“We don’t know that, Carmel,” said Odelia reassuringly. “All we know right now is that she made it to the woods near where she lives, and that’s when the trail runs cold.”
“So she never made it home?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“I tried calling her this morning, and when she didn’t pick up, and didn’t answer any of my messages, I knew something was wrong.” Suddenly she burst into tears. “This is all my fault. I should never have allowed her to walk home all by herself!”
“It’s not your fault, Carmel,” said Odelia, and gave the girl’s arm a comforting squeeze.
Carmel glanced up when a man dressed in a manager’s outfit called out her name, looking none too friendly.
“I have to get back,” she said, then looked at Odelia imploringly. “Please find her, will you? She’s my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do if…” She swallowed, and tears sprung to her eyes anew. She wiped them away.
“Can I ask you one more thing? Is it true that you fancied Matteo at some point?”
An amused smile flitted across the girl’s face. “Who told you that? Yeah, I did fancy him for a little while—all the girls did. But that was before someone told me he was into boys.”
“So what did you think when Angel started dating him?”
“I was surprised,” said the girl. “Angel said it wasn’t serious, though. Said they were just fooling around. So I just figured Matteo wanted to experiment. See what it’s like to be with a girl, you know.” She shrugged. “At least he didn’t experiment with me. I wouldn’t want to be that girl.”
“What girl?”
“The girl a guy like Matteo fools around with. When I date a boy I want him to be with me because he’s into me. Not just for fun, if that makes sense.”
“It does,” said Odelia, and shared a quick smile with Chase.
Carmel looked from Odelia to Chase, and said, a little breathlessly.“You’re a couple?”
“Yeah, Chase is my husband,” said Odelia, and showed the girl her wedding ring.
“Oh, my God, that’s so cute,” said Carmel, and proceeded to give Odelia a quick hug before hurrying off to her boss, who looked on the verge of an aneurysm.
“So what do you think?” asked Chase as he popped the last French fry into his mouth.
“I don’t know what to make of it,” said Odelia, and proceeded to tell Chase about what Big Mac had revealed: that Angel’s favorite part of the evening was a visit to McDonald’s.
“The girl was drunk, babe. Probably felt sick. So she decided to do the sensible thing and go home. I know I can’t bear the sight of food when I’m sick to the stomach.”
“And what about that Matteo business?”
“Kids that age experiment,” said Chase as he threw down his napkin. “Nothing out of the ordinary about that.” He glanced over to Carmel, who had resumed her duties behind the counter. “Do you think Angel could be staying with her?”
“She struck me as pretty sincere. So if she is hiding Angel, she should get an Oscar.”
“I’m leaning more and more to the possibility that the girl was snatched.”
“Like Serena Kahl, you mean?”
Chase nodded.“In which case we might be dealing with a serial killer, babe.”
I would have reiterated my theory that Father Reilly was the one they needed to take a closer look at, but clearly they’d already rejected my involuntary manslaughter theory, and I wasn’t going to make a fool of myself by trying to push it on them again and again.
And that’s when a brilliant flash of inspiration suddenly struck me.
“Dooley,” I said, “let’s get out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
“I think I know where Angel is.”
27
The moment we walked out of the restaurant, Dooley said,“I forgot something, Max,” and ran back in. And when I glanced through the window, I saw that he’d rejoined Odelia, and was telling her something. Moments later he returned, this time wearing… a tinfoil hat.
“What’s that?” I asked, staring at the abomination.
“It will protect me from the aliens,” he proudly declared.
“Don’t tell me, you saw that on the Discovery Channel?”
“No, on the news,” he said. “With this, aliens can’t pick up your brainwaves, and so they don’t even know you’re there, and so they can’t abduct you.” He gave me a worried look. “We should probably get you one, too, Max. You’re not very healthy, but you’re very smart, so theCEAs might choose you as their next target to experiment on.”
“For your information, I’m perfectly healthy, Dooley.”
“Of course you are, Max,” he said indulgently. “Do you want me to get you a hat now?”
“Absolutely not. I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat!” I said with a touch of heat.
“Here, you can have mine,” he said, and proceeded to shake off his hat and nudge it in my direction.
I was touched by this gesture.“Thanks, Dooley,” I said. “But you keep it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Here, I’ll help you get it in position.” I don’t believe in aliens, but Dooley does, and that was enough for me. And so I helped my friend don his silly little hat. It still smelled like chicken wings, which was a nice bonus.
“You know, Max, if this wave of environmentalism continues, soon there won’t be any more tinfoil.”
“So? Isn’t that a good thing? For the environment, I mean?”
“Oh, sure. But it also means we won’t be able to protect ourselves from the aliens anymore.”
“Of course, Dooley,” I said resignedly.
“So where are we going?”
I perked up.“To the graveyard.”
And so we started on our trek into town. Destination: the graveyard.
“See, if you’re going to solve a crime, you have to put yourself in the mind of the criminal, Dooley,” I said as we trudged along. “Now in my view the person with the best motive to do away with Angel is her father: Father Reilly.”
“Why do they call Father Reilly Father Reilly, Max?” asked my friend. “Because as far as I can tell he’s Angel’s father, but not everybody else’s father.” Then his eyes went wide. “Or do you think heis everybody else’s father? Maybe he’s one of those sperm donors with hundreds and hundreds of children!”
“No, Dooley, it’s just a term used to refer to a priest. As in: he’s the father of his flock, not their actual biological father.”
“Oh, phew,” said Dooley. “Imagine the whole town being Father Reilly’s kids. That would be something, wouldn’t it?”
“Okay, so hear me out, will you?” I said, resuming my little speech where I’d left off. “So where would a priest like Father Reilly bury the body of his victim?”
“Um… roll it in a carpet and put it in his car?”
“He’s a priest, Dooley, so his place of business is St. John’s Church. And what is right next to the church?”
“Um… the pizzeria? Oh, Max! You don’t think he turned Angel into a pizza, do you?”
“No, Dooley, I don’t think he turned his daughter into a pizza. Now what else is located next to the church, apart from the pizzeria? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a place where people have been burying their dead for generations.”
“Oh, I know—the graveyard!”
“Exactly! So now you have to put yourself in Father Reilly’s shoes. He’s just accidentally killed his daughter, and now he wants to get rid of her body—ASAP!”
“Okay, so he rolls her in a carpet…”
“What’s with the carpet! No, Dooley, no carpets are involved here.”
“Okay, so he doesn’t roll her in a carpet, but…” He gave me helpless look. “I really don’t know how to put myself in the shoes of a killer, Max. And I think it’s probably because I’ve never killed anyone before. Have you?”
“No, I haven’t killed anyone either, Dooley,” I admitted.
“So how can you put yourself in the shoes of a killer?”
“Just use your imagination, Dooley. Just like a writer, see? As far as I know James Patterson has never killed anyone either, and yet his books are full of killers.”