The Long Sleep by Caroline Crane Page B

off.
    “I’d be happy to carry on with it,” I said.
“If you approve. Hank did a lot of research and I’ve been doing
some, too.”
    “You have? Really? Then go ahead, if that’s
what you want.”
    By myself? Research? Write it? I could do
that. But—“Who should I submit it to?”
    “Me, I suppose.” He looked up at the wall
clock and closed his briefcase.
    “Who’s going to put it all together?” I
asked. “I don’t know how to do layouts and stuff.”
    “We’ll manage.” He gave me a quick smile and
was out the door.
    I hurried down to the parking lot. As soon as
Ben saw me coming, he turned on his engine. I got in back because
Cree was in the front. “Sorry,” I said.
    Cree turned around. “We’ve been waiting hours. What happened?”
    “Hours? I thought it was more like five
minutes. I had to talk to Mr. Geyer. The whole newspaper is up in
the air.”
    Neither of them seemed terribly concerned
about that. For most people, the paper was not a big priority.
    Ben drove me home first. I knew he wanted
time alone with Cree.
    But Cree was my friend, too, so she stayed at
our place awhile. We munched on chips and dips and put the
finishing touches on our history project.
    We were just showing it to Ben when the phone
rang. Again there was no name on the ID. And no one spoke, or if
they did, I couldn’t hear. Instead, a Sousa march blasted from the
answering machine.
    It was one we used to play at football
games.
    Didn’t that prove it? As Rhoda said, a phone
call could be made from anywhere.
    How could he do that? He was supposed to be
in New Hampshire. How would he know when I’d be home? Nervously I
looked out the window.
    All I saw were rhododendrons. No yellow car
with oversize tires. Our driveway made a sharp turn onto Lake Road
and we had those bushes everywhere. I almost couldn’t see the road
from our house and I was not about to go outside.
    I couldn’t forget that time in October when
he broke in. It was just after I changed schools. He tried to drag
me away even as my family surrounded us. What was he planning to do
with me? I didn’t want to know. He might have gotten away with it
except Ben and the dogs peeled him off me while Daddy called the
police.
    Didn’t he know my family would come to the
rescue? And what about those two big dogs? Why would he be so
stupid? I couldn’t help thinking it was mostly a demonstration to
show how madly, desperately in love he was. If that’s love, I can
do without it.
    The phone calls and music kept up. Ben said,
“Isn’t that one of your band pieces? Did you play it at games?”
    Ben never went to football games. He couldn’t
stand the noise.
    “All the time,” I said.
    He erased the so-called message. “You’d
better watch it. Doesn’t this bother you at all?”
    “A little. But I have it on good authority
that Evan is safely tucked away in New Hampshire.” If Glyn wasn’t
good authority, who was?
    The phone rang again. Ben muted the ringer.
“Ready to go?” he asked Cree. To me, he said, “Keep everything
locked.”
    “I know that.” I knew my family was
doing their best to keep me safe, but all that babying really got
to me. How stupid did they think I was?
    Stupid enough to get mixed up with Evan in
the first place. But how could I have known what he was really
like? He had a way of turning on the charm and that’s what he did
until he had me roped, tied, and branded.
    I almost asked if I could go with them while
he took Cree home. But I didn’t want to butt in and be a clingy
nuisance. He wouldn’t be gone long, and I had the two dogs and a
deadbolt.
    Ben ushered Cree out the door, then looked
over his shoulder. “Lock up,” he told me again. I rolled my
eyes.
    I kept the phone muted and settled on the
living room couch to do my trig. It seemed less isolated than my
room upstairs. The dogs stretched out on the floor beside me.
    Suddenly they jumped up and ran to the door,
barking.
    At the sound of a car, I turned off