Teaser. Burt Weissbourd

stoke the fire. This was between them.

      “Okay. Look, I talked with your advisor about Aaron and Maisie. I told him about Star. I had to. I’m worried about them.”

      “Jesus, mom. Are you crazy? I have a life you know.”

      “I made them promise to keep it—”

      “Them? There’s more than one?” Will asked, agitated.

      “Well, he called Toby in. We got into it.” She shrugged, no big deal, hoping to reassure him.

      Will just stared at her, then he stepped back, cracking his knuckles, one after another.

      “I had to, Will. I’m sorry if it makes things hard for you.” She watched him turn away.

      Will faced the fireplace. Finally he turned his head just enough to see her. “Just because you know every hard case on the street doesn’t mean that everyone on the street is like that.”

      “You’re right.” She tried to explain, “But you don’t take chances with your son and his friends.”

      He turned to face her. “Is that up to you? Why can’t you leave things alone? Why do you have to mess things up for me? You know I’m seventeen, and I do just fine without you. Okay? Okay?” Will slammed the door on his way out.

      Her shoulders sagged. She got a log to put on the fire.

      Abe watched her stew. Billy was right, he reflected, and so was she. There was a fine line between too fearful and streetwise. It was hard to find that line at Olympic, harder still to walk it. It was their job to help him do that anyway.

      She looked at him, leaning against the mantel, watching her. “So?” she eventually asked.

      He looked into their fire, then back at her. “I’d say he’ll be mad for about a day then carefully sort it out.” His brow furrowed until his eyebrows almost touched in a “V.” “He’ll get it, too, even if he doesn’t like it.”

      Corey poked at the fire, idly now. “Okay, my way of solving problems is maybe one-of-a-kind and hard for a teenager to understand. I get that. But I’m trying to get this right.”

      He stepped beside her, close. “You are getting it right.”

      Nightime. Three things left to do. Teaser watched the girl. Right there. Trolling for tricks on Aurora. He knew he’d find her. Before anyone else even looked. His thin lips turned up. He cruised by again, the royal blue Mustang catching her eye. He slowed, opened the door. She came right in. When he turned, she gasped, reached for the door. He held her hand, firm. She made little noises. His stomach was getting hot. He could feel Loki, rising. Teaser worked to keep him down. He took out his buck knife, Little Buck, and pressed it to her thigh, as he put a finger to his lips.

      “Teaser?” the girl asked, quieted.

      “Loki,” he whispered.

      She started crying when Little Buck made the thin red line. Follow the plan, he reminded himself. Lucky for her he was the most careful man in the world.

      CHAPTER SIX

      Corey got to The Ave before 9:00 a.m. The fall air was blowing cool, moving toward cold. Even so, University Way was already humming. Kids, including homeless and transient teens, hung out in front of ice cream parlors, fast food stops, clothing stores, even the old movie theater. Shopkeepers were opening up, sweeping away leftovers from last night’s street life.

      Corey was looking for Johnny Boy. This fall, JB’s “squat” was in an abandoned garage, not far from the Ave. Johnny Boy was a student of housing options for street people. He knew the ins and outs of every youth center, every shelter—what time you had to show up, where they had the best food, what nights, and so on.