“Some kind of monkey.”
Ben sat back and grinned. “You know I had to show her that it wasn’t true. She was real impressed.”
“Yeah right.” JD said. “What? You didn’t. You did? You did?”
Ben burst into laughter. “No I didn’t. Man, she was pissed at me. But she was way more pissed at you.”
“She got over it.”
“I never saw the pictures,” Weekly said.
“That’s because he never showed them to you,” Ben told him. “Shannon made him delete them off his phone. He told her he was using Snapchat but he wasn’t. He actually downloaded them to his computer.” He turned to JD. “Where are those pictures?”
“Somewhere in electronic space,” JD said.
“Never seen the pictures,” Weekly said. “Just the real boobs.”
“Nice boobs,” JD said.
Ben said, “Shut up, JD, that’s his girlfriend.”
“I don’t mind,” Weekly said. “They are nice boobs.”
“Nothing better than a good set of knockers.” JD grinned knowingly at Ben.
Ben wagged a finger. “Don’t you dare go there.”
“What? Ro?” Weekly perked up. “You got pictures on your phone?”
“No.” JD was still smiling. “No, really. I don’t have pictures.”
“C’mon, you must have something on your phone.”
Weekly turned to Ben, who said, “Don’t look at me.”
Salinez downed his glass of water. “Yeah, you two used to get into it all the time.”
“Not all the time,” Ben said. “Just when he was being obnoxious.”
“Which was all the time,” Salinez said.
JD said, “That’s because you were throwing things in my face, which was all the time.”
“Like what?”
“Like snowboarding,” JD said.
“It was the only sport I could beat you at.”
“That’s only because you practiced and I didn’t.”
“That could be, but I was still better than you.”
“Probably not now.”
“For sure I could whup your ass,” Ben said. “I’ll go to the backcountry with you tomorrow and prove it.”
“Except all the snow has melted.”
“Not everywhere.”
“Next year,” Weekly said.
“I won’t be here next year.” JD looked at Ben. “You shouldn’t be here either.”
Heidi came over with four hamburgers, fries, and Cokes before Ben could protest. The boys dug in and ate in silence. It was amazing how quickly Ben had slipped into old habits.
Weekly farted out loud. The other boys groaned.
Weekly said, “Hey, remember the time when we were like ten and JD made that toilet-paper bonfire on Halloween?”
“How could I forget?” Ben said. “It burned up two sumacs in my front yard.”
“Boy, was your mom pissed,” Salinez said. “She was screaming at us.”
“I’ve never seen your mom so angry,” Weekly said.
Salinez said, “Wasn’t Peewee Thomas with us?”
JD said, “Yeah, you’re right. He pissed his pants he was so scared.”
“Yeah!” Weekly said. “He said it was sweat. After that, we started calling him Peewee Weewee.”
“Whatever happened to Peewee?”
“We drove him off to Texas,” Salinez said.
“We drove a lot of people off,” Weekly said.
Salinez said, “Man, your mom was mad, Vicks.”
“What’d she do?” JD asked. “Like ground you for a year?”
“Almost.” He pushed his plate away and grew serious. “Ellen was always a good defense lawyer. Got my sentence reduced with time served.”
The table grew quiet.
Weekly said, “Did I ever tell you I had a crush on your sister?”
“I had a crush on your sister,” JD said. “Did I ever tell you that Shanks brought me into the station house and questioned me?”
“He did that to me too,” Weekly said.
“Times three,” Salinez said.
“I was really offended.” JD was quiet for a second. “I really liked Ellen. She was one of the few older girls that talked to us. It was pretty amazing because we were so obnoxious.”
“Yeah,” Weekly said. “Every time we came in.”
All four of them said in unison, “Hello, boys.”
Ben had known about the interviews because he had read them in his sister’s homicide folder. Over time, it had become strange, in his head hearing their voices as younger boys, frozen in time—a tunnel into what he once was.
“You shouldn’t have taken it personally,” Ben said. “Shanks questioned everyone who knew her, including me. He was grasping at straws.” A pause. “He still is.”
JD said, “Whatever happened to that older kid . . . Timmy Sanchez.”
“He’s at Missoula.”
“You kept in contact with him?”
“More like I kept track of him.”
“You still suspect him?”
“Nah, he didn’t have anything to do with it. All that heat made his life miserable for a couple of years. So the family took off.” Ben looked at his watch.
JD said, “You want to go?”
“I’m tired.” He blew out air. “Got a headache from having some guy’s fist in my mouth.”
“Tell me about it. I think you broke my nose.”
The bill came to sixty-two fifty. They each chipped in twenty bucks and told Heidi to keep the change.
That left Ben with twelve cents before he got his allowance for the week on Monday morning. His car was just about dry, so it looked like he wasn’t going anywhere tomorrow. Lucky for him, at home the coffee was free and so was the Wi-Fi.
The ride to Ro’s house was silent. A block away, JD pulled the car over and shut off the motor. He sat back and stared out the windshield as he talked. “You know, three years ago, I had a best friend and tonight I remembered why. What the hell happened to you, Vicks? And don’t get all pissy on me. You know how I mean it.”
“I hear you.”
JD lit a joint, inhaled deeply, and then offered up a hit. Ben started to shake his head, but then thought better of it. He took a long drag. “I dunno. Maybe it was Ellen. Maybe it was just two dudes going their separate ways.”
“That’s horseshit.” JD wiped his nose, which was still leaking blood. “Look. I don’t pretend to know what you went through. What you’re still going through. But you didn’t have to blow me off.”
“I didn’t blow you off.”
“You blew everyone off, Vicks. You became your own clique of one except for maybe that Doogan guy you became so chummy with.”
“Bryan?” Ben said. “We were looking for his sister’s body, JD. It wasn’t exactly good times.”
“And I don’t have a pair of eyes? I came to every single search for Ellen. I came to look for her, sure, but I also came to support you.”
“I knew you were there.”
“Right.”
“You know, James David, whenever I did call, you were busy with some sport.”
“That’s horseshit too. I always called you back immediately. Then you’d call me back but not quite as quick. Then I’d call you, and back and forth, always missing each other’s calls until you stopped calling altogether.”
It was true. Ben shrugged. “I was preoccupied.”
“And not with good stuff. You shoulda tried out for the team. You could have made it.”
Ben turned to JD. “My sister was murdered and you’re wondering why I didn’t want to play football? Are we really having this conversation?”