AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Auggie resisted the urge to look at Theo. “Would you mind if we took a look? It might help us, you know. Nobody knows where Shaniyah might be, and I know it’s a longshot, but we’ll try anything at this point.”
“It’s just a room,” Elise said, but she stepped through the opening to a hallway, and that seemed like an invitation.
They followed her up a flight of stairs. Family photos hung on the wall: Elise, growing younger and younger as they moved up the steps; a man with a strong jaw and dark, wavy hair who grew younger with her; and a boy who must have been Leon.
In the most recent picture, he might have been fifteen or sixteen. He was taller than his dad, and he was thin in a way that Auggie couldn’t quite pin down—it might have been the way a lot of teenage boys were thin, but taken together with the bleached blond hair, the black shirt and the ripped black jeans, it struck Auggie as that emaciated look fetishized by some gay men. He had several tattoos visible on his arms, but Auggie couldn’t make out what they were in the photo.
The second floor of the bungalow was really more of a half-story—a single low-ceilinged room with dormer windows that looked out the front and back. The twin bed had a body pillow shaped like a half-peeled banana. Black booty shorts with rainbow trim hung off the back of a chair. A matching rainbow headband lay on the floor. Fairy lights had been stapled to the sloping ceiling, with an ancient bedsheet tacked over them like an improvised canopy. It was a child’s attempt to make a bad place better, and something inside Auggie broke as he took it in.
“It’s just a room,” Elise said again. And then, “I’ve got to go to work.”
“Who was that woman?” Theo asked. “The one who was here before us.”
There was still steel in Elise Purdue, somewhere, at some level because the question struck another spark. “Ambyr.”
The way she said it told Auggie something. “And who’s Merlin?”
“Merlin’s my husband. My ex-husband.”
“What did she want?”
“She wanted to cause trouble. That’s all she ever does. She says Leon owes her money. She deals drugs, did you know that?”
“No,” Auggie said, “I didn’t.” But he was thinking about what she had said on her stream, about trying to get her personal property back. “Did she and your ex-husband get together—I mean, would she know Leon? Have any contact with him?”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go to work.”
“If we could get Leon’s number,” Theo said. “Before we go.”
She gave it to them while they stood on the porch, the swampiness of the summer day submerging Auggie again. Then she started to close the door.
A thought struck Auggie, and he held out a hand. “Did she record the interview? Shaniyah, I mean. When she came to talk to you. Did she record the conversation on her phone?”
Elise moved one shoulder and shut the door.
They made their way to the Audi, and Auggie started the car and rolled down the windows. Sweat broke out across his forehead, under his arms, down his back. He turned the vents toward him and fanned himself with one hand.
“I should report her,” Theo said. “I should call child services.”
“She doesn’t have a child anymore, Theo. Leon’s emancipated.”
“He’s a kid, Auggie. He shouldn’t be out on his own, living God knows where. You heard her—she can’t even keep track of the last time she saw him.”
Auggie nodded.
“Why the fuck didn’t anyone report her?”
“She’s obviously had a hard life. I think she’s probably done the best she can.”
“It was really fucking good, wasn’t it?”
Auggie put on his sunglasses.
“Somebody should have reported the whole fucking situation,” Theo said, the words verging on a shout. “What the fuck were his teachers doing? What about the neighbors? Somebody knew, Auggie. Somebody fucking knew and didn’t care enough to say anything.”
Auggie let the words fade. Then he said, “That fucking room.”
For a moment, Theo looked like he might shout again. Then he nodded, wiping his forehead.
