Desert Crossing by Elise Broach Read Free Book Online

nodded. “It is empty. But it changes in little ways, all the time. And it’s not … distracting, like so many other places are.”
    I thought about my town in Kansas, a few miles from Kansas City. It didn’t seem distracting. Just inhabited. Roads, houses, stores, farms, the cross-hatching of people’s lives. I missed it, the way everything was connected to something else.
    I put my mug in the sink. “I’m going to see if Kit’s awake.”
    He and Jamie would sleep till noon if nobody woke them. I tried each of the closed doors along the hallway—two closets, a bedroom, a bathroom—before I found the study where Kit was stretched across a lumpy knot of blankets on the floor. He lay flat on his back, his hair curling over his forehead and his mouth loose and full. If you didn’t know Kit, you would think he was cute. It was his personality that ruined things.
    â€œHey,” I said into the silence. “Hey! Wake up.” I nudged him with my foot. He rolled over.
    â€œKit,” I said. “Wake up. We’re going to get Jamie soon.” Not soon, actually. More like two hours from now, but he didn’t need to know that. I was tired of talking to Beth by myself. “The police are letting him come back here.”
    Kit’s eyes opened. He rose up on one elbow, rubbing his hand over his hair. “They are? What happened?” He looked at his watch, then burrowed back into the pillow. “Whoa, it’s early.”
    I pushed at him again with my foot. “You need to get up.”
    â€œQuit kicking me.”
    â€œCome on. Don’t you want to get Jamie?”
    â€œYeah, yeah, sure,” he mumbled. “But jeez, do we have to go now?”
    â€œSoon,” I said again. “Come on, Beth made coffee.”
    For some reason he didn’t ask any more questions. He sat up and stretched, throwing his arms out in a big, exaggerated way, like somebody coming out of hibernation. He pulled his T-shirt off in one quick motion, and when I blinked and backed away, trying not to look at him, I could feel him smiling.

10
    The police station was half an hour away, toward Albuquerque. I was glad we didn’t have to drive by the place where we found the girl. But I wasn’t sure I’d even have recognized it. The landscape looked different in the daylight, not as threatening. The dirt was salmon colored, scattered with little shrubs and feathery grasses. Beth drove fast, way above the speed limit, one hand resting lightly on the wheel. Kit kept looking at the speedometer, impressed. He tried to talk to her a couple of times but she barely answered him.
    â€œSo you kind of know those cops, huh?” he said at one point.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWell, it seemed like you were friends with them.”
    â€œIt’s a small community. Everybody knows everybody.”
    â€œBut the sheriff, it seemed like he—”
    â€œWe went out for a while.”
    â€œOh,” Kit looked at her, interested. “ Oh. ”
    I poked him, but he just grinned, satisfied. Beth didn’t say anything. We were in a town suddenly, or what must pass for a town in a place like this. There was a low assemblage of buildings, a couple of gas stations, a grocery store. The police station was a dull-looking white building close to the road.
    â€œJust wait here,” Beth said, slamming the door and striding across the parking lot.
    â€œLook. You made her mad,” I said to Kit. “Why were you asking her all those questions?”
    â€œI knew there was something between her and that cop,” Kit said. “I always pick up on that kind of thing.”
    â€œOh, yeah, you’re so perceptive,” I said, rolling my eyes.
    â€œI am,” he said. “At least about that.”
    When Jamie came through the doors with Beth, my heart clutched. There he was in his wrinkled T-shirt from last night. His hair was