by S J Sargent
Surprisingly, Molly’s parents had taken the news okay. They were just glad she was safe, even if she was being held at the police station.
“What about finals tomorrow?” her mom asked earlier. Molly got defensive, suggesting that they cared more about her academics than her safety. They didn’t press on it.
“We are coming down there,” her dad said firmly as she heard him pick up his jacket on the way out the door.
“Dad. No.” Molly stopped him. “They said that we aren’t allowed to have direct interaction with family right now. Until everything gets cleared up. I guess it’s a safety precaution.”
“How is it safer to cut you off from your family?” her mom barked back. “That’s not even legal! We are coming down there right now. I’d love to see them stop me.”
After about ten minutes of heated arguing, Molly finally got them to stay at home. The last thing she wanted was for them to be there and make a scene. They were experts at making situations more tense and stressful for her. Though she’d never directly told them that.
Across the lobby, Alex was sprawled out on an oversize chair replaying all the pieces of evidence he had for the case. His thinking was so deliberate, he wondered if he was speaking out loud. Amy comes to Movie Madness on Friday. Goes missing Sunday. Dead by Thursday. Christine goes missing two days later. Probably followed home from work.
“Alex.”
He looked up to see Ken standing in front of him, handcuffs still on. His demeanor was usually that of a pit bull chained to a peg in the backyard. But now, he looked more like a little schnauzer dog who’d been yelled at all night. He struggled to make eye contact. Instead, Ken kept looking over at the police officer standing by the door whose eyes were glued on him.
“Ken!” Alex sat up. “What is going on?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t…I’m not…it’s a long story…”
“I know,” Alex affirmed him. “Why are you here? What happened last night?”
Ken looked down, then over at the guard who watched him like a hawk. He sat down on the couch next to Alex. “I honestly don’t remember. I talked to you on the phone…”
“I remember that.”
“I don’t really remember much more after that,” he continued. “I went to go eat something at Bleachers. I know that. Well, because they told me that. I really don’t remember any of that part myself, so I’m still hazy on what I remember and what they told me happened.” He stopped for a moment. “I had a lot to drink. And then, Bolin said that I got in a fight with one of the police officers and came in and confessed to killing Amy Powers.”
“Wait. What?” Alex scooted back in his chair.
“But…I didn’t. I couldn’t have. I was with Traci. I just came in and said it because I was so upset. Especially after she got in the huge fight with me and then Christine fired me. I just felt like crap last night.” Ken paused again, his hands shifting around. “Plus, I saw how Molly and everyone in town felt so scared with everything. I figured it might make everyone feel safer if someone confessed to it. Even if a day or two later, they released me with no evidence. At least the town would feel safe for a few days. And hopefully by then, they’d find whoever actually did it.”
Ken looked up at Alex, who tried to hide his dropped jaw. “I know,” Ken continued. “Stupid. I think I was just mad at everything. And wanted to do something right for once.”
“Ken.” Alex looked in his eyes. “Are they charging you? Are they charging you with her murder? Because there’s no way they have any evidence outside of a drunken confession. That won’t hold up in court.”
“I don’t know if they are. I mean, a confession is a confession. And in Pecos, they don’t have precedence for anything like this.” Ken put his shaved head in his hands. “I’m the only one in town that’s confessed to it. So why not charge me? I made it easy for them.”
“Because Christine went missing while you were in here.”
“Wha-what?” Ken popped up. “Christine? She’s missing?”
“Yes.”
Ken stared off, his mind racing. “They don’t know where she is right now?” Alex shook his head. “So then…she’s really missing?”
“Yes.” Alex leaned forward to whisper. “And Bolin knows it was the same person. He won’t tell you this, but he knows it. Which means your confession won’t mean anything. Because there’s no way it could have been you. Do you understand?”
Ken had a sudden rush of relief as he exhaled, long and slow. “Well, but they still have me on a DUI though. And on aggravating a police officer. Or whatever they call it.”
“That’s way better than a murder charge.”
Peter came up and put his hand on Ken’s back. “Ken.” Ken looked up and half-smiled. “Bolin told me about last night.”
“He didn’t do it, Pete,” Alex interjected.
“I know.” Peter took a seat next to both of them. “Obviously he didn’t.”
“So where’s Christine?” Ken asked. “I mean, where’s the last place she was…”
“Her apartment last night.”
Ken put his hand over his mouth. “He’s gonna try to pin me with this. Because of the argument. He’s going to try to say I did this, too, and match it with the confession. Alex, this isn’t good. He’s just trying to find a way to conne-”
Alex cut him off. “How can he pin you for an abduction that took place while you were here behind bars? You’re the only one in this room that has a clean alibi. Ironically, Bolin’s arrest and detainment actually clears you of being a suspect.”
Ken tried to wrap his head around the situation. He looked over at the police officer by the door whose eyes had not moved off of him. If Ken really wasn’t a suspect anymore, why was he still being treated like one?
“How are your parents doing with all of this, Pete?” Alex tried to lighten things.
“Yeah. They aren’t too happy about this.”
“That’s too bad,” Ken said. “My parents were stoked.”
All three laughed. They sat back for a few moments, listening to the canned Christmas music and waiting to see who Bolin would call in next after he was done looking at the rest of the surveillance footage and talking to Sofia. She’d been in the interrogation room with him since they’d gotten back to the station.
“Alex.” Molly stood in front of the three boys. Her hands were fidgeting around as she shifted her eyes between him and the ground.
Alex looked up at her, smiling. “What’s up, Molly?”
“I really need to tell you something.”
28
Molly’s Confession
Monday, December 20 – 12:25 A.M.
“Everything okay?” Alex asked. The two had since moved to the other side of the lobby in chairs opposite one another. As they walked over, Sofia made her way out of the interrogation room and sat down by herself without saying a word.
“I need to tell you something. I’ve been wanting to all day but…this day has played out a little differently than I thought.”
“Really?” Alex joked. “It’s how I thought it would go.”
“I’m being serious right now.”
“Sorry.”
Molly rubbed her eyes. “The last time I saw Amy in person was last Saturday night.” She paused to gauge Alex’s reaction, but he held back to see where she was headed. “We were doing a tutoring session and ended up talking about some pretty personal things. I guess it’s okay to say it now since…” Molly trailed off, then shook her head. “Amy told me she was pregnant. And the guy was pressuring her to get an abortion.”
“Whoa. That’s…whoa.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve just been holding it in.” Molly wiped away a tear and hoping none more would follow. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you now. It’s just been eating my alive. Making me wonder if I could have…”
“It’s okay. I’m glad you’re finally getting it all out.” Alex put his hand on her arm. “Take your time.”<
br />
Molly let out a deep breath. “So we ended up getting in a big fight because I told her that she should keep the baby. And she got mad at me. She said that the guy told her she can’t. I didn’t even know who the guy was. Or is. I didn’t even know she was with anyone. I’m not sure anyone did.” Tears started to pour out. Alex responded with an immediate arm around her. “Then she left. That’s the last time I saw her.”
“Do you have any idea what she did after that?”
Molly shook her head. Alex kept holding her hand, drawing a bit closer to her. She held back a smile. He looked into her eyes, pondering his next sentence.
“…I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Bad timing. I can’t imagine there’s any connection between your argument and her going missing.”
Molly looked away. “Maybe. I hope so.”
“Do you think Bolin knows any of this? Especially about the guy she was with. I mean, that’s got to be the lead suspect, right? It has to be.”
She nodded, through tear-filled eyes.
“That might clear our names, Molly. You have to tell him.”
Now Molly shook her head. “If Detective Bolin knew about that, he would think I was more involved in this thing than I am. He’d wonder why I covered it up until now. Which is…a good question to be honest.”
“Well, I don’t think his eyes are on you for this thing. If I had to guess, I think he’s weighing between Ken and Sofia.”
Molly looked at him, intensely. “Do you really think it was one of them?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Alex said. “I can’t count anything out at this point. Well, except that Ken was here last night. So he’s clean, at least for Christine’s case. He has to be. But Sofia, I don’t know…”
They both looked over at her, who looked back at them. The exchange made all three of them cringe a bit.
“Alex.”
Alex looked back at Molly. He wiped a stray tear off her cheek, something she’d only seen her mom do before.
“There’s one more thing…” she said.
“Okay…”
“Last Saturday night was the last time I saw Amy. But it wasn’t the last time I heard from her.”
Alex sat up in his seat like a dog who had just been presented a new toy. He nodded for her to continue.
“She sent me something.”
Alex tried to hide his eagerness. The zeal to solve this case was already sky-high. But now that he was getting insider information, he was ecstatic. And perhaps the most exciting element was the fact that Molly trusted Alex to confide in more than anyone else.
Molly looked around, then leaned in close to speak softly. “She sent it on Sunday night. At that point, she hadn’t been reported missing yet so I didn’t think anything of it. In fact, I didn’t even reply because it wasn’t from her normal email address. I thought it was just spam.”
“What do you mean? Where did it come from?”
“Some random address. I didn’t recognize it.” Molly laughed to herself for a minute. “I didn’t pay attention to it. At first. It wasn’t until the next day that I went back and read it and realized it might have been from her.
“How do you know it was?”
“The next day at school.” Molly continued. “We were watching the news story on the TVs. And Detective Bolin said in the report that if anyone had received any unusual texts or emails in the past twenty-four hours to let them know because sometimes…they try to make contact…I don’t know.”
Alex nodded, not sure how else to respond. He wanted to believe her.
“What did the email say?”
Molly continued explaining. “I didn’t think anything of it until she was classified as missing on Monday afternoon. That’s when I went back and reread the text over and over again. I couldn’t figure out what it meant though.”
“What do you mean? What did she say?”
“They have my phone.” She motioned toward the front desk. “But I memorized it. I didn’t understand it. It was like code. Or spam. An error or something. So I didn’t pay any more attention to it. But then, I went back and read it.” Molly looked Alex deeper into his eyes. “She was trying to tell me something. But I don’t know what it was.”
“…what did the text say?”
Molly grabbed a magazine and pen on the table in front of them. “I need to write it out so you can see it.” She scribed for a minute on the corner of a magazine page and handed it to Alex. He stared at it for a moment.
44335557 48899933377766666 26999
“Wait, that’s it?” Alex asked, looking down at the numbers. “No letters? Just a bunch of numbers?”
Molly nodded.
“That is gibberish. It looks like one of those automated email replies when I try to send something to an unknown address. That’s no code, Molly…”
“Maybe. Or maybe it is.” She brought the paper closer to Alex. “I thought maybe they corresponded with letters so I tried that. But it was just random. DDCCEEEGG DHHIII…even when I unscrambled them, there was no clear answer. It made no sense. I spent about an hour working on it on Monday night. I called the numbers. I googled them. None of it worked. I tried responding to the email, but it bounced back. I don’t know. Thought maybe it was just junk.”
“But…?” Alex led her to continue.
“But it wasn’t. I still think it was her. She was trying to tell me where she was.” Molly put her head in her hands. “But I failed. I couldn’t figure it out in time.”
Alex examined the numbers closely. “I don’t know. I can’t see how this is anything.” Silence overcame them as all of Alex’s energy went to the random numbers she had scribbled down. “What if…it’s numbers like on the old T9 flip phones we used to have? Remember how we used to have to text by pressing a number a bunch of times for each letter? Like 222 could be A-A-A. Or just C?”
Molly immediately looked at the numbers with Alex again. He drew a phone and wrote the numbers under each number as a guide to help him decipher the code. “What if that was the only way she could send anything? Maybe she had an old school phone or…I don’t know. I’m just guessing…”
He started writing down letters, pausing after he finished the first series of numbers.
GGDDJJJP.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Molly said. “I don’t think that’s it. It still doesn’t work.” Alex kept plugging away while Molly looked up at Sofia, who was glaring right at her. Sofia looked away. Molly scooted closer to Alex.
“Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s nothing…”
“Then why did you tell me?” Alex said.
“Because I needed to tell someone,” Molly snapped back. “I wasn’t asking you to solve it. You can’t just fix everything, Alex.” She paused for a moment, catching herself in her anger. “It wouldn’t make a difference now anyway. Plus, if word got back to the cops that I had this information and held on to it, they would try to tie me to this.”
“They already are trying to…” Alex pointed around. “Why didn’t you tell them sooner? Don’t they have people on the police force who try to break codes? They could have helped.”
“In Pecos?” Molly asked. “Are you kidding?” Her tone stayed fierce. “I told you. I didn’t think it was real so I didn’t think about it again until a few days ago.”
Alex kept looking down at the words. “The problem is…” Alex kept jotting down letters. “…each number could represent one number or three. So ‘44’ could be ‘GG’ or just represent ‘H’. Let me try this again.” Alex spent a few minutes troubleshooting different combinations of letters and what words might form after they are unscrambled.
He abruptly stopped after the sixth word he’d written. What looked like a jumble had come together to form a word that finally gave this puzzle some meaning. The letter combinations went from being hopelessly ambiguous to being the first hint that this message was more than a cry for help.
It was a clue. Both stared together at this combin
ation he had unscrambled, then at each other.
44 - H
33 - E
555 - L
7 - P
Help.
29
The Missing Key
Monday, December 20 – 1:04 A.M.
“What are you guys doing?” Sofia asked, hovering over them now. “A suh-doo-ko?” She was still desperate to leave and needed conversation to pass the time. “Or crossword?”
Molly nodded. “Yeah. We…love crossword puzzles.” Molly turned her body to guard Alex, as he kept deciphering different letter possibilities.
“What’s the clue?” she asked. “I could use a distraction.”
“Oh…” Molly looked over at Alex, who shook his head. She improvised. “Um, three-letter word for…strong?”
“Ken!” he yelled from across the room.
Sofia rolled her eyes as she started to list out a slew of guesses that a third grader would offer. “Let’s see. Big. Fit…”
“Fit.” Molly stopped her. “Yep. That’s it. Thanks.”
“Any others?”
“Nope,” Alex said to her, shooing her away.
“Fine.” Sofia rolled her eyes and took a seat again.
“Got anything?” Molly whispered to Alex.
“Nothing that makes a ton of sense. A few things but just kind of random.” He wrote down the different options.
HELP. GTTWWWED.
HELP. GUWWWED.
HELP. GUYED.
HELP. GUYDE.
Alex looked up at her and shrugged. “Help, guide?”
“Keep working on it.” She put her hand on his arm. “It might lead to something. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nothing better to do!” Alex kept writing away.
Sofia got up and looked at the clock on the wall. 1:10 a.m. She was starting to get restless as she paced around the lobby, shaking her head loud enough to draw attention. The cop in the corner watched her closely.