by Hester Young
Kai fidgets but offers no denial, and I know I’m onto something. I push further.
“I already know that stuff, and I don’t care. Neither does Mrs. Nakagawa. She doesn’t care about who was selling or using or what. She just wants to know about her daughter.” I nudge his elbow. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk.”
Kai puts down his garbage bag and complies, a sucker for authoritative females. He’d have to be, dating Jocelyn.
“You and Lise spent time together, didn’t you?” I guide us to a path that runs parallel to the ocean.
“Yeah . . .”
“You liked her?”
To my surprise, his eyes fill with tears. “I don’t want to talk about Lise,” he says, wiping his face. “If you want to know what happened to her, go bother Elijah.”
“You think Elijah knows where she is?”
“Yeah, he knows. He killed her.”
Kai’s conviction startles me. “You really think that?”
“I know that. We all know it.” Kai sniffles into his hand. “She broke up with him, and then no one ever saw her again.”
I can’t tell if this kid is unusually sensitive or if I’ve just grown accustomed to dealing with the abnormally steely Nakagawa family. Either way, his softness is a point in my favor. “You hung out with Elijah a lot before Lise went missing, right? You must know him pretty well.”
“I wasn’t really good friends with him or anything.” Kai sounds defensive. “Joss and I just hung out with him because of Lise. And he gave us a hangout spot. Somewhere to go.”
“You mean the woods out by Elijah’s place.”
“Yeah. We went there a lot.”
“So I’ve heard.” I opt for the big bluff. “Sounds like you guys had a pretty good system with Elijah. Flashlights and all that.”
Kai nods. “He didn’t have a phone, so he used a flashlight to tell us when his family was asleep. And we’d flash back to let him know we were there.” He hesitates. “Who told you about that? Elijah?”
I ignore the question. Let him wonder who’s leaking info to me. “Did Elijah seem like a decent guy to you?”
We’re wandering a concrete path now beneath some twisty, moss-covered trees, the ocean crashing to our left. Kai stares at his feet as he walks, hands jammed in his pockets. “I never really got why Lise liked him so much,” he says. “I guess ’cause they grew up together. And maybe she felt sorry for him, with his weird family and all.”
“Did Elijah’s mother have any idea you guys were hanging around their property?”
“Nah. We stayed out of her way. The Yoons have a lot of land, and we always met up really late, after Naomi and Elijah’s brothers had gone to bed. No one ever bothered us out there. It was a good place to go, sit around and just . . . you know.”
“Smoke? Have a beer?”
He rubs his forehead. “Jocelyn didn’t, but yeah. The rest of us.”
“Couldn’t you just do that at home? Smoking, drinking—I thought your mom was pretty laid-back about that sort of thing.”
Kai makes a face. “You think I want to hang out with my mother all the time in that tiny house? Anyway, she and Jocelyn don’t really get along.”
“No? Why’s that?”
“My mother thinks Joss is too uptight, and Joss thinks my mom is a loser.” He pauses, offers a wry smile. “Neither one of them’s wrong.”
An orange feral cat dashes across the path in front of us carrying what looks like a chicken nugget in its mouth. For a second, I think of Tasha, how much she’d enjoy chasing this little critter, and I can’t wait to get home to her and Micky. But how can I face my own girls knowing I failed to help someone else’s daughter?
I stop walking and get a good, hard look at Kai, the windblown hair and deceptively wholesome smattering of freckles. He’s not as innocent as he looks. Seventeen-year-old boys never are.
“How did you end up dating Jocelyn?” I ask. “No offense, but you guys seem so different.”
He shoots me a quick glance, trying to determine if I mean this as an insult to his intelligence. “We had an econ class together last year,” he says. “I don’t know, I liked her. She was smart and pretty and you can tell she’s going places. And she’s local. She wasn’t one of those rich boarding school girls always giggling or gossiping or whatever.” He hooks his arm around the branch of a nearby tree. “Not to sound all high on myself, but most girls like me. Jocelyn was different. I really had to try with her.”
“Ah. You like a challenge.”
He sighs. “It was cool at first, but now? She’s, like, so much work. And she’s always busy with school and swimming.”
He sounds like my ex-husband. One minute they’re admiring our high standards and drive, and the next minute, they’re complaining we’re high-maintenance, that we don’t pay enough attention to them.
“You must’ve had some time with her over the summer at least. Her and Lise and Elijah.”
“When Joss wasn’t working, yeah. We all hung out.” He gets a faraway look, as if he wishes he could return to this happier, simpler time. “It wasn’t just alcohol and weed, you know. Elijah set up a hammock, and we built this table thing with crates. Sometimes we just played cards. Elijah’s a weird kid, but he’s pretty good on a uke. He hears a song, and he can play it back to you. So we’d all be out there, you know, singing and goofing around, Elijah plucking away. It was nice.” Once again, his eyes fill with tears. “I didn’t think he would hurt her. I didn’t think he was like that.”
I don’t want to rehash the Elijah Didn’t Seem Like That thing with yet another person. As far as I can tell, Elijah wasn’t like that. Kai’s comment about the hammock interests me, however. If that hammock went up over the summer, as Kai claims, then my vision of the girl in it is definitely a recent event—if it’s even happened yet.
“When’s the last time you were out there?” The lights I saw on Tuesday night now seem important. “The woods, I mean?”
“We haven’t all four been out there since August,” he says.
I detect a slight dodge in his response. “The four of you haven’t. What about you? Have you been out there lately?”
Kai’s gaze drops. “Not lately,” he says. “Maybe a few times in September.”
“Drugs or sex?” I ask dryly, and Kai flushes.
“Look, it was a private place, and I could walk there. My house is really small. My mom and Brayden can hear everything. They don’t care about that kind of thing, but I do. And the Nakagawa house wasn’t an option. We weren’t trying to disrespect Elijah by going out there, I swear.”
Sex, then. Youthful hookups in the woods. Good for you, Jocelyn, I think. If you’re going to choose beauty over brains, you might as well enjoy it. Their trysts might put to rest at least one mystery: Raph’s Watching Guy. Raph must have spotted Kai hanging around the woods at night, waiting to get some. In all likelihood, it wasn’t Lise the kid saw naked, but Jocelyn. I can see how a four-year-old might misinterpret a lustful teenage encounter as something sinister. Unfortunately, none of this brings me any closer to finding Lise, and there is no damn way a little player like Kai is my Instagram stalker. Maybe there are multiple weirdos lurking in those woods.
“Do you and Jocelyn still meet up there sometimes?”
Kai’s ears are red with embarrassment. “I haven’t been out there in weeks,” he says. “I have my license now. Got a car.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s a game-changer.” I mull this over. “What about Jocelyn? Has she been out to visit Elijah at all?”
“No way. She wouldn’t go alone. She hates the mosquitoes.”
I feel a surge of excitement. If Kai and Jocelyn haven’t ventured into the woods, then who has been out there with flashlights?
“Kai?” I sink into the crook of a tree. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe Lise’s alive?”
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br /> He lifts his head. “Alive?”
“She ran away before,” I prod. “She could’ve done it again. Maybe things got tough for her, and she needed some space.”
“She wouldn’t have left without telling someone,” Kai insists.
“Maybe she did tell someone.”
“Like who?”
The ocean rumbles in, breaking against the rocky shore with almost gleeful force. Even several yards away, I can feel traces of its spray. “You tell me. Who would she have gone to?”
He stares at his hands. “I don’t know.”
“Elijah, maybe? He seems like a pretty loyal guy. If she had wanted to disappear, would Elijah have helped her?”
“Yeah,” Kai admits grudgingly. “He would’ve done anything for her. But Elijah . . . I mean, the cops brought him in a bunch of times. I don’t think he could keep a secret like that. Not when everyone’s saying he offed her.”
“If he killed her, he’s keeping an even bigger secret. Either way, Elijah’s not the scared little boy everyone makes him out to be.”
Kai bites his lip. “Yeah.”
“What about Jocelyn?”
“What about her?”
“Did Lise ever go to her sister for help?”
“With school and stuff, sure. All the time. And Jocelyn’s good at finessing her parents. She got them to ease up on Lise a lot. You never knew with those two, though. They’d be, like, best friends, and then super pissed at each other. Joss got mad ’cause Lise wasn’t always responsible like her. And Lise kinda felt like Joss was babying her, trying to be her mom or something. So I don’t know if she would go to Joss.”
“How’s Jocelyn at keeping secrets?”
Kai swallows. “Good.” He folds his arms across his chest and stares down at his flip-flops as if they are worth serious scientific inquiry. “I mean, if that’s what Lise was looking for . . . Joss could definitely lie to the cops.”
“Yeah? Why do you say that?”
He exhales. “Because I’ve seen her do it.”
“When?”
His body turns jittery. “I don’t want to get her in trouble, okay? She was only trying to help me.”
“I’m not working with the police on this,” I remind him. “Not trying to stir up shit for you or Jocelyn, I promise. Just trying to figure out where Lise is, and give her mother some peace of mind.”
I wait for a moment. Kai kicks at a rock, not happy about the turn our conversation has taken, but not shutting me down, either. He wants to know where this girl is, too.
“After Lise went missing, the police came around school asking questions. Who we were with that night, what we were doing, if we saw her.”
“You told the police that you and Jocelyn were studying together.”
“We told them that. And, for maybe half an hour, we legit were. But Brayden came by the school at seven thirty, and I . . . I went off with him for a bit. He had these ’shrooms. And I never did them before, and I was stressing about this math test, and I thought . . . I don’t know, it would be fun.”
“So Jocelyn lied about being with you that night.”
“She was covering for me. If admin found out I was using on school grounds, I would be expelled. That would be it, no second chances. So she lied.”
“That’s quite a risk she took.”
“She cares about me.” Kai slumps against a palm tree. “She’s a pain in the ass, but she cares. Here I am, some total fuckup with a mom who’s gonna end up doing time sooner or later, and Joss is still here for me, putting herself on the line.” Kai presses his face to his hand, and I see now that he is crying yet again. “I should be a better boyfriend. I should just . . . appreciate her.”
I don’t mean to ruin his tender feelings for his girlfriend, but I can’t ignore the gaping hole in his selfless Jocelyn narrative. If Kai went off with Brayden at seven thirty, that’s three hours Jocelyn hasn’t accounted for. “You say she lied for you, Kai. But you might not be the only person she lied for that night.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you weren’t with Jocelyn, then who was?”
“No one. She was studying.”
“No,” I say, and it all makes sense now. “She wasn’t studying. She got a D on her math test the next day. Does that sound like she spent the night studying to you?”
“A D? Jocelyn?” His surprise could not be greater if I’d told him she’d appeared in a porno.
“That’s what her mom told me.”
“Well, if she wasn’t studying . . . what was she doing?”
“That’s a great question. Her mother says she got home at ten thirty that night. Jocelyn claims Lise wasn’t there when she got home, and from what I’ve heard, the police are assuming Lise never made it home at all.”
“Right. Elijah said he walked her home, but he didn’t. He killed her. And then he hitchhiked a ride home.” Kai sounds impatient. “I know all this.”
“Here’s the thing. Mrs. Nakagawa swears she heard Lise come home about half an hour before Jocelyn did.” I take a seat at a picnic table just off the path. “Now, granted, Mrs. Nakagawa didn’t actually see Lise. But she found her sweatshirt in their bedroom.”
Kai follows me to the picnic table but doesn’t sit down. “The sweatshirt Lise was wearing? She found that?”
I nod and let him chew that over. Back toward the playground, a woman strings up a clothing line between two trees and hangs a few wet garments. From her unkempt appearance, she’s either camping or living from her car. A difficult life, I think, but in this environment, not impossible.
“So what does it mean?” Kai demands. “If Lise made it home, what does that mean? You think Jocelyn ran into her that night? You think she’s been lying?”
“I think wherever Lise went that night, there’s a good chance Jocelyn knows about it. Maybe Jocelyn even helped her go.”
Kai holds his forehead as if trying to prevent his head from exploding. “But none of Lise’s clothes were missing. She couldn’t have run away without her clothes.”
“Maybe Jocelyn gave Lise some of her own clothes to throw people off.” Rae’s twin-swap theory flits briefly through my head. “If Lise wore Jocelyn’s clothes and styled her hair correctly, she might be able to walk around town passing for her sister without anyone being the wiser.”
“You’re wrong.” The idea that Lise and Jocelyn might’ve duped everyone, duped him, makes Kai visibly angry.
“How do you know I’m wrong?”
“First of all, Lise and Jocelyn did not share clothes. Ever.”
I give him a look. “That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got?”
“If Lise’s alive, then where is she?” he asks. “Where did she go?”
“I’m shooting in the dark here, but you guys did spend all that time around Wakea Ranch. It wouldn’t be a bad hideout, especially not if Elijah were in on it. He could bring her supplies until she figured out where to go next.” I drop the final bomb on him. “Somebody at Wakea Ranch has been sending up light signals at night. Are you aware of anyone else Elijah used those signals with?”
“No.” The blood drains from his face as he drops onto the bench beside me. “Fuck.” Kai hurls the word with previously unseen viciousness. “Why are you telling me this? This . . . this is really messing with my head.”
“Because we still have to answer the million-dollar question, don’t we, Kai? Why. Why would Lise want to leave so bad? What in her life was she running from?” Don’t say Victor, I think. Please.
“How would I know?” Kai stares at the ground. “If she had this big plan to sneak off, she sure didn’t tell me about it.” There’s no disguising the hurt in his voice. For the first time, I wonder if Kai’s feelings for Lise were something more than platonic. I could understand that. Long doses of Responsible Jocelyn might make a t
eenage boy secretly pine for a walk on the wild side.
“You were around Lise a lot,” I say carefully. “Maybe she said something. Maybe Jocelyn said something. Maybe you noticed something off, something about their family . . .”
“Of course their family is off! Mr. Nakagawa is screwing that crazy lady, and the rest of the family is in la-la land about it.” His hands are balled into tight white fists; there’s nowhere for his fury to go. “The guy has a fricking kid with this woman, and they’re all just pretending like it didn’t happen. And then Lise starts dating that bitch’s son? Yeah, something’s off!”
“What did Lise think about her dad and Naomi?”
“She and Jocelyn always said it was just gossip. That it was a story people made up because they couldn’t understand a man and a woman being friends.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“Of course I don’t believe that,” he says, disgusted. “Naomi got pregnant, didn’t she? We’re not talking about the Virgin Mary, here.”
“If Lise found proof about her dad and Naomi . . . would that have been upsetting? Enough for her to leave?”
Kai turns to look at me slowly. “Maybe,” he says. “Lise got in a lot of fights sticking up for her dad. If she knew he’d been playing them all this time . . . that would hurt.”
It’s a far more pleasant scenario than the one I’ve been entertaining. This feels like progress. “You’ve been really helpful, Kai,” I tell him. “Thank you. Just one last thing.” I’m still troubled by the girl’s conversation with Marvel. “Did you ever notice Lise hanging around with an older guy?”
“What do you mean ‘hanging around with’?”
“Hanging out, hooking up, whatever.”
Kai frowns. “There were some local guys she met at parties, maybe. I don’t know how old they were. And she was kinda into Brayden’s friend Frankie for a while.”
I raise my eyebrows at the name, a gesture Kai doesn’t like.
“That was months ago,” he says. “She wouldn’t have gone off with one of those guys, if that’s what you’re thinking.”