“Is he a stranger to Mason?”
She flinched. It was small. It was enough.
Mason had gone very still over his backpack. Derek turned in the chair. “Hey. Buddy. You know a Jonah?”
The boy’s eyes moved to Lauren first, asking permission to know what he knew. That, more than the ticket, made Derek’s anger go quiet. Quiet was worse. Quiet had room in it.
“It’s all right,” Derek said. “You’re not in trouble. None of this is yours.”
Mason swallowed. His voice was almost not there. “He was at Marisol’s. Mom said he was a cousin but he said he wasn’t. He said—” The boy stopped, because the next words were too big and he had already tried them on once and been told he had the wrong size. “Mom said I heard it wrong.”