Page 77 of Not a Word

Gage, thinking back to the night before, said to Alicia, “You said your aunt got killed?”

“Yup.”

“How did you deal with something like that?” Gage asked, like he was looking for tips.

“Well, I got high. I don’t recommend that. But hey, if that hadn’t been my strategy, I never would have met your uncle.”

“What happened to your aunt, if it’s okay to ask?”

Alicia thought before she answered. “She was a bank teller, you know? In Oshawa? And one day, these three guys came busting in wearing ski masks, and one of them, he tells her to open the till and give him everything in there, and she did just like he asked her, and after she handed over the money, the bastard shot her.”

“Oh my god,” Gage said. “And they caught him?”

She nodded. “Him and the other guys. Someone walking by the bank saw what was going down, called the police, and they were waiting for them when they came out. There was a big shootout and all three guys were killed by the cops. One of the cops got hit in the shoulder but he was okay.”

“That’s wild,” he said. “When was this?”

“Ninety-nine. Before you were even born.”

Gage was shaking his head in wonder. “What was her name?”

“Huh?”

“Your aunt. What was her name?”

“Mary. Mary Zane. I was living with her. She was looking out for me after I lost the rest of my family. And once she was gone, I was on my own. I already had a job, but it didn’t pay much, and I sure couldn’t afford to stay in her place, which was really fantastic. She was making so much money and—”

“I didn’t think tellers made that much,” Holden said.

“Huh?” Alicia said. “Right, you’re right. I’m just saying, compared to what I was making, what she was getting paid seemed like a fortune. And when she died, I got nothing. She had this older brother in Montana she hadn’t been in touch with in years but he was the closest relative and all her money and the house sale, it all went to him. He didn’t give me a dime.”

Gage had nothing to say to all that.

“Listen,” Holden said to his nephew, “you hang in there. If you need to talk, you call me. We good?”

Gage could tell he was being dismissed. He got up from the table, accepted one last hug from his uncle, then half of one from Alicia, and left.

Outside, he put one foot on his skateboard and started for home. It was a few miles, but he always made good time on his board. Along the way, he kept thinking about Alicia’s aunt getting blown away in a bank robbery. No wonder she was so messed up, he thought. Something like that would screw with your head big-time.

He heard a text as he rolled along, figuring it was his parents wondering, as always, where he was. He took out his phone, saw the message before he actually read who’d sent it.

How u doing?

Who wanted to know? He came to an abrupt stop, one foot on the pavement, one on the board, and took a closer look.

Moira.

He’d last seen her Thursday night—or was it Friday morning—just before her mom crashed a party being hosted by a mutual friend whose parents were away. Passing around a joint, chilling out before a long weekend because there was no school Friday. Gage had slipped away seconds earlier, departing down a different path so he didn’t run into the mother.

Was Moira’s question general in nature, or did she know something?

He typed back: Kinda shitty.

Heard.

How?

Come by and find out. I’m grounded.