she’d run away, but still, we treated it like a missing persons. It wasn’t until yesterday her best friend told me they were still in touch. She’d been sworn to secrecy, but she could see how serious things had become. Her best friend told me there was more to it, but wouldn’t say what, and had texted Alyssa to tell her she needed to talk to me. After that, Alyssa started taking my calls. Look, Noah, I’ve tried convincing her to come back, hand on heart,” he says, and puts his hand over his heart. “I’ve said everything humanly possible to get her to return. The thing is she thinks her uncle will see it in her somehow. She thinks she’d rather he die disappointed that she isn’t here than be ashamed of what she did. And to be clear here, those are her words, not mine.”
“And you let people think she’s missing?”
“Yeah, I knew you were going to say that,” he says. “Goes to show you have no faith in what we do around here.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“No? We told Father Frank yesterday she was okay, but she couldn’t deal with watching him die. He didn’t believe us. You see him already?”
“Before I came here.”
“Did he tell you we found her?”
“No. He didn’t.”
“My guess is he didn’t tell Maggie either. Like I said, if she had spoken to me first you wouldn’t have needed to come here.”
“You tell Frank about the abortion?”
“Are you kidding?”
“He deserves to know the truth.”
“Actually, Noah, he doesn’t. This is Father Frank here. He’s probably the nicest guy in Acacia, but let’s not forget he’s a Catholic priest. Alyssa thinks this would devastate him, and I’m inclined to agree.”
“I’m not so sure it would. Frank’s a liberal guy, and I think more than anything he wants to know she’s safe.”
“Could be you’re right,” he says, “but it doesn’t much matter. This isn’t about what you think, or what I think, this is Alyssa’s decision, and I have to respect that. You, you’re seeing Alyssa as a kid who makes kid decisions, and you think Father Frank still has the mental capacity of the Father Frank you knew. Look, it’s easy for you to ride in here and think you know what to do, but it’s not so easy when you’re on this side of the desk. But you know what? I think it’s more than Alyssa not wanting to face him or talk to him because she feels she’s let him down. You’ve seen him, you know this is a man who isn’t close to death, but is halfway on the other side of it. It’s all over the house too. You can feel it. Alyssa, well, she lost both her parents when she was young, and now she’s losing him too, and it’s not pretty. It’s too much for her to handle. She might not be seven anymore, but she’s still a kid. If I were nineteen and that were my dad, hell, I’d want to run away too. Tell you what, if you think I’m wrong, if you think Father Frank really deserves to know, then by all means head on over to the church and tell him the girl he considers his daughter got pregnant, and compounded that sin by having it taken care of. Could be you telling him that is what he needs so he can let go and go see his Maker.”
He’s right. Of course he’s right. I’ve come into town and weighed up an hour’s worth of facts, and who am I to think I know what’s right here? I think of my own mother wasting away the year after my dad wasted away. They were different kinds of wasting, and both were ugly, but neither looked as bad as Father Frank. If they had, I might have driven away too until it was all over.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Sorry for thinking we’d dropped the ball?”
“Sorry for being a jerk,” I tell him. “Sorry for everything.”
He brightens up. “Never apologize for being a jerk. You start doing that, nobody else is going to get a word in.” He starts rotating his coffee cup again. “So — you going to stick around for a bit, or let Old Man Haggerty run you out of town?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Come on, man, you can’t up and leave — you just got here. Stay a while. Come stay the night with me and the family. Leigh would love to see you and I’d love for you to meet the kids. You can tell me more about what you’ve been doing the last twelve years. I can provide you around the clock protective custody against Old Man Haggerty and Leigh can provide around the clock protection against my cooking. What do you say?”
“It’s tempting,” I tell him.
He glances at something on his computer, then writes down a number on a piece of paper and slides it across to me. “It’s Alyssa’s. You’re about to ask for it. I know you’re thinking you’re not done here until you speak to her yourself. Keep in mind she might not answer, I don’t know. You could leave a message maybe. I think . . . I think considering what you did for her, she’ll talk to you. Just . . . just go easy on her.”
I fold the piece of paper into my pocket. He was right about me not being done here until I’ve spoken to her myself. “Has she had the procedure done?”
“She has.” He stares at me for a few seconds. “After you call her, you’re leaving, I guess. You’re not going to come by and see us, are you?”
“I really should get going.” I stand up. He does the same. We reach out over the desk and shake hands.
“So this is it,” he says.
“Yeah. I think it is.”
“I’m still in the same place,” he says. “I’ll be firing up the barbecue around seven, but I promised Leigh I’d be home around four to help out with the kids. Seriously, drop by. Old Man Haggerty — screw him. If he tries anything, I’ll arrest him.”
“No, you won’t,” I say.
He smiles. “No, I won’t.”
He walks me to the car. Once I drive out of town I have no need to ever drive back, not unless Alyssa goes missing in another twelve years. Neither of us say it, but I can tell he’s thinking it too. I’ve missed Drew over the years, but I didn’t realize how much until seeing him again.
“It really was good to see you, Noah. I mean that. I wish . . . I wish things had worked out different. You were like a brother to me.”
“Likewise,” I say, and we part ways and this man who was my best man, my best friend, this person I grew up with, I watch him walk back into the station knowing I’ll never see him again.
Thirteen
Compared to the mammoth-killing temperatures inside the police station, getting back into the car is like catching a rocket ship to the sun. I pilot it out of the parking lot and into the shade of a large elm tree over the road. I dial Alyssa’s number. She doesn’t answer and I leave a message.
I drive back to Saint John’s. I pass an outdoor swimming pool that only has a few people using it, but will fill up with kids when school is out. The one I used to go to when I was younger has closed. Every summer me and Drew would win medals at that pool, at least until we started competing in state championships where we’d be up against guys who were bigger and faster. I pass a supermarket where, when I was fourteen years old, I got my first job packing groceries. I drive past the bowling alley where I once dropped a ball on my foot and broke my toe, all while Maggie couldn’t stop laughing.
I call Maggie. I tell her I’m heading back to the church, and she tells me she’s heading to the school. She says Damian isn’t feeling well and she’s on her way to pick him up. She asks how I got on with Drew, and I tell her everything he told me.
“Frank didn’t tell me Drew had been to see him,” she says. “I wouldn’t have called you if he had.”
“That’s probably why he didn’t tell you.”
“Did Drew say who