Page 87 of Locke 2

“You got something to hide?”

“I fucking deal, man. Of course I have something to hide—”

“Where is your ex-girlfriend?” Locke cut in. “All this talk about her splitting town—”

“She owed me money.”

“Did you kill her?”

Keenan gasped like a schoolgirl. “No, fuck no.”

“Where the fuck is she?”

“She left!”

Locke pounded his back against the wall again, and Kali quickly moaned to remove the heat from the stall. Keenan’s yelp was covered by Locke’s hand.

“Where is she?” Locke demanded again. “You’re going to tell me everything.”

He let his hand drop again.

“I met up with her in town. She told me she was going to one of those shelters,” Keenan said. “You know, the ones Arthur Ambrose keeps open for homeless women.”

“And the boy?”

Keenan shook his head. “She left…and I didn’t see no boy. She didn’t have him with her.”

“Where did he go?”

Keenan swallowed. “She kept saying he was fine. I assumed her fucking sister because she was constantly bothering her. Andthen she had a lot of money on her, you know what I mean? Money to buy herself more dope. It’s why we had a fight. She wouldn’t let me touch a single penny, and she owed me.”

“Where did she get the money from?” Locke demanded.

“I don’t know—”

“From Ambrose?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. He has a soft spot for homeless ladies.”

“What about little boys?”

Keenan’s face went white as a sheet. “I know nothing about that!”

Locke covered Keenan’s mouth and landed a punch into the weed’s gut. He slumped back, crying in pain. “Let’s start with everything you know then…”

Thirty-Seven

Kali

The house was quiet.

Jem had sensed the mood was off. When Conor came home with no new information, nothing more was said.

“You seriously got nothing?” Jem asked quietly.

“The same story,” Conor returned. “Boy was sick, and she had to take him to the clinic because his mother wouldn’t.”

Jem sighed. “This mother better be dead or I swear to fuck I’ll kill her myself.”

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