Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [87]
There was no way for me to keep track of time, so I don’t know how long I sat there holding the bars. My hands felt frozen stiff when I pried them off, and my shoulders hurt. I guess I’d been tensing them the whole time. I hadn’t learned much, but I had found what seemed like a weakness around the door. If I had infinite time or a gigantic boost of power, I might be able to spring the door open.
Since I didn’t have either, I crawled back under the blanket with Brid. It felt like hours before my hands warmed up enough for me to fall asleep.
22
Easy Like Sunday Morning
Ramon scooted into one of Plumpy’s plastic booths across from Detective Dunaway. He took a sip from his soda.
“I appreciate you meeting with me,” Dunaway said. “I’m sorry to take you away from your work.”
“I only work here because of Brooke and Sammy.” Ramon picked at the edges of a rogue ketchup packet. “Now…” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Sam was gone, and Brooke wouldn’t be back at work ever. He wouldn’t have been here, either, except he thought his absence would look suspicious. Besides, what would he do if he wasn’t here? Sit around the apartment going crazy? He shoved the ketchup packet away in frustration.
Ramon had caught a bus out to Sam’s mom’s house earlier and dropped Brooke off. Haley had graciously agreed to head-sit. Ramon could have left Brooke at the apartment, but he’d been afraid that the cops might want to look through it while he was at work. Brooke wanted to go, anyway. She thought she’d make a good distraction for Sam’s family. Ramon had agreed, especially after he’d seen Mrs. L’s face. Normally, she glowed with a gentle inner light. But when he’d dropped Brooke off that morning, her radiance was all but gone. Mrs. LaCroix was taking Sam’s absence pretty hard. Not that Ramon could see any other way to take it.
“You still haven’t heard from him?” Dunaway pulled out his notebook.
Ramon shook his head. “Negative.” He hadn’t wanted to call in the cops before, but when Sam didn’t come back, he couldn’t see an alternative. In the wake of Brooke’s murder, Sam’s disappearance would be noticed. If Ramon or Frank didn’t call Dunaway, they’d look really fishy, so Ramon decided to head it off at the pass. Besides, some cops were tools, but Dunaway seemed okay, like he would listen, even though Ramon hadn’t been able to tell him much.
“Do you mind if we go over it again?”
“Sammy came home from visiting scenic Kitsap County Friday afternoon.”
“Who did he go there to see?”
“His douche-bag father.”
Detective Dunaway looked up from his notebook.
“I’m sorry—his estranged father,” Ramon said, “who is a douche bag.”
Dunaway laughed, turning it into a discreet cough at the end. He flipped back to another page in the notebook.
“You said he went out there trying to locate his uncle?”
“Yeah.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Sammy’s gotten really into his roots lately.” Not exactly a lie. Mama didn’t have any patience for liars, but Ramon felt comfortable dealing the occasional half truth.
“Then what?”
“Not much. We hung out with Frank and Brooke.” He stopped himself and stared at the floor, trying to look sad.
“Sorry, I guess I’m not used to it. I meant we hung out and talked about Brooke.”
Dunaway nodded sympathetically. He waited patiently for Ramon to continue. Ramon felt sure that Dunaway could wait for a very long time.
“After that, he took his board and left.”
“Did he mention where he was going?” Dunaway tapped his pen against the pad. “Maybe when he’d be back?”
“Nope.” Ramon got up and refilled his soda from the fountain machine. Technically, employees only got one meal per eight-hour shift. Not that he’d ever paid attention to the rules. One of the kids behind the counter opened his mouth to say something. Ramon stared at him until he shut his mouth and looked away. Plumpy’s owed him many things. Free soda was numero uno on that list.
Ramon tapped the cup and waited for the foam to settle. “I offered to go with him.