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you’ve got my cell number, right?”
    As soon as they were gone, I went through the house, top to bottom. Like I said, it was an old habit.
    Roy had a couple of joints in a cigarette pack in the back of his sock drawer. Shan had underwear that surprised me, and in one of her winter boots there was $187, a bunch of it in those one- and two-dollar coins. That, plus the money Matt showed me in the bottom of the Lego box, was an excellent start for my escape fund. Then I hit another jackpot: a stack of old home DVDs. I started watching them. When they all got back from the dentist, it was after four. I told Shan I’d make dinner. I’d already checked the kitchen, and there was stuff for spaghetti.
    â€œReally?”
    â€œI used to have to cook sometimes,” I said. It was true. After Darla left, Harley kept the RV for a while. Later on we stayed as much as we could in places with kitchenettes, because it was cheaper. He said it was healthier too. Whenever we could cook, Harley would claim he’d gone off junk food after his carney days. Then he’d get me to help him make stuff. We only ever made a few things, like spaghetti or tacos or chili, and then we’d downgrade to KD and frozen fish sticks, and then we’d be back to KFC or pizza.
    It was a hot, sticky afternoon. The house didn’t have central air. Shan sat by the kitchen door, sipping from a tin of iced tea and watching Brooklynne in her blow-up wading pool. I dumped ground beef in the frypan. As it began to sizzle, I said, “Know what this reminds me of? Remember the time I tried to make Momma a birthday cake?”
    â€œOh God, yeah. What were you—nine, ten?”
    I shrugged. The answer was ten—I’d checked the date/time stamp at the bottom of the DVD screen—but you don’t always want to be too accurate; it can look suspicious.
    Shan started to giggle. “There was flour everywhere, remember? And Toby got into it…”
    Toby was a dog. I still didn’t know what had happened to him. “Yeah, and there were balloons or something.”
    â€œRight. God, I’d forgotten.” She looked at me like she was stunned “How did—”
    I shrugged. “Some stuff just sticks, you know?”
    She nodded slowly and looked back to Brooklynne. “You know, I think I even recorded that. I’ve got that somewhere. We transferred everything to DVD. I’ll look after dinner.” I didn’t tell her it was third from the bottom in the left-hand pile. “We should eat outside, it’s so hot,” Shan said. “The big saucepan is down there.”
    I found it and turned on the tap.
    â€œGod, this is so sweet of you,” she went on. “Listen, Danny, Meg from Children’s Aid called me today. She’s coming tomorrow to meet you. And Monday afternoon the police will be here. They just need to get a statement. She said not to worry, that she’d be with you for that.”
    Something must have shown on my face, because Shan said, “I’m going to come home early so I can be here too.”

ELEVEN
    I kind of liked Meg. You could tell she was new enough to the job that she didn’t have her whole Bad Time vibe happening yet—or maybe my just being “poor Danny” made her switch it off. Either way, she was young and very hot, with long dark hair and shiny nails. Best of all, she never questioned anything I said. I think she liked it best when I didn’t say anything and just looked hurt or small or whatever. Her favorite thing to say was “We all want to make this work.” She said TV reporters and newspapers had been calling her office about me, and she’d deal with them if we wanted her to. “I’ll just say that it’s a private family time and that everybody is relieved and happy that you’re home.”
    There were two cops, Swofford and Griffin. Swofford was a young guy with a cue-ball head, all