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But then, suddenly, he knew how. He even knew when. Those nights when he’d come home and not remembered how he’d gotten there. Where he’d woken more sore than he should’ve been.

Because he’d been…

Shit.

He inched back to the drawer, opened it, and snatched the keys up. He couldn’t just leave them there. He needed to get rid of them, get rid of the evidence.

Will went to the front window and looked out. It was still early, still dim. There was no one out. His trailer park only had five other trailers, and all were silent.

His heart was pounding as he went back to his bedroom and dug out one of his old school bags. He brought it to the living room and stuffed the empty sugar bags inside, then shoved the keys in his pocket.

Okay. Okay. He just had to… dump these.

Will got himself dressed for work and grabbed a snack bar from his pantry, his own keys off the counter, and headed out. There was no use wasting time.

Instead of heading toward the grocery store, he went in the opposite direction.

A mile in the other direction was a gas station and a library that Will frequented. More importantly, right beside it was a community dumpster and a charity donation box.

It wasn’t monitored, so it would be the perfect place to dump the stuff.

The sun was just beginning to rise when Will arrived. He didn’t hesitate, opening the dumpster, unzipping his backpack and stuffing the empty sugar bags down under cardboard and trash bags. He grabbed an empty detergent bottle in the dumpster and dug the keys out of his pocket. He twisted the cap off the bottle, shoved the keys inside, and re-closed it.

He could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he closed the dumpster lid. He looked around to see if anyone had seen him, but there wasn’t a car in either direction. It was Thursday, so the garbage truck would be by in an hour or two. If he was lucky, they’d take all this away and it would be lost in a landfill before the cops even came to investigate.

Will jogged away from the dumpster, switching to the other side of the road. He started walking briskly back the way he’d come.

But it didn’t seem like luck was with him this morning. He was only halfway back to the trailer park when flashing lights came up behind him. Will knew even before he looked who it was.

Will slowed as the patrol car pulled up beside him.

“Well hey there Will, early morning stroll?” Gary asked, leaning over to speak through the opposite window. He looked Will up and down with clear suspicion.

“Heading to work,” Will said. It was the only thing he could think of that was remotely plausible. He forced himself through a slow breath, hoped the battering of his heart wasn’t noticeable.

“Bit early, ain’t it?”

“I’m opening,” Will said. Which was true, but it was still much too early for him to be there. He hoped Gary didn’t know that.

Gary didn’t look like he quite bought it, but then was leaning over the passenger’s side, opening the door.

“Alright, well get in, I’ll give you a ride. Been meaning to catch up with you anyway,” the man smiled magnanimously.

Will looked down the way the officer had come, but there were no other cars. No one who could bail him out this time.

So reluctantly, Will walked up to the open door, slid his backpack off, and got in.

Chapter 14

“Been a second since we’ve caught up,” Gary said as he started down the road again. He was going slow, well under the speed limit.

“Yeah,” Will said and kept his eyes straight out the windshield.

“You uh, liking the grocery store?”

“Yeah,” Will said. He had the urge to curl in on himself, and repressed it.

“Pretty chummy with Becky these days. She nearly bit our heads off because of you,” he didn’t sound half as amused as he was going for.