Rivers to Blood by Michael Lister Page A

again.”
    “Okay?” Sean said. “So will you leave us the fuck alone now?”
    Cody had yet to utter a sound or look me in the eye.
    I stared at him.
    After a few moments of him refusing to look at me, I shook my head and walked back over to Todd and Shane’s table.
    “What’s wrong with him?” Shane said.
    I looked back at the boys who were now dropping their napkins on the table, preparing to leave.
    “No, him,” he said, nodding over at Sandy. “Somethin’ just ain’t right with him.”
    That was another difference. Shane did most of the talking.
    I followed his gaze over to Sandy, who had stood up and was dropping a few bills on the counter. He leaned over slightly as if from an unseen weight pressing down on him, and moved slowly like someone terminally ill or deeply depressed.
    “Not a team player,” Todd added.
    “Whatta you think it is?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
    “Told you,” Todd said. “He’s a quitter.”
    “Hell if I know,” Shane said. “Don’t know that much about women.”
    “I’ve heard that,” I said.
    Todd laughed.
    I looked back at Shane.
    “He quit SAR?”
    He nodded.
    “Any idea why?”
    He shook his head.
    “Still no sign of the inmate?” I asked.
    He frowned and shook his head, then rubbed his hand across his military haircut. “We’ll get him.”
    Todd nodded. “Hopefully before he kills anybody else.”
    “You think Jensen killed the man at the river?” I asked.
    He nodded. “And he’s wearing his clothes right now trying to hitch a ride somewhere.”
    “Or hiding out until things die down,” Shane said, “and then gonna hop a ride outta here.”
    That gave me an idea, and I made a mental note to talk to Dad about it.
    After a few more forced comments our conversation dwindled and I made my way to my booth in the back. As I sat down Cody and his posse stood up and slowly walked out of the diner without paying, a couple of them glaring at me as they did.
    Carla said something to Cody but he kept walking.
    Cody and his friends reminded me of Todd and Shane and so many other guys around here—especially those in law enforcement—and I wondered what it was about small Southern towns that turned out misogynistic young men with such regularity and proficiency. Equally confounding were the mothers who raised such sons and the young women who were attracted to them.
    “I’m so worried about him,” Carla said.
    I had been staring at the door, thinking, and didn’t realize she was standing beside me. I looked up at her and gave her a weak smile.
    “I’m worried about you,” I said.
    “He’s usually very good to me,” she said. “Something happened. Last week he was gone for three days—just disappeared. Nobody knew where he was—including his dad. When he showed up again, he wouldn’t say where’d he’d been or what he’d been doing, and he’s so different now. Something happened.”
    “Any idea what?” I asked.
    She thought about it for a minute, pursing her lips, then shook her head. “Would you talk to him?”
    “Me?”
    “Yeah. You’re so good at––”
    “He’s not a fan and it’ll probably make things worse, but if you want me to …”
    “It’s hard to imagine it being any worse.”
    “At what point will you walk away?” I asked.
    She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    I shook my head. “I know how––”
    The bell above the door sounded and we both turned to see Anna walk in.
    “Tell you what,” Carla said. “I’ll walk away from Cody when you walk away from her.”

Chapter Twenty-one
    C arla had compared her two-month relationship with her boyfriend to my over two-decade obsession with Anna. It was surprisingly teenage girlish of her, but I understood what she meant. The hopeless hope love inspires isn’t easy to surrender even after two minutes.
    Would I ever be able to walk away from Anna? Would I ever be free of the notion that the fates would finally relent and look with favor on us? Probably not, as long as