in between the two girls they punched him in the shoulder in unison It was only after they had left with McRae assuring assuring Detective Hermann that they would call him before they did anything at all suspicious or even slightly dangerous that Detective Hermann turned to Michelle with a sigh Really he asked I can go if you don’t want to Michelle said Or we can send Forrest he has a romantic streak and he might enjoy looking for a lost treasure ship Hermann glanced pointedly at Forrest who was happily charming a description of a boat that might possibly match the key out of one of the same receptionists receptionists who had hung up on Michelle for wasting his time Though it looks like he’s doing good work here Michelle said then added in a disgruntled disgruntled undertone and mostly to herself I come across as a little harsh on the phone Later she would learn that at that point Detective Hermann was manfully restraining 10
himself from mentioning that Father Michaels had described her as a woman with a voice admirably suited to yelling through a bullhorn who incidentally incidentally has a missing eye that makes her steely glare all the more impressive before he’d even met her Instead the detective simply gave Michelle a slight smile and reassured her that he really had no objection objection to shadowing the treasure hunting and keeping an eye out for Willis Griffin They reconvened at Carrie’s house for the simple reasons that her living room was bigger than Chris’s and Maddison’s and both her parents were at work Although Carrie did call and tell them she was having some friends over and even put Dr McRae on the phone to reassure her mom And anyway it was nearly noon since they’d been stuck at the police station for some time while Agent Grey looked as though she was getting a 11
migraine and they were hungry Carrie’s dad had just been complaining the other day about needing needing to get rid of leftovers so in Chris’s mind it was perfect they could do Carrie’s dad a favor True Chris didn’t think he really meant that he wanted a television star to finish off the ham but he also hadn’t said that he didn’t so At that point Carrie cut him off by whacking him over the head with the rye bread This effectively effectively ended Chris’s guilt-trip plus it squashed half a loaf of rye which wasn’t even supposed to be out of the refrigerator Carrie and Dr McRae were making everyone a ham sandwich apiece and nobody in their right mind put ham on rye I like ham on rye Redd offered leaning against the kitchen counter and nibbling on a carrot Chris was not at all sure where he’d found the carrot and very sure he didn’t want to know Dr McRae thought Redd had terrible taste and when Redd pressed the issue McRae started making threatening gestures with the plastic deli bag 12
containing the sliced ham Chris decided that retreat was in order and took himself out of the kitchen to go spread Carrie’s notes on the location of the San Telmo across the living room coffee table Professor Griffin had to Chris and Carrie’s absolute bewilderment returned all of Carrie’s books to the public library sometime after he threw her overboard all the books plus all of Carrie’s notebooks still in the book bag she’d originally packed them in Chris did not see why the professor couldn’t have done the same for his backpack he’d been quite fond of that shirt with the purple turtles turtles for one thing but finding Carrie’s books and notebooks had been an unexpected piece of luck nonetheless All of Carrie’s research had been in that book bag and if the professor had thought to look through Carrie’s notes he might not have been so confused about where the San Telmo lay hidden a location that the fragment of journal they’d just found only seemed to back up Against the high cliffs where the mussels grow so thickly didn’t have 13
