The Drowning Child

‘Thank you,’ said John, his eyes back on Ren, his pupils huge, his gaze fixed.

Jesus. Intense.

‘It’s OK,’ said John. ‘I understand. Go ahead.’

‘Talk me through the twenty-four hours before Caleb went missing,’ said Ren.

John nodded. ‘Sunday morning, me, Teddy and Caleb went to the eleven a.m. service at Tate Baptist Church on 1st Street. We came home, ate lunch together. After lunch, Teddy was in the dining room – she was writing, Caleb was upstairs in his room, on his laptop or his phone, I guess. I was doing some work around the house, in the garage. It was a regular Sunday. Teddy left for Patti Ellis’s house at around six o’clock – Patti’s Teddy’s friend, she’s got cancer, so the friends are taking turns to look after her. Teddy does Sunday nights. And she had a trade show in Salem the following day. After she left, I cooked supper for me and Caleb. We ate together. Caleb went back up to his room. I was in the living room watching television.’

‘What were you watching?’ said Ren.

‘Uh … well, I was watching a box set,’ said John. ‘I think Breaking Bad? Whichever one is in the machine.’ He didn’t take his eyes off her as he spoke.

Hmm.

‘I was dozing off,’ said John.

‘Did you see Caleb again – did you check on him before you went to bed?’ said Ren.

John frowned. ‘Of course I did. He was fine.’

‘How were things between you and Caleb in general?’ said Ren. ‘We’ve had reports of raised voices in the house …’

‘Sunday night? No way,’ said John.

‘Not specifically Sunday night …’ said Ren.

‘Well, not on Sunday, and not on Monday,’ said John. ‘Caleb and I were good.’ He paused. ‘Let me correct that, sorry – I did shout up at Caleb several times on Monday morning, because he was dragging his heels, and his oatmeal was going cold.’

‘Did he respond to you?’ said Ren. ‘Did he hurry up?’

‘He was already leaving his room,’ said John.

‘Did you drive Caleb to school often?’ said Ren.

‘When I was working the late shift, yes,’ said John. ‘Otherwise, it was his mom. Or he walked.’

‘It takes what – fifteen minutes?’ said Gary.

‘Yes,’ said John. ‘A lot of the kids around here walk it. There are usually some parents too. It’s … safe.’

‘But Caleb was running late on Monday,’ said Ren.

‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you drive him?’ said Ren. ‘Your shift wasn’t until later that day.’

‘He wanted to walk,’ said John. ‘And to be honest, I wanted him to take responsibility for being late. I’m always trying to teach him that choices have consequences.’

‘Did you argue at all, have a disagreement about anything that morning?’ said Ren.

‘No,’ said John. ‘I told you. Nothing like that. Hands up, I admit I’m strict on the boy, and, yes, I do raise my voice. I know that’s not the done thing these days, but children need discipline. Without discipline …’ He trailed off as his voice cracked. There were tears in his eyes.

Whoa. Did you discipline him too much? Did it go too far?

‘Look, I didn’t do anything to my son,’ said John. ‘I know you look at parents very closely in these situations, but I swear to God, I did not harm my son. It’s the last thing in the world I would do. And my wife … she’s an angel.’

Fuck, that seemed genuine.

11 (#ulink_62a0ba35-b308-5039-b9f7-173edfc62cd0)

Ren looked through Caleb Veir’s cell phone records.

‘John,’ she said, ‘there was a call made from Caleb’s cell phone to your sister, Alice, at seven thirty a.m. yesterday. Did you know about that?’

John shook his head. ‘No, I did not.’

Those giant pupils. Sign of deception …

‘Do you know why Caleb would have called your sister?’ said Ren. ‘And so early in the morning?’

‘I have no idea,’ said John.

‘Are they close?’ said Ren.

‘They get along,’ said John. ‘They don’t see each other a lot, but when they do, yeah, absolutely, they’re close.’

‘I have cell phone records here going back three months and this was the first time he had ever called her,’ said Ren.

‘From his cell phone, maybe,’ said John, ‘but he has spoken to her on the home phone when I’ve called her.’

‘What would they talk about?’ said Ren. ‘Was your sister someone Caleb would open up to?’

‘Honestly, I didn’t pay attention to what they talked about,’ said John. ‘I was just glad they were talking.’

‘Monday’s call was ten minutes long,’ said Ren.

‘Honestly, I don’t know what that would have been about.’

‘The call was deleted from the call list on his phone,’ said Ren. ‘Why would Caleb have wanted to hide that?’

‘I don’t know,’ said John. ‘Maybe he was planning a surprise for me or his mom and didn’t want us to know he’d called Alice?’ He paused. ‘Oh, hold on … I forgot about this – Alice is working on a wrongful conviction case that’s getting a lot of attention. Caleb had mentioned her coming in to talk to his class on one of her visits here. Knowing Caleb, he was probably supposed to have someone organized for Monday, and he ended up calling Alice at the last minute.’

‘Did Caleb have a particular interest in the law?’ said Ren. ‘Or was there something about this case?’

‘It might just have been that Alice had been on television,’ said John. ‘You know kids …’

Ren nodded. Hold on a second … ‘Haven’t you talked to her yet? Told her that Caleb’s missing?’