Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls (8 page)

“Shut up,” Danny says, but he’s laughing.

“Yeah, dude,” one of the other guys says. “The wrath of the Lord will befall you and ye shall perish among the sinners and enter into eternal damnation.”

Holly and I look at each other like, Can you say stupid? but the guys all think it’s hilarious.

And then Danny says, “Who believes that, anyway. What an idiot.”

“So where you gonna pawn the mic? And how does that work?”

“There’s a dive on Main. You go in, they lowball you, you haggle a little, and you walk out with cash. I’ll probably get twenty bucks. No big deal. I do it all the time.”

Holly and I look at each other like, Bingo! because we definitely have our answer.

The question now is, what are we going to do about it?

Lucky for us, Danny’s friends left pretty quickly after that. And when Danny ducked back inside the garage and closed the door, we gave it a good minute before creeping from underneath the car and hightailing it out of there.

We were careful, keeping quiet and watching for Nick and the other two guys, but we were also in a hurry because of course we were
late
. And since it’s hard to whisper
and
run
and
keep an eye out for people, we didn’t exactly discuss what we were going to do about Danny.

And the truth is, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Not that I didn’t want Danny to be caught or pay for what he’d done—I did. I was just feeling really queasy about being the one to report him. I mean, what was Casey going to think if he found out I’d ratted on someone who used to be his best friend? And what was Marissa going to think?

I needed time to figure out what to do, so when Holly had to turn left at the intersection of Broadway and Main, my plan was to keep on trucking. But Holly stopped me. “Hey, wait! Are you going to call Officer Borsch?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, when?”

“Probably when Grams can’t hear?”

“Why don’t you just come over and use the phone downstairs?”

“But I’m already late and I promised—”

“So call your grandmother first.” She pulls me along. “Come on. I’ll keep Meg and Vera occupied upstairs.”

Holly’s plan
did
make sense. So I let her drag me to the Pup Parlor, and while she heads upstairs to the apartment to let Meg and Vera know she’s home, I go over to the Pup Parlor phone and dial Grams.

“Oh, thank heavens!” she says when she picks up the phone. “I was so worried!”

“Grams, I’m not even that late—”

“But with everything that’s been going on?”

I hesitate. “What do you mean? What’s been going on?”

“Another person has disappeared! They think it may be a serial killer! And if that weren’t frightening enough, an evangelist was beaten and robbed tonight, and there were two gang-related stabbings right near the mall! I called Hudson and he said you left half an hour ago! And I know you go right by the mall! Where there were stabbings!”

I pinch my eyes closed. “Grams,
why
do you watch the news?”

“Because I want to know what’s going on in my community!”

I sigh. “Grams, I’m fine. Holly’s fine. Everyone’s fine. What’s
really
going on in your community is that a gazillion kids had an amazing time getting free candy, okay?”

“That evangelist who was beaten up would not agree
with you.” She lets out a weary sigh. “What’s this world coming to? Who would do such a thing?”

Well, I don’t want to get into
that
, so I just say, “Look, I’m going to be at Holly’s for a few more minutes and then I’ll be home, okay? Nothing to worry about. Everything’s fine.”

She takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’m glad you’re safe. Thank you very much for calling, Samantha. I really appreciate it.”

So I click off and then just stare at the phone for a minute.

I know I should call Officer Borsch.

I know it’s the right thing to do.

So even though I’m not sure what it’s going to wind up costing me, I take a deep breath and dial his cell.

He picks up on the first ring. “Borsch here.”

“Uh, I’m calling with an anonymous tip, so don’t even say my name, got it?”

He hesitates, then says, “Go on.”

“The Preacher Man’s stuff is going to be taken to a pawn shop on Main Street tomorrow.”

“Which one?”

That throws me. “There’s more than one?”

“Make that three.”

I think a minute. “Well, east? West? Where?”

“Two near Blosser, one in the five hundred block. West.”

“Uh, I’d guess that one.”

“The one in the five hundred block?”

“Yeah.”

There’s a minute of silence and then he says, “That’s it? That’s all I’m getting?”

“Uh …” I scratch my head. “That’s not enough?”

Officer Borsch is always gruff. Even when he’s being nice, he
sounds
gruff. But when he says, “You’re in a tough spot here, aren’t you?” he sounds almost gentle.

I let out a little snort. “That’s an understatement.”

“Well, it may help your conscience to know that Reverend Pritchard has two fractured ribs and a concussion.”

“The Preacher Man does?”

“That’s right.” Then he adds, “It’s against the law to attack a man for expressing his beliefs, even if we don’t like the way he does it. It’s also against the law to rob him. But besides that, it’s just
wrong
to do those things.”

I want to tell him everything. I’m actually dying to. But there’s that whole Casey-and-Marissa thing. So I’m quiet.

Just quiet.

Then over the phone comes, “I understand. You’re in a rough spot.”

Maybe it’s the gentleness of his voice. Maybe it’s my conscience. I don’t know, but I finally just blurt out Danny’s name and address and tell him, “You’ll recognize him. He used to be part of our group.”

“That’s all I need. And don’t worry. I have no idea who you are.”

I hang up and hold my face in my hands. I feel all tied up in knots. Like I’ve just done something I’m really going to regret.

“You did the right thing,” Holly says.

Her voice is quiet, but I still totally jump. “I didn’t
know you were there.” I shake my head. “I don’t know why I feel like this.”

She shrugs. “You don’t want Casey to think you’re a rat.”

“But Danny’s a full-on
criminal
. He talks like he’s a pro at hocking stolen property, and he gave the Preacher Man two fractured ribs and a concussion.”

“Wow.”

I shake my head again. “I shouldn’t feel like this.”

“So don’t.”

I sigh and say, “I’ve got to go,” then grab my candy sack and head for the door. And as she’s letting me out, I ask, “You didn’t tell Meg and Vera anything, did you?”

Holly shakes her head. “Vera’s asleep and Meg’s been waiting up, watching TV in bed. She doesn’t even know you’re here.”

“Okay.” Then I step outside and say, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She holds the door open and kind of stands half in and half out. “How could you
not
have called, huh?”

“I just feel like I have this secret from Casey now. And Marissa.”

“It’s the Casey part.”

I sigh. “I know.”

“It doesn’t have to be a secret. You can just tell him.”

“But they used to be like
brothers
. What if he thinks I should have told him and given him the chance to have Danny … confess, or whatever.” I look right at her. “Holly, I called the
cops.
”

Now, I’m pretty wrapped up in our conversation, so it’s
not like I’m paying attention to the cars going by on Broadway. I mean, there are always cars going up and down Broadway. And even though it’s late and traffic’s pretty light, it’s not like I’d interrupt talking to Holly to watch someone cruising up Broadway.

But out of the corner of my eye I see a car that makes me do a double take.

It’s mustard colored.

Deli
mustard colored.

And it’s got a big, flat hood and a big, flat trunk.

And rust spots.

And the guy driving it has really pale skin.

And kinda long black hair.

I gasp, which makes Holly look, too. And my instinct is to grab her and dive back inside the Pup Parlor, but it’s too late.

The Vampire has already seen us.

Instead of diving back inside the Pup Parlor, I grab Holly by the sleeve and say, “Act like we’re trick-or-treating.”

“At eleven at night?” Holly chokes out. “This is bad. This is very bad.”

“Don’t look!” I tell her as we hurry down the sidewalk toward the Heavenly Hotel.

But she looks anyway. “He’s doing a U-turn!”

“Is he close enough to see us?”

“Yes!”

“Good,” I tell her, then yank open the Heavenly’s door.

The Heavenly Hotel always seems to be open. Maybe that’s because André, the guy who runs the place, got tired of letting his low-life clients in and out all night. Plus, besides being old and run-down, the Heavenly’s not exactly the kind of place to have a buzzer system.

That’d be much too sophisticated.

Not to mention high-tech.

“Hey,” André growls when he sees us. “This is a hotel, not a candy shop. Scram!”

“Then why’s the light on?” I ask, walking up to the counter.

“Huh?” He clamps his cigar stub between his front teeth and peels his lips back like an angry camel. “Sammy?”

“Hi, André.”

“And that’s Holly?” he says, bugging his eyes at her a little.

Holly nods. “Hi, André.”

He laughs. “You two sure aren’t playin’ up your good looks tonight.”

“Hey, it’s the night of the dead,” I tell him. “We’re keeping with tradition.”

André pulls some mint candies from behind the counter. “This is the best I can do, sorry.”

“Actually,” I tell him as I take a mint, “we’re being followed by a creepy-looking guy in an old deli-mustard car—”

“What’s a deli-mustard car?” he says, standing up.

“I mean the color.”

He starts coming around from behind the counter with a baseball bat, and for a guy who always keeps things to a low growl, he’s moving fast.

“Wait!” I call after him, because it looks like he’s about to go beat in some windows. “We just want to ditch him. Can we go out the back way? And if he happens to come in looking for us, could you maybe tell him we were just trick-or-treating and went out
that
way?” I say, pointing to a side door.

He stops in his tracks and eyes me suspiciously. “Why would he be comin’ in here?”

“I’m not saying he
will
. I’m just saying if he
does.
”

An eyebrow arches way up as he lowers the bat. “What have you gotten yourselves into this time?”

I cringe. “Nothing?”

“Yeah, right,” he grunts as he goes back behind the counter.

“We’re not exactly sure what,” Holly says.

I nod. “We were just out trick-or-treating and happened to cut through the graveyard—”

“Just happened to, huh?” André says, rolling his eyes.

“—and we wound up using that guy’s car as an escape ramp out of there.”

He eyes me. “Because of course that was the only way out, right?”

“It was!” I cringe again. “But we might’ve dented his roof.” I cringe a little harder. “And we definitely bent one of his wipers.”

André’s back to clamping the cigar between his teeth. “So maybe I should turn you over to him?” But then all of a sudden he says, “Get down!”

His voice is like a shotgun cocking, and believe me, we do what he says, diving for cover behind a display rack of brochures and free papers. We hold our breath and bug our eyes through the rack as the Heavenly’s door opens.

A man walks in, but it’s not the Vampire.

It’s a big man.

Wearing a ball cap.

“Can I help you?” André calls, because the guy’s just standing there scoping out the lobby.

“I’m looking for my girls. They’re late comin’ home. Someone said they saw them trick-or-treating down here. Dressed up as a couple of zombies?”

Now, there are a lot of big men in ball caps in this world,
but the instant we hear his voice Holly and I look at each other like big-eyed mice in a cougar cage. There’s no doubt about it—it’s Shovel Man.