Silent Echo Read Free Page B

looks, if anything, bored. It’s a well-cultivated illusion. Numi, I know, sees everything.
    “Sit down, cowboy,” he says.
    Eddie doesn’t like to be grabbed, and he doesn’t like Numi, either. I see him look away and contemplate leaving. If he leaves now I know I will never see my friend again, and perhaps I will never see Olivia again either. I had always assumed I would see her at least one more time. At least, I want to see her again to say good-bye.
    “I probably shouldn’t have said what I said, Eddie, but you know how I feel about you cheating on her.”
    “Because you love her.”
    “Because I
care
about her,” I correct. “Sit down.”
    He doesn’t sit immediately, and Numi hasn’t released him either. Finally, he shrugs off my Nigerian friend and sits again, folding his arms over his chest.
    “Good,” I say. “Who saw her last?”
    “The friend she was staying with.”
    “When?”
    “Almost two days ago. She told a friend she was going to take a hike in Elysian Park.”
    “When did she leave you?”
    He thinks about it. “Eight days ago.”
    “She had been with her friend the entire time?”
    “Yes, as far as I know.”
    “What’s her friend’s name?”
    “Karen Fitch.”
    “Do you know where she lives?”
    “Yes, in Echo Park. I can get the address for you.”
    He lapses into silence and so do I. All of us know that Elysian Park is where my brother disappeared some twenty-two years ago. My brother was nine years old. Eddie must have told Numi this, which is why Numi allowed Eddie to see me. Numi, my watchdog.
    I think my face might have twitched, but I try to keep it together when I ask, “Did she go alone?”
    “Yes.” Eddie is watching my face carefully. He knows how closely this is hitting me. Too damn closely.
    I count back two days. That would have been July 5. If she had gone to Elysian Park on the Fourth, I would have understood. People hiked and picnicked there to watch the fireworks at Dodger Stadium. I have done so a few times myself. Back in another lifetime.
    “Did she hike there often?” I ask. The question spills out before I can correct it. I’m already using the past tense for Olivia.
That gut feeling.
    “Yes… she loves to hike. You know that.”
    “I haven’t seen her in two years, Eddie. I’m not sure what she likes anymore.”
    Eddie just nods. I can tell he’s reminding himself what a shitty friend he has been. I wonder if Eddie knows that Olivia and I had been Facebook friends. I chide myself for thinking in the past tense again.
    I nod to Numi. My friend picks up his notebook and pen. I ask Eddie a few brief questions. Numi begins writing. Eddie answers my questions as Numi takes notes for me. When I’ve gotten the most I can out of Eddie, I lapse into silence. I’m completely spent. More than spent. I’m nearly catatonic.
    “Meeting’s over,” says Numi.
    “What?” says Eddie, startled. “Just like that?”
    “Just like that,” says Numi. “The man needs to rest.”
    Eddie looks at me and I nod, or try to nod. He gets it. As he stands he says, “Help me find her, Jimmy. I don’t know who else to turn to.”
    “I will,” I say, and mean it.
    Eddie considers shaking my hand, decides against it. He settles for a half nod and says, “I’m sorry this happened to you, Jimmy.”
    “So am I.”
    He’s about to say something else, scratches it, then turns and walks away.
    Numi watches him go, then looks at me, then at my reddening arm. He makes a small, disapproving sound. He moves over and adjusts the umbrella above us so that the shade now falls across my forearm.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I’m stretched out on my couch in my apartment in Los Feliz, which is a trendy, hilly district above Hollywood. I never pronounce Los Feliz correctly. Three years in this place and I still sometimes screw it up. There’s the gringo way and the Spanish way, except I can never remember which is which.
    Then again, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
    Numi has come