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“The thing about that shirt . . . ,” Erin goes on, her eyes going to the empty closet. “I knew that’s what she was wearing, when she left. It was the only thing missing.”

“What?” My ears perk up, my notebook flips open. “The shirt with the blue roses?”

“Yes,” Erin says. “She was wearing it, and that always made me a little bit happy. That’s what she took when she left—something I bought her. Something nice.”

“Right, yes. Of course,” I say swiftly, my heart racing in my chest. “Well, thank you, so, so much!”

I’m bright and perky again, thanking Erin for the cookies and her time and her memories. I all but thank her for her thoughts and prayers as I make my way to the front porch, hands itching to text Bristal. My phone vibrates in my hand before I’m behind the wheel, with a text from Mom.

Your weird friend is here. She asked me for a cigarette.

It’s followed by a confused face, but I flip right past Mom’s text and type out a message for Bristal.

Home soon. Stay there. Just talked to Erin H.

Denise Halverson didn’t take anything with her when she left

Bristal answers immediately.

Which means she wasn’t planning on going far

“Yep,” I say aloud as I start my car. “But she never came back.”

Twenty

I breeze past Mom and burst into my bedroom, but Bristal is nowhere to be seen. My laptop is missing, though, so I put my ear up against the linen closet door, but the soundproofing material is seriously effective; I can’t hear a thing. I crack the door and peek in, to have Bristal wave me through as she pulls a pair of headphones off.

“Just finished uploading,” she tells me. “ODOT episode is a go, and I’m pretty much done with the Randall Boggs one, too. Give me the scoop on the Hendrix chick.”

I close the door behind me and settle in across from Bristal. “She didn’t put it together, but when she told me that Denise went out that window with only the clothes on her back, it had my alarms ringing.”

“True,” Bristal admits. “But she could have arranged to meet with someone and was traveling light.”

I nudge her knee, surprised that she’s not going with the darkest possible explanation. “You really think a girl that’s never had anything would leave behind everything she owns?”

“No,” she says. “But I’m trying not to jump to any conclusions. Work with me, here. It’s difficult being the responsible one.”

“Whatever, this stinks and you know it.”

“It does, like week-old period,” Bristal says.

“Ewww,” I say, glancing at my laptop. “You didn’t say anything like that on your ep, did you?”

“Um, no?”

I sigh and lean back against the wall, the puffy foam triangles soft against my spine. “I got in big trouble with my parents for dropping Denise’s name in that first episode. People were upset.” I put that last word in air quotes, and Bristal rolls her eyes.

“They’re going to be downright livid if we announce that we don’t think she just up and disappeared.”

“Right,” I agree. “I don’t think I can even talk about this with my parents without the roof coming off the house.”

“We can talk to mine,” Bristal says. “And Uncle Dover.”

“Good idea.” I nod. “When?”

“We’re popping over to the prison on Saturday,” Bristal says, checking her phone. “Which, by the way, you’ll have to drive. I don’t think my Neon can make it.”

“No problem,” I say. “And your parents? When can we sit down with them?”