Friends Like These(84)

Come get me. I’ll help. We’ll find him together. This isn’t your fault, Derrick.

Maeve understood. Because she was a good person, a hopeful person. Always seeing the best in other people. And that’s exactly why I was in love with her. And, yes, I did secretly hope that her offering to come with me was a sign that she loved me back.

“I’ve looked everywhere around downtown. Keith’s definitely not there,” I said to her now as I started to drive.

“What about at the Farm?”

Of course that could be. If Keith had wanted to buy, he might go there. Maybe it was even somebody there that he was afraid of, like Stephanie had said. I wouldn’t put it past Keith to already owe the wrong people in Kaaterskill.

I nodded. “We should check.”

We parked on the same deserted strip of dirt road behind the dark barn. I thought of Crystal’s legs, so heavy as we’d carried her, the awful soft give of her skin. All of it had been so much worse than I imagined. And yet far easier to forget than it should ever have been.

“Stay here,” Maeve said, reaching for her door.

“Are you crazy?” I asked. “That’s not safe.” I knew better than to say for a woman. But I was thinking it. Maeve was tiny.

“What’s crazy is you risking being seen here again. I’ll go quickly, and I’ll be careful. If someone sees me, I’ll run. These days I’m faster than I look.”

I lifted my hands. “Okay. But be careful. Please.”

“Just turn the car around and be ready to leave. I plan to be quick.”

Maeve emerged a couple minutes later, stride forceful, in one piece, but with a grim look on her face.

“No luck, huh?” I asked as she got back in the car.

She shook her head. “I heard voices down in that other building. But a lot— ten or fifteen people maybe? Like a party. I’m sorry, I know I insisted on being the one to go and then kind of chickened out. But even if Keith is at that party, I don’t think it would be a good idea for either one of us to go in. We’d be so outnumbered. Maybe in the morning?”

She was right. We couldn’t bust into some party filled with addicts— where Keith may or may not be— and just hope for the best. We had no idea what they were capable of. Look at what we were capable of.

“Yeah, the morning is a good idea,” I said, pulling out my phone and starting to type an update to Stephanie before starting the car.

“Who are you texting?” she asked.

“Jonathan and Stephanie. We should tell them where we are.”

“Oh, I just did a second ago. They texted that they were still dealing with the contractors. Said they might be a while.”

Was I a little glad about the extra time alone with Maeve? Yes. Definitely.

“Thank you again for coming with me,” I said, still not starting the car. “I mean it.”

I put a quick hand over Maeve’s for emphasis, but then I didn’t let go. Couldn’t bring myself to. Maeve was quiet as she stared down at our overlapping hands. And she didn’t pull hers away. Finally, she turned toward the window. “Derrick, what did you mean before, when you said you saw what happened on the roof?”

I had upset her, hadn’t I? That was the opposite of what I’d intended. “I saw that guy grab you. That’s what I meant. He was fixated on you all night. We all noticed. I didn’t hear what either of you said, but I saw him put his hands on you, and you— you just reacted. Like anybody would. It was an accident. I just wanted to make sure that you didn’t— I don’t know— blame yourself for what happened that night.”

Maeve nodded, but kept her eyes on the window. “Is that why you sent that email?”

“What email?” I asked.

“The one about the roof,” she said. “ ‘I know what you did.’ ”

“Me? That was Alice’s mom, wasn’t it?” I asked. “I was going to ask if anyone else got one, but then I thought we were all just agreeing not to talk about it because of Keith.”

“Oh, right,” Maeve said quietly, still looking at the window. She didn’t sound like she believed me.

“Maeve, I would never send you an email about that night. Never. That’s my whole point. I would never tell anybody. I’ll take it to my grave.”

When she finally turned to look at me, she smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” I thought she believed me now, but I wasn’t sure. “I think we should drive a little farther down that way just to check for Keith before we go back.” She pointed into the night. “Maybe he got turned around and is, I don’t know, walking around lost or something.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” I said. And Keith had threatened that exact thing— walking on the road. I could easily imagine him getting hit by a car.

I pulled out of the dirt track behind the Farm. We drove on, scanning the dark woods, for another ten minutes. But it was impossible to see anything except trees.

“Wait, stop,” Maeve said suddenly, her arm going to my chest. “I think I just saw something. Somebody in the woods. I swear to God it was Keith, and there was somebody behind him, in a hat. A red hat, like the contractors.”

I swung the car to the side of the road. “Where?”