Was it time to give in?

But I felt so close to the next step... Dotty had already promised to write a letter of recommendation. I had the grades to get into an elite university. Then, I would just have to keep hiding my blindness, never stop excelling, until someone important noticed me.

How long would it take? There were rumors of talented agents who had started climbing the ranks of the FBI by the age of twenty-five. Could I hold on until twenty-five? And by the time it became inevitable to reveal the truth, I would have already solidified my position as an indispensable asset. They would want to keep me despite everything.

I glanced beyond the windshield, towards the cordoned-off area with a single policeman guarding the tape. Was he looking at me? It seemed so, but I wasn't sure. Damn, I was tired... so tired of never being sure.

A light knocking made me jump. Dotty gestured me from beyond the window and opened the door to slide in.

"Everything okay?"

I nodded with lowered eyes. She already thought of me as a shy kid, so I might as well play into it.

"Just know it's normal to feel a bit dizzy at your first sight of a corpse. I mean... that boy must have been your age, and now he has a hole in his head and his blood is drying on the sidewalk. The first time I saw a victim's body, I puked. It's normal, Benjamin, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, it would have been strange if it didn't affect you, or..." Dotty sighed, a long, deep breath of resignation. "Or worse. Laughing it off like those kids. Seeing it as an adventure. That would have been unacceptable."

Those kids?

Only then did the sound of laughter reach me. There were children on the other side of the street, with their arms outstretched towards the alley. They were jumping and giggling excitedly among themselves.

At that moment, two of the figures in the crowd stepped forward, crossing the deserted street, but the guard immediately intercepted them.

"Get out of here! The street is blocked."

The policeman's angry voice caught me off guard, but what stunned me was the response from one of the two figures: "The street is ours. You should be the one to get out."

It was Carli's voice.

Oh, no.

I rushed out.

"Benjamin?"

I ignored poor Dotty and ran forward. Was Carli already getting into serious trouble at eleven?

"Take another step and I'll take you for a ride in the back of my car to the station. In handcuffs."

"You can't arrest me if I'm not at least thirteen, asshole."

I caught up with them, breathless. I positioned myself between him and the girl. "Officer..."

"Then I'll arrest you in four or five years, when I find you peddling on street corners."

I gaped at what this adult man in uniform had just said to a fresh elementary school graduate.

But the two figures behind me weren't as caught off guard. There was a swift movement, sharp giggles, the kids on the other side of the street cheering, and the policeman jerking back.

I couldn't make heads or tails of what had just happened. I heard Carli's swift footsteps and her company fleeing, and the officer cursing with his head down, pulling at the hem of his jacket. What was it? Had they thrown something at him?

"Relax, Eric. It's just ice cream," Dotty said, with one foot already out of the car.

I turned again to the other side of the street. Carli and the second figure in her wake had passed the group of kids and were still running, disappearing down one of the secluded streets.

Once the initial shock wore off, I was left with a surge of anger. Was this what Carli did during her mysterious outings? Roaming the streets causing trouble just like her brother?

I started running. I knew I would have to explain my behavior, but in that moment all I cared about was catching up with Carli and setting her straight.

I crossed the main road without any trouble; not many cars passed through that street. Then I turned down the driveway where I had seen the girl vanish, and followed it until it opened into a dilapidated park, with a rusty brown bench and what used to be a slide.

I had reached the breathless laughter of my targets. They were high-pitched and distinctly feminine.

Carli and the other girl were crouched among the rubble of the slide, patting each other on the back and complimenting each other on their stunt.

I only had to take one step for both their heads to snap up and the giggles to abruptly cease.

"Look. It's the guy who screws my brother," Carli said with a hint of mock surprise.

My irritation reached unprecedented levels. "You've known me since you were three, you know perfectly well what my name is."

The other girl stood up, giving me the impression of a soldier awaiting orders.

"It's okay, Kaya, I got this." Carli also stood up, offering her a fist to bump.

"Thanks for the ice cream," Kaya said, returning the gesture. "I'm going home before my mom realizes I'm gone."

Carli grunted in agreement, and the other girl trotted off, as fast as a rabbit.

"Did you buy her the ice cream?"

The surprised silence that followed assured me that wasn't the question she was expecting. Carli tilted her head ever so slightly, her hair parting, and a glint caught my eye, forcing me to squint.

"I can't treat a friend to ice cream?"

The glint was coming from her earlobe. A plastic trinket wouldn't have fazed me, but the stone she had in her ear was cut precisely enough to reflect light like a laser.

I reached out and did exactly what I had chased her for: I tugged on her ear.

"HEY!"

"Where did you get this?"

Carli slapped my hand away. "None of your damn business!"

"Casper would never spend money on jewelry, and he wouldn't give an eleven-year-old the amount needed to buy stones like these."

"How would you know? You can't even see them! They're toys, I found them in my chips."

It was a lie, and she wasn't even trying to make me believe it. "Did someone give them to you as a gift?" I tried to soften my tone. "Carli, if someone older is giving you gifts, they're not your friend. They want to lure you in to hurt you."

She snorted through her nose. "Oh, my God. I know what a pedophile is. Nobody gave me these. I told you, I found them in my chips."

Of course.

"Did you go to school this morning?"

"Who do you think you are, my mom? Get the hell out of here." She pushed me with more force than I expected from a girl her size. She was leaving. I had no way to hold her back. I couldn't even threaten to tell on her to... to whom? Her brother? He'd probably praise her. Her catatonic mother? Her nonexistent father?

Carli was destined to end up just like Casper. I saw it clearly in front of my eyes, her entire future. And for a moment, what that shitty cop had yelled at her seemed more than just plain nastiness.

"Wait. Carli!" She didn't even turn around, just kept walking. Damn it all... "Twenty dollars for five minutes of your time."

She froze like a hound on a scent and turned back. She held out her hand.

I pulled out my wallet, took out a twenty-dollar bill, and she snatched it up faster than a vacuum cleaner.

"I'm listening."

Good. Five minutes to prevent her from flushing her life down the drain.

How could I convince her to ignore her brother's example, to focus on school, and to aspire to a life outside of that shitty neighborhood?

I had known her for a long time, but I had never really gotten close to her. Casper kept all the people he cared about in separate compartments. He didn't talk to me about his sister, just like he didn't talk about his friends.

But at least one thing I knew about Carli: she liked money. Oh, she really liked it. But I couldn't believe that the only thing motivating her was something so superficial.

There had to be something else.