When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [59]
Maybe Kit and Frannie could help her find Matthew.
Her hands clenched automatically. This was very scary territory. One thing had been drilled into her time and time again. She could get into terrible trouble if she ever talked.
People could die, starting with her, and then anyone she talked to.
Chapter 60
PIP WAS PULLING ME through the woods as if he were the engine of a miniature runaway train. Cicadas shrilled, close up and far away. Everything felt like a dream, but it definitely wasn’t one, was it.
“Hold on, fool,” I yelled ahead, but Pip completely ignored me.
I was carrying all kinds of junk on my back: clothes for Max, a little black bag, a 35mm camera—and Pip was intent on being at the cabin—now.
The lead finally jerked out of my hands and he was gone, scampering on ahead, dragging rope and chain behind him, yapping his fool head off.
“Pip! You little snip!”
The girl never had a chance to hear him with those damned earphones on her head. I dropped my pack and ran, but it was too late. He was all over her. Dear God. Would she know Pip was just a small, overeager dog? That he was nothing to be afraid of?
Then I could hear her laughing and the small, playful dog’s yipping, and it was just about the neatest sound in the world. It certainly would do for right now.
Kit came flying out through the front door just as I got to the bottom steps of the cabin. He looked concerned—until he correctly sized up the situation.
“Is this my surprise?” the girl asked. Meanwhile, the squirming hunk of dog was slobbering all over her.
“Pip, manners,” I said. “Yep, he’s the surprise.”
The girl said, “We have dogs at the School. Bandit and Gomer.”
I glanced at Kit. We filed the tidbit away for later.
“This is Pip,” I said. “He’s a good little pup.”
The girl smiled. “Hello, Pip,” she said.
She picked up a stick and Pip went nuts; backing up, wagging his snippet of a tail, and yapping like the little whirligig and madman that he is.
The girl looked thoughtful for a moment, then she spoke.
“I’m Max,” she said, telling us her name for the first time. Then she threw the stick. “Go fetch, Pip.”
Chapter 61
I NEEDED TO EXAMINE Max for injuries and possible malnutrition. I couldn’t wait to start. The suspense, the drama, was overwhelming. Most doctors would kill for this opportunity, and perhaps someone had.
I stood outside the familiar and usually nonthreatening door to the spare room of my house and I took one of the deepest breaths of my entire breathing career. Kit and I had just been talking about bringing Max to the “authorities,” the local police, or maybe even to the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“I am the police,” Kit had argued. He was definitely against the move. “And for the moment, I’m not certain who else we can trust. I’m working on that, Frannie. Please give me another day or so to check out some things.”
His reaction wasn’t very reassuring, but I had my own misgivings about the local authorities in Nederland, or even Boulder. I didn’t feel they were quite up to this. I hadn’t from the beginning.
So Max was behind Door Number One, waiting for me to give her a full physical exam. She had already told me it was no big deal to her—she was used to them.
Well, it was a big deal for me.
I left Kit on the front deck, making calls around the country. He had a couple of notebooks filled with information about the outlaw group of scientists who might have settled somewhere in the area. He’d already interviewed dozens of doctors who knew someone in the group. He told me the investigation was like trying to cross the country by way of a network of blind alleys. He sure wasn’t wearing his million-dollar smile today. He admitted that he was frustrated and nervous about what would happen now. Neither of us really knew what it was that we were getting into. How could we?
I knocked gently on the door. I heard Max say, “Come in.”
I opened the door and walked in, carrying my black medical bag, trying not to appear as nervous as