Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Thirty-Two

Kali

T he landlord and his car were gone by the time we stepped out. The streets were dark and empty. I searched for Jem, but he was nowhere in sight. Locke’s black car sat empty and undisturbed.

“Where’s Jem?” I whispered.

“Here,” came a voice.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I spotted the crouched figure by the townhome’s unkempt garden, feet from me. Holy shit, how had I overlooked him?

“What are you doing?” Locke asked.

“Saw something sticking out of the bush as that fucking idiot kept yammering away.” Jem stood up, and there was something big in his hand. Neither Locke nor I turned on a light to see what it was. We preferred the darkness. This wasn’t the type of street we wanted to be making our presence known at night.

“What did you find?” Jem asked me, referring to the colouring book I’d snatched under Lenny’s pillow. “A clue?”

“No,” I returned. “You?”

Jem stared down at what he was carrying. “Doubt it.”

He handed it to Locke, who immediately sighed irritably and passed it to me. Neither seemed to be impressed with what Jem found. I knew straight away why. It was a teddy bear, and it was wet and stinky.

“Let’s get out of here,” Locke said next. “Explain everything to me in the car.”

Within moments, we slipped into the car. Instead of sitting next to Locke, I chose the backseat. I needed some space and Jem needed to talk about his conversation with the landlord.

Plopping the teddy bear down on the seat next to me, I turned on my phone light and flipped through the colouring book, curious if there were other pictures he’d drawn. So far, it didn’t appear like there was. He had coloured almost every page of the book in, and it was surprisingly good.

“What do we have?” Locke asked Jem.

“She was behind on rent, and he evicted her,” Jem answered. “She squatted the place the last couple months, and he got a bit pushy. He admitted he came around a few times, and it was confrontational. Kept reiterating he had put her in that house because her reference was mint. I think we should investigate that reference just to get an understanding. Tammy had a boyfriend by the end that would go toe to toe with the guy, and he stopped coming around. He’d started the eviction notice when he found out she’d taken off.”

“Who is the boyfriend?”

Jem pulled out a tiny notebook. I moved around the seat to have a look at it. I bit back a laugh. Only these Blackwater boys would have a pocketbook packed in their chest pockets instead of a phone. And if it was a phone, it was always those crappy dumb phones, like the one Locke had when he used it as a light.

“His name is Keenan Young,” Jem read. “Sid said he was a known drug dealer. Lenny’s ma got hooked.”

“She was an alcoholic,” I cut in. “She didn’t look high when she came around, just drunk.”

“Yeah, well I’m telling you that ain’t all she was on,” Jem returned. “She owed money to the landlord, to her sister, and even her druggie boyfriend before she allegedly split.”

“Did he see her leave?” Locke asked.

“No, but he said the neighbours said she left in a van.”

“I need you to question them next. Bring Conor with you.”

“Question them about when she left?”

“Everything.”

“Alright, I’ll do that first thing in the morning, but I ain’t doing it with Conor.” He began to scratch at his chest. “He bothers me.”

Locke stared at Jem for a long moment. “Jem.”

“He’s so fucking judgy now,” Jem explained.

“You feel judged?”

“I do.”

Locke continued “Anyway, you guys will check out the neighbours and I want to dig a bit into the landlord. He screams ex-convict. I’ll have the drug dealer questioned by my boys.”

“Any hits from them?”

“They haven’t stopped, but they need a better description of the vehicle. Too many hits on a vague description of a truck. Or a van.”

“Van?”

“Kali got conflicting stories from the neighbour.”

Jem twisted his head back to look at me. “You already spoke to a neighbour?”

I nodded and quickly filled him in on what went down. I made sure to include the conversation I had at recess with the son. Jem’s face contorted to confusion. It was exactly the look I needed to see. It didn’t sit right to him either, and it especially triggered a response when I mentioned the neighbour’s little boy.

“Locke,” whispered Jem. His voice was strained…and off. I watched his face, trying to read what the look he was giving Locke meant.

Locke returned the look. “I know.”

“This is like before.”

“Yeah.”

“What about the cops…”

“Already on it.”

“I wouldn’t be.” Jem shook his head slowly. “I don’t trust them.”

My brows pinched together as I tried to understand. I didn’t want to disrupt them, though. I knew enough from Conor and Charlotte when they’d told me all about the Hole. My eyes ached as I looked at Locke, feeling my heart climb my throat. All this time I was envisioning Lenny and Aurora helpless, what about Locke?

“It’s hard to imagine him helpless,” Aurora explained from next to me. “He’s always in control. Why would you even think of him as a helpless little boy?”

I should have.

I looked away from the guys, peering once more at the saturated teddy bear. I turned my light to it. It was a Christmas teddy bear with fuzzy white hair and a red outfit with a gold trim. I felt my lips twitch, muttering, “Santa Claus really is a sweetheart.”

Immediately Jem stopped whispering and said, “Come again?”

I looked up, catching Jem’s eye. He turned completely to look at me, his gaze drifting between me and the teddy bear. I shook my head. “Nothing, I was just thinking out loud.”

“You mentioned Santy Claus, and I’m a big fan of that jolly bastard.”

“Okay.”

“Why did you say his name?”

I picked up the teddy bear and shook it. “Because he gave this to Lenny last Christmas.”

Jem’s brows pinched together. “Isn’t the kid in kindergarten?”

“Yeah.”

“He wasn’t in school last year.”

I looked over at Locke. He was listening, but he appeared bored. Jem was being annoying again. I remembered he wanted conflict, and I wasn’t about to feed him it.

“Mr Ambrose dressed as Santa last year and visited schools. He handed out these teddy bears. He literally designed them for the kids in Georgewel. I did a call out job at one of the schools last year. He was there, fitted into the costume, and he looked really legit.” I smiled fondly. “I’ve never seen a man look more like Santa in my life—”

“That’s nice,” Jem cut in dryly. “Who is this guy? Like a principal or something?”

I shook my head. “No, he’s this really nice old man. He moved here a couple years ago. Hal talks about him all the time. He’s been investing so much money into Georgewel—”

Suddenly the car pulled over to the side of the road, cutting me off mid-sentence. Locke came to a harsh stop. I jolted, relieved I had my seatbelt on. My eyes bulged out of my head now as Locke also twisted around to look at me. He’d pulled over in a dark spot, and now the two men looked extra terrifying as they studied me.

My heart picked up. “What?”

“What’s his full name?” Locke clipped out.

“Arthur Ambrose.”

Jem looked at him. “Has that name come up?”

“A lot of names came up,” Locke returned. “This town’s drawn a lot of attention lately.”

“Probably from this Ambrose cunt.”

I leaned forward, shaking my head. “No, no, no, this is a good guy. I’m just looking at this stuffy and thinking fondly of him. I’m not suggesting Mr Ambrose is suspicious at all because he’s not.”

“Let me guess,” Locke returned. “He rescued the town just before it went under. He donates to charity, probably has a bunch of kids’ centres open, and he’s an advocate for less fortunate children—”

“Locke, I understand what you’re implying, but you’re wrong about Ambrose.”

Locke’s eyes hardened on mine. “You’re sure of that?”

“I met him.”

“For how long?”

“He was in the class for an hour.”

“You think an hour is enough to know a man?”

My cheeks burned. “Of course not, but this is a jolly old man, Locke.”

Jem stared at Locke now, brimming with thoughts. Locke continued to stare at me, and based on that growing frown, I wondered if he was disappointed in me. Anger cut through me because I wasn’t dumb enough to just let this old man off the hook without reason. “Look, I get it, a lot of these guys are suspicious, but he’s genuine.”

Locke cut his gaze away. “They all are, aren’t they?”

I didn’t respond. I looked down at the teddy bear, thinking of my encounter with Ambrose. He was a happy old man with a bit of a gut and a big white beard. He even had rosy cheeks and an infectious laugh. I tried to think of him as a pervert, and ew, it was gross, but I still tried. I could see it from their side. The guy had deep pockets, and he did just come to town and decide to clean it up, but so what? A lot of good rich people did that. It didn’t make them evil kidnappers.

“Is he married?” Jem wondered.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Kids.”

My voice faltered. “No, he said it was one of his greatest regrets not having fathered a child.”

“Aw, what a sweetheart.”

I gritted my teeth. “Uh-huh.”

“I love the sob stories they spout. Don’t you, Locke?” Jem chuckled, but it sounded off. “Back in Blackwater, one of the guys you put into the ground said he lived to see little boys smile. I wonder if that was before or after he put them into a fucking hole. Boys don’t smile the same way when they come out, do they?”

My cheeks burned with anger. “I get it,” I said sharply when I noticed Locke’s shoulders stiffen. “I fucking get it, Jem.”

Jem’s smile fell off his face as he looked flatly at me. “Any other family he got around here, Kali? I’m trying really hard to redeem the fucker, but he’s unmarried, no kids, came around with a ‘let’s save the kids’ mantra, and it’s not really convincing me he’s a genuine sweetheart.”

I breathed rapidly. I was pissed, but I did my best to remain calm. This was a triggering topic for them. I wondered why it was especially so intense with Jem. Had something happened to him, too?

I refocused on the question. I didn’t have to think about it. I knew a lot about Mr Ambrose, and I had to fight the cringe on my face from showing as I forced out, “No. He has no family here.”

“Any reason why he liked Georgewel so much?”

“He said it was a quiet place he could see himself retiring in, and…he didn’t want the kids here to lose hope when they got older and leave.”

I knew how all of this sounded, but there was no point arguing on Mr Ambrose’s behalf. I’d just seeded the poor old man’s name into the heads of these wicked Blackwater boys, and they weren’t going to let it go. I couldn’t fault them, either. This whole thing felt like a sticky spider web we got caught in.

Jem continued to look heavily at Locke. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

I looked at Locke, waiting for his response. He had been unusually quiet, simmering in whatever thoughts gave him that dark look on his face.

Locke put the car in drive and merged back onto the road. “He’s on the list.”