Page 65 of Forever Gone

“I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

“We still need to ask,” Selena replied. “You’re not under arrest, and you don’t have to let us in. We can speak here if you prefer.”

The wording gave him a choice without offering an escape from the conversation.

Boyd studied both women, then closed the door long enough to remove the chain.

“Come on, then.”

The living room held too much furniture for its size. A brown sofa faced an old television housed in a wooden cabinet. Side tables crowded both ends, covered with pill bottles, tissues, magazines, and framed family photographs. Heavy curtains reduced the remaining daylight to narrow lines around the windows.

An elderly woman sat in a padded chair near the television. Thin white hair had been brushed away from her forehead, and a knitted blanket covered her legs despite the warmth. On-screen, two men in suits argued inside a courtroom filmed decades earlier.

Boyd pointed toward the sofa. “Sit wherever.”

Selena remained standing. “Would you like some privacy?”

“For what?”

“For our questions.”

Boyd followed her attention toward the elderly woman. “Don’t mind her. That’s my mom. She has dementia. Half the time she doesn’t know who I am.”

His mother turned from the television. “I know who you are.”

Boyd’s expression softened. “I know, Mom.”

“You’re late for school.”

“No, I’m not. School was a long time ago.”

The woman frowned at the screen as if it had contradicted him.

Kelly sat near the end of the sofa while Selena took the other side. Boyd lowered himself into a wooden chair beside his mother.

Selena opened her notebook. “When did you last see Karen Sloane?”

Boyd rubbed one thumb across his palm. “High school, I suppose.”

“You haven’t spoken to her since then?”

“No.”

“No calls, messages, or contact through social media?”

“I don’t use that stuff.”

Kelly said, “Did you know she’d returned to Harlan County?”

“I didn’t know she’d left.”

“Did you know she was recently divorced?”

“No.”

“Did you know where she was staying?”

Boyd gave a humorless laugh. “I already told you. I hadn’t seen her since school.”