found She gave Carrie a look and Carrie clapped both hands over her mouth in horror as she realized what she meant that Harvey Tanner had called her parents But aside from a sobbing confession and repeated insistence that he didn’t mean to do it we haven’t been able to get anything else out of him Figuring out where he parted with Griffin and where Griffin is now will take us a while and in the meantime meantime you should probably have a police escort Agent Grey means all of you Detective Hermann said raising his voice so that Agent Holland stopped talking quietly with Dr McRae and turned towards Detective Hermann Yes especially the people who have unpleasant history with Griffin Agent Grey agreed giving Dr McRae a significant look I can’t force you to accept Detective Hermann added Especially not when we have no real proof you’re going to be in danger but I don’t like the way you’ve been targeted Dr McRae looked uncertainly at his wife 10
I especially don’t like the way you seem to attract trouble the detective added and actually smiled at the way Maddison’s mom stomped on her husband’s foot when he did Ow I assure you Detective Dr McRae said hopping a little on one foot no member of the McRae family will be doing any funny business especially since you’ve got an equally good reason to put cars outside the Kingsolver residences That’ll cut down on Maddison’s reason for wandering Oh no Chris thought Parents Everything had happened so fast that he hadn’t had a chance to worry about how his parents were going to react to Chris and his cousin falling overboard or the fact that it was Professor Griffin’s fault Chris got Detective Hermann as his police escort Detective Hermann also brought along an Officer Carson who was going to be watching the house if 11
the Kingsolvers agreed to it but Chris got the police detective instead of the FBI agents because Harvey had not called his parents in a panic and confessed to throwing Chris and Carrie overboard Which wasn’t even what had happened Nobody had thrown Chris overboard at all he’d jumped in himself himself which was maybe not a useful clarification Agents Grey and Holland had volunteered to take Carrie home because we’ve handled these kinds of scenes before according to Agent Grey So all things considered it was a little insulting when the first word out of his mom’s mouth when she opened the door to find Chris on the doorstep with a police escort was Oh Lord what did he do Significantly more alarming was the fact that Officer Carson replied with complete honesty Almost drowned ma’am because then his mom actually did not panic exactly she could see that Chris was all right so she wasn’t about to go into hysterics hysterics but she did drag Chris into a hug Detective Hermann rubbed his temples and grimaced 12
What was Willis doing while this was going on Chris’s mom demanded looking Detective Hermann in the eye and proving that things were actually capable of getting even more awkward Chris bit his lip There was no good way to fill his mom in So remember how Aunt Elsie died last month Well about that No Just simply no Even Chris knew that that was a terrible idea Willis Griffin is currently under investigation Detective Hermann said firmly He has also gone missing so for the foreseeable future Officer Carson here is going to be watching your house Oh-kay Chris’s mom said And is he watching the house to keep us safe from whatever happened to Willis or to keep us safe from Willis Detective Hermann sighed Professor Griffin got a fake grad student to push Carrie off the boat Chris said to his toes Ringing silence followed his pronouncement and Chris finally looked up to discover that Detective 13
