“How awful,” Ashley said.

  Some people say everything happens for a reason. Like maybe Leigh flunked her driver’s test because God knew she would plunge off a cliff the next day if she was driving. But if that was true, why didn’t God do something to keep my dad from getting on his plane the day he died?

  Randy drove up and got out with a bouquet of flowers.

  “Might want to hold off on those,” Sam said.

  Chapter 45

  Mom had balloons and a congratulations banner strung across the dining-room entry, not to mention a cake in the shape of a car. Bryce whispered, “Good thing Mom didn’t make it in the shape of a mailbox or you-know-who would have smashed it by now.”

  Mom told Randy that Leigh was too upset to talk and that she would call him later. Randy said he understood and gave Mom the flowers, which was nice. Maybe I’d tell that to the judge if Randy went to trial.

  “You can tell her I didn’t pass my first test,” Randy said. “I don’t think she knows that.”

  “I will,” Mom said, smiling.

  I followed Mom upstairs and stood outside Leigh’s door. It was open a crack so I could hear.

  “I don’t really care about the stupid license,” she sobbed. “It’s just that . . .”

  “What?” Mom said.

  Leigh groaned. “It’s times like this that I miss Mom the most. Not that you’re not doing a good job—”

  “I understand,” Mom said.

  “I just wish she hadn’t gotten on that plane. She said she’d always be there for me, and now she’s not.”

  That was how I felt about my dad. Sam was nice, but he wasn’t my real dad. A tear trickled down my cheek as I listened. Then I went to my room.

  I wished I could say something to Leigh that would convince her that God was real, he cared about how much she hurt, and he wanted her to know him. But she seemed so closed to God, the Bible, and everything I believed.

  There were times when I’d be sitting in church, listening to what the pastor or somebody else said, and I’d think, “I wish Leigh could hear this right now.”

  But the more I prayed that God would break through, the less Leigh seemed to be interested.

  I try to have some sort of devotional each day, whether from a book or reading the Bible. The reading from my devotional that day was from Ephesians, chapter 5. “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”

  I pulled out my diary and wrote:

  God, other than praying for Leigh, I’m not sure there’s anything I can say that will help change her. I want to live a life of love for her and show her that you change people. Open her eyes and help me to be a good example for her, even when she really ticks me off.

  Chapter 46

  As soon as the sun went down it got cold. I was glad Ashley and I were in the truck camper and not in a tent. There are no lights on our country road. Just the stars and the moon.

  The batteries in my walkie-talkie were weak, but I figured there was enough juice to reach the house if I had to.

  “What are you going to do with the picture of that girl if Mr. Cheplosa can age it?” I said.

  Ashley peered into the darkness with the night-vision scope. “Maybe send it to the newspaper, make some flyers, stuff like that. There’s got to be a way to find her.”

  “And you think the girl is alive?”

  She shrugged. “All I know is that that open window bothers me. And it makes no sense that there wouldn’t be something left of the baby, even if she was burned. Those TV shows find DNA left over at every crime scene. Why not this one?”

  “The firefighters and the cops investigated, Ash. They’re probably right.”

  “Probably. But it won’t hurt to ask questions.”

  Chapter 47

  I finally got into a comfortable position in the back of the truck. We had two air mattresses smushed up against the side. We finally moved them so I could lean against the wheel well and still see outside.

  We played war for an hour with Bryce’s glow-in-the-dark cards. Bryce really gets into it, and it makes me laugh when I win.

  In the middle of a game, he said, “Do you think Dad can see us from heaven?”

  Interesting question when you’re playing war. “I don’t know. Why?”

  “Some say dead people become angels and watch over them. I like to think Dad can see us and even help us.”

  “You know people don’t become angels,” I said. “People are people and angels are angels. They don’t switch when they die. And angels don’t die anyway.”

  “I know, but if Dad can’t see us, he’s going to miss us growing up and graduating and stuff like that. I bet he’d love watching us ride our ATVs.”

  I had thought a lot about Dad being able to see us. Especially when I cried myself to sleep at night. Sometimes I’d imagine his voice, reading to me before I went to sleep. The first months after he died I could see him sitting there, rubbing my back with one hand as he held the book in the other. Now I had to look at his picture on my nightstand just to remember his face.

  “Dad probably sees a lot more than we think,” I said.

  Bryce sat up. He looked like something had just stung him. “God knows everything, right?”

  “If he doesn’t, we’re in big trouble.”

  “He must know if this girl is alive, and if she is, where she is.”

  “Yeah. ’Course.”

  “Let’s ask him to help us find her.”

  Now I sat up. “Or give us a sign in case she’s already in heaven.”

  Bryce nodded.

  “You go first,” I said.

  “Okay.” Bryce closed his eyes. “Dear God, Ash and I need your help again. Thanks for answering our prayers about Boo Heckler and my math test the other day. But now we need to know about a little girl named . . .”

  “Danielle.”

  “. . . Yeah. We don’t even know if she’s alive, or if her mom is just hoping, but if she is alive, could you help us find her?”

  It was my turn. I prayed that Mr. Cheplosa would be there Monday and “that you’d help us use the picture to find her if she’s alive.”

  An engine revved and tires crunched gravel. I opened my eyes to two headlights shining into the back of the truck.

  Chapter 48

  Ashley and I ducked and stayed down. I thought we’d been spotted, but whoever it was kept coming slowly. Finally the vehicle turned into our driveway, and its lights went out.

  “Who is it?” Ashley whispered.

  “How should I know?” My heart pounded as a door opened, then closed.

  Through the night-shot feature on my video camera I saw someone walk toward the house carrying something. I hit the Record button, thinking maybe the vandals were getting braver.

  I scanned the back of the truck to look at the license plate, but it was parked sideways. The night shot made everything look green, so I couldn’t even tell the color of the truck. It looked just as beat-up as Randy’s though.

  Ashley grabbed the walkie-talkie.

  “Wait,” I said. “Someone’s on the porch, putting something by the door.”

  “What if it’s a bomb?” Ashley said. She keyed the mike. “Sam, can you hear me?” Pause. “Sam, are you there?”

  No response. C’mon, Sam!

  “It’s Randy,” I said, straining to see his lanky body trudging back to the truck empty-handed.

  “You sure?” Ashley said. “What’s he doing here?”

  “Maybe he came back to smash more than just our mailbox,” I said.

  When Randy neared his truck, Ashley keyed the mike again. “Sam, it’s okay. Randy just left something. Probably for Leigh. Do you copy?”

  I grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Batteries are shot. You want to go inside?”

  “No, do you?”

  I shook my head.

  As Randy pulled away, Ashley said, “Come on, let’s see what it is.”

  Chapter 49

  The grass was wet on my socks as Bryce and I stole back to the house. Pippin and Frodo growled from inside, and we shushed them.

  A basket covered in plastic sat near the door. Inside was fruit, a small pack of homemade brownies, a box of chocolates, and other candy. A card with Leigh written on the envelope was taped to the plastic.

  “Should we open it?” Bryce said.

  I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know anything about love.”

  After we raced back to the truck, I was so tired I went to sleep. I woke up cold, and it was still pitch-black outside.

  Bryce was staring out at the road. “I can’t believe Randy didn’t come back to smash our mailbox.”

  “You can’t be sure Randy’s involved in that.” I yawned.

  “All the clues point to him,” Bryce said, putting his video camera away. “Plus, it would look suspicious if every mailbox on our road was smashed except ours.”

  “Maybe we’ll catch him tomorrow night,” I said.

  Chapter 50

  I woke Ashley at sunup, and we went in to our own beds. I got up a couple of hours later, just as Leigh was coming down the stairs. I wanted to tell her I was sorry about the driving test, sorry about the dog, sorry I hadn’t been a better brother, but all I said was, “Randy brought you something last night.”

  She stared at me. “Were you spying on him?”

  “No, we just happened to see him.”

  Leigh rolled her eyes. I guess lots of big sisters do that to little brothers, but it makes me want to put slimy things in her bed. “What is it?” she said, hustling down the stairs.

  Leigh rushed to the dining-room table to look at her basket. Mom was on the phone, but she smiled at Leigh. I could tell something had changed between them. Something good.

  Mom turned back to the phone. “Ashley just doesn’t seem herself. She’s tired and irritable.” I realized Mom was talking to the doctor. “I haven’t heard anything from her teachers, but I can check. . . .”

  Mom made an appointment to take Ashley back in the next week, and I had a sinking feeling that more was going on than I wanted to know.

  Chapter 51

  I usually went two or three months between doctor’s visits. Mom hugged me, kissed me on top of the head, and said everything was going to be all right, but I wasn’t convinced.

  Bryce got invited to a sleepover, so I called Hayley and asked if she wanted to camp out with me that night. Maybe I could get her to go to church with me in the morning.

  As soon as Hayley arrived that evening, I grabbed some drinks and she pulled a bag of popcorn from the microwave. Then we headed for the truck. We also took a portable TV with a DVD player that hooks into the cigarette lighter, so we settled into our sleeping bags and started watching the second Lord of the Rings movie. When it got scary, I brought Pippin and Frodo out to sleep with us. It was hard to keep them away from the popcorn.

  The truck battery must have gotten low because a bunch of squiggly lines appeared on the TV and Gollum looked like he had five legs instead of two. Finally the thing quit on us, so we just talked. Hayley brought up Duncan Swift and said she knew I liked him.

  “He doesn’t even know I exist. He probably likes you. The only boy I know who likes me is Skeeter Messler, and I wish he didn’t.”

  She asked about my doctor’s visits. I told her I was nervous because they’d asked me to come back in so soon, but I added, “I’m just really trying to trust God about it.”

  “I wish I could believe as strongly as you do. Sometimes I don’t even know if I believe God’s up there, with all the bad stuff that happens.”

  “The more bad stuff that happens, the more sure I am that he’s there,” I said. “Sometimes he’s the only thing we can really hold on to.”

  “What’s he like? I mean, what do you think he’s like?”

  I remembered the scene in Anne of Green Gables when Marilla asks Anne if she knows who God is. Anne says, “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” But I knew Hayley didn’t need to hear that. What would she think?

  Before I could come up with a good answer, Hayley said, “I’m scared about dying and not knowing what happens afterward. Do you ever get scared of that?”

  I nodded. “You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. But that’s one of the best things about Jesus. . . .” As soon as that one name came out of my mouth, the whole mood changed. It was like abracadabra to a magician. I mentioned Jesus, and it was as if someone pulled the clouded-eye bunny out of Hayley’s hat. I tried to tell her that Jesus took away the fear of death because we could be sure of going to heaven, but it was obvious she had stopped listening.

  She said she was tired and turned over in her sleeping bag, her back to me.

  I prayed silently that God would help me say something that would grab Hayley’s attention.

  Chapter 52

  Kael’s parents have a small house with only three bedrooms, but downstairs they have a pool table, air hockey, and a big-screen TV. We put down our sleeping bags and started to play pool.

  “I get the winner,” Duncan said as he ran down the stairs. I didn’t even know he was coming, but it was okay.

  We played cutthroat pool and a couple of other games before Kael’s mom took us to the video store and to pick up some pizza.

  We wandered the aisles looking at movies. One person would suggest a video, and the other two would shoot it down as lame or too much of a girl movie.

  We had moved to the action/adventure section when Kael pecked me on the shoulder and pointed. “Isn’t that your sister?”

  Leigh stood outside with Randy, talking to a police officer on the sidewalk. The officer pointed to Randy’s truck, and Randy said something. Finally the officer walked away, and Randy and Leigh came inside the store.

  Leigh looked surprised—and I think disappointed—to see me. I waved, and Randy smiled that what-are-you-doing-here-little-kid? smile. I told them I was here to find a movie, and they went to the comedy section.

  On the way back to Kael’s, Duncan said, “What did that cop want with your sister and her boyfriend?”

  I shrugged. But of course I knew.

  Chapter 53

  I woke up groggy with something crawling over me. It was Frodo, and his little claws sank into my skin. I yelled for him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I grabbed him, and he was shaking all over. I could feel his little heart beating through his rib cage. Pippin whined at the back of the truck, pressing against the window.

  “What is it, boy?” I said.

  Hayley was still sound asleep, and it was dark outside.

  Then I heard it.

  The rev of an engine. Headlights flashed along the side of the truck camper. I fumbled in the dark for Bryce’s camera.

  The vehicle sped up and seemed to be heading right for us. The lights got brighter and brighter, and I saw the reflection of something in the corner. The camera! I turned it on but everything was fuzzy—the dogs had licked the lens.

  I quickly tried to wipe it with my shirt. The lights were close now, and someone whooped. Hayley sat up and screamed, light streaming through her hair.

  I pointed the camera just as I heard the sickening sound of our new mailbox leaving this world. I zoomed in on the truck, but my hands were shaking so much that I couldn’t focus. Pippin and Frodo must have thought the world was coming to an end because they cowered.

  “What was that?” Hayley said.

  “Bryce’s plan worked. But he’s going to kill me for falling asleep.”

  Chapter 54

  It wasn’t Ashley’s fault that she missed the action. We tried to watch the tape, but the auto-focus feature didn’t react quickly enough in the darkness. All she got was a mess of motion through a dark, streaky lens and Pippin and Frodo whimpering.

  After church Sunday I went with Sam to the hardware store to pick out a new mailbox. I couldn’t believe how big the one was that he picked, and then he also chose a smaller one.

  “Which one are you going to get?” I said.

  “Both.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Sam also put a heavy bag of concrete in the cart. I couldn’t imagine what he was going to do.

  Back at the house, he had me take a bucket of water and the wheelbarrow to the garage. When I got there, he had the big mailbox on the ground, facing up.

  He mixed the concrete in the wheelbarrow, put the smaller mailbox inside the big one, and poured the concrete around it.

  Sam is a strong guy, but it took everything he had to wheel his invention out to the street and lift the thing onto the post.

  “I don’t get it,” I said.

  “The guy swinging the bat will,” Sam said. “It’ll be like trying to smash granite with a toothpick.”

  “Okay if I paint another target?” I said.

  Sam smiled. “Put one on both sides this time.”

  Chapter 55

  I was looking at Danielle’s baby picture Sunday afternoon when Mom walked into my room. “Who’s that?”

  The whole story tumbled out like she had opened the door to a stuffed closet.

  “Why do you think she hasn’t tried to find Danielle before now?” she said.

  “I don’t think she knows where to start.”

  “Is Bryce helping with this?”

  I nodded and told her about Mr. Cheplosa’s computer program and what we hoped to do with the new photo.

  Mom looked at the floor and took a breath. I could tell she was trying to think of what to say that wouldn’t hurt my feelings.

  “What?” I said. “You don’t like us investigating this?”

 

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