Read Online Spotted Dog Last Seen by Jessica Scott Kerrin - Free Book Online Page B

or sweating or both, having told the story to the very end. I folded my napkin and glanced at Creelman.
    Creelman had abandoned his meal and was staring intently out the window toward the cemetery, as if he had forgotten that I was even there. He slowly drummed his fingers on the table, balling up a napkin in his other hand.
    â€œNeed a top-up?” the waitress asked when she came by with a pot of coffee.
    Creelman didn’t seem to hear her. He continued to stare in the direction of the cemetery, lost in his own thoughts.
    She hesitated, glanced at me, then filled his cup.
    â€œGive him a minute,” she said softly to me. “He always comes back.”
    Where does he go, I wanted to ask.
    It was then that I was certain he had a secret, too.
    We sat for several more minutes like that, him staring out the window at the cemetery, me wondering if I would ever get a good night’s sleep again.
    â€œDo you recall anything else?” Creelman finally asked when the waitress came by with the bill.
    I thought back and quietly poked around my mind’s garage, its door still wide open to passersby. Were there any details left to discover? Then it came to me.
    â€œI remember going to bed early the night of the accident. It was still light out. I could hear police officers talking to my parents in the living room, but I couldn’t make out their words. The fan in my room blew hot sticky air as I tossed and tossed. And then I woke up in the middle of the night. I crept out of my bedroom and unlocked the front door. It was eerie dark, but still warm. And quiet. I walked across our front yard to the street. Then I walked up and down the street under the burning lampposts that collected moths and hummed.”
    â€œWhy do you think you did that?” Creelman asked.
    â€œI was looking for my friend. I walked and walked and only stopped when I came across the exact spot where he was hit.”
    â€œHow did you know?”
    â€œThe bloodstain.”
    Creelman rubbed his face and took another drink of coffee.
    I thought back some more.
    â€œIt rained hard the next day, but the bloodstain never went away. Every time I came out of our house, I spotted it, and it froze me in my tracks. I finally said something to my mom, but she told me that she couldn’t see anything. I led her by the hand to the spot. I knelt right beside the stain and pointed. ‘Look,’ I said. ‘It’s right here.’”
    â€œShe just sadly shook her head.
    â€œâ€˜You’ll be okay’ was all she would say every time I brought it up. After a while, I didn’t talk about the stain, but I wouldn’t go out the front door anymore. I would only go in and out of the house through the back door and down the alley. I never played in the front yard again.”
    â€œAnd then what happened?” Creelman asked.
    â€œWe moved away,” I said. “We moved here for a fresh start.”
    Creelman set down his mug. He took his time with his next question.
    â€œDerek. If you went back there now, to the street where the accident happened, what do you think you’d see?”
    â€œThe bloodstain. It’s still there. I’m sure of it.”

Six
    _____
    Rubbings
    WHEN I MET PASCAL and Merrilee the next week at the cemetery, I decided that I wouldn’t mention my lunch with Creelman. They would be full of questions, and because Creelman and I talked mostly about the accident, there wasn’t much to report other than that. Besides, my nightmares had become a regular event, and I was really tired of thinking about it.
    â€œI’ve asked everyone I know about Trevor Tower,” Pascal said as soon as I arrived. “Nobody’s heard of him.”
    â€œIt’s all very strange,” Merrilee agreed, crossing her arms in her red plastic bunnies-and-carrots jacket.
    â€œA dead end,” I added, enjoying saying it at the cemetery gate.
    â€œYou wish!” Merrilee