No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez

Author:Heather Chavez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

26

I had spent so much time with the police lately, I wondered if I should whip up some friendship bracelets. The officers didn’t find Carver, or if they did, they didn’t share the news with me. Sam’s Camry had also disappeared from the lot. I wasn’t surprised. Carver seemed unusually adept at evading the authorities.

When talking to the police, I didn’t mention how Leo had plowed down my would-be assailant, and the officer didn’t notice the small dent Carver had left on the hood.

Detective Rico wasn’t there, and for that, I was grateful. I wouldn’t have been able to lie to him so easily.

After the kids and I were in the car, I turned to face them.

“We should probably talk about what just happened,” I said.

Audrey wriggled out of her booster, leaning over the console that separated the front seats. “You mean about how Leo hit that man with the car?”

“That’s part of it, sure.”

While I had been talking to Carver, and then the police, Audrey and Leo had waited in the car. Still, I wondered, How much had they heard?

“You didn’t tell the police I hit that guy,” Leo said. It was rare that I had my son’s full attention, but I had it now.

“That’s right.”

“Why not?”

I had reasons. Several, in fact. Earlier, the person texting me, who might have been Carver, had mentioned a fight between Leo and Sam. Then Perla had shown me “evidence” of Leo’s cyberbullying. That was after the alleged target of that bullying had attacked my son. I didn’t like where this was headed. Didn’t like it at all.

“I’d rather the police focus their attention on me.”

Audrey inched farther onto the console so that half of her body now rested on it. She leaned against me. I drew resolve from the warm weight of her. “Does not telling them count as a lie?”

“It does.”

“Did that guy do something to Dad?” Leo asked.

Audrey’s eyes snapped fully open, her eyebrows buried in her bangs. “What do you mean? Daddy’s at a conference for teachers.”

I took a breath, then another. Then I told my daughter that I had kept the truth from her. As I talked, I studied Audrey’s face, confused but expectant, then Leo’s, lips drawn tight in anger. No matter what I said, and even if Carver was arrested and Sam found, my children’s lives had permanently changed. The bedrock beneath them had shifted, split. Especially Audrey’s. Sam had given her part of his liver, and on his shoulders, she could touch the sky. Yet he had disappeared. Worse, he had gone missing while with her. I might be able to repair that fissure, but I would never be able to erase it. Its jagged edges would remind Audrey and Leo, forever, that their parents were fallible. Vulnerable. And that was the best case. The worst case . . .

“I didn’t want you to be afraid.”

Audrey scrunched her face. “But that’s a lie too.”

“It is. I’m sorry.”

“Daddy lied, too, on Halloween. He said he’d be right back.

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