I felt bad for throwing that in his face a couple times now when it was obviously something he struggled with. “No. I mean, sometimes you like to goof off, and when my awful temper comes out because I’m hurt or whatever, I say that, but I don’t think that’s you.”

“What’s me, then?”

“You care about people. Look at what you’re doing for me tonight.”

“That’s because I like you, Moore. It’s completely selfish.”

“So did you like Painter Boy and Suck It Guy too?”

“Suck It Guy?”

“You know, ‘Suck it, fear!’” I rolled my eyes.

He laughed. “Oh, you mean Suck It Girl.”

“That was a girl?”

“Yep. People’s brains perceive things how they want to perceive things. You’d assigned Heath Hall a gender, so you didn’t analyze the evidence right.”

“Huh. Weird.”

“Wait . . . you thought it was me that night, didn’t you? Did you think I was all the versions of Heath Hall?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you totally figured out that it was more than one person because of the things you said over private message. That’s why I told you.”

“What things did I say? The dog thing?”

“No. You said, ‘like Dumbo’s black feather,’ and that the mask helped others reveal their fears too. I thought you figured it out.”

“I meant the mask, you, the private-message thing was helping me reveal my fears . . . to you.”

“Oh. Yeah, no. I didn’t get that.”

I laughed. “By the way, that mask is hot. And not looks-wise.”

“You wore it?”

“It helped me drive the truck off the platform.”

He smiled and stared at the mask for a long moment. “There’s just something about it, right? The spirit of the spy hero Heath Hall must live in there somewhere. And knowing the mask has been there while so many people faced what’s scared them. Revealed something important. It’s almost like it really does have some power.”

For once, I didn’t think Jackson was kidding, and I agreed with him.

Twenty-Nine

“So where are we going, Moore?”

“What time do you have to be back?” I asked.

“My curfew is midnight.”

“Then I want to go everywhere I’ve ever wanted to go.”

He laughed. “Not sure if we can accomplish that very general goal in three hours.”

“No, it’s actually quite specific. Every time I’ve wanted to go somewhere but have been stuck because I didn’t have a car. That’s where we are going tonight.”

“So Disneyland from when you were five?”

“No, I just mean since I’ve had a license. So the last ten months.”

“Got it. Sounds awesome.”

“First stop.” I pulled into the 7-Eleven parking lot.

“Seven-Eleven?”

“Have you ever gotten a craving so bad that you still remember it ten months later?”

He raised his eyebrows at me in the teasing way he had. “Yes, I have.”