It was late when he walked Nicole out to her car, the front yard now empty except for a few stray soda cans and wrappers left behind by careless members of the media. They were supposed to clean up after themselves, but some chose to ignore the rules. He stopped to pick one up, then decided against it. He could clean up tomorrow or tell Anissa to insist that the press clean up after themselves.
He felt a new wave of exhaustion wash over him, the effects of the day weighing on him. This morning he’d woken up to the news about his brother. Tonight he’d go to bed for the first time and not let himself wonder if Davy was, by some miracle, alive out there somewhere. Was it worse to have false hope, or no hope at all? He guessed he’d find out.
He felt the rock still in his pocket. He knew now he could not leave it at what had turned out to be Anissa’s place. So what could he do with it? He didn’t want to leave it on Davy’s eventual grave for fear some random person would find it and take it as some sort of macabre souvenir. But if he didn’t do that, he didn’t know what he would do with the thing.
Beside him, Nicole was fussing with the keys to her rental car. He reached out to help her, their hands brushing as he did. She pulled away as if she’d been shocked, then apologized.
“I’m just jumpy tonight,” she said. “I feel really uncomfortable, being here now with all your family’s facing.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You being here doesn’t make it any worse.”
There was a beat before she spoke, her words tentative. “Does it make it any better?”
He gave her a small, sad smile and the answer he knew she needed to hear. “Yeah,” he said. “It does.” Though residual embarrassment over the last time they’d been together fought for dominance, he ignored it, reaching for her and pulling her in for a hug.
“I want us to talk about . . . the other stuff. I do.” He glanced over his shoulder at the house, then back at her. “But first I need to get through the next couple of days.”
“Of course,” she hurried to say. She smiled. “The ‘other stuff,’ as you so eloquently put it, can wait.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve got quite a way with words, huh?”
She nodded, then leaned over and kissed him, her lips barely making contact with his before she pulled away.
“Maybe you should write a book,” she said, and he smiled in spite of himself, the heaviness leaving him for just a moment. She put her hand on his arm. “I’m here to help you, not to make your life more complicated.”
“I can complicate my life without help,” he quipped, and she winked at him, then got into her rental car and drove away.
He stood there for a few minutes after she was gone, breathing in the night air, looking up at the stars. A police cruiser came by doing its rounds and slowed when it saw him there. He lifted his hand to the cop, assuring him that things were fine.
October 12, 1985
9:56 p.m.
Anissa hears someone else calling Davy’s name. As she gets closer to the road, she spies Davy’s brother and some other kids gathered near where Davy left his bike. Anissa hopes it hasn’t been stolen. As she approaches, she sees that it’s still there.
But Davy isn’t.
Dread fills her heart like black smoke. Her sister, Marissa, is standing next to Davy’s brother and some older boys Anissa doesn’t know. Probably the boys who were with Davy’s brother tonight. The ones who’d teased Davy and sent him away.
Marissa runs toward Anissa, catches her in her arms, and presses her to her chest.
“Anissa! I was worried sick!” Marissa says. She looks so concerned, Anissa almost believes her. But the act, Anissa thinks, is for the boys’ benefit. Marissa is playing a role—dutiful, loving sister—while also drawing attention to herself. Marissa loves the attention of boys. Boy crazy, her mother calls it.
Davy’s brother runs up to Anissa. “Is my brother with you?” he asks, his breath coming out in short, anguished huffs. He looks frantic and panicked and sick. Anissa wishes Davy could see him right now. It serves him right to have to worry after how he treated Davy.
Davy, where are you? You’re missing it.
Anissa shakes her head. “He was. We were racing across the field.” She points back in the direction she has come. “But then I looked back, and he . . . wasn’t there. I went over to the driveway over there.” She points again, this time in the direction of the drive. “But he wasn’t there either. I did see a car, though.”
A couple of the boys speak up. “We saw that car!”
TJ wheels around. “You saw a car? What kind? When?” Anissa and the boys all talk at once. The car was blue, it was black, it was small, it was medium-size. It was an hour ago. It was a half hour ago. None of the stories match.
“Do you think Davy got in the car with someone? Like maybe he knew the person and they gave him a ride?” TJ asks.
Anissa doesn’t know how to answer that. Anything, she supposes, could’ve happened. Maybe Davy had gotten into that car. She didn’t see it happen, but it was so dark and she was scared, hunkered down as she attempted to hide. Maybe she is wrong about what she saw.
Already she is starting to doubt, wondering if she can rely on her memories of tonight. She wonders if she should mention the man in the little house but thinks better of it, since she and Davy had been trespassing. She thinks about Davy’s warnings. She doesn’t want the police to arrest her. She decides she will leave out the part about spying on the man. She hopes the man will leave it out, too, if anyone asks him.
TJ paces around, pressing his hands to his face. He keeps talking into his hands. “Oh shit, oh shit. This is bad. This is really bad.”
Anissa wants to yell at him and say, “This is all your fault! You left him!” But she knows it is also her fault. She left Davy too. She hadn’t meant to, but she had.
Marissa offers to go call the police from their house across the street. TJ looks to Anissa, his eyes asking if she thinks it has come to that. Anissa can tell he wants her to say, “No, don’t be silly. He’ll turn up.” But she can’t say that.
Davy is so lost that none of them can find him, too far away to hear them all screaming his name.
She nods, then watches as Marissa runs across the road and disappears inside their house. There is nothing left to do except wait for the police to come.