Page 55 of Come Find Me
I moan. What they will find on that computer is a mapping of the park where my brother disappeared. Articles about the Jones House. The documentation of my search for the unexplained in Freedom Battleground State Park, and more. It should clear me, but I worry it will seem like something else. Like I’m looking for something instead.
“One more thing. We need your phone,” he says, holding out his hand.
“No,” I say.
“Nolan,” my dad says. “It’s not yours. It’s ours.”
—
I have no more connection to the outside world. The bathroom fills with steam from the shower, my image disappearing in the glass. I catch a glimpse in the fog, and it’s Liam instead.
I look down at the sink and imagine him that day.
Standing in the bathroom, the drop of blood in the sink. The hiss. The razor clattering.
The tension rises, like there’s static, like something’s going to burst through this room. I keep picturing it, over and over. Like Liam is there, showing me something.
I’m cold and shaking by the time I leave the bathroom, my hair nearly dry, like I’ve lost a gap of time.
I feel like a prisoner in my own home. My things are gone. My connections to the outside world are severed. No one here wants to believe me.
I need to talk to Kennedy.
—
I’d call her, but my phone is gone. I don’t know her number by heart. At least I have my car keys. The sky is dark, and I’m only half-concentrating, and by the time I park in front of their ranch house, it’s almost ten at night.
But I’m not of sound mind to stop myself. I ring the bell, and it’s Joe who answers.
“I need to see Kennedy,” I say, but he stands firmly in my path. “I know she’s grounded. I’m sorry. Please, I need to see her.” My voice cracks on the wordplease.
But she’s already there, pushing Joe aside. In pajamas, hair wet and braided down her back.
Joe steps aside, and her hand is on my elbow, pulling me in.
Nolan stands in my doorway, looking terrified. There’s no other way to describe it. His eyes have gone hollow, and his skin is pale, and his hands are trembling. There’s this desperate yearning in his eyes, and I think it struck Joe as well, because he doesn’t object. This is clearly an emergency.
“Are you okay?” That’s my first thought, over anything else, but then I feel ridiculous because he’s obviouslynot okay.
Nolan, now in the house, seems to calm slightly. “They took my phone. I would’ve called first but they took it. They took everything.”
Joe gives me this look over Nolan’s head like he’s worried about his behavior, or what he might do, so I sit him at the table. “You’re not making any sense, Nolan. Who took everything?”
He shudders, then finally seems to realize where he is, and who is listening. “The email with the picture came from the library,” he says, lowering his voice. “The library they think I work at. They think I sent it from there.” His words are fine as razors. His eyes wide and pleading. “They took all my electronics, to check.”
“Oh.” I open the fridge to get Nolan a drink, then look at Joe, still standing in the foyer, watching us, and give him this eye signal like, he needs to leave us.
Are you sure?he mouths, and I nod. We need to trust each other, and he is. He’s trying.
“I’ll just be in my room, if you need me,” he says loudly, like he’s speaking to make sure Nolan hears.
I wait until Joe disappears down the hall, but he leaves his bedroom door wide open.
“Tell me what happened,” I say.
“They think it was me,” he whispers, and my hand shakes as I pour the can of soda into a glass in front of him. I tighten my grip so he doesn’t notice. Nolan’s on edge, coming apart. Marco’s words briefly echo in my head:Be careful.I remember him telling me about Nolan and his brother’s girlfriend. A motive. A quick zing of unease passes through me, but I shake it off.
Marco doesn’t know him. None of them do.
