Juliet didn’t want to point out that the accident might have been part of the reason Theo had gotten his loan. That maybe, Calvin Parish and the rest of them still felt awful because Theo had lost his girlfriend on prom night. Nobody mentioned that his girlfriend had been in Jeremy’s car. Jeremy had, of course, survived. He’d gone on to be a college athlete before moving to Denver to work in sales. Juliet hated that she knew this, but she’d kept tabs. How could she not?
“For a little while, I thought I’d grown out of that sorrow,” Theo said. “I got married. I opened my own restaurant. But I think sorrow has a way of catching up to you. It never lets you go. Not when something that traumatic happens.” He was quiet for a moment before saying, startled, “Is that your phone?”
It was Juliet’s phone, blaring from her purse. He scrambled to get it, then pulled it out. “It’s from Alvin?” he said.
Juliet groaned. “My ex.” But then, she did a calculation in her mind. Although it was midafternoon in Singapore, there was no reason that Alvin would be calling Juliet, save for one: it had to do with Danica. She answered it immediately. “Alvin?”
Alvin’s tone was harsh and manipulative. “Do you want to know who I just got off the phone with?”
“Don’t play games,” Juliet said, breathing a sigh of relief. Alvin wouldn’t be acting like this if something really bad had happened. “Do you know where she is?”
“So you know she’s missing? Because I get the sense you’re a lackluster mother. I get the sense you don’t care where she is or what she’s doing.”
Juliet wanted to chuckle at that. But what Alvin said hit so close to home that she felt tears rising up in her throat. “Just tell me,” she whispered. “Please.”
Alvin growled what he’d learned. “Some cop from Bangor, Maine, called to tell me that my daughter was arrested for shoplifting! In a mall, of all places! I didn’t even think America had malls anymore? She’s with some guy. Some idiot teenage guy. I don’t know who you’re letting her hang around with, but I can see already that he isn’t a good influence. I mean, my daughter? Shoplifting? This is not how we conduct ourselves!”
Alvin’s rant sent a shiver down Juliet’s spine. “She’s at the station?”
“She’s at the station,” Alvin shot back. “And I’m in Singapore. I can’t do a thing.”
“No. You can’t,” Juliet said darkly. “You left her. You left us.”
Alvin coughed. “I mean, I guess you’ve forgotten about the incredible amount of alimony I send you per month?”
“Right. Because money can replace a father’s love,” Juliet said, a little too quietly. She wished she had screamed it. She wished she had half of the cutthroat arrogance of her teenage years. It could come in handy right now.
“I have to focus,” she said.
“Call me when you have her back!” Alvin cried. “We’re not done with this?—”
But Juliet hung up on him and threw her phone into the back seat. Beside her, Theo had heard everything, and he offered her a glorious, crooked smile.
“What?” Juliet asked him, matching his grin.
“Nothing,” he said. “You just sound like the Juliet I’ve known all my life, that’s all.”
25
It wasn’t till a little past six in the morning that Juliet and Theo pulled into the police station to pick Danica up. Inside, they greeted the woman at the front desk, who explained that Danica was a “good kid in a bad situation.” She then told Juliet and Theo what Danica had stolen: a fake leather jacket, a pair of earrings (although her ears were not pierced yet), and a bag of red licorice. “She’s a kid,” the officer on duty said, coming out of the break room with a coffee in a Styrofoam cup. “She’s a good kid, in fact. I don’t know what came over her.”
“What about her friend?” Juliet asked, grimacing. “He’s here, too?”
“He’s here, too, but only because he didn’t want to leave her,” the cop said, pointing at a scrawny, sleeping boy in the corner of the waiting room. The kid was maybe sixteen, but he weighed no more than 110 pounds, soaking wet. He had a bad black hair dye job, and he wore ripped black clothing. But Juliet could tell that he was from a nice family, that he had siblings he cared about, and that he usually had somewhere warm to sleep.
“Does his mother know where he is?” Juliet asked, stricken. She hated the idea of Magnum X’s mother panicking about his whereabouts as well.
“He called his mother last night and explained what was going on,” the officer said. “It’s sort of sweet. I’m calling them Bonnie and Clyde, but I don’t think it will stick.”
“What’s his name?” Juliet asked.
“He can tell you that when he wakes up,” the officer said. “In the meantime, do you want to see your daughter?”
Juliet hugged Theo goodbye, then followed the cop to the back corner room, where she found Danica on a cot, sitting upright, as though she were willing herself not to be tired. When she saw Juliet, she leaped out of bed and ran into her mother’s arms, where she shook like a frightened rabbit. When she pulled her head back, Juliet saw herself at Danica’s age: stupid, reckless, and too tender. She wanted to take all her daughter’s pain away. But she knew she had to reprimand her, too. Such was the way of motherhood.
“Honey, why did you do it?” Juliet asked, shaking her head.
“I don’t know,” Danica said, her voice breaking.
