“Yes.”
“If there were two, there might be more.”
Tean nodded.
“And that means more suspects.More people who might have wanted to hurt this asshole.”
Tean nodded again.
“That helps, right?”
“I suppose.I mean, it’s hard to be happy about the fact that Brennon turned out to be a serial child molester and predator.”
“But we know more than we did.We know he was probably killed Sunday night.”
“Probably.”
“I said probably,” Jem said with a flash of a smile.“And we know the police are still looking for his phone and car, which is good for us because—well, fuck me.Does this kid not exist?”
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to find Kazen Shumway.”Jem made a noise of disgust and tapped furiously.Under his breath, he said, “Okay, let’s do this again.K, A, Y, Z—”
Tean leaned to look at the phone.“Try it without the Y.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?There are, like, twenty Kaydens and Caymans and Kaylynns in a five-block radius around us.”
In spite of himself, Tean smiled.“Well, there aren’t any hard rules about spelling names.People can do whatever they want.In Utah, they usually do.”
“Fuck that,” Jem grumbled as he erased the Y.“That’s so unfair.”
In sympathy, Tean scratched the back of Jem’s neck while Jem finished typing in the boy’s name.Jem rolled his head a few times, leaning into Tean’s touch, and then said, “There you are.Hey!Don’t stop.”
Tean, who had bent to see the phone and forgotten his primary responsibility, went back to scratching Jem’s neck as he studied the public white page listing for Kazen Shumway.It listed a South Jordan address not far from Brennon Lee’s house, listed his age astwenties, and provided several names he might be related to, including one at the same address: Erica Shumway—her age was listed asforties.
“Mom and son?”Jem said, scrunching up his shoulders when Tean ran his nails over a particularly sensitive spot.
“No dad,” Tean noted.
“Kazen’s a troubled boy, needs a strong male role model, exact same bullshit.Looks like Brennon had an MO.”
Tean shook his head.
“Want to try to talk to him?”Jem said.
“I think we should,” Tean said slowly.“Since we don’t seem to have any other leads right now.”
The Shumway house was another brick rambler, about the same age as Ammon’s, but with a patchy yard gone to weeds and dirt.Most of the house crouched in shadow, but a single, daylight-white bulb on the porch cast a glare across the front to reveal a sagging storm door, disintegrating mortar, and paint peeling from the window frames.Behind old single-pane windows hung moon-and-star curtains that had faded from what had probably been navy to a blue so washed out it was almost gray.The curtains were closed, but a hint of warmer light unfurled around the edges.
As Tean stepped up onto the concrete stoop that served as a porch, he realized Jem had stopped on the walk and was staring up the street.
In answer to the unspoken question, Jem murmured, “I thought someone was following us.”But after a moment, when the end of the street stayed dark, he said, “Never mind.”
Tean knocked.
The door opened to reveal a young man wearing nothing but a tiny pair of shorts that rode low enough on his hips to expose the top of a jockstrap, bright red against smooth, pale skin.He was shorter than Tean and leanly muscled, arms and legs toned but not overly developed, chest tight, abs prominent.His dark hair hung in curtains, and he was smiling.
“Hey.”He held the door open with one arm and angled his body in invitation.“Come in.”
