Then there had been annoyance.
Now Theo threw rocks, Liam left him food, and the former thought about the AC.
“Didn’t you have a study group tonight? Don’t tell me you bailed to come hang out with me. You’ll never get that girl’s attention if you aren’t actually there to get it.”
Theo dropped down into his usual spot on the chair next to Liam. He was already in the process of eating the leftovers.
“Her name is Sammy, thank you very much,” he said around some food in his mouth. “And she’s the reason I bailed. She had to babysit her little sister so her parents could go somewhere.”
“Is the rest of the study group still meeting up?”
Liam saw the boy’s head nod forward in the near darkness.
“Yeah but I’m not about to go sit in some coffee shop with a bunch of people I don’t even talk to only to pretend that I’m not good at calculus.”
Liam held in a chuckle at that.
Theo Chasten was a smart aleck, but there was a heavy emphasis on the smart part. Liam had been quick to pick up on the fact that Theo’s mom wasn’t exactly one to dote on her son. She worked hard, it was true, but she often overlooked him and his needs. He’d already been dropped into foster care once as a younger kid. He didn’t talk about that time much though. Once his mom worked her plan to get him back, she’d done enough to keep him out. Still, that had weighed heavy on his little shoulders, and he had acted out more than not when he was younger. It had earned him a less-than-favorable reputation in town.
Most of Seven Roads had written him off already, thinking he didn’t know a thing. Liam, his teachers, and thankfully Theo himself knew otherwise. Though that didn’t mean he wanted others to know it. He hid his capabilities behind a facade of teenage angst and annoyance, especially from his peers.
“Plus,” Theo continued, “I heard you chased some woman through the woods today, so I thought I’d rather waste my time here talking to you.”
The image of Blake Bennet perfectly popped up in Liam’s mind. Standing there in a ripped yellow dress wearing his shirt, which swallowed her, her eyebrows scrunched, the Band-Aid she had applied moving as she was thoughtful. Sending her off with Deputy Price had bothered him more than it should have.
“I didn’t chase a woman through the woods. I chased after a manshewas chasing,” he corrected. Liam took a pull from his beer. “But that whole thing hasn’t been resolved, so I’m not talking about it here.”
The shadow of Theo’s head bobbed again.
“I figured you weren’t out there terrorizing civilians today,” he said. “Especially not when I heard it was that sheriff lady. What do you call a former sheriff, by the way? Is it like the president, where you still call them Sheriff even though they’ve left the office? Or is it more likeStar Trekand once you’ve left the captain’s chair you’re just whatever position you’re in?”
Liam quickly sidestepped the additional ramble and instead got to the part that surprised him.
“You know Blake Bennet?”
His question came out a little strong. Luckily, Theo didn’t pick up on it.
“I knowofher, but I’ve only seen her once or twice in person,” he answered. “Some of the workers at the steel mill have talked about her. Apparently, she was on TV a few times. It sounded like she upset a lot of people where she used to live.”
Liam started to fiddle with the label on his bottle.
“People at the factory were talking about her?” This wasn’t the first time that Theo, working part-time in the cafeteria, had gotten him an inside scoop.
“You’ve heard about her too. Or at least her sister. You know that guy, Hector Martinez, the guy Missy Clearwater was really good friends with before her own life got depressing, who got really badly burned when one of the furnaces started melting down a while back? That sheriff lady’s sister was the safety person who came out to do a safety report on it. Later she got into a car accident on the county road. You know, the gnarly one that had every ambulance in the county there.”
The label on the bottle started to slide off. Liam paused.
Then it finally clicked.
“Beth Bennet.” He swore under his breath. “I knew the name sounded familiar.”
Liam remembered the accident that had killed Blake’s sister. He hadn’t been in town for it, but the briefing had been enough when he’d come back. Doc Ernest had been visibly upset. The only solace she had given was that the woman had been killed instantly in the rollover. Her funeral had been a private event. Liam had meant to send his condolences but hadn’t been able to find the right time.
Then, he felt ashamed to think, he had forgotten. His mind had gone to cases and work, and now here he was putting together old pieces to a current puzzle.
“Apparently she’s been in town for a while now, but no one’s really seen her,” Theo went on. “The talk from the cafeteria wasn’t exactly nice about her either. They talked about her trying really hard to stay out of sight, but it also sounded like they didn’t try to go see her at all either.”
There was distaste in the teen’s words. For good reason, he’d never been a fan of public opinion.
