Page 41

Chapter Forty

BEFORE

TOM

Almost as soon as I get home from school, I get another call from my mother.

Again, I hesitate before picking it up. She’s probably heard about Alison’s disappearance, and she’s not going to be thrilled to hear my father is nowhere to be found. She’s not getting back till tomorrow, and I don’t want her to panic.

Still, I have to answer the phone. Given everything that’s going on, if I don’t answer, she’ll probably have the police at my door within the hour. I have to pretend like everything is completely fine. This will have to be an Academy-Award-winning performance.

“Hi, Mom,” I say, trying to sound as normal as I possibly can.

“Tommy!” Her voice crackles on the other line. “I’ve been so worried about you! I heard on the news about that missing girl. Isn’t that Daisy’s friend?”

“I guess,” I say. “I didn’t know her very well.”

Why can’t I stop talking about her in the past tense, for Christ’s sake?

My mother doesn’t seem to notice though. “It’s so terrifying,” she goes on. “Especially after that other girl turned up dead. Have you heard anything about what might have happened to her?”

“No,” I say, even though I actually could give her a very informative answer.

“Anyway,” she says, “are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“Where’s your father?”

I knew the question was coming, and yet I still don’t have a great answer. “He went to work.”

“Actually, I decided to call him at work after all, and they said he never showed up this morning.” She pauses. “Is he asleep upstairs? You don’t need to cover for him.”

“I, um…” If I tell her he’s asleep upstairs, she might ask me to wake him up. I can’t risk it. “He just left. He said he was going to O’Toole’s.”

I know from experience that nobody ever picks up the phone at the bar. The lie feels safe.

“Okay.”

My mother lets out a long breath. She sounds so worried, and I almost feel sorry for her, except I don’t. Her life is going to change for the better because of what I did to that man. Both of our lives are going to change for the better.

Well, as long as I don’t get caught.

“I’ll be home tomorrow,” she says. “Just…be careful, sweetheart.”

“I will, Mom.”

“It feels like there’s something very evil out there. Just stay home and don’t let anybody in the house besides your father.”

So…nobody then.

Tomorrow my mother will be home, and I’ll have to try to convince her that we shouldn’t call the police on my father. It won’t be difficult. She hates calling the police about my father’s antics, because it makes us look like trash. But it certainly wouldn’t be the first time someone called the cops on my father. He has a reputation in our small town for being an asshole when he’s drunk.

As for Alison though, that’s a completely different problem. I just have to hope for the best.