what peanut butter was to jelly. A car came up the road, and he watched it safely pass. Then he tried a few more searches, all of which came back without a hit. Finally, he tried Willow’s old LA school, Canyon Prep, which he had to fish out of his notebook. A name came up. Was this a strange coincidence, luck, or something more meaningful?
Jalen Stark. The boy’s photo appeared on-screen. He was a handsome kid, tall and athletic looking. He had been found dead inside his home, the victim of an apparent overdose. He was a senior when Willow Briggs was just starting out as a freshman. Karl looked up Canyon Prep and saw that it enrolled eleven hundred kids. What a strange coincidence.
He shrugged off this discovery. Probably a lot of kids took drugs to excess in LA. That the overdose had happened to a kid who went to the same school Willow Briggs attended meant nothing except another coincidence. Back to square one. Now he also had to find out who had tried to run Isla off the road. If he located that person, he had no doubt he’d find the person who was responsible for Dakota’s death, Willow’s disappearance, and Katie’s injuries.
The tow truck barreled down the hill and stopped in front of the misshapen minivan. Dicky Fox climbed down, cigar in his fat mouth, looking all of his sixty-plus years. Karl erased the browsing history and then stashed the phone back inside Isla’s floral knitted workbag before hooking the bag over his shoulder. He had no desire to speak to this miserable bastard.
“Love the new purse,” Dicky said. “Exploring your feminine side?”
“You’re quite the comedian.”
“Looks like somebody knocked back a few too many milk shakes tonight.”
“Tow it back to the yard, will you?”
“Righto, Captain.” Dicky puffed on his cigar, obviously in no hurry. “It’s a good thing whoever was driving this piece of crap didn’t go in the drink.”
Karl stood and watched the man hook the van up to the tow. After shifting the minivan into neutral, Dicky tipped his cap to Karl and stopped for a second to enjoy his cigar. Smoke whirled around his jowly, unshaven face.
“There’s one thing you and I have in common, Bjorny.”
“I doubt you and I have anything in common, Dicky.”
“Oh, my friend, but we do. It’s called job security.”
“Get that rig outta here.”
“Toodle-oo, cupcake.” Dicky climbed up into his rig and then drove off with Isla’s minivan following behind him.
KATIE
RAISIN COMES INTO MY ROOM AND ASKS IF I’LL PLAY CARDS WITH HIM. I don’t want to play cards, but I realize that I’ve spent very little time with my brother lately. Once I go away to college, I’ll hardly ever see him, and that makes me sad. Maybe playing cards will take my mind off the fact that Willow is out there and waiting for the right time to contact me with her whereabouts. Besides, there’s nothing I can do until she calls.
My mind races. It’s possible that I’m a good person who’s done some very bad things. Or maybe a bad person who has pretended to be someone else all these years. The inescapable fact is that I’ve been involved with drugs, alcohol, and parties. A boy has been found dead, a boy I once liked and had a brief relationship with. A boy who used me and then discarded me, like I was garbage, and whom I now hate.
Why wasn’t I upset over Dakota’s death? I should have been. Was it because I still didn’t believe a boy like that could die? Was there a disconnect between reality and what I perceived to be true? Or maybe it’s the fact that he convinced me to sleep with him before I was ready. Oh, and that I later discovered that the stupid poems he read aloud to me were not his, but some old classics he’d lifted from one of his literature books.
We play Uno. I exchange cards with Raisin and allow for a playful war of words between us. He seems happy and totally into the game. I care not about winning but about making Raisin happy. I keep glancing at my phone to see if there’s anything from Willow, but nothing has appeared.
Scout raises his head every now and then and appraises me. I have always wanted to like Scout but at times have found it difficult. And I should be thankful to him for all he’s done for my brother. Scout has dedicated his