Chapter 8
Thomas
Chapter Eight
“What’s going on?” Kinsley asked as soon as I shut the door behind us. She was holding the piece of paper between her fingers and kept glancing down at the one word written on it.
I had no idea what to tell her. If this had anything to do with my mother’s case, which I suspected it had, I didn’t want to drag her into it. But keeping it from her, and even Connor, could be a risk to them both. I agreed for them to come because I thought I could find something in my mother’s file that would crack the case quickly. That didn’t seem to be the case, though, so now I had two options. Send them both home, which could trigger my father to come up here and make it into a whole thing, ruining my plan entirely, or tell them everything, which, as funny as it was, could also ruin my plan. Kinsley must have seen something on my face, because she crossed her arms with a frown.
“I’m not dumb, Thomas,” she said, but before I could agree on that with her, she went on. “Your dad told me that you haven’t been up here for almost twelve years, and then suddenly you want to come up and party? You don’t even like partying, you just attend to hook up…and maybe find future clients.” Ouch. “And when you get the opportunity to do what you allegedly wanted to, you suddenly have other things to do. Then you followed me into the forest because you saw someone going in there, which I must add, could have just been another partying kid, but you were stressed, so that wasn’t your thought about it, was it? Who do you think was in that forest…and what’s with this?” She held up the note. “Does it have anything to do with…with your mom?” I froze.
What did she know about my mom?
“A girl I met at the party mentioned her,” she explained.
Right. Of course, small town. I stayed silent, trying to monitor her feelings. She was frustrated, which was obvious, but I could see she was scared, too, behind the anger. I wanted to reach out to her and tell her that everything was fine. But that would have been a lie. Instead, I turned around and walked into the kitchen, knowing she would follow. I opened the fridge door and took out the box of orange juice I had bought earlier, before filling up two glasses and handing one to her. Kinsley was like me; she wanted facts over nice words, so I took a mouthful of my juice and turned my attention back to her. It wasn’t that hard to choose between this and my father, after all.
“I came up here because of this.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a letter. She wrinkled her nose as she leaned closer to me with a curious frown. I handed her the paper and drank the rest of the juice while she read it. My eyes dropped to her soft lips as she mouthed the words, before putting the letter down on the counter.
“This is addressed to your dad,” she stated, and I nodded.
“It arrived a week into summer break,” I said. “He wasn’t home, and as you can guess, it never made it to him.” I saw the questions in her eyes, but instead of asking them, she stayed silent, waiting for me to tell the story. I stretched my neck and let out a breath. “I was ten when I was last here, and Connor was eight,” I started, and she took a seat next to me at the kitchen island. Her eyes caught mine, the brown in them more than the green, and I knew she saw the emotions behind my mask.
I swallowed hard, trying to remind myself that it was okay, this was Kinsley, but I still fixed my features back before I went on. “My mother disappeared on our last vacation here. She was here, and then she wasn’t. The police came, but they were never able to tell us anything. In the end, they said she ran off.” My eyes stayed only on Kinsley while I talked. It somehow made it easier for me to open up. “They made posters of her, and a few days later, some people came forward saying they saw her at the bus stop the morning after she disappeared. The most corrupt shit ever, if you ask me.” I ruffled my hair. “Who would leave without their bags, and in the middle of a family vacation? But nobody listens to a child, so her case went cold and will not be reopened unless there is serious evidence.”
“And Josh?” she asked, and I shook my head. My father closed off that day and he was never the same since then. I reached for the letter. “I tried to find out who sent this, but they made it so only they could contact us. That’s why I followed up on it and came here. But it seems like, as much as this person wanted Josh here, someone else wants us gone just as much.”
“So, you are here to what?” Kinsley broke the momentary silence. “To investigate?”
“I—”
“Because if so, then I want to help,” she blurted out, and I shook my head a little too fast. “I want to help,” she repeated, crossing her arms over her chest with a determined expression.
“That’s a no, Kinsley.” I stood up, keeping my distance from her. I didn’t trust myself around her anymore. Not after tonight. “You read the message and the letter, something more is going on here than I thought. I told you about it so you can decide if you want to stay or not, but helping with this is not an option,” I said, shaking my head.
She looked down at the paper in her hand and bit into her bottom lip. I looked away, trying to cool myself down. I needed to focus. You would think that after four years of studying to be a lawyer, I could keep my shit together, but somehow Kinsley always knew what to do to push my buttons.
“Maybe it’s just a stupid joke,” she said, but still folded the paper into her palm. “Maybe this has nothing to do with your mom’s case,” she added, but I could see that she couldn’t even convince herself of that.
“You know it’s not,” I answered, my voice calmer.
“Well, not likely, but you can never know,” she replied. “I want to stay, and I want to help.” Her voice was determined.
At the end of the day, everyone had their obsessions. I knew mysteries were Kinsley’s, and I wasn’t one to judge or try to keep it from her, since —I raised my eyes at her—I had my own obsession too. But she was my responsibility, and I knew myself enough to know that I couldn’t do my best while I tried to keep her out of trouble.
“Kins—” the sound of a car pulling up to the house cut me off, and we moved in sync. I opened the front door while keeping Kinsley behind my back with my other hand. I swallowed the breath I was taking, and while I was struggling, trying not to cough, Kinsley poked her head out from behind me.
“Well damn.” She let out a relieved giggle like we didn’t just witness my little brother making out with Kevin Miller on the hood of my car.