Dustin checked his phone. “Two days ago. It was just a text about why he thought today’s rap is stupid, because all those guys do is repeat stuff and rhyme words with the exact same word, which isn’t really a rhyme at all. And don’t even get him started on mumble rap.”

“Did he tell you he was leaving town?”

“No,” Dustin responded. “Dad, you’re jumping the gun. Maybe he is sick.”

“I went there this morning, and it looked like he didn’t sleep there last night.”

Before Dustin could respond, his dad received a phone call from Marcy, Dustin’s stepmother. Jason excused himself from the table and went outside to take the call. While Dustin waited, the waitress came by and placed the two donuts in front of him. Dustin nervously picked one up and bit into the chocolatey cake.

When his father returned, he didn’t sit down, but placed a twenty-dollar bill on the table. “That was Marcy. She was going to visit her sister in Jersey today until she found the car missing from the garage. C’mon, we have to go back to the house.”

As the two walked west, Dustin’s dad continued with his story. Marcy had assumed they had parked the car in the wrong space again, which had happened before, but when the guy who worked there checked the log it said it was taken out the day before yesterday.

“You mean it was stolen?” Dustin asked.

“It wasn’t stolen,” his dad continued. “The person who took it had the spare key and a note. Marcy and I are the only two people who are permitted to take it without one.”

When Dustin got back to his father’s place the pieces slowly clicked together, one by one. Marcy was upset because she had to admit the whole thing might have been her fault. Nicholas had shown up unannounced when his father was at work telling her Dustin had said he could borrow some clothes. Nicholas had spent a few minutes in Dustin’s room, but before he left she made him a sandwich and soup for lunch. While he was eating, Marcy got a call from her sister and had left Nicholas alone in the kitchen for five minutes. When she came back Nicholas had been sitting in the same place and had just finished eating. He thanked her and left. Dustin’s dad asked Marcy why she hadn’t told him about it and she said she’d meant to, but she was asleep when he came home from work that night and then he was already gone before she got up the next day. After that it slipped her mind.