Minders (28 page)

His eyes locked on her, and Sadie heard him say to himself,
You must not let her see this.
By sheer force of will he yanked all the threads and shards and sinews together, gathering them up into an untidy ball and pushing them deep into his mind to be sorted later. He was left with the smooth everyday grief.

“I do,” he said.

“How come we don’t talk about him?”

“It’s hard to know what to say.”

“You could say, ‘Remember the time we went bowling?’ or ‘Remember the time we made cookies?’ See? It’s easy. You do one.”

Sadie saw Ford’s effort, but his mind was a frozen block of stone, unyielding. “Um, remember—”

“Forget it!” Lulu stomped her foot against the rubber floor of the bus. “I knew it. I
knew
it!” Her voice rose, and people began to turn and stare. Sadie felt mortified for Ford, felt his own mortification, and saw him ignore it to listen to Lulu. “You’re trying to erase him. You want to make it like he was never there. You wear his clothes. You’ve even tried to steal his girlfriend—yes, I heard you talking to Mom, saying you were going to see her. But you can never be him.
Never
.”

“I know, and I don’t want to be.” Sadie knew that might not always have been true, but it was true now. And it felt good to Ford. “I don’t want to be,” he repeated.

Lulu glared at him defiantly then burst into tears, burrowing into his chest, crumpling handfuls of his shirt against her face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

Ford held her. “It’s okay even if you did.”

“It just hurts so much sometimes.”

“I know.”

Her cheek was against his chest. “He wasn’t supposed to die,” she said, her lip trembling, and Ford hugged her even tighter. “We were going to have adventures and be rich.” She started to cry again, but softer, not hysterical.

“We still can be,” Ford said, and Sadie felt how heavy the lie sat on his chest.

They were quiet as they got off the bus and walked home, but by the time their building was in sight Lulu was back to her regular self, declaring, “We’ll be rich when I marry Mason. In ten years.”

“Does he know about that?” Ford asked.

Lulu stood in the middle of their front walk in her khaki flight suit and spun around, fluffing up her hair. “Really, darling, who’s going to say no to me?”

“Who indeed,” Linc said, stepping out of the shadows around the door and catching Lulu in his arms. Lulu shrieked and giggled, but the gaze Linc leveled on Ford was steely cold.

“Linc. Please put my sister down,” Ford said. His mind was focused on Linc with such intensity that it was like being pulled by centripetal force.

Linc put Lulu down. “You messed up my hair, you big lug,” she told him, and he gave her a smile, letting it dissolve slowly as his eyes held Ford’s.

“Lulu, go upstairs and wait for me, please,” Ford said.

Lulu frowned. “Isn’t Uncle Linc coming up?”

“No,” Ford said, speaking to her but watching Linc, as if daring him to disagree. “Not tonight.”

When she was gone Linc said, “I hear you’ve been trying to get my attention.”

Ford’s mind hummed with nervous anticipation. “Not that I know—” The words stopped in Ford’s throat as Linc held up a photo of Ford standing just down the block from 345 EvergreenLawn, then another of him taking off after Linc.

“Talk. How did you end up here?” Linc rattled the paper.

“I followed you.”

“Not possible.” Linc’s hand snapped out, and he grabbed Ford around the neck. “Tell me how you found me.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Ford squeezed out. Sadie’s vision went spotty as he gasped for air. “I followed a pizza delivery truck, and it went to your house.”

“Why weren’t you at work?”

“We got out early… storm.”

Linc’s eyes flickered with something that looked like surprise, and he let go of Ford’s throat. “You have either the worst luck or the best of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Somehow those words, coming from Linc, weren’t heartening, Sadie thought.

Ford massaged his neck. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m going to tell you one last time to stay away from me and anything concerning me and beat you senseless to make sure you get the message.”

“Is that the good luck or the bad luck?”

Linc said, “That depends on your perspective. I came here today to kill you.”

It would have been funny in its baldness, Sadie thought, if Linc hadn’t been so very cold and serious.

“Did you kill James?” Ford asked.

Linc’s eyes hardened. “You need to stop asking questions like that. Soon I won’t have any control over my actions. Don’t do it again.”

“Or else?”

“You’ve used up your
or else
s,” Linc said. “How many choices do you think you have right now? Your choices are: one, do what I say and stay away from me, or two, pay with your life.” He held up two fingers. “And when you’re gone, who’s going to take care of your mother?” He folded the two fingers down into a fist. “Your sister?”

Ford’s astonishment made his mind buck like a room in an earthquake, overriding his anger. “Did you just—are you threatening my
little sister
?”

“I’m educating you about your choices.” Linc’s eyes burned into Ford’s with the intensity of the insane. “What would you do for Little Lu’s well-being? What kind of choices do you have with that in the balance?”

Plants were falling off shelves in Ford’s mind, pictures skewed, the floor still rolling, and he was speechless. “At least tell me who ordered you to do this. Was it the Pharmacist?”

Linc looked angry. “If I tell you the Pharmacist is responsible will you listen and take it seriously? Then yes. The Pharmacist sent me.”

“Who is it? The Pharmacist?”

“The Pharmacist has many forms, almost all of them too good to be true, at least at the beginning.”

“That’s not an answer. Why won’t you just tell me?”

“You know why no one answers that question?” Linc asked. “Because the only people who know wind up dead.”

“You’re not dead.”

Linc’s face twisted into a sardonic smile. “Something to think about.” He pointed a finger at Ford’s chest. “I tried to keep you out of this. I figured I owed James that. But no matter how clear I make myself, you still keep turning up. So this is your last warning. Take it. I won’t enjoy killing you.”

Sadie watched Ford prepare to fight in his mind, but he said, “It doesn’t have to be this way, Linc,”

Linc’s eyes flashed over Ford’s shoulder. Slowly, like he was thinking something through, his hand came up to rub his chin, and he said, “You’re right, maybe I should kill you now—”

Ford’s fist plunged into Linc’s unprotected abdomen.
Are you kidding?
Sadie said.
There’s no way you can—

Linc staggered backward and fell to the ground.

From behind Ford came the low clack of Kevlar boots. Swinging around he was confronted by two Serenity Services Counselors in full matte black body armor and helmets. A computer-modulated voice said, “Citizen Ford Winter, you are in violation of Part 445-W of the Good Neighbor Initiative. Place your hands out and state your intention to accompany us, or risk serious injury.”

Thank god
, Sadie thought, seeing the Serenity Services uniforms.
Tell them that he was going to kill you
, Sadie urged Ford.
Tell them you were just defending yourself.

“He was going to—”

“Citizen Ford Winter, comply with our order or we will fire on three,” the same voice said, and both Counselors leveled their tasers.

Ford put out his wrists. “I agree to accompany you.”

• • •

Ford’s processing at the Serenity Services Compliance Center happened in a kind of fog. They asked him almost no questions, and when he tried to explain that Linc had been about to beat him up, the Counselor gave him a weak smile and said, “That guy had, what, ninety pounds on you? If he’d been trying to beat you up, you would have been beaten. As it is, you’re lucky we came around when we did. He wouldn’t have stayed down for long.”

After forty minutes, another Serenity Services Counselor came in and announced, “Your brother posted your bail. You’re free to go.”

If only
,
Ford thought. His last thought before punching Linc, Sadie knew, had been how disappointed his mother would be.

Ford braced himself, but when he walked into the waiting room the only person there was Mason.

“You?” Ford looked behind him. “For me? Why?” Then, getting it, “That’s why they said
brother
.”

“I told them we had a family emergency, Mom was sick, that’s why you’d flown off the handle, contrition all around, and they sped things up.”
That was slick
, Sadie thought, and was conscious of a twinge of unease.
Too slick? Too easy?

Ford was impressed. “Nice work.” Mason pried himself out of a chair made for someone half his size, and they headed for the exit. “You’re taller than my brother.”

Mason chuckled. “I’m taller than everyone’s brother.”

“Why’d you do it?” Ford asked, looking up at him.

Mason jammed his hands in his pockets. “Wedding present for Lulu.”

Ford laughed outright, and so did Sadie, momentarily shelving her apprehensions to share Ford’s openness toward Mason.

“No, I figured this way you’d owe me, I could knock your salary down.”

Ford shook his head. “You must be a really bad poker player. This way I know what I’m worth to you and can ask for a raise.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Mason cautioned.

Sadie felt Ford reaching into a part of him he didn’t share with everyone, a rich, warm place. Gratitude, she thought. And also friendship. “Thanks,” he said, offering both. “Was it expensive?”

“No. Couple hundred. He’s not pressing charges.” Mason seemed impressed. “Pretty bold, though. He’s a big guy. I don’t think I could have knocked him out.”

“You just have to know where to punch,” Ford said, but he was distracted inside, thinking,
That was too easy
. As if Linc had somehow orchestrated the whole thing on purpose.

Sadie had the same idea, but it didn’t make sense.

“So, you’ll take the job?” Mason prodded.

Ford’s insides still felt warm like melted caramel. “I guess. But it has to be a real job. No charity. I want to work hard. I’m useless otherwise.”

Mason said seriously, “I’m counting on it,” and Sadie felt Ford’s warm contentment increase. He trusted Mason, she realized, trusted that Mason’s professions of respect were real.

Don’t let him down
, Sadie cautioned Mason in her mind.

Mason dropped Ford off. When Ford got upstairs Lulu was standing in the open door. She put a finger to her lips and whispered, “I thought you’d never get home. I’m starving.”

Ford glanced behind her and saw their mother’s door was closed. “Did you call Mason?” he whispered.

“You mean Mr. Lulu? No, he called me. Really he called you to ask about his offer, but I had your phone so I answered. I told him I’d seen those people from Serenity Services take you away, and he said he’d take care of it. Isn’t he just lovely to look at?”

“Sure,” Ford said. “And Mom…” He let it trail off.

“I didn’t think it necessary to advise her majesty,” Lulu told him.

“Thanks.” Ford smiled, a real, genuine, from-his-toes smile that lit Sadie up too.

Lulu curtseyed. “At your service.” Then she looked at him with narrowed eyes. “But you owe me. Which means you’re making dinner.”

As he brushed his teeth later, Ford’s mind kept replaying Linc’s description of the Pharmacist: “Many forms, almost all of them too good to be true.”

Ford fell asleep thinking of Plum. Sadie fell asleep thinking of Mason.

CHAPTER 22

WEEK 3

T
he invitation was printed on washcloths.

Wee Willy Productions proudly presents:

The Fourth of July

A Midweek Drunktacular

At: The Old Baths

Dress: To Impress While Wet

Bring: Cheer, Beer, No Fear

Ford had never been to the Old Turkish Baths before, and he was impressed by the entrance. Thick pillars of rose marble topped with griffins flanked a set of brass doors, nine feet tall with spikes poking outward.

“They took off the doorknobs when the rulers came in so they could bathe in peace,” Willy explained when Ford was inside. “Impossible to get the door open without slicing your arm off. Neat, huh?”

Willy was wearing a white boater hat, a white linen shirt open over a white tank top, white shorts, and white loafers. He looked ridiculous, Sadie heard Ford think, but she also picked up a twinge of jealousy at how new everything was.

“Yeah, neat,” Ford agreed.

The baths weren’t as fancy inside as they were outside, although Ford’s eye directed Sadie to a half-hidden mural on the ceiling that suggested they once had been.

Mason would like that
, she heard him think, and he reached for his phone.

Sadie gritted her teeth.
This is a party. On a holiday. You’re not supposed to spend it texting your boss.

Of course, Mason had quickly become more like a friend than a boss. Very quickly. Objectively Sadie thought it was fine, but there was still something about their relationship that made her… uneasy.

She was glad for Ford to have a friend, or she was neutral since her job was to observe, not judge, but she wished Ford would be more careful. More reserved. He was so thirsty for affection, so hungry to be appreciated that she feared he might trust the wrong person or make bad decisions that would haunt him.

He and Mason talked the entire time they looked at places, and that was another thing that annoyed Sadie. The constant conversation made it harder for her to hear Ford’s thoughts, and those she could hear mostly consisted of things like
Mason’s so great
and
I need to show this to Mason
.

Maybe you should get matching outfits
, she suggested.
Or a Mason’s #1 Fan foam hand.