Page 34 of Be A Detective, They Said. It’ll Be Fun, They Said

Chapter Twelve

We’d spent half the night talking to the parents of the missing children, all with the same frustrating story, all tired and overwhelmed with unbearable sorrow—and none of them aware Neerie even existed. Each child had disappeared without a trace, no scent of a perpetrator, no suspicious people, and no leads.

But aside from their children being geniuses, they had only one other thing in common—missing school supplies. In the case of Tina in California, it was some iPads and crayons. Lori in South Carolina, bottles of bleach, drawing paper and reusable straws.

And according to the school secretaries from each school, they hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to the missing items until after the children were gone.

Marty put her hand on my back. “Wanda, you’re exhausted. You’ve been up since five this morning. Maybe a quick catnap is in order before we go to the school to talk with Agnew and Cooper?”

We’d asked Cooper and Agnew to take a moment to meet us at the school, even though it was a Sunday.

I scrubbed my weary eyes, letting my head rest in the cradle of my arms. “No more than you. I’ll be fine. I can’t close my eyes without hearing that child calling for help anyway.” Yawning, I asked, “Did you talk to Naida about the missing supplies?”

“I did, and as per usual, Neerie never said anything about school supplies gone missing, or aliens, for that matter. I think Neerie kept things close to her vest because Naida was always calling her crazy.”

“Crazy like a fox,” I muttered. “I don’t think she was all that crazy, Marty. I think the missing children, the school supplies, this alien, and Neerie’s disappearance are all connected. I feel it.”

Nina rolled up behind me in her office chair and put her chin on my shoulder. “Then let’s figure out how the fuck this is all connected. I say we go talk to Agnew and Cooper and see if they’ve seen any aliens as of late.”

“I say yes, but let’s grab something to-go for breakfast first, okay? Maybe stop at Susie’s for a steak-and-egg sandwich? Agnew and Cooper won’t be there until eight, right? And you need to fuel up for energy,” Marty suggested with a smile.

Despite the fact that we’d been up late into the night, she looked fresh as a daisy dressed in bellbottom jeans and a belted sweater, her hair in a messy bun with big gold hoop earrings.

I, on the other hand, was a rumpled mess. Under any other circumstance, I would insist on a freshly ironed top, but I was too tired to care.

Still, my stomach grumbled at the suggestion. “That sounds delightfully yummy. Let’s do it.”

On the ride over, I requested quiet so I could gather my thoughts and clear my brain’s cobwebs.

If someone at those schools was snatching children and the missing school supplies were connected, how were they connected? Was the kidnapper supplying kids with crayons and bleach? Why was someone kidnapping children, anyway? Genius children, no less.

Supplies. Supplies. Supplies. That word was driving me out of my mind.

“I have to go back to the supply closet,” I said out loud, before I could catch myself.

“Um, no,” Nina said, that authoritarian tone in her voice. “We don’t know why the fuck you disappeared after you went into the supply closet.”

“Well, if the supply closet is the key, we can’t let anyone else go in there.”

“Wanda, we talked about this last night. What if you get back to wherever you went and can’t get back here?”

I looked out the window as we pulled into a parking space in town, the slushy snow growling beneath the tires of the SUV. “It’s not like the door to Narnia, Marty.”

She turned in the passenger seat, her eyes angry. “You know what? You don’t know that! Bigfoot is real, Wanda! Aliens might be real! Who’s to say there isn’t a door to Narnia? Did you just fall off the turnip truck? Are you just now joining us in the year of our Lord 2025? We’ve been to Hell, Wanda. Hell!” she bellowed in my face. “What in all of what makes you think the supply closet couldn’t lead to Narnia? Or wherever? You absolutely are not going in there again!”

Nina gripped Mary’s shoulder. “Marty, easy does it, Blondie. I won’t let her go back there alone, okay? We’re all tired. We’re all stressed because this involves kids, but yelling at each other isn’t going to do shit. Everybody take a beat and everyone who can breathe, take a breath.”

I blinked. “Was that Nina being the voice of reason?” I craned my neck to look out the window, cocking my ear. “Is that the sound of hooves? Could it be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse here to end our misery at long last?”

Marty began to giggle. “You joke, but they’re probably real, too.”

“Shut the fuck up, Wanda. Somebody has to keep you two hysterical hens from pecking each other to death. I talked to Principal Mathers this morning. I put on my best manners and told her no one was to go into that supply closet until we could figure out what the hell’s going on. I even suggested she cancel school tomorrow as a just in case. She didn’t love that idea, but ask me if I give a ripe shit. So no one’s going in the closet for now, okay? We go in together or we don’t go in at all.”

Marty’s lips mirrored mine. Thinning and angry.

“Oh, knock it off, you two, and make nice. Neither one of you would survive a trip to the damn discount outlet without the other. Quit freaking out and go get something to eat. That always soothes your savage beasts.”

When we both stubbornly remained silent and seated, she growled, her eyes narrowing at us both. “Get the fuck out of this damn car and go get the food I can’t even eat. I’ll wait here to savor the fucking smells of a bacon, egg and cheese I’ll never be able to have again. Now git!”

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