“If this was explicitly Chris, I wouldn’t be comfortable telling you,” she said. “We had several thefts. Chris was cleared of wrongdoing for the biggest one. Some of the children said they had seen him out for a walk at the time it happened. Chris’s former roommate was one of them.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m not sure I follow, then. He was under suspicion?”

“He was the first many of us thought of. Some—” she said, and she paused. She met my eyes and continued talking at a lower volume, “—feel that he is clever enough to get away with it, and they don’t want to clear him of suspicion so easily.”

“A theft of what?” I asked.

“Things from the nurse’s office.”

I winced.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, knowing what little I did about Chris. If it were anything else, I could feel upset about it, but if it was stuff he was trying to keep on hand for his own benefit…

Damn it, Chris.

“Mm hmm,” Val made a noise, as if my silence had confirmed something. “He leaves you unsure about things.”

Not unsure in the way she might have been picturing. I was pretty sure he was the culprit. When it came to blaming him, though… yeah, unsure was a good word.

“You mentioned that you get along with him,” I said.

“As much as anyone does, which isn’t a lot.”

“Some others actually get along with him in a normal-ish way, I think,” I said. Rain, specifically. Tristan and Byron, in a way. Ashley, in a way. Kenzie, in a love-hate, reaching kind of way. I hadn’t known him to connect with Sveta.

“Do you?” she asked.

I hesitated, then said, “No.”

“I wish I could give you advice,” she said. “I don’t think I can without betraying his trust. There are some things I’ve picked up on that I’ve only ever mentioned to his therapist.”

“No need,” I said. “I’m trying to find my footing and figure out where things stand before I push or do anything substantial. Not just with Chris. This has already been pretty helpful, I think.”

“We have three hundred children here, with some in a partial or daycare-like capacity. I don’t see him much, I don’t want you to get me wrong. He’s only here to sleep, play games or get things. Others take up our attention.”

“It’s understandable. It sounds like you’re doing the best you can. The roommate thing is a bit of a worry, though.”

“Yes.”

“And this theft he was cleared of.”

“Yes,” she said. “With three hundred children here, I have seen a number of types. Angry children—”

“Skye,” I said.

“The desperate, the scared,” she said. “I can’t give him a type. He’s uncanny. I wish you could solve this riddle for me.”