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“Nothing. What do you mean you can’t find them? No trace?”
“Johnny Clark and his father, George, seem to have fallen off the map. I can’t figure out where they went then or where they are now. Danielle lived here as recently as three months ago, but she’s not at her house.”
“Johnny Clark was a popular kid, though the rebel type. Danielle wasn’t, but they were all a few years older than me. I didn’t pay much attention to them, but I did think Johnny was cute. He didn’t know I existed.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Johnny Clark and I did not know each other. I’m …”
“What, Hazel?”
“Oh no, wait. I think Johnny had dinner with Wilmot and me one evening.” My eyes wide, I looked at Calloway. Why hadn’t I remembered that before now? “Damn, Calloway, that just became clear to me.”
He nodded. “Why did he have dinner with you? What else do you remember?”
The words came without me thinking much about them. “Wilmot said his father was an asshole.”
“George squatted on some land over by Pecan Acres, in an old shack. No one stopped him.”
Pecan Acres was a two-block neighborhood that sat next to a farm that hadn’t produced pecans for a long time.
“I don’t remember being at his house, but Johnny was here for dinner once. He was quiet. And hungry.”
“Your father was known for helping wayward folks, teenagers included.”
“That could either be noble or creepy.”
Calloway chuckled and said, “Your father’s job was creepy, to some. Your father was odd but a good man. He wasn’t a predator.”
“I’m glad to hear that, particularly now since hearing about the classes for teenagers that ended with an abomination and a bucket of blood.”
Calloway sobered quickly. “Right. No, Hazel. Whatever happened, Wilmot did what he thought was best for the kids. That much I’m sure of. It might have been the wrong thing to do, but he must have had his reasons.”
I nodded. “So, Johnny Clark is in the wind? I can’t imagine Danielle is too far away. She’s been in Black Vulture forever.”
“There’s a rumor that Danielle and Joey Smoot have been seeing each other.”
“What? No. She’s almost twice his age.”
“But he is of age.”
“Does Trisha know?”
“I don’t know what Trisha knows.”
“She hasn’t mentioned that one to me. Where did this come from?”
“Dixie.”
“Oh. She knows more than anyone else around here.”
“She usually does.”
“And Joey’s missing too, texting Trisha that he’s in Nogales.”
“Yeah. I heard from Jenna. While his phone was at the Smoots’ trailer.”
“Is Jerry talking yet?”
