Tim pulls out a new glass from the cupboard. “Tap okay? I don’t really got anything else.”
“That’s fine.” Josie’s eyes are darting everywhere, taking mental notes. I look around, trying to decipher what’s important in the space.
“The boys on Cole’s team tell me you’ve been investigating his disappearance.” He hands Josie the glass. She carefully takes it without touching him.
“Not his exactly. I noticed that he and a couple other classmates of mine stopped coming to class around the same time a couple weeks ago. It caught my attention.”
“You find any traces of him? Or them?”
“No.”
“It’s cuz he’s dead.” Tim’s voice cracks on the last word. “That’s why you can’t find him.”
Josie lets out a shocked gasp. “Are you sure?”
He nods. “No way he would be gone this long without saying something to me. Cole’s momma died when he was a little tyke, and it’s been the two of us ever since. You dating my son?”
“No, sir. She’s with me.” The windbreaker I threw on rustles as I cross my arms over my chest.
Tim throws me a brief look before returning his gaze to Josie. “I see. Do you know if my son was dating anyone?”
“No, I don’t think so. At least not according to the school gossip,” she answers.
“Cole was dedicated to his game—basketball,” his dad clarifies. “But sometimes the dads don’t know all that their kids are up to, so there could’ve been a girl in his life, and he just didn’t get around to telling me.”
“I haven’t heard of anything either, sir.”
“But there were rumors about it, weren’t there?”
Josie hesitates. “Not about girls, sir. We heard that he was gambling a little bit and that he might’ve owed some people money.”
Tim staggers back, catching the counter with his hand. “I don’t know where he would get any. I make enough to keep this house over our head, put food on the table, and clothes on his back but not much more.”
“I don’t know where he got the money. I don’t even know if it’s true. It’s just a rumor. There’s all kinds of rumors about everybody,” Josie says.
“Any one of those rumors get my son killed?”
Josie doesn’t say the obvious which is yes, gambling. She only shakes her head.
“What about you?” Tim’s eyes swing to me.
I give him my best blank stare. “I don’t go to that school, sir. I don’t know anything about it.”
“Are you done with school?”
“No, I go to Lincoln. Last year.”
“You play sports? I don’t recognize you.”
“Nope. I don’t have any hand-eye coordination,” I lie.
He stares at me for a few seconds longer, like he’s envisioning me choking his son or some shit. It makes me uncomfortable, but I force myself to stay still. Finally, he turns back to Josie.
“If you hear anything more, find out anything else, I want to know. The police will, too.”
“Of course. I’m sorry about Cole. You’ll find him, though. I’m sure of it.” She turns toward me, ready to leave, and in the process, her hand brushes against the glass of water she’d set on the table.
I reach out and catch it before it can tumble to the ground and break. When I settle the glass back on the table, I catch Tim looking at me with narrowed eyes. The hand-eye coordination lie hangs between us like an anvil.
