Searching for Yesterday (15 page)

I was pretty sure I'd thought of every possible problem, so it was a shock to find out I hadn't. Kayla had Annie meet her at work and I was ready and waiting for Greg to pick me up when the phone rang.

“I'm really sorry, Shelby, but my dad just called. Something came up and he's tied up in Viander. He won't be home for at least a few more hours.”

I could hardly believe my ears. Here it was, just an hour before the time we'd agreed to meet and get into place, and we were short a car. I told Greg I had to go figure something out and hung up while he was still telling me not to do anything reckless.

Reckless, schmeckless, I thought. I have to do
something
. This could be Annie's only chance to find out the truth. I can't let her down.

I paced back and forth and bit my lower lip. Neither of these things helped, although they did have my nerves so jangled that I nearly jumped out of my jeans when the phone rang again. I grabbed it, hoping against hope that it would be Greg again, telling me something had changed, but it was Annie.

“I'm here with Kayla. She thought it would be a good idea for all of us to get together and go over things one more time.”

“I hate to tell you this,” I said, and filled her in on the call I'd just had from Greg. She told me to hang on and relayed the news to Kayla, sounding much more calm about it than I felt. The next voice I heard was Kayla's.

“Okay, Shelby, we're coming to get you. And don't worry, we'll figure something out. We have to.”

It was fifteen minutes before I saw Kayla's car turn in our driveway. I hurried out the door and slipped into the back seat. “I told my parents I was going out with Greg tonight and I don't have time to explain things if they drive up,” I said.

“Gotcha.” Kayla put the car in reverse and backed out onto the street before another word was spoken.

“So,” I said, “About the driver shortage. I was thinking ...”

“No need for that,” Kayla. “I called Brandon and he's going to help.”

And just like that, the problem was solved. “Did you fill him in on the whole story?”

“Well, as much as I could in a five-minute phone call. He's meeting us in the parking lot of Little River High so we can run through the game plan.”

Brandon was already there when we pulled in. He was out of his car and waiting to climb into Kayla's before we were fully stopped, sliding into the back with me.

“The tall man walks at night,” he said solemnly.

“Brandon, there's no password or secret phrase,” Kayla said, shaking her head. “I told you, this isn't a game. It's serious business; you can't clown around.”

“You're right. Sorry.”

Kayla went over the plan we'd come up with and then she turned to Annie and I and said, “One of you will
have to go with Brandon. Watching in pairs will be most effective. Besides, we'll need steady communication and it will be best if the drivers can give their full attention to following Lenny — if he goes anywhere. You girls can take care of the phones. Either of you want to volunteer to make the sacrifice and travel with Brandon?”

“I'm right here,” Brandon said, but he didn't really sound offended.

“I don't mind,” Annie said. “Yeah, well, I was thinking — you've put up with doing flower deliveries with him twice this week. You've probably suffered enough, Annie. Shelby? Would you mind going with Brandon?”

“No, of course not,” I said, though I did mind a little. Not because he didn't seem nice, but I'd only met him once before for a few minutes and that wasn't nearly enough to make me feel comfortable.

Anyway, that hardly mattered because someone had to go with Brandon and apparently I was the one. I forced a smile as we switched to his car, which was cold and smelled faintly of some kind of aftershave.

“Since they're doing the first hour watching Lenny's house, we might as well grab a coffee and some snacks,” Brandon said. “First thing I learned in Stakeouts 101 was that you need food.”

A few moments later we pulled away from the drive-through with coffees and a couple of bags of donuts and cookies. Half a dozen of each, to be exact. Brandon was
already biting into his second donut when we pulled up to the curb a block west of Lenny's place and settled in to wait.

The plan was that we would rotate every hour, with one car just down the street from Lenny's, watching his driveway to see if he left the house. If he did, they were to call the second car to let them know which way he'd headed. The second car would begin to tail him at a distance while steady phone contact would allow the two cars to switch now and then, one turning off while the other moved into place. If he was nervous and watching, he'd never realize he was being followed.

I'd just taken my first sip of coffee when Brandon's cell phone rang, startling me. I yanked it open and said “What?” with my heart already pounding.

“Hey,” Annie said, her voice barely above a whisper. I wondered if she thought Lenny had supersonic hearing or something. “I just thought I'd let you guys know that his car is here. So he's home.”

“Okay.” I relayed the message to Brandon, who was holding open one of the bags and peering inside. He stuck in his hand and brought out a peanut butter cookie, chomping into it with a satisfied smile. I was starting to wonder if he'd agreed to come because he figured it would be a good excuse to eat junk food.

“It'll be a while before he makes a move, if he's going to,” Brandon said after he'd swallowed the first bite of cookie. “Even though it's dark out already, there's still
too much movement around town. I'm guessing he'll wait until there aren't too many people around.”

“Depends on where he has to go,” I said. “He might like the idea of having his movements covered up by the regular traffic.”

Brandon looked across at me. “You could be right,” he said, sounding impressed. “That's pretty sharp thinking.”

I almost said something about it not being my first mystery, but I managed to hold back. Nothing worse than coming off as a big bragger after someone gives you a compliment.

It seemed that Brandon was right anyway, as the minutes ticked by. The time passed really slowly as we made small talk and fiddled with the radio dial, looking for something good to listen to. The worst part was how cold the car got when it was shut off for a while, though there was no choice. We'd all agreed it would look suspicious to leave the cars running, so the routine was to shut them off for ten or fifteen minutes, then drive up and down the road to warm them up before parking again.

We traded places after the first hour and it was a bit more interesting to watch Lenny's house. That, at least, gave us a sense of anticipation, like something might happen, but our hour slid by without him so much as stepping a foot out the door, and then it was time to switch again.

We were about twenty minutes into our second stint away from Lenny's place when the phone rang. I snatched it to my ear, heart pounding.

I tried to sound calm as I answered the phone, but inside I was feeling a little desperate. One big concern, which I hadn't mentioned to anyone, was that Lenny would wait until really late at night. That would be a serious problem for me. My parents would worry if I was out too late — which would make them call Greg to find out if there was anything wrong. I didn't want to think about what would happen after that, but I could guarantee it wouldn't be good.

“Hello?”

“He's on the move,” Annie told me, voice shaking. “He just backed out of his driveway and turned south. Kayla said for you guys to head south on your street. When he makes a turn we'll let you know which street and what way he's gone and you can pick up there.”

I repeated the message and Brandon, who had started the car as soon as the phone rang, pulled out and
headed south.

“This seems kind of unreal,” he commented.

“I know. You don't think of anything like this happening in a place like Little River,” I agreed.

“Or to someone you know personally. Gina and Kayla were always together when we were young. I think she spent more time at our place than she did at her own. Man, you never heard two girls giggle as much as they did. Nearly drove me nuts when they were at that giddy stage. I can't picture Gina ... I don't know ... not being
alive
.”

I was silent, thinking about how strange it must be to lose a friend — someone your own age — while you're still young. I've had relatives die, but they were pretty old, so it was expected.

“Okay, he's turning! He's turning! Left, go left on Chester Avenue. We'll turn left one street over and try to stay parallel. Let us know when he leaves Chester.”

“Got it,” I said after carefully repeating the instructions to Brandon.

“He's probably just running an errand,” Brandon said. “Or stopping by a friend's house or something.”

“Almost everything is closed,” I pointed out, though I knew there were convenience stores and social spots that were still open for hours.

Brandon didn't answer. He was concentrating on keeping Lenny's car within sight without staying too close to him. Once, when Lenny was stopped at a traffic light, Brandon signalled and pulled into a parking place
about half a block before the intersection. When the light turned green, he pulled back out onto the street and kept following at a distance.

“Nice manoeuvre,” I said.

Brandon looked a bit embarrassed. Then he laughed and said, “I might as well admit this: every time I watch a show where a driver is tailing someone, I think they should do tricky stuff like that. I was kind of hoping I'd get a chance to do that.”

“Well, it was a good idea,” I said. “If Lenny was watching to see if there was anyone behind him, he'd never suspect someone who pulled over to park.”

“What's he up to?” Brandon asked a moment later when Lenny made a sudden right turn on Station Street and sped up. It was near the outskirts of town, but there were still a few houses and the speed limit didn't go up until you were outside the town limits, so there was no reason for the sudden burst of speed.

We let Annie know that Kayla should turn that way while we drove past and then swung through the parking lot of a gas station and doubled back. We passed Station again and turned up the first street past it, heading the way Lenny was going while Annie kept us posted.

“He's slowing down ... it looks like he's going to turn in at Wheeler's farm ... no, he just ... uh oh ... hang on ...”

This was followed by some odd sounds, kind of grunting and scrunching all at once. “Sorry,” Annie said
after a moment of this. “I had to get down out of sight because Lenny pulled over and stopped on the side of the road and we had to keep going and drive past him to make it look natural. But if he saw me, he'd know something was going on, which is why I'm crammed here between the seat and the floorboards, and if we get stopped I am definitely getting fined for not having my seatbelt on!”

I laughed nervously, wondering why Lenny had pulled over next to the Wheeler's farm. Brandon looked at me questioningly, but I didn't have time to relay anything before Annie continued.

“I think he just wanted to make sure no one was following him,” she said. “Kayla can see his headlights in the rear view mirror and he's coming this way again. Only now he's behind us.”

“We'll switch to Station Street up ahead and pick him up,” Brandon said after I'd quickly brought him up to speed.

I told that to Annie and she kind of grunted. “Okay. We're speeding up to make it look even less suspicious.” I could tell by the way she was talking that she was climbing back up into her seat.

There was no sign of Lenny when we got to Station Street, but we saw his taillights in the distance after a couple of moments. They bobbed along over a series of bumps and then slowed again and took a sharp turn off the road, disappearing almost immediately.

“It looks like he's pulled off the road that passes the old foundry,” Brandon said. “That place has been closed up for as long as I can remember.”

I knew the building he was talking about — a tall stone structure in the early stages of decay. Its few small windows had been replaced with boards and the grounds had been taken over by weeds and bushes. This time of year the place looked totally forlorn with nothing but clusters of spindly brown branches and snow all around the forsaken edifice.

We drove by, making note of Lenny's car, which was parked on the roadside next to the foundry. In the dark, it was impossible to see whether Lenny had gotten out of the car or what he was doing. Seconds later, we rounded a bend and couldn't even see his car any longer.

I told Annie what we'd seen, not that there was much to tell, and passed on Brandon's suggestion that we all meet after the bend so that we could decide our next move. Kayla and Annie arrived within moments and, after a hurried discussion, we decided to walk back to the foundry to see what was going on.

“If he puts anything in his car, we call the police and let them take over from here,” Brandon said firmly. “But he might have something else in mind, in which case we need to be close enough to observe what he's up to.”

Once we rounded the bend and the foundry was in sight we left the roadside and headed through the
field, using trees for cover until we were close enough to watch both his car and the entrance to the building. We all figured that if he was going to move a body he'd probably put it in the trunk of his car and take it to an entirely new location.

I wondered how Annie would react if we saw Lenny carrying something large enough to be her mother's body. She'd sworn she could handle it without freaking, but I had my doubts.