“She did most of the talking. What she was going to wear. Who made the cheerleading squad. Stuff like that.” I lean back in my seat. “To be honest, Rose talked a lot, I didn’t always pay attention.”
He chuckles and makes a few notes in a pad on the desk. “I can imagine. You said she was supposed to pick you up for school?”
“Yeah, but she didn’t, and she didn’t answer any of my texts. My mom gave me a ride.”
He nods. “And you never heard from her again.”
“No, sir.”
“You guys have dated for what? Three years?”
“Yeah, almost three. I asked her to the homecoming dance freshman year and we started dating after that.”
Detective Jones looks impressed. “Sounds serious.”
“It is, I guess.”
He flips through the notepad. “Someone reported that they overheard you arguing in front of the house a few weeks ago—what was that all about?”
I flash back to that argument—one of a few we’d had lately. “Just petty stuff. We were supposed to go out the night before, but she made other plans.”
“What kind of plans?”
Good question. That’s what the fight was about.
“She hung out with her friend, Juliette. A girls' night.”
“And that made you angry?”
“I wasn’t angry. Just annoyed that she stood me up.”
“Did that happen a lot?”
The room grows warm and I feel very much under a microscope. “Should my parents be here?”
The detective shrugs. “If you’d feel more comfortable with them here, that’s fine. I just wanted to get a better idea of what was going on the last few days before Rose went missing.”
His eyes hold mine and I exhale, calming down. “S
he didn’t stand me up much, but over the summer she was busier than normal, and she backed out of plans more often than usual. When I asked her about it, she got defensive. I felt like maybe she was stressed out about something.”
“You’re seniors. College applications? Maybe another guy?” He raises his eyebrow. “Or a girl?”
“I don’t know. If I did, I’d tell you. I do think something was distracting her, but whatever it was, she wouldn’t tell me.”
I wait for more questions, but he flips over the cover of the notebook and puts away his pen. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a card with his name and number on it and hands it to me. “Thank you, Finn. If you think of anything that could help us find Rose, please let us know.”
“I will,” I say, ready to get out of the hot, stuffy room. “And please, let me know if you hear anything.”
“Don’t worry,” the Detective says with a grim expression, “we will.”
19
Kenley
The intercom flares to life during second period, and Alice is called down to the office. Within the hour, Ozzy follows.
By lunch, no one is surprised that they finally get around to requesting Ezra, and he lopes out of Biology with the slow gait of someone not in a hurry.