“And he brings his father,” Myles cut in. “It looked like you were about to gain a brotheranda new dad, and youreallyweren’t happy about that, were you?”
I looked from one detective to another. “What are you implying?”
“We’re not implying anything. We’re pointing out the fact that three children died in Franklin, and you knew all of them. Had a grudge against all of them?”
“Grudge? No. That’s not how I remember it. Yes, I knew three of the kids who disappeared, but that’s normal in Franklin. Everyone knows at least three…” I realized where I was going and trailed off.
Myles leaned forward. “At least three what?”
I should have kept my mouth shut. I should have just kept my mouth shut. But I couldn’t, could I? Not when they were insinuating that I’d done something to Billy and Sue and Richie.
So I told them Franklin’s secret. I told them about the kids who lose their way.
They looked at each other. There was a long moment of silence. Then Myles said, “So you’re saying that a kid disappears every Halloween? Just disappears. No one investigates. No one questions. No one even mentions it.”
“Sure, they mention it. We were told that he—or she—wouldn’t be coming back to class, and we got to divvy up their stuff. But we weren’t supposed totalkabout it.”
Walker folded his hands on the tabletop. “All right, Dale. Name one other child who disappeared on Halloween.”
I had to think. Ten years of trying to forget, and now I needed to dredge up those memories.
“June Michaels. Or Mitchell.”
Walker took a sheet from a folder and ran his thick finger down the page. “June Mitchell. Abducted by her father. Found alive and well ten years later.Stillalive and well, it seems.” He looked at me. “Name another.”
“I was akid. I don’t remember— Wait, Martin. I remember a Martin.”
Another scan of the page. “Yes, I’m sure you do. Because Martin Bowers was hit by a car, right outside your school.”
“That’s just what they want you to believe,” I said. “The truth is that every year, a child disappeared on Halloween?—”
“Martin Bowers died in January, during a snowstorm. June Mitchell was abducted by her father on the last day of school. In the spring. Yes, Richie disappeared on Halloween. So did June. But Billy went missing in September. You and your mother joined the search party that eventually found his body in the forest. He’d been hit in the head with a rock and hidden under some brush.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
Walker put the paper down. “When we picked you up, you were playing basketball with a kid. Who is he?”
“My son. Well, stepson.” I gave a wry smile. “Okay, technically, not my stepsonyet, but soon. I’m engaged to his mother.”
“You’d better tell her that, then. We had a squad car follow the kid, and two of our boys chatted with his mother. She says you work at the factory together, and you won’t leave her alone. Keep pestering her to go out with you. She had no idea you were playing basketball with her son. Seems you told him it was a secret.”
I chuckled. “That’s Maura. She has a strange sense of humor. She’s probably just mad at me for making Shane walk home alone and?—”
His fist hit the table so hard I jumped. Myles slapped down a photograph of a boy about eleven.
“Want to tell us about him?” Myles said.
I looked down at the photograph. “He looks familiar but…” I shook my head. “I don’t think I know him.”
“He lived in your apartment building. Disappeared three years ago. Everyone in the building was questioned. Including you. But you don’t remember it?”
“Did he disappear on Halloween?” I picked up the photograph. “Poor kid. That happens sometimes. They lose their way.”
Myles squeaked his chair back and started to rise, but Walker eased him down and said, “Tell us about your mother, Dale.”
I lowered the photograph as grief surged.
“Died last month, didn’t she?” Walker said. “Cancer.”
