Marked by Norah McClintock

Author:Norah McClintock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
ISBN: 9781554696673
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2008-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

chapter seven

I calmed down a little once I was away from the cops. I concentrated on what I was supposed to be doing. I copied down the graffiti that I found. And after a while, I started to notice something new. I found different initials in different places, but no matter what the initials were, the style was always the same. Maybe I was wrong—I’m no expert. But I do have a good eye. And what my eye was telling me was that a lot of what I was finding, including the neon graffiti, looked like it had been done by the same person.

Finally, I took a break for lunch. One good thing about the neighborhood where I was working was that there were little parks everywhere. There must have been six or seven. None of them were big. A couple of them had swings and slides for little kids. One of them had a sandbox with a lot of toys in it. That made me stop and stare. If anyone left toys in a sandbox in my neighborhood, they’d be gone before you knew it. A couple of other parks just had a few benches. In one park, I saw old people feeding the birds. In another one, I saw dog owners letting their dogs fool around.

I chose a quiet park and sat on a bench to eat. While I munched my sandwich, I glanced around. Someone was sitting with her back to me on a bench at the other end of the park. I didn’t realize at first who it was. In fact I don’t think I would have realized at all if it hadn’t been for Buster.

He was off his leash and was frisking around, chasing a squirrel one minute, sniffing the base of a water fountain the next and racing in circles around the bench right after that.

That’s when the girl turned. She said, “Buster, sit.”

Buster raced around the bench again. He didn’t stop until the girl unzipped her backpack and reached inside. Then all of a sudden he plunked his butt down on the ground and watched her, his ears pricked up like little sails.

“Good boy,” the girl said. “Lie down.”

Buster hesitated.

“Lie down,” the girl said again, firmly but patiently.

Buster dropped his front end down onto the grass in front of the bench.

She popped a treat into Buster’s mouth.

Buster stayed put.

Then the girl saw me watching her. She turned away like I was poison, even though I had caught Buster for her that time.

I got up, dropped my sandwich bag into a garbage can and walked over to her.

I guess I startled her because she dropped the paper she was holding. I was going to pick it up for her, but she snatched it from the ground first. It looked like a letter. I guessed it was personal.

“Hi,” I said.

She just stared at me.

“I saw you this morning talking to those people,” I said. “I heard what happened to that woman.”

“You heard?” she said.

She was acting like she was mad at me for something.

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