At the Quiet Edge(24)

“Ev!”

He jumped at his mom’s voice, jerking his head up to spy her parked in the school pick-up lane. “Hey!” he yelped before jogging over to slide into his seat.

“Lost in thought?”

“Yeah.”

“Does that mean it was good?”

Frowning, he stuffed his backpack between his feet and slammed the door. “What?”

“Robotics!”

“Oh.” His stomach burned. “Yeah, it was fine.”

“So you’re going back?” she asked, all high-pitched hope for a profitable future in technology.

“Probably.”

“That’s great, Everett. You really should find something to replace the Green Gardening Club.”

“Oh my God, Mom, I only did that for the volunteer credit.”

She mumbled, “You said you liked it,” as she pulled into traffic.

“Whatever. But I need to follow up with some robotics stuff, so I’ll be online a lot tonight.”

“No problem. I’m meeting the auctioneer to cut a lock when we get back, so you can have the computer. Are there going to be fees involved?”

“I don’t know.”

“All right, give me the bad news when you get it.”

Everett slid down in his seat and stared out the window as they reached the highway and sped up.

“Everett . . . are you okay?”

He could ask her if he wanted. Ask her about that cop and where she’d gone. Or he could confess his own secrets and see if his stomach felt better. But that was a terrible idea, because that might heal his stomach, but it would absolutely destroy any chance he had of ever going outside again. He’d be on house arrest for sure, his mom constantly muttering about her stupid job and how he’d put it in danger. Watching him with that worried look that made him feel more like his dad than anything did . . .

“I’m fine,” he bit out. “But if we lived anywhere else I could just walk home. This is so stupid.”

“Not true,” she snapped back. “Plenty of kids around here live on farms way farther out than our place. Maybe I should wake you up at five a.m. to do chores, and see if you think they have it better.”

“Jesus,” he whispered, crossing his arms tight and glaring out at the highway signs as they whipped past.

As soon as they got home, she told him to start his homework, and Everett happily retreated to his room. He dropped his backpack in front of his door so he could buy himself a second of warning; then he opened his window and left it open. Shadow hopped right up, and Everett slid a food bowl to the floor on the far side of his bed where it wasn’t visible from the doorway. Once she was happily settled, he joined Shadow on the floor and reached beneath his mattress for the one yellowed piece of newspaper he’d smuggled out of that storage unit.

Lynn Cotti. She’d been missing for two years when the article was written, but the snippet of text was just a brief story clearly prompted by the poor woman’s mother. “She left for a week or two before, but that was nothing like this,” Maria Cotti had said. “I just want answers.”

There was no specific investigator mentioned in the story, just a general response that the Herriman police had followed up on every lead they received.

Lynn Cotti had been at a party in town on the night of May 21, 2002, and then she’d left. Alone or with someone else, nobody seemed to know. She’d been at the party, and then she’d never been seen again, and that was the whole story.

Her absence hadn’t even been noted for over a week, but when her roommate had called her mother, her mom had phoned the police. Lynn had been twenty years old, a high-school dropout, and a big sister who loved playing gin rummy with her two younger siblings.

Everett briefly wondered what might be said about him if he disappeared. It would probably wind up being a story about his dad. Maybe they’d accuse Everett of running away to join him. Maybe he should. It would be way more exciting than this place.

He immediately felt guilty for the thought. He knew his mom had been the one to take care of him all these years. He loved her; she was just always so there.

When Shadow finished her food and climbed into his lap, Everett cuddled her close and absorbed her purring into his body as he imagined an article starting with his newfound love for robotics above a picture of him in his Green Gardening Club T-shirt. He managed a laugh at that.

Then he imagined his mom looking for him like Maria Cotti had looked for her kid. What would his mom even do with her time if Everett wasn’t around? More online classes? Or maybe she’d get married or something.

He froze when he heard the office door open. When his mom’s footsteps creaked closer, he carefully lifted Shadow and set her outside before yanking the blinds down.

“Ev?” she called through his door. “I’m heading out to snip a lock for an auction. You doing okay?”

“I’m fine!” he yelled back.

She’d be gone for a good while. She had to document the belongings removed from a locker, so she couldn’t just snap off a lock and leave.

Everett tiptoed to the apartment door and listened as his mom left. Then he listened harder before he dared to crack open the door to the office. He glanced toward the security camera mounted above the front desk to confirm it was still pointed straight at the door, and then he crept over to the computer.