The Iron Quill by Shelena Shorts

Wishful thinking.
    After a few minutes, my mom’s voice called up to me. “Sophie, come down here please.”
    Rolling my eyes, half hesitant to face her and half relieved to give my obsessive worrying a break this early, I rotated my feet toward the door. “Coming!”
    I rounded the bottom step to find her in scrubs with her purse on her shoulder and keys in hand. And one more detail. Her right fist was resting firmly on her hip.
    “Yeah,” I sighed coming to a stop with a slight bounce that sent my bangs away from my eyes. Whatever it was she was annoyed with, it wouldn’t be my hair in my face.
    “Um, I just got a call from Officer Wright.”
    My heart froze.
    “He wanted to check up on you after your visit to the station last night.”
    Oh good
.
It’s not about Wes. Thank God
. “Okay?” I said, realizing I’d forgotten to mention that small detail to her.
    “Apparently,” she said, shifting her weight, but maintaining the firm position of her fist, “you paid a visit to Andrew Walters’ grandson last night?”
    I stood there thinking of the best possible response, but got nothing.
    “Are you out of your mind?” she snapped.
    “Mom.”
    “
And
,” she interrupted, “You delivered a letter from a suicide victim with evidence that this Tim person was involved in Ms. Mary’s death, which led to his arrest? And you
knowingly
go there last night to talk to him? Are you out of your mind?” she repeated.
    “Mom, I know, it was insane. But Chase sent me the note, so what was I supposed to do? I just took it in.”
    “You
tell
me about it. That’s what you do.” Her head snapped back. “Wait, Chase? The boy you work with?” Her voice rose. “
He
is the suicide victim?”
    I nodded reluctantly.
    “Oh, my gosh, Sophie.” Her fist dislodged from her hip and both hands went flying into the air. “Someone else died? That you knew? What is going on here?”
    Thoughts of her getting the idea to uproot and move again caused me to quickly back her away from the edge.
    “Nothing, Mom. It’s fine. It’s okay. Well, it’s not okay for Chase. I mean, Tim was trying to use him to get back at me for Andy, and when he wouldn’t cooperate, Tim tried to . . . well it doesn’t matter . . . all that matters is Chase helped turn Tim in for what he did. I just went there to make sure he was arrested, so I would feel better. Secure.” I added.
    The fist went back to the hip, but much more at ease. “Secure?” she asked.
    “Yes,” I answered, trying to sound sure, but it came out more like a question. “It’s fine, Mom. Really. Can I go now?” I turned toward my room.
    “No. Not before you tell me where Wes is.”
    My head whipped back around. “What do you mean?”
    “Officer Wright wanted to know if he was still missing.”
    “Why?” I asked, only I knew why. Because I’d given them reason to think something was up, even though I’d tried to cover it afterward.
    “Well, apparently you told them that.”
    I shook my head. “I just told them that so they’d let me talk to Chase.”
    “So you lied?”
    “Um . . . well, that’s not exactly what I said.”
    “Sophie, stop evading me. What is going on? I’m trying very hard here to understand where you’re coming from, but this is getting way out of hand.”
    “Geez, Mom. Relax, will you?” I had enough stress without having to worry about her flipping out, too. “Seriously, I told you why I went.”
    “Well, where is Wes?” she shot back.
    “He’s gone somewhere for his lab,” I replied, just as quickly, hoping my eyes would stay dry enough to conceal my worry.
    “Well, that’s what I told Officer Wright,” she said, calming down. “But I’m not liking what’s brewing. You’d better be smarter, Sophie.”
    “Smarter?” Now I was offended.
    “You know what I mean. You need to make better decisions and include me in anything that doesn’t have safety written all over it. Got it?”
    Right about then, I thought I heard my phone