I stared back at him with a frown on my face. I didn’t like the joke. Not from him. Not after what had happened.
“I suppose I should check in with Dennis and see how he’s doing,” Keith went on, “but he and I don’t really talk much now.”
“Why is that?”
“Colleen worked for Ellen at the mini-mart, remember? Ellen’s not exactly a fan of mine anymore.”
“It doesn’t matter. Right now, they need all the support they can get. If you want to call Dennis, you should.”
“I will.”
“I need to go, Keith.”
“Sure. Good luck. I hope you find Jeremiah soon. I mean, I’m sure he’s okay and all, but it’s rough when a kid is missing.”
I didn’t say anything more. There was a lot I could have said, but I didn’t. When I looked at Keith, I remembered coming out to the cemetery last winter with my guitar and singing that Sheryl Crow song, “My Favorite Mistake.” I turned away and hoped we were done, but I knew he couldn’t let it go. I hadn’t gone ten feet when he called after me.
“Hey, how come you never asked me the question, Shelby? Tom asked me. Adam asked me. You never did.”
I stopped and let him stare at my back.
“Is it because you were afraid of what I’d say?”
My shoulders heaved with a sigh. I turned around and faced him again. “I didn’t ask because I knew what you’d tell me, and I figured I’d know if you were lying. I didn’t want to have to live with that.”
Keith closed the distance between us with a little sway in his hips from his artificial leg. He didn’t look surprised by my doubts. “Well, I’m sorry to put such a burden on you, Shelby, but I want you to hear it from my mouth. I’m telling the truth. I didn’t kill my wife.”
Chapter Six
I had to put the confrontation with Keith out of my mind, because I found the grave of Jeremiah’s grandfather in the same grove where Colleen Whalen was buried. There were footsteps in the newly turned dirt, but they looked crusty and dry, dating back to the interment two weeks earlier. No one had been here recently. I was disappointed, because I realized that Jeremiah probably hadn’t been the child lurking in the cemetery grounds.
My little fairy in the forest hadn’t gone away, however. I was still being watched. When I started up the sloping trail that led back toward our house, I saw a dot of yellow come and go behind a fat old beech tree that the locals called Bartholomew. I walked quickly to get ahead of whoever it was. Where the trail crested the hill, I was invisible, so I darted off the path and took cover. Soon, quick footsteps rustled through the brush in pursuit.
“Gotcha!” I exclaimed as I jumped back on the trail.
A ten-year-old girl froze in front of me. She was dressed in a yellow hoodie, jean shorts, and sneakers. She was tall for her age and skinny as a pencil. When she pushed the hood from her face, her sunny blond hair came free, and she stared up at me with huge blue eyes.
“Hi, Shelby.”
“Anna Helvik! What are you doing here? It’s not safe to be skulking around the woods. You shouldn’t be in the cemetery by yourself.”
Wow, did I sound like a mother, or what?
I suppose I was as close to a surrogate mother to Anna as she was likely to have. I’d been there for her first steps. I’d babysat for her whenever her parents were away. When her mother, Trina, had gone to Chicago for cancer treatment five years earlier, I’d been the one to move into their house for a month to take care of Anna. It was the least I could do for Trina, because she’d always been much more than a coach to me.
I saw Trina every day throughout high school. Like most teenagers, I’d gone through my share of angst and despair back then. I was finally old enough to understand what it meant to be abandoned as a baby, and I took out my anger about it on everyone around me. I was angry on the volleyball court. I was angry with my father. I was angry at my boyfriend for wanting sex and even angrier when I gave it to him. For two years, I was a really unhappy kid, and the only person who kept me from going off the rails was Trina. She never gave up on me.
She was still my closest friend, despite the fifteen-year age difference. I told her everything. She was literally the only other person in the world who knew the truth about me and Keith Whalen. Even my father didn’t know, because he probably would have had to fire me if he did.
Trina was tall, blond, and gorgeous, and Anna was already growing up the same way. Trina’s husband, Karl, was a handsome man, but the girl standing in front of me was a miniature replica of her mother. She was also stubborn and fearless, and I like to think she got some of that from hanging out with me.
“Talk to me, Anna. Does your mom know where you are?”
“I have my phone. She can call me if she wants to know where I am.”
“What about your dad?”
“He’s on the road.”
That was no surprise. Karl Helvik had a technology job and traveled a lot. Trina was still a coach and math teacher at the high school. The two of them didn’t always have as much time for Anna as they wanted, so I filled in whenever I could.
“How did you get here?”
“Bike.”
“Well, what are you doing here anyway? Why were you hiding?”
“I was just hanging out. First I was spying on Mr. Whalen. Then you came and I figured I’d spy on you, too.”
“People don’t like it when you spy on them.”
“It’s just a game. It’s no big deal.”
There was a sullenness about her that was unusual for Anna. She’d always been a smart, sweet, mischievous kid, but she’d been standoffish with me for months. I was trying not to take it personally. Trina called it an early case of teenageritis, and maybe she was right. Anna had always been a few years ahead of other kids in most things.
“Well, let’s call your mother and get you home.”
“She’s not there.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s over at Jeremiah’s house.”
I closed my eyes in sadness, because suddenly it made sense to me. Of course, Anna had heard what happened. Of course, she was upset and scared. Jeremiah was her best friend.
“You know he’s missing?”
“Yeah. Mom said.”
“Well, we have people all over town looking for him, Anna. We’ll find him.”
“Uh-huh.”
Anna was only ten, but she seemed to know I was spouting empty promises. My father had done the same thing with the Sloans. I guess we can’t help ourselves from telling people what they want to hear.
The two of us walked together in silence, and I put my arm around her shoulder. She was so scrawny at that age, nothing but bones. I saw an ornate stone bench near the fringe of a cemetery grove, and I guided her there and we both sat down with the peaceful headstones arrayed in front of us. The trees hummed with birds and bugs. Sunshine streamed across the grass, but the bench where we sat was in the shadows, and I could feel the cold, damp stone through my pants. I hunted in my pocket, where I kept a few sour balls for when I wanted a quick candy fix. I handed one to Anna, and she unwrapped it and put it in her mouth. I kept my arm around her, and I was pleased that she didn’t pull away. At least for a little while, things felt normal between us.
“Is that why you’re here? Were you looking for Jeremiah?”
Anna shivered a little. The sour ball made a little bump in her cheek. “Yeah, he and I would hang out here sometimes.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“Can you think of other places that he might have gone? Do you and he have any secret hideouts?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? I remember Rose and I used to bike over to the drive-in before they tore it down, and we’d hang out behind the big screen. You guys don’t have a favorite spot like that?”