I did as he asked. I guess I should have been expecting it, but suddenly I felt the snap of handcuffs on me. Chief Taylor leaned in close and whispered, “Heard you jumped my boy when he wasn’t looking.”

“You heard wrong,” I said. “He just got his butt kicked for picking on the wrong underclassman.”

Chief Taylor pulled on my arms a little too hard. Pain shot up my shoulders. He led me around front. I saw two cop cars. We started toward them. The back door opened. Chief Taylor put his hand on my head and pushed me in. I looked back at Bat Lady’s house, up at the window where the bedroom light still shone.

The curtain moved—and suddenly, Bat Lady’s face appeared.

I almost screamed out loud.

Somehow, even from this distance, even through the back window of the police cruiser, I could see that she was looking directly at me, directly into my eyes. Her mouth was moving. She kept saying the same thing over and over again, like a mantra. I watched her while Chief Taylor got in the front seat of the cruiser. Bat Lady kept mouthing the same words to me. I tried to make them out.

The car started up. We pulled away from the curb. Bat Lady’s mouthing got more urgent now, as if she was trying to reach me before I vanished from sight. And as she did, as she mouthed the two words yet again, I thought that maybe I had figured out those two words, the two words that Bat Lady was trying so desperately to tell me:

“Save Ashley.”

Chapter 15

MYRON GOT ME OUT.

I sat in a holding cell. The cop who unlocked the barred door looked sheepish, as if he couldn’t believe Chief Taylor had actually stuck me in there. Myron approached as though he wanted to hug me, but my body language must have warned him that it’d be the wrong move. He gave my shoulder a quick pat instead.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

Myron nodded. On our way out, Chief Taylor blocked our path. Myron sort of pushed me behind him, taking the lead. He and Taylor stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity. I remembered my last run-in with the police chief, at the Kents’ house: “Smart mouth. Just like your uncle.”

“Now that your nephew has an adult with him,” Taylor finally said, “I’d like to ask him some questions.”

“About what?” Myron asked.

I could not only see the dislike between the two men—I could actually feel it.

“There was a break-in at the Kent household. Your nephew was found in the immediate area of that crime. We want to ask him about that—as well as about tonight’s attempted break-in.”

“Break-in,” Myron repeated.

“Yes.”

“Where he knocked on a door and never even entered the residence.”

“I said attempted break-in. He was also trespassing.”

“No,” Myron said, “he wasn’t. He was knocking on a door.”

“Don’t tell me the law.”

Myron just shook his head and started for the door. Taylor got in his way again. “Where are you going? I thought I made it clear I wanted to ask your nephew some questions.”

“He isn’t talking to you.”

“Says who?”

“Says his attorney.”

Chief Taylor looked at Myron as if he were something that had just dropped out of a dog’s behind. “Oh, that’s right. After you blew your basketball career, you became a scumsucking lawyer.”

Myron just grinned at him. “We’ll be on our way.”

“That’s the way you’re going to play? Then I’m going to have to charge him. Maybe hold him overnight.”

Myron looked behind him. Two other cops stood in the doorway. They had their eyes downcast. This wasn’t the way they wanted to play this either.

“Go ahead,” Myron said. “You’ll get laughed out of court.”

“You really want to go that route?” Taylor asked.

No, I thought.

“What my nephew did isn’t a crime.” Myron moved a little closer to Chief Taylor. “You know what was a crime, though, Eddie?”

Chief Taylor—I guess his first name was Eddie—said nothing.

“That time you egged my house junior year,” Myron said. “Remember that, Eddie? The cops picked you up, but they didn’t haul your dumb ass into the station like this. They drove you home. Or that time Chief Davis caught you breaking beer bottles against the school. Big tough guy, breaking bottles, until Davis drove up. Remember how you cried like a baby—”

“Shut up!”

“—when he threatened to put you in the squad car?” Myron turned to me. “Mickey, did you cry?”

I shook my head.

“Well, Chief Taylor did. Like a three-year-old. Ah yes, I remember it like it was yesterday. You cried—”

Taylor was the red of a sports car. “Shut up!”

The other two cops were snickering.

“But even then Chief Davis just drove you home,” Myron went on. “He didn’t cuff you. He didn’t drag you in because he had an old beef with your uncle, which, really, is such a cowardly thing to do.”

Taylor caught his breath. “You think that’s what this is?”

Myron stepped closer. “I know that’s what this is.”

“Take a step back, Myron.”

“Or?”

“Do you want to make an enemy of the chief of police?”

“It seems,” Myron said, maneuvering me around Taylor and starting us for the exit, “I already have.”

We headed to the parking lot without speaking. When we got into the car, Myron said, “Did you do anything against the law?”

“No.”

“You asked me about Bat Lady’s house. Then you paid her a late-night visit.”

I didn’t reply.

“Anything you want to tell me about?” Myron asked.

I thought about it. “No, not right now.”

Myron nodded. “Okay then.”

That was all. He didn’t ask more questions. He started up the car, and we drove home in silence that was, for a change, somewhat comfortable.

That night, when the dream starts, my father is still alive.

He has a basketball in his hand and he’s smiling at me.

“Hey, Mickey.”

“Dad?”

He nods.

I feel such happiness, such hope. I am nearly crying with joy. I rush over to him, but suddenly he isn’t there anymore. He is behind me. I run after him again, and again he vanishes. I start to get it now. I start to get that this might be a dream and when I wake up, my father will be dead again. Panic takes hold. I move faster. I jump closer to him, and I manage to get my arms around him. I embrace him with everything I have, and for a moment, he feels so real that I think, no, wait, this is reality! He is alive! He never died!