“Tell me you don’t give him the keys to the car.”

“I’m not an idiot,” she said.

“Gloria,” Bob said, “if the boy gets caught out on his own, they’re going to throw him in jail.”

“The more immediate concern,” I said, “is his safety. Someone just tossed a rock through the window, and Jeremy’s not here. We need to find him.”

Gloria suddenly put her hand to her mouth. “Oh God,” she said. “Please just make it all stop.”

I pushed open the screen and walked out into Madeline Plimpton’s perfectly groomed backyard. “Jeremy!” I shouted. “Jeremy!”

Gloria followed me out and shouted his name as well.

The property backed onto forest. Jeremy could easily have vanished into it. Or he might be hoofing it into downtown Promise Falls. Suddenly I wondered if he’d played us, and was actually back inside the house.

“Ms. Plimpton,” I said, “check around upstairs, in case he’s still here.”

She vanished. We could hear her shouting the boy’s name throughout her home.

I walked down to the edge of the property and scanned the woods. Somehow, I didn’t see Jeremy wanting to commune with nature. Gloria was ten feet behind me, calling for her son.

“Jeremy! This isn’t funny!”

“Where might he go?” I asked her, not wanting to raise the possibility that he might have left the property against his will.

She raised her hands helplessly. “I swear, I don’t know. Probably someplace where there was something to do. A mall or a McDonald’s or something like that. Do you think something’s happened to him?” A look of panic was creeping into her face.

“There’s no reason to think that,” I said. “It’s probably like you said. He just needed to get away from the rest of us for a while.” I lightly put a hand on each shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find him.”

I turned and started walking back to the house as Ms. Plimpton emerged, shaking her head. The boy was not in the house.

“Stay here,” I told all of them. “I’ll drive around, see if I can find him.” I already had Ms. Plimpton’s home number in my phone, and could call if I had any news.

I walked through the house and out the front. Ms. Plimpton, looking at the damage, said, “I’m going to call the police.”

“Up to you,” I said. “But it’ll be a circus around here in no time if you do.”

I left her considering that as I got behind the wheel of my Accord. When I got to the end of the street I had the option of going left or right. Left took me into more suburbs, but right would lead me to the downtown district. It would take someone the better part of twenty minutes to get there on foot, but this was also a bus route.

I went right.

It hadn’t been ten minutes since I’d seen Jeremy on the porch, so he couldn’t have gotten that far. I drove slowly, casting my eyes from one side of the road to the other. He might be staying off the sidewalk to lessen the chance of being spotted.