“Then let’s start there.”
“You’re in for a treat. But we’d better wait until morning. This time of night, he’ll be past making sense,” I said. I shrugged into my sweatshirt and stood with my hands in my pockets.
“You can stay, if you want,” Ethan said. I gave him a skeptical look. “I’m a night owl. I’m just going to sit up catching up on editing. You could get some sleep with another body in the room.”
“That would be good,” I admitted. “I can sleep alone, I just…”
“Don’t get any rest doing it?” he asked. I nodded. It wouldn’t matter that I didn’t know him. Didn’t have any particular reason to consider him safe. I’d gone home with strangers for the chance to get a solid night’s sleep. At least I’d had a real conversation with Ethan. “I’m the same. Not the part about needing someone there, but sleep not being a friend when it does arrive.”
“Thus the night-owl habit.”
“And the borderline criminal amount of coffee I drink,” he confirmed. “Go ahead and get some rest.”
I made Ethan promise to wake me up when he needed the bed and then I took him up on the offer. With the sound of him clicking the keys and shifting in his seat, the constant tension in the back of my mind eased just a fraction. Enough for the exhaustion to come roaring in.
Sleep claimed me, and for once, I didn’t dream.
* * *
I woke with light hitting my eyes, still in the bed. I propped myself up on my elbow and found Ethan, asleep with his head on the desk, cradled in one arm. I shook my head at him and crept over to my shoes, pilfering his room key as I went.
Fifteen minutes later I was back with coffee and he was sitting up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“I hope you like your coffee black and terrible,” I told him.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.
“You should have woken me up,” I admonished, handing him a cup. He popped the top off to blow on it, steam coiling around his face.
“You needed the sleep more than I did.” He looked good rumpled. It made him look less earnest. I reached over and combed his hair back with my fingers, and he startled slightly at the touch.
I swayed back a step, keeping my expression casual. “I’m going to go shower and change. Meet you back here?”
“I’ll try to be presentable by then,” he said by way of confirmation.
At the door I paused and looked back. Ethan sat with his spine like a comma, hunched over his coffee, the blur of sleep still in his eyes.
“Thank you,” I said, and left before he could respond.
* * *
We drove up to the house around noon. When Ethan stepped inside, he went stock-still. I slid in behind him but didn’t shut the door. Being closed into that tiny space with another human being would have been too much—tipping Ethan from comfort to threat in the careful calculus of my brain. One of us would have ended up bleeding.
“This is…” Ethan said. I didn’t meet his eyes. I hadn’t warned him. It wasn’t that I was ashamed. More like I needed to see his shock to prove that it really was that bad. “Was it like this growing up?”
“You could still get around,” I said. I pointed at a stack composed of a broken file cabinet, an Easter basket, and assorted bulging bags. “There was a clear patch there where I played when I was a kid.”
“Naomi?” Dad called from somewhere in the back of the house. “That you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I answered. “Can I come in and talk to you?”
“No, I’ll come to you,” he hollered. Plastic bags rustled and things slipped and thunked, and then he appeared, climbing over drifts of junk with a spidery walk. He saw Ethan and scowled. “Who’s the pretty boy?” he asked.
“I’m hoping to ask you a couple questions,” Ethan said, and introduced himself with a polished spiel. We’d decided on the way over to let him take the lead, make like this was all a project of his. It was easier to explain than my own interest.
“What kind of questions?” Dad asked. He was looking at me. Wondering why I’d brought this into his house.
“Do you remember a girl named Jessi Walker? It’s possible she was going by a different name,” Ethan said. He held out his phone with the photo of Jessi pulled up.
Dad stared down at it long enough that I knew he’d recognized her. “Why are you asking about this girl?” he asked. He didn’t take his eyes off her picture. The phone screen idled, turned off.
“She apparently went missing around here in the time frame that Stahl was killing. I’ve been trying to identify potential unknown victims.”
“Jessi with an i,” Dad said musingly. “I knew her, but Alan Stahl didn’t kill her. She just left town. You knew her, too.” He nodded his chin at me.
“I thought I recognized her,” I said. “But I don’t remember why.”
“She worked at the Chester Diner. Waitress. She always made sure they gave you an extra pancake. Said you reminded her of her niece,” Dad said. I tried to reach back to the memory, but everything before eleven was ragged at the edges.
“You said she left town. Do you know where she went?” Ethan asked.
“No, I don’t. I know she said she was leaving and then she was gone. She was a waitress. We didn’t pour our hearts out to each other,” Dad replied. “You think she got killed?”
“She was reported missing. She hasn’t been seen since,” Ethan said smoothly. “Is there anyone else who might have known her better? Known where she was going, maybe?”
“Eh. She was a kid. I didn’t socialize with her,” Dad said. “And it was a long time ago.”
“Do you have any idea who she might have hung around with?” I pressed. “Come on, Dad. It’s important.”
“Why?” he asked. “He’s nosy, that’s why he gives a shit, but you?”
“I’m just helping out,” I said, setting my jaw.
He grunted. Looked at Ethan. “You sleep with her yet?”
Ethan’s face reddened. “That’s not—”
“Leave him alone, Dad,” I said warningly.
“Don’t go thinking it makes you special if she does. It’s like a handshake with this girl,” Dad said.
“For fuck’s sake, Dad—”
He gave an exaggerated shrug. “Nothing wrong with it. Just think the boy ought to know what he’s getting into.”
“All right. We’re leaving,” I said, turning. At least we’d confirmed that Jessi had been in Chester.
“Oscar Green,” Dad said. My head whipped back toward him. “She hung around with Oscar Green. That’s all I remember.”
“Thank you,” Ethan said quickly. He touched my shoulder with the very tips of his fingers, propelling me toward the door. I let him, stalking forward and not stopping until I heard the door shut behind me. Then I turned on Ethan, clamping my teeth down over anger that wasn’t meant for him.
“I should just burn that fucking house down to the ground and be done with it,” I growled.