Page 93 of Locke 2

Jem shot me an innocent look. “Did he?”

The last few days had been full on. I’d spent a lot of that time with Jem. I was present when him and Conor went aroundthe neighbourhood, gleaning what was seen when Tammy left. Neighbours were adamant that the boy had truly been in the truck, but he hadn’t been waving like the first neighbour had described.

We learned that the reference was a woman named Sheila who worked at a shelter that belonged to Ambrose. Sheila was questioned, too, but she said she’d had no sighting of Tammy in any of the Georgewel shelters. That was when Locke began to search wider, discovering there were other shelters Ambrose owned outside of the town. In the next town over, they discovered an abandoned truck outside a motel matching the description she had left in, but Tammy wasn’t there, and neither was Lenny. When questioned by staff, they said Tammy had checked in, but she wasn’t with a boy. So between her leaving in her truck and going to that motel, something happened to Lenny.

We were getting close, following her trail. Locke was certain he’d find her very soon, but they needed to keep looking. He focused on the shelters Ambrose owned because if she had run out of money, she’d be going back to those shelters.

And now, Locke was finally moving in on Ambrose.

“I thought he wouldn’t do it without me,” I fumed.

“I think we have a very important job to do also, Kali.”

I let out a sound of disgust. “Would you quit it already? I’m not stupid, Jem. He sent us on a wild goose chase so he can beat that old man around.”

Jem pulled the truck over. We were in the middle of town, next to the coffee shop that sold baby Jesus tears. Jem looked at me and this time his face wasn’t all innocent. “Ambrose wasn’tjust employing ex-convicts, Kali. Some of these guys are really sick.”

“The Hole sort of sick?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the shit they went away for was stomach churning. If your Santy Claus was so sweet, how could he justify employing molesters in some of these places he’s opened up?”

I mulled that over. “What is he planning to do to him?”

Jem just looked at me and said nothing.

I sighed. “Jem, what if he’s wrong about Ambrose?”

“Do you really think he is?”

No, I had already accepted that Ambrose was most likely the monster. Every lead led to him.

Jem gestured to the folder. “Look over the timeline and see what jumps out.”

“We’ve gone through it all.”

“No, we didn’t. How about the yard people that weren’t very yardly?”

I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh.”

“We can also grill the aunt again.”

“I don’t know what to grill her about. She’d seen Lenny at the start of October.”

“Yeah, he’d gotten sick.”

I looked down at the timeline. “He saw Dr Jeannette Kensington. She’s someone we haven’t spoken to.”

“Where does she work?”

I pulled out my phone and searched her up. When I saw the address, my heart skipped a little beat. “She’s just down the street here.”

“Why’d you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“All breathless-like.”

Now it was my turn to feign ignorance. “I don’t know what you mean, Jem.”

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