Page 71 of So Far Gone

She tried Shane once more, got no answer, and left another message—“Shane, we think we know where Leah is. Please call me back.”

Then Bethany called Joanie’s number. She handed the phone to Kinnick, who had changed directions and was driving them north outof Spokane, the suburban streets giving way to a straight highway that cut through alfalfa and wheat fields, toward the deeply forested foothills and mountains looming in the distance.

“H-hello?” It felt so strange to Kinnick, holding a phone to his head again, seven years after he’d thrown his own cell phone out a car window somewhere in Southern Oregon. How ridiculous the whole concept of a “phone” had become over the years—going from the dedicated oversize receiver of his youth, curved and cupped, fitting so nicely in your hand and covering your ear so perfectly, to this hard, unwieldy deck of cards that doubled as movie camera, personal assistant, consumer tracking device, and anxiety crack pipe.

“Hello,” Kinnick said again. He thought he could hear a faint voice but there was no answer. “I don’t think it’s working,” he said to Bethany.

“You have it upside down,” Asher said from the backseat.

“Oh.”

He flipped the phone over, and there was Joanie’s voice. “You’re talking into the wrong end, Rhys!”

“Yeah, I just realized that.”

He could hear Brian’s voice in the background, too. “For Christ’s sake, he’s like a child.”

Kinnick explained that they were, at that moment, driving back to his place, and that Leah and David Jr. might have gone there last night.

“Why would they go there?” Joanie asked.

“Go where?” Brian said in the background.

“He thinks they went tohisplace,” she told Brian.

“His place? Why would they go to his place?”

“That’s what I asked him.”

“I have no idea,” Kinnick said.

“What did he say?”

“He said he has no idea,” Joanie told Brian.

“Does he want us to go?” Brian asked.

“No, he says they’re on their way now,” Joanie told him.

Brian said, “What I’m saying is, since we’re closer, does he want us to drive up there?”

“Do you want us to go since we’re closer?” Joanie asked.

“No, that’s okay,” Kinnick said. This three-way conversation was making him dizzy. “We’re almost to Deer Park already. We’ll be there soon enough, and if theyarethere, I think Bethany’s the one to talk to them.”

“He thinks Bethany’s the one to talk to them,” Joanie told Brian.

“Makes sense,” Brian said.

“Brian thinks that makes sense,” Joanie said.

Kinnick said, “I just wanted to make sure it’s okay with you and Brian if we used your car a little bit longer.”

“He wants to know if he can keep the Outback.”

“Here, let me talk to him,” Brian said.

She handed the phone over.

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