Page 44 of Ten Years Later
Keaton breathed out. “Okay, and Mia Ferguson?”
“I’ve got a lot—”
“Ah, shit.” Behind Keaton blue lights lit up the night.
“Everything okay?”
“No, I’m being pulled over. I need to go.” Keaton hung up and parked the truck off the side of the road.
He rolled his window down.
Two cops approached his vehicle, one on each side. The one on the driver’s side shined a flashlight in Keaton’s face. He squinted.
“Keaton Young?” the cop asked.
“Yes.”
The cop’s hand went to his gun. “Keep your hands where I can see them and get out of the car.”
Keaton sat across from Detective Sparks.
Under the table, Keaton’s leg bounced.
“You’ve been busy,” Sparks said.
“Where’s Emily?”
“She’s with Mia Ferguson in another room.”
Sparks referenced her notebook. “According to Emily, you introduced yourself as Zane Young. You started working atPaint Away the Day!You went to Emily’s home without Mia’s knowledge. You took hair from her comb for a DNA test. You met Emily in secret for a beach walk. You’ve been exchanging text messages. She skipped school to visit you at your job site. She then ran away and showed up at your doorstep. She slept in Vivian’s room. Finishing with you hiding her at a friend’s RV. Which takes us to now.”
“How did Emily come to be here?” Keaton cast an anxious glance to the two-way mirror as if she stood over there watching.
“Emily had no money and her phone was dead. She decided to hitchhike back to Ponte Vedra to be with Mia. Luckily, one of our units caught her thumbing it and stopped. We brought her here and called her mom.”
“The private investigator I hired said she found information on Mia Ferguson, but she didn’t have a chance to give me the details. You need to call her. It’s Tessa Gray.”
“I know Tessa. She’s the one who did the DNA test?”
“Yes. It was supposed to come back today, but now it’s due tomorrow.”
Sparks closed her notebook. “Keaton, do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”
Keaton didn’t answer.
In the brightly lit room, Sparks studied him.
“She’s mine,” he said. “I know it.”
“This is what we’re going to do. I’ve already taken Emily’s DNA. We’re getting yours, too, and doing a test of our own. It’ll take twenty-four hours to get the results back.”
“Good. Let’s do it.”
“Until then, you’re spending the night in a cell.”
Locals and vacationers spanned the beach, searching for Vivian. Overhead a helicopter thumped the sky. In the ocean, divers searched. Cops questioned everybody.
Day turned to night.
