Set You Free Read Online Free Page A

say.
    “Shouldn’t Benjamin be in school? Mine started school when they were five.”
    “Erin wanted him home for the extra year. He’ll go straight into first grade. A lot of kids do that. Did Erin mention anyone suspicious? Or maybe JJ or Steph have seen something?”
    Detective Evans looks away from the window. She leans against the wall and looks out at the baseball diamond. “What I hear from Jack and Erin is that JJ and Stephanie aren’t around their place much. Maybe every couple of weekends? Jack says it’s because they’re teenagers and have their own lives.”
    “Yeah?” I say, going up on tiptoes to look down the dark interior hallway. There’s a wash of memories here. My old friends. The teachers. The ridiculousness of being herded into such a place five days a week. The single most important lesson is how to make teachers happy with the right attitude. Looking back, it seems absurd. There is no right attitude.
    “What do you think?”
    “About what?” I say. I look away from the window.
    “Why JJ and Stephanie aren’t around the Carter place much.”
    “I don’t know. They live with their mom, right?”
    “You ever see them over at the mayor’s place?” Detective Evans asks.
    “Sometimes. You don’t think they have anything to do with Ben’s disappearance, do you?”
    “I’m trying to understand the family, that’s all. Did you get a feel for how they are with Benjamin?”
    “No. They talk with him, and Steph calls him cute, but that’s about it. I saw JJ throwing a football with him one day, but football’s not really Ben’s thing.”
    “What do you think of them?”
    “I don’t know,” I say, because I don’t feel like getting into it with Detective Evans. Then she takes her sunglasses off and examines me, and I feel like I’ve been placed on the stand again.
    “Everyone knows everyone in high school,” she says. “What kind of reputation do they have?”
    “JJ plays water polo and basketball,” I say. “He works out a lot. Steph is…Steph spends a lot of time making certain she looks perfect. I don’t mean that in a really negative way. She’s a year younger than me and super popular.”
    “What about their friends?”
    “I don’t know,” I say again. “Our school is weird. People go in their own groups, which pretty much leave one another alone. There’s none of that jocks-beating-up-on-nerds stuff.”
    “JJ’s in your grade, right? Do you two run in the same circles?” Detective Evans says.
    Conversations with her are like building blocks. She has the end result in mind but needs to lead you there first. “Sometimes,” I say. “But only if there’s a larger group around. It’s never a one-on-one thing. We’re in the same History class, and earlier in the semester we did a group presentation together.”
    “Okay,” she says. She sounds disappointed. I’m not certain where it was she wanted to lead me.
    We stop at the end of the asphalt. The yard has a gentle slope to the playground and some tennis courts farther along. The rest of the view is residential. Duplexes, single-family homes, a block of row houses.
    “So, where now?” I say.
    Detective Evans is about to respond when a patrol car pulls into the parking lot and everything changes.

FIVE
    A quick glance at her cell-phone screen, a slightly raised eyebrow, then, “I’ll be right back.” Detective Evans crosses the lawn to the opened window of the cruiser. I can’t see who she’s speaking with. Eventually she points toward the park, and the cruiser pulls away.
    “Where’s your brother?” Detective Evans asks as she nears me.
    “Tom?”
    “Yes,” she says. “Where is Tom?”
    “At home, I guess. Why?”
    She holds her phone before her. “Call him.”
    “What’s going on?”
    “We need to know where he is.”
    “He doesn’t have a cell,” I say. “Why do you need to know where he is?”
    “Call your house.” Her sunglasses come off, revealing her penetrating stare. As