The silence in the little cabin gathered and grew. Kate kept her voice as nonthreatening as possible, and said, "Your sister's right, Frank, you don't really have anything to hide, do you? Did you have another fight with your father? That's certainly understandable, after the one I saw on Monday. Is that what happened?"

A loud snort came from the top bunk. "Like, we never had a fight with our loving father, our loving father beat on us. There's a difference, okay?"

Kate kept her eyes on the boy. "I saw you on the deck of your dad's drifter yesterday, when he went to town to deliver."

The boy still wouldn't look up. "So?"

"So, we need to know when was the last time you saw him."

Making them all jump, the girl slammed her comic book shut and bounced down from her bunk. She stood between Kate and the boy, her green eyes narrowed with hostility. She had a figure like her mother's, better displayed in leggings and a halter top that bared her navel. All she needed was a veil and some bangles and she'd fit right into a harem. "Like, he went into town with our loving father, okay?" she said. "And our loving father as usual came up with some asshole excuse to start beating on him, okay? Like, you know, our loving father didn't need an excuse? So Frank ran away, okay?"

It was patently futile to look for grief from either of Calvin Meany's children. Kate couldn't blame them, and she would love to clear them of any complicity, but they weren't helping her much. "What time did you leave the drifter, Frank?" she said.

"Right after they pulled up to the cannery dock," Dani said hotly. "You can ask the beach gang, they all saw our loving father beat the crap out of Frank. He knocked him into the friggin' hold, for crissake, okay?"

It wasn't okay, but Kate didn't say so. "Where did you go, Frank?"

Again, Dani answered for Frank. "We do have some friends, okay? People who actually like us, okay? He went to stay with them."

Again, Kate addressed the boy. "Who did you stay with, Frank?" He kept his head down. "Frank." Her voice compelled him to look up, finally. "You can make me leave you alone by telling me their names."

He held her gaze for a moment, and then his head drooped again. When he spoke his voice was an inarticulate mumble.

"Who?" Kate said, the memory of Monday's scene keeping her patient with him as she would have been with no one else.

He raised his head again. "The Wieses. Paul and Georgina. I'm friends with their son, Joe."

"Thank you." She paused. "When you left the dock, was that the last time you saw your father?"

"Yes, it was, okay?" Dani said.