Someone Like You by Kathryn Shay Page A

out his cell and punching in numbers.
    “This is Dylan Kane, principal of Crystal Corners High School. I need to report a situation in the home of one of my students.”
    He was probably calling Child Protective Services, though most likely they couldn’t do anything because Matt was eighteen. Nick tuned out the conversation and focused instead on what had just happened in Dylan’s office. Nick had wanted to deck the mayor, who’d been so careless with his son. How on earth could a man treat his kid like that?
    Dylan clicked off and keyed in another number. “Hi, honey, it’s me. I’m sorry I reached your voice mail. We have an issue with a student at the high school. You need to find Brie as soon as you’re free. She’s involved and she isn’t doing well.”
    At the mention of Brie’s name, Nick gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white. No, he wouldn’t think about her. He wouldn’t.
    After Dylan clicked off, he was silent. Then he asked, “Do you want to talk about Brie? I know something’s going on between you two.”
    “No,” Nick said, “I don’t want to talk about her. Or see her. Ever again.”
    o0o
    Brie went home. She didn’t know what else to do. She was too upset to teach her classes so she sat on her glassed-in porch, phone in hand, hoping Dylan would call her when they found Matt. When they found Matt in time. Because she hadn’t contacted anybody, she was surprised when Annie knocked on the back door and stepped inside.
    “Brie, are you all right?”
    For a moment, Brie was confused.  When realization hit her, she felt her mouth go dry. “Oh, my God. Oh, no! Did Dylan call you to tell me?”
    “Tell you what?”
    “That he’s dead?”
    “Dead? Who would be dead?” Annie sat down and took Brie’s hands. “Dylan called but didn’t leave details. Tell me what happened.”
    “I found something out about Matt Keller this morning. And Nick knew.” She related the awful details. “Then the mayor came to school.” And last, “Nick wouldn’t let me go with them.”
    When she finished, Annie’s expression was sympathetic. “I’m so sorry. But I don’t understand. Why couldn’t you go with them to find Matt?”
    It was then that Brie burst into tears.
    o0o
    “There it is.” They’d been on the road an hour, gotten lost and had to call the mayor’s office to get better directions. But up ahead lay a log cabin, out in the woods, isolated and…eerie. Please God, don’t let it be too late, Nick prayed . Don’t let a mistake I might have made hurt Matt.
    Nick parked behind Matt’s car and they approached on foot. Before they reached the cabin, they heard a gunshot crack the silence. Both he and Dylan started running.
    The front door was locked. Nick banged hard on the heavy wood. “Matt, open up.” Please be alive to open it. Please.
    Dylan said, “Keep trying. I’m going around back to see if we can get in that way.”
    Nick pounded and called to Matt, pounded and called. Then he thought, Fuck it , lifted his leg, and tried to bash the door in. Nothing but pain shooting up his shin. He was ready to erupt when he heard shattering glass out back.
    Racing around the side of the cabin, he found Dylan had broken a window and intended to climb through. Wordlessly, Nick helped hoist him up then waited until Dylan opened the back door.
    They entered the front room quietly and stopped short.
    They’d found Matt.
    o0o
    “Why don’t they call?”
    “They will as soon as they have news.” Annie sipped her tea and stared out at the lake from where she stood by the door.  “Oh, dear, oh, Brie, the police are at Nick’s house.”
    “Police?”
    “They’re nosing around, looking in the back windows.”
    Brie bolted off the couch and hurried outside. She crossed the deck and yard to Nick’s house. Police uniforms stood out starkly in the bright light of afternoon and the sun glinted off their badges. “Ma’am,” one officer said. “Do you happen to know