“But you think they might be connected? The kid and Frank?”

“I don’t see how they couldn’t be.” I had half a mind to hang up on her and head for another country. I wasn’t sure why I was hanging around now anyway. It was one thing to get picked up for breaking and entering, now they’d be trying to pin a murder on me.

“Right?” Casey said. “I wonder what it means. The kid didn’t even live there, the news said. It was just some family staying there.”

“Just staying there? What do you mean?”

“They didn’t live there, I guess. The husband was there for work. It was an Airbnb thing, or something, just for a few months. And here somebody broke in and tortured the kid before killing him. You think that’s what they did to Frank?”

“No,” I said. “It doesn’t sound the same at all. Maybe they’re not related. You think that’s possible?”

“I don’t know. They don’t even mention Frank on the news. I feel like I should call them.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “The cops aren’t going to tell the news all they know. They have their reasons for what information they put out. I’m sure they’re working on it.”

I could get out, if I got out right then, I thought. But where would I go? If I went, I was gone, gone forever. If I stayed, well, I knew what was going to happen. I would have to play it out. The cops would come. I’d get arrested. Maybe there’d be a trial. I couldn’t see how that would go against me, but you never know. Here I thought I’d been so clever, and I acted like a dumbshit. Now there’d be cops and questions, and probably a death on my hands. And I didn’t care. I didn’t care about the kid. I didn’t care that he was dead, not really. I only cared that I could get saddled with it. And I didn’t really care about that, except that none of it got me any closer to who had done that to Frank. That was reason enough to stick around. I’m not saying it was a good reason, but it was the only thing I had at the moment.

—

A few days later I was out getting a coffee, early, with hardly anyone on the street yet. I walked around a while, took my time, trying to focus my thoughts. By the time I got to the coffee place, there was a line. I didn’t want to be around people, but there I was standing inches away from fifteen or so bodies.