We Told Six Lies(8)

But we didn’t move.

We just lay beside each other, holding hands, not saying a single word as the clouds crept across the sky.





NOW


Detective Hernandez grabs her phone from the table. “Okay, great. So the day you two skipped, that would be…” She taps open an app, scrolls. “October eleventh. That’s seven days after you two met. So if we call the school, they’ll show the two of you were absent that afternoon?”

I nod.

“You guys get in trouble for taking off?” Tehrani chimes in.

“Saturday school,” I reply. “Just one day.”

“Seems worth the cost to get a pretty girl alone for a while.”

I glare at him.

“All right,” he says, leaning back. “When did you and Molly see each other after that? Did you call her? Did you guys make plans at school?”

There’s a knock at the door, and a girl sticks her head in. It’s the same girl from earlier. Her gaze darts around the room until she spots Detective Hernandez. The girl waves the woman over, and I can tell by the way her dark eyes widen that whatever she has to say is important.

Detective Tehrani stands, too, and the threesome shut the door behind them. I can’t hear a word of what is said, but I find myself rising and moving toward the door anyway. If they have new information on Molly, I need to know it.

I have my ear pressed to the crack when the door swings open, sending me flying backward. I catch myself on the table, and Detective Tehrani clips, “We’re going to end our chat here. Thanks so much for coming in. You’ve been very cooperative, and we’re grateful. Davea will show you out.”

I freeze, not sure what to do, terrified they’ve found out something bad about Molly’s disappearance.

Detective Hernandez strides away, not even a backward glance in my direction. Detective Tehrani walks after her, snatching his jacket, grabbing his phone, headed somewhere Molly might be.

“Wait. Did you find her?” I ask, but it’s not loud enough.

“Hey,” I try again. “Did you find her? Did you find Molly?!”

Now it’s too loud. So loud other officers are turning in my direction and the girl, Davea, is taking my arm and saying, Let’s go. Come on, this way, but I don’t like the way she’s saying that. Like she’s afraid if I discover what they’ve found, I’ll lose my mind.

“Did something happen to her?” I shout, pulling away from Davea and racing after Detective Tehrani. “Answer me. Tell me what happened!”

An officer I don’t know steps in front of me and grabs both my arms, shoves my stomach over a chair, and pulls my hand toward my upper back so that if I move, I risk breaking my arm. “Calm down, kiddo,” he says. “Everything’s all right.”

He pulls me backward and guides me toward the place we came in earlier this morning, but I’m still yelling for Detectives Hernandez and Tehrani to answer me. To goddamn answer me!

Detective Hernandez glances back at me once before pushing through a door in the opposite direction. In her eyes, I see sympathy. It feels like a sucker punch to the gut. I don’t want her sympathy. I want anything other than sympathy. I’d take suspicion over it. I’d take handcuffs and metal bars, even if someone else deserved them. Because then I’d know that what happened to Molly is still a mystery. That they haven’t found something that has them running for their vehicle.

The dude manhandling me leads me toward the front by the shoulder—careful to keep my arm behind my back in case I try something—and then releases me. Davea is beside him, and she points me toward a window, saying I need to sign some paperwork, but screw that.

I burst through the double doors in time to see Detective Hernandez speeding by. Her lights aren’t on. That’s good, right?

No, that’s bad.

She pulls onto Northwest Highway and speeds away, and I’m left jogging toward the bus stop. I need to get home. I need to form a plan. If they won’t tell me what’s going on, then I have to finish my own search. I have to keep sifting through my memories of Molly to look for clues.





THEN


There was a carnival in Reading, Pennsylvania.

It was the most exciting thing to do on a Saturday night, and so that’s where I planned to take you. We’d been out twice since that day in the park, and Halloween was lurking around the corner, impatient.

I didn’t have enough money to get into the fair, and so I’d intended to sneak you in. When you discovered my plan, you delivered a smile so devilish I could have speared it with a pitchfork. You floated toward the ticket stand alone, and when I went to follow you, you held a hand out behind yourself.

Stay there, okay? it said. Let me work.

And so I pretended I was waiting on someone, and I watched you. You asked for two bracelets and then fumbled inside your purse for your wallet. As the balding man in the booth reached beneath the table, you pulled out your phone. You clenched it between your cheek and shoulder and continued to dig through your purse.

I couldn’t hear what you said, but I saw the man lean forward with interest. He pulled his bottom lip back and then flicked his eyes around like he was searching for someone to rescue him. You put the phone away, stared at the ground for an uncomfortable moment, and then pulled out your wallet.