The Waking Moon

Chapter Thirty-Three

Max stood squinting at me in the kitchen, arms skeptically crossed over his chest, his face ruddy like my mom's when she's had too much to drink. He was wearing gray sweat pants and a white tee shirt that said, Jose Muldoon's 46th Annual Fun Run. In addition to looking hung over, he appeared rattled by my presence in his house. I realized that awaking to the sounds of me pounding on his bedroom door at five a.m., screaming like a lunatic, was a hell of a way to find out I was staying there.

"Let me just...I want to try to understand what you're talking about," he said, barely concealing his irritation. I was amazed at how much he and Rhodes sounded alike, with their exaggerated pronunciations and singsong intonation. "You're saying that Rhodes has been...what, exactly? Spirited away? Is that it?"

"He was supposed to walk Juliana to her car," I said, breathless with panic. "And he never came back. You need to call the police."

He closed his eyes and let out a long, exasperated exhalation. "Julie is a very intellectually curious woman," he said. "And she's especially fascinated with artificial energy and biotechy stuff. They probably got to talking and she took him out for breakfast."

"But she can't be out in the daylight!" I blurted out.

Max raised his eyebrows. "How's that?"

"Just please call the police."

"Is this about you and Rhodes?" Max asked, leaning heavily against the countertop. "Because I can personally assure you, there's no need for jealousy. He's a sixteen year old boy, and Julie is a..."

"Listen to me!" I shouted. "I was kidnapped by the same people! That's where I first saw Juliana. Or Julie. Whatever."

Max stared at me. He looked like someone who'd just realized that the near-stranger in their house was insane. "I'm sorry," he said very slowly, narrowing his eyes. "You say you were kidnapped?"

I struggled to hold his gaze."Yes."

"By Julie."

"By people working for her."

"And did you call the police?"

"No."

"Ah." He rubbed his face and let out another long, weary sigh. "Paulie, where are your parents, again?"

"Out of town."

"Right."

He shook his head and grabbed a clean coffee mug from the cabinet beside him. Then he crossed the kitchen to the fridge and filled the cup with filtered water. It was so quiet I could here the gurgling in his stomach as he drank the water down. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, placed the cup on the countertop and looked at me.

"Listen. Paulie. I can see that you're very worked up here. You believe that something has happened to Rhodes. I'm not sure if you're on drugs or what is going on there, but I can see that it makes sense in your head. But you see, logic dictates my world, and logic says that Rhodes stands at six foot two. He may be thin, but he's far too big to be sequestered by a young woman like Julie. I also happen to know Julie. She's a lovely person who has spent the past three months volunteering her time to be with our gravest patients in the cancer ward, and helping to arrange their hospice care. What motivation could she possibly have for taking my son?"

I stood there biting my lip, eyes fixed on the shiny bamboo floor. It was now crystal clear. If anyone was going to help Rhodes, it would have to be me. My eyes fell on the empty hook beside the kitchen door where Rhodes usually hung his coat. All at once it hit me. My phone. It was in his coat pocket. And it was on.

"That's it," I said, under my breath.

"Excuse me?"

"I need your computer," I said, rushing out of the kitchen and sprinting up the stairs.

"Hey!" Max called after me.

I ran down the hall and into the upstairs office. Max's voice was angry now. His footsteps pounded on the stairs.

"I've had enough of this!" he barked. "I'm tired. And I think it would be best for you to leave!"

The computer screen brightened with the touch of the space bar. I quickly logged into Google latitude. Please don't let the battery be dead, I thought. Please don't let it be dead.

"This is my house!" The stern voice bellowed in the doorway, but I refused to turn around. "And it's up to me who stays here. Not my son. I'm sorry for whatever it is you're going through, Paulie. But I've been working three double shifts in a row and I'd like to go back to bed. Which means you've got to go! Now!"

The locator on the screen indicated a point south of town, behind the water treatment plant, near the highway, but otherwise surrounded by open space. It was working. "Thank god," I muttered.

"Leave now or I will call the police!"

I grabbed a pen and ripped a page from a memo pad that said From the desk of Max Nicholson, M.D. Max stepped inside the office, his tall body looming over me. Focus. Focus. Focus. My hand trembled as I dashed out a map of his location, scrawling out the names of the nearby streets and geographical markers, which were unnervingly few.

"This is your last chance..."

I leaped up from the chair and shoved the map into the front pocket of my jeans. Max stood there, hands on his hips, lips pressed tightly together. I dashed past him into the hall and hurried down the stairs. I could hear him following behind me, but I managed to put enough distance between us that he didn't see me grab Rhodes's car keys, which were dangling from a small gold hook beside the front door.