The guy swallows, his gaze darting between us. “This afternoon. At the skatepark. He told me to wait till this evening.”
“Did he have a vehicle?” Oz asks.
“Uh, I dunno man.”
I stare up at the night sky, the light pollution too thick to see the stars. “You didn’t think it was kind of dodgy?”
The kid shifts in his trainers and shrugs. “Fifty buck’s a lot of money. It’s not like I did anything illegal. Right?” He looks between us and the police officer.
None of us answer him even though we probably should. He’s just a stupid kid.
“Can I see that?” River asks the officer, holding out his hand for the envelope.
She passes it over and fingertips creep down my spine as River opens it up.
He goes rigid, his body a frozen silhouette in the night.
“River?”
He looks up at me and I can see the thought behind his eyes. He doesn’t want to show me.
“We have a rule River, you can’t keep parts of the case from me,” I remind him.
He grinds his teeth and avoids my gaze, but then he passes it over.
Bright, silver cartoon stars blink up at me. I swallow the grit in my throat and open it.
To my Little Star,
Happy birthday!
Love,
Your big brother x
P.S. I guess now you’ve broken our deal, I can break it too.
I lower the card, crumpling the envelope in my other hand. Monsters crawl at the edges of my brain but I push them back and turn to face the kid.
“Did you write this?” I ask, holding up the birthday card.
He nods. “The guy told me what to put, made me write it down on my phone so I wouldn’t forget. Said it was some inside joke.”
Jude taps his fingers against his thigh. “You didn’t think it was strange he didn’t want to get the card back off you? Didn’t want you to mail it anywhere?”
The kid shrugs again. “Money’s money, man.”
Jude grunts. “Yeah. Sure.”
River turns to the officers. “Take him down to the station. We need to get a full interview done on every interaction he had with the man who gave him the card. We’ll follow you there.”
“Yes, sir.”
The woman guides the boy back into the car and they drive off, leaving us in the florescent lights of the gas station.
River eases the birthday card and the crumpled envelope out of my hands.
“He knows,” I whisper.
