Page 9 of Unwanted

“He traded things with me. Things I needed but couldn’t get.”

“Okay. And why couldn’t you get the things you needed?”

He didn’t tell the man why. He wasn’t sure he should. Didn’t know who to trust and who not to trust. Not yet. “I didn’t want to leave the forest. I wanted to stay there. And I…didn’t have a car.”

“I see. Okay.” But he could tell by the man’s face that he didn’t see. Did he know Lucas was lying?

“Is there anything else you can tell me about your relationship? Anything you knew about him that we should know?”

“No.” He tried not to picture the blood when he answered, the puddle that had grown and grown moving across the floor.

“Okay. And you live in a house on Isaac Driscoll’s property?”

“Yes.”

“And you traded things with him in exchange for rent?”

Rent? Lucas wasn’t sure what that meant, but he knew the man—the agent—expected it was true, so he answered, “Yes.”

“So, in essence, you depended on Isaac Driscoll to obtain things not available to you?”

There were too many words in that sentence he didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway. “Yes.”

“Did you like Isaac Driscoll?”

“I don’t know. I just traded with him.”

The agent waited for a second before talking. “Okay. Have you seen anyone unusual in, er, your area of the woods, so to speak, recently?”

Don’t tell anyone about me.

“No.”

“Okay.” He gave Lucas a long look, and Lucas stared back. “Have you ever been to town before, Lucas?”

“No.” That was almost the truth. He’d been to town once, but only walked a few steps into it. He didn’t want to tell the agent about that. His muscles still got achy and tight when he thought about it.

“How did you come to live way out there?”

“I… My…parents couldn’t care for me. Driscoll let me stay on his land.”

The agent stared at him, but his face didn’t say anything. “So you’ve been living out there how long?”

“Fifteen winters.” So many. So much cold. So much hunger. So much loneliness.

The agent was looking at him in that funny way. Lucas didn’t know what he was thinking. “Alone? All of them?”

“Yes.”

The agent was quiet for a minute. “All right, Lucas, thank you for your time. We’ll be out to talk to you if we have more questions. And, of course, to return your property once it’s been tested.”

Lucas had no idea what they were testing for, but he nodded. I want to go home. But even as he thought it, his heart dropped. Because the forest was no longer the place that made sense. Everything was different now.

Chapter Seven

Agent Gallagher opened the door and smiled. “Ready to go if you are.”

She nodded, getting up from the chair where she’d been sitting as she’d resisted turning on the monitor again, and followed the agent out of the room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the man—Lucas—being led out of the holding cell by Dwayne. “Sorry for the holdup,” Dwayne was saying. “Thanks for answering our questions. You’re free to go.”

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