Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

24: the father and the son

"Where?" I blinked.

Elliot drove us down an unfamiliar street.

After hurriedly finishing breakfast and half of the slice of cake, I sat in the passenger's seat as he drove, clearly with a destination in mind.

On my lap was my school bag, which he'd casually retrieved from the sofa along with his own.

"To the library, to study of course. We're seniors, like you said. There's two pieces of good news. The first is that Ian talked to Joseph Chavez and it seems like he knows something."

"Joseph Chavez?"

"The brother of the late Joella Chavez. He's a freshman at a high school just two blocks away from ours.

"He doesn't trust Ian because he's a journalist and doesn't trust me because well, I'm a Lockwood. But he had no way of contacting you, so he corresponded with Ian for a while. He told Ian he'll only talk if you're around."

"So when're we meeting him?"

"Today. He's a school swimmer and he has training today until about 4pm. We study in the library next to his school, and drive him away somewhere else. Any violent objection?"

"Not really. What's the second good news?"

There was a pause. Elliot's fingers drummed against the steering wheel.

"There was an armed robbery at Nicole Grady's house. She and her family are completely unhurt, just that some of their cash, their television and jewelry are gone."

I turned my body to face Elliot, who continued driving, looking straight ahead. "Wait- an armed robbery? Fuck-"

"Yeah, not even a full day after our visit. Very coincidentally."

I wondered what Elliot had grown up seeing and hearing, that he hinted at the possibility of his father orchestrating an armed robbery to scare people into shutting up, like he was talking about an unfortunate but distant crime reported on the news. Like he was desensitized.

"So which part is the good news?"

He gave a little shrug. "You seemed to have missed the 'They're completely unhurt.' part."

"Yeah but probably terrified to death? And- this is the selfish part of me- highly unlikely to want to talk to us ever again."

She hadn't even wanted to talk to us prior to the armed robbery. It wouldn't be a surprise if she completely relocated to another town.

"It's okay. I'll deal with Nicole Grady's situation for now. You can deal with Joseph Chavez...about eight hours later."

That dry, mechanical and blasé tone he occasionally used.

The kind of a voice he used- I was starting to realize- when we were discussing an especially unpleasant, especially dangerous situation.

The kind of a tone he used when talking about Landon, when talking about Reneé Bailey.

"How're you planning to 'deal' with it?"

"I'll express my sincere concern first."

I wasn't sure if he'd get sufficiently near her to even express it in the first place.

Nicole Grady would've had our faces in mind the moment an armed robber stepped into her household with her husband and young child.

"I think she'll want your sincere absence- from her life. Including mine, of course."

"Of course, she would. So what are your plans for university? Or career?"

I sighed. "I've always realized, but you're really bad at changing the topic naturally."