Page 48 of Skalterra By Nightmare
The word “outsider” stung in an unexpected way, but I could sense Gams was running defense, which meant I held more power in this conversation than I had initially realized.
“I don’t need to poke around when your friends are giant gossips.”
“Sarah?” Gams hissed.
“Gladys too.”
Gams grimaced.
“This isn’t some puzzle for you to solve. There’s no big conspiracy here.”
“No?” I sang, fanning myself with the paper. “Then why are you using me to cover up Riley’s disappearance?”
“I’m covering up nothing.”
“Then why—”
“Keel Watch is small, Wren. Smaller scandals than a missing boy have ruined towns like ours.” Gams turned back to the dishes so I couldn’t see her face. “And the Glass family has a complicated past. I’d go into it more, but quite frankly, their business is not mine to tell and it does you no good to be nosy. I’m keeping us from becoming a spectacle. I’m keeping Liam safe from people who would see him as a tragic story to gawk at and package up for their Real Crime podcasts.”
“It’s not ‘Real Crime’, it’s ‘True Crime’,” I mumbled, trying to tame the sudden shame rising in my cheeks. Maybe I shouldn’t have reposted the flyers after all. “And it should be Liam’s decision if he becomes a spectacle or not.”
“He’s young. He wouldn’t understand that I’m trying to protect him.”
“But Margaret and the Tracewell brothers, they disappeared too.”
“Years apart! Margaret was a sad story. We get a lot of people through town, and not all of them are well-intentioned. As for Rusty and Hank, they were avid fishermen. One day they sailed out, and they didn’t come back. It doesn’t take a detective to figure out what happened.”
I hated to admit that her words made sense, though there was still one important detail bothering me.
“Then how do you know Riley is gone for good?”
“Riley was a good boy.” Gams stared into the sink, but her eyes were unfocused. “If he were alive, he would’ve checked in by now. He’d never do this to his parents and Liam on purpose.”
She cleared her throat and turned back to look at me. Her magnified eyes glistened behind her glasses. I’d been so focused on fighting her that I had forgotten she would be just as upset by Riley’s appearance as anyone.
But it didn’t mean I wasn’t upset too.
“I don’t want to dothisanymore,” I said, gesturing at the scattered flyers. “It doesn’t feel good, and it’s not fair.”
“You’re right” Gams’s face softened, and she opened her arms in apology. I accepted the hug, reluctant at first, but then melted into her embrace as I always did. “That wasn’t right of us to ask you to do this, and moving forward, you don’t have to help anymore.”
I nodded, my chin bumping against her head as I did.
“The fourteenth,” I said. She pulled away from the hug.
“What?”
“That’s when I’d like to visit Von Leer. It’s a Thursday. I can have that day off, right?”
She grinned.
“Of course. You and Liam both.”
13. Intro to Criminology
For the second night in a row, Galahad failed to summon me. I remained braced for his call, ready in my head, while Jonquil watched me from my dresser top. The ceiling darkened as the sun sank below the horizon outside my window, and I dared to close my eyes.
When I opened them again, it was to sunlight streaming in through my curtains. It felt like a sick joke. They’d finally convinced me that Skalterra was real, and now I’d been stood up two nights in a row.
