Читать книгу A Ready-Made Family - Carrie Alexander, Carrie Alexander - Страница 8

AFTER TWO DAYS ON THE road, getting lost, breaking down and spending her remaining cash at McDonald’s to quiet the kids during the final stretch of their trip, was it possible that Lia Pogue’s luck could get any worse?

Absolutely.

Her empty stomach gnawed as she watched the ambling approach of her second worst nightmare.

“Mom, you’re crushing the map.” Lia’s ten-year-old son, Howie, tugged the gas station freebie out of her grip and refolded it with a pinched look of concentration. He’d been giving directions from the shotgun seat since they’d crossed the Mackinac bridge into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, taking the job too seriously, as he did most tasks.

The cop circled Lia’s idling car, slowing to study the back end. She didn’t suppose he was admiring the vintage rust on the 1980 Impala they called “the Grudge” or the buckety-buck of a motor misfiring on its ancient pistons. Surreptitiously she rubbed her sweaty palms on her knee-length denim shorts, trying to keep the kids from seeing her nervousness. Was the uniform cop writing down her license plate number? What if it had already shown up on some sort of Most Wanted list?

That’s not possible. Larry doesn’t know we’re gone—yet.

“Mom?” warbled Sam from the backseat as her eyes followed the police officer’s circuit. Because she knew what was at stake, she’d forgotten to act jaded. Her mascara-thickened lashes had widened in alarm.

“Everything’s all right.” Lia had repeated some variation of the phrase for the past few days. Longer, actually, but she didn’t want to go there right now. She said it so often that the words came out even when it was clear that everything was wrong.

Everything except the most important fact: they were free.

Maybe not for long.

The cop tapped on her window.

She exhaled. “Don’t talk,” she told her kids before rolling down the glass. The Grudge had crank windows. For once, she was glad. She had something to do to distract herself from the tight ache wanting to burst out of her chest.

The officer tipped back his cap and peered into the car, taking in the jumble of discarded clothing, children’s toys and fast-food trash that had accumulated during the long drive north. “Everybody okay in there?”

“Yes, sir.” Don’t volunteer information.

“Ya, well.” He smiled, clearly a small-town cop because he didn’t flinch when Lia reached down beside her, toward the seat. He was looking at the map clenched in her son’s lap. “Gotchyerselves lost, eh?”

She sucked on the straw of Howie’s Coke to wet her dry mouth. “Sort of.”

“Whatcha looking for?” The neighborly cop leaned an arm on her car door. “I can give you directions to anyplace in the whole U.P.”

He was young, blond and rather goofy-looking with a Barney Fife face that was all nose and Adam’s apple with not much chin in between. His accent was even heavier than her old friend Rose Robbin’s—“ya” for “yeah” and “da” for “the.”

Nothing threatening about him, but Lia didn’t relax. Fugitives couldn’t afford to let down their guard.

“Thanks, but we’ll be fine.” She didn’t want him to know where she was headed. If Alouette was as small as Rose had said—and it certainly appeared to be from their hillside vantage point—he’d find out soon enough. Lia didn’t see any need for currying interest, even friendly interest. Not from any of the locals. After the first curiosity had passed, she hoped to knit her family into the fabric of small-town life so well that no one ever noticed them again.

Howie shoved his glasses up his snub nose. “This map doesn’t show Black—”

Lia gave him a look so fierce his voice froze midstream.

The cop tilted his head. “Sounds to me like you’re lost.”

The car’s engine rattled ominously. Lia hadn’t dared shut it down while they’d searched the map. If she didn’t put the Grudge into gear soon, it might give out again.

She thrust the soft drink at her son. “We were just taking a breather,” she said to the cop in a fake cheery tone, the one she’d used too often with her children the past several years. Kristen Rose, her four-year-old, was the only one who still fell for it. “We’ll be on our way now.”

The officer tilted his head to the right, checking out the backseat. Lia felt Sam’s clogs press into her spine through the car seat. Her teenage daughter’s long, skinny legs were doubled over and drawn up to her sulky face. She glared raccoon eyes at the officer over her kneecaps, as if daring him to question her.

Smile, dammit, Lia said silently in the rearview mirror. Just this once.

“I’m Deputy Corcoran.” He looked at Lia expectantly.

Lia met Sam’s accusing eyes in the mirror, then looked away. “Lia Howard,” she said almost too loudly. She wasn’t lying, not really. She’d been Lia Howard for the first seventeen years of her life. “And these are my kids.” She wasn’t going to give their names unless she had to.

Officer Corcoran tipped his hat. “Pleased to meetcha.”

Lia made a polite sound.

In the rear seat, Kristen stirred. The drive through twenty miles of backcountry forest had been so boring that she’d nodded off with a French fry clutched in her small fist. “Mommy? Are we there yet?”

“Not yet,” Lia said before Howie could chime in that, yes, they’d finally reached their destination, even if they couldn’t find Blackbear Road on the state map.

“How come we stopped? Is the Grudge broked again?”

“No, honey.” Lia’s eyes darted toward the officer’s face. Kristen didn’t completely understand the necessity of keeping quiet, especially around strangers. But she was learning. And that had taken another small chip out of Lia’s worn-down heart. “We’ll be there soon.”

“Not with this car,” the cop said. “The motor doesn’t sound too good.”

“I know. That’s why we call it the Grudge.” At his mystified look, she explained, “It’s from a horror movie. My daughter came up with the name. Because of the loud grinding sound the car makes when it revs up.”

“I getcha, I guess. I’m darn surprised you made it to town. The 525 might not seem like a steep road, but it’s got a long, gradual incline.”

“Luckily it’s all downhill from here.” Lia forced a chuckle as she gave a wave out the front window at the descent into the town proper.

They were perched on a hillside overlooking Alouette. The sight was a pretty one, if Lia had been in any shape to appreciate it. Interspersed among an abundance of summery green trees were the shingle roofs, cream brick and red sandstone of the quaint little town. Beyond, the blue water of Lake Superior stretched as far as the eye could see. A lighthouse perched at the tip of a finger peninsula pointing into the bay. Gulls circled bobbing boats in the small marina.

Officer Corcoran had straightened to take in the view, but he ducked back down to address her. “Didja know you have a busted taillight?”

“Oh.” She knew. But a working taillight was less crucial than replacing spark plugs and a fried fan belt—the emergency repair that had kept them stranded overnight in the middle of nowhere in a town called Christmas. “I’ll get it fixed as soon as I can,” she promised, which was honest enough considering soon was an adaptable word.

For how many years had she planned to leave her husband “soon”? After the divorce had gone through despite Larry’s attempts to block it, she’d learned a new definition of the word. Soon he’ll stop trying to hurt us. Soon the courts will understand. Soon we’ll get away.

“I shouldn’t let you go without a ticket, but…” The cop disappeared from her window to wave at a pickup truck that rattled by on the bumpy blacktop road. It shed flecks of rust like a dog shaking fleas. The young officer grinned. “See there? I gotta admit our department’s not a stickler when it comes to ticketing unroadworthy vehicles.” He squared his shoulders. “But it’s important to keep your family’s safety in mind.”

Lia swallowed. He had no idea. “I do, sir. Always.”

The young officer stepped back. “You be sure to get the vehicle fixed, ma’am. I don’t want to see it on the road again in this condition.”

“You won’t.” Lia let herself hope that she’d finally caught a break. “We don’t have far to go,” she added. “We’ll be there long before dark.” Kristen was fussing in the backseat, and Sam—bless her—passed over her precious iPod to keep her sister occupied.

“All right, then.” Officer Corcoran moved away from the car. “Make sure to watch your brakes on this hill. Speed limit’s twenty-five in town.” He squinted. “Are you positive you don’t want directions?”

“No, thanks.” Lia knew where she was going.

Anywhere that her ex-husband Larry Pogue was not.

ALOUETTE WASN’T LARGE enough to be lost in for very long. After creeping down the hill and through the handful of streets that made up the downtown area, they drove around until they found Blackbear Road on the northern side of town. Lia’s memory of the location of their destination was sketchy, pulled from years-old conversations with Rose Robbin about her hometown. Rose would have supplied better directions if she’d known they were coming, but Lia hadn’t told her. In fact, they hadn’t talked in nearly a month, when Rose had called to tell Lia she was getting married. Because her friend deserved uncomplicated happiness, Lia had oohed and aahed and kept her escalating troubles to herself.

Now she had no choice. She was desperate for a safe haven.

“This is it, Mom.” Howie stuck his head out the window to read the peeling board sign obscured by a thicket of underbrush. “Maxine’s Cottages.”

Relaxing her shoulders for the first time in an hour, Lia turned the car onto a twisting dirt-and-pebble road. Towering pines threw shadows across the Impala’s long hood. Hidden among the trees were small stone cottages, just as Rose had described. They seemed a natural part of the landscape. Their slanted roofs were thick with pine needles, the stone walls covered in moss, lichen and overgrown vines.

The road widened into a clearing near the largest structure, the central home with a plaque that denoted the office. A big black pickup truck was parked at a careless angle, taking up most of the space. Lia pulled in next to it and shut off the engine, which reluctantly gave up the ghost. Buckety-buck. Buck. Buck. The tailpipe popped. Exhaust smoke drifted by her open window, temporarily masking the fresh piney smell of the woods.

Lia breathed deeply anyway. They’d made it. Thank God.

“We’re here,” she announced.

The children stared in total silence.

“It’s not so bad.”

A protest burst from Sam. “We can’t stay here! It’s abandoned.”

“It’s not abandoned.” But the only signs of occupancy were the truck, limp curtains that fluttered in an open window of the stone house and a fishing pole and a rake leaning against a rail by the front door.

“Can we get out?” Howie asked.

“I’m not,” Sam said, crossing her arms across her chest and sliding even lower in the seat until only the blue-tipped spikes of her bangs showed. “I want to go home.”

“Then you’ll have to push the Grudge, because its engine won’t make the return trip.” Lia put on her cheery voice as she reached for the door handle. “Let’s go see if anyone’s home. Rose said there’s a river nearby. Can you hear it?”

“I do.” Howie’s door creaked as he pushed it open. He was small for his age, still a little boy despite the anxious personality and smarts that made him seem older than his years. One of Lia’s greatest wishes was to see Howie relax. To run and play, to learn how to be a boy without responsibility.

He looked eagerly at Lia across the hood, light reflecting off his glasses.

She stretched the kinks from her back. “All right. Go and explore.” She held back warnings about snakes and poison ivy and deep water. Howie didn’t have to be told. His caution was even stronger than his curiosity.

“Come on, Krissy, baby.” Lia took her youngest child’s hand as the girl slid out of the back seat. Sticky. Kristen’s lips were stained with orange soda pop. Lia grabbed a packet of wet wipes from the glove compartment and squatted to apply one to her daughter’s hands and face. Kristen blinked sleepy eyes as she looked up at the trees and sky. She was a slow riser.

Lia rubbed at Kristen’s small, plump mouth until only a faint orange shadow remained. She smoothed the girl’s rumpled T-shirt. “Want to knock on the front door for me?”

Kristen stared at the gloomy stone house. “Who lives there?”

“Rose Robbin does.” Or did. “Her mother, too. You probably can’t remember Rose—the dark-haired lady who was our neighbor? She used to babysit you when you were just a tiny little baby.”

“Uh-uh.”

“She babysat all of you kids.” Surly Rose had been a loner who’d gradually warmed up to the Pogues. She’d become Lia’s friend and confidante, the only person she could rely on. But when Rose’s father had died several years ago, she’d gone home to Alouette in Michigan’s U.P.—Upper Peninsula. They’d lost contact for a long while, until Rose had mailed a Christmas card the past December. Since then, they’d written and called a number of times. When Rose had first learned that Larry was still causing trouble, she’d offered Lia help any time she needed it.

Misgivings nibbled at Lia’s conscience. At the moment of crisis, with Larry threatening to sue her for custody of the children and even hinting that he’d snatch them away if he had to, she’d latched on to Rose’s offer as her only option. She and the kids had needed to disappear. According to Rose, Alouette was the type of place where you could do that.

Not the end of the Earth, the welcome sign had read on the way into town, but we can see it from here.

As much as Lia appreciated the isolation, she hadn’t expected to feel quite so stranded and alone. Maybe she’d thought Rose would greet them with an apple pie. Even though she had no idea they were coming.

Lia tried the cheery voice on herself. Won’t Rose be surprised that we’ve traveled hundreds of miles to land on her doorstep?

“Hey, Mom!” Howie called from the trees. “There’s more little houses over here.” He’d found a path. Through the thick stand of evergreens, Lia caught glimpses of him running from cottage to cottage. “Four on this side.”

Kristen looked up at Lia, her eyes glistening. “I don’t wanna live here, Mommy.”

Lia stroked Kristen’s hair. Her girl was usually more adventurous. The completely unfamiliar landscape must have thrown her off-kilter. “Let’s wait and see how we like it.”

“See?” Sam said peevishly from her slumped position inside the car. “Nobody wants to stay here.”

Lia took Kristen’s hand. “Would you like to join us, Sam?”

A huffy exhale came from the back seat. “Hell no.”

Lia’s mouth tightened. Samantha was fourteen and getting more rebellious every day. Their neighborhood in Cadillac hadn’t been the greatest, and if they’d come north for no other reason, Lia was relieved to get Sam away from the crowd of teenagers she’d taken up with back home. Sam might actually be correct about one of her litany of complaints—there’d be nothing to do in a small town like Alouette. At least nothing that her mother wouldn’t know about.

Lia was counting on that. She wanted her bright, lively daughter back—or some teenage semblance, anyway.

She shrugged. “Suit yourself, Sam.” Maybe she was copping out on her responsibilities as a mother, but now wasn’t the time to engage her eldest in a battle over language and attitude. Sam could sit in the car and stew. If they stayed in Alouette, she’d adjust to the idea. She’d adjusted to worse.

The thought was little comfort.

“Howie?” Lia finger-combed her own hair as she and Kristen walked to the front door of the stone house. She felt rumpled and creased, like a grocery bag that had been used too many times.

His voice drifted from the trees. “Yeah, Mom.”

“Just checking.”

“I’m over here. I found mushrooms.”

“Don’t eat them. And don’t wander off.”

There were three steps up to the front entry, a weather-beaten plank door with a placard that read Office. No doorbell, except for an old-fashioned dinner bell that hung from a rusty bracket. Lia knocked.

And waited.

She knocked again, looking around the run-down property. The cottages were placed in random order, tucked here and there in groves of pines, maples and birches. Chickadees and nuthatches hopped among the pinecones that littered the ground. Sam watched owlishly over the edge of the car seat, showing the whites of her eyes. Still no answer.

“Look, Mommy.” Kristen pointed to the bell suspended beside the door. “Can I ring it?”

“I guess so.” Lia lifted the girl, showing her how to tug on the short rope attached to the gong.

The sturdy metal bell rang out deep and loud. Kristen laughed at the sound and reached out again, but Lia stopped her. “Enough. If anyone’s home, they ought to have heard that.”

Kristen slid down. “Can I go with Howie?”

“All right.” Lia stepped away from the door and aimed her daughter toward the path through the overhanging trees. Kristen took off like a shot, much braver now that she was fully awake. Lia smiled at the enthusiasm, wishing her courage was as easily reinstated. “Howie, please watch out for Kristen.”

Lia waited until she heard their voices before giving in to her own curiosity. With one more glance at the Grudge, she walked around to the back of the house. Sam’s head had sunk below window level.

Lia inhaled. The sharp, spicy scent of pines filled her lungs. God, the air was fresh here. The house had no lush suburban lawn, only ragged patches of grass poking out from beneath a thick blanket of coppery pine needles. Inside a sagging wire fence, a patch had been cleared for a garden, the rich earth freshly overturned and planted with seedlings. The level area near the house became a slope that steepened down to a reedy riverbank.

Lia shielded her eyes. The dark river swirled and eddied, rushing white where submerged rocks had been worn silky and smooth by the constant flow. Cattails nodded in the breeze.

Despite the shabbiness, the setting was idyllic. A piece of paradise. Lia began to understand why Rose had returned despite her less-than-idyllic childhood. If Lia had grown up in a place like this, she might not have been in such a rush to leave home that she’d latched on to her first real boyfriend and mistaken his intense feelings for true, deep love.

Rose had told her own tale, those long evenings when they’d sat out on the small lawn of their apartment building, sharing a pack of cigarettes and the sad tales of their lives while the kids played Kick the Can. According to her, paradise wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be. But Rose had found a happy ending here all the same.

A happy ending was more than Lia dared to dream of. Even though a piece of paradise might be nice, she’d gladly settle for simple peace.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. Had she made a mistake becoming a fugitive instead of trying to work things out within the law, even if that had already taken years and every cent she earned? It seemed so now, when she was tired and broke, but in her gut she knew that fleeing was the only way she and the kids had a chance at a normal life. If they’d stayed, Larry would have never let up.

Lia turned back to the house. She’d suspected Rose might be gone, but what had happened to her mother? And there’d been a brother, too, back from the Army. Or maybe it was the one who’d been in prison.

At the window, she made a visor with her hands to peer inside. No one in sight, but there was a table stacked high with gift boxes that probably contained enough small kitchen appliances to stock a department store.

She groaned. She should have brought a present. But what? A used coffeemaker? A blender that could only puree on low?

Dismayed with herself, Lia reached inside her shirt to rescue a fallen bra strap that was held together by a pin. She’d once been a genuinely cheerful girl—a cheerleader, even—with shiny blond hair and a set of days-of-the-week underpants. The most important appliance in her life had been her curling iron. So how had her life turned into a wreckage of broken-down motors and tatty undergarments?

She was startled by a deep male voice. “Find anything good in there?”

Her fingers clenched on the bra strap. A deflated but still serviceable pair of 34Cs was the answer that popped into her mind before she realized the man was referring to her spying through the window.

“I was looking for Rose.” She withdrew her hand from her shirt and tucked it in the pocket of her shorts. “Rose Robbin? Am I in the right place?”

The man gave her a once-over, his blunt, stony face betraying none of his thoughts. He was tall and rawboned, thick with muscles in the way of a hard worker who’d developed an iron-hard physique with years of physical labor. He wore heavy boots and khaki cargo pants despite the warm weather. The open collar and cuffs of his shirt displayed a strong neck and massive forearms inscribed from wrist to elbow with complicated tattoos. There was something not quite civilized about him.

Lia’s heart beat a little faster. Rose’s brother, she presumed, but was it the ex-con or the military man? What direction had he come from? And where were her kids?

She sidled over a couple of steps. “I didn’t mean to snoop. Well, yes, I suppose I did, since I was snooping. But I didn’t mean to be rude. I wondered where everyone had gone, that’s all. The house seemed deserted. I, um, that is, we—me and my kids—came for the wedding.”

“You’re late.”

“I know. My car broke down.”

“The wedding was yesterday.”

“I’m sorry we missed it.”

He scanned her again, apparently not happy with what he saw, because he scowled, the color in his tanned face getting even darker. “Rose is on her honeymoon.”

“Oh.” The dregs of Lia’s last hope leaked out of her. She realized what a bind she’d put herself in. No cash, nowhere to stay. Only a small amount of wiggle room remained on her credit card. “I figured it was something like that. But we had a long drive and it was too late to turn back.” She crossed her fingers inside her pockets. “So we came anyway.”

“How many is we?”

“I have three children. Oh—I didn’t introduce myself.” But then, neither had he. She didn’t stick out her hand. He looked as if he might bite it. “I’m Lia Howard.”

“Jake Robbin.” He didn’t budge an inch.

“You’re Rose’s oldest brother. She’s mentioned me?”

“No, ma’am.”

“She invited me to the wedding a while back. I told her then I couldn’t make it, only I changed my mind at the last minute. We were neighbors several years ago.” She was babbling.

His nod was neither an acknowledgment nor an agreement. “Too bad you missed her.”

“Yes, too bad,” she said. The sympathy on his face was underwhelming. “We’ll move on, of course.” She gritted her teeth so the desperation wouldn’t show. “We wouldn’t want to put you out.” Not that he’d offered. “My kids can be quite a handful.” She gestured toward the front yard, embarrassed to see Kristen’s stretchy pink-lace-and-glitter ponytail holder around her wrist like a bracelet. “They’re over there—”

On cue, Kristen came chugging around the side of the house with her hands flapping. “Mom! Mom! Howie found a skunk!” She barreled into Lia’s legs. “It’s gonna bite him.”

Lia winced. “Do skunks bite?” she asked Jake. Before he had time to answer, she hurried off the way Kristen had come.

Jake loped beside her, ducking tree branches because he was so tall. “Probably not. Unless it’s rabid.” He put out his arm, slowing her down as they reached the path to the cottages. “Don’t run. Sudden movement will scare it, and—believe me—you don’t want that to happen.”

Kristen had caught up to them. She stared up at Jake with a finger in her mouth. She took it out. “What happens if we scare the skunk?”

Jake’s firm lips twitched. He squeezed two fingers on the tip of his nose and said, “Pew.”

Kristen giggled, copying the gesture. “Pew!”

Lia blinked. “Did you say pew?”

“Haven’t you ever smelled skunk?”

“Of course. I was— Never mind.” She was amused by the word, that was all. Maybe he wasn’t a hard case all the way through. “Let’s rescue Howie before he’s sprayed.”

“I’ll go,” Jake said. “You keep the little girl out of range.”

Lia almost laughed at the way Kristen’s upper body swayed forward. Her lower lip protruded. “I’m not a little girl. My name is Kristen Rose.”

Jake was moving silently along the path, but he stopped to look back at them. “Kristen Rose, huh? Pretty name.” He shot a look at Lia. “After my sister?”

She nodded. “I told you we were friends.” When she’d gone into labor, Rose had stayed home from work to look after Sam and Howie while Lia delivered the new baby. During the especially tough times immediately after her divorce, Lia had learned to treasure such small acts of kindness.

Howie’s voice floated from the trees. “Mo-om?”

“Don’t move, Howie,” she called. “Stay there and tell us where you are.”

“I’m sitting on the step of one of the little houses.”

Lia crept after Jake, trying to keep Kristen behind her. They moved past the first two cottages and came to the third, where Howie perched on the doorstep, his arms and legs pulled close to his skinny body. A skunk sniffed through the long grass at the cottage’s foundation, barely two feet away from the boy. Its silky tail swept the ground. A faint but distinctly bitter aroma scented the air.

Jake stopped. He rested his hands on his hips, as casual as if they were on a Sunday afternoon stroll. “Howie? Don’t move, okay?” He spoke in a soft, even voice. “I’m Jake. I live here and I’ve seen this skunk before. Don’t worry. He’ll go on his way in a minute.”

The creature lifted its head. A moist black nose twitched in Howie’s direction.

He cringed. Behind the glasses, his eyes were big and scared. “It’s gonna spray me,” he whispered in a quavery high pitch.

Jake moved closer. He squatted. “No, see how his tail is down? The skunk’s curious about you, but he’s not afraid. He uses his sense of smell and hearing because he can’t see very well. He needs glasses like yours.”

Lia chuckled to ease Howie’s fear, but he didn’t seem to be persuaded that this was a laughing matter. “You’re sure he won’t spray me?”

“Yep,” Jake said. “Only if he thinks you’re going to hurt him.”

Howie’s chest hitched. Lia’s heart melted at how brave he was trying to be. “Uh-huh. I kn-know that. I read about skunks in my science and nature book.”

“What else did you read?”

Howie watched warily as the skunk lowered its head and the tail came up slightly. “I read—I read—” He closed his eyes. “Skunks are mammals. And they’re nocturnal.”

“What does that mean?” Jake asked gently.

Howie squinched his nose. “They sleep in the day. So how come—” He gasped as the skunk turned toward him.

“Slide over,” Jake directed. “Slowly.”

Howie inched sideways until he sat at the very corner of the step. The skunk ambled out of the grass, toward the path blocked by Jake.

He kept his eyes on Howie. “Now you can stand. Do it slowly. That’s right. The skunk’s okay, just going for a stroll. He’s not even looking at you.”

Lia stooped to see past the obscuring evergreens. Jake was right. The animal was ignoring Howie because it was waddling toward Jake. She held her breath.

Jake didn’t move. His voice remained calm. “Keep going, Howie. Walk past me toward your mom. You’ll be fine.”

Jake waited until Howie had crept by, then rose slowly off his heels, keeping himself between the boy and the skunk. His boots scuffed the ground as he edged backward, widening the distance.

Lia caught Howie’s eye. She gave him an encouraging smile. He grinned sheepishly, hitching his thumbs in his belt loops and swaggering just a little, as if he’d never been frightened in the first place.

Kristen pushed against Lia’s leg. “Can I pet the skunk?” she whispered.

“That’s not a good idea with an untamed animal.” Lia reached down and swung Kristen up in her arms in case the girl got it into her head to run toward the small striped creature.

“But it’s pretty.”

“We’re in the wild, honey. It’s not like a petting zoo.” Lia turned back in the direction of the car, keeping her eye on Howie to be sure he was following. But he’d stopped, too busy looking up at Jake with awe to worry about escaping from the skunk.

Which was when disaster struck.

“Hey, guys!” Sam’s shout was impatient. The sudden blare of the car horn shattered the silence as she punched it over and over again.

“Sam!” Lia shrieked. “Stop it!”

Too late.

The skunk’s tail had shot straight up. Jake let out a shout and sprang backward, his arms pinwheeling as an overwhelmingly putrid, eye-watering stench coated the air.