15

“Who’s his daddy?” I asked after we’d climbed into the sheriff’s cruiser.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

Patterson gave me a look as if he thought I was playing an elaborate prank on him. “Mayor Keith.”

“What?”

“Yeah. After the divorce, Lane took his mother’s name. But he and the mayor are real close.” Patterson crossed his fingers and held them up. “More like friends these days than anything else.”

I nodded, trying to understand how this news affected … well, everything. “Are you going to arrest me?”

Patterson shook his head. “I’m going under the assumption that Lane started it. And if that’s not what happened, I don’t want to hear about it.” He reached over and touched my jaw lightly. “Yep, he gave you a good blow there. Might be broken. Go get it looked at.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’m serious. Go get it looked at. Make sure there’s a medical record in case he tries to push things.”

“Sure,” I said, even though as soon as I’d said the word, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. Nothing was going to happen besides trying to find Mary.

All at once the realization that she was really gone hit me hard. Maybe it was because, in that moment, there was no one to fight, no one to blame, nothing, really, for me to do at all, other than face the reality of the situation.

Mary Hawkins was missing.

“You okay?”

“No,” I said. “I love her.”

Patterson nodded. “That’s why I’m letting this thing go with Lane. His daddy knows he’s a hothead, so he’ll buy that you two were talking and he threw the first punch.” Patterson made the turn onto County Road 18 to take me to my truck. “At least I hope he will.”

“Where was Jefferson?” I asked. “You said he was at a friend’s? Who was the friend?”

Patterson looked over at me warily. “Why, you going to go kick his ass too?”

“No, of course not. Look, that’s not normally how I work. It’s just … I had to do something, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. And that’s why I’m cutting you a little slack.” He slowed the cruiser as my truck came into view. “This time.”

I felt like I was at the end of a short rope, hanging on with one hand while the wind blew like crazy. Below me was the black water, and even though I could hang on for a long time, it wouldn’t matter because the water was rising, and there was nothing I could do about that.

He stopped the cruiser. “Get some sleep. Like I said earlier, she’s either out there somewhere, or one of Ronnie’s friends has her. Either way, we’ll find her.”

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“Who was Lane with?”

“I don’t think you know him.”

“Try me.”

Patterson sighed. “His name is Tag Monroe. He lives up on Summer Mountain.”

I nodded. “So, he’s respectable.”

“Excuse me?”

“It just seems like that would be the only reason you’d add the part about where he lived.”

“Come again?”

“It’s a subtle way of saying he’s rich as fuck and therefore reliable. It’s okay. You probably didn’t even realize it.”

“I don’t know what you want from me, Earl. I’m just following protocol. He’s got a solid alibi. Now, if you want to argue that he masterminded the whole thing…”

“That’s exactly what I want to argue. He told Ronnie to get me and Mary to the cornfield tonight.”

“That’s according to Ronnie. Do you know he’s been calling the office for the last three months trying to get Lane arrested for something?”

“Maybe you should have listened.”

“We did. Before I understood their dynamic, before I understood Ronnie, we looked into it all. There wasn’t shit there. Mind if I ask you a question?”

I shrugged.

“How’d you even get hooked up with a man like Ronnie anyway?”

I laughed. It was a good question. I surprised myself with my response. “He’s not what you think.”

“Yeah? What is he then?”

For some reason I thought of my mother. Her theory about evil jumping from one person to the next. I thought of my own daddy and Ronnie’s grandfather, who’d been my father’s best friend. Maybe jump wasn’t the word I was looking for, but there had definitely been some kind of transfer there, some kind of throttling of innocence from a young age, and neither of us had quite recovered since.

“He’s just a man,” I said, and got out of the car.