Someone Knows Something

by Christa Weisman

  They were perched on top of a rock on Oracle Point, named for its deceptive sharp drop-offs. It was a favorite spot for Ethan and the boys, where they would come to cliff jump off shorter ledges into deep parts of the lake, but on this day he and Brianna lay out on a flat ridge that overlooked the falls. She didn’t know him as a football god, as all the other girls saw him at Timber Falls High School. It was one of the things that drew him to her. He could just be himself. But just being himself had its consequences. It gave him the freedom to think on his own rather than being told what to think by J.R. and Caleb.

  They had the rock to themselves, as they often did. Ethan had found this secret spot earlier in the summer and was reluctant to share its existence with anyone other than Brianna. She lay on her bare back, her bikini top undone, looking up at him as he spoke of his hesitation over his future.

  “Have you thought about going somewhere else for school? Somewhere different than your friends?”

  No, he thought. He never had. Not consciously, anyway.

  “No one is holding a gun to your head, Ethan.” She shrugged. “You can make your own future.”

  His own future. What would that look like? Did he dare tell his friends that he didn’t want to play ball anymore? That he craved the day that high school was over and he could be defined as anything other than as a football player. Or, did he dare say, he could he hardly wait for the day when he wasn’t known for being J.R.’s best friend.

  But that was when the fear set in. Who was he if he wasn’t defined by Caleb, J.R., and football?

  Ethan looked at his friends now, their enthusiasm seeping from their skin. How could he possibly burst their bubble and tell them he wasn’t sure it was what he wanted anymore?

  “Awesome news, J.R.” He smiled, hugging his friend back. “I can’t wait.”

  He tuned out the rest of the conversation, sipping on his beer, wanting to be anywhere but there at that moment. He looked back through the window to see Lila giggling with her friends. He envied her carelessness and her free spirit. When she caught him staring, he didn’t look away. Maybe it was time for him to start thinking for himself.

  Third day gone

  “What do you mean, missing?” Lila asked. She was under the covers trying to talk as quietly into her phone as she could. It was well past the time her father allowed her to make phone calls. But when Olivia said they needed to have an emergency meeting tonight, she couldn’t ignore the urgency in her voice. Lila called her after she knew her dad had gone to bed, and they dialed in Hannah on party line.

  “Missing. Like gone. Poof,” Hannah said, her voice a sharp whisper.

  “You should have seen it at school today, Lila,” Olivia said. “It was crazy. Everyone was running around trying to figure out what was going on. Even the teachers.”

  “I guess everyone was at the Hudson house,” Hannah added. “They even had volunteers going out to search.”

  “Search? Where?” Lila asked. “They think something happened to them?” She felt a knot pulling tight in her belly. She pulled the covers tighter to calm her chills.

  “Maybe,” Olivia said. “But they can’t find J.R.’s car.”

  “Do you think they just left?” Lila asked, trying not to sound hopeful. A world where J.R. Hudson, Caleb Weston, and Ethan Young had disappeared sounded like a good one to her.

  “I don’t know,” Olivia answered quietly. “Do you think they would?”

  “No way,” Hannah said. “Why would they?”

  “You saw how they were at Friday’s game,” Olivia answered. “Lila, it was horrible. It’s all anyone could talk about at the party Saturday night. Which I still can’t believe you missed.”

  “Lila, you have to come back,” Hannah pleaded. “Or at least talk to us. You can’t still be sick.”

  “Please, Lila,” Olivia joined in. “We’ve been so worried. What is going on with you?”

  Lila pushed the tear away that was falling down her cheek. She didn’t want her friends to hear her cry. “I’m tired,” she answered simply. “I have to go.”

  “Lila, don’t—” Lila hung up the phone before Olivia could finish the sentence. She rolled on her side and pulled her knees to her belly and silently wept as she tried to push images out of her mind that haunted her day and night. What would Hannah and Olivia think of her if they knew the truth? Would they be able to look at her the same way? She was afraid of the answer.

  But she also knew she couldn’t hide out forever. Her lies would come back and turn on her if she kept them up. She had to find a way to be strong through her weakest moment.

  She had to make a decision. And when the sun rose through her window, so did she. She got showered and dressed and was sitting at the breakfast nook when her dad came walking in wearing his uniform.

  He was startled to see her sitting there, so normal as though the last week had never happened. He looked at the clock to see if he had possibly mistaken the time.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said, turning her spoon around in her strawberry yogurt, not really taking any bites.

  “Hey, kiddo.” He turned on the coffee pot, trying his damnedest not to make a big deal about her sitting there.

  “I…” she started and then stopped. He filtered his coffee grounds and poured in the hot water. He refused to look at her in case she saw through him. “I thought I would try going to school today.”

  He swallowed hard. “You feeling up for that?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I think so.”

  He nodded, keeping his back to her. When had he gotten so afraid to look her in the eye? “I suppose you’ve heard about everything going on?”

  “Hannah and Olivia called me.”

  He took a sip of his steaming hot coffee while he looked out the window. An acreage of field lay in front of him, before disappearing into the blackness of the thick forest. This land had been in the Tourney family for many generations. It’s where he had grown up, in this house, looking out at those woods. He had always assumed it was where he would die as his parents did, and where Lila would raise her family. But some days he just didn’t know anymore.

  “What do you think happened?” she asked.

  His knees buckled from the fear in her voice. He straightened his back and turned toward her. “I think we’re dealing with a runaway case. Sounds like these boys had some things going on they didn’t want anyone to know about. I’m sure they’ll turn up soon, and when they do they’ll have a lot of people to answer to.”

  She pushed her half-eaten bowl of yogurt away and rested her elbows on the table, cradling her head in her hands. “You think they’re in trouble?”

  She looked so much like her mother had at her age. She sat with one knee bent underneath her as the other leg dangled over the top. He used to tease Maura when she sat like that, not understanding how it was comfortable.

  “If I had to guess, I would say they are, but only they know for sure. Hopefully, they come back soon and we all have some answers.”

  “Hopefully,” she repeated.

  They sat in their silence for a moment, neither sure of what to say to the other. He finished his coffee and rinsed his cup in the sink before turning back to her. She hadn’t moved.

  “Do you need a ride to school?”

  “Uh, no,” she answered, shaken from her thoughts. “Hannah’s picking me up.”

  “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “That’s good.” He grabbed his jacket off the chair beside her. “I’ll be at the school this morning. There’ll be an assembly after the first period about all of this.”

  “Oh.” She sat up straighter in her chair. “Okay.”

  “Okay,” he repeated. He started to walk out of the room but stopped at the table and instinctively reached out to her and touched her head. She flinched but then closed her eyes and smiled softly.

  She was pressed between Olivia and Hannah on the wooden bleachers. How many times this morning had she questioned if she had made the r
ight decision? Her teachers welcomed her back, but she could also see the way they looked at her, how they saw the difference in her complexion. Hannah gasped lightly when she saw the way Lila’s cheekbones protruded from her face, commenting that it must have been a brutal sickness for her to lose that much weight.

  She wore a bulky sweatshirt to hide the fact that her jeans slipped off her hips. She didn’t want any attention on her body. She only wanted to disappear into the crowd. And right now, sitting between her friends at the assembly, that was exactly what she intended to do.

  There was a buzz in the air, a hum of voices though nothing that could be made out. Students were on the edges of their seats, waiting. Nothing like this had ever happened in Timber Falls.

  Principal Harris was in center court, mic in hand. Gone was his light banter and easy smile. He looked stricken, tired like the rest of the staff and teachers beside him. He said something to Coach Mitchell that was inaudible to the rest of the crowd. The coach nodded, and the principal turned back to his awaiting audience.

  “Thank you, Timber Falls students, for your patience. You can see that the staff here, myself included, have been pretty shaken up by the recent events. There is a lot of gossip going around. And we want to clear up fact from fiction for you.” He paused as if to catch a tremble in his voice. “I’m going to pass the mic to Chief of Police, Rex Tourney, who is head of this investigation.”

  Lila watched her father take over the mic. She shrunk down in her seat in hopes that he wouldn’t see her.

  He thanked the principal before clearing his throat to speak to the crowd.

  “As Principal Harris mentioned, and as most of you know, I’m Chief Tourney. I will be working with the staff today, opening our offices for anyone who would like to come forward with information regarding the disappearance of Caleb Weston, Ethan Young, and J.R. Hudson.” His eyes searched the melancholy crowd until he saw his daughter sunken down. He quickly looked away.

  “On Saturday, shortly before nine in the evening, J.R. left his home and went to Ethan’s house. From there it was understood that they were picking up Caleb, but as far as we can tell from what information has been offered to us, that’s the last anyone has seen or heard from them.

  “This is where we need your help.

  “You can come to Principal Harris’s office or leave an anonymous tip for me at the station. We welcome all information that could lead us to them.”

  He left those last words hanging in the air. Silence filled the gym as students looked to each other, wondering who knew something that they didn’t.

  A junior sitting in front of Lila—she couldn’t remember her name—, leaned into the friend beside her and sobbed. As Lila looked around the bleachers, she saw the same scene playing over and over. Students weeping in despair and fear. Could the leaders of their school really just up and leave? Or was it worse? And could what had happened to these strong boys also happen to the rest of them?

  Lila’s palms began to sweat. Her fingers trembled and she couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, she felt claustrophobic in the sea of students and needed to get out.

  “Lila?” Hannah asked, noticing her friend’s distress. “Are you okay?”

  She grasped at her chest, unable to respond. This was a bad idea. Just then, Principal Harris dismissed them back to class. Lila jumped up from her seat and pushed her way down the bleacher steps, knocking students over as she went. She needed to get out of the gym. She needed fresh air. She needed to be anywhere but there.

  Six weeks earlier

  The air was crisp as fall settled into Timber Falls. They huddled together under the stadium lights, the boys on the field, the town in the stands. No one missed a Falcons football game. The score was pitiful, with the Falcons in the lead, and yet the crowd still went wild for every tackle and every touchdown.

  The Youngs and the Hudsons sat together in their usual spot at the top of the stands on the fifty-yard line. Jameson and Nick stood as pillars on the outside to their wives who often spent most of the game chatting with their heads together. Similar to their own children, the four of them had been friends since grade school. Flashback twenty-five years and it would be Nick and Jameson on the field with Nora and Anna cheering them on like Grace and Avery did. They had talked about this day when it would be their kids running the school and living out their legacy.

  Only it should have been Nick and Anna, not Jameson and Anna. But only Nick and Anna knew that.

  Jameson had had his eye on Anna and staked his claim on her before he’d bothered to ask her. Had he asked her, then she would have said she liked another boy, who happened to be his best friend. And that friend liked her too, though he could never say so out loud. Nick and Anna would meet behind the gym, beginning of freshman year of high school, stealing kisses when they should have been in class. But when it came time for Homecoming, Nick hadn’t had the courage to ask her, knowing that Jameson wanted her. So he’d asked Nora instead, and the rest was history. But sometimes, every once in awhile, Nick would look to Anna and catch her staring at him, and he wondered then if she felt it, too.

  The halftime whistle blew and the teams dispersed under the stadium. Kids moved down the stairs or sat on the bleachers, resting their legs. Nick eyed the concession stand and asked if anyone wanted anything. Both Jameson and Nora shook their heads, but Anna stood, saying she wanted a hot cocoa.

  “I can bring it back for you,” Nick offered.

  “No, I’ll join you.” She grabbed her purse and stood. “I want to speak to Patty King about the Holiday Bazaar fundraiser we’re running together.”

  She followed him down one step at a time, by-passing rowdy teenagers. Near the end of the bleachers sat a group of girls unaware that a boy was creeping up behind them with a cup of ice water. Anna knew it was coming before she could speak. The girls screamed and jumped out of the way just as spraying cool water came crashing down on them. It splashed and would have hit Anna if Nick hadn’t wrapped his arms around her and pulled her away.

  It all happened so fast Anna was left dizzy, her heart racing. She could feel the heat of Nick’s body against hers and she couldn’t deny how good it was to feel it again. Her eyes darted between his, filled with concern, to the top of the bleachers where Nora and Jameson sat unaware of the scene transpiring below them.

  “You okay?” Nick asked, his breath on her cheek. She nodded, knowing she should pull away before others noticed, but not really wanting to.

  “Oh, sorry!” The boy’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Dude, is your wife okay?”

  Nick lifted his head and Anna waited for him to correct the boy. “Watch what you’re doing.” Nick snapped at him. He let go of Anna but let his hand slide behind her back to lead her forward. The boy gave her an embarrassed smile. She nodded at him and walked on.

  “Little shit,” Nick said under his breath when they were down the bleachers. She stifled a laugh.

  “I remember you boys pulling the same kind of stunts.”

  Nick feigned surprise. “I would never pour ice down someone’s back when it’s already cold outside.”

  Anna smiled at a couple walking toward them. Parents of one of the boys on the team. She said hello as they passed then turned back to Nick.

  “Hmm, what about that time you threw Will Akins in the pool?”

  He thought about it for a moment before recollection hit him. “That was different.”

  “It was the middle of December.”

  “Was it?” He raised his brows. When she looked at him, she could still see the boy in him. He resembled Ethan in so many ways, from their soft golden hair and deep-set eyes with a ring of honey in the middle. But what Nick had that Ethan had yet to conquer was humble confidence in himself that didn’t reek of boastfulness like Jameson did. Nick was successful, running the town timber plant. He didn’t have a white collar job like Jameson, and though he was worth more than the Hudsons, he never talked about it. Anna knew that it drove Jameson crazy with envy
that his friend was financially more secure than him, even though he had the more prestigious title. But all Anna saw was the way in which he lived his life more simply. He and Nora didn’t live in a grand mayor’s mansion as she and Jameson did. Nick never needed that kind of life.

  “He was a jerk,” Nick responded with a crooked smile. “He was asking for it.”

  She loved the easy banter she could have with Nick, especially on the rare times they were alone. She used to be like this with Jameson. When had that changed? Was it the stress and burden of city council? Was it before that? When they had J.R.? Somewhere, the pleasure of their relationship had turned to mere convenience that then got swallowed into detachment. When had they last had a meaningful conversation?

  Was it the same for Nick and Nora? She had never told her friend about her displeasure with Jameson, mainly because admitting it to her would mean having to say it out loud. Nothing could have been done about it anyway. But what she feared even more than the truth of her own marriage was the happiness of Nick and Nora’s.

  Their lives were intertwined. The Hudsons and the Youngs melded together as one extended family. Even Nora and Anna had planned their first pregnancies together. They’d known they were either making lifelong best friends, or potential spouses.

  And it had been perfect, at least for the first twelve years. Ethan and J.R. had played right into their roles. J.R., much like Jameson, was the leader of the pack. Even from a young age, he was charismatic and charming. People couldn’t say no to him, even teachers. He’d convinced his Kindergarten class to donate all of their unwanted books to the literacy charity Anna was running. By first grade, he’d had the whole school involved, running a booth at recess outside the classroom. That year, the charity saw more donations than in the previous three years combined. He was a natural politician. And a positive influence on Ethan, who didn’t have the natural, sociable ease that J.R. did. By second grade, the two of them were heading up fundraisers for the school, and even sitting in on PTA meetings.