Not that we’d been sharing much until recently.
“What happened with the encounter?” Black asked, echoing my thoughts.
“Uh…” Eustace started, but Constance interrupted.
“A few weeks ago, he came into The Mercantile and brought the snake,” she said. “Bernice and the older lady that runs it both asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. The cops were about to be called, and I asked him to leave. He left.”
What the fuck?
Did this kid have a crush on Constance?
“Did you happen to know Maddox Thermopolis, Kieran St. James, or Axton Ranger?”
“No, why?” Eustace lied.
And he did lie.
I could read that on his face.
And I wasn’t trained like Black was. Unless you counted the prison school of hard knocks.
“How old are you, Eustace?”
“Fifteen,” he answered.
“Let me give you a ride back to your place,” Black suggested.
“I’ll be fine,” Eustace replied.
“That may be, but I’m still going to give you one,” he said. “I’d like a word with your parents.”
“They’re both at work.”
“Then we’ll head to your dad’s office,” Black suggested. “Get in.”
His words left no room for argument.
The moment the two of them left, Constance said, “You found something out.”
I nodded.
“The snake bites on the kids,” he said. “All three of them had at least four. Didn’t even remember that kid had a snake until right now.”
She snapped her fingers together. “That was what I was trying to remember!”
“What?”
“The snake,” she remembered. “I talk a lot to Dr. Pendelton. He has Eustace homeschooled. But he’s in a homeschooling co-op. There’s a group of the same age boys that meet and play soccer together. They play against area schools. I think they also formed a track team and a basketball team. So I know he has contact with other kids his age.”
“Interesting,” I said. “I’m sure Black will get that information out of him, but I’ll send him a message anyway.” I pulled out my phone. “Are you ready to go?”
She looked at her watch. “We still have an hour and a half.”
I opened the door to the house and whistled.
Peanut came barreling through the front door and out into the yard, nose to the ground.
“Was hoping you’d be okay with walking the pain in the ass for an hour while we waited. We can walk to the school and pick her up, then take your car back here.”
