Crowned and Moldering

Eric considered for a moment. “That sounds like something you would say.”

“Can you blame me?”

He didn’t answer, but asked, “Did he touch you that night? Hurt you?”

“He didn’t hurt me, but he scared me,” I admitted. “He grabbed my arm a bunch of times. This afternoon in the market I thought he might punch me.”

I could see Eric’s jaw tighten. “And you said he’s staying at the I

“I’d feel better if you just threw him in jail.”

“We’ll see how it goes.”

I gritted my teeth. “I hate to sound like a tattletale, but—”

“Sha

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Eric flipped a couple pages of his notepad and read what he’d written. “So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to high school.”

“Good idea.”

“So, what was the story between Hogarth and Lily? You said they dated. For how long?”

“From what I remember, they were together maybe six months during their senior year.”

“Were they dating when she disappeared?”

I’d already thought about this question. “It had started to cool down. Lily was hearing rumors about him cheating. But they still must’ve been involved, because I heard that the police interviewed Cliff.”

He wrote it all down, then glanced up at me. “This may seem like an odd question, but let me ask it anyway. Do any moments stand out in your mind from that time? Anything at all that might’ve struck you as odd in the days and weeks before and after Lily disappeared?”

I thought about it for a minute. The memories were still spi

“This might not have anything to do with anything,” I said, “but if nothing else, it’ll give you some insight into the way girls think. And once you start interviewing Lily’s girlfriends, you might want to take the things they say with a grain of salt. Because it all happened a long time ago.”

“Thanks for the warning. Go ahead.”

“My girlfriends and I were obsessed with Lily’s disappearance. She was like a celebrity to us because, first of all, she was a senior and she was beautiful. She had the lead in the school play and she could sing. And she was smart, too. So, after she disappeared, my girlfriends and I would sit in the cafeteria and spin new stories, come up with different ideas of what might’ve happened. Did someone lure her away? Was she kidnapped? Did she tumble over the cliff into the ocean? Did she fall in love with a traveling soldier? Did they run off and get married?” I glanced at him. “That last one was Jane’s idea, because even back then, she had a romantic soul and believed in love that lasts through time. The rest of us quickly blew off that scenario.”

Eric gri

“I do,” I said, smiling. I’d known Jane He

He laughed. “Naturally.”

“I guess we were being ridiculous. But here’s the weird thing, and it probably doesn’t have anything to do with Lily. But you asked about moments that stand out in my mind and this is one of them. There was one girl who went a little too far with the obsession and caused a scene in the school cafeteria.”

He sobered. “What happened?”

“She accused an i

“What was her name?”

“Ophelia Hawkins. She was sort of a needy type. I felt sorry for her, but I have no idea what she was thinking when she accused Bernie. Maybe she thought her accusation would make her more popular. Whatever her reason, I blame myself for her freaking out.”

“But you don’t think Ophelia had anything to do with Lily’s disappearance.”

“Oh no, not at all. But you were asking for odd moments.” I paused to remember the day it all happened. “She wasn’t evil. She was just sort of sad.”

“Kids are impressionable,” he said, staring at the page. “Can you give me the names of some of Lily’s friends?”

I named five girls I knew had been in Lily’s crowd, including her best friend, Denise Jones. I also named three boys that hung out with Lily and her friends. All of them still lived in town. “There were plenty of others. Lily was really popular.”

“I’ll probably collect more names as I talk to these people.”

We sat in silence for a long moment, until Eric closed his notepad. He reached for his glass of water and took a sip. “That boy in the cafeteria. The one who was falsely accused.”

“What about him?”

“What’s his name?”

“Bernard, but we all called him Bernie. Bernie McHugh.”

“Is he still living around here?”

“No. His family moved away that summer, but I still wonder about him.” And I continued to regret the small role I’d played in turning his world upside down.

*   *   *

An hour later, I left the house to meet my guys for di

“Sadly, I never rescued a beautiful woman, but Jake Slater does it all the time,” he said.

We laughed, and I could tell that Sean was enjoying himself. That was all that mattered tonight. I wanted him to remember he had friends who cared about him and who didn’t want him to be alone and sad. After the waitress brought our orders, Wade invited Sean to stay with his family for a few days.

“Come on, you guys,” Sean said, smiling wryly. “I’ll be fine. I’m not going to flip out or anything.”

“Promise?” I said.

He chuckled. “Yeah.”

“Besides, you already flipped out a long time ago,” Billy joked.

“Very fu

To change the subject, Wade and Joh

As we dined on fish and chips and burgers, Mac spun a story about another group of Navy SEALs sneaking behind enemy lines somewhere in the Hindu Kush, the mountain range that formed the border between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. He had us laughing and shaking our heads at some of the tricks they pulled as they hiked toward their target. Then the story took a sudden dark turn as the men were set upon by knife-wielding Pashtun warriors. The SEALs fought back, but they’d been caught by surprise and it was touch and go for a while.

We were on the edges of our seats as Mac recounted the action.

I kept an eye on Sean as Mac spoke, because his emotions were so clearly reflected on his face. Laughter at first, then wide-eyed amazement, but as the tale turned more frightening, Sean appeared to check out. He looked dazed and no longer reacted to anything Mac was saying. His eyes glazed over and he stared at nothing in particular.