Can You Keep a Secret? (12 page)

So I was happy to be there to support my sister. She waved to me with a smile as she trotted out for her first competition. Sophie ran in two events, a 100-meter sprint and a 400-meter sprint. I found myself shouting and cheering as she ran.

She finished second in both events. I thought she might be disappointed, but she seemed really happy as we walked home after the meet. “I don’t care about finishing second,” she said, practically skipping as we crossed Park Drive. “Those were my best times ever in both events.”

“Awesome,” I said. I tried to sound enthusiastic, but I suddenly found myself thinking about Riley, and the blurred image of him on that security monitor flashed back into my mind.

Sophie kept chattering about how she needs these new track shoes and how she was working on her body angle to be more aerodynamic and how she was sure the shoes would help her trim even more time off her 400-metre speed.

I’ll tell you one thing about running. It definitely pumps you up. I never heard her talk nonstop like that.

And then Mom greeted us at the door with some interesting news. “Hey, girls, I received a letter today,” she started.

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Thanks for asking how my track meet went.”

Mom’s cheeks turned pink. “Oh, sorry, dear. I’ve had my mind on so many things, I—”

“I had my best times ever,” Sophie said. “Too bad you couldn’t be there like some parents.” She refused to cut Mom some slack.

“She was impressive,” I chimed in. “Like a rocket.”

“Nice,” Mom said. “I’ll be at the next one. I promise.”

Sophie rolled her eyes again. “For sure,” she muttered.

“Anyway, I’m trying to tell you about this letter,” Mom said, leading the way into the kitchen. She picked up a long white envelope off the counter. “It’s from your Great Aunt Marta in Prague.”

“Is she okay?” I asked.

Mom nodded. “Yes. She‘s fine. In fact, she’s coming to visit.”

My mouth dropped open. “Really? She’s going to fly here? But isn’t she about a hundred and twenty?”

Mom chuckled. “At least,” she said, running the envelope through her fingers. “Yes, she’s very old but I guess she’s strong enough to travel. She says she wants to see you girls one more time.”

“Wow,” Sophie said. “That’s amazing.”

“It makes me nervous,” Mom confessed. “She’s so old … and so strange. She has so many weird ideas. You know. Superstitions. Stuff from the Old Country.”

“Is she your aunt or Dad’s aunt?” I asked.

Mom thought about it for a long moment. Then she shrugged. “We both always called her Aunt Marta. I think she was just a really close friend of my grandparents. Not related at all.”

“I don’t remember her much,” Sophie said. “Is she seriously weird?”

“You’ll see,” Mom said. “She’s different. But you’ll like her. She has a million interesting stories.”

*   *   *

After dinner, Sophie and I were up in our room. I was struggling with some trig problems. Yes, I’m math phobic but I don’t see the point in talking about it. Sophie was staring at her laptop screen, watching a video of her track meet from the afternoon.

When my phone buzzed, I grabbed it up, happy to be interrupted. I glanced at the screen. Eddie. “Hi, what’s up?”

“Danny and I are doing it,” he said.

“Huh? Doing what?” I could hear that he was in a car.

“Going to confront Riley,” he answered. Danny said something but I couldn’t make out what it was.

“Eddie? You’re going to Riley’s house?”

“Yeah. We’re going to get the briefcase back.”

My brain was spinning. Did they have a plan? Did they think they could fight Riley? What were they going to say to him?

“Wait for me,” I said. “I’m coming. Can you hear me? I’ll meet you at Riley’s house. Wait for me, okay?”

What could I do? Maybe stop them from acting like total jerks? Maybe stop a fight before it starts? I didn’t know if I could help or not, but I wanted to be there.

I shut my trig notebook and started to pull on my sneakers.

Sophie raised her head from the laptop. “You’re going to Riley’s house? Does he have the briefcase?”

“Eddie and Danny are going there to get it back from him,” I told her. “I’m a little scared. They might get him angry. Riley is so big. He doesn’t know his own strength.”

Sophie jumped to her feet. “I’m coming with you. I can’t let you go by yourself.”

I sighed. “Okay. Come with me.” My throat suddenly felt dry as cotton. I tossed her the car keys. “I realized I was too tense and frightened to drive. Do you mind driving?”

“Not a problem,” Sophie said, squeezing the keys in her fist. She stopped at the mirror to straighten her short hair and adjust the collar of her pale green top. I knew my hair was a mess, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to Riley’s house and stop Eddie and Danny from doing anything crazy.

Sophie adjusted the driver’s seat and the mirrors. She’s two years younger than me, but she’s two inches taller than I am. She backed down the driveway, and aimed the car toward Riley’s house.

A light rain pattered down, raindrops glowing on the windshield in the lights from an oncoming car. I pressed my head against the headrest. I could feel the tension tightening the back of my neck.

Suddenly, I started to feel strange. Woozy. The bright light flashing in the windshield lingered in my eyes. I tried to blink it away, but I could see only a wall of white.

What is happening? What is happening to my eyes?

I realized I was just frightened, filled with heavy dread. The slice and scrape of the windshield wipers repeated in my ears, echoed, grew louder. The light flickered, faded and became blindingly bright. The wipers ticked in my ears. I shut my eyes tight against the flickering light.

I’m passing out. I’m going to faint.

I feel so weird.

What is happening to me?

24.

When I opened my eyes, Sophie and I were standing in someone’s front yard.

How did this happen? Did I totally blank out?

Didn’t Sophie realize there was something wrong with me?

I forced the questions away, struggling to make sense of everything. It took a few seconds for my eyes to focus. I’d been here before. I squinted into the wash of moonlight over the front of the square white house. The dark shingles appeared to glow at the sides of the wide front window. A bike leaned against the wall of the front stoop.

Riley’s house. Yes. As it all came into focus, I realized I was standing in Riley’s front yard.

Sophie huddled close beside me. She had the car keys tight in her fist. She had her other hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, Emmy? You looked weird in the car. I was going to pull over, but—”

“Where is Eddie?” I asked, still struggling to shake away the fog in my brain. “Did we beat Eddie and Danny over here?”

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m as confused as you are.”

I took a deep breath. “Should we go knock on the door?”

Sophie nodded.

I took a few steps—then stopped. My eyes locked on the low hedge that ran along the front of the house. What was that draped over the hedge? Hanging so awkwardly over the hedge top … arms spread … legs folded …

Oh. Oh. Oh no. I opened my mouth in a shrill scream of horror.

Face down over the hedge. Riley.

Riley on his stomach, his legs spread at a weird angle, arms hanging out at his sides. Face down. Riley face down. Face buried under his hair, buried in the hedge branches.

I staggered forward for a step or two. Sophie clung to my side. Another step. And then I screamed again.

Riley’s clothes had been ripped away. His skin ripped away.

He’s been clawed to pieces!

I clapped my hands over my face. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t pry my eyes away.

His bare shoulders had long claw lines over them, all caked with gleaming red blood. His shirt was in strips. The skin on his arms had been clawed raw and red.

I gasped as I pictured raw meat. A huge hunk of raw meat. One of those hunks of beef they hang on those big hooks in meat lockers. And the dark stain over the hedge.… the dark stain was Riley’s blood.

Unable to keep my balance, I lurched forward—and glimpsed his face, half-hidden under his hair. A pulpy mass, like hamburger meat.

Sophie grabbed me around the waist and tried to tug me away. “Don’t look!” she cried. “Emmy—don’t look!”

Too late. Too late.

I couldn’t stop gaping at the maimed and butchered body. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the most horrifying sight I’d ever seen in my life.

25.

At Riley’s funeral three days later, I stared at the closed coffin. And I pictured the shredded body inside, mangled and torn, glistening red meat and strips of skin.

I couldn’t stop picturing it. It stayed in the front of my mind, the first thing I saw when I woke up. The last thing I saw when I closed my eyes at night.

I heard the sobs and sighs at the funeral. I didn’t hear the minister’s words, and I didn’t hear the words Riley’s brother spoke. I didn’t hear the hymns his family had chosen. I heard the crying and I pictured Riley’s body sprawled over the hedge, and I thought about the past few days. And the police officers and their questions … hours of questions. And the bits of frightening news that came to us a piece at a time.

Did the police have a clue as to how Riley was murdered?

They had a theory.

The front lawn had been soft from an early rain. And in the soft dirt, the police had found animal tracks.

Wolf tracks. In the dirt all around the low hedge and along the front of the stoop.

And so the police concluded that Riley had been attacked by a wild animal. Their guess: It had been the same wolf that had attacked a dog in Shadyside Park.

No human could have caused the body this kind of damage, they said. The tracks and the trail of blood on the lawn gave the police a few clues. Riley had been attacked as he stepped off his front stoop. He had struggled with the wolf, but he was no match for it. The creature attacked Riley, clawed him until he stopped moving, then left him draped over the hedge.

The wolf had to be rabid, a veterinarian said on the news. Wolves don’t attack humans, even when provoked. The wolf must be sick, crazed.

The police called Sophie and me to the station and questioned us with our mom across the table. We were the only ones there that night. His parents were at the movies. Eddie and Danny hadn’t arrived yet.

We tried to tell them everything we knew. But how could we be helpful? We really didn’t know anything. We hadn’t seen a wolf—or anything—in the front yard or in the neighborhood.

Of course, there was a lot we didn’t tell the police. The briefcase of money was never mentioned. But it didn’t have anything to do with Riley’s death—did it?

Roxie was silent during the whole funeral. She kept to herself at the back of the church. She came to my house after the funeral, along with Danny and Callie and Eddie. Eddie kept his arm around my shoulders as we shared the armchair across from the couch.

Roxie stayed by herself in the corner by the fireplace, as far from us as she could get. She kept her arms tightly around her chest. Tears ran down her cheeks in jagged rivulets. And her expression of anger and disdain remained on her face that entire afternoon.

Danny was serious and quiet, which was a change. He tapped his fingers tensely on the arm of the couch. Callie clung to him, her green eyes misted by tears, her normally perfect blonde bangs matted and disheveled.

Roxie kept her eyes down. She muttered something none of us could hear.

“We know how terrible you must feel,” I said. “We’re all devastated, Roxie. I think we’re all in shock. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I haven’t been able to think of anything else since that—”

“Bet you can think about the money!” Roxie snapped, jumping to her feet. “Liars. You’re all liars. You’re not thinking about Riley. You’re thinking about the briefcase and the money. I—I—” She raised her fists above her head. “I can’t stand any of you! I hate you! Liars!”

She uttered a curse and stomped out of my living room. A few seconds later, the front door slammed behind her.

The four of us sat in silence for a long moment. The sound of the door slam rang in my ears. I shut my eyes and pictured Riley’s clawed body.

Callie squeezed Danny’s hand. She whispered something, and he nodded. Danny raised his eyes to Eddie. “You know what’s weird?”

“What?”

“The police searched Riley’s house, right? They probably went through every room, looking for clues I don’t know, looking for whatever? You know. Like cops always do.”

“Yeah. Probably,” Eddie said. “What’s your point?”

“Well … why didn’t they find the briefcase? If they searched Riley’s house, how come they didn’t uncover the money?”

Eddie nodded his head, thinking about it.

“Maybe they found the money and decided to keep it,” I said.

Danny snickered. “You mean like crooked cops on TV?”

“Yeah. Maybe,” I said.

Eddie was still thinking about it. He turned to Danny. “You think maybe Riley didn’t keep the money at home? Maybe he hid it somewhere else?”

Danny nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”

“But where would we start to look?” Eddie said. “We can’t exactly ask his parents if they saw him give a briefcase to someone.”

Callie uttered a sob. “The poor guy. What a terrible way to die. I think we should forget about the briefcase and try to go on with our lives.” She turned away. I saw tears running down her cheeks.

“We can’t just forget about it,” Eddie said. “The guy who stole the money … he’ll be coming for it. If we don’t have it … he’ll … he’ll…” Eddie’s voice broke.

A hush fell over the room.

Callie pulled Danny to his feet. “Let’s go. We need to take a drive or something. I … I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“But … all that money,” Danny said. “Are we really just going to forget about it?”

“Yes,” I said. “We have no choice.”

“Shut up! Everyone just shut UP!” Callie screamed, covering her ears with her hands. “I
said
I don’t want to talk about it.” She went running to the front door. Danny glanced at Eddie and me and then chased after her.