Chapter 1

“I have something to tell you later”
“What? Why can’t you tell me now?”
“Well… it’ll only upset you further.” I would have pressed her for an answer, but this was my mother. I knew her well enough to know that getting her to say anything meant having to wait until the words escaped from her clinched jaws.
“I guess it can wait then.”
“Have you talked to your brother?”
“No, what’s up?”
“I don’t know, that’s the problem. He won’t talk to me.” I suppose a lot 14 year-olds didn’t talk to their middle aged parents. In Robby’s case his elderly parents.
“Is something wrong? Is he cutting class again?”
“No that isn’t it. I got your father on that and he hasn’t skipped a day since, but there’s something wrong and I can’t talk to him about it.”
“I’m not sure he’d talk to me either” A voice down the hall said to me.
“We’re ready for you Mr. Collins”
“Mom I hate to cut this short but I’ve got to go.”
“You’re working?”
“Yeah, I’m meeting with my client”
“Is it that boy you were talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“Good luck honey.”
“Thanks mom, love you.”
“Love you too.”
I didn’t realize that my pulse had risen a good thirty beats a minute until I closed my phone and was sliding it into my coat pocket. My hands were shaking. I took a deep breath and looked ahead. There was the sheriff’s deputy standing at the door.