Page 25 of We Are All Guilty Here

Emmy thought about the post on Facebook claiming that Cheyenne would give a blow job for $50. There had been a lot of fifties inside her closet lockbox. “Did you pay her for sex?”

Jack licked his lips, but he didn’t answer the question. “I helped her dad clean out his shed over spring break. It took a while because he would try to throw stuff away, like snow tires and winter things, and Shy’s mom would pitch a fit because she thought they would need them if they moved back to Iowa, so we had to put it all back in. Like, this went on for over a week. Pamela probably saw me and Shy talking. Like I said, she was different when nobody else was around. Softer. Nicer.”

“Spring break,” Emmy said. “Is that when you found out that Cheyenne was dealing?”

“I knew before then, maybe as far back as Christmas last year. But she never said anything to me about it. To be honest, I was really shocked the first time I heard. Not because she wouldn’t do something stupid like that, but her folks are super strict. Like, they won’t even let her have her own computer. She was late for curfew once and they grounded her for an entire month.”

“You seem to know a lot about her.”

“It’s easy to see everything when you’re basically invisible.”

Emmy didn’t have time to let her heart break for this kid. “Did you see Cheyenne dealing at school?”

“No, ma’am, but I heard about it in the locker room. Guys were saying if you needed Oxy or Addies, then Shy could hook you up.”

The Oxy and Addies were new information. This just kept getting worse. “Do you know where she was getting the drugs?”

He shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

“Is it possible Woody was supplying them?”

“Possible, but not probable. The guy is so careful. He wouldn’t even talk to you if you were North Falls. And everybody knows—”

Emmy waited for him to finish, but all she could hear was the end of “The Fame” coming from the Beats headphones on the floor.

She prompted, “Everybody knows what?”

Jack let the half-shrug come back into play. “That you’re a cop and you’ve got Madison’s back.”

Emmy let the words sit in her brain for a moment. She hadn’t had Madison’s back tonight, probably the one time in the girl’s fifteen years that it could’ve made a difference.

“Okay,” she said, borrowing her father’s multi-layered placeholder. “Who would Cheyenne get drugs from if Woody wouldn’t sell to them?”

He shook his head, but said, “The Perv, probably.”

Emmy felt the hairs on the back of her neck go up. “Who’s the Perv?”

“I don’t know his real name. Everybody just calls him the Perv. He’s an old dude. Hangs out at the Chilly Treat sometimes.”

The ice cream parlor wasn’t far from the sheriff’s station. “Is he old like me or old like your father?”

“I dunno. Like, just regular old.”

“Dark hair? Light hair? Tall? Short? Fat? Skinny?”

Jack started shaking his head again. “Dark hair for sure. Not tall or short, just average. Kind of average weight. I don’t know. It’s not like I get invited to hang out a lot. I just saw him a few times when I went to get take-out at the Chilly.”

“Why is he called the Perv?”

Another shrug. “I guess ’cause he’s at parties sometimes? Like, parties with kids in my class, but he’s older, like way out of high school, so it’s weird.”

“What kinds of parties?”

“Nothing, like, at somebody’s house, but they go up to the Falls sometimes. Just a bunch of kids, no warning or anything that it’s gonna happen. Then a text gets sent out or a post goes up and people go there with beer and other stuff.”

Emmy had hung out with Jonah and Hannah at the waterfall back when they were in school. She knew what happened there. “Stuff like drugs?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. At least that’s what I hear.”

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