And there it was. I either had to agree with Ma, who looked so earnest in her effort to create an alibi for me, or correct her and make the agents suspect her for a liar. I decided to try and protect us both. “Uh, Ma, I think you’re thinking of Tuesday. I was at Stubby’s yesterday studying for that chem test. Remember?”
Ma’s brow furrowed, and all that confidence that she’d mustered up in front of the agents fell away, and she looked lost. Casting her gaze down to her lap she said, “Oh. I thought that was yesterday.” Then she reached for the big plastic glass on the table filled with clear liquid that I knew wasn’t water.
“Who’s Stubby?” Faraday asked.
“Arnold Schroder. He’s my best friend. He can vouch for me.”
Faraday made a note in his notebook and asked for Stubby’s address. As he was jotting that down, Wallace said, “Do you think your friend Arnold might know the whereabouts of Tevon Tibbolt?”
He’d asked that so casually, like he was asking if I knew where to get the best cheeseburger in town. I sighed and looked at Ma, who was back to frowning at the agents. “My daughter and her best friend had nothing to do with that boy’s disappearance. If you want to keep pressing the issue, then I will insist on calling my brother-in-law.”
Wallace pursed his lips and considered Ma with a cool, steady glare. “Little early in the day to be drinking, don’t you think, Mrs. Faraday?”
I felt my chest tighten and I stopped breathing. This was exactly what I feared.
Ma paled and set the plastic cup down. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said meekly, then she reached for her cigarette pack and fished one out. Her hands were shaking, and I knew the agents noticed.
Wallace smiled tightly. “No. I’m sure you don’t.”
Ma glared at him while she lit up, and I saw her spine straighten a little. “Maddie,” she said. “Can you bring me the phone? I think it’s time we called Donny.” I was rooted to the spot for a second. The phone was sitting on a table right between the two agents. I was afraid to retrieve it.
While I hesitated, Faraday tucked his notebook into his pocket, motioned to Wallace, and stood up. Before heading to the door, Faraday pulled out a business card from his inside coat pocket and said, “If you want to call and talk, Madelyn, this is my number. Maybe you didn’t have anything to do with Tevon’s disappearance, but if you know anything…anything at all about what might’ve happened to him or where he is, you can call me and I’ll listen.”
After placing it next to the phone, he and Wallace walked to the front door, which sticks. They had to tug on it a couple of times to get it to open, but then they were gone. The minute they pulled the door closed, Ma turned to me. “The phone, honey. I need to call Donny.”
My uncle Donny is my dad’s younger brother. He’s an attorney in Manhattan, and he’d handled the lawsuit against the city Ma filed after Dad died. He also managed the settlement we’d gotten as a result, sending us a check every month to cover most of the bills.
Donny still lives in Brooklyn, and he used to come around to check on us every couple of weeks. Now, though, he hardly visits at all. Ever since Ma’s drinking got worse, he and Ma stopped getting along. Still, he’s always gotten me a great Christmas gift, and this past summer, he’d taken Stubby and me to Florida. I knew that, if anybody could help explain things to the feds, it was Donny.
After bringing Ma the phone, I headed upstairs to lock myself in my room. The first thing I did was hop on my computer and FaceTime Stubs. He answered on the sixth or seventh ring, and simply seeing his baby-faced smile brought a measure of comfort. “I thought you’d never call,” he said, scratching at the light-blond stubble on his chin. “You looked totally freaked out at school. What happened with Harris?”
I explained everything to him, about the feds waiting for me in Harris’s office and then again here at home. “Whoa,” he said, after I was done. “Maddie, that’s bad!”
“I know,” I said, feeling like the weight of the world had firmly settled onto my shoulders. And then I remembered that I’d given Stubby as my alibi. “They should be calling you,” I told him. “To confirm where I was when Tevon went missing.”
“When did he go missing?”
“Yesterday after school. The feds said he never made it home.”
Stubby’s eyes grew wide. “What do you think happened to him?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea, but when they showed me his picture, his date confirms that he’s dead.”
“Oh, man,” Stubby said. “Maddie, maybe we shoulda done something more to try and save him.”
I bit my lip. That’s what I’d been thinking, too. I felt terribly ashamed of myself because, even though I’d known it was coming and I’d found it really sad, I hadn’t expected Tevon’s death to be so mysterious. What if he’d fallen into a ravine and his death had been slow and painful? Or what if he’d been hit by a car on a dirt road and the driver hadn’t stopped to report it, and he was simply out there somewhere where nobody would find him for weeks? I couldn’t imagine what his mother was going through. No wonder she thought I had something to do with it.
“I feel really bad,” Stubby said quietly. “I know she got mad when you called, but maybe I should’ve gone over to her house and explained to her that I knew you, and that you’re not a fake. You’re a good person. I bet I could’ve convinced her.”
“You couldn’t have known it was going to be like this,” I said. It was exactly like Stubs to feel guilty over something he had no control over. For a guy, he was incredibly softhearted.
And then I saw Stubs jerk and look over his shoulder. Turning back to me he said, “Somebody’s at the door.”
I had a suspicion about who it was. “Is your mom home yet?”