Page 89

CHAPTER 88

CHESTER’S EATING LUNCH at the KC Diner when he gets the call. He doesn’t finish his burger and he doesn’t pay his bill. He just runs out the door. He hears Lacey calling after him, but there’s no time to explain. He’ll text her later. Right now he just has to go .

He sprints down the street to the station, grabs his keys, and throws himself into the car. The map on his phone says it’s a forty-eight-minute drive.

Chester bets God fifty bucks he can make it in thirty-five.

But the voice in his head is wondering what the rush is. Isn’t it already too late? the voice asks.

Chester just ignores it. A man can’t always be logical. Sometimes the irrational heart takes over. And the heart says, Get there as fast as you can .

Chester takes the back way out of town. Pulling onto the highway, he hits ninety-five miles an hour, then a hundred. Sirens blaring, lights flashing. The cars ahead of him seem to melt out of his way as they pull over to the side of the road. If he weren’t so upset it might be thrilling. It’s not every day he has an excuse to drive as fast as his old cruiser will go.

Then again, it’s not every day he gets news as bad as this.

Thirty-two minutes later, he arrives at his destination, a cinder-block sprawl in the middle of nowhere, with a chain-link yard under a cloudy white sky. The director of the facility is there in the lobby waiting for him, his hands clasped at his waist and a concerned expression on his face. “I’m so sorry,” Roy Washburn says. “We really didn’t see this coming.”

Chester tightens his fists in anger. Says, “You’re a locked facility .”

The director turns pink. “Yes, we are. But we can’t always control for human error—or human ingenuity.”

“So which was it?” Chester demands. “Did one of you people fuck up, or did those kids trick you?”

“We are currently investigating,” says Washburn.

Chester sinks down into one of the hard lobby chairs. A cyclone of emotions swirls inside him, the greatest of which are fury at Brookside and fear for Kai and Holo.

Where have they gone? Will they be okay?

“How did it happen?” he asks.

Washburn wipes his brow with a yellowing handkerchief. “As I said, the matter is under investigation. What we do know is that they escaped during their shift on road cleanup crew.”

“Road cleanup crew?” Chester repeats, incredulous. “That’s what convicts in state custody do!”

“We find that giving our residents responsibilities improves their behavior and their spirits.”

“And how did you find Kai and Holo’s spirits?” Chester practically spits. “Because the last time I saw them they were pretty damn unhappy here.”

Barring the sheen of sweat on his brow, Washburn is unruffled. “They were starting to make a few friends. But they did still have a tendency to growl at the staff.”

“I wonder why,” Chester says sarcastically.

“They had a visitor just yesterday,” Washburn goes on. “A kid on a motorcycle. I can’t remember his name.”

“Waylon Meloy,” Chester says. Thinking, If he had anything to do with this, I’m going to throw him into jail so hard he’ll bounce .

“Take me to their rooms,” Chester says. “I want to see if there’s anything—”

“Of course,” Washburn says. “Follow me.”

But even as he does, Chester knows he won’t find anything. Kai and Holo are way too smart. They aren’t going to leave any tracks.