The Missing

by Melanie Florence

  “Hey, sis. My sister’s here. I’ve gotta run. Yeah. See you later.” He hung up his phone and stood up, opening his arms wide. “Get over here, kid.” I stepped in for a hug.

  “So who was that? And please don’t tell me it was Mindi.” I shuddered dramatically. Kiowa laughed.

  “No, it most definitely was not Mindi. Just a buddy from school.”

  “But . . .” My curiosity was getting the better of me. It didn’t sound like he was talking to a buddy to me, but Kiowa cut me off quickly.

  “So how was school? Anything new and exciting happening in suburbia?” he asked.

  “Well, a girl in my grade went missing over the weekend,” I told him, sitting down in one of the deck chairs and sliding my shoes off so I could tuck my feet underneath me.

  Kiowa frowned. “I’m sorry, Feather. I heard about that. It was Carli, right?”

  “Yeah. I still can’t believe she’s missing. She’s Jake’s lab partner this year so he’s shook up too. We know her boyfriend, Ben, pretty well. How did you hear about it?”

  He shrugged and looked away. “When I was out earlier, I overheard some people talking about it. So do they have any idea what happened to her?”

  I shrugged. “From what Jake heard, the cops aren’t too interested in a missing Indian girl. She sometimes takes a few days away from her foster home when it gets to be too loud or too much. They don’t believe she’s really missing and won’t take it seriously. I don’t know.” I shook my head. “It’s infuriating.”

  Kiowa nodded. “Yeah. I was just telling . . . Mom . . . that she should be careful. Especially down by the Red. It’s gotten kind of sketchy down there lately. You need to be careful too, Feather. Don’t go down there alone, okay?”

  “I don’t hang out down there, Kiowa. But I’ll be careful.” I settled back onto my chair and reached for his iced tea. I took a long gulp. “So how’s school?”

  Chapter 3

  Home

  Kiowa leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on the table beside me. I shoved them off immediately.

  “Hey!” he laughed. “School’s fine. We’ve been talking about the Body Farm in pathology class.”

  “The what?” I asked.

  “It’s a research facility in Knoxville where they study the process of decomposition on the human body under different conditions.”

  “What! Why? That’s disgusting!” I shuddered.

  “To help solve murders. It’s fascinating.”

  “It’s repulsive,” I told him.

  “But it’s . . .”

  “Nope!” I interrupted. “Not interested. Come on.” I smacked him on the leg. “Come help me with dinner.”

  I didn’t get how my brilliant brother could be so fascinated by the thought of studying rotting corpses. It was bad enough listening to him go on and on about whatever dead thing they happened to be dissecting in class, which he took pictures of in far too much detail. It was disturbing. I smacked him again.

  Kiowa hauled himself up and followed me into the kitchen where he started to bang pots and pans together while doing absolutely nothing to help. At least he distracted me from Carli’s disappearance with his non-stop monologue about what he was dissecting in anatomy. I threw the corn in the boiling water while he rambled on about holding a heart.

  In typical “mom” fashion, mine blew in the door at exactly 5:30, calling my name before she was even inside. She threw her purse, missing the table entirely.

  “Feather!” she shriek-yelled at me.

  “In here,” I called back from the kitchen where Kiowa and I were getting dinner ready.

  My mother, all five feet and two inches of her, nearly sent me to the floor with a hug that felt like a linebacker had hit me in the solar plexus.

  “Hi, Mom,” I patted her on the back. “Ki’s home.” I raised my eyebrows at him over my mom’s head.

  “Are you okay, honey?” my mom asked. “I heard about Carli. God, I can’t believe this is happening. That poor girl.” She looked over my shoulder. “Hi, Kiowa.”

  “Hi, Mom.” He waved at her as she clung to me.

  “Listen, Feather,” she said as she held me at arm’s length, studying my face. “Aboriginal women are four times more likely to be murdered than non-Aboriginal women.”

  My mom was the head of marketing for a major hotel chain. She was big on throwing numbers at me but this one freaked me out.

  “Are you serious?” I asked her.

  “That can’t be right, Mom,” Kiowa called out, carrying a platter of chicken into the dining room.

  “It is right. And you really need to be careful, Feather,” she said.

  “I’m always careful, Mom.”

  “You should be careful too, you know, Mom,” Kiowa interjected. I looked over at him, then at my mother.

  Small as she was, it had never occurred to me that she might be in any danger. My father left us before I was born, so all I had ever known was that my mom could handle anything. She had worked hard to give us a good home while putting herself through school, and then she worked her way up through the hotel ranks. My mom was the strongest woman I knew. She always worried about me but rarely worried about herself. I hadn’t considered the danger she might be in.

  “Is that really true?” I asked, my heart suddenly beating faster as I thought about the nights she worked late and walked to her car in a dark parking lot by herself. “Four times more likely?”

  She picked up the bowl of potatoes while I grabbed the corn and followed Kiowa to the table. She pulled out her chair and settled into it with a sigh.

  “Yes. Sadly, it is.” She helped herself to a chicken breast. “You really do need to be careful, okay?”

  I nodded and she smiled at Kiowa.

  “You should have told me you were coming home, Ki! How long are you staying?” she asked. “I’ve got a break before the next term starts,” he told her. “I put it on the calendar for you.” He gestured towards the kitchen.

  “Right. I forgot. ” she told him.

  “Which is why you have the calendar, Mom.” He smiled at her and she instantly smiled back. She never could resist her little boy.

  “Okay, okay. More time for you to spend with your old mom,” she said.

  “As long as my mom is careful out there too,” he told her, pointedly. “And you’re not old.” I nodded in agreement, my mouth full of potatoes and corn.

  “Always,” she replied, smiling. She glanced over at me. “I’m sure they’ll find Carli, sweetie.”

  “I hope so,” I said, helping myself to another piece of chicken.

  She smiled softly, then turned to my brother again.

  “So tell me about your classes, Kiowa.”

  * * *

  Normally I love driving. Kiowa left me his old car when he started university, and he tricked it out with an awesome sound system for my birthday. Sometimes I just cruised around and listened to music. Usually it relaxed me but I was edgy tonight. Warnings from your boyfriend, brother and mom will do that to you.

  The light turned red and I pulled to a stop, tapping my fingers on the dashboard to the music while I waited. Mia’s house was about five minutes away, but as the light turned green, I somehow found myself turning towards the riverfront. It wasn’t a place where I hung out very often but I had taken Mia some clothes down there once when she was avoiding going home for a day or two. I went to the rec centre with her to keep her company once or twice. But that was pretty much the extent of my experience at the river at night.

  During the day, the Riverwalk was full of tourists and people visiting The Forks. It was a vastly different world at night. Just steps from The Forks was an area you didn’t want to find yourself in at night. But some girls, like Mia and Carli, hung out there with absolutely no fear. It was a local hangout for kids who couldn’t get a bed at t
he rec centre for the night or who just wanted to hang out and escape their lives for a little while. I never got the appeal. Then again, I was lucky. Sure, a single mother had raised me, but she loved us more than life itself. As uncool as it may sound, I had always hoped to be just like her when I grew up. She was strong, confident and perfectly happy with herself. She didn’t need a man to fill some void in her life like Mia’s mom. My mom, brother and I were always close. We were an anomaly. Especially in our neighbourhood where alcoholism and domestic violence were much more common than a happy, stable family.

  Carli hadn’t seen either of her parents for years. She had been shuttled from one foster home to the next for the past ten years, while her mother did time for peddling meth. Not one was a real home, but at least her current foster mom was cool and seemed to actually care. She used to tell me stories of the people who were supposed to take care of her. She was kicked out of her last foster home when the man of the house tried to get into her bed in the middle of the night. Carli had pulled a knife on him.

  Mia’s family wasn’t much better. Her dad died of a drug overdose years ago. Mia was the one who had found him. Her mother mostly ignored her and paraded man after useless man through their lives until she settled for Leonard. Let’s just say Leonard wasn’t really father material.

  The closer I got to the river, the sketchier it looked. Women wore little more than the makeup on their faces, which did nothing to disguise how strung out they were. They stood around and called out to one another, leaning against anything they could find to hold themselves up. An angry-looking man who had to be at least six foot seven walked across the street in front of me and flipped me off. I slammed on the brakes to keep from hitting him, sure he’d leave a dent in my hood and then walk away unscathed. I watched him reach the opposite sidewalk, his steroid-enhanced muscles straining against his black T-shirt.

  Shaking my head, I stepped on the gas as the hookers cackled on their corner. I cruised closer to the rec centre. I found myself glancing at the group of kids huddled outside, smoking and yelling obscenities at one another. At least three-quarters of them were Indigenous. Not surprising in this neighbourhood.

  My heart raced as I caught a glimpse of a girl dressed all in black, her long hair braided down her back. Carli. I hit the brakes, and as the car behind me honked wildly, the kids turned around to stare. Then I saw the girl who was definitely not Carli. She laughed as the person behind me honked again.

  What was I doing down here? I had hoped against hope that Carli was out here somewhere, waiting for someone to find her. Maybe someone had jacked her phone or something so she couldn’t call Ben and no one could reach her? My cell dinged with a text and I jumped. That was kind of creepy. I glanced down at my phone, sitting on the passenger seat. Mia. I was supposed to meet her fifteen minutes ago. I looked over at the kids once more. They dressed mostly in black, just like Carli and Mia usually dressed. Then I turned the steering wheel and headed away from the waterfront.

  Chapter 4

  Four and Twenty Blackbirds

  They were all the same. A tribe of discontented youth milling around in their black clothes like a shambling group of the undead. Or a flock of crows. Or the unlucky blackbirds from that old song his mother used to sing to him.

  Are you so unhappy with your sad little lives that you’re willing to risk losing them, little blackbirds?

  Life is short, he ruminated. His gaze rested on one girl in particular. She was different from the rest of them.

  Some lives are shorter than others are, he thought.

  Chapter 5

  Daddy Issues

  “I am so sorry!” I called out as soon as Mia answered her door. She rolled her eyes at me and stood aside to let me in.

  “Where the hell were you?” she asked, shoving me casually with her shoulder as I walked past her.

  “I went for a drive.”

  Mia looked at me quizzically. There’s a reason we’ve been best friends for years. We balance each other and we can pretty much read each other’s minds. She always knows when not to push and this was obviously one of those times. I didn’t mind telling her about my jaunt down to the river but not while standing just inside her front door where anyone could hear us. She nodded but didn’t say another word about it as I walked into the kitchen.

  “So, Leonard’s home,” she whispered, rolling her eyes again. “He’s snoring on the couch, so hopefully we can get into my room without waking him up.” Leonard was a nasty drunk who, instead of getting angry when he drank, got friendly. Too friendly. Inappropriately friendly. Especially when Mia’s mom was at work. Her mom worked two jobs to support Mia and Leonard: one cleaning rooms at a motel and one slinging drinks at a dive bar. She was rarely home. When she was, she didn’t take much notice of her daughter.

  I tiptoed over to the fridge and grabbed a couple of Diet Cokes while Mia plucked a bag of barbeque chips out of the cupboard.

  “Come on,” I stage-whispered to her, heading towards the kitchen door on my toes, humming the “Pink Panther” theme song. Mia frowned.

  “I think we have M&M’s somewhere. Hang on.” She opened a cupboard and rustled around inside.

  “Shhh!” I cautioned, glancing towards the living room.

  “Can you check that one?” She gestured towards another cupboard, her hands still deep in her own. “Where are they?”

  I was gazing into a cupboard full of tea, coffee and, inexplicably, a bag of fist-sized marshmallows.

  “What would you even use these for?” I asked Mia, holding them up. She stifled a giggle.

  “I thought they’d make kick-ass s’mores.”

  “But where would you make s’mores?” I asked her. She was giggling louder now and it was contagious.

  “I don’t know! I just figured they’d be good to have. Just in case,” she snorted.

  “In case we ever went camping?” I asked, doubling over with laughter. “Hey, I know! Maybe we can put our hunting skills to use on that camping trip!”

  Mia stood on her toes, trying to see the top shelf. We were still laughing and didn’t hear her creepy stepdad ooze his way into the kitchen.

  “Hey, ladies,” he slurred. Mia turned quickly, her eyes wary. He was unsteady but it looked to me as if he was playing it up. Sure enough, he took a step towards Mia and then clumsily fake-tripped into her, his hand brushing against her breast. Mia pulled away and I felt my face burning.

  “Hey, Leonard!” I called out, waving my hand in the air like an idiot, trying to distract him from Mia. “How’s the job hunt going?” He looked away from Mia’s chest and focused on me.

  “I’m holding out for a management position.” I started to laugh but then realized he was being serious. Wow. I’m sure his resumé consisted entirely of fry cook positions and gas station attendant jobs. He burped loudly and leaned in towards Mia. “At least I get to hang out with my girl.” He leered, looking down into Mia’s cleavage. She crossed her arms and stepped away from him.

  “We’re going to go study. Dinner is in the crockpot.” She stepped around him and reached for my arm. We were close to a getaway when he reached out and cupped her ass. Mia jumped and I yelled before I could stop myself.

  “Hey!” I shouted, stepping towards him and pushing Mia behind me. “Don’t do that!”

  This time he did laugh. “Oh, she doesn’t mind, do you, Mia?” he asked, reaching around me and slapping her butt hard.

  “Of course she does!”

  Mia grabbed my arm and pulled me past Leonard. I glared at his smug face and considered smacking the smirk off it. Mia got me out of the kitchen and dragged me into her bedroom, closing the door behind us and locking it with a snap.

  “That’s new,” I nodded towards the lock.

  “Yeah, well . . . peace of mind. You know?” I did.

  I cleared my throat. “So, umm, Leonard? He’s getting pretty
, ummm . . . ?” Mia was like a sister to me but there’s no easy way to bring up what a perv your best friend’s stepdad is.

  “Friendly?” she asked, one eyebrow raised. “Handsy? How about disgustingly effing gropey?”

  “About that . . .“ I smiled humourlessly at her. “He’s getting a lot worse.”

  “Oh, you think?” she asked, a flash of anger crossing her face.

  “You need to talk to your mom, Mia.”

  She sighed heavily and sat down on her bed. “I know, Feather. I’ve tried. But how do you tell your mom that her husband won’t keep his hands off you? He never does it in front of her. He’s a complete angel when she’s around, which sadly, is almost never.”

  “She really has no idea?” I asked. How could she possibly miss the way he stared at Mia? It was disgusting. As if she was something the repulsive reptile wanted to devour. My skin was crawling at the thought. Poor Mia was stuck in the house with him. If her mother was the buffer between them, she was doing a horrible job.

  “Nope. She thinks he’s Mr. Wonderful. If Mr. Wonderful was unemployed and drank all her money away. It’s fine, Feather. I can handle him.”

  “Mia! I just watched him grab your ass and brush against your chest like it was normal. What’s he going to do next? Obviously you’re worried if you put a lock on your door to keep him out.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes, so I knew I had hit the nail on the head. “He hasn’t . . . done anything else, has he?” I blurted out.

  “No! Of course not!” Her face was beet red.

  “You have to tell your mom before he tries to, Mia. It’ll be hard for her to hear, but you’re her daughter. It’s her job to protect you.”

  “Yeah.” She didn’t look convinced.

  “Promise me you’ll talk to her,” I pleaded with her. I hated the idea that she had to stay in the same house with Leonard and his wandering hands.