Red Rain

Chapter 19 - Wish You Were Here

Behind me, Paul groans. I turn around to see him standing up again, glaring at the aft end of his dad's SUV as Elijah drives it away through the woods.

"Damn," I grunt. My fists are clenched, and I'm seething with barely-controlled rage. "He got away."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Mr. Smythe rolls over and pushes himself off the ground. Paul steps forward and offers a hand, but his dad waves him away. "I'm fine," he insists, shooting his cuff so he can roll up his left sleeve - checking for damages, I'm guessing.

"Dad, what happened?" Paul asks.

Mr. Smythe frowns deeply as he moves on to his other arm. "Jack wasn't at the bookstore when I got there. I waited for over an hour, but he never showed up." He extends both sleeves back down to full length, then starts walking back to the cabin. "So I came back here, because I suspected you kids wouldn't be safe. Guess I was right."

"That's not what my dad said," Jeanne calls down the stairs. "He just called here and said you showed up, knocked him out five minutes later, and next thing he knew, you were gone."

I look from Jeanne to Mr. Smythe and back again, not sure which one to believe.

Mr. Smythe tightens his jaw for a split second. "I...I'm sure that's exactly what Jack would say if he were trying to deflect suspicion off himself," he says. "I'm sorry, Jeanne, but I don't know what else to tell you."

Jeanne shakes her head, scoffing. "Don't give me that, Robert. I trust my dad. And he said he's got security footage to back himself up."

At this point, Mr. Smythe freezes on the top step. I realize he's been lying even before he lets slip a highly incriminating thought: Oh shit. I should've remembered...

We all glare at Mr. Smythe as he realizes he's been exposed.

"Something you forgot to mention?" I growl. I had no idea I was capable of growling like that. I sound like a wolf coming in for the kill. I might as well be a wolf, for all the anger building up inside me right now.

Mr. Smythe turns from Paul and me to the rest of the group, all of whom are blocking his way. He's spared answering our question by a noise coming from the woods, in roughly the same direction Elijah drove off in. Judging from the pounding and grunting noises, it's either wandering hippies stopping for sex, or a fistfight in progress.

I'm willing to bet it's the latter, and it turns out I'm right. Mr. Smythe jumps over the side of the stairs, gliding a few hundred feet faster than any of us, even Paul, can follow him - not that we don't try.

At a nearby fork in the road, another SUV, a gray 4Runner, has pulled over, and a short, stocky man with jet-black hair and a bloody nose just like Mr. Smythe's tries in vain to run after the stolen Acadia.

"Jack?" Mr. Smythe runs up to the other man. "Jack, I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Mr. Darknell headbutts Mr. Smythe, catching him in the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground for the second time in less than five minutes.

"You didn't what, Bob?" he yells. "You didn't know Elijah would double-cross you too? How long have you been working with him, huh?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, stop it!" Paul says, pushing Mr. Darknell away from his dad.

"Oh sure, take his side!" Jeanne yells, gesturing wildly at Mr. Smythe.

"I'm not taking anybody's side!" Paul yells. "Look, we've been betrayed, and I wanna find out who did it just as much as much as the rest of us." He looks to me, Dani, Aron, Gabe, and the souls for support. "Don't we?"