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girlfriend of my father’s business partner Vernon Deloitte, another ex-cop. I like Henri a lot. She’s an artist. She’s kind of eccentric and is always interesting to spend time with. I’ve stayed with her plenty of times over the years, usually on weekends when my father had to work. He usually neglected to mention this to my mother, who thought that he should be able to arrange his life so that he could spend quality time with me every other weekend. I usually backed him up by keeping my mouth shut.
    â€œDad, I’m sixteen.” Both of my parents seemed to be having trouble remembering this. “I can look after myself.”
    â€œI know you can. But I want you to stay with her anyway.”
    â€œDad, come on! Weren’t you ever young?”
    â€œThat’s the problem, Robbie. I was. Hard as it is to imagine, I was once sixteen. Your mother would have my head if she found out I left you alone with a teenage boy—especially that particular teenage boy—in the same building.”
    â€œ
Da
-ad!”
    â€œHumor me, Robbie, okay?”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œYou know I never criticize your mother.”
    Surprisingly, considering that they’re divorced, that’s true. Sometimes he pokes fun at her, but he never says anything negative. Not to me, anyway.
    â€œAnd you know we both work hard at making sure that our problems don’t become your problems.”
    â€œYes, but—”
    â€œYour mother has reservations about Nick.”
    â€œShe
told
you that?”
    â€œShe did. She called me last night, Robbie. She worries about you. She still hasn’t gotten over the Trisha Carnegie thing.”
    Trisha was a girl who had gone missing. I’d helped to find her.
    â€œShe blames me for getting you involved,” he said.
    â€œBut—”
    â€œIt scared her. Things could easily have turned out badly.”
    â€œBut they didn’t.”
    â€œI love you, Robbie,” my father said. “I like that you can come around as often as you do. I like that you spend weekends here. I especially like that we manage to do it all in a relatively civilized manner. I’d like to keep it that way.”
    â€œSo would I, Dad.”
    â€œSo, do me—and your mother—a favor. Stay with Henri tonight, okay?”
    â€œOkay,” I said.
    â€œIf you need me, you can get me on my cell phone. Any time.”
    â€œ
Okay
, Dad.”
    He dug his wallet out of his pocket and handed me some bills. I could tell even without counting that it was a lot of money. “You heard what Stan said,” he said. “Christmas will be here before you know it. You might want to start looking for something for your mother.And Robbie? Be good.” He sounded exactly like my mother, which would have surprised her. “I’ll be in touch.”
    Meaning, he would check on me.
    Â 

    Â 
    Nick led the way down the stairs. When we got outside, he said, “That was about me, right?”
    â€œNo, it wasn’t.”
    â€œWhat then?”
    â€œMy dad has to go out of town, and my mom’s away on a business trip, so he wants me to stay with Henri tonight.”
    â€œYou need a
babysitter?
”
    â€œHenri isn’t a babysitter,” I said. “She’s a friend. It’s just that he thinks my mother would be upset if she found out I stay here alone.”
    â€œEspecially since I live right downstairs, right? He doesn’t trust me, does he?” He sounded bitter.
    â€œThat’s not it at all. He just worries about me, that’s all.”
    â€œRight.”
    I stared up into his eyes. “He wants me to stay with Henri because of what happened with Trisha Carnegie,” I said. “And because of how my mom reacted.”
    I couldn’t tell whether or not Nick believed me, but he held my hand all the way to the bus stop. While we walked, his eyes never stopped moving—up the street, down