Page 39 of Everyone Here Is Lying
Nora wishes she could believe him. But this is what he was like before, shutting down, shutting them out, not wanting to tell them anything, until it was too late.
•••
As evening descends,Erin locks herself in the bathroom and has a hot bath. She leans against the back of the tub and closes her eyes. If it’s true that Ryan Blanchard took Avery, or anyone other than her husband—that will make it easier, in the end, for her and Michael. It will be easier to have someone else to blame. But they’re no closer to finding her daughter. She does the rough calculation in her head—Avery’s now been missing for about fifty-one hours. Ryan was taken in for questioning, but she knows they let him go—she saw it on the news. They don’t know who thewitness is, so they let him go. They should be hammering at him until he breaks down and tells them where Avery is, Erin thinks in fury. But, of course, he’s got a lawyer, and she knows how it works. They won’t get anything out of him. He’s protected by his rights. Even though her poor daughter is out there somewhere, and Ryan may know where she is. Where is the humanity in that? Where is the fairness, the justice? What about her rights, and her daughter’s? It’s fine to be a defense attorney and do your job, until you look at it from other eyes—from the eyes of a mother whose child has been taken by a monster.
•••
Gully knocks onthe Setons’ door, following up on Derek Seton. Maybe the search of Ryan Blanchard’s car will turn up something. But maybe it won’t. They need to find Avery. And every hour that she is missing is making people around here become more unhinged. The calls from the public about suspicious people are increasing. She remembers the shocking scene earlier that afternoon—Erin standing over Ryan after knocking him to the floor, his mother hovering over him protectively, those hyenas from the news outlets pressed up against the windows. They all need the truth.
Alice Seton answers the door and seems surprised when she sees Gully. “May I come in?” Gully asks.
“Of course,” she says, letting her into the vestibule. She lowers her voice and says conspiratorially, “Was it Ryan Blanchard?”
It seems everyone is glued to the news. “You know I can’t discuss the case with you,” Gully says.
Alice nods, shrugs. She says, “It’s just—Jenna’s so traumatized by Avery’s disappearance. All her classmates are frightened, understandably so. We all just want whoever took Avery caught as soon as possible.” She pauses and asks, “What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to talk to your son, Derek,” Gully says.
Alice seems taken aback. “Well, okay, but I don’t think he knows any more than his sister. And he’s not friends with Ryan at all.”
Gully follows her into the living room. It sounds like the family is having dinner in the kitchen. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your meal,” she says.
“It’s okay, we’ve just finished,” Alice says.
Gully says, “Either you or your husband must be present, as he’s a minor. But maybe one of you could take your daughter upstairs?”
Alice regards her for a moment and then says, “Yes, of course. I’ll get Pete to take her. Give me a minute.” She returns to the kitchen, and Gully hears quiet voices, then a boy’s voice rising in protest. Then they all come out. Mr. Seton nods at her as he and Jenna go upstairs. Jenna looks back over her shoulder at the detective, eyes wide.
Derek is a nondescript-looking boy—average height, messy brown hair, a few pimples across his forehead. Gully smiles at him as he sits down beside his mother on the sofa. Gully pulls a chair up closer and begins. “I’m sorry to bother you,” she says. “But you know how important it is that we find Avery.”
The boy nods back at her, looking nervous. Alice is watching her, clearly wondering what Gully is up to.
“Do you know Avery?” Gully asks.
Derek looks at his mother as if to say,Why is she asking me this?Then he turns back to Gully and says, “Yes, of course. She’s a friend of Jenna’s, sort of.”
Gully notes again how they always seem to make it clear that Jenna doesn’t really like Avery. It makes Gully feel a sudden surge of sympathy for Avery.
“Did you ever hang out with her, with her and your sister?”
He shakes his head, glances again at his mother, rigid beside him. “No. They’re, like, nine.”
“Do you think she might have had a crush on you?” Gully ventures.
The boy flushes to the roots of his hair. “No.”
“What’s this about, Detective?” Alice Seton interrupts.
“I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this story that Avery told your daughter, about having an older boyfriend. Perhaps it was a figment of her imagination,” Gully suggests. “Perhaps she merely had a crush on an older boy, and Derek is an older boy that she might have come into contact with.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous,” Alice says. “Derek had nothing to do with Avery.”
“But that’s not exactly true, is it?” Gully says, looking directly at Derek.
Derek stares back at her and swallows. He doesn’t look at his mother now. A silence stretches out uncomfortably.
“What are you talking about?” Alice asks, her voice tense.
