Free All Good Deeds by Stacy Green Page A

toward me.
    I stepped out of the stranger’s reach. “Excuse me.”
    The janitor said nothing, looking at me with such hate I wanted to run. I hurried outside, my skin burning from nerves and the heavy sensation of being watched.
    My throat felt swollen, caked with anxiety. Students began to trickle out, and their voices were muted, as if I’d thrown a thick towel over them. I didn’t know the janitor. I’d remember that face. But he thought he knew me.
    More students burst happily out of the doors as the bell rang. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. After Kelly heard about the older girls fibbing, she’d scoured the school website in the hopes of finding a picture of one of them. Turned out Josie was quite the actress and had the lead in the fourth-grade play last year. Her picture was front and center on the fine arts page. Now I waited for her to exit.
    She trailed out with the last group of students, looking tired and sad. She walked alone.
    “Josie?”
    The girl stopped and eyed me suspiciously. “Yeah.”
    I quickly showed her my badge. “I’m helping Jenna Richardson look for Kailey, and I have some questions.”
    Josie’s eyes flooded with tears. “I already told the detective I was sorry. He yelled enough.”
    “I’m not here to scold you. We all make mistakes.”
    “I’m not supposed to go with anyone.”
    “Of course you aren’t.” I stepped out of the way of the milling kids and settled near the bushes adorning the school’s front. “We can talk right here. I just have a few questions.”
    “Okay.” Josie came close enough to hear but maintained a safe distance. Good girl. “I know I wasn’t supposed to be in the lot.”
    “That’s between you and your parents. Can you tell me about Kailey? Did she ever mention any adults or older kids who scared her?”
    “No. And I told the cops that, you know.”
    “I know. What about anyone in your neighborhood? You ever notice any adults hanging around when they shouldn’t be?”
    Josie shrugged. “I don’t pay that much attention. But no one’s ever freaked me out.”
    “Good.” I opened the browser on my smartphone to the picture of Justin. “Do you know him?”
    Josie flushed. “Sure. That’s the boy who lives across the street. He’s really cute. My mom says he’s out of high school, so I shouldn’t be calling him a boy.”
    “Do you know his name?”
    “Justin.” She managed a small smile. “He’s nice to us. Sometimes we see him when we’re coming home after school. He likes to sit on his porch and draw. He’s really good.”
    I nodded. “But if he lives across the street, you probably don’t get to talk to him much.”
    Josie’s cheeks flamed brighter. “Well, he’s really cute. So…me and Bridget like to walk home on that side of the street in case he’s out. When he is, we get to talk to him. But we don’t stay long. Bridget always tries to get him to draw our picture, but he never will. She’s good at drawing, too, and yesterday morning she stopped to give him a picture she’d drew for him. We were almost late to school.”
    I sucked in a hard breath and hoped Josie hadn’t heard. “Do you know if Kailey ever hangs out with Justin?”
    Josie nodded. “A few weeks ago, one of the boys in Kailey’s class started pushing her around. He lives on our street, and he is always hanging out. He’s mean and smelly and no one likes him.”
    “I bet they don’t,” I said. “What happened?”
    “I told Isaac to back off, but he didn’t listen to me. He’s kind of big for his age, big as me. He started pushing Kailey, and she fell into a mud puddle. Justin ran across the street and told Isaac to get lost. He asked Kailey if she was okay and helped her get cleaned off.”
    “That was very nice of him.” My cheeks hurt from pretending not to be disgusted. “Did he take Kailey to his house?”
    “No, he just went over and got some towels and dried her off, and then he went back to his drawing.”