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PROLOGUE

It was my mother who took me to the police station

The officers had wanted to drive me in the back of their squad car, but she told the her te in the kitchen, flanked by two huge policemen Myas they told her why they were there and what they wanted to talk to , but then her face shifted to fear as she looked at ht at that moment

And, whilein the quiet ferocity of her voice and the strength of her posture caused both of those huge policemen to take a step back froer seat besidenuh the town

It slowed as we reached the old playground

“Don’t look,” my mother told me

But I did I saw the cordons that had been put in place The officers lining the street, their faces gri the roadside, their lights rotating silently in the late afternoon sun And I saw the old jungle gyray before, but right now I could see it was patterned in red It all seemed so quiet and solemn, the atmosphere almost reverential

And then the car ahead of us came to a stop

The officers were ood look at a scene they were certain I was responsible for

You have to do so about Charlie

It was a thought I’d had a great deal in theup to that day, and I still reht I was fifteen years old, and it wasn’t fair Back then, it felt like my entire life was constrained and controlled by the adults around me, and yet none of the in the middle of the yard Or else they had decided it was easier to leave it alone—that the grass it was poisoning didn’t matter

It should not have been left to me to deal with Charlie

I understand that now

And yet, as I sat in the car right then, the guilt they wanted me to feel overwhelh the dusty streets, squinting against the sun and sweating in the siround My oldest friend A sure in the distance, perched aardly on the jungle gym And while it had been weeks by then since he and I had spoken, I had known full hat he was doing That he aiting there for Charlie and Billy

A number of the officers at the scene turned to look at us, and for a moment I felt trapped in a pocket of absolute silence Stared at and judged

Then I flinched as a sudden noise filled the air

It tookon the car horn The blaring volu—a scream at a funeral—but when I looked at her I saw aze directed furiously at the police car ahead She kept her hand pressed down, and the sound continued, echoing around the town

Five seconds

“Mom”

Ten seconds

“Mom”

Then the police car in front of us began ain My mother lifted her hand from the horn and the world fell quiet When she turned to me, her expression was soh ht of it for me as much as she could

Because I was her son, and she was going to look after me