The Guardians

'I hope so. Because there's no statute of limitations on kidnapping.'

This took a minute to sink in.

'Let's make a pact,' Ben said.

Randy turned to him. 'You mean we should drink each other's blood or something?'

'Just a promise.'

'Okay. We promise.'

'No, we have to say it,' Ben clarified. 'And we have to hear each other say it.'

We al nodded at this.

'What do we have to say?' Randy asked.

'We're the Guardians,' I said.

Nobody seemed to have heard me. Except Ben.

'Okay. On three,' he said. 'One, two—'

We al said it. Three words that cleared the smoke from our faces, and we could see who we were.

[15]

I rip through my walet to find Barry Tate's card and cal his number at the cop shop. Yet when his voice mail picks up, I'm frozen. Barry asks for 'complete details'

to be left in the message, but what are those? I saw a missing girl's boyfriend looking at a house. No more than that.

'If this is urgent,' Officer Tate goes on, 'press zero and your cal wil be transferred to 911.'

Is this urgent? My heart certainly thinks so, taking runs at my ribs.

'Hi, Barry. It's Trev. Trevor. Sorry to bother you—gosh, I don't think this should bother you—but there's something I'd like to report. I left my cel number with you, right? Okay, so see you around.'

I hang up.

Trev? Gosh? See you around? What could Barry possibly think when he hears that? I know what . That poor guy with the shakes is losing his shit.

I get dressed and head downstairs. The house is quiet. A good thing, because I don't want Betty McAuliffe to catch me running out of here with my shoes in my hands.

'Coffee only takes a minute.'

She's standing in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

'Gosh,' I say for the second time in this new, going-downhil- fast morning, 'I didn't know you were up.'

'Heard you bumping around.'

'Sorry to wake you.'

'Didn't say you did.'

The two of us wait. Or it's just me waiting, feeling for a way out the front door.

'I wanted to ask,' I say. 'Did you happen to see my Dictaphone around anywhere?'

'Dicta-who?'

'It's a little recording machine. Seem to have misplaced it.'

'That's what you were doing up there. I thought you were on the phone for hours on end. But you were talking to yourself.'

'I suppose it's a little strange, isn't it?'

'It sounded a lot like Ben to me.'

'Wel, if you happen to see it . . .'

'So you can keep up your observations,' she says with an unreadable smile.

'I wasn't making observations.'

'No? That's what Ben told me he was doing.'

Mrs. McAuliffe starts back into the kitchen, but I stop her by speaking a name.

'Roy DeLisle.'

'Is that a question?'

'I suppose he is a question.'

'The boy who ran away. Is that who you mean? Years and years ago. The way he disappeared after that terrible business with the orphan girl.'

'Elizabeth Worth.'