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you. And I kinda like that dog of yours. He’s been real good company for me. I don’t look so weird when I’m walking next to him.”
    Ellis laughed. “That’s funny, mister.”
    “Okay, kid, that’s great but—” Rigo began.
    Patrick cut him off. “Let the kid and Dowd talk.”
    Gulliver nodded thanks to Detective Patrick. Then he hopped up on the kid’s bed. “Listen, Ellis, I know these detectives have already asked you. But can you remember anything about what happened to you?”
    Ellis Torres’s face turned red, like he was embarrassed. His eyes darted from the detectives to Gulliver and back to the detectives.
    “Guys,” Gulliver said, turning to the cops, “can you give Ellis and me a few minutes?”
    Rigo didn’t like it. He opened his mouth to say something. But Patrick shook his head. “Sure, Dowd,” Patrick said. “But only a few minutes.”
    The detectives left the room.
    “Okay, Ellis, they’re +dr ed he saidgone. I know you want to tell me something.”
    “They would laugh at me. I don’t like when people laugh at me. You gonna laugh at me?”
    Boy, did Gulliver Dowd understand not liking to be laughed at. He raised his right hand. “I promise I won’t laugh at you.”
    “My memory is kinda, like, stupid. The last thing I remembered before waking up here is…” The kid stopped himself. “It’s stupid.”
    “No, Ellis. Please tell me. Look, I found the place in the warehouse where you and Ugly live. I didn’t tell the cops. I won’t tell them. I saw the pictures. You made a nice place for you guys. I know it’s hard for you to trust people. But please try to trust me.”
    “The last thing I remember was, like, this crazy screaming. But not like a person screaming. It was like nothing I ever heard before. I was, like, sleeping, you know? And it woke me up. At least, that’s what I think I remember.”
    Gulliver Dowd wasn’t laughing. All he could think about was Mary Shea’s banshees. “Did you climb up the ladder to look out the window? Did you look out the window to see what was screaming?”
    Ellis shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe. I’m not sure what happened. Buil. His heart

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    A hmed Foster had backed his white Cadillac Escalade down the street to keep anyone from seeing what the two of them were up to. And what they were up to was no good. They had already checked the street and nearby buildings for closed-circuit tv cameras. There were none that they could see. Ahmed’s suv was just to block the view of passersby.
    Gulliver took the bolt cutters out of the back of the Caddy and handed them to Ahmed. Both he and Ahmed were wearing latex gloves. Strictly speaking, the two of them were committing a crime. More than one. Breaking and entering. Destruction of private property. Trespassing. The list would probably grow. Ahmed squeezed the handles of the bolt cutter together. Snap! The thick U-shaped steel shackle broke cleanly in half. Gulliver twisted the lock. It fell to the ground.+aiother direction
    Ahmed swung the gate open. “After you, little man.”
    Gulliver went through. Ahmed followed. The first thing they noticed when they got to the back of the warehouse was the smell.
    “Man, it stinks bad back in here,” said Ahmed.
    Gulliver agreed. “Terrible. Like a giant box of kitty litter or something.”
    “Maybe there’s a backed-up sewer around here. I mean, this building looks like nobody’s done any work on it in years.”
    Other than the smell, there wasn’t much behind the warehouse. There were some old footprints. There were some drag marks. Some ruts left in the ground. But mostly there was just a slab of cracked concrete. Ahmed went over to the dock that was jutting into the harbor. Checked out the moorings a boat might have tied up to.
    “These have gotten some use lately,” Ahmed said. “See here. There’s some slime growin’ on top. But look where the ropes tie around. You can see where the ropes cleaned the slime away down to