Found

CHAPTER 21

After Chief Taylor’s squad car drove off, Bat Lady started toward the garage. We followed her. I asked her questions. She didn’t respond. Ema asked her questions. She didn’t respond. She just kept walking in silence.

The woods seemed to be thicker now. The darkness settled over us like a blanket.

“Miss Sobek?” I tried again.

Finally she spoke. “Why did you come?”

“To find clues.”

“About?”

“About Luther.”

I couldn’t see her in the dark. “I guess you found more than that.”

“Who is he?”

“I told you.”

“He said my father’s dead.”

The old woman didn’t reply.

“Was he lying?”

“I told you before.”

“You heard his voice.”

“Yes.”

“And the dead never talk to you.”

She didn’t bother replying.

Ema asked, “Are we going back to the tunnel?”

“No, Ema,” Bat Lady said. “We will never go back there again.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s been exposed. The police know about it now.”

“It was hardly a secret,” I said. “Luther knew about it.”

“Of course he did.”

“I don’t understand,” Ema said. “Where are we going?”

“You’re both going home.”

“And you?”

She raised a hand straight in the air. Suddenly headlights came on. A car came up the road hidden in the woods. I wasn’t surprised when I saw it. It was the same black car that had tailed me since I moved in with Uncle Myron. The passenger door opened.

Shaved Head stepped out. He was dressed, as always, in a black suit. Even at night, he still wore the sunglasses.

“Hello, Dylan,” I said to him.

He ignored me.

“Go home,” Bat Lady said to us. “Don’t ever come back here.”

“What are we supposed to do?” I asked.

“I told you already. You remember, don’t you?”

I nodded. “You want us to find Jared Lowell.”

Bat Lady looked at Ema as though she were seeing her for the first time. She stepped toward her and put her hands on her shoulders. “You’re stronger than you know, Ema.”

Ema glanced at me and then back at Bat Lady. “Uh, thanks.”

“You love this boy.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. In a way I don’t even know him.”

“It will hurt.”

“What will?” Ema asked.

“The truth.”

Ema and I stood perfectly still.

“Go home. Both of you. Don’t ever come back here.”

Lizzy Sobek looked over her property as though seeing it for the first time-or, more likely, the last. I wondered what she saw, how much history lay on these grounds, how many rescued and terrified children had come through here.

“None of us,” she said, “should ever come back.”

Bat Lady seemed to float toward the car. Shaved Head/Dylan opened the back door of the car. She slipped inside without another word. Dylan got into the front passenger seat.

The black car drove off.