Lucinda frowned at him. “That’s not fair!” she shouted. “Colin was just as surprised as we were. I was watching him!”
Tyler had his doubts-he had already decided Lucinda was too soft on Colin Needle. “Then if he’s so shocked, why isn’t he here? Why isn’t he coming to the hospital?”
Lucinda shook her head. “He is! He’s in the truck with Mr. Carrillo.”
Tyler made a face. “Oh, he’s too good to ride with us, huh?”
His sister glared at him. “You are totally a jerk, Tyler Jenkins,” she said. Which was, of course, totally unfair.
The town of Liberty was what Standard Valley would like to be when it grew up, Tyler decided. Not that Liberty was big-it was probably less than half the size of Tyler’s and Lucinda’s hometown, but it was big enough to have a Fourth of July parade, which was just ending, and also big enough to have a fire department, several schools, and a movie theater, none of which could be found in Standard Valley. Tyler saw all this as Jaime followed Mr. Carrillo through town toward the clinic, a generic-looking building with a red tile roof that if it had been a bit smaller could have passed for a fast-food restaurant.
Hector Carrillo and his passengers had beat them there. Ragnar, Colin, and Mr. Carrillo were already in the urgent care waiting room.
“My mother’s filling out the forms,” Colin said. “She knows all the information-the insurance and all that.”
“You have insurance?” Tyler wondered how people from the past could manage that without birth certificates or whatever normal folk had.
Colin gave him a look of contempt. “ Gideon does.”
Mr. Carrillo walked over. “Look, why don’t you children go out and see a little of the town. Jaime, go with them, will you? It’ll be dark soon-they have fireworks in the park. Carmen, you have your phone?”
“Got it, Papacito.”
“Good. Check back in with us in an hour or so.”
Ragnar walked to the door with them, bearded face very stern and serious. “Don’t worry, children. Gideon will be well again. I will make certain of that.” Tyler hoped for the doctors’ sakes that they didn’t make the big man angry.
They walked with Jaime back into the middle of town. Tyler had forgotten what it was like to see so many people, or at least to see so many people he didn’t know. Living on Ordinary Farm was a bit like living on a ship out on the ocean-in this case, an ocean of farmland. Every now and then you took a lifeboat into Standard Valley and drank a milkshake at the diner or met up with the Carrillos, but the rest of the time you saw nothing but the same people day after day. But here in Liberty, even thought the Fourth of July parade was over it still felt like a parade, this seemingly endless stream of faces-kids, grown-ups, old people, folks laughing and drinking and eating, people shouting greetings across the main street to neighbors and friends.
“Uncle Jaime,” said Alma, “take us to the North Pole! Please!”
“You just had dinner,” he said. “And dessert, too!”
“Please. I want Peppermint Bark!” she said, at which point Tyler realized they were talking about an ice cream store.
By the time they got to the park they were sucking the last of the melted ice cream through the bottoms of their sugar cones. Carmen phoned her father, who said that Gideon was doing much better, that he was making sense now even though he didn’t seem to remember anything from the last few days. Her father said the doctors were calling his condition “heat prostration.”
Tyler thought that was all well and good, but it didn’t really explain where the old man had been for almost a week.
It was nearly dark and people were still streaming into the park. Carmen, Alma and Steve went to get drinks. Uncle Jaime had bought himself a cup of beer and was sitting on the grass happily drinking it and talking to a woman he seemed to know. Lucinda leaned over to Tyler. “Look what Gideon was holding,” she said. She held out her hand. Tyler stared at the dark, fibrous strands, hard to make out in the fading light.
“What are they?”
“I don’t know. Some kind of plants, I think. He was hanging onto them like they meant something important.”
Tyler shrugged. “But what made him crazy? That’s the real question … ”
Lucinda wasn’t listening any more. She was staring over his shoulder, her eyes wide as the silver dollar on Uncle Jaime’s belt buckle. “Tyler! It’s him!”
“Who? What are you talking about?” He half-expected to see Gideon running toward them across the park grass, bathrobe flapping, pursued by doctors and nurses, but saw only an undifferentiated crowd of people loitering around the edge of the grass, waiting for the fireworks to begin. “I don’t see… ”
“There.” She leaned in close to him. “Don’t stare, don’t point. There, by the fountain. It’s that man Kingaree.”
Tyler had never seen him, of course, but Lucinda’s description of him as looking like a bad guy in a western movie had stuck in his mind, so he had no doubt which one she meant. The tall, thin man in the long black coat-a strange thing to be wearing in summer weather, even at night-was talking to a round-faced man in more modern clothing, a beige sports coat. Even as Tyler watched, the tall, dark man looked around as if concerned someone might be eavesdropping, then he grabbed the man in the sports coat by his elbow and marched him toward an open-sided gazebo in one corner of the park.
“They’re going to that building over there,” Tyler said, jumping to his feet. “Come on-we can go around and through the trees on the far side. We’ll be able to hear what they’re saying…!”
“What? Are you crazy?” Lucinda shrank away. “I’m not going near that guy…!”
“What if he’s the one who kidnapped Gideon? What if he’s looking for him now?” Tyler couldn’t believe his sister would go all girly on him at a time like this. “Come on!”
Even as he led her around the edge of the grass, past all the people sitting on blankets, staring up at the sky expectantly, she was still trying to talk him out of it. “What about Carmen and the others? What about Jaime? Shouldn’t we tell them…?”
“We’re only going to the other side of the park. Grow up, Luce!”
He hurried them through the trees and over a low picket fence until the gazebo stood only a couple of yards away. Lucinda looked absolutely miserable, so Tyler decided that he wouldn’t climb the tree after all, although it would have let him shinny out on a branch until he was right over the roof of the building. Instead he moved as close as he could while still being ready to run at a moment’s notice, until he could hear voices. He guessed that the high, slightly nervous tones belonged to the man in the beige coat.
“… Just don’t understand it, that’s all.”
“There is nothing to understand, Mr. Dankle.” That was Kingaree, Tyler had no doubt-a voice as menacing as a scorpion poised to sting. “I have given you good American money already. To earn the rest of it, you will come when you are called and do what you are told.”
“Of course, of course! Haven’t I helped you like I said I would?” The man was almost squeaking. “I just have to think about… I have my reputation… ”
“Listen to me, lawyer.” Kingaree’s sudden words were like the crack of a gunshot. “I have killed better men than you with my bare hands, so I would advise you not to make me angry. ”
It was dark now, but Tyler could see Lucinda’s pale face and staring eyes beside him. He prayed she didn’t lose her nerve and make some noise that would give them away.
“Remember,” Kingaree went on, “you are in this thing far too deep to start getting any pretty sensibilities now. When it is time I will come and call for you, and you had best be prepared to come with me. It will be at night. I suggest you keep your evenings free for the next few weeks.”
“What do you mean? When are you coming?”
“I do not know that, Mr. Dankle. But believe me, when the hour comes, you will be among the first to know. And you will do what you are told. Do you understand me? ”