every other kid except for Billy, who had a personal stake in it all.
“Okay,” Eric said. “So he found you because of Billy, and your web site. Did you tell him anything new, that you hadn’t already posted?”
“I didn’t know anything new. Only what Billy told me.”
“But you did report Elizabeth’s description of where she was living.”
If anything, he looked more miserable. “Word for word.”
“Does Billy know this?”
He shuddered. “Yes. He knows.”
So much for that friendship. Casey couldn’t imagine how betrayed Billy was feeling. “Did the man tell you who he was?”
“I told you—he said he was a cop. I don’t remember his name. He called me to the office at school, so I figured he was for real.”
Apparently the school administration thought so, too. They’d called both boys down to the office that same day, except they’d called them separately. Too bad the boys hadn’t confided in each other that time.
“Why didn’t you tell Billy the guy was here asking questions?”
“Seriously? Because I didn’t want him to rip my head off for posting what he’d said. And because the guy told me not to tell anyone.”
So now he can keep a secret?
“But he found out, anyway.”
Robbie nodded miserably. “He saw the blog and figured that’s why the guy came asking for us.”
Casey was confused. “Did you use Elizabeth’s name on your blog? And the name of this town?”
“Sure.”
“Then why didn’t we find it when we were doing Internet searches for Elizabeth Manns from Texas?”
Robbie hunched over. “When were you searching?”
“Couple days ago.”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t have found it anymore. I deleted it.”
“You deleted her name?”
“No. The entire web site. Billy was so mad. It was the only thing I could think of that might make him not hate me anymore.” He sniffed, and wiped his nose with his arm.
Eric shrugged. “You had to do something, man. That was a start. Now, anything you can remember that could help us find this man?”
Robbie plopped down on the chair behind the counter. “You think he did it, don’t you? You think I gave her away on my web site, and this guy saw it, and then he went and killed Billy’s aunt.”
Casey leaned over the counter. “Can you remember anything.”
He shied away, then looked at his shoes for a long time, muttering things like, “He was dressed like a cop,” and “He spoke like us,” and even, “He just looked like a guy. There was nothing special about him, or anything that screamed where he was from or…” He sat up.
“What?” Casey could see a new light in his eyes.
“I don’t know if it means anything.”
“What is it?”
“He called him Cyrus.”
Casey and Eric just looked at him, not sure what he was getting at.
Robbie waved his hands, like he had something in his brain rushing to get out, but was stumbling over itself. “He didn’t call him Mr. Mann. Or Elizabeth’s father. Or even the murder victim. He called him Cyrus. Like he knew him.”
“Not like Cyrus was just part of a case he was working.”
“Right. And then…and then he asked where I thought it was.”
“Where what was?”
“That’s what I asked him. Billy said he asked him, too.”
“And?”
“He wouldn’t tell me what it was. Just said if I didn’t know what he meant, then I wouldn’t know where it was, and he wouldn’t bother me any more. He told me to go back to class, and I never saw him again.”
Chapter Thirty-five
“You showed remarkable restraint,” Eric said. They were walking toward town, Casey moving so fast she was practically jogging.
“Yeah, well, the little twerp got lucky. And here I thought he was going to be a nice kid.” He’d called her ma’am.
“He is a nice kid.”
“Who ratted out his friend’s aunt and got her killed.”
“He didn’t kill her. He was just being a kid.”
“So that excuses his betraying a confidence? On the Internet? Twice?”
“Of course it doesn’t excuse it. But he’s not exactly the first person to post something they regret.”
Another reason Casey was glad she was living far outside that whole cyber world.
Eric spoke from behind, not quite able to keep up with her pace without full-out running. “Where are we going?”
“Betsy’s. If anyone would know what ‘it’ was, she would.”
“I don’t know. She seems pretty clueless about things.”
Casey stopped so quickly Eric had to grab her so he wouldn’t knock her down. They stood there for a breathless moment, faces inches apart, until Casey pushed away, brushing at her sleeves like he’d left something on them. “Do you have a