The Lucky Ones(64)

She was halfway through folding a basket of towels on her eighth morning at The Dragon when her phone rang. The vibration rattled the whole couch and woke up Brien, who’d worn himself out battling with a pair of her underwear she’d let him play with and had fallen asleep against her hip. Allison, too, was startled by the call. She’d forgotten she was expecting one until she saw who was calling.

“McQueen,” she said. “Did you forget about me?”

“No,” he said. “Just took a little longer than I expected.”

No jokes. No flirting. No drunken rambling. Something wasn’t right.

“But you found Oliver’s number, didn’t you?” she asked, suddenly concerned by his serious tone.

“I found some contact information. I’ll email it over to you.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s for his parents,” he said. “His mother is Kathy Collins. The guy she’s married to now is her second husband, not Oliver’s father. She kept her last name.”

“No number for Oliver? He’s around my age. I’d think he’d be on his own by now.”

“Allison...” McQueen said, and from the tone of his voice Allison knew immediately the news was bad, very bad. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but...honey, Oliver’s dead.”

Allison nearly dropped the phone.

“What? How?”

“Just after his fourteenth birthday,” McQueen said, “he shot himself in the head.”

“Fourteen? No way. That would have been right after he left here.”

“I am so sorry.” McQueen sounded like a father now, not her irritating ex-lover. “When Sue told me what she’d found, I made her double-and triple-check before I called you with the news. But it’s all true. I can give you his mother’s phone number like I said and her address if you want to visit and pay your respects.”

“Sure,” she said. “That’s... Yeah, send me that.” She paused. “You don’t know if there was a note or anything? Or a reason he gave?”

“That’s not really Sue’s area,” McQueen said. “We didn’t want to bother his parents by calling. Looks like the father cut out when Oliver was eight or nine, so I don’t know if he could tell you anything. Mother’s the best bet.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” she said, still dazed.

A dozen memories of Oliver flitted through her mind in that instant. Instead of playing tag on the beach with the rest of them, he’d sit for hours in the sun digging for shells. And she remembered the funny way he’d stick his tongue out in concentration while coloring. The way he’d randomly stand on his hands because he was a kid and he could.

“I wish I had better news,” he said.

“I asked you to help.”

“Is there anything else I can do?”

She shook her head, although McQueen wouldn’t have seen it. She was too dazed to think straight. Except, maybe there was something.

“McQueen? Can I ask for another favor?”

“What is it?”

“Two more names,” she said. “Can you get me their information?”

“What are the names?”

“Kendra Tate,” she said. “And Antonio Russo.”

“Other siblings?”

“Kendra came to the house a couple months before I left. Antonio... I never met him. He came and left right before I did, but I still want to talk to him, anyway. Deacon said Antonio was one of the kids Dr. Capello couldn’t help.”

“I’ll see what I can find for you.”

“Thank you. Really, thank you.”

“Of course. But, Allison?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to,” she said.

“No, I mean, I don’t like hearing that a teenage boy killed himself a few months after leaving that house you’re in.”

“Do you think I like hearing it?” she asked.

“First you, and now this boy? I’m tempted to bring the police in.”

“That’s insane, McQueen.”

“Insane? Someone tried to kill you, and this kid kills himself a couple months after leaving that house,” McQueen said.

“I’m trying to find out what happened. And whatever did happen, children were involved. Young children, who probably didn’t understand what they were doing. I’m not trying to put anybody in jail,” she said. “I just want to know the truth so I can stop wondering what happened. That’s all. And I really don’t want anyone bothering Dr. Capello. He doesn’t have much time left, anyway.”

“I’m going to lose sleep at night over you,” McQueen said. “And not for the reasons I used to.”

Allison sighed heavily.

“Look,” McQueen said with a sigh, “I’m not telling you to leave. I wouldn’t dare tell you what to do. But where there’s smoke there’s fire, and if I were you, I’d keep my mouth and nose covered.”

Allison wanted to argue with him, but she was afraid he might have a point.

“I’ll be safe,” she said.

“Better be.”