Page 88 of The Guy Next Door
As I’m about to kiss him, a buzzing sound catches me by surprise. It comes again and again as he pulls his phone out of his pocket.
He looks at the name on the screen before eyeing me strangely. “It’s my foster mom. Do you mind if I—”
“No, please. Take it.”
“Hey, Jill?” he says, not disguising his confusion. “Everything okay?”
“Have you seen the news?” I hear her say.
“No, I haven’t.”
“I think you should check. It’s about Mike…”
Tension rises within me as his gaze catches mine. An adrenaline kick, a surge of hope. But from what I can make of Jill’s voice, I know it’s misguided. If he was found alive, she’d have told him. The hope turns to fear, anticipating the news she’s about to share.
24
ZANE
BODY DISCOVERED NEAR WYACHET DAM LINKED TO RECENT DISAPPEARANCES
A source close to the Wyachet Police Department revealed to theGwinnett Daily Postthat a body discovered not far from Wyachet Dam is believed to be one of the missing local men from the past year.
Though the department refuses to discuss details of the case until a DNA test confirms their suspicions, thePost’s source says the remains are believed to be Michael Grayson, who went missing last March.
Lead Detective Clarissa Roth is expected to give a press conference about the DNA test results at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning when she will discuss the department’s investigation further.
Here I was worried about this paranoia I was experiencing—feeling as though eyes were boring into me from behind on our walk. But now it’s not some imagined phantom I have to fear, but reality.
A series of scenes play through my mind.
I try to imagine the state Mike’s body was in when they found him.
Was he rotting away, or was his body intact, having been disposed of recently?
The images in my head aren’t helped by all the horror movies I’ve watched. Vivid, graphic depictions of Mike plague my thoughts until my mind shifts focus back to when we were kids.We’re in the family room, laughing and playing video games together. He’s eating Cap’n Crunch, flashing a smile after getting a taste. Then there’s one much later, as I hold him and tears slide down our faces.“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you,” I say.
I’m a fucking liar.
I expect I’m about to explode into a fit of rage, grief, agony, but I don’t even feel connected to my body. There’s a numbness, like after Mom and Dad died.
Like I can’t accept this is true.
“Zane? Zane?” Leif’s voice sounds distant, like I’m not sitting beside him in the car but like I’m standing outside it.
After Jill alerted me to the news, I got off the phone with her to look up the headlines on my phone. Said I’d call her back, then frantically googled and found that article.
“What is it? Talk to me,” Leif says, but I can’t tell him this. How could I even get the words out?
I pass him my phone, and as he reads the article, I’m transported back to the day when Shelly and those fuckers from the CPS tore us apart.
My mind leaps forward again, to an image my mind’s crafted of a body shoved back into a sewer line. Discarded like my brother wasn’t even human.
He didn’t do this to himself. I fucking knew it.
But there’s no relief in the thought, and it’s as though all the pain finally catches up with me.
My chest constricts, my body trembles.