by Jackson Lear
“No matter how illegal you think it is,” said Josh.
“If you have questions that you’ve wanted to know the answer to, we will answer them. You’re probably curious about women. I know how scary it can be being a thirteen year old boy trying to figure out how the world works and how to get a girl to like him. So anything you like. Ask away.”
The room was met with thirty seconds of chilled silence.
“Who’s going to go first?” Josh asked.
Daniel and Ian sat very still, mentally squirming to find a way out of this mess.
“Even confessions,” said Anthony. “But I wouldn’t blame it on Warrick either, since he’s not here,” said Anthony.
Daniel shook his head. “We learnt that lesson.”
“What lesson?”
“We’re not allowed to blame Warrick,” Daniel said.
“What happened?” Anthony asked.
Daniel sighed, tried to find a quick way out of it, and couldn’t.
“We won’t tell anyone,” said Josh. “Whatever secrets come out, it stays between the four of us.”
Daniel rolled his head around until he found his answer. “Last year I was playing with my next door neighbour’s skateboard when they didn’t know. It was just lying in their garden. I did a jump off the curb and it broke. I returned it without saying it was broken. When their mum came and asked me who broke it I told her Warrick did it. Warrick’s dad hit him for taking something that wasn’t his, hit him again for breaking it and leaving it there, and hit again because he thought Warrick was lying to him. Warrick was never there. He didn’t know why his dad was hitting him. When I found out I took my pocket money and bought my neighbour a new skateboard and told her the truth, then I told Warrick’s dad.”
Josh and Anthony winced during the story. They weren’t quite sure how to take Daniel’s confession, but they were equally enraged at Warrick’s dad and wanted to put him in his place.
“So, yeah, I don’t blame things on Warrick anymore,” said Daniel.
“Well, I’m glad you learned something out of it,” said Anthony, feeling a sweat build up at the thought of his kids one day being responsible for something like that. “Is there anything you want to tell us about what you’ve been up to?”
Daniel and Ian shook their heads.
“Even though we found something?” said Anthony.
Ian and Daniel were both breathing quickly, which was obvious to both Josh and Anthony, but they didn’t have anything solid to go on. Josh and Anthony glanced at each other and knew one of them had to make a move, but they risked blowing it completely.
Josh tried again to get the kids to buckle. “My dad used to use an expression on me, ‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ I always thought it was a stupid expression. Obviously I did not think he was born yesterday, because I remember the day before and he was there as well. I knew what he was trying to say but it didn’t click until I was in my twenties. I knew that technically he had been thirteen years old once in his life, but I never gave it any thought until ten years ago. What he meant was, he had done the same shit that I had pulled and he had been shouted at by his dad when he got caught, so he was going to shout at me when I got caught. You two have been caught and we know what you’ve been up to because we ourselves were once your age, doing the same things you are doing. We were having the same conversations with our uncles. We were trying to sneak into cinemas and we sometimes got caught. We tried shoplifting and sometimes got caught. The only difference is you guys have been talking to each other online and those conversations get recorded. Now, Warrick is probably in a world of trouble right now because adults have been talking to each other and Anthony and I were supposed to see the three of you. I hate to think of how Warrick’s dad will react to finding out what you three have been up to, so you’re going to have to tell us so that we can help Warrick from his dad.”
Josh was met with another round of silence. “I promise you, as soon as we’re done here we’ll go over and smooth things over with his parents, explain the whole thing, and you guys will be in far less trouble than if you let this explode out of control.”
Ian and Daniel sat in a silence. Anthony inhaled as though he was ready to say something, but Josh tapped him on the knee and shook his head. Anthony went back to sitting quietly as the two men stared the boys down. The seconds ticked over and Josh appreciated knowing that the boys were terrified of him. It was an experience he hadn’t felt before, though it did remind him of his own father. Back then he didn’t like the silence either. Still, it was making the boys squirm. They were guilty of something. Josh cycled through the usual suspects to figure it out. Hidden cameras, booze, porn, girls, and theft.
“We may have to call Warrick’s dad,” said Josh, turning to Anthony and breaking the three minutes of paralysing silence.
“I’m hoping these guys tell us first,” said Anthony. “Last chance.”
Ian and Daniel sat still, terrified of prison and the looks of horror on everyone’s faces when they all discovered what they were guilty of.
Anthony looked over his nephew and knew he could get away with this, being a relative, compared to trying this move on Daniel. “Ian? Can I see your phone?”
Ian shot Anthony a quizzical look. As far as he knew he had covered his tracks well, but there was always a chance that his uncle knew enough to pull up old and deleted files. Nevertheless, he leaned back into the sofa and fished his phone out of his jeans.
“Thank you,” said Anthony. He took the phone and fired up some of the features that he had helped Claire install. He scrolled through the recent messages to find anything incriminating, but it was mostly from Claire asking him when he would be home. Anthony went through the gallery to see if the boys had taken any pictures of themselves with stolen property, but it was blank. So, too, were the folders that Anthony expected to see naked girls inside. He started to figure out that the phone was going to be a lost cause, given Ian’s impassive look. The last thing he had to try was the GPS feature which kept a record of where Anthony had been going.
“Look at this,” Anthony whispered to Josh.
“Where’s that?”
“Well, the train tracks are there.”
“Right.”
Anthony scrolled back through the history and found one that caught his interest. It was weird seeing where Ian had gone, especially since it reminded him so much of when he was a kid, doing exactly the same thing. Anthony pulled out his own phone and had to double check a few of the details. He punched in an address he found in the phone and came up with a street view of the house in question.
“Did you guys have a sleep over last night?” Anthony asked.
“No,” said Ian.
“You were here all night?”
“Yeah,” Ian said, though he realised his own confidence had just been blown away.
Anthony breathed out slowly and leaned forward, feeling the nerves creep up around him. “Ian, I’m going to ask you something and if you don’t want Daniel to know we can talk in private, okay? You went for a walk or a bike ride this morning, didn’t you?”
Ian’s eyes widened and the beating in his heart started to blot out the feeling in his ears. He nodded and felt his lips start to crack from dryness.
Anthony angled his phone to show Ian the street view he had based on the GPS coordinates. “You went to this street, didn’t you?”
Ian nodded.
“You went out at dawn. You were on this street for a couple of minutes and you came back.” Anthony went back to searching through the phone, trying to piece it all together, while Josh stared the boys down, trying to see which one would break first.
“Daniel? Something you want to tell us?” Josh asked.
“No.”
“It looks like you two are panicking. You’re both sweaty. You’re both breathing quickly. You do not look comfortable at all. Time to speak up. Daniel, you’re a brave man, you wouldn’t let Warrick down again, and you won’t let
Ian take the fall either. Out with it.”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” said Daniel.
“Must be pretty bad,” said Josh.
Anthony looked over to Josh with his eyebrows furrowed, as though trying to remember some long lost detail. He showed Josh his phone. “Do you remember this street?”
“Vaguely.” Josh took it and began exploring up and down the map, then zoomed in to the street view. “I think we went here a couple of times. One of the kids in our class had a birthday party.”
“Yeah. Liam Douglas.”
“Liam, yeah.”
“Do you remember his dad?”
“Kinda, but ...” It clicked. Josh and Anthony shared a same moment of ‘holy shit’ and Josh dived straight into recon mode on his own phone. He searched through Luxford’s police department and found the name of the chief of police - Malcolm Douglas. Josh remembered seeing Liam’s dad in full uniform come home a few times. He also remembered how they had decided not to let Liam join their gang in case he told his dad what they had been up to. Josh searched through Luxford’s address book and, sure enough, Malcolm Douglas still lived in the same house.
Ian had been to the chief of police’s house that morning.
Ian knew something the chief of police ought to know.
Anthony finally looked up to his nephew. His tone had changed to something less severe but deeper and more resolute. “Ian? You were at the chief of police’s house this morning. It’s time to tell us.”
Daniel’s eyes went wide and everyone saw him inch out a squirm before he was able to contain it again.
“And Daniel doesn’t look happy that you were there either, so let’s be quick about it.”
Ian went straight into survival mode, hoping that the little he revealed, the better. “We were exploring the valley behind the field.”
Daniel slumped back in the chair. All pretences were gone. He had given up holding a straight face.
“There’s a tunnel in a cliff,” said Ian. “There’s a dead lady in there.”
The world seemed to slow for Josh and Anthony. Whatever they feared Ian was going to tell them paled in stark comparison. At worst, Anthony feared them smoking weed and filming everyone he knew while they were in the bathroom. For Josh, he was expecting some petty theft and misdemeanours, but this knocked the wind out of both of them.
“Did you tell the police?” Josh asked.
“I chickened out,” said Ian.
“We’re going to have to tell them,” said Anthony. “Is there anything else you want to tell us?”
Ian shook his head.
“What about you?” Josh asked Daniel.
Daniel shook his head as well.
Josh hung his head and shook it from side to side. He and Anthony had promised to keep all secrets the boys revealed to themselves and they were about to break that trust. “The police have to know.”
Ian started to tear up. “We were just exploring.”
Anthony did his best to remain the calm parental figure. “It’ll be okay. It’ll be good, you know? The police need to know about this and if you found someone then they’ll be relieved that you could help. You’ll even be heroes.”
Josh looked over the boys and noticed that the two lads didn’t seem thrilled at the hero label. There was something else there, something that bristled in the back of his mind. They were guilty of finding a body, clearly, but that guilt should be limited to mere trespassing. Whatever was going through the boys’ minds was worse than simply being out of bounds. “That’s right. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. The police will thank you and you’ll have done a good thing by telling the police.”
“And no matter how bad it is, just tell the truth, okay?”
Ian and Daniel gave a stilted nod.
Josh held a short breath and leaned forward. “Do you know who the dead woman is?”
Ian and Daniel both gave a wide-eyed shake of the head.
They do, thought Josh. “Is she an old lady?”
Ian shook his head.
“When did you find her?”
“Yesterday,” said Ian.
“Okay,” said Josh, as he thought it over. They’ve found a dead body, maybe even threw rocks at her or hit her with some sticks. That would be enough to feel guilty about it. If they knew they were disrespecting the dead and they didn’t want the police to discover that, then yeah, that would explain their guilt.
He hadn’t yet connected the possibility that the boys might have found a murdered body. Josh’s worse case scenario was that she was the victim of a heart attack, an overdose, or maybe she had even been hit by a car and had fallen off the side of the road. Maybe she had climbed into the tunnel to escape her injuries, to escape the weather, or had simply had dementia and didn’t know how to find her way back home. The boys had merely stumbled across her while exploring an area they knew was out of bounds.
Josh and Anthony stood and wondered how adulthood had hit them so quickly. They also wondered just how freaked out the boys’ parents were going to be when they found out what had been uncovered.
“Wait, was Warrick with you guys?” Josh asked.
“No,” said Ian.
“We told him about it,” said Daniel.
“Okay,” said Anthony, nodding it over. “I think you two’d better stay here. The police may want to see you today.”
“I can call them,” said Josh.
“I’ll stay with these two,” said Anthony.
In that moment, any friendship the three boys had was over. All trust was gone, and Daniel despised Ian for buckling under pressure.
Against Anthony’s wishes, Daniel slipped away to be bathroom. As soon as he locked the door he deleted everything he had on his phone. He considered climbing out of the window, running home, and clearing everything on his computer as well. But he was stuck and knew the police would soon come looking for him. He had to play this cool. He had to think through the panic and work with his options.
Fuck Ian for blabbing! Daniel told himself. He can just die in a hole!
52
Claire
Half an hour later, Claire came home to find a police car parked on the side of the road. A wave of dizziness took her completely as two officers talked to Daniel, Ian, Josh, and Anthony.
Anthony slipped away to fill his sister in on the details. Claire waited patiently until the officers drove Daniel home. As soon as they were down the street and safely out of ear’s reach Claire stepped into the lounge and found her son sitting on the sofa, staring at his feet. He looked so small.
“What the hell were you boys thinking?” shrieked Claire. “You knew there was a murderer out there and you kept going outside to play? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“It wasn’t like that,” mumbled Ian.
“It wasn’t? How long were you going to keep that a secret for?”
“I don’t know.”
“‘I don’t know’ is not an acceptable answer!”
Josh and Anthony waited in the kitchen, ready to provide moral support to either Ian or Claire, depending on who needed it more.
Claire paced the lounge with her eyes wide with fright. “Why did you even keep it a secret? Why? Were you thinking that you would just let a murderer walk around town so that he could find his next victim? No, you can’t be that stupid. No. Impossible. I didn’t raise you to be that dumb so what the hell was going through your head?”
Ian stared at his mother and remained silent.
“Right. There is absolutely no way you’re leaving this house without adult supervision. No chance at all. You don’t even answer the door, okay? You come and get someone who’s at least thirty years old and they will open the door for you, okay? That’s what we’re doing from now on.”
Claire stormed off, went straight to the kitchen, and realised she had no reason for being there.
“It’ll all be okay,” said Anthony.
“Oh, fuck you,” said Claire. “You knew about this and l
et me wander around the shops for as long as I did? I’m his fucking mother!”
“I called you as soon as I could,” said Anthony.
“Bullshit! You knew I would be busy until five o’clock!”
“I called you three times,” said Anthony.
“Not enough!”
“You answered on the third time.”
“This is serious, Anthony!”
Anthony fell quiet. Claire had held onto her need to scream at someone for more than an hour while the police took the boy’s details down. There was no stopping her now.
“He’s grounded!” roared Claire. She turned to the corridor and bellowed at her son. “You’re grounded, Ian! Until the end of time itself!” She turned back to the kitchen and began muttering to herself. “I am so going to let Daniel’s parents have it. They’ll have no idea what hit them.” She pulled at the list of phone numbers stuck to the front of the fridge.
“He’s probably not home yet,” said Josh.
“Good. It’ll be a surprise for them. And there is no way that boy is ever setting foot in this house again.” She turned to bellow at the lounge again. “I know he was filming me! He’s no longer your friend and you won’t see him again!”
“The police will be able to speak to Daniel’s parents,” said Josh.
“He’ll just lie and put all the blame on Ian!”
Josh shook his head. “He already told the police what happened and there was no blame at all.”
“He’ll turn his story. He only does what’s best for himself. Did you tell the police that he was filming me in the shower?”
“No,” said Josh.
“And why the fuck not?”
“Because it was best to let them speak to the police without the fear of getting into more trouble. You can always tell the police later about Daniel filming you.”
“He’ll have deleted everything by now!”
Josh and Anthony stayed behind for another hour, doing their best to share the brunt of Claire’s wrath. It was a delicate time for Ian and they knew he had learnt one hell of a lesson that day, and it would result in a quick change of behaviour.