Page 48 of Body Count

“Hello,” she said through the mesh.

“Hi, Mrs.Estes.Sorry to bother you.I wanted to ask you about the other night, when all the deputies were here.”

“Oh.Uh huh.Yes.I remember.”

“By any chance, did you happen to see someone come to the house earlier that night?”

She stared at me.With one hand, she clutched the housedress, gathering it at her throat.“I really don’t think I should be talking to you.”

“Oh no, it’s okay.I’m not going to take a lot of your time.Did you see a car that night?Before the deputies, I mean.”

“I already talked to the police about this.”

“Right, but—”

“I’m very busy,” she said as she shut the door.“I’m sorry.”

I stayed on the porch, studied her front door, and drank more coffee.I flexed my toes against the cool, polished concrete of the porch.She had a jute welcome mat that said GOD BLESS in what was supposed to look like cross-stitch.I wondered, if I knocked again, if she’d open the door with a shotgun.

After another minute or two, I went next door.Skyler and Hailey Zamora were a young, cute, het couple who had been incredibly disappointed to learn that no, under no fucking circumstances did I want to come over for board game night.I mean, not that I’d said it that way, but they’d eventually gotten the message.They’d also been shocked that I hadn’t seenAvengers: Endgame, part whatever the fuck.I’ve got a gift for disappointing people.

I knocked.They had a stoop instead of a porch, and as I stood there, I could feel the back of my neck starting to cook.From inside came muffled music, something poppy and sad.Skylar had cut the grass recently; the smell still hung in the air.Footsteps moved on the other side of the door, audible even over the world’s saddest love song.

Then nothing.

I knocked again.The music was still playing.The back of my neck was starting to get that prickle, like if I stayed out here another five or ten minutes, I’d have the beginning of a sunburn.I drank some coffee.It was starting to hurt my stomach, but in a good way.The way I felt sometimes pulling overtime, no chance to grab anything to eat, nothing but coffee or an energy drink to keep me going.For a while, they’d had this brand called Bang.The cotton candy flavor was the best.I’d get a headache after about five swigs—that’s how you knew it was good.

I was still standing there when Hailey peered through the front window.I looked at her.She looked at me.It was like watching the soul leave her body in slow motion.I raised my mug in hello, and she scrambled backward.A moment later, her hand shot out, and the blinds dropped.Her little poppy song changed to something that, under other circumstances, was probably a real panty dropper.

Harvey Sweeney lived on the other side of Mrs.Estes.He was old too; this neighborhood was in the process of turning over, and young couples like Skylar and Hailey, or me and Darnell, were still the exception rather than the rule.But Harvey wasn’toldold.I mean, he was, like, forty or something.Maybe fifty.He worked from home, and he had one of those expensive e-bikes that he never rode, and I told Darnell he was probably a big old homo and super closeted, and Darnell told me it was none of our business.

I knocked.And then I had a minute or two to contemplate my life choices.No shoes had certainly been a decision.And even though I hadn’t been outside long, sweat was starting to stick my shirt to my chest.All things considered, I probably should have made more of an effort to be nice to the neighbors.Maybe I should have offered to watch Mrs.Estes’s cat.If she had a cat.If she ever went anywhere.

It was hard to explain why I felt better than I had in a long time.Maybe it was the coffee.

Harvey answered the door and then shut it again.Not all the way, but enough that I could tell he was bracing it with one foot—I guess in case I decided to charge inside and, what?Murder-sodomize him?I wasn’t sure which one would scare him more.I thought about telling him that trick with his foot was a great way to get his toes broken.

“Yes?”he said.He had thinning brown hair in a Boy Scout haircut, and he’d gone the dad bod route.

“Hi, Harvey, sorry to bother you.”

“Do you need something?”

No, I thought.I’m just out here for my fucking health.But I smiled and said, “I just have a quick question.”

“Is that coffee?”

“Not really.”

He stared at me.

“Like I said, I have a quick question.The other night, do you remember when all the deputies were here?”

“The police already talked to us.They asked us all sorts of questions about you.They wanted to know all about that boy, if he ever went to your house.”

He delivered these facts in a kind of brassy staccato.Behind them, I could hear the rest of the message:we know about you.

I was so caught up in a half-formed plan—something about trying to catfish Harvey on Prowler, if I could ever figure out his profile name—that I almost missed what he said next.

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