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The person outside knocks again.
CHAPTER 46
Oliver
The second knock comes in two quick strikes and one harder demand. I know it before the sound finishes moving through the house. “That’s Juney’s knock,” I say.
Heather gets up from the sofa. She takes a ring from her pocket and holds it out to me. Three brass keys hang from it. “Then answer it,” she says.
I set the book beside my empty bowl and take Heather’s keys. They’re warm from her pocket.
Juney knocks again while I cross the living room. Heather remains beside the sofa with Jamie close to one hip. Simon stays on the rug.
I see Juney in the narrow pane beside the door. She’s wearing a dark coat and holding a stack of white flyers against her chest. Her face is turned toward the neighboring house.
The first key sticks before the deadbolt turns. The second moves more easily. By the time I reach the third, Juney has turned back toward the door.
Cold air enters before I pull it fully open.
Juney looks down at the flyer in her hand. “I’m sorry to bother you. My brother has been missing for several weeks, and I’m asking everyone in this area if they’ve seen him.” She lifts her head. The rest of the sentence disappears.
Her photograph of me is the same one the campus uses. I’m wearing a dark jacket and leaning against a stack of books, looking at her instead of the camera because she said something insulting about my hair immediately before taking it.
Juney looks from the photograph to my face. “Nate?”
She drops the other flyers. Paper slides across the porch and catches against her boots. Juney reaches me, both hands closing around my arms.
“Oh my God.” She pulls me into her and nearly knocks the keys from my hand. “Oh my God, Nate.”
I’ve heard my name through walls, across lecture halls and shouted from the other side of her house when she wanted me to carry something heavy. It no longer sounds like something I’m required to answer.
Juney pushes me back and takes my face between her hands. Her fingers move over my jaw, my hair and the arms of my glasses.
“Where have you been?” She looks over my shoulder before returning to me. “Why haven’t you called me?”
“I’m fine.” I remove her hands from my face and lower them between us. “You need to lower your voice.”
Her grip closes around my fingers. “Your car is still at the school. Campus security found your coffee in the student lot.”
“I’d finished with it.”
Juney stares at me. “That’s what you have to say?”
Behind me, the floor creaks.
Juney looks through the open door.
Jamie’s moved closer, his shoulder against Heather’s arm, while Simon’s still beside the coffee table. The knife rests near his knee.
Juney tightens her hold on my hand. “Who are they?”
“I’m Jamie,” Jamie says. “I live here.”
Juney looks at him, then at Heather. “Are you all right?”
Jamie glances up at Heather before answering. “I’m where I want to be.”
Juney looks at Simon.
