Chapter 20

Richie sat in the car smelling of the shampoo that Perla liked. It didn’t cover the fear. He looked at the little baggy in his hand. To him, it was a vibrant green, to everyone else it looked like cocaine. What was cocaine like? It was supposed to be an upper, a stimulant, an amplifier. What he needed was a downer. His heart was pumping wildly and the hair on the back of his neck and the back of his wrists was standing on end.

“Is that a lot?” Caitlin asked.

He turned to the girl in the passenger seat.

They were dressed up. Sort of. He not as much as her at least. She had on a blue party dress, low cut, showing off her small perky tits. No bra, no panties under that dress. Her nipples tented the silk. She matched it with ripped tights and sparkly flats.

Nat had done Caitlin’s makeup. She looked slutty, almost amplified by the seat belt burn still marking up her long slender neck. She felt, not slutty, but sexual and ready and easy as a slut. They had played Hate Me Like You Love Me Like You Hate Me on the radio. Richie had turned the car off before the song finished.

That song had been so cheesy, boring, normal to Caitlin days ago. Three hours to the concert and now she could feel her heart pumping hot lava through her veins.

She wanted to dance.

She wanted to grind up against Richie at least.

Caitlin had never been much of a dancer. Richie even less so.

Richie sat forward in a silk shirt and skinny jeans. Nat’s work again, having bought the outfit in hopes to see Richie’s ass in it. If Caitlin and Perla hadn’t felt him through the denim with such unrelenting lust in their eyes, he might have stripped them off for his preferred overly baggy jeans. His hair was gelled up, Nat again.

He never realized how often he ran his hand through his hair while he was thinking before he had the hardening paste crackling against the touch of his fingers.

“It’s been enough every other time,” he said. Answering Caitlin’s question.

“I never did something like that before,” she said.

“Actually, you–” He frowned. His heart stopped beating its warsong and slowed to a funeral march. He stuffed it in his pocket. “Let’s go.”

He stepped out of the car, leaning into the step, frustrated as the jeans clung to him. His belt wasn’t doing any work holding his pants up. He pulled his hand away from his hair in disgust. He slammed shut his door.

Caitlin was slower getting out. Her good hand was still in its cast. Polychromatic names and drawings by all of the girls she and Richie had been fucking all but hid the white plaster. A few classmates had done so as well, but Oksana’s touch was there in pink, red, green, blue, yellow, and black. Caitlin closed her door and Richie clickered Nat’s car locked.

Burger King behind him, Flo watching, enraptured as she stood at the dumpster unseen, Richie and Caitlin walked into Alice’s diner.

“Richie! Yoo hoo!” His mom whistled out and waved from the corner. “Caity...” She lost some of her smile. “Um, you know Mary’s coming, right?”

Richie pulled out a chair for Caitlin and seated her before joining at her right hip. His dad nodded, imperceptibly. His mom smiled again.

“She’s not here already?” Richie asked. “I figured she’d be here first.”

“We got here just a moment ago,” Dick said. He stood half up and looked around the restaurant.

“Oh there’s no way she could’ve missed us after I called Richie over,” Sheryl sighed. Then she smiled. “Mary!”

Thankfully Richie’s mother didn’t Yoo Hoo! to the lawyer. Richie turned. He and Caitlin had taken seats with their back to the front wall. He saw Perla first. She looked cute in her little diner skirt and apron. He waved. She tickled her fingers back in the air at him. She then apologized profusely for overfilling the coffee cup she had been called over to replenish.

Mary took one look at Perla. She knew the girl. Harper had always had an enemies list and when Perla had appeared many of the previous names had finally evaporated. She kept her feelings to herself, but her mind on Harper.

Richie met Mary’s eyes and his stomach dropped. Mary presented cold and dangerous. She wasn’t a tall woman, but sitting down Richie felt she stretched up like an unconquerable giant. His hand went to his pocket, like Frodo reassuring himself that he still had the Ring. Caitlin smacked his fingers away.

Richie and Dick stood up as Mary approached. She smiled and walked to sit on the bench next to Sheryl.

“The waiter brought coffee but we haven’t ordered yet or anything,” Sheryl said.

“That’s fine,” Mary said. “You look well.”

“I’m frazzled. We have to get the house fumigated, make sure we kill every last rat, but, honestly,” she squeezed Dick’s fingers. “I have enjoyed the hotel stays. We haven’t traveled much without the kids since ... Since college probably. And even then there were a half dozen friends around. We haven’t discussed it with Richie or Nat yet, but Dick and I are considering hitting up all of the places we wanted to go but didn’t over the next few years.”

“I’ve always wanted to see the pyramids,” Dick said. “Egypt and Aztec.”

“And I like the sun,” Sheryl said.

“I’m sorry,” Mary said. “I haven’t seen Harper in almost a week. I’m not capable of small talk.”

Richie heard the words come out like a guillotine blade down on his neck.

“Oh my god! A week!” Sheryl’s eyes went wide. She turned towards Richie. “I’ve been heartbroken since you’ve stopped bringing that girl around.” Her eyes flicked to Caitlin with no pretense of apology.

“I think we should talk about what happened,” Mary said. “I’ve heard from Lilith that Harper ran off with someone. And you knew it.”

“Um, yeah, that’s not perfectly accurate but Morwen...”

“Morwen?” Sheryl said. “That’s a strange name.”

“Maybe Morgan?” Richie said. “We only met the once, I think. Then Morgan said something about wanting Harper and ... I didn’t see them leave actually, but I can guarantee they were together.”

“Morgan? Last name?”

“Not that I heard,” Richie said, after a pause to think.

“Morgan Lindy?” Caitlin said. “He was a couple years older than us. Fat guy. Freckles. Blond.”

“No, not Morg,” Richie said. “Besides, he’s out west right? Working the tar sands or something.”

“I don’t know, I never talked to him,” Caitlin said.

“What’s Morgan look like?” Mary asked.

“Dark hair. It was night, but I think, like purple eyes.”

“Purple eyes are like a storybook thing,” Dick said. “Probably blue.”

“Maybe,” Richie said. “Taller than Harper, but just a little. Skinny.”

“Age?”

“Twenties?” Richie said. “Maybe thirty?”

“An older man?”

“Older. Yes.”

He was sweating. He was almost shivering. What was he supposed to do? Tell the truth? The whole truth. A lie took energy, thought, preparedness. It was easier to say things that were true and just leave out the impossible details.

Time stopped.

I fucking loved it.

And I’m going to do it again tonight and it’s going to be legendary.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Perla’s hand on the back of his neck. He quickly put his hand back between his lap. He wasn’t sitting tall.

“More coffee,” Sheryl said. “We might get some food later.’

Mary’s eyes had locked on Richie when Perla’s hand had come down on the back of his neck. She stared with daggers.

“When was this? Where?”

“Outside Burger King. I think it was Thursday? Maybe Friday?” he said. Thursday shift, Friday quitting time.

“Have you tracked her phone?” Dick asked.

“Yes, she left it in Nat’s car,” Mary said. “Do you have it?”

“Oh, um, sure. I think.” Richie said. There’d be nothing on the phone. Unless Harper had a bunch of pictures of Morwen he didn’t know about.

“Do you have it here?” Mary asked, more forcefully.

“Right. Not on me,” he frowned and looked at Caitlin. “Did I give it to Lilith?”

“Not while I was around.”

“One sec,” he said and took out his own phone. He quickly texted Nat and Lilith. “Do you have Harper’s phone?”

“Glove box.” Nat replied. Richie shot out of the chair and zipped out of the restaurant. Lilith replied a second later. “It’s on Harper’s nightstand plugged in.” But Richie wouldn’t see that until he’d torn everything out of the glove box.

He was hyperventilating in the seat when he picked his phone back out of his pocket to text Nat for clarification. He saw Lilith’s reply. He sighed. He stepped out of the car and slammed the passenger door. He marched back into the restaurant.

“I got you a coffee,” Perla said as he stepped in. She pointed to the table.

“Lilith said it’s on Harper’s nightstand,” Richie said, slumping to his seat.

“Right,” Mary said. “Then why’d you go out to the car?”

“Nat texted and said it was in the glove box.”

“Nat doesn’t like saying ‘No.’” Sheryl said, condemnatorially.

“She must’ve given lessons to Lilith,” Mary said. “And Harper.”

“Missing girl, you got a name and a description, is it time to go to the police?” Sheryl asked.

“It is,” Mary said, sighing and stirring her cup of coffee. “She’s an adult. If they do find her, she’ll tell the cops to fuck off.”

“I figure a kid with a lawyer for a mother wouldn’t say word one to a cop,” Dick said.

“Yeah, but in my mind Harper will feel guilty she’s been going wild for over a week,” she said. “She’ll be flipped on, but she’s nineteen. An adult. She’ll get her dander up and fight and stay out for another three days before she calls home.”

“I didn’t think someone her age could go so long without her phone,” Sheryl said. She looked at Dick and frowned. “Actually, I don’t think someone our age can do it.”

“She’d been bitching about how shit her phone was for how long that I’d been dating her,” Richie said. “Maybe she used it as an excuse to get a new one.”