Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan

up finding and saving Chloe, but we would just have to work around that. I’d just have to be a really good liar.
    My mom was still holding a hand out to me. Palm out, like a crossing guard warning me not to walk. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, Sheila. Finn’s here now. We’re going to come right back to the house.”
    “We’re not going right to the house, Mom.” I’d started arguing before she had the phone totally closed. But the look on her face turned my volume down a notch. I saidmore quietly, “We have to go to the police station.” My mother maneuvered the car out of the lot and turned toward home.
    “Finn—is this boy a friend of yours and Chloe’s? Were the two of them seeing each other?”
    “Kind of. I don’t know.”
    “Kind of seeing each other?”
    “Well, not really. I know she liked him and he liked her. But they weren’t, like, dating.”
    “This didn’t seem important to mention before?”
    “Dean West? No. He’s Stuttering Dean. He wouldn’t hurt anyone. We have to go to the police station.”
    “And tell them what, Finn?”
    “That this is a mistake. That Dean is a good person.” I started crying then. “He bakes muffins and he’s shy and he’s just starting to be a little less shy and he probably can’t even explain it to them.” I was losing it. “They’re not going to understand him. He’s not going to be able to tell them…”
    My mom looked over at me and slowed the car down. “We need to let the police do their job. I’m sure that they have their reasons for asking this boy questions. It’s not our place to interfere with this. That’s not going to help anyone.”
    “But they’re talking about these pic—these pictures.” I was stammering like Dean. “They think Dean t-t-tore up Chloe’s pic-picture, but that was us.”
    “That was who?”
    “Me and Chloe.”
    “Why would you and Chloe tear up her picture?”
    “It was a puzzle. We gave him different pieces until he could tell it was Chloe.”
    “ What was Chloe?”
    “The person leaving him notes.”
    “Chloe left this boy notes?”
    “We left him notes. We did it together.”
    “Finn.” My mom had her disappointed-in-me voice on. “You left this boy notes? I thought you two knew better than to play jokes like that on people.”
    “It was a project—not a joke.”
    “Oh, Finn. You girls. You have no idea how cruel—”
    “No, Mom—we weren’t making fun of him.”
    “Chloe liked this boy? Did you like this boy?” My mom sounded almost hopeful.
    “He seemed like someone we’d want to know.”
    My mom sighed. It was a long-suffering sigh, like she couldn’t imagine how she ended up with such a moronic daughter. “Finn, there are only eighty students in your class. How could you not know a boy in your own grade? Even if he doesn’t talk.”
    “He does talk.”
    “Well, then let him speak up for himself now. I don’t know what you and Chloe were thinking. Honestly, Ihad hoped you were kinder girls than to tease people like that.”
    We pulled into the drive, but she stopped the car at the foot of it. “I need to go in and sit with Sheila. I think you should go up to your room and start on your homework.”
    “We haven’t done anything in class since—” I stopped rather than say since Chloe disappeared .
    “I’ll tell Sheila how hard today has been on you.” My mother blew her bangs out of her eyes. She looked older. I don’t know if it was just that she didn’t have on makeup, but her eyes looked more worn around the corners. “I know that several people, including your father, have asked you if Chloe has been dating anyone. I find it very surprising that you never thought to mention Dean West. If you don’t have a lot of studying to do, please take some time and consider that.”
    “She wasn’t dating Dean.”
    “Whatever was going on…I hope that you will positively rack your brain to come up with some details. For Chloe’s sake. For Dean’s sake. For