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smiling at me, and Cheesy says, Thea, this is Detective Knox, and the man says, Hello, Thea. He’s old, but kinda good-looking, I guess: tall, dark hair, dark eyes. Anyhow, the cop, Knox or whatever, he goes, Thea, I’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s all right? I couldn’t even answer. I mean, can you believe they say that? Like when he said that to me, I was so weirded out, because that’s what you hear on TV, and I kept thinking, This isn’t happening, this isn’t really happening …. But it was.
    Is this about Cam? I said, and Detective Knox nodded and he goes, Have you seen or spoken to him since Monday night? I said, No, and he said, Cameron hasn’t contacted you at all? I said, No. And he goes by Cam—nobody calls him Cameron. He nodded and smiled, like he genuinely appreciated me telling him, then he goes, Do you have any idea where Cam is, Thea? I said, No, and he said, You don’t have any idea where he could be? I go, No, I have no idea. But is it true that if you don’t find someone in the first twenty-four hours, you probably won’t ever find them? It just came out, and Knox balked, then he tilted his head side to side, yes and no. He goes, In child abduction cases, yes, but Cam’s not a child; he’s of legal age. And as far as we know, he hasn’t been kidnapped.
    I didn’t know what to say, so I just stared at my feet, and Knox waited before he said anything. Then he goes, Thea, I’m sorry to have to ask you so many personal questions, but how long have you two been dating, you and Cam? I could feel Knox shoot Cheesy a look, like, whatever he was hearing in this room, it went no further. Knox wasn’t asking Cheesy, either, he was telling him; confidential. I said, Since the beginning of school, last year, and he goes, Did you know each other before then? And I said, No, and he said, So you never spoke before that? No, I said, and he goes, Never saw each other around? I go, No, I’d never seen him before that, and he goes, It’s not a very big school. Big enough, I said, and he’s new. Knox said, His mother told me they moved here from California, and I nodded yes.
    Then he said, Cam’s a senior? And I nodded yes, and he goes, What year are you? I go, Sophomore. He goes, And how did you two meet? So I told him, I said, He was my geometry tutor, and Knox goes, I’m told he’s some sort of math whiz, is that right? And I said, Yeah, that’s what Cam keeps telling me, too. Knox smiled, and he said, So Cam was your tutor, and then you started dating? I said, We were friends, then we started going out, and he smiled, trying to put me at ease, I think.
    Then he goes, Does Cam have many friends in school? I said, Cam gets along with everybody, and the cop goes, What about you? And I go, Me? I can’t stand anybody, I said, and he smiled. Opposites attract, he said. Guess so, I said, shrugging. So there was no one Cam had any fights with, no one who had any grudges? And I said, No. No one. I told you, he got along witheveryone. Knox goes, And Cameron—Cam, sorry—he never talked about running away? I go, All the time, but not without me, then he kind of perked up and he goes, So you two talked about running away together? I said, We talked about traveling together, all over the world. That’s not running away, that’s running to, I said. And where did you talk about going, running to? Knox asked, grabbing the back of the plastic bucket chair in front of him with both hands. Everywhere, I said, shrugging again, because that was private, you know? I didn’t have to tell him that.
    Last bell for sixth period rang, and I was going to be late, so I looked at him like, Anything else? Knox shook his head no and said, Why don’t I walk you out? I nodded okay, and he followed me out of the office. There was no one in the hall by the time we walked out, then he looked at me and said, One more question. Did anything unusual happen that day, when you last saw him? No, I said, not that I can