Page 11 of Little Buried Secrets

“It’s nice to meet you, Sebastian,” I said.

“Yeah, whatever,” he said.

“I have a few questions for you. It won’t take long.”

“Yeah, well … I’m out here right now because my dad wants me to be, not because I want to talk to you.”

“Sebastian, don’t be rude,” Sean said.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’d feel the same way if I were him.”

“Let’s get this over with,” Sebastian said. “What do you want to know?”

“The day you were supposed to meet with Margot, did the two of you communicate with each other?”

“We texted a bit.”

“What did the text messages say?”

“I told her I was excited to see her. She said she was excited to see me too.”

“What time did the text messages take place?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, fiddled around some more on his phone, and then he handed it to me, a gesture I hadn’t expected.

“Here,” he said. “See for yourself.”

Sebastian 10:10 am: I can’t wait to see you. I’m so excited.

Margot 10:15 am: I’m excited to see you too.

Sebastian 1:10 pm: Not long now. See you soon!

Margot 1:11 pm: Can’t wait! Heart emoji.

Assuming Sebastian hadn’t deleted any other messages, the conversation ended there and didn’t resume until that evening.

Sebastian 7:40 pm: Where are you?

Sebastian 7:46 pm: Helloooooo?

Sebastian 7:52 pm: This isn’t funny, Margot.

Sebastian 7:57 pm: If you’re not here in five minutes, I’m leaving.

Sebastian 8:02 pm: Your loss. I’m out.

There were no messages between the two of them after the last one I’d just read. I handed his cell phone back.

“I heard you and Margot had broken up a while ago,” I said. “I’m sure it’s not something that’s easy to talk about, but it would be helpful if I knew why.”

Sebastian swished a hand through the air. “Man, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s the past, you know? It’s stupid. It has nothing to do with what’s going on right now, so why does it matter?”

“I’m trying to learn as much about Margot and what she’s like as I can from those who know her well. Any information you can give me would help.”

“I don’t see how. Nothing I tell you will help you find her.”

I had plenty to say in response, but I decided to say nothing, to bite my tongue and see if he came around on his own. There was a moment of awkwardness, and we all sat there, staring at each other, and then Sean said, “I know it’s hard, son. If you don’t want to talk about it anymore, it’s fine.”

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