“Probably hiding from you. He’s not very social.”
“Great watchdog.”
He shrugged. “I trained him well.”
She stood, walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the pictures. She grabbed the one of his dead son, looked it over and then set it down again in its spot. She knew about Michael, but thankfully never brought it up with him. Everyone knew about Michael.
She wandered around the rest of the room, glancing at his limited knick-knacks and furniture and he watched her in a way he had never seen before. She had great legs and the skirt she was wearing showed them off. He figured the alcohol was contributing to this new perspective, but he didn’t care. She turned and noticed him noticing her. A tiny, little smile formed on her lips, but she said nothing. He quickly looked away.
“What about the footprints in the snow? Anything on that?” he asked.
She nodded. “All consistent with children or teenagers, unless the perp is a very small man or woman, which can’t be ruled out, of course. No other footprints were in the vicinity except for the rescue crew and ours.”
“What’s your gut feeling?”
“I think some kids were there. I don’t know what they were doing, but I bet they know something. If we can find out who, we can probably learn something about what actually happened.”
“What about the accidental death scenario?”
“Explain,” she said.
“A group of kids kill their buddy by mistake, panic, and try to ditch the body. I’ve heard about it happening before.”
“The only thing about that scenario that doesn’t make sense is the lack of a reported missing person. If the kid is local and had some horrible accident that’s being covered up, why hasn’t some distraught mother called us looking for her baby?”
He saluted her with his beer. “Good point. Unless it’s some parent that doesn’t care or isn’t expecting their kid to be home. Maybe he was away at a sleepover or party and he wasn’t due back home until today. Could be overlooked for a day or two.”
“Yeah. I guess we’ll see in the next twenty four hours. Should we check out the neighborhood kids tomorrow?”
“That’s my plan.”
“What about the Harrison kid? Think he knows anything?”
He paused. “My gut feeling is yes, but I’m going to leave that can of worms alone for a while, don’t you think?”
She nodded, drained her beer, crushed it and then added it to the pile of destroyed empties he had already accumulated.
He laughed. “Have another,” he said, holding up the beer to her. She grinned and took it from him.
Chapter 11
School on Monday was abuzz with the story of the boy pulled from the pool. It hadn’t made the news, not even a blurb in the paper, but that didn’t keep it from spreading like wildfire around the campus as the day went on. Luke kept out of the conversations, but kept his ears open hoping to catch some clue about who the kid was. By the end of the day, the rumors flying around about his identity amounted to nothing more than gossip and couldn’t be judged reliable. Could anything a teenager said be held truthful, Luke thought to himself? He wasn’t above criticizing his generation, who he knew to be fickle and irresponsible, himself included.
At lunch he sat with Ellie, joked with her about everyday nothingness and held her hand as the rest of the kids noticed the new closeness between them. He spotted, more than once, whispers and giggles among their friends and even a few evil looks from some of the other girls, but for the most part, his eyes were only on her. She had slept a little better on Sunday night and so had he. She looked beautiful with her short hair pulled back in a red band and her blue eyes clear and bright. He whispered to her that he really wanted to kiss her here in front of everyone and she smiled and turned red.
“Well, why don’t you, Mr. Harrison?”
“I think I will, Miss Pemberton,” and he plopped one on her right there in the cafeteria. It was cool.
Luke, Jimmy, and John walked her home from the bus stop, keeping to the plan of sticking together. Patrick, who still looked pissed asked, “What the hell are you guys doing with my sister?”
“I’m walking her home,” Luke said, “and they’re with me.”
“What are you guys? Stupid or something?”
“Shut up, Patrick,” Ellie said.
He laughed at them but didn’t push it.
They dropped Ellie off, and as they turned into their court, they saw the cop, Jaxon, and the woman, talking to Ralph and his sister. They were showing him a picture. They looked up at Luke and seemed to dismiss Ralph while they turned and walked to their car. They got in and drove off without a second glance.
“Hey Ralph!” Luke yelled. “Wait up!”
Luke, John, and Jimmy jogged up to Ralph and his sister and Luke asked, “What were they doing?”
“Asking us a bunch of questions,” Ralph said.
“Like what?” John asked.
“Did we notice anything weird or any weird people around lately, and did we see anything at the pool that was strange or suspicious?”
“What else?”
“They showed us a picture of a boy and asked if we knew him or recognized him, but we didn’t.”
“Did they ask anything about us?” Luke asked.
“No. Why?”
“Nothing,” John said. “See ya’.”
Ralph looked at them funny but didn’t say anything more. They walked the rest of the way home, slogging through the slush in the road and Luke said goodbye as Jimmy and John turned into their house. Luke’s dad was waiting for him at the top of the drive and he looked angry. Oh crap, Luke thought. Now what?
Luke and his dad had an ordered relationship at best. His dad ordered him around and he did whatever he was told. He learned a long time ago not to question his father. It didn’t go well when he did.
“Hey, Dad,” Luke offered as he made his way up the icy drive.
“What kind of crap have you boys been up to?” his dad asked.
“We’ve been at school.”
He gave Luke a look that said, ‘Don’t take me for an idiot.’ “I’ve been watching those two cops for the last hour and they stopped every kid coming home except you four. As a matter of fact, they almost ran off when they saw you. What the hell is going on?”
Luke hesitated for a second, then said, “I don’t know, Dad. Maybe they got the information they needed.”
“What do you know about this boy in the pool?”
“Nothing.”
“Who was he?”
“I don’t know. Nobody at school knows.”
His father eyeballed him and he tried to keep eye contact but finally had to look away.
“You seemed awfully nervous when you saw the cops at our house.”
“Everybody gets nervous around cops,” Luke said.
“But how did you know they were cops? They could’ve been anybody visiting your mother and I.”
“I recognized the one from Ellie’s dog and the pool. The woman was at the pool too.”
His dad frowned, and then said, “You had better not be lying to me. This is serious stuff and you could get yourself into big trouble. Now, get on in and get your homework done.”
Luke nodded and went into the house relieved the confrontation was over. His dad could usually see right through him. Maybe he was getting better at lying or his dad was willing to let it go for now.
The next day Luke was at Ellie’s house watching TV in her basement. They were huddled up under a nice warm blanket and he was enjoying the feeling of being close to her. Plus he got to feel those lips against his as much as he wanted. At least until her stupid brother showed up.
“Ellie, you got a phone call,” Patrick said, handing her the cordless phone and disappearing up the stairs, but not before he gave Luke an evil look.
“I never heard the phone ring,” she said to Luke as she covered the mouthpiece. “Hello?”
“Help me…”