Read Missing Pieces Online

Authors: Jerry B. Jenkins,Chris Fabry

Tags: #JUVENILE FICTION / Religious / Christian

Missing Pieces (6 page)

BOOK: Missing Pieces
7.62Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Chapter 20

I found Ashley at the computer
and told her what I had seen at Randy’s the night before.

“Did you watch the video?” Ashley said.

I shook my head. “When that shower turned off, I had to get out of there.”

“How do you know it’s a video of them smashing mailboxes?”

“I don’t. But if we can’t find any more clues, we’ll have to grab it.”

I walked into the kitchen and noticed a list of chores on the blackboard. Mom puts the list up every Friday night, and whoever wakes up earliest gets first pick. Ashley had already picked the easiest—vacuum living room. The others were clean Dylan’s room and doggy cleanup. The last one meant taking a plastic bag out back and picking up dog droppings.

Leigh came up behind me, snatched the chalk from my fingers, and put a check by “Clean Dylan’s room.”

“Hey, I was going to pick that!” I said.

Leigh slapped the chalk from her hand. “You snooze, you lose.”

I gritted my teeth and wanted to yell at her, but then I remembered she was dating a criminal she’d soon be visiting behind bars. Destroying mailboxes is a federal offense—they’re actually government property, after all. It made me scared for Randy.

“Have fun last night?” Leigh said.

I nodded. “Interesting game.”

“Could you believe the way those players acted?” she said. “That’s one reason I don’t go to church.”

“Because of softball players?”

“They’re a bunch of hypocrites,” she said. “Praying before the game and then acting like babies during it. The only reason they want Randy to play is because he’s good. They don’t care about his
soul
.” When she said the word
soul,
she made quote marks in the air.

Ashley and I had tried to be nice to Leigh and prayed for her, but she had a habit of knocking church and Christians. Mom told me we needed to love her and not argue, but that was hard.

I wanted to tell her she shouldn’t judge all Christians by a few jerks and that calling people hypocrites is an easy way to ignore your own faults.

Instead, I got two plastic bags from under the sink and went on poop patrol.

Chapter 21

I parked my ATV
at Mrs. Watson’s house and walked into town to the Black Bear Bakery.

I don’t think there’s a better smell in the world than fresh bread, unless it’s when you mix it with cakes and cookies and pies. I’d pay for a slice of the air in that bakery.

I picked out the cookies I wanted and waited my turn. As the woman at the counter placed them in their own little box, I asked if Mrs. Garcia was still here.

“Went home early,” she said. “Don’t think she was feeling well.”

I decided to take a shortcut behind the bakery back to my ATV, but as I headed that way, another woman caught my eye. She sat on the back steps of the bakery taking long draws from a glass of iced tea. Her hair was as white as wedding cake, her face deeply lined, and her apron had bits of dough stuck to it.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Do you know Mrs. Garcia?”

She nodded, eyeing me evenly. “What do you want with Renee?”

“She works at my school. I’m just . . . well, I’m kind of worried about her. She said something about yesterday being the anniversary of something she didn’t want to talk about.”

The old woman looked like an alligator had jumped out of her tea. She gulped, coughed, then patted her chest. Finally she managed, “You mean the fire?”

“Fire?”

“Years ago, before she moved to Red Rock.” She looked away. “If Renee wanted you to know, she would have told you herself.”

One thing I’ve learned is that when people are through telling you something, they’re through. You can push, but usually people clam up.

“Where did she live before?”

“Pueblo,” the woman said, as if this was her last word.

“Well, thanks,” I said.

“You’re welcome.” She looked a little scared. “But next time ask Renee, and don’t tell her I said anything.”

Chapter 22

Leigh wasn’t dressed up enough
to be going out with Randy, but I didn’t want to ask where she was going. When you have an older sister, sometimes it’s better to just try to imagine where she’s going.

“If Randy calls,” she said, “tell him I went over to Dawn’s. There’s a dance tonight, and she asked me to help with her hair.”

I wondered why she and Randy weren’t going and how she was getting to Dawn’s, but I didn’t ask. She’d only sneer at me.

A car pulled up and honked. Leigh grabbed her purse and some hair stuff and left.

A few minutes later the phone rang, and it was Randy. “Is Leigh there?”

Randy didn’t even acknowledge that I was breathing. Ashley and I called him The Creep, and right then I thought it was pretty accurate. “She went to Dawn’s,” I told him.

Randy paused. “Do you have that number?”

“Nope. Sorry.”

“Well, give her a message,” Randy said. I heard someone laugh in the background. “Tell her I can’t go out tonight. Something came up. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said. “She’s going to ask what happened.”

“Just tell her it was kind of an emergency.”

Chapter 23

Leigh was upset with Bryce
when she got home. I guess he hadn’t asked the right questions or something, because she kept asking where Randy had gone. Of course, Bryce had no idea.

I ran upstairs and sat with Bryce on Dylan’s bed. “You think we ought to tell somebody what we know about Randy?” Bryce said.

I shook my head. “If you had seen the video, maybe, but we don’t really know anything yet. I’d kind of like to believe The Creep wouldn’t do something like this.”

“What’s it going to take to convince you?” Bryce said. “I could go back and get the tape. He’s obviously not home tonight.”

Dylan just watched us, perched on his bed and yawning. His pillow was lumpy, and I found a bunch of trains stuffed inside. Bryce went out while I sang to Dylan and tucked him in. I guess we had worn him out, because instead of asking a million questions about what we were having for breakfast the next day and wanting more songs, he was snoring within five minutes.

Later, down in the living room, I told Bryce, “We can’t accuse Randy of anything until we have proof.”

Bryce bit his cheek and took a deep breath. I could tell it was a struggle not to tell me off.

BOOK: Missing Pieces
7.62Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Pretending He's Mine by Lauren Blakely
Correlated by Shaun Gallagher
Cavanaugh Judgment by Marie Ferrarella
Paperweight by Meg Haston
One Last Hold by Angela Smith
Burridge Unbound by Alan Cumyn