The men came into our house. Telly pointed at me and my heart started going, but then he said, “The kitchen’s through there.” They followed him and then chairs scraped on the floor. The tie man sat down but the policeman was walking around. I stayed in the hallway and held onto Chicken’s collar, and when the policeman passed the kitchen doorway he smiled at me. I didn’t smile back.

“Your son?”

“Yes, sir. Rowan. Rowan Janes.”

“When did you last see Rowan?”

I knew Telly was looking at the gun stuck to the man’s hip. He probably wanted to hold it or clean it. Telly loved guns a ton. Lots of nights he put down newspaper on the table and took them apart and brushed them out or greased them up. I didn’t like to watch, but Rowan did.

“I— Well, I don’t live here no more. We had some bumpy times.”

“Bumpy times?” The man took a notepad out of his pocket and opened it up.

“You know. Nothing major, really. I moved out. Stuff changed. The boy’s upset with me leaving. Probably just trying to make me upset back.”

“Could be, Mr. Janes. How old is your son?”

“Thirteen.”

“Thirteen. And he’s been out for a while?”

Telly yelled over his shoulder. “Glow? Where are you? Cops are here. They got questions.”

Gloria walked past me. Her nose was red and fat. She wiped her face with a balled-up tissue. Chicken pulled at my hand, but I held on good.

“Hello, ma’am,” the older one said. “We got a call about your son. Been gone for a while?”

“I thought we had to wait twenty-four hours,” Gloria said when she sat down. She kept squeezing the tissue. Squiggly bits of white fell on the table.

“No, ma’am. Not with a minor.”

“I didn’t know. He’s only twelve. A tiny twelve.”

“He turned thirteen, Glow.”

“Thirteen.” She squeaked. “Time’s gone crazy. Rushing like that.”

“When did you last see him, ma’am?”

She was sniffing a lot. I wanted to squeeze her to stop her being so sad.

“Last night. But—but I thought he’d gone to bed. Was in his room. You know how they never come out at that age.”

The man nodded.

“When I came down this morning, the door was wide open.”

“What door?”

“Those.” Gloria pointed at the sliding doors. The ones I watched Rowan through. But I didn’t watch Rowan through. Rowan was not outside.

“You think he went out through those, ma’am?”

“I do,” she said. “I do.”

“Okay.”

“And what a puddle of water on the floor this morning. Everywhere.”

The man in the tie scritched his face. “Rainwater, you think?”

She nodded. “From the storm.”

“That was quite some rain we had last night. But it calmed down around, around…” He looked at the policeman.

“Around midnight, sir. Cleared away completely.”