I wasn't too surprised when I saw the police at my doorstep.

"'ello son, where's your father at?" the front policeman asked, glancing every few minutes behind me to see what was in my house.

"work. is there a problem officers?" I asked, trying to be as cool as possible.

"yeah, sorry to disturb you but this is just a formality. we have to check with everyone in the neighborhood about this kid who went missing yesterday." the officer said in reply.

"oh, really?" I ask, my stomach twisting and turning as I spoke. "what's his name? I'm sure I've seen him somewhere. or her."

"his name is thomas keane. he didn't show up to his mother's home yesterday and she's been worried sick."

"oh, him? yeah, I remember seeing him at school. I don't know anything about where he went after school, though. sorry."

yeah, everything's fine so far.

"could you try and remember anything about the way he was acting yesterday? maybe he was acting a little weird?"

"hm," I shook my head with a frown. "nope. tom was acting perfectly normal. of course, I wouldn't know 100%. I'm not even that much his friend."

"alright then, thanks for talking to us son. keep safe." and with that, they gave a little wave before turning around and leaving.

I almost slammed the door shut because I was so relived. they didn't even come into my house to investigate, and I'm not even sure if that conversation lasted more than a minute.

now it was time to go get thomas.