He told his body to keep walking, but he stayed there, hand on the door.
“Even if you’re not charged,” she said quietly, “people remember when you kill somebody.You’re on the board now, Dr.Leon.”
The gun had moved in his hand like something alive.Something startled.
“If you want to talk to me again,” he said—and it was strange that he felt like his teeth were about to start chattering, like he was cold, because all he could feel was the tremendous, focused heat of that magnified light—“you can arrest me.”
He opened the door.The relatively cooler and fresher air from the hallway kissed his face.
But Trevino said, “It wasn’t just his wallet that was missing.Do you want to know the last place his phone showed up?When we checked its location, I mean.Before the battery died, and the location stopped updating.”
Keep walking.Get out of this room and don’t stop walking.
But he stayed where he was.
“Mr.Young’s house,” Trevino said.“Sunday night.”
12
“They were fishing,” Jem said as he pulled the truck into their driveway.
He’d insisted on driving because Tean had looked like a zombie when he’d finally reached the lobby—his color gone, his eyes empty, his steps slow, almost disconnected.And now, in the weak light from the dash, he didn’t look much better.He slumped in the passenger seat and stared out the windshield blankly.
“That’s all it was,” Jem said.“They don’t have anything, so they’re just throwing stuff out there to see if they get a bite.”
He killed the engine.The heat from the vents died, and the cold immediately started to work its way in—the floorboards freezing under Jem’s feet.
“Hey,” he said softly, taking Tean’s hand.“We didn’t do anything wrong.”
He waited until Tean nodded.
“They don’t have anything on us.Jesus, Tean, there’s nothing to have.”
“Right,” Tean said after too long a pause.“I know.”
“They’re a pair of assholes, and they wanted to work us over because they know Ammon’s confession is bullshit and they’re trying to figure out what’s really going on.”
Tean nodded, but it was the kind of nod Jem recognized—after having dealt with a year of them—as aleave-me-alonekind of nod, not ayeah-Jem-you’re-right.For a moment, something Jem didn’t quite understand rose up inside him: something wild and huge and flailing, like he wanted to shout, grab Tean by the shoulders, shake him, do something.Anything.It was scarily close to anger.More than anger.Rage.And so he had to be careful, smile, squeeze Tean’s hand with gentle pressure, while this voice inside his head screamed,Stop it, stop acting like this, I know you’re in there!
“Things are going to look better in the morning,” Jem said.
Another of those nods, the kind like Tean was shutting a door.
It was strange how life crept up on you, Jem thought as he got out of the truck and went around to the passenger side.LouElla used to say that, about things looking better in the morning.Usually after she’d done everything she could to make things worse.
He didn’t have to help Tean out of the truck or carry him inside, but he shut the door for him, and he walked behind him.Like he might put a hand on Tean’s shoulder, if Tean needed him to.If Tean wanted him to.Like he might hold his hand.
Tean opened the front door, and then Scipio was there.And Scipio was like this third point of a triangle where they could do things and talk about things—dinner, walks, the Lab tearing the stuffing out of a brand-new toy shaped like a pumpkin spice latte—even when it felt like the two of them were miles apart.
“Hi,” Jem said, crouching to accept slobbery kisses.“Hello, yes, hello, yes, we’re home.”
After big stretches, lots of wiggles, and knocking one of Tean’s books off the coffee table with his tail, Scipio informed them he needed to go outside.When Jem opened the storm door, cold air met him with a whiff of rot.He’d have to check the yard the next day; it was squirrels, usually.Sometimes birds.And Scipio didn’t know enough to leave them alone.
Tean moved around the living room, straightening up.When he reached for a glass Jem had left on the side table, Jem said, “I’ll get that.”
“I got it,” Tean said.
When Tean picked up a pair of LA Gear low tops—the ones with the light-up soles—Jem said, “I’ll put those away.”
