Period 8 - By Chris Crutcher Page 0,16
was way zoned out, walking down the middle of the road. . . .” Hannah finishes her story much as she gave it to Logs.
“Wow, that doesn’t sound like Mary. You took her home?” He looks at students coming out of the woods. “So how does all this happen?”
“My home, not hers,” Hannah says. “What’s the matter with you, Arney? You think I’m making this up?”
“No, no,” he says, shaking his head. “Just doesn’t sound like Mary, that’s all.”
“Well, she may very well be missing from her place for two days,” Hannah says, “but she isn’t gone. And like I said, she was whack.”
“What did she say?”
“That she didn’t want to go home.”
“Why would she not want to go home?”
“She’s Mary Wells, Arney. Would you want to go home if your dad was Mr. Wells? I don’t even know her dad’s first name, unless it’s Mister.”
“His name is Victor,” Arney says. “And he’s not such a bad guy if you don’t let him intimidate you. Shoot, I’ve been out with Mary.”
“You guys have been out out?”
“A few times,” Arney says. “A movie, whatever.”
“A movie,” Hannah says. “Little Mermaid?”
Arney shakes his head. “Her situation isn’t as bad as everybody thinks. Most of that stuff is rumor.”
“Yeah, right.”
Arney turns to Mr. Logs. “So we calling this off?”
“Officer Rankin is on the phone with Mr. Wells now,” Logs says. “They’ll give us direction soon.” He turns to Hannah. “Can you remember anything else?”
“No. I should have asked more questions, I guess.” She looks up to see Arney next to the police car, talking with Officer Rankin. She laughs. “Arney has to be in the middle of everything.”
A Lexus pulls into the parking lot. The driver’s-side door flies open and Victor Wells steps out. Officer Rankin approaches him from the patrol car and they exchange quick words, then approach Hannah.
Rankin says, “Victor Wells, this is . . . I’m sorry, young lady, I didn’t get your name.”
“Hannah. Murphy.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mr. Wells says. He doesn’t extend his hand. “Officer Rankin here says you claim to have been with my daughter last night. Might I ask why it took you so long to say so?”
Wells is a tall man, well over six feet, and athletic. Hannah stiffens. “I don’t claim to have been with her. I was with her.”
Wells looks Hannah up and down. “What time was that?”
Rankin says, “I told you, sir, around—”
Wells holds up a hand. “I want to hear it from the young lady.”
“I found her around midnight. She was walking on the road.”
“And what were you doing out at that time on a school night?”
Logs takes a deep breath, closes his eyes.
“You know,” Hannah says, “drinking, smoking dope, looking for cheap, easy sex.”
“Young lady, do you think this is funny?”
“I think,” Hannah says, “that it’s none of your business what I was doing out that late and if you want to know about Mary, you should ask me about Mary.”
Wells glares at Rankin, who shrugs.
“I’m sorry,” he says to Hannah. “I’ve been upset. Did my daughter tell you anything that might help us find her?”
“I offered her a ride home, but she didn’t want to go, and I’m probably breaking a confidence here, but it was because of you.”
“She has no reason—”
Hannah gestures surrender. “She didn’t want to go home. The rest of it is none of my business. She was kind of, like, disoriented, and not all that informative. I took her to my house. When I got up this morning she was gone. I thought she’d gone to school, then I heard on the news she was missing.”
“Nothing else was said?”
“Well, I offered her an alibi.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know,” Hannah says, “an excuse for being gone; ’course I didn’t know she’d been gone this long.”
“Why in the world would you do that?”
“To keep her out of trouble,” Hannah says. She glances over at Logs. Sheesh. Is this guy a mammal?
“I guess that’s what passes for loyalty these days,” Wells says.
“Actually,” Logs says, “that passes for loyalty in any days.”
“You’re sure it was my daughter. Mary.”
“I’ve gone to school with her for four years,” Hannah says.
“She’s never mentioned you.”
“Until today I probably haven’t mentioned her. I didn’t say we were friends, I said we’ve gone to school together.”
“I suppose there’s no reason to believe you’re not telling the truth.”
“I could be personality disordered,” Hannah says.
Wells ignores her.
“We need to call off the search,” Officer Rankin says. “Mr. Logsdon, could you help us call these kids back to the bus? I’ll