Since She Went Away(66)

Jared didn’t know how his mom put up with it. And he didn’t know how she turned out so well adjusted with his grandma for a mother.

He also tried to ease off on feeling too sorry for himself or thinking of himself as a prisoner. Natalie had been a prisoner of some kind. He’d seen the lock on the outside of her door. He knew the strict curfew she lived under. And her father had simply taken her away, swept her up and out of town. Back on the run. If she was lucky. If something worse hadn’t happened to her.

Could his first love really end that way?

? ? ?

Shortly after dinner, while the reporters were still out on the lawn but seemed to be wrapping up after doing some kind of live shot of their house for the evening broadcasts, his mom retreated to her office. Jared sat in the kitchen picking at the remains of the leftover spaghetti he’d heated in the microwave. His mom said she didn’t have an appetite.

Jared thought he’d imagined the light knocking against the door. It could have been the house settling or a squirrel running through the gutters.

But then the knock came again.

He didn’t bother his mom. He figured it was a rogue reporter, one who hopped the fence into the backyard because he felt bold, hoping to get a scoop by bugging the family while they sat in the kitchen. Jared intended to tell him to get lost, refer him to the statement the police had issued on their behalf.

He eased the door open.

Ursula blinked as the light from the kitchen spilled out onto the small back stoop. Jared jumped a little. Hers was the last face he’d expected to see out there.

“What do you want?” he asked.

Ursula raised her finger to her lips. “I need you,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “Someone needs to talk to you.”

“Who?”

“Look, can you just come out? There aren’t any reporters back here. We can cut through the yard behind us and talk to my friend. It won’t take long.”

“Who is your friend?” Jared asked, his heart rate rising a little with anticipation.

Ursula looked past him into the brightly lit kitchen. She took the whole scene in—the cramped space, the out-of-date table, the plate of spaghetti. Then she looked at Jared again. “Get your coat if you want. It’s kind of cold.”





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX


Jared stepped into the backyard, the stiff frozen grass crunching under his feet. He looked around and didn’t see Ursula.

He walked toward the back of their property to the chain-link fence bordering the neighbor’s yard. Someone emerged from the darkness. It was Ursula. She stood in the neighbor’s yard, her hands dangling at her sides. Jared found the way she stood—hips cocked, chin up—attractive, and he wished he didn’t. Seeing Ursula that way made him feel like a little kid again.

And he thought of Natalie. He really missed Natalie.

“Climb over,” she said. “It’s easy.”

“I know. I’ve done it a million times in my life.”

When they’d first moved in, a family with two sons around his age lived behind them. Jared used to climb the fence whenever they were out in their yard, and the three of them ran around playing football and war and hide-and-seek until the family moved away, the dad having taken a job in Pennsylvania. Jared couldn’t remember if he’d even said good-bye to them. There seemed to be a lot of that going around.

He easily scaled the fence and landed next to Ursula. She didn’t look at him or say anything. She just started walking, heading for the front of the neighbor’s house and the street that ran parallel to Jared’s.

Jared watched the way Ursula’s hips moved as she walked, her jeans fitting her shapely body perfectly. No surprise. She’d have the best of the best. The best-fitting clothes, the most expensive brands.

They reached the next street, and Ursula turned to the left. A black SUV sat at the curb, its parking lights burning in the dark. Ursula walked over and tugged open the passenger-side door.

“Go ahead,” she said, sweeping her arm like a game show hostess.

In the glow of the dome light, Jared saw Bobby Allen.

Jared climbed in. Ursula pulled open the rear door and came inside, a gust of cool air following her. In the faint glow from the dashboard, Bobby looked tired. His eyes were red, his mouth turned down.

“I’m sorry, Bobby.”

Bobby nodded. He took a deep breath, his broad shoulders rising and falling beneath his coat. They were the first words Jared had spoken to Bobby since they’d played soccer together.

The car’s engine hummed. It was warm in the cabin, the soft rush of heat coming out of the vents. Jared loosened the top buttons on his coat, letting the heat dig in against his body. Bobby didn’t look at him. He stared straight ahead, as if something were coming down the street at him. Jared even turned and looked through the windshield, but the horizon was empty and quiet.

“Are you going to ask him?” Ursula said from behind.

Bobby didn’t move when she spoke, but his eyes narrowed just a bit as though her question annoyed him. Jared wanted to know if the two of them were dating, or did Ursula even confine herself to just one boyfriend at a time? He knew a lot of kids at school were like that, even though he’d been content with just the one person in his life. Natalie.

“I want to know what it was like,” Bobby said. “Seeing my old man that way.” He took another deep breath, this one shuddering a little as if he might be about to cry. But no tears came, and Bobby collected himself. “Somebody bashed his f*cking head in. It’s a shitty way to die, and I just want to know what you saw.”