Can You Keep a Secret? (18 page)

“He could have been faking that,” I said. “It’s easy to play innocent, Eddie.”

“Sure, it is. I do it all the time!” Sophie chimed in.

It was a joke, but Eddie and I just ignored her. I could see Eddie was thinking hard.

“Think about when we dug up the briefcase,” I said. “Remember how strange Mac acted? He looked frightened. Really. And he kept asking Fairfax if he needed to get a lawyer.”

“I remember,” Eddie said thoughtfully. “Yes. He did act frightened.”

“Like he thought the agent was there to investigate him,” I continued. “Why? Why was Mac so weird? Maybe because he had something to hide.”

“Like the money,” Eddie said. “The money from the briefcase.”

Eddie thought about it some more. “I sure would love to help Lou. If we found that money and returned it.…”

“When can we search Mac’s office?” I said. “And his apartment upstairs?”

Eddie scratched his head. “What day is it? Friday? That’s good. Mac always goes to stay with his girlfriend on Friday. We can go now.”

“Can I come, too?” Sophie asked. “I can help search. Or I could be lookout. Three heads are better than two.”

“Not a good idea,” I replied. “It could be dangerous, Sophie, and—”

I saw the hurt expression on her face. Here I was, shutting her out again. Not letting her help. Not letting her be part of the danger.

“Okay, okay,” I said.

So, the three of us drove to the pet cemetery, broke into Mac’s office, and started to search for the money.

And yes, we found the danger we thought we might encounter there. But it was much more horrifying than any of us could have predicted.

37.

Mac kept his office simple and neat. His desk had a stack of folders on one corner and a framed photo of a German shepherd on the other. A white coffee mug held a bunch of ballpoint pens.

A table beside the desk held a laptop computer, open to its home screen, only a few icons visible. An old-fashioned black telephone sat beside the laptop. Next to it, a glass jar of hard peppermints.

A wooden visitors’ chair across from the desk, a bookshelf, and a single file cabinet against the back were the only other furniture. The walls were covered with framed snapshots of dogs and cats.

Eddie and I pawed through the desk drawers. They were as neat and uncluttered as the rest of the office. Sophie dropped to her knees and began to search the bottom filing cabinet drawers.

“Maybe he has a hidden wall safe,” I said, gazing around the office.

“How could it be hidden?” Eddie said. “There’s nothing to hide it behind.”

The walls were plasterboard painted white. I walked all the way around, smoothing my hands over the wall, searching behind some of the framed snapshots. No hidden compartments. Nowhere a safe could be hidden.

“These drawers just have old contracts and bills and stuff,” Sophie reported. She climbed to her feet and pulled open the top drawer. “A thermos and a first-aid kit and a bunch of wires and cables,” she reported. “And look.” She held up a big jar of marshmallow fluff. “How weird is this?”

“Lots of people are into marshmallow fluff,” I said.

“Nothing here. Let’s try the backroom,” Eddie said.

Sophie and I followed him through the narrow doorway. He clicked on a ceiling light. Of course, I’d been here before with Eddie. It was a small, cramped storage room with stacks of cardboard cartons, some old office furniture, folding chairs, two broken shovels leaning against an old couch.

I gazed at the glare from the video screens against one wall. They sat on a table with the other security camera equipment. On the screens, I could see dark graves and trees outside. Nothing moved.

“What are those cups for?” Sophie pointed to shelves of metal cups, dozens of them lined up neatly in rows. “Are they sports trophies?”

“Those aren’t trophy cups,” Eddie said. “They’re urns. You know. That’s where the ashes go when Mac cremates a dog or cat.”

Sophie made a disgusted face. “You mean people walk in with a dog or a cat and they walk out with a silver cup full of ashes?”

Eddie nodded. “What did you think went on here, Sophie? Did you think it was like a day spa or a grooming salon?”

“Stop snapping at me,” Sophie said. “I came here to help you, remember? It’s not my fault that you work in a totally creepy place.”

“Let’s just search and get out of here,” I said. The tension between Sophie and Eddie was starting to get to me. I knew it wasn’t really Sophie’s fault. And Eddie had good reason to be tense and angry.

We squeezed between the stacks of cartons, but didn’t find any place where money could be hidden. Eddie pulled open a few cartons at the top of the stacks. One of them contained bags of gravel. Another held bottles of chemicals.

“We need to go upstairs and search Mac’s apartment,” he said.

He clicked off the ceiling light. I gasped as I heard a hard bump. From the front office. I couldn’t see Eddie and Sophie in the darkness. But I froze. My breath caught in my throat.

Was someone at the front door? Was Mac back?

I heard Eddie move. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. I followed him to the doorway of the backroom and, still holding my breath, gazed toward the front.

The office door was glass. I squinted out into the night.

Another bump at the door. And I saw the black Lab butting his snout against the glass. His eyes glowed darkly as he peered in at us. He pawed the dirt in front of the door and banged the glass once again with his head.

“Good watchdog,” Sophie muttered.

I let out a tense laugh. “How many times is that dog going to scare me?”

Once again, I thought of the black wolf from my dreams. No matter where I was or how tense or how involved in something else, my dreams were always nearby, always nagging at the back of my mind. Along with Aunt Marta’s terrifying words: “You are wolfen.”

“Ignore the dog. He can’t get in,” Eddie said, putting his hands on my waist and turning me toward the metal stairway at the side of the front office. “Let’s go upstairs and get this over with.”

I stood frozen for another moment. I still wasn’t breathing normally from the scare that dog gave me. To my surprise, Eddie leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “You’ll be okay,” he whispered.

The touch of his lips made my skin tingle. I saw Sophie watching from the back-room doorway.

Our shoes made clanging noises as we climbed the metal rungs to Mac’s living quarters. We stepped into a small bedroom filled up mostly with a king-sized bed. The blanket and sheets were tossed in a pile at the foot of the bed. Shirts and jeans cluttered the floor and were draped over a wooden chair. A small flat-screen TV stood on a long, low dresser at the foot of the bed.

Eddie clicked on the bedside table lamp, and we quickly went through the dresser drawers, searched the small clothes closet, and explored the space under the bed.

No luck.

We were down to our last room to search, a small front room with a couch piled with books and magazines, a low table cluttered with empty beer bottles.

“If the money isn’t here…” Sophie started.

“It doesn’t mean that Mac didn’t take it,” I insisted. “Maybe he hid the money somewhere else. Maybe he buried it in a grave like we did.”

“Or maybe he didn’t take it,” Eddie said. “Maybe we got it all wrong.”

“Maybe,” I admitted.

I moved to the back of the desk and, crouching, slid out the bottom drawer. It was empty. I stared at it. The drawer was shallow, not very long at all.

“Something weird here,” I muttered. I pulled the drawer all the way out and set it down on the floor. Then I lowered my head and peered into the opening. “Hey—!”

I spotted another drawer behind the shallow one. A hidden drawer?

I leaned forward, reached all the way in, grabbed the handle, and tugged. This drawer was a lot heavier than I imagined. It didn’t slide out easily. I tugged again.

Eddie and Sophie had turned to watch me. The hidden drawer was long. I pulled it halfway out and gazed down at it. Gazed down at the stacks of hundred-dollar bills. Neat piles of bills, wrapped in small bunches with rubber bands.

“Oh, wow.”

Eddie and Sophie were leaning over me now. “You found it,” Eddie said.

“Maybe it’s Mac’s money,” Sophie said. “Maybe it isn’t the stolen money.”

“Then why would he hide it in a secret drawer?” I asked. “Who keeps stacks of one hundreds in their house?” I picked up a thick stack and flipped my fingers through it. “This is it. I knew it. I knew Mac saw us. He must have dug up the briefcase as soon as we left, and he took the money.”

Eddie let out a long breath. His eyes were on the drawer. “This is excellent. This is really going to help Lou.”

I stood up and pulled out my phone. “I’ll call the police. I’ll tell them we found the stolen money. I guess we have to wait for them to come…”

I crossed to the doorway where the light was better. I raised the phone and squinted at the screen.

“Owww!” I cried out as a hard slap sent the phone flying from my hand. It bounced against the wall and dropped to the floor. I pulled back my hand—and stared at Mac.

His face was dark with anger, his eyes wide, teeth clenched. He shoved me aside and stomped into the room. “So sorry,” he said softly. “So sorry it has to be this way.”

38.

Mac’s words sent a chill to the back of my neck. “You—you can’t keep us here!” I cried. I dove to the doorway, but he moved quickly, blocked my path, and I bounced off him.

I stumbled back. “L-let us out of here!” I stammered.

Mac clicked the door lock. “Let’s be calm and think about this,” he said. He stepped to the desk, pulled open the middle drawer, and his hand came out gripping a small pistol. “Maybe this will help you three stay calm.” He aimed it at Eddie, then, Sophie, then me.

“Mac, we know you took the money,” Eddie said. “The police—”

“Shut up!” Mac screamed. He lowered the gun till it was pointed at Eddie’s chest. “Just shut up.” He nodded his shaved head a few times. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. “Okay. Okay. We have a problem here.” He was talking to himself.

His eyes darted rapidly from side to side. I could see that he was thinking hard, desperate to come up with a plan.

“You’re not going to shoot us,” I said.

He waved the pistol. “Shut up. I mean it. Just shut up.” He turned his gaze on Eddie. “I like you, kid. You know that. You’re my cousin’s son. You’re family. But I can’t let you ruin everything for me. The money is mine now, and I plan to keep it.” He rubbed his shaved head with his free hand. “But what am I going to do with the three of you?”

We stood there in that small room, the money at our feet. No one moved. Our eyes were all on Mac. My legs were trembling, and it felt as if my heart had jumped into my throat. I struggled to breathe.

He wouldn’t kill us, would he? He wouldn’t kill us for the money.”

“Follow me,” he said, waving the gun again. “Follow me and don’t say a word.” He gave Eddie’s shoulder a hard shove. “Don’t try anything.”

“Mac, listen,” Eddie pleaded. “You don’t want to hurt my stepfather, do you? Lou is going to do a lot of prison time if that money isn’t returned.”

Mac shoved Eddie again, sending him stumbling into the wall. “Lou made his bed. Now he has to sleep in it. It doesn’t mean I have to be a loser, too.”

He forced us out the door and down the metal stairway. “Keep moving,” he barked. “Out the back door. This way. Hurry.”

“Where are you taking us?” Sophie demanded.

“Shut up,” Mac said again. “I have to think. I need time to think.”

He forced us out a narrow door at the back of the supply room. We were outside now, but in a walled-in area I’d never seen before. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light and then gazed around.

“Ohhh, the smell,” Sophie groaned. She pinched her fingers over her nose.

The sour putrid odor filled my nose. Much stronger back here. So strong, it made my eyes water. I grabbed my stomach as it started to lurch.

What smells so bad back here?

“Get moving,” Mac ordered. “Walk!”

Tall brick walls on both sides of us. Huddled close together, we made our way through the narrow gravel path between the walls. I could see the pale half-moon above us in the night sky, but I couldn’t see anything else over the high walls.

“I’m going to be sick,” Sophie moaned. “I … I can’t stand the smell. Ohhhhh noooo.” She bent over as if about to puke.

Mac gave her a shove that sent her sprawling to her knees. “Walk. Walk and shut up. You’ll have plenty of time to discuss the smell in a moment.”

“This is seriously crazy, Mac,” Eddie said. “Where are you taking us? Why don’t you just take the money, get in your Jeep, and take off?”

“Maybe I will,” Mac said. “You’re smart, Eddie. Maybe that’s just what I’ll do. Take the money and get as far away from here as I can.”

The gravel path wasn’t very long. We stopped at the end. The odor was so powerful here, I couldn’t breathe at all. The smell was sickening, like nothing I’d ever smelled before. I wiped tears from my eyes and struggled to hold my breath. Every muscle in my body tensed tightly.

“That’s just what I’m going to do,” Mac said. “I’m outta here. But I need a little time to get it together. So I need to put you away for a while.”

Put us away? What did that mean?

“Go ahead. Jump,” Mac said, his jaw clenched, his face beaded with large drops of sweat. “Jump. All of you.”

I suddenly realized that the three of us were standing at the edge of a pit. A deep hole in the ground. I peered over the edge, but I couldn’t see the bottom.

“How deep is it? What’s down there?” Sophie demanded in a trembling voice, her eyes wide with fear.

“Go find out,” Mac said. He shoved her from behind and sent her toppling into the pit. I gripped the sides of my face and screamed in horror as she vanished.

Sophie’s scream joined mine. We heard a soft
splat
as she landed.

“No … no … no…” I kept repeating, shaking my head, my hands still pressed to my cheeks.

“Go ahead. Join her,” Mac screamed. “Jump! Jump in!”