“I’m not sure. Everybody takes it easy on him.” He stopped and then said with a shrug, “He’s different.”
“So, you’re saying he’s got some issues? Maybe some mental challenges?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he said, “I don’t really know. I don’t think he goes to school.”
“That’s interesting,” she murmured. Studying Mack, she looked back at the kid. “I think you need to show us where you live. We’ll give you a ride back home, and you can show us.”
“No,” he cried out. “Don’t do that. Please. My foster family will get really mad at me.”
“And when they get upset with you, what do they do?” Mack asked.
“They get mad,” he said. “Randy doesn’t like it if we get in trouble.”
At that, Mack froze. She looked up at him and said, “Your friend, Randy?”
“Acquaintance,” he corrected.
She nodded, looking over at Abner, who was now studying Mack with uncertainty. As if to say he was now less trustworthy because he knew Randy.
“Listen, Abner. Does Randy ever hurt you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, he’s okay. It’s just, it’s not the same as having a home-home.”
“I get that,” she said. “I just want to make sure Randy isn’t hitting you or locking you up.” She used the term on purpose because of the note that she had seen. The note that Thaddeus brought home on his leg.
“Nah,” he said. “Randy is okay.”
She saw some of the tension in Mack’s shoulders ease. “What about the rest of people around there?”
“It’s like any place. A couple drug dealers, a few drunks,” he said. “Everybody else’s okay.”
“You okay there?”
“Yes. Randy makes sure we have lots to eat. We did talk to Randy about Isaac. He was pretty protective. Everybody is,” he said.
“Maybe because he is special,” she said. “That often brings out the protectiveness in people.”
“Maybe,” he muttered. He turned, and he looked down to kick a rock, and then realized it was the rock he had placed there. He cringed at the memory.
“Did you put the first one there, Abner?”
“Well, I saw somebody do it,” he said. “So I just thought, maybe that’s what they were trying to do.”
“What do you mean?” Mack pounced.
Abner looked at him in surprise and took a half step backward. “Well, I just put this one here,” he said.
Doreen bent down, picked up the rock, noting it was a lot smaller and the lettering was quite different. “When did you see somebody doing this?”
“Two nights ago,” he said.
“Can you describe him?”
“Well, it was pretty dark already,” he muttered. His hands went right back into his pockets, as he shifted nervously.
“Would you recognize him?”
Immediately Abner shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Tall or short?” As if on impulse, Mack made a sudden noise and pulled out his phone. He scanned through several photographs and then held up a phone. “Was it this guy?”
The kid looked at the picture, looked at Mack in surprise, and said, “Yeah! That’s him. How did you know?”
Immediately Mack turned the phone around to show her.
She recognized it as taken off the cemetery’s video camera. It was the one guy she’d recognized who they had been trying to track down. The one who used to work for her ex. Snoz. “Look at that, John Smith, or Snoz as I called him in my head,” she said. “What a surprise.”
“John Smith? Is that his name?” the kid said doubtfully.
“Well, that’s the name he’s using on his rental car,” she said.
He shrugged. “I didn’t see a car. He came out the side of the house though, and he left that way.”
“And why were you here?”
“I often come to the river,” he said. “Just to get away. My life is not all that great sometimes.”
“Uh-oh,” she said out loud.
He looked at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Are you like seriously depressed?” she asked.
His shoulders hunched.
“Abner,” she said, speaking gently. “What happened to your family that you ended up in foster care?”
A few long moments went by. “My dad killed himself,” he said quietly.
“I’m so sorry, Abner. How long ago?”
“About six months or so.” He turned around to look at the river.
“Is that why you’re sitting at the river?”
He shifted uneasily.
“Are you thinking about doing something to yourself?” she asked gently.
His shoulders stiffened. “No,” he snapped.
“Well, I would understand if you had those thoughts sometimes,” she said quietly. “I’ve thought about it myself before.”
His gaze flew to hers. “Seriously?”
She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. “Life can be pretty rough, and sometimes we can get to a point where we think maybe that’s the best answer.”
He nodded. “I did think about it,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I found the river originally. Normally I sit up higher at the eco center,” he said, “but it’s really nice down here. It’s just so much farther away for me to have to get home.”
“Where’s your bike?” Mack asked.
He looked at him in surprise, then pointed to the other side of the river.
“You know you could fall in any time, right?”
“I have actually. Several times,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I don’t think about it so much anymore.”
She knew there was more to the story, but he wasn’t being very forthcoming. And then she got it. “Because you had a scare and came close to drowning, and it made you rethink the options?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I just have a little bit further to go to get through foster care.”
“And then what?” Mack asked.
“I’m not sure. I was hoping for college, but you need money for that.”
“It depends,” Mack said quietly. “It depends on what you’re looking at and if there’s grant money available. There are all kinds of options.”
“Not when you’re a kid like me,” he said.
“What about your cousin? Does he have family?”
“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I’m in that foster home to begin with. My uncle is right around the corner.”
“And yet he wouldn’t take you in?”
“No, but I wouldn’t want to live there anyway. He’s a drunk.”
“A mean one?”
“Yeah, a mean one,” he said, “is there any other kind?”
She smiled. “The weepy kind, the life-of-the-party kind,” she said, “but it seems like the mean drunks are the more prevalent.”
“Yeah,” he said, as he started to back up. “I need to get going,” he said, looking around.