a right, which was the way I was pointing.

I directed him up into Pisgah Forest, past the fish hatchery and past the picnic spots enjoyed by families with young kids. We drove deeper into the forest, the heavy foliage dappling the road with green shadows and pockets of shade.

Jason left me to my thoughts as we continued up the winding road, and he said nothing about my tap-tapping fingers, which I couldn’t hold still. Maybe he had his own suspicions about where we were heading, or maybe he was using all his mind-power to try and keep the Malibu from stalling out. It wasn’t looking good.

I stared intently out the open window, pushing my hair back when the wind tossed it about. There were no other cars on the road.

“Come on, baby,” he said to the Malibu as the speedometer dropped from thirty miles an hour to twenty, to five. The engine chugged. “Come on. Come
on
.” The motor coughed, burped up steam through the hood, and went dead.

“You’re kidding,” I said.

He turned the car off, then on. The engine went
rrrr-rrrrrrrrrr
. He revved the motor, and the
rrrrrr
-ing grew louder, but refused to catch.

“Fuck,” he said.

“This is not happening,” I said. “This is
not
happening.” Only it was, so I got out of the car.

“Are we walking?” Jason said.

“Have any better ideas?” I replied, starting up the road. My thoughts went to bad places, like how Beef didn’t want Patrick telling him what to do, so he bashed his skull in with a baseball bat. When he didn’t want me talking, he left a warning held down by a slab of bloody tongue. What would he do to silence Robert, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut to save his life?

The forest was home to all sorts of dangers. Water. Rocks. Places to fall involving both water
and
rocks.

Beef’s teaching me how to be a man
, Robert had said.

I’m his best friend
.

We go to Suicide Rock sometimes ’cause of how peaceful it is. I ain’t jumped yet, but I’m gonna. If Beef can do it, so can I
.

I started to jog.

“Cat, hold up,” Jason called.

Behind us, I heard the rumble of a motorcycle. It was coming up fast, and us the only ones for miles around. I stopped and held real still. We’d abandoned the Malibu, so we didn’t even have that for cover.

Jason caught up to me. “You hear that?”

Of course, I heard it. But the rider was down below us. If Beef and Robert had come up this way, they’d have passed this spot long ago.

“We need to get off the road,” Jason said.

“Wait.” I turned around in the road and peered back, shielding my eyes with my hand.

“Screw this, I’m calling the cops,” Jason said. Then, “Ah, shit. No service.
Shit
.”

The motorcycle was almost upon us. Maybe two curves away.

Jason tugged at me. “Come on. Will you get out of the road before that asshole runs you down?”

“It’s okay,” I said, because I knew the asshole roaring over the hill. I recognized the sound of his Yamaha. “It’s my brother.”

When Christian came into view, he was crouched over the handlebars and leaning into the curve. He righted himself as he approached. He skidded to a halt and flipped the visor of his helmet.