Page 53 of The Executioners Three
“I am aware, Fred.” Ibrahim’s voice had taken on a familiar weariness that Freddie remembered from last summer. He was a great cop, but he had little patience for Freddie’s pestering. Then again, no one really had patience for her, and he was at least nicer about it than Knowles was, who always just rolled her eyes and said, “Can it, kid.”
Bowman, meanwhile, had a tendency to straight up ignore Freddie entirely.
“Are youreallyaware, Ibrahim?” Freddie tugged Xena’s strap over her neck. “You don’t seem very alarmed by this. There was a water bottle; now there isn’t. That seems like a good cause for general freakout.”
“Freddie,” Ibrahim warned. He leaned over the desk. “I know that look in your eyes. Don’t even think about going to search for it. Understand?”
Freddie sniffed. “Why do you think I would do that?”
“Because I know you.” He shook his head. “But those woods aren’t safe right now, yeah? First Mrs. Ferris got mauled by some wild animal, and now we’ve got another body—” He broke off, eyes widening. “I mean… Forget you heard that.”
Freddie would do no such thing. “Another body? Where? Who?” She planted both hands on the desk.“Tell me.”
Ibrahim only scoffed. “No way. I’m not allowed to talk about it, Fred, and let’s just say it’s bad. Like, really bad, okay? Bowman has even called in the feds.”
Freddie’s eyebrows leaped high. Fedsnevercame to Berm.
“The entire county park is now off-limits to the public, so promise me you’ll follow the rules. Can you do that?”
“I always follow the rules.”
Ibrahim’s eyes narrowed. “I mean it, Freddie. Danger aside, Bowman is not in a mood you want to cross right now.”
Freddie tensed.Thatwarning did give her pause. Not because she was afraid of Sheriff Bowman (although she was) but because Mrs. Ferris was Bowman’s mom, and having your mom unconscious in the hospital was a genuinely terrible thing for anyone to have to go through.
“Is Bowman here right now, actually? Maybe I can talk to her personally. About all of this.”
Ibrahim’s frown shifted from Freddie to the parking lot outside. “No, she’s not here. She was supposed to come a few hours ago, but she hasn’t turned up yet. Want me to leave her a message?”
“No.” Freddie smiled sweetly.
“In that case, follow the rules,” Ibrahim repeated. “Okay, Fred?”
“The truth is out there.” She turned to go.
“Wait,” Ibrahim called after her. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that!”
“Notice what?”
“You just quotedThe X-Filesat me instead of agreeing to follow the rules.”
“Oopsies!” She shimmied backward through the front door, baring her toothiest grin. She was so innocent a halo was probably floating over her head. “See you later, Ibrahim!”
“Freddie!”
She didn’t hear what else he had to say before she was outside and scampering for her bike.
12
Freddie had only ever entered the tiny Berm hospital twice in her life. Once on the day of her birth. And second, on the day her father had died.
She’d been five years old when Frank had passed away, but the beige linoleum floors and smell of rubbing alcohol had been forever branded into her brain. She remembered her mother’s swollen eyes, and how Mom had hugged Freddie so tightly that Freddie had thought her ribs might break. She remembered Steve’s pinched lips, and how he’d let Freddie have an entire Milky Way all to herself.
Above all, Freddie remembered the way the door into her father’s room had loomed before her. Room 27 with the silver knob at Freddie’s eye level. It had opened only twice the entire time she was there. She had never been allowed through.
She never got to say goodbye to Frank Carter.
They told her it was because it was too awful for a five-year-old to see, and she hadn’t argued. The blanched faces on the doctors, the way they had rushed in and out with scrubs and scowls and blood all over…
