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Joel’s mother said.
    Lucy, maybe seeking to make this meeting less confrontational, addressed her by her first name. ‘Alice, let’s sit down.’
    We all sat, except for Franny, who had reappeared and was leaning in the doorway to the kitchen, taking it all in. I wasn’t going to ask her to leave. It wasn’t up to me.
    Lucy rested her arms on the table and laced her fingers together. ‘Joel, I have something very simple to ask you.’
    But he was looking at me, then at his mother. ‘You know what this guy is, huh, Mom?’
    Alice Blakelock fixed her eyes on me. ‘What?’
    ‘He’s a cop.’
    ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m private.’
    ‘So this must be about Mike, right?’
    ‘His family called me when he didn’t come home,’ I admitted. ‘I was at Michael’s house, hoping to get a lead on where he was, when the police showed up.’
    ‘I know it’s bad to speak ill of the dead, but he was an awful boy,’ Alice said bitterly. ‘Him and that Chandler. What a pair. Do you know what they did?’
    ‘I do,’ I said. ‘But right now, Ms Brighton and I are here about something very specific that may or may not be related to what happened to Mike.’
    Franny shifted from one side of the doorway to the other, folded her arms across her chest.
    ‘The suspense is killing me,’ Joel said.
    Lucy took a breath. I decided to let her take the lead. ‘Joel,’ she said gently, ‘Chandler handed in a short story this week to Ms Hamlin that got her very concerned.’
    I watched Joel’s face to see how he’d react. I wasn’t expecting a grin.
    ‘Don’t you mean surprised?’ he said.
    ‘Why do you say that?’ Lucy asked.
    ‘Well, the fact that he handed in anything must have been kind of a shock.’ He looked at his mother and smiled, as though expecting some sign of approval for the comeback.
    ‘I take your point,’ Lucy said. ‘So you’re aware that Chandler doesn’t always hand in assignments?’
    ‘Oh, I think everyone’s aware,’ Joel said.
    ‘What surprised
me
,’ Lucy said, ‘was that you might show any willingness to help him.’
    Instant bafflement. ‘Huh?’ he said.
    ‘Chandler says you wrote the story for him.’
    His jaw dropped. But it was Alice who spoke first. ‘Are you kidding me? What a lying little son of a bitch.’
    ‘Wow,’ said Franny. ‘Like he didn’t cause enough trouble for Joel. What a fucking douche.’
    Alice shot her daughter a look. ‘I won’t have that.’
    ‘Well that’s what he is,’ Joel’s sister said. ‘He’s like the world’s biggest liar.’
    Finally Joel weighed in. ‘Why would he say something like that?’
    I said, ‘We were given the impression that it was your way of mending fences. You offered to do an assignment for him, and in return, he and Mike would never bother or make fun of you again.’
    ‘That sounds like a protection racket,’ Alice said. ‘Like extortion.’
    ‘According to Chandler, it was Joel who made the offer,’ I said.
    Joel shook his head angrily. ‘I wouldn’t sharpen a fucking pencil for either one of those assholes.’
    Alice saw no reason to admonish her son for that.
    Joel continued. ‘Not only did I not write a story for him, but I have never even spoken to the guy since he and Mike did what they did to me. I mean, we had to be in the same room together when they made their stupid apology, but even then I didn’t say anything to him.’
    Lucy and I exchanged looks. ‘I guess we’re done here then,’ she said. She pushed back her chair, and I did the same. ‘Sorry to have troubled you,’ she said, her eyes sweeping the room to include not just Joel and his mother, but Franny too.
    In the car, Lucy said to me, ‘What now?’
    ‘We go back and see if Chandler would like to amend his story,’ I said.

Nine
    ‘Oh, oh,’ Lucy said as we approached the Carson house.
    There was an unmarked police car parked out front just like the one I’d found Barry Duckworth in earlier.
    Greta opened the door for me when