The Missing

Kendall nods. Inside the house she works on cleaning her wounds. Mrs. Fletcher turns on the news, but there’s nothing about Nico yet. Takes a while for word to travel to civilization from way out here.

Sheriff Greenwood arrives, cowboy hat in hand. With him is someone Kendall doesn’t recognize.

“Afternoon, Mrs. Fletcher, Kendall. This is Sergeant Dunne from the Montana State Police. He’s here to help us find Nico.”

“Hello, please sit down,” Mrs. Fletcher says, pointing to the dining table. She walks through the great room into the kitchen, gets cups, saucers, and the coffee pot, and pours coffee automatically, as if the two cops come over for coffee every day.

They sit at the dining room table, and Sheriff Greenwood takes out a notepad. “For the sake of time, we’re going to get right into the questions here, okay?” He continues without looking up to see the nods. “Now, Kendall, can you describe your relationship with Nico Cruz?”

Kendall is immediately flustered. “What do you mean? We’re neighbors, best friends since we were little kids. You know that.”

Sergeant Dunne leans in and says, “Are you all dating?”

“Yes, I guess so. I mean, we don’t really go out all that much, but yeah . . . sort of.”

Sergeant Dunne nods. “So he’s your boyfriend?”

“No. I mean . . .” Kendall looks to her mother for help.

“Kendall doesn’t like to use that term because it feels too much like a commitment, but yes, for all intents and purposes here, Nico is Kendall’s boyfriend.” Mrs. Fletcher holds Kendall’s hand and squeezes it. She looks at Kendall and says, “Okay?”

Kendall nods. She agrees. She just can’t say it.

“Okay,” Sheriff Greenwood says. “When did you last see Nico?”

“Yesterday at school. I had to go into town to pick up a few things after school. He went home.”

“What things?”

Kendall blushes deeply. “Tampons. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Kendall,” Mrs. Fletcher says, “they’re just trying to figure things out.”

“Sorry, miss,” Sergeant Dunne says. “So that was at what time?”

“Three thirty-five, I guess.”

“You didn’t see him after that?”

“No.”

“Did you talk with him last night? E-mail, phone?”

“He calls me most nights around eleven.”

“Did he call last night?”

Kendall hesitates, trying to remember. “Actually, I don’t know. I fell asleep on the couch down here watching TV. Mom?”

“I didn’t hear your phone ring,” Mrs. Fletcher says. She turns to the men. “Kendall has her own phone line in her bedroom. It didn’t ring down here, as far as I know, but Dad and I were asleep by ten.”

“You go to bed early on a Friday night,” the sergeant says lightly.

Mrs. Fletcher looks at him sharply. “We live on a farm. Day begins at five a.m., sir. We don’t pause for the weekends.”

Sergeant Dunne nods. “Yes, ma’am.” He turns back to Kendall. “So you don’t think he called?”

“I don’t know if he called. I can’t hear my phone ring down here.”

Dunne looks at Greenwood. “I’ll have them check phone records. Please write your phone number here, Miss Fletcher. Nico’s, too, please.”

“Didn’t Mr. and Mrs. Cruz already give you Nico’s number?” Mrs. Fletcher asks.

“Ma’am, there could be more than one number. Teenagers hide things from their parents all the time. Don’t they, Kendall?” He glances at her.

She glares back at him. “I don’t.”

Mrs. Fletcher pours more coffee.

“All righty, Kendall,” Sheriff Greenwood says. “How has Nico been acting lately? The same as always, or different? Anything unusual that springs to mind?”

Kendall swallows hard. She doesn’t like Sergeant Dunne. Doesn’t want to say anything that might make Nico look bad. But she knows she has to tell the truth. “He’s been acting preoccupied the last few days.” Her voice catches a little, but she controls it. “We were supposed to go to Bozeman today to look at Montana State. He wants to be a nurse. So I think he had that on his mind.”

Sheriff Greenwood writes for a moment. “What else do you think could have made him act preoccupied? Anything?”

Kendall thinks hard. Shakes her head. “Nothing I can think of.”

“Were you two having relationship problems?”

“No. I mean, I asked him if he was acting weird because of me, and he said no, he loved me just like always.” Kendall chokes on a deep sob that comes from her gut. Mrs. Fletcher puts her arm around Kendall. She’s crying too now. The bad thoughts start going in Kendall’s head again. Stuff she can’t control. Could Jacián have done something to Nico, too?

Sheriff Greenwood writes a few more things, and then closes his notebook. “Okay. That’s it for now.”

Kendall looks up. “Are you going to question Jacián Obregon?”

Mrs. Fletcher turns sharply toward Kendall, surprised.

Sheriff Greenwood shakes his head firmly and says with an edge in his voice, as if he’s said it ten times before, “Jacián Obregon is not a suspect here or in Tiffany Quinn’s case. Do you have reason to think he should be? Real reason, I mean, not just rumors?”

Kendall opens her mouth, and then she closes it again. And then says, “No, sir.”

“Good. Then, let’s leave him out of it. He’s been through enough.”

Kendall stares at the sheriff. “I’m sorry,” she says after a moment.

He nods and smiles sympathetically, and suddenly he’s Eli’s dad again. “No harm done.” He stands up, and Sergeant Dunne follows. “We’re going to do everything we can to find him.”

“Are we going to do a massive search thing, like with Tiffany?” It strikes Kendall that a search could turn up absolutely nothing, just like last time. She can’t let herself believe it.

“It’s being planned right now, and the first responder teams are already out there, just in case. You should get a call this evening with instructions for an organized search first thing tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll find he’s just out hiking in the foothills or something and it won’t be necessary.”

“Thank you,” Kendall says. Mrs. Fletcher walks them to the door. Kendall lowers her head to the table. Numb. She knows he’s not hiking. He would never do that alone. Not without her.

Just then, Sergeant Dunne pops his head back in. “By the way, Kendall, what was the relationship between Nico and Tiffany Quinn? Did they know each other?”

Kendall lifts her head and looks at Sergeant Dunne. She narrows her eyes. “Of course. Have you seen the size of this town? Everybody knows everybody.”

He smiles disarmingly. “Did they ever do anything together? You know . . . maybe there was something going on between them.” He pauses. “It’s an awfully strange coincidence, two kids from a town this small.”

Kendall slowly sits up. “No,” she says. “No, there was nothing going on between them. She was just a kid.”

“At the time of her disappearance, she was fifteen. Nico was seventeen.” He stops, as if that explains something. “Were you and Nico dating then?”

Kendall speaks through gritted teeth. “Yes. Sort of.”

“Did he ever take you to any secret places, in the mountains or the woods, to get away from everybody? Maybe to be alone, have sex?”

“No!” she says, flustered. “We aren’t that serious. We aren’t . . . sexually active.”

“Oh, right. You said that you didn’t want a commitment in the relationship. Were you two free to see others, then?”

Kendall shakes her head, trying to grasp what he’s really saying, feeling like she’s in an episode of Law & Order: SVU. “He wasn’t seeing her. I know he wasn’t. Okay?”

Sergeant Dunne is quiet for a moment, looking at Kendall. And then he says in a low voice, “Well, maybe he is now.”

Mrs. Fletcher stands quickly as Kendall shoves her chair back and gets up. It makes an awful scraping sound on the wooden floor. Her hands are trembling. “What are you saying?”

“We’re just covering all our bases. Running through all the scenarios.” His cliché-laden monotone is deeply annoying.

“Why would he do anything to her? If they wanted to be together, nobody was stopping them!”

Sergeant Dunne tilts his head. “Maybe he got a little frustrated with your noncommitment and did something he was ashamed of. I don’t know. You tell me.”

“Well, you’re wrong!” Kendall’s voice breaks.

Mrs. Fletcher steps in, her voice clear and firm. “Sergeant, is there anything else?”

Sergeant Dunne doesn’t take his eyes off Kendall, though his gaze softens a bit. For a moment he doesn’t move. And then he says, “No, ma’am, that’s it for today.” He nods once and steps back outside. “Let us know if you think of anything else that might help us find your friend,” he says to Kendall.

Kendall flees the kitchen and runs upstairs to her room.

Falls apart. Sobbing. So lost in this situation, she cannot handle it. Her brain can’t handle it.

All she can do is try. Try to stop picturing Nico and Tiffany in some secret mountain hideout having sex together.

By early morning the national news networks pick it up. This small-town teen runaway story is no longer worthy of only a tiny blip on the radar of Bozeman TV. Within twenty-four hours it has become the unfortunate American horror sensation of the week. Nico’s face is splashed all over TV, and Tiffany Quinn’s entire history is resurrected and replayed along with Nico’s history. It’s not long before reporters try to connect the two in sinister ways, just like Sergeant Dunne did yesterday with Kendall. Did Nico “make Tiffany disappear” and now has disappeared himself? Where could they be? What is the dark side of Nico Cruz?

Oh, yes, it’s all speculation. The reporters admit it.

But you can tell they believe it.

Mr. Fletcher turns the TV off. Kendall stares at the blank screen, her hair disheveled, eyes red.

“Kendall,” he says. He puts his hand on her arm.

She doesn’t move.

“Honey.”

Kendall just shakes her head. Whispers, her throat sore from crying, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Her father stands up, pulls her to her feet. Hugs her close and whispers, “Come on, pumpkin.”

Kendall nods, her cheek against his shoulder. When she pulls away, she sees the shine in his eyes.

He looks away. “Let’s go find him.”

There are helicopters. News teams are arriving, setting up camp in front of the Feed and Seed shop and inside the farmers’ market.

More police mill around than Kendall’s ever seen before in one place. Many people drive or walk to the town center, but several come on four-wheelers for the sake of faster off-road searching. Marlena and Jacián are among them. Kendall narrows her eyes.

Sheriff Greenwood stands on the steps of the restaurant with a bullhorn, and he holds it up, testing it out to get everybody’s attention.

Kendall looks around. It’s barely dawn on a Sunday morning, and everybody is here, just like last time. Except for Nico.

Students eye Kendall warily, sympathetically, looking unsure if they should approach her. Most don’t. Kendall and her parents walk over to Nico’s parents and stand quietly, the moms exchanging hugs. Nothing much to say. Lack of sleep is evident in all their faces, and that says it all. Kendall sees Tiffany Quinn’s mother standing in the crowd. She looks old, like she’s aged ten years since May. Kendall glances at Nico’s parents and wonders what will happen to them.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.