CHAPTER 48 RILEY

48

Riley

RILEY STARED AT THE name written on her arm just above her left wrist: Mason Ridler

"I didn't write that."

Mason glared down at her arm. "Great, not only is she chicken-shit, but she's a mental case with a crush on me." He frowned at Evelyn. "Tell me again why you want to bring her along? I didn't sign on to be a babysitter for some little psycho 'tard."

"I'm not a—"

"Why did you write his name?" Evelyn interrupted.

"I didn't write it." Maybe her mom wrote it there for some reason, or someone else at the police station while she was sleeping. She certainly didn't write it on her arm, she would have remembered that. "It's not even my handwriting."

That was the truth, too. Did her mom even know who Mason was, though?

Robby tapped his foot impatiently. "Ev, come on. We don't have time for this. Let's go."

He hoisted his red backpack over his shoulder. His entire body shifted with the weight of it. The bottom was stained dark, looked wet, and after seeing him stick a dead bird in there, Riley didn't want to know what else he kept in that bag.

Evelyn gave Riley's arm one last look, let out a soft tsk, tsk , and started across the parking lot. "Come on," she said, "it's not far."

Mason rolled his baseball bat through the air, rested it on his shoulder, and went after her, with Robby trudging along behind them.

Riley gave the open window of Matt's office one last look before going after them.

Evelyn was right; it wasn't far.

Rather than take the sidewalks on Main Street, they took the access road that ran behind the businesses, crossed the parking lot at the rear of the pharmacy, and cut through an open field near the middle school until they reached the chain-link fence surrounding the town's water tower.

"You think those things came from here." Riley craned her head and looked up. The tower was so much bigger up close. From school, the base looked like it could barely support the big, round part up at the top, but standing right there next to it, it was ginormous.

Robby set his backpack down in the tall grass. "It's one hundred and twenty feet tall and holds seven hundred and twenty thousand gallons of water." He pointed to a shed off to the right of the tower, just inside the fence. "The pumping station over there can move up to two thousand gallons per minute at peak hours, but averages five hundred gallons per minute over the course of a full day. Every drop of water for Hollows Bend comes from here."

Riley gawked at him. "How, exactly, do you know all that?"

"Robby's ‘on the spectrum.'" Evelyn made air quotes as she said this. "That's what we're supposed to tell people, but it seems like they call it something different every time he sees a new doctor. He's got something called Asperger's. It's a type of autism."

"Ass-burger," Mason muttered under his breath with a laugh.

Evelyn punched him in the arm. " Asperger's. What's your excuse? Oh, I forgot, you're just a dick."

Mason rubbed his arm. "Whatever."

Evelyn went on. "It means Robby is smart with some things and dumb with others, but mostly smart. He remembers all sorts of stuff. Reads it one time and can spout it back out a year later, word for word. He's really good at solving puzzles, and you don't want to play cards with him."

Mason shrugged. "Yeah, well, he also picks his nose, so it's not all sunshine and rainbows."

Evelyn tightened her fist again, but Mason got out of the way before she could throw the punch.

Riley knew what autism was but had never heard of Asperger's. She didn't think Evelyn was making all that up, though.

Robby didn't seem to care they were talking about him. He was at the gate in the chain-link fence, studying the padlock, oblivious. He looked at both the front and back, then unzipped a pocket on his backpack and took out a faded black leather case. He set it on the ground, unzipped it, and spread out the contents. Riley stepped up to get a better look—some kind of tool set—long, thin pieces of metal that looked like something a dentist would use to scrape your teeth. He carefully selected two of them and slipped them into the keyhole on the lock. Robby closed his eyes, wiggled the pieces of metal around, then gave one a yank. The lock popped open.

Riley's chest tightened. "I don't think you should have done that."

Robby carefully replaced the tools in the leather case, sealed it back up, and put it back in his bag. Then he removed the lock, hung it from the fence, and opened the gate.

"That's breaking and entering," Riley pointed out. "We could get in a lot of trouble."

Evelyn stepped through the gate and started up the sidewalk to the water tower. "It's public property. If my parents actually paid their taxes, it would mean we owned part of it. I'm guessing your mom pays her taxes, so that makes it okay by proxy. Besides, to get in trouble, we'd have to get caught, and your mom's boyfriend has his hands full today."

Mason held out his bat. "If you don't want to go in, you can stay out here and be lookout. Cry out real loud if you see someone. I bet you excel at crying."

Riley looked back the way they'd come. The school was deserted, the field, too. They hadn't run into anyone since they'd left Main Street. The wind wasn't even blowing, it was so quiet.

Evelyn grabbed Mason by the hair and pulled him through the fence. "Get in here where nobody can see you, close the gate, and stop worrying about stupid shit." She looked back at Riley. "You gonna make me hurt you? Either way, you're coming in. I learned a long time ago if you're gonna break the rules, everyone has to break the rules . That's the easiest way to keep anyone from talking. I haven't decided if I can trust you yet."

Scared or not, Riley wasn't about to let this girl push her around. Mason, either. She shoved past both of them, spotted Robby over by the pump station, and made her way over. He was crouching next to a rusty water spigot built into the side of the small building. He'd removed another padlock and opened a metal lockbox fastened to the wall. Inside, there were plastic collection containers about the size of a pill bottle, test strips, and several small bottles of chemicals lined up neatly on shelves above those. Robby was busy reading the labels. "Mr. Buxton's supposed to test the water at least once every day, but I've never seen him come out here. I'd be surprised if anyone does it on any kind of schedule."

Evelyn came up behind them. "Our dad says Buxton's a drunk, and he should know, 'cause he's one, too. He knows the secret handshake."

"Mr. Buxton?" Riley frowned for a second. "Oh, you mean Buck."

"No luck, Buck," Mason said in a singsong voice. "Down on his luck and useless as—"

Evelyn smacked his shoulder.

"How 'bout you stop hitting me?"

"You're blocking the light," Robby told them both. He'd filled one of the clear collection bottles and was holding it up toward the sun with one hand. In the other, he had a test strip.

Evelyn dropped down next to him and peered at the bottle. "Do you see anything in there?"

Robby gave Riley a quick look but turned away when their eyes met. "Nothing like she described, no. Iron and alkalinity are a little higher than normal, but not enough to be dangerous."

"So, no little monsters swimming around?" Mason asked.

"Nothing visible with the naked eye, no."

"What I saw would barely fit in that bottle." Riley held up her hand. "It was about the size of my thumb."

"This is stupid," Mason said. "If we had little sea monsters floating around in our water, don't you think someone else would have noticed them? Someone who's maybe been out of diapers for a year or two?"

This time, it was Riley who hit him. She curled a fist and punched him hard in the thigh.

Mason hopped back a step. "Okay, everyone stop hitting me!"

"Then stop being an asshat." Evelyn looked back at her brother. "Is it possible there's something in there and you just can't see it?"

"Sure. Remember the pond water from Ms. Teshner's class? Didn't see nothing in that until we got it under a microscope and it was full of arthropods, copepods, water fleas, and ostracods …"

"Fleas in the water?" Riley felt like she might throw up.

Mason stood and looked across the field at the middle school. "Teshner's classroom is on the first floor, right?" He swung the bat. "We get in and find a microscope, how much time do you need?"

"We're not breaking into the school," Riley told them. "No way."

"Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk …" Mason clucked, this time from a safe distance, where nobody could hit him.

"We don't have to break in," Evelyn said. "I stole one of the microscopes last month." She gave Robby a half grin. "It was supposed to be your birthday present."

"You did?" Robby smiled.

"I hid it out at the Hawk."

"Well, we can't take her there," Mason said, eyeing Riley again. "No way."

Riley had no idea what they were talking about. "What's the Hawk?"