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“What’s her name?”

He looked down at the carpet again. His leg had started to shake. “Madison told everybody I’m gay. I’m not gay.”

“Okay,” Emmy said. “But it wouldn’t matter to me if you were.”

“Well, I’m not,” he insisted. “She lied to the whole school, and they believed her.”

“I’m sorry she did that to you, Jack. Sometimes people can be really mean for no reason except they need to be mean.” Emmy didn’t have time to dissect the Byzantine cruelties of high school girls. “Tell me what you think happened to Madison and Cheyenne tonight.”

Jack shook his head, but she gathered he was really considering the question. “I mean—it’s bad that they’re missing, right? I hate them, but whatever happened is bad.”

“It is,” she confirmed. “Did you watch the fireworks at the river tonight, or—”

He snorted an incredulous laugh. “I watched them with my dad on the back porch. In case you didn’t pick up on this from the last five minutes of our conversation, I’m not very popular.”

Emmy had guessed as much the second she’d seen him at the computer wearing his tighty whities and faded Weezer T-shirt.

She mentally took a step back to really look at him.

His hair was greasy. Acne spotted his cheeks.

He would grow into his looks one day, but for now, his body was caught between boy and man—scrawny arms and legs, concave chest, a smattering of hair on his upper lip that he probably had to shave every third day.

He was not only reading his summer assignments but taking notes.

He was using a pseudonym to lightly stalk his peers.

He was probably subjected to the worst kind of ridicule every time he stepped foot inside the school.

She said, “Jack, let’s start over. I’m not here to embarrass you. I know high school can be difficult.”

He snorted again. “I know you’re a Clifton.”

“Not the right kind of Clifton.” Emmy tried another approach. “My grandfather didn’t want to work at the factory. He sold his shares and joined a traveling circus.”

Jack stared at her. “For real?”

“Yep,” she said. “The Great Depression hit. The factory almost closed down. Grandpa decided he’d be better off taking the money and running.

Except he didn’t get far. Broke his back on the trapeze.

Came home in a wheelchair. That’s why my father dropped out of high school and joined the sheriff’s department. He had to help support the family.”

“Damn,” Jack said. “What about the money from selling his shares?”

“Went to prostitutes and gambling debts.”

“Damn.”

“Damn is right,” Emmy said. There was a reason Taybee grated so much.

She had the arrogance of a Rich Clifton, which was hard for a Poor Clifton to swallow.

“Jack, I’m going to be honest with you. Whatever you’ve got in your room is your business.

I don’t care about your girlfriend or your toys or your browser history.

I just want to know how I can find Madison and Cheyenne. ”

His right shoulder went up in a shrug. “They’re already dead.”

“Don’t believe everything you read online.” Emmy tried to sound like she wasn’t losing hope. “Do I have to explain to you what could be happening right now to two teenage girls who’ve been kidnapped by a stranger?”

He bit his bottom lip. She could tell he was affected by the question. “No, ma’am.”

“Was there a particular person you noticed was angry with either of them?”

“Not specifically, but I wasn’t lying before. The entire school hates them, no matter what’s happening on Facebook.”

“What’s happening on Facebook?”

“All the popular girls are suddenly acting like they weren’t total bitches.

Like Shy and Mad were friends with everybody.

But they weren’t friends with anybody but themselves.

Nobody liked them. Not really. They were only popular because people were afraid of crossing them, and now that they’re gone, it’s like nobody remembers how cruel they are. ”

Jack looked out the window, but Emmy knew he could only see his reflection. He wasn’t a bad-looking kid, but he had that thing about him—that aching need for acceptance—that painted a bright red target on his back.

Emmy said, “I know Cheyenne was dealing hard drugs.”

Jack looked surprised, but not for the obvious reason. “How’d you find out?”

“I’m a cop. I find things out for a living.” She smiled, but just to soften the next question. “Is it possible that Cheyenne pissed off one of the other drug dealers at school?”

“I’m not mixed up in that stuff,” Jack said, but he’d confirmed her belief, which was that there was no way a high school that enrolled around 2,000 kids a year from every rung on the socio-economic ladder did not have a drug problem.

She asked, “What about the outlet mall?”

“I don’t hang out there,” he said. “It’s boring and all the stuff is overpriced anyway.”

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s focus on school. This is really important, Jack. Whoever took them isn’t playing around. I understand why you don’t like them, but do you hate them enough to stay silent while they’re being hurt?”

He shrugged again, but he was clearly considering the implications. “I mean—at school, the only guy who’s, like, a straight up gangster-type is Woody, but I doubt he’d care.”

Emmy nodded for him to continue.

“His real name is Wesley Woodrow. Have you heard of him?”

“No.”

“’Cause he’s sneaky-smart,” Jack said. “He lives in Clayville, but he won’t sell to North Falls kids. He straight up refuses. So, he wouldn’t be mad about Shy and Mad dealing to them. Probably wouldn’t even notice.”

“What if Cheyenne started cutting into his customer base?”

“Honestly?” he asked. “There’s no way. Woody is terrifying and Shy isn’t stupid. It’s not like she can shut him down by spreading a rumor and making him anorexic. He would beat the shit out of her.”

“Even though she’s a girl?”

He nodded. “For real. He’s done it before.”

Emmy made a note to follow up on that. “Was it only Cheyenne who was selling, or was Madison involved, too?”

“No way Madison’s doing anything other than tagging along. I’ve known her since kindergarten. She’s always been a chicken. She’s scared of everything.”

Emmy felt oddly relieved that her read on the girl had been right. “Was Madison seeing anyone? Boyfriend? Girlfriend?”

He shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

“Are you sure about that?” Emmy pressed. “She wasn’t hanging out with anybody or maybe had a crush on somebody?”

“I only ever saw her at school with Cheyenne. She could’ve had a crush, but Mad hasn’t talked to me since middle school.

None of the girls I used to know back then give me the time of day now.

” He did the shoulder jerk again, but the snub was obviously still raw.

“I’m in chorus and band. Singing the ‘Seal Lullaby’ and playing violin didn’t turn out to be the aphrodisiacs I thought they’d be. ”

Emmy smiled at the joke. “Cheyenne’s little sister thought you were her boyfriend.”

He didn’t laugh or rail against the very idea. He gave her the umpteenth shrug. “Shy could be nice sometimes. You just had to get her away from people. And do things exactly the way she wanted to.”

Emmy thought about the post on Facebook claiming that Cheyenne would give a blow job for $50. There had been a lot of fifties inside her closet lockbox. “Did you pay her for sex?”

Jack licked his lips, but he didn’t answer the question.

“I helped her dad clean out his shed over spring break. It took a while because he would try to throw stuff away, like snow tires and winter things, and Shy’s mom would pitch a fit because she thought they would need them if they moved back to Iowa, so we had to put it all back in.

Like, this went on for over a week. Pamela probably saw me and Shy talking.

Like I said, she was different when nobody else was around. Softer. Nicer.”

“Spring break,” Emmy said. “Is that when you found out that Cheyenne was dealing?”

“I knew before then, maybe as far back as Christmas last year. But she never said anything to me about it. To be honest, I was really shocked the first time I heard. Not because she wouldn’t do something stupid like that, but her folks are super strict.

Like, they won’t even let her have her own computer.

She was late for curfew once and they grounded her for an entire month. ”

“You seem to know a lot about her.”

“It’s easy to see everything when you’re basically invisible.”

Emmy didn’t have time to let her heart break for this kid. “Did you see Cheyenne dealing at school?”

“No, ma’am, but I heard about it in the locker room. Guys were saying if you needed Oxy or Addies, then Shy could hook you up.”

The Oxy and Addies were new information. This just kept getting worse. “Do you know where she was getting the drugs?”

He shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

“Is it possible Woody was supplying them?”

“Possible, but not probable. The guy is so careful. He wouldn’t even talk to you if you were North Falls. And everybody knows—”

Emmy waited for him to finish, but all she could hear was the end of “The Fame” coming from the Beats headphones on the floor.

She prompted, “Everybody knows what?”

Jack let the half-shrug come back into play. “That you’re a cop and you’ve got Madison’s back.”

Emmy let the words sit in her brain for a moment. She hadn’t had Madison’s back tonight, probably the one time in the girl’s fifteen years that it could’ve made a difference.

“Okay,” she said, borrowing her father’s multi-layered placeholder. “Who would Cheyenne get drugs from if Woody wouldn’t sell to them?”

He shook his head, but said, “The Perv, probably.”

Emmy felt the hairs on the back of her neck go up. “Who’s the Perv?”

“I don’t know his real name. Everybody just calls him the Perv. He’s an old dude. Hangs out at the Chilly Treat sometimes.”

The ice cream parlor wasn’t far from the sheriff’s station. “Is he old like me or old like your father?”

“I dunno. Like, just regular old.”