Page 77 of Snow Creek

I give her a nod. “Tell me more about Ellie.”

“She was awesome. We used to talk every night. She wasn’t allowed to have a phone, but I got her one and stuck her on our family plan. Told my dad that I needed two phones, one for social and one for school assignments. He never questioned me.”

“What did she talk about? Did she say anything that gave you cause to worry?”

Tyra shakes her head. “No. She was fine. I talked to her the night before they went to Lake Crescent.”

“Did you text or talk?”

“She’d lost her phone a week or so before, and my dad was being a real prick about getting a replacement. Said I had to learn a lesson or something dumb.”

I think of the night Ellie argued with Hudson and tossed her phone into the Potters’ backyard.

That was a week before the lake.

“Did she say anything about the upcoming trip to the lake?”

“Like did she say, ‘I’m going to kill my parents and swim away’? No.”

She’s dug out a stud and is rolling it around her fingertips.

“Look, Tyra,” I say, losing my patience a little. “This isn’t a joke here. Your friend might be in harm’s way.”

“I actually don’t care. If she did swim away, she never came back here. Some best friend. It wasn’t exactly as though I didn’t need some support. After what happened to my mom.”

This girl is unbelievable. I don’t want to start an altercation, but I would like to call her bluff. Instead, I press on.

“Did she have a boyfriend?” I ask, taking it down a notch. “Someone else she’d confide in?”

“None of us have boyfriends. Yeah, we see boys when we can. We just don’t cling to anyone.”

“Right,” I say.

Wrong, I think.

Tyra tells me that she has to get back to what she was doing.

“I don’t really have anything else to tell you about Ellie.”

Her father appears and leads me to the door.

Just like that.

Over.

It’s too dark to look for Ellie’s phone. Ms. Potter would definitely call the Seattle police if she caught me poking around her yard with a flashlight. I look at the time. If I hurry, I can make the ferry. Or I could take the scenic route and cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and get home that way.

Or I could do what I know I’m going to do.

Texting is an easier way to lie than leaving a voice message.

Sheriff Gray is in bed now anyway. I don’t want to wake him.

I sit in my car and type.

Missed the last boat and don’t feel like driving around.

Be in tomorrow late. Will give update then.

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