Sketchy Behavior (18 page)

I
COULD ONLY ASSUME THAT MY CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
had shut down, because for some reason I was very calm right then. The man I’d been having nightmares about for weeks was standing right in front of me closing Detective Masterson’s phone and smiling smugly.

And I just sat there. I didn’t scream. I didn’t faint.

I didn’t even twitch.

DJ, meanwhile, was continuing to pound on the door, the window, the siding on the house, yelling at the top of his lungs. “Kate! Kate!”

John X ignored him. Instead, he pulled out the chair to my right and sat down at the table with me, pushing the detective’s cell phone to the other side of it.

“So, Kate Carter,” he said.

His voice was different than I’d imagined it. It wasn’t scarily deep. It was cultured, almost. Precise.

I just looked at him. He was, all things considered, a very nice-looking man. A strong jawline, high cheekbones. And unlike the thin-lipped, beady-eyed crooks like I’d always imagined, John X actually had a nice smile and really pretty brown eyes. He wasn’t too tall and he wasn’t too short. And he was dressed fairly stylishly — straight-cut jeans, a collared Polo shirt.

No wonder he’d targeted women. It was difficult to think of the
man in front of me committing a moving traffic violation, much less murder.

I didn’t say anything.

He knit his fingers together on the table and looked over at me. “So, you’ve made things a little difficult for me lately,” he said.

I kept thinking about the panic buttons Detective Masterson had told me about. If only I could get up nonchalantly and push one of the buttons.

“KATE!” DJ yelled.

John X sighed and looked out the window. “Your friend is a slow learner.”

“Apparently, he’s your friend too,” I said quietly, surprising myself with the sound of my voice.

John X’s mouth curled in a small smile. “Is that what your friendly deputy just told you?”

I shrugged but inside I was worried. If he knew I was talking to Deputy Slalom, then he knew that it was only a matter of time before the FBI got here.

So why was he just sitting at the dining room table with me? Why hadn’t he killed me and moved on before he got caught again?

Four and a half minutes, that’s what Detective Masterson had told me. It would take the FBI four and a half minutes to get here.

It had been two since I’d talked to the deputy and he’d said they were on their way.

“You’re quite young,” John X said, looking at me, sounding almost surprised. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“I knew you were still in high school, but I wasn’t expecting … well, when does life really go by your expectations, though, right?” He sat up straighter. “Such a shame. I bet you were going to be the shining star of the South Woodhaven Falls police force, hmm?”

My nerves were back at his use of the past tense in referring to me. I clasped my hands together to keep from shaking. I kept
thinking about the Psalm I read last night. The “they” who had no reason to fear.

I had reason to fear.

It had been three minutes. I only needed another minute and a half.

I sat quietly and he watched me, leaning back in his chair. The only sound was DJ’s occasional yell.

“How come you aren’t letting him in?” I asked finally.

“How come you aren’t?” he asked me.

“Because I heard he was with you.”

“Interesting,” John X said, rubbing his chin. “Because I’ve been hearing different reports about little Darren there.” He looked over at DJ, who was staring through the window, visibly seething. “Consciences can be deadly things.”

I frowned. “So DJ didn’t help you kill the first lady?”

John X snapped his gaze back to me. “Oh, no. He did. He just didn’t adapt as well to life after the murder. Some people just can’t face who they really are, you know?”

Dad had told me that exact phrase once during one of his infamous Kate-should-become-an-engineer talks. I’d made a comment that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an engineer and Dad had only said, “Well. Some people can’t face who they really are until college. You’ll get there, Kate. You’ll get there.”

Detective Masterson believed in a whole “plan” type of life where everything was God’s plan.

Was this God’s plan? Me accidentally drawing a murderer and soon becoming his next victim? And who knew what had happened to the detective or my parents, for that matter.

I looked down at the orange linoleum and squeezed my eyes shut.

God. If You’re there
,
please help me.

It was probably the shortest prayer ever prayed, but I didn’t have a lot of time.

John X was looking at me again, head slightly tipped, eyes thoughtful. “So, Kate Carter, what should we do now?”

I shrugged. “You could let me go.” It was worth a shot.

“Ah. See, I could. And I probably should. But you know I can’t do that,” he said, smoothly.

I nodded, my heart pounding. It had been five and a half minutes.

Where was the FBI?

DJ had stopped pounding on the door. He just stared at us through the window.

John X sighed. “Well, now, Kate Carter, I probably should do what I came here to do,” he said.

Apparently, John X liked both my first and last name.

I looked at him and then back at the window. DJ was gone and I felt a mix of relief and panic. On the one hand, if he was working with John X, then I was glad he’d left.

On the other hand, now it was just the two of us.

And John X was pulling a small black gun from his pocket. He set it on the table between us and sighed again. “Such a waste of talent,” he muttered. He looked over at me. “I hope you realize that I hate to do this.”

I swallowed hard. I wasn’t ready to die. I didn’t know what came next. Heaven? A weird mix of memories? Eternal napping?

I heard tires crunch on the driveway right then. John X looked out the front window and frowned. “Hmm,” he said.

I don’t know what came over me. I grabbed the gun from the table and bolted for the front door. I had just gotten the top lock open when John X tackled me from behind. I fell forward, clutching the gun to my chest and hitting my head hard on the front door.

People were yelling outside, “FBI! FBI!”

My head was ringing. I’d fallen on my knees right in front of the door. I reached up to unlock the second lock.

I heard the snap almost before I felt it. John X had hit my left wrist so hard, he’d broken it. I started crying in pain.

The door in front of me blistered right as the windows shattered, but didn’t break. They were bulletproof, after all. I screamed.

I scooted to the wall by the door, still holding the gun in an iron grip with my right hand. John X was kneeling right in front of me, pulling his fist back, shaking his head, aiming for my face.

“Stop right there.”

John X froze.

My dad stood there behind him, 9mm trained directly on John X’s head, his legs spread in a shooting stance. He didn’t even look at me, he just kept both hands on the gun and both eyes on John X.

“Hands on your head. Now.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, John X lifted both hands and put them on his head, falling cross-legged to the floor.

The front door busted open and suddenly the place was swarming with men with guns. Dad didn’t move. John X didn’t move.

And I sure didn’t move because the two of them were trapping me against the wall.

One of the men pulled a set of handcuffs from his back pocket and wrapped them around John X’s wrists, yanking him up and pushing him outside. “You know what?” he was saying as he escorted John X out. “I’m not even going to read you the Miranda warning. I’m going to let you tell it since you know it so well.”

“Kate,” Dad said, dropping to his knees in front of me. “Oh, Katie.” He gripped me in a short hug and then stood. “I need a doctor!” he yelled, looking at my quickly swelling and bruising wrist.

I still had John X’s gun in an iron grip against my chest. “DJ,” I muttered, tears still streaming down my face.

Dad nodded. “They arrested him before they broke in,” he said.

I blinked and looked up at him. “How did you —?” As far as I knew, there was only one way into the house and one way out. And the front door was it.

Dad shrugged. “I shattered the back window when they were making all the commotion in here.”

“It was bulletproof,” I said.

“You can only make glass bulletproof to a certain extent, Kate.” The engineer in my dad was taking over. “I shot three holes in it and then used the tire iron from Kent’s car to break it the rest of the way. See, bulletproof glass works because it has several layers and the layers absorb the bullet so it doesn’t pierce all the way through. But it does damage the rest of the glass, because —”

I shook my head and interrupted, because quite frankly, at that moment, I didn’t care. “Mom? Detective Masterson?”

“Both fine. DJ knocked Kent out and locked him in the shed before he tried to come get you. I guess he was planning on taking you away from here to keep John X from finding you.” Dad was shaking his head.

Mom ran into the house then, panicking. “Kate! Kate!” she screamed, dropping to the floor beside me. “Are you okay? You’re alive! Where’s the doctor? Where’s an ambulance?” She grabbed my face in both hands. “Don’t worry, Kate, we’re getting you into intense psychotherapy when we leave here!”

I was worried about that. Actually, no I wasn’t.

I just smiled at my parents and sniffled back the tears. “Let’s go home.”

TWO WEEKS LATER

T
HE BELL WAS RINGING AND I LAID MY MATH HOMEWORK
on my teacher’s desk. “Don’t forget about the pop quiz Monday!” he yelled over the bell as we left.

Yay.

It was the last class of the day and I was officially done with school for the week. In three weeks, I was going to be officially done with school for the entire summer. I stopped by my locker to grab my other books.

“Hey.”

I looked over. Justin.

“Hey,” I said, closing my locker and stuffing the extra books into my backpack.

“Are you coming to church on Sunday?” he asked.

I nodded. “Pretty sure.” We’d been last Sunday. We again went to the late service and missed out on hearing the multicolored choir and the amen-ers, but I did meet a few more people from school, and now they waved and stopped to talk to me in between classes.

I had more friends than just Maddy. My mom was thrilled.

She hadn’t made me go to psychotherapy, but she did ask me to let her know anytime I started thinking about what happened at the little house in the woods.

And she started reading through Luke with me.

So far, this guy named Jesus had made some pretty huge claims about himself. I was curious if they were going to hold true. I couldn’t really understand why God had answered my prayer at the house, but he had and I was willing to learn more about him.

Justin nodded. “Want to come study with me?”

I shrugged on my ridiculously heavy backpack, sighing. “I can’t. I’ve got work.”

“Oh. Okay.”

He actually looked kind of sad.

“I can come tomorrow though,” I said.

He grinned at me. “Sounds good. See you tomorrow, Kate.”

And then he winked at me before he left.

My stomach twisted slightly, and I cleared my throat. There was no time to think about Justin right now. I was already late.

I ran for my car and tossed my backpack into the passenger seat. We’d gotten a huge check as reward money for finding John X, and Dad had used it to upgrade my car. “I guess it’s fine for you to drive something a little newer,” he’d said grudgingly one day when I got home from school. A two-year-old Jeep Wrangler sat in the garage.

Now I couldn’t help grinning as I drove to work. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. I had the windows down and the breeze was rifling through my hair.

I pulled into a parking place and walked inside, waving at the front-door secretary.

“They’re waiting for you in the conference room,” she said, smiling at me.

I opened the door and Detective Masterson and Deputy Slalom
were both sitting in the conference room. Detective Masterson stood and smiled shortly at me.

“Hi, Kate. How was school?”

“Fine. I actually —”

Deputy Slalom cut in then, stripping off his sports coat and rolling up his sleeves. “That’s great, Kate, but we don’t have time for pleasantries today. We’ve got a new witness for you, and this case is a doozy. Started in Arkansas and now this creep is moving north.”

I sat down at the table, took a deep breath, smiled at Detective Masterson, and nodded at Deputy Slalom.

It was going to be a great summer.

Normal.

1. From the beginning, Maddy and Tyler have a dramatic relationship. And according to Kate, Tyler is a jerk. Why do you think Maddy and Tyler keep getting back together?

2. Kate’s entry into forensic sketching is a little … sketchy. If you were Kate, how would you have reacted to the news that your art teacher had you draw a wanted criminal and the police knew about it? Do you think Miss Yeager and Detective Masterson’s idea was worth the risk? Why?

3. Kate’s brother, Mike, is never around. In fact, except for the time Kate’s “big arrest” was on the radio, he never calls to find out how his sister is doing. How did this affect your opinion of Mike? Do you think he was aware of everything that was happening in South Woodhaven Falls?

4. Kate has a dating incident that will not be spoken about, ever. What do you think that event could be?

5. Even though she’s in a lot of danger, Kate handles her sudden fame and her fear of John X with humor. If you were her, how would you have reacted? Do you think her humor in this situation is a coping mechanism, or is it just who she is? Why?

6. When Kate decides to grab her sunglasses during the parade, it ends up saving her life. Do you think that was more than a coincidence? What moments throughout the book seemed like coincidences at the time, but wound up becoming very important later?

7. Throughout the book DJ is a major person in Kate’s life, living at her house as a bodyguard and interacting with her and her family in an almost brotherly way. Based on his characterization, did his past come as a shock to you? Why do you
think DJ was involved with the case and showed up at the FBI hideout? What do you think will happen to DJ?

8. Kate’s mom decides that the family needs to attend church because “we need all the help we can get right now” (p. 60). What do you think of her mom’s thought process? Do you know anyone who thinks the same way? What would you say to them?

9. In your opinion, why does Kate take the summer forensic sketching job after everything that happened with John X? Would you want Kate’s job? Why or why not?

10. What do you think will happen between No-Longer-Silent Justin and Kate? What would you
like
to happen?