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say, then add a few more colorful descriptions.
    “Not everybody knows. Not everybody is a part of them.”
    “We have to do something.”
    “I’m doing all I can,” Newt says. “And this is it.”
    I look around at the basement.
    So you told me Jocelyn’s officially missing. Great. Fabulous. Thanks. A lot.
    “Rachel is gone too.”
    For a second I think he means she’s gone, like Jocelyn is gone. That someone killed Rachel.
    “She moved with her family.”
    “What?”
    Newt nods. “They have a way of making things like this happen.”
    “Things like what?”
    “People disappearing. People moving. People moving on.”
    I think of what Jared said about Uncle Robert and his mother. One disappeared and one “moved on.”
    “Jocelyn didn’t move. Do you get it?”
    “Don’t get angry at me. I hear you. But Rachel did move.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she knows too much and cares too much.”
    “She’s not the only one who cares.”
    “Caring is a dangerous thing around here,” he says.
    “That why you’re talking like a robot?”
    The guy with the messy hair and the face of a ten-year-old shoots me a glance that I actually admire. It’s a look that’s the equivalent of a curse word.
    “There are reasons why I remain quiet.”
    I think of the scars he has on the outside. I wonder if he carries just as many on the inside.
    “So, what? Just like that? Rachel is gone?”
    “Just like that. It’s that easy.”
    “She didn’t say good-bye.”
    “She couldn’t.”
    Now I know why Poe was so angry.
    But I had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t my fault.
    “Do you know where she is?”
    “No.”
    “But why then—I was there—I saw it happen. I was there, Newt. I saw them. I saw what they did. Yet they let me go.”
    “I know.”
    “That doesn’t make sense. Why make Rachel and her family move? What about me? What about my mother?”
    “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
    I think of telling him about Jared. But Jared told me not to tell another person.
    Don’t trust anybody, Chris.
    There’s no need to tell Newt about Jared.
    “What are we supposed to do?” I ask him.
    “There’s no ‘we,’” he says. “I’m not in this equation.”
    “Then what am I supposed to do?”
    “If I were you, I’d get as far away from this place as I could.”

10. Take a Deep Breath
     
    In town, in the heart of this beating Zombieville, after Newt and his chauffeuring grandfather drop me off in front of the restaurant where Mom works, I still think about doing it. I can see the door just down the street, the one with the sign that says Sheriff on it, and I contemplate going through it.
    Last time I went in there, one of the sheriff’s deputies threatened me.
    Maybe Sheriff Wells will be there now. Maybe his invitation to contact him if anything “funny” happens is still applicable.
    Yeah, a lot of funny things have happened, Sheriff. A lot.
    I still have his business card. I still have his cell phone number.
    I also would bet a hundred bucks he knows more than I do and that sweet Southern attitude is nothing more than cologne doused to cover up the stench.
    It’s freezing outside, and that’s what makes up my mind.
    When I go inside Brennan’s Grill and Tavern, I find things a lot more warm and cozy. Not just for me, but for Mom and the guy she’s talking to at the end of the bar.
    Is that what a hostess does?
    Then I see her raise her glass, and I assume she’s off the clock or else this place really has a good benefits plan. A couple coming out of the restaurant partially blocks my view, making me invisible for the moment. I think what a cool concept, to really be invisible.
    Considering the fact that she’s drinking it up without a word from me, I’m already halfway there.
    I slip out the door and back into the cold.
    It’s already dark out, even though it’s just around six. I have no idea what the forecast is except for doom and gloom.
    I pause and glance down the sidewalk at the