Page 22 of Good and Gone

So, that’s the first reason I’m annoyed. The second is I don’t like coming home to cops sitting at my dining room table. This is our home. We have telephones. Email. Text messages. Little computers—phones that live in our pockets. He could have called just as easily.

“Have you given any more thought to what I said?” Jeannie asks, refilling Barry’s mug.My mug.

I wait for her to offer me something, but she doesn’t. “About what?”

“About the birthday party?”

I don’t understand why she is asking me this now. It’s not relevant. It’s like she’s trying to draw me into some sort of web. It feels like a trap. “I’ve been out searching for Hailey,” I tell her. “Can’t say that’s what’s been on my mind.”

“You said you’d think it over.”

I did say that. Hailey had planned a birthday party for Lily, which is scheduled to take place in three days’ time. Personally, I don’t want to go through with the party, but Lily is in kindergarten, and she’s struggling to fit in. Jeannie insists that it’s on account of her diagnosis, and I’m sure my wife would agree.

“It’s what Hailey would want,” Jeannie says, pulling the guilt card.

I figure Barry might be on my side because what man likes kid’s birthday parties, so I say, “I’m not in the mood for a party.”

I don’t know why I am surprised when he takes my mother-in-law’s side. “The counselor said that you should keep the kid’s routines as normal as possible.”

“Nothing about this is normal,” I protest. “How will it look if I hire a clown and spend the day driving around fetching balloons and party favors while my wife is out there somewhere…?”

“It will look like you love your daughter,” Jeannie says tartly. “And you want what’s best for her.”

She shifts in her chair and folds her arms across her chest. “You do want what’s best for her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“On the positive side, Tyler,” Coburn chimes in, “it will give you a chance to get the community together,” he says. “You’ll want to keep Hailey’s name at the forefront of people’s minds.”

“That doesn’t seem to be a problem,” I say, standing and walking over to the window. There are news vans camped on my front lawn. But Barry Coburn has a point. And Lily has talked nonstop for months about this party.

Still, I’m not in the party organizing mood. Any mood, really. I can’t even stomach looking out the window, so I go back to the table and pull out a chair adjacent to Barry Coburn. I am bone tired.

“Fine,” I say to Jeannie. “Whatever you think is best.”

Every woman’s favorite words, especially hers.

“About the man, Tyler,” she asks. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

I turn to Barry. “Is that what brought you by tonight?”

“Partially.”

“We could have used you in the search. The turnout was good. But less than last week.”

He nods, sips his coffee. “That’s to be expected.”

I stand and grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator and return to the table. “I want to help you, Tyler,” he says. His voice is patronizing. He thinks I’m an idiot. Maybe I am, but I don’t like to be talked down to.

“I appreciate that.”

“We found Hailey’s phone.”

They’d pinged it, but the last location was near the house, and nothing since. “Where?”

“Some kid had it. We don’t know for how long. Maybe since the day Hailey went missing. He said he found it on the street. His mother noticed it and started asking questions. Eventually, she figured out whose it was and called us.”

I feel sick. “Is he a suspect?”

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