Ash didn't blink. "Of course. If it's necessary. For the family honor."
"If they've let something slip about the NightWorld-"
"They're not stupid."
"They're innocent. They might get tricked. That'swhat happens when you live on an island completely isolated from normal humans. You never learn how cunning vermin can be."
"Well, we know how cunning they can be," Ash said, smiling. "And what to do about them."
For the first time Quinn himself smiled, a charming, almost dreamy smile. "Yes, I know your views on that. All right. I'll leave you here to take care of it. I don't need to tell you to check out every human those girls have had contact with. Do a good job and maybe you can save your familyhonor."
"Not to mention the embarrassment of a public trial."
"I'll come back in a week. And if you haven't got things under control, I go to the Elders. I don't mean your Redfern family Elders, either. I'm taking it all the way up to the joint Council."
"Oh, fine," Ash said. "You know, you really ought to get a hobby, Quinn. Go hunting yourself.
You're too repressed."
-252Quinn ignored that and said shortly, "Do you know where to start?"
"Sure. The girls are right ... down ... there." Ashturned east. With one eye shut, he zeroed in with his finger on a patch of light in the valley below. "At Burdock Farm. I'll check things out in town, then I'll go look up the nearest vermin."
Chapter 4
What a difference a day made.
Somehow, in the hot, hazy August sunlight the -next morning, Mary-Lynnette couldn't get serious about checking on whether Mrs. Burdock was dead. It was just too ridiculous. Besides, she had a lot to do-school started in just over two weeks. At the beginning of June she had been sure summer would last forever, sure that she would neversay, "Wow, this summer has gone by so fast." And now here she stood in mid-August, and she was saying, "Wow, it's gone by so fast."
I need clothes, Mary-Lynnette thought. And a new backpack, and notebooks, and some of those little purple felt-tip pens. And I need to make Mark get all those things, too, because he won't do it by himself and Claudine will never make him.
Claudine was their stepmother. She was Belgian and very pretty, with curly dark hair and sparklingdark eyes. She was only ten years older than MaryLynnette, and she looked even younger. She'd been the family's housecleaning helper when Mary Lynnette's mom first got sick five years ago. MaryLynnette liked her, but she was hopeless as a substitute mother, and Mary-Lynnette usually ended up taking charge of Mark.
So I don't have time to go over to Mrs. B.'s.
She spent the day shopping. It wasn't until after dinner that she thought about Mrs. Burdock again.
She was helping to dear dishes out of the family room, where dinner was traditionally eaten in front of the TV, when her father said, "I heard something today about Todd Akers and Vic Kimble."
"Those losers," Mark muttered.
Mary-Lynnette said, "What?"
"They had some kind of accident over on Chiloquin Road-over between Hazel Green Creek and Beavercreek."
"A car accident?" Mary-Lynnette said.
"Well, this is the thing," her father said. "Apparently there wasn't any damage to their car, but they both thought they'd been in an accident. They showed up at home after midnight and said that something had happened to them out there-but they didn'tknow what. They were missing a few hours." He looked at Mark and Mary-Lynnette. "How about that, guys?"
"It's the UFOs!" Mark shouted immediately, dropping into discus-throwing position and wiggling his plate.
"UFOs are a crock," Mary-Lynnette said. "Do youknow how far the little green men would have to travel-and there's no suchthing as warp speed. Whydo people have to make things up when the universe is just just blazing with incredible things that are real-"She stopped. Her family was looking at her oddly.
"Actually Todd and Vic probably just got smashed," she said, and put her plate and glass in the sink. Her father grimaced slightly. Claudine pursed her lips. Mark grinned.
"In a very real and literal sense," he said. "We hope."
It was as Mary-Lynnette was walking back to the family room that a thought struck her.
Chiloquin Road was right off Kahneta, the road her own house was on. The road Mrs. B.'s house was on.It was only two miles from Burdock Farm to Chiloquin.
There couldn't be any connection. Unless the girls were burying the little green man who'd abductedVic
and Todd.
But it bothered her. Two really strange things happening in the same night, in the same area. In a tiny, sleepy area that never saw any kind of excitement.
I know, I'll call Mrs. B. And she'll be fine, and that'll prove everything's okay, and I'll be able to laugh about all this.
But nobody answered at the Burdock house. The phone rang and rang. Nobody picked it up and the answering machine never came on. Mary-Lynnettehung up feeling grim but oddly calm. She knew what she had to do now.
She snagged Mark as he was going up the stairs. "I need to talk to you."
"Look, if this is about your Walkman-"
"Huh? It's about something we have to do tonight." Mary-Lynnette looked at him. "What aboutmy Walkman?"
"Uh, nothing. Nothing at all."
Mary-Lynnette groaned but let it go. "Listen, Ineed you to help me out. Last night I saw something weird when I was on the hill...." She explained as succinctly as possible. "And now more weird stuff with Todd and Vic," she said.
Mark was shaking his head, looking at her in something like pity. "Mare, Mare," he said kindly. "You really are crazy, you know."
"Yes," Mary-Lynnette said. "It doesn't matter. I'm still going over there tonight."
"To do what?"
"To check things out. I just want toseeMrs. B. If I can talk to her, I'll feel better. And if I can find out what's buried in that garden, I'll feel a wholelotbetter."
"Maybe they were burying Sasquatch. That government study in the Klamaths never did find him, you know."
"Mark, you owe me for the Walkman. For whatever happened to the Walkman."
"Uh..." Mark sighed, then muttered resignedly."Okay, I owe you. But I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to talk to those girls."