Page 79 of Dark Roads
“He was arrested last night. Vaughn pulled him over, found drugs in his truck.”
Drugs? She’d never seen Jonny take anything stronger than vodka. “Is he in jail?”
“His parents are bailing him out this morning.”
She glanced at the clock, then back at Mason, but he read her mind.
“I need you here today. It’s going to be busy—and that boy will be sleeping most the day. Seems he resisted and paid the price. Go after work. You can take him some food.”
The day was endless. She watched the door, hoping some of Jonny’s friends would come in so she could get information, but there was no sign of them, and she didn’t know the other townspeople well enough to ask. The diner seemed subdued. They all felt trouble in the air.
When she was finished, Mason put together a care package for Jonny—soup, muffins, a slice of pie, burger, and fries—and told her it was on the house. “Tell him to come back in soon.”
She grabbed her purse and drove to Jonny’s. His truck wasn’t in the driveway, but it was possible the cops had impounded it. She knocked on the door. Silence. She knocked again, harder, then called his cell from her phone. It rang inside, then shut offabruptly. Now she was angry. She was standing on his porch with an armful of food for him and he wasignoringher?
Beth looked up at the security camera in the corner, stuck her tongue out, then walked down to the end of the porch where the kitchen window was open a few inches.
Stretching with one foot on his patio chair, she shoved the food inside onto the counter, then heaved herself after it. Jonny came around the corner—and stopped.
“What are you doing?”
She slid the rest of the way off the counter and held up a cardboard container. “Food.”
He was wearing faded jeans, no shirt, and a lot of bruises. One of his eyes was swollen and rimmed a dark purple, almost black, and his cheek was scraped like it had been dragged along the ground. His ribs were splotched several shades of blue and he was holding an ice pack to them. How could one cop cause so much damage and get away with it?
“It’s hard to chew.”
She blinked back tears. “It looks awful.” She came closer, grabbed his free hand, and slipped her fingers through his. She didn’t think about whether she should touch him. How he had walked away from her. How he hadn’t texted her. Jonny made her forget every bad thing.
“You need to report him.”
“I tried.” He slipped his hand out of hers and sat at the kitchen table, sucking in a breath at the pain. “Soup smells good.”
She didn’t know if he had pulled free because of her touch or her words. To cover her awkwardness, she got a bowl out of the cupboard and served him the chicken soup. He picked up the spoon, swished it around half-heartedly, and didn’t lift it to his mouth.
“What’s going to happen?”
“I was charged for drugs and theft. I have to go to court.”
“Was it true? Did you have drugs?”
“Vaughn planted them.”
She sat across from him, relieved that they weren’t his, but worried about how he was going to get out of this mess. It would be his word against Vaughn’s. Jonny studied her face, his eyes dark blue, jaw tight. Was he upset that she had asked about the drugs?
“I had a patch kit for Hailey’s tire,” he said. “She crashed trying to get down the mountain. Now my truck is impounded, and the kit is locked inside.”
That’s why he was tense. He was finally admitting Hailey was alive, admitting he’d had a part in her disappearance. That had to mean he trusted her.
“I can help.”
“You can’t get involved. I’ll figure something out.”
“I’m already involved.”
“I lied to you, Beth. About a lot of stuff. You should hate me.”
“Please don’t tell me how I should feel. Nothing in my world has made sense for a long time. When people see me, they see Amber. They want to know how I’m coping, how my parents are coping. What they really want are all the horrible details. You didn’t treat me like that—and, yeah, our situations are different. But we’ve both lost someone.”
