“I have other people waiting,” Ms. Wilton said, “so why don’t I sum up. Paul needs to get to class on time, start paying attention, and leave his electronic toys in his locker when he comes to class.”

I nodded enthusiastically, then shrugged as we headed for the door. “I don’t know where he gets it from,” I said.

On the way out to the car, Paul refused to look at me, but said, “Thanks a whole lot, Dad. It’s hard to imagine how that could have gone any better.”

Chapter 16

16

“you wanna slow down a bit, Dad?” Paul said. “I’ve never seen you drive this way.”

I’d ignored the stop sign coming out of the high school parking lot, and floored it when the light at the intersection ahead of us turned yellow. It turned red well before I was through.

“Excuse me, Mr. Safety?” Paul said again, trying to get my attention.

“I want to get home,” I said.

“Okay, but remember, I said I had to get dropped off at Andy’s?”

I wasn’t sure, after the interview with his teacher, that Paul deserved to go out with his friends. Any other time, I would have taken him home and sent him to his room with orders to study until his eyes started to bleed, but at the moment I had too much else on my mind. And it might be prudent—given that a man I knew only as an e-mail address who was likely a killer had made it plain to me that he was going to figure out how to find me—to have as many members of my family as possible out of the house.

So I made a detour on the way home that would take us by Andy’s house, and despite traveling well over the limit, there was still time for Paul to push his most recent agenda.

“I’m not talking about a big tattoo. Just a small one, where you’d never even see it. Like on my back, or shoulder, or my butt.”

“You want to get a tattoo on your butt.”

“It’s not like it’s going to bother you or Mom. You won’t even see it.”

“If no one’s going to see it, then why bother to get it done?”

Paul measured his words carefully. “Well, someone might see it. Eventually. Just not you guys. There’s all sorts of neat designs. I can show you, on the Web, just so you don’t think they’re all gross. They’re really a form of art.”

“A form of art that can never be removed. You get a tattoo, you’ve got it for life.”

“They have ways of getting rid of them.”