The art of getting better

Chapter seven

Stiles nodded writing down a few short sentences on a notebook. "Was there something different that afternoon? Have you noticed something?"

The kid looked caught off guard by that question. He tortured his hands, playing with his hangnails until blood started staining his fingertips.

"Reed, is there something you need to tell us?" The sheriff's tone was cold, detached. Lydia elbowed him slightly and gave him an eloquent look.

"The more we know, the easier and faster we find Jane." She added almost motherly.

Austin sighed deeply. "She... she had told me once that." He bit his bottom lip. "That it felt like someone was following her in the last few months."

He slowly raised his eyes from his hands pointing them directly in Stiles's ones. "I should've listened more carefully. I should've protected her, but I thought it was just, I don't know, irrelevant."

There was silence in the room, soft sobs of guilt escaping the young boy every now and then.

"I'm a terrible friend."

"You are not." For once, Lydia looked speechless.

"Yes I am. That afternoon, when she told me, I teased her saying something like «Maybe we're in some sort of Truman show» and she laughed it off with me. She is so selfless, always puts her problems behind her friends' ones. And that's what she did. She closed the topic because she thought it was stupid. Oh God this is my fault, isn't it? I- I should've said something. I just- I thought it was nothing serious, she never talked about it again."

The guy took his face in his hands, sobs shaking his now weak shoulders.

"So you saw nothing that afternoon."

He shook his head. "The wood is never quiet. I don't know if the noises I heard were animals or people. I'm sorry."

"We're almost done. Just a few more questions, then you can go."

The kid nodded.

"Does she have some sort of enemies?" Lydia asked reading her husband's mind.

The boy let out a hysteric chuckle. "Enemies? Yes of course, everyone has them. But she is so kind girls are both envious and happy for her when she gets a higher grade. She's always told me she didn't want them to be mad at her, she wanted to be friends with everyone, but she couldn't. She's amazing, but still human."

He pursued his lips and looked behind his shoulders, like he wanted to check if other people were listening.

"There's this... kind of clique. The popular kids, you know. They tried to bully her a few times, but I never let them." His voice was slightly proud now, like he was saying I did something for her, I helped her even if it wasn't important. I helped her at least once and that's what matters to me.

"The group leader is Margo Lapointe, the girl in the track team, and there are Tristan Black and Ben Lacey too along with other girls and guys. I can write their names down if you want, but they wouldn't be able to do such a thing, would they?" His words sounded almost childish.

"We're not closing any doors. Not yet." Was Stiles's answer. The man got up offering the sixteen-year-old his hand.

Austin shook it. He was about to exit the room, when he turned a last time, his determined gaze fixated on the sheriff. "Find her. Please. She's all I have left in this world."

Then the door closed behind the broken figure of the guy.

---

"Stonyfield?"

Lydia looked at the carton her husband was holding in his hands and nodded. "Yeah, we have finished milk last Tuesday."

The man put the blue box in the shopping cart, then pushed it along the hallway looking at the colored packages that lit the shelves.

"You know, it's weird. I mean buying groceries together... well, it's a couple thing, isn't it?"

The redhead pondered his words, her eyes lost in front of her. "I guess it is. But we just stopped here because I was at the station, it's late and we have nothing to eat at home."

"Yeah right."

They kept walking, getting past crying children in front of fancy bags of candies and young men wearing suits and wandering from shelf to shelf, obviously unfamiliar to the whole grocery thing, mumbling to themselves with impatience.

"What do you thing about the boy, Austin Reed?" Lydia asked putting a package of integral biscuits in the cart.

"He reminded me of myself in high school." Was his simple answer.

"Oh shut up." The woman teased "You weren't that attractive. Don't get me wrong, he's too young, but I see how girls look at him." She smiled.

"Yeah, I wasn't that popular of a guy in high school, was I? You, on the other hand..."

"I was just a shallow child. Too focused on putting aside my brain to date popular guys to see what really mattered in life."

"And what was it that really mattered?" His voice was cautious, as if he wasn't sure he really wanted to know her answer.

"Well, school, family, friends... you." Was her whisper. "You were my anchor."

"I still am."

"I don't know."

"I'll always be." He was firm in his words, no longer insecure, no longer careful.

"That's not the point. We were talking about the case. What to do you think?"

Stiles sighed, he knew she wasn't going to bring up the subject again.

"He looked sincere." The man stated. "And really attached to her. The kidnapping path is the most plausible, given his words and everything. Caleb's still checking tapes from speed cameras, gas stations and supermarkets."

"How long has she been missing?"

Stiles stopped in front of a shelf full of boxes of cereals. He wasn't looking at them, though. "That's what concerns me." Were his words.

"Her father reported it yesterday, but he said she'd been missing for three days. That means she disappeared on Saturday."

"You mean the day Austin last saw her."

"Yeah, and there's something else. When he denounced it three whole days had already passed. Quite a long time to wait before filing a missing person report, don't you think?"

Lydia turned her head in the man's direction. Her green eyes met his chocolate ones mixing colors and emotions and questions in a rainbow of doubts.

"What happened in those three days?"