Page 20 of Not a Word

That was Grandpa.

If only that episode had scared him off ever doing anything stupid again. But sometimes, when you were Gage’s age, the first lesson didn’t stick. Not the second or third either. God, as recently as the night before he’d nearly got caught being somewhere he shouldn’t have been. Took off seconds before shit hit the fan.

Too bad his timing wasn’t always that good.

After the call from his mother, Gage rode his skateboard to the center of town, where Fifteen Mile Creek wandered through. This was one of Gage’s favorite places. Hanging in the park by the creek, listening to the water flow past, watching the tiny ripples. He picked up his skateboard, tucked it under his arm, and walked across the grass to a picnic table not far from the water’s edge. He perched himself on the tabletop, his feet planted on the bench, and wondered what it would be like to be on a raft and ride the creek all the way down to the lake. Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of that lake, the creek took you to some wonderous, magical place where there was no bullshit? Where everyone was decent to each other, where they didn’t pretend to be something they weren’t, where the people who meant the most to you didn’t suddenly die and make you feel like you wanted to kill yourself?

Something to think about, as you put your head in your hands and bawled your eyes out until your chest hurt.

Eight

Reece

The officer who’d tracked me down to my brother’s house instructed me to drive straight back to my parents’ place. He’d be following, in case I decided to be a wise guy and take a left when he took a right.

“McCabe is some pissed with you,” he said as I came out of Holden’s house and headed for my car. I had a sense she might be just as pissed with him, since he was the one who’d moved his car, allowing me to get mine out of the driveway and leave the scene. “Don’t do anything stupid like trying to lose me on the way back.”

I had no wish to be part of a police pursuit and told him not to worry. The one who was most relieved was Holden, who’d clearly feared this cop was going to come inside the house and find more of what he’d brushed off that coffee table. At the same time, he was puzzled the police were here for me.

“What’d you do?” he asked. “You’re the good son. You probably don’t even have unpaid parking tickets.”

I could understand his confusion. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell him our father was dead. There was no way I could break it to him now and then just leave.

“I’ll be back later,” I told him. “Okay? You gonna be here? You working today?”

“I’ll double-check my calendar, but I don’t believe I have any pressing engagements,” he said as I headed out the door.

McCabe was waiting for me outside my parents’ house when I returned. After reaming me out for leaving, she asked, “Do you know a Leah Kennard?”

“No,” I said.

She showed me a driver’s license in Kennard’s name, with her picture on it. “Recognize her?”

I took a close look without touching it. “No,” I said again. “If I’ve ever seen her before or met her, I don’t remember.”

“Where’s your mother?”

“I don’t know.”

“She called you?”

I nodded. “After you and I talked, my cell rang, it was her, saying she’d been trying to reach my father. Wanted me to come by the house, see if everything was okay. Told her I was already here.”

“What else did you tell her?”

I tried to recall our conversation, what I’d said exactly. So much had happened in the last couple of hours that I was feeling overwhelmed.

“I said . . . I didn’t tell her Dad was actually dead, but when she asked me point-blank, I didn’t answer, so I think she’s figured it out.”

“You went to pick her up.”

“At Benjamin’s.” McCabe nodded. Everyone knew Benjamin’s. “But she didn’t wait. I thought she’d come back here, but you hadn’t seen her, so I went to my brother’s, but she hadn’t gone there either.”

“You’ve called her since?”

“Couple of times.”

“So where do you think she is now?”