* * *
—
The problem was: He’d given us a mystery to solve. And solving that mystery meant different things to each of us. For the police, it was as simple as closing a case. But for me and Mom and Dad and other people later on, it was much more personal.
For me, the mystery was confused with all the other times Aidan had lied to me, all the other times he was able to do something that I wasn’t able to do. I also felt that if I were the person to solve the mystery, everybody would be really impressed with me. I would be the great detective who’d cracked it.
Which meant that when Aidan said I should have come up with a better lie, I heard it as him saying this whole dresser story was a lie that wasn’t working, and he’d wished he’d told another lie that had worked. Even though when he’d told me about the opening and the green sky, I’d been able to imagine it was true, now I was back to wondering what the real story was, what Aidan was hiding.
Until he told the truth, he’d be getting all the attention. Unless I discovered the truth and told it first.
* * *
—
“Tell me what really happened,” I whispered, as if all the adults were leaning against the other side of our door, listening.
Aidan gave me a hard stare, then reached for his phone.
“I have nothing more to say to you,” he told me. Then he resumed a game he’d left off seven days before.
He didn’t get much further, though. About ten minutes later, Officer Ross knocked on our door and told us to go back to the kitchen.
14
I had imagined them turning the kitchen into an interrogation room, moving the reading lamp from the den so it would shine in Aidan’s face as the cops pummeled him with questions, wearing him down enough to discover where he’d buried the truth.
But instead, Officer Pinkus was already up from the table, clearly about to go. Officer Ross hung back in the doorway, looking at his watch.
“Your parents and I have had a really good talk,” Officer Pinkus said once Aidan and I had sat down. “And we’ve all agreed that the most important thing right now is to return to normal as smoothly as possible. You and your family have been through a lot this past week—but you’re back now. I am taking you at your word that you left here of your own free will, and that there wasn’t anyone else involved. I can’t stress enough how important it would be for you to tell us if you’d been abducted or even if you’d voluntarily gone with someone else. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Aidan said. “It was just me. I wasn’t kidnapped. I didn’t meet up with anyone.”
Officer Pinkus nodded. “As I said, I take you at your word. But that doesn’t mean you can’t come to me later on if there’s something more to tell. I am also taking you at your word that this won’t happen again.”
“It won’t.”
“Good. We’ve also agreed that you should talk to a counselor, because you have clearly been through something outside your ordinary experience. I hope you will be truthful with the counselor, because in my observation, the truth really does set you free, and allows you to go on with your life. Secrets, on the other hand, have a way of taking up all the space in the room—and you don’t want that.”
This time, the pause lasted a little longer than the others before Aidan realized she wanted him to say something. Then he echoed, “Yeah, I don’t want that.”
It didn’t feel like he meant it. It felt like he was just saying what she wanted to hear.
But she took it at face value and reached out to shake Aidan’s hand. He took it. As they shook, she said, “I’ll come back in a few days to check in. But in the meantime, it’s good to have you back.”
I expected Aidan to echo again, to say, It’s good to be back. But he didn’t say anything more.
Officer Pinkus shook my hand, then Mom’s and Dad’s. Officer Ross was already on his way to the car.
“Have a good day,” Pinkus told us.
Then she left us alone, and none of us knew what to do next.
15
It was a Thursday. All our friends were at school. Most of their parents were at work.
We were marooned at our kitchen table.
Mom had never been a good fake. If she was annoyed with you, you knew she was annoyed. Most of the time, the only question was what had spurred the annoyance. Did you leave the refrigerator door open? The toilet seat up? Did you use the last toilet paper and not replace the roll? Were you trying to watch YouTube before your homework was finished?
In this case, it was obvious that Mom had a lot to say on the subject of Aidan’s disappearance and the story he’d told the police. But it was also obvious that she thought she was doing a good job of hiding this and appearing calm. I was sure Aidan could see the strain. He’d been on the receiving end of Mom’s exasperation many more times than I had. He knew its language even better than I did.
If she was going to play calm, he was going to play along.
Dad usually liked to paper over the serious moments with jokes. But his mind wasn’t kicking into joke mode right now—probably because all the jokes would lead to him making fun of Aidan’s story.
So we did what most families do when conversation is impossible: We ate. Mom offered to make eggs, but I said cereal was fine and Aidan agreed. He didn’t eat much, though. I saw him trying, but it also looked like trying, not eating. I wondered what was going on with that. When I was done eating and Aidan was done trying to eat, Dad told us he might go to the office. None of us objected. Mom said she’d work at home. About a second after she said that, the phone rang—Aunt Brandi, home now from Peru, calling for an update.
“One sec,” Mom said, then moved to another room so we wouldn’t hear her.
Dad got his stuff together and looked for any new objections before he headed out the door. Then he left me and Aidan alone in the kitchen. Aidan spotted something on the counter, went over to get it, then brought it back to the table.
It was one of the missing posters.
Aidan pondered his own photo and the plea for help beneath.
“I guess it was a big deal, huh?” he said. “Like, the kids at school will know about it?”
“Uh, yeah,” I told him. “Pretty much everyone in the county knew about it. And most of them were looking for you.”
“Ugh. What a mess.”
I was annoyed with him then, and I wasn’t going to hide it like my parents were hiding it.