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Dalton shrugged.
“Jesus,” Theo said.
Easy,Auggie mouthed.
But Theo sat back hard in his seat, and the tubular legs groaned. His cheeks were red behind his beard.
“Enough,” Auggie said quietly.
“He was a child—”
“Theo.”
It looked like it took a tremendous amount of effort, but Theo stopped and looked away.
Dalton had watched the exchange with a dull-eyed helplessness, and now he turned that empty gaze on Auggie.
“What happened?” Auggie asked.
“This man had another video to shoot. Another opportunity for Leon. More money. Maybe, if it went well, a studio contract. But it meant moving out to California. Right then.”
“When was this?”
“The weekend of Fourth of July.”
The end of June, Auggie thought. Everyone had said the end of June.
“I couldn’t even pretend to be supportive,” Dalton said. “I told him he was taking too big a risk. I told him he didn’t know anyone out there, didn’t have anyone who could help him if the deal turned out to be bad, or if this guy wasn’t who he said he was, or if he got sick. We fought. It was a huge, ugly fight. He said ugly things.”
Auggie could imagine; he thought about Merlin, about how Leon had known, instinctively, where to set the knife and how to twist it.
“I left because I couldn’t stand to be there anymore. When I came back, he was…different. The Leon I knew. He was sweet. He apologized. He cried. We decided we were going to figure it out. I can retire next year; we’d move out to California together, and I’d have my pension, enough to keep us off the street while he started his career.” Dalton stopped. He shut his eyes again, but this time when he opened them, they were dry. Dry and lusterless. And, Auggie thought, unseeing. “He was lying. I finally decided, later, he was lying because he was trying to be kind to a pathetic old man. The next morning, I woke up, and he was gone. All his stuff, gone. He’d left in the middle of the night.”
That pressurized silence was back again, making Auggie’s ears throb. He tried to look at Dalton, but the grief there was like an open wound, and finally Auggie had to turn away. He met Theo’s gaze by chance, and he couldn’t read what he saw there. Theo touched his leg, and Auggie nodded, surprised to find himself on the brink of tears.
“Do you know this man’s name?” Theo asked. “What he called himself? His company? Did he give Leon anything?”
Dalton shook his head, but he said, “I saw him. Just once, but I’ve got a good eye for faces.”
“You’re saying you’d recognize him?”
“You have to be good at faces,” Dalton said. The words were numb. “If you want to direct, you have to be able to remember them. But you don’t understand, these people—” He cut off, and what he didn’t say hung in the air.
Finally, Theo said, “It’s your choice. But if you’re telling the truth, this is your only way out.”
“Chief Somerset is a good guy,” Auggie said. “He’ll keep you safe.”
Dalton shrugged and looked off toward the corner of the room.
“We’ll tell him you’ve decided to share some information,” Theo said. “You’re doing the right thing, Dalton.”
“I’m doing the stupid thing,” he said without looking at them. “As always.”
“Did Leon have a ring?” Auggie asked. The question popped out of him before he’d realized he was going to ask it.
Now Dalton did look at him. “A ring?”
“A class ring. From Wahredua High.”
