“This is gonna sound frustrating, ma’am, but I’m really starting at the beginning. Seeing as Bradley Masionette and Will Good were close to Antoine and the last people to see him, let’s start with them. Any idea where I can locate them?”

“It’s not in the file?”

“The file, ma’am, is rather incomplete.”

“Hmm. Well, Will coaches football at a Catholic school, don’t know which one.”

Gordon Beverly said, “St. Xavier.”

She stared at him.

“It was in the Sentinel, Shar. Few years back, he was coaching down in Riverside, moved here. I called him up, asked if he remembered anything more about Antoine. He said no.”

“Well, look at that,” she said. “What else don’t you tell me about?”

“No sense telling when there’s nothing to tell.”

Sharna Beverly said, “Bradley Maisonette did not turn out well. From what I hear, he’s spent most of his life in prison. Never did have a good family life.”

Gordon said, “We’re a tight-knit family. Antoine comes home all excited about all the big money he’s going to make, I was happy for him.”

Sharna said, “Magazines sell themselves, people love magazines more than life itself. I told him, ‘Antoine, what sounds too good to be true, is.’ I told him I needed to meet the people involved, make sure they weren’t taking advantage. Antoine threw a fit, jumping up and down, begging, pleading, ‘Trust me, Mom. Don’t embarrass me, Mom, no one else’s parents are putting their noses in.’ I said, ‘Everyone else is stupid so I should be?’ Antoine begs some more, turns on that smile of his.” Sidelong peek at the photo. She folded her lips inward.

“I told Antoine, ‘That’s the trouble today, no one gets involved.’ But the boy kept working at me, saying if I showed up Will and Brad and everyone else would be dissing him all summer. Then he brings out his report card, half A’s, half B’s, perfect in Conduct. Claiming that proved he was smart, could be trusted.”

She slumped. “So I gave in. Biggest mistake I ever made and I’ve been paying for it for sixteen years.”

Gordon said, “Honey, I keep telling you, there’s no reason to—”

Her eyes blazed. “You keep telling me and you keep telling me.” She got up, walked to the door, took care to close it silently.

Projecting more rage than if she’d slammed it.

Gordon Beverly said, “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, sir,” said Milo.

“She’s a good wife and mother. She didn’t deserve what she got.”

“What both of you got.”

Gordon Beverly’s face trembled. “Maybe it’s worse for a mother.”