Down in the Zero

was ready.

'I saw her a lot, after that. Different places. She was the only one I ever told about racing. She said that was my poetry, driving.

'Then my mother went away. For the summer. Right after that, Wendy told me. Her parents were gonna put her in Crystal Cove, to get her some help. She promised to stop the acid–tripping, but they didn't believe her. That's when I got so scared. That's when I called you. I thought you could…save her. And I could…help, like.'

I felt it. So deep I didn't know there was such a place in me. This rich, spoiled kid. This punk I thought was a herd animal. I never saw anyone so scared for someone else, reaching outside himself like that, trying to pull her in with him.

'Come on, kid,' I told him. 'We got work to do before it gets dark.'

We took the Miata. The kid knew about Chalmer's Creek, got us there in a flash.

'What's here?' he asked.

I stood at an outcropping of rock, looking down at the blue–black water. 'This is where Lana Robinelle went over,' I said. 'Drowned.'

I picked up a heavy rock, held it in two hands. Dropped it over the side into the water. Watched it disappear, the circles spreading out from the center, wider and wider, reaching.

'What's it look like to you?' I asked him.

He looked down, eyes following my pointing finger. 'A bull's–eye,' he said.

'You're in it now,' I told him on the drive back. 'That's what you wanted, right?'

'Yes.'

'All right, kid. First rule— you don't talk. Understand?'

'Yes.'

'Anybody you talk to, regular?'

'Just…Wendy.'

'Nobody knows your secrets? Not your mother? Nobody?'

'Nobody.'

'Okay. Keep it that way. Meet me at the garage tonight. Eleven o'clock. We're gonna do some work.'

'I'll be there,' he said, face set in harder lines than I thought it had.

Back in the apartment, I found the microphone and pulled it loose. Whoever set it up would have to come back. I checked the rest of the place. Couldn't find anything new.

Eight o'clock. I took a shower, wrapped a towel around my waist, lay down on the bed and closed my eyes. I didn't even try and sort things— I'd be talking to the Prof soon enough.

A tap on the front door glass woke me up. I flicked off the towel, slipped into a pair of pants, walked through the dark house. My watch said 10:05.

It was Randy, standing outside the door, hand poised to tap again. I opened the door. 'What?'

He stepped past me, agitated, moving quick, words tumbling out of his mouth too fast for me to follow.

'Hey!' I said to him. 'Hold it down. Get it together, all right? Something happened?'

'No. I mean, yes. I don't know. It didn't just happen. I have to tell you—

'Randy, sit down. Relax.'

'I can't. I…'

'Breathe through your nose,' I told him. 'Close your mouth and breathe through your nose. Deep breaths. Slow.'

He followed orders, working at it until he stopped gulping air, sat down on the couch. I sat across from him. The only light was a moon–spill through the windows, enough to see his shape, not his face.

'Now…what is it?'

'I…lied, Burke.'

'About what?'

'When you asked me, about secrets. Did I talk to anyone…?'

'Yeah?'

'Charm. I talked to Charm. That time she was here. When she went into the house by herself.'

'You already told me about that.' He mumbled something, head down.

'Randy, work easy now. Speak so I can hear you. Come on.'

'Charm asked me about you. What you were doing here.'

'You told me that.'

'I didn't tell you that I…told her about Crystal Cove.'

'That's all right. It's not much of a secret now, with all the running around I've been doing.'