No Kai.
The truck rumbled to life, and as Tean sped down the alley, he reached for his phone to call the police.
27
By the time Tean got home, it was midmorning.
He spent what was left of the night in the South Salt Lake police station, where he’d gone after calling 911.A pair of officers had listened to him, put him in an interview room, and left him there.Tean knew they’d found something at Amy’s house when they came back and started asking questions.
The questioning might have gone on forever except that Orsino arrived.The lieutenant had dismissed the other officers, sat, and told Tean that they’d found Amy Graham.She was dead.Had been dead for at least a day.She’d been brutally tortured.She had been put into a cardboard box near the furnace.And Orsino wanted to know everything Tean knew.
Tean told him, not that it was much.
Orsino asked again.
Tean told him again.
And Orsino asked again.
Eventually, the dance was over, and Tean was sent home.His head hurt.His shoulder and back and bottom hurt.Bruised muscles were stiffening, and exhaustion made his eyes itch.When he pulled into the driveway, the morning light was reflected in the front windows, turning the glass white.
Inside, his father was sitting on the couch.The bedding was bunched up—it was obvious that he’d slept there and then, this morning, couldn’t be bothered to either remake the bed or strip the sheets.He was reading something on Jem’s tablet—probably one of those news sites that had all the poise and class of a middle-school bully.
He looked up and frowned.“There you are.What happened?Are you okay?”
Tean dropped his keys on a tray near the door.He tried to slip out of his coat, but his banged-up shoulder howled, and so he had to draw his good arm out first, and then let the coat slide off him.“Fine.”
“I thought you were going out to help a friend.”
“I was.It took longer than I thought.”
“You were out all night.”
Tean crouched to unlace the Keens.It was harder than it should have been, and he had to brace himself with one hand on the wall.
“You’re hurt,” Tean’s dad said.
“I fell.”
“What in the world were you doing?”
“Dad, it’s been a long night.Can we talk about this later?”
“I can’t believe your friend would keep you out all night like that.”
Tean got the second Keen off and, muscles protesting, stood again.He tried to cross the room normally, but his body wouldn’t cooperate, and so it was more of a shamble, one hand pressed against his thigh like he could somehow stabilize himself that way.As he passed the sofa, he asked, “Did Jem come home?”
“No.Teancum, youreallydon’t look good.Let me drive you to an urgent care.”
Tean shook his head.
No Jem.No phone call.No messages.
And Kai had been waiting.
Was it possible the wolves had caught Jem when he’d dropped off Daniel?They’d been watching the boy for months now.Following him.And now, Tean suspected after that bizarre one-sided conversation with Kai, trying to save him.If Tean had understood Kai’s implication, the cure might be worse than the disease.As it had been for Tess.As it had been for Amy.As it had been for the rest of the people they’d killed and tortured and stuffed into plastic barrels.
We will separate the sick from the whole.
