Half In Love With Death Read Online Free Page B

overheard Dad saying something about Jess being with Tony. Then Mom began crying and saying what a good girl Jess was. I worried that she’d tell them I’d lied about Jess. If the police found out they might arrest me. One of Jess’s friends got arrested just for talking back to her mother. I looked out the window, still hoping to see Jess come walking up through the blue shadows, but the street was dark and quiet.
    â€œCaroline,” Mom called out. “Please come in here.” My heart almost stopped.
    â€¢ • •
    She pulled out a chair and I sat down. “Officer Barnes wants to talk to you.”
    The policeman stared at me from the opposite side of the kitchen table. His light blue eyes reminded me of those husky dogs that live in the Arctic. I sucked on my hangnail, cold and sick at the thought of how much trouble I could be in for not telling on my sister.
    â€œYour mother already told me what Debbie said, but I’d like to hear it from you,” he said.
    Dad frowned. “Just tell the truth.” I hated the way he said that. Mom must have already told him everything. There was a tickle-feather feeling in my throat. I opened my mouth but no words came out.
    Mom handed me a glass of water, her polished pink nails curved around it. I gulped some down, and in a voice barely above a whisper I told him how Debbie had said that Jess had gone to California with some stranger, and that she was going to see a boy named Arnie. I explained that she’d met Arnie in a souvenir shop in Venice Beach, and they’d gone out a few times, but I didn’t even know his last name.
    As I spoke, Officer Barnes smiled and jotted things down in a little notebook. He didn’t seem as scary anymore, just a guy with strange eyes who really wanted to listen to me, maybe more than anyone else ever had.
    When I was done he turned to Mom. “Mrs. Galvin, do you know how to get in touch with Arnie?”
    â€œWhen we were visiting my sister, there was a sweet boy Jess liked, but I didn’t catch his name.” She glanced helplessly at Dad, unwilling to admit that they’d been too busy getting hammered by the pool with my aunt and uncle to notice anything.
    Officer Barnes smiled. “She’s probably at a friend’s house, afraid you’re mad at her for not coming home, but just in case, give your sister a call and let her know Jess might be on her way there, and see if she knows how to reach Arnie.” He paused. “Lots of kids in Tucson are running away. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t get a call from frantic parents. It’s happening all over the country.” My parents stared at him in shock as he went on, “It would be helpful if someone had heard her say anything about where she was going, or seen if she took a bag with her. For a trip to California, she would have packed some things.”
    He glanced my way. Any minute I thought I might forget how to breathe, as in the most casual voice, he added, “One other thing. Your mom said Jess snuck out last night but that you didn’t tell her until dinnertime.” I froze. This was it. My parents had given me up and now I was going to be arrested. “Is there a reason you didn’t tell her?”
    I looked from Mom to Dad. My pounding heart was all I could feel. Those pale blue eyes with the black dots for pupils were all I could see. My voice shook. “She said she would kill me if I told.”
    â€œDoes she say things like that to you a lot?” He gazed at me sympathetically.
    I smiled, nervous and relieved at the same time. This man who I didn’t even know understood what a pain Jess was. “She does.”
    â€œIs there anything else you want to tell me?”
    I nodded. “She had a fight with Dad because he wouldn’t let her go to the drive-in. She fights with my parents all the time. She never does what they tell her. But last night was different. She was