Page 74 of Locke 2

Locke cut his gaze away. “They all are, aren’t they?”

I didn’t respond. I looked down at the teddy bear, thinking of my encounter with Ambrose. He was a happy old man with a bit of a gut and a big white beard. He even had rosy cheeks and an infectious laugh. I tried to think of him as a pervert, and ew, it was gross, but I still tried. I could see it from their side. The guy had deep pockets, and he did just come to town and decide to clean it up, but so what? A lot of good rich people did that. It didn’t make them evil kidnappers.

“Is he married?” Jem wondered.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Kids.”

My voice faltered. “No, he said it was one of his greatest regrets not having fathered a child.”

“Aw, what a sweetheart.”

I gritted my teeth. “Uh-huh.”

“I love the sob stories they spout. Don’t you, Locke?” Jem chuckled, but it sounded off. “Back in Blackwater, one of the guys you put into the ground said he lived to see little boys smile. I wonder if that was before or after he put them into a fucking hole. Boys don’t smile the same way when they come out, do they?”

My cheeks burned with anger. “I get it,” I said sharply when I noticed Locke’s shoulders stiffen. “I fucking get it, Jem.”

Jem’s smile fell off his face as he looked flatly at me. “Any other family he got around here, Kali? I’m trying really hard to redeem the fucker, but he’s unmarried, no kids, came around with a ‘let’s save the kids’ mantra, and it’s not really convincing me he’s a genuine sweetheart.”

I breathed rapidly. I was pissed, but I did my best to remain calm. This was a triggering topic for them. I wondered why it was especially so intense with Jem. Had something happened to him, too?

I refocused on the question. I didn’t have to think about it. I knew a lot about Mr Ambrose, and I had to fight the cringe on my face from showing as I forced out, “No. He has no family here.”

“Any reason why he liked Georgewel so much?”

“He said it was a quiet place he could see himself retiring in, and…he didn’t want the kids here to lose hope when they got older and leave.”

I knew how all of this sounded, but there was no point arguing on Mr Ambrose’s behalf. I’d just seeded the poor old man’s name into the heads of these wicked Blackwater boys, and they weren’t going to let it go. I couldn’t fault them, either. This whole thing felt like a sticky spider web we got caught in.

Jem continued to look heavily at Locke. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

I looked at Locke, waiting for his response. He had been unusually quiet, simmering in whatever thoughts gave him that dark look on his face.

Locke put the car in drive and merged back onto the road. “He’s on the list.”

Thirty-Three

Kali

The night didn’t end after visiting Lenny’s bedroom. By the time we got back to the house, the discussion went on among the three men for hours. Luckily, the tension from the car had eased. Jem hadn’t said anything sour to me, and I hated that I had my back up, waiting for him to pick a fight with me.

He didn’t.

They sat in the large study room on the main floor, mapping out the town and the suspects they’d already begun to gather. It made my head spin how fast they could comb over details, log it and then move on.

Within minutes of entering the house, Hal had been crossed off the list. He really had been engaging in a fling, and he’d kept it quiet because the co-worker was married. That was a relief and also extremely impressive that they could find personal information like that out so quickly. It filled me with hope thiswas going to happen: we were going to find Lenny either with his mother, or…

“The townhouse complex had yard work done that week,” Jem explained as he munched on chocolate balls, pointing down at a printed-out map of Lenny’s street. “But we’ve been there, and these yard people didn’t really do much yard work, did they?”

“The grass was short,” Conor replied, shrugging.

“There were leaves everywhere, man.”

“It’s autumn,” Conor countered.

“I know it’s fucking autumn, but the leaves shed like two weeks ago, Conor.”

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