Riley read the message. “Looking for my sister JANE E. O’LEARY. Missing since June 1996 from/around Granite Cay, Oregon.” There was a number to call and a smattering of vaguely recognizable clues: Has blue eyes. Probably red to light red hair.
Riley’s throat went immediately dry. She thought of her parents, of Tim, cruising by her in the blue sedan.
“I don’t think this is right,” she said, letting the paper flutter to the floor. “Where did you find it again?”
“Just ran some searches. It’s weird; it was the only thing I found on her.”
Riley nodded, certain she had upturned every Internet stone. “Tim” wasn’t her brother.
Maybe Tim was Alastair?
The thought made her blood run cold.
Shelby’s ringtone blared through the silent cab.
“Hey,” Shelby yelled into the phone, “where are you?”
Riley swallowed hard then took a swig from her water bottle. “Uh, I wasn’t feeling well.”
“Duh, dork, I was sitting in class with you. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You left all your stuff.”
“I totally forgot.”
“I picked up your jacket and backpack. Are you at home? You want me to swing it by?”
“No!” She sat up straighter. “I mean, no, it’s OK, you don’t have to do that. I’m not home—”
“I can bring it by later. School just got out. Where are you? And if you’re off on some mysterious sexcapade, I’m stealing your jacket and throwing your backpack in the dumpster. Well, I’m stealing your jacket, your trig homework, your lip gloss, and your emergency twenty, but then I’m ditching the rest.”
“How did you know about my emergency twenty bucks?”
“Everyone is supposed to have an emergency twenty, Ry. You’re the only person I know who actually does. Where are you again?”
Riley chewed the inside of her lip and scanned her surroundings, as if something appropriate to tell Shelby would sprout out of the sunbaked earth.
“The doctor.”
Riley had never lied to Shelby before, and now the word tasted sour in her mouth.
“Oh.” Shelby’s voice immediately took on the parental edge she used when babysitting her siblings. “Is it serious?”
Guilt welled in Riley’s gut. “No—no. I think I might have just gotten some kind of flu or food poisoning or something. Would you mind just hanging on to my backpack and coat for the night?” She went back to tracing the stitch line on her jeans. “The way I’m feeling, it’s not like I’ll be doing any homework anyway.”
That wasn’t a lie.
“Yeah, no problem. But seriously, I’m wearing this jacket. And I might borrow your backpack too. Yours doesn’t have any food stains on it.”
“Fine, but if it smells like Ruffles when I get it back…”
Riley clicked the phone shut, feeling half relaxed and comfortable, half a horrible friend for lying to Shelby and making her schlep her stuff home.
JD sat up. “We should probably be getting back.”
Riley felt herself frown. “Already?”
“School’s out. Don’t your parents have some sort of tracking device on you once the bell rings?”
“Very funny.” Riley knew that if she didn’t come home immediately, her parents would be calling, wondering, panicked—and that made her want to stay out.
“Didn’t you say something about a pizza?”
JD had just steered the car onto the road when the calls started. Riley looked at the readout: MOM. The word throbbed there, dancing to the electronic ringtone. Mrs. O’Leary…
JD jutted his chin toward the phone in Riley’s hand. “Aren’t you going to get that?”
Riley closed her eyes and her mother flashed in her mind. In a second, her image was gone and a minute angry flame flared up. If they had just told me the truth…
“No.” She smiled at JD across the seat, feeling mysterious and dangerous and comfortable. The blue sedan pricked at the edges of her mind, but Riley didn’t want to think about it. She only wanted to think about being there in the cab of JD’s car, where she was a normal kid playing hooky.
JD flipped on his blinker, heading toward the school.
“Is your car in the lot?”
Riley froze. “No, actually, I got a ride this morning.”
“No big, I’ll drop you off at home.”
Dread welled up inside her. “At home? No, you don’t have to do that.” She was already in more trouble than she could fathom; coming home with JD might push her parents completely over the edge.
“So, what? Bus station? Want to grab another train and see where it takes us?” He wasn’t smiling, but his tone was playful. “Although I don’t know any buses or trains that go all the way out to the Blackwood Hills Estates.”
Riley pinched her top lip. “How do you know where I live?”
JD shifted his weight, and the car seemed to slide into a higher gear. He zeroed in on the road in front of him while Riley zeroed in on his right ear. “You told me earlier,” he said nonchalantly.
Riley tried to replay all the conversations she’d had with JD over the past week, but they jumbled and swirled with the stern look of her father and the nervous words of her mother. Did I tell him where I lived?