![]() Now the firm had just two equal partners-Marcella Boone on the first floor, in a neat modern office where she handled mainly divorces, and Woods Boone upstairs all alone in a large cluttered room with sagging bookshelves and stacks of files littering the floor and an ever-present cloud of fragrant pipe smoke rolling gently across the ceiling. There had once been another partner, Ike Boone, Theo’s uncle, but Ike had been forced to leave the firm when he got himself into some trouble. His parents had been married for twenty-five years, and for the past twenty they had worked together as partners in the small firm of Boone & Boone, located at 415 Park Street, in the heart of old Strattenburg. He zipped across Main Street, waved at a policeman standing near an intersection and pretended not to hear when the policeman yelled, “Slow it down, Theo.” He cut through a small cemetery and turned onto Park Street. The bell rang for first period, and Theo, already exhausted, dragged himself off to Spanish.įinal bell rang at 3:30, and by 3:31 Theo was on his bike, speeding away from school, darting through alleys and back streets and dodging downtown traffic. She was quiet, dressed more like a boy than a girl, had no interest in the latest fashions or the weekly teen-gossip magazines, and as everyone knew, came from a weird family. Most of the eighth graders, boys and girls, liked April but found her difficult to hang out with. Theo was one of the few boys who talked to April. ![]() “Nothing,” Theo said, and his classmates seemed disappointed. ![]() The Hidden Dangers of Smoking Inside Cars The conversation quickly got around to the disappearance of April, and Mr. Mount got the boys settled, he called the roll. As frantic as the reporters seemed to be that morning, the truth was that they were finding very little to add to the story of a missing girl. A neighbor said his dog started barking around midnight, always a bad sign. The police were tight-lipped, saying only that they were pursuing all leads. Usually, as Theo remembered from television, the family gets word pretty soon that the bad guys have the child and would like a million bucks or so for a safe return.Īnother report from the morning news showed Mrs. The Finnemores couldn’t pay their monthly bills-how were they supposed to find serious cash to free April? And there was no word yet from the kidnapper. A kidnapping (and he’d checked the dictionary) usually involved a demand for ransom-cash to be paid for the release of the person seized. There was a strong suggestion that a kidnapping had taken place. The reports showed a school photo of April, and a mug shot of Jack Leeper. He said he knew nothing more than what was being reported on the morning news.Įvidently, everybody in town had watched the morning news. In the main lobby, he was immediately met by three crying eighth-grade girls who wanted to know if he knew anything about April. An hour later, Theo parked his bike outside the middle school and reluctantly went inside as the 8:15 bell was ringing. ![]()
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