37. Good Enough

“Hey, have you see this boy around here?” Jude asks the owner of one of the only two stores still open at the local shopping centre.

The man looks at the photo of Rico on Jude’s phone and shakes his head. “No.”

Jude nods and puts his phone away. “Alright, thanks.”

We move towards the exit of the shop and stop under the eave because it’s suddenly raining. As if this night couldn’t get any shittier.

Where do we look next? Between us, the police, and a couple of Rico’s neighbours who volunteered, we’ve searched the entire neighbourhood. If Rico was anywhere nearby, someone should have spotted him by now.

Jude sighs heavily, his breath condensing in the night air. “What, now?”

I shove my hands in my jacket pockets and try to think of somewhere we should check but haven’t yet. Nothing comes to mind. We’ve been to every public place we could be. The only alternative now is to broaden the scope of our search area.

When we started this search, I was optimistic that we would soon find Rico