The Name on the Broadcast novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Bridge

The sheriff walked toward us down the middle of the bridge, slow, thumbs in his belt.

"Stay in the car," Ben said.

"He'll just come to the window."

"Laney."

"He's not scared of you, Ben. He's not scared of me. He's scared of people seeing."

I looked down at my phone.

Three bars.

The cell tower sits on the far side of the river. I'd forgotten.

"You've got signal," I said.

Ben looked at his own phone. Then at me.

I watched him understand.

He pulled up the station's account, the one with the call letters and the little microphone logo, and his thumb hovered.

"We've got about nine thousand followers," he said. "Mostly parents and alumni."

"Good."

He hit Go Live.

He propped the phone on the dashboard, facing out the windshield at the bridge.

I got out of the car.

The cold air off the river hit me through the blue dress. The light bar painted me red, then blue.

The sheriff stopped about ten feet away.

"Evening, Miss College."

"Evening."

"Now, I got a call from a nice young lady at the motel. Says a green car went up the back road with its lights off." He shook his head. "That's a dangerous way to drive."

"We're going down the hill," I said. "Move your car."

"Can't do that, honey. You've got two women in that car who belong at home. Their husbands are worried sick."

"They're not their husbands."

"Well, that's a family matter."

"It's not." My voice was shaking. I let it. "They were taken. One of them last spring. One of them last week. The whole town knows it. You know it."

He smiled at me.

"Laney, you're upset. You've had a hard weekend, with your daddy. Let me drive you all back up to the church, and we'll have some pie, and nobody needs to talk about tonight ever again."

He took a step forward.

Behind me, the back door of the hatchback opened.

The girl from next door climbed out.

Barefoot on the iron, in her gray college sweatshirt, with the yellow bruise on her jaw lit up red and blue.

She walked right past me.

She stood in front of the windshield, in front of Ben's phone.

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