Taki’s initial astonishment changed to disbelief, and then was replaced by a temporary numbness that echoed Kevin’s own before the full shock of what he was hearing sank in. His features still betrayed a hint of part of him trying to reject it when Kevin concluded, “. . . I figured there might be more chances like on the boat last Friday—to find out more about what’s going on. Or at least, if they happened, we ought to be ready for them. So I fixed a box with Toad and Tigger inside in the trunk of her car this morning—it’s right up at the back; you won’t see it unless you go looking. And that’s why I don’t have the relay. I put that in with them too.”
Taki’s features, which had communicated nothing for the past several minutes, expressed skepticism. “Isn’t that a long shot, Kev? Who’s going to sit there in the car and shout about all their plans, just to oblige you?”
“No, I know. We’ll still have to send them with her, or maybe someone else, when she goes places—like on the boat. But at least they’ll be there.”
Taki nodded distantly.
Kevin shrugged. “And who knows? There’s always the chance that we might pick something useful up in the car.”
Taki didn’t seem hopeful. “It’s still passive though. It still means sitting and having to wait for some kind of lucky break that may not even happen. The odds aren’t something that I’d want to bet money on.”
Kevin sighed and showed both his hands imploringly. “Hell, Taki, what else do you want in the course of one whole day? It might not be much, but it’s more than anyone else has been able to come up with. Give me a break, for heaven’s sakes. It’ll get better. We’ll work on it.” The tension that had been building in him vented itself in his voice. The strain he felt showed on his face. It didn’t matter that what he had done was grab wildly at a straw, with chances of achieving anything useful probably as near zero as made no difference. He had done something. Taki understood, nodded, and didn’t press the point.
“I just don’t believe it can be that much of a problem,” Taki said. “I mean, what about the police? Isn’t that what they’re there for? What’s the use if all they can do is show up to draw chalk marks around dead bodies? Aren’t they supposed to stop people being turned into dead bodies in the first place?”
“You’d think so. I said more or less the same thing to Michelle and Doug, but she says it isn’t so simple.” Kevin massaged his brow with a hand. “When did grown-ups ever come up with anything simple? Half of them would lose their jobs.”
“But it’s right there on the tape,” Taki insisted. “They’re gonna change your dad’s will to cut you out, and he won’t be around to argue about it. What else could it mean?”
“That’s what I said too. But when you really listen to it, it doesn’t actually say a hell of a lot. Most of what you think you hear is in your head. It doesn’t mention any names except ‘Phil,’ which could mean anything. And even assuming it is Garsten—which it is, obviously, although how do you prove it?—we don’t have anything he’s actually done that we could show as evidence—no document or something. It’s all guesses.”
Taki shook his head. “And Michelle won’t even go talk to the police? I still can’t believe it.”
“Well, that could be on account of her job somehow, too, I guess.”
“What about Doug, then? Won’t he even try? He always struck me as the kind of guy who doesn’t mess around—who’d go right in and tell it like it is if he thought there was a chance it might do any good.”
“Hm.” Kevin rotated the stool he was sitting on through a half circle toward the far wall, then back to face Taki again. “I think he might want to do more than that,” he said in a serious voice.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, from some of the things he said this morning when he ran me into school, he doesn’t seem to think that involving the police solves much, anyway—it would just put everyone on their guard, and they’d just lie low for a while. The risk would still always be there. It wouldn’t have gone away.”