Chapter 31
“I think we should call the police,” I heard Mrs. Harris say.
“Don’t be dramatic, Lorraine.” Mr. Harris was having none of it. “He’s probably just getting up to no good.”
“That’s what I’m worried about!”
I got out of bed and walked to the window. My diary was open on the table. I’d written about the evening in detail before bed. I closed it.
“Give it an hour, and then I’ll go down to the beach and have a look around. That’s where the boys said they last saw him.”
“Maybe we should go and knock on the doors of some of his friends. See if anyone has heard anything?”
“It’s after 9 PM. Everyone will be heading to bed! The last thing they need is for us to show up on their doorstep.”
“Well, I’m going to go to the Wallers’. Johnny said that Billy was with Mabel the last time he saw him.”
“You think he’s off with Mad Mabel Waller?” There was a hint of amusement in Mr. Harris’s voice. “I don’t think she’s exactly our son’s type.”
“Have you got any better ideas?”
He mustn’t have, because a minute or so later, our doorbell rang. I got back into bed as I heard the sounds of Cess talking to Mrs. Harris for a few minutes, followed by Cess’s footsteps on the stairs.
“Mabel?”
I sat up, pretending to blink awake.
“Mrs. Harris is here. Billy hasn’t come home yet and she thinks you were with him this afternoon?”
Cess’s tone makes it clear how unlikely she finds this idea.
“I was.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yes. Down at the bonfire.”
“Oh. Well … Mrs. Harris would like to talk to you.”
I put on my robe and followed Cess downstairs. Mrs. Harris was in the foyer, pacing. She was barefaced and wearing house shoes.
“Mabel, we’re looking for Billy. He hasn’t come home from the beach and Johnny and Fred say he was with you the last time they saw him.”
Mrs. Harris was clearly anxious.
“I saw him at the bonfire this afternoon, yes. But that was hours ago.”
“My sons said Billy left the beach with you.”
“Well …” I thought of Billy following me off the beach, taunting me. We know what you did to your baby sister. “I wouldn’t say …”
“You wouldn’t say what?” she snapped.
My face became hot.
“Lorraine,” Cess said. “Mabel is trying to help you.”
“Really? Because it feels to me like she’s acting cagey.”
“Billy followed me off the beach. He was saying some upsetting things to me and I was trying to get away.”
Cess, I noticed, was looking a little worried now. Mrs. Harris, on the other hand, looked irate.
“So what happened?”
“We got to the top of the stairs and I ran away.”
“What did Billy do?”
“I don’t know. I was running. When I stopped, he wasn’t there.”
Mrs. Harris’s nostrils flared as she breathed in and out, slowly. “Did you do something to Billy, Mabel?”
“No.”
“Tell the truth now.”
“No,” I repeated, at the same time Cess said: “Enough, Lorraine.”
“I bumped into Mr. Loukas at the beach right after I left the other kids. Ask him. I didn’t do anything to Billy.”
Mrs. Harris still seemed to be digesting this when blue and white lights flashed behind her in the cul-de-sac. We all turned as an officer emerged from his patrol car and began speaking to Mr. Harris.
Mrs. Harris hurried outside. Cess and I followed.
“What is it?” Mrs. Harris said. “What’s happened?”
Mr. Harris lifted his head, but for a moment he didn’t speak. The policeman’s hat, I noticed, was in his hand.
“What is it?” she said. “Tell me, Damian.”
Mrs. Harris was shaking. Mr. Harris was eerily still.
“They’ve found him,” Mr. Harris said.