Prove It!

by Susanne Matthews

  “Kit Jenkins called,” his mother said, her voice sounding far more concerned now than she had on the phone earlier. “Erik didn’t come home last night.”

  His father frowned, the curiosity in his eyes replaced by anxiety.

  “I’ll bet he’ll get grounded forever when he does show up, and there goes my chance for company,” Liam added, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice, knowing he was being petty. Being stuck in the hospital had been bad, but he’d never expected his home to turn into a prison. If Erik couldn’t come out to see him, who would? There was Hannah, but that relationship was still in its infancy.

  His dad smiled, but the gesture was false, not entering his eyes. He ruffled Liam’s hair the way he had when he’d been younger. “I know how hard being stuck in that chair is, but once you’re back in school, it’ll be easier. I’ll talk to Jason and see if we can work something out, but the boy will need to be punished for scaring them that way.”

  “I know that, Dad. I just hope he’s okay.”

  While the police chief accepted most of the details Liam remembered about the accident, others, like the slow way the man had approached him, he dismissed, believing them to be false memories brought on by gossip or a suspended reality, not uncommon in cases like his. Erik had been all gung-ho about doing some investigating of his own. He’d even talked about getting Craig to help him break into Coach Snow’s office at school or the possibility of going out to the man’s house to look for evidence. What if he’d tried it and been caught? That didn’t wash since Coach Snow would’ve had him arrested in a heartbeat, so where could he be? If Erik was right, and Liam should’ve died, how far would whoever was really behind the accident go to keep his secret?

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” his father said. “I’ll bet one of the kids in town had a party last night, and he’s sleeping it off before his parents see him. The drinking age in this state might be twenty-one, but we both know the college kids have keggers regularly. You two put on quite the display in July when you got into the beer at the beach party,” he reminded him.

  “Yeah, but Erik was sick as a dog and swore he would never touch another drop.”

  Laughing, his father poured himself a second cup of coffee. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say that after they’ve had too much, I would be a millionaire. Let me get cleaned up, and then we can eat.” He glanced at his wife and scowled. “Cathy, what’s wrong? You’ve got that sour puss look going on.”

  “I’m worried. This isn’t like Erik, and we all know it. Whoever hit Liam is still out there, Luke. What if Erik was walking home and got hit too? That road’s isolated ... The only things missing from his room are his cellphone, tablet, and backpack. If he’d gone to stay the night with friends, wouldn’t he have left a note and packed a bag?”

  Luke Howard pursed his lips. “I would think so. Does he have a girlfriend?”

  “He’s just started seeing Mina Connors,” Liam admitted, “but he wouldn’t spend the night at her place and even if they wanted to be alone, how far could they go without a car?”

  “That’s right. He lost his intermediate in that fender bender last summer. It wasn’t really his fault, but the law’s the law, and since he won’t be eighteen until March, without a car, he can’t have gone far. Mina has a license, but if she wasn’t home, her father would be out beating the bushes for her. Let me get cleaned up. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll take the car and go check out the ditches over by the Jenkins’ place.”

  “Thanks, Luke. God forbid anything like that should’ve happened, but I’ll feel better if you check.”

  “I will. Now, what’s for breakfast?

  “Cinnamon French toast.”

  “You spoil me, woman,” his dad said and leaned down to kiss his mother’s cheek.

  “I know, but you enjoy it.” She turned to Liam. “I hope you’re as hungry this morning as you were last night. Come on, I’ll help you get cleaned up.”

  Liam nodded, but despite her change of topic, she was worried and so was he.

  Chapter Ten

  It was just after seven when Hannah’s cellphone rang, dragging her out of a sound sleep. She’d had a hard time drifting off last night, the fear that something bad had happened to Erik eating at her. While she would’ve liked to talk to Liam, it had been almost eleven, and he would’ve been asleep, no doubt exhausted by the move back home. Reaching over, she picked up the cellphone, and cracked one eye open. It was Mari. Hannah yawned. What could she want at this ungodly hour?

  “You’d better have a really good reason for—”

  “He didn’t come home last night,” Mari said, choking on her tears. “Mom and Dad are frantic. They’ve called the police, but they won’t issue an AMBER alert without probable cause. Erik is almost eighteen, and the fact he’s been missing for less than a day doesn’t seem to be a big enough deal for them. They’ll look around, but they don’t see the benefit of a state-wide alert.”

  “What?” Hannah shouted into the phone. Erik hadn’t made it home last night and that could be her fault—hers and Mina’s. They’d left him out there. She also understood why the police wouldn’t issue an AMBER alert even though Erik was only seventeen. To do so, the police had to believe the youth or child had been abducted and was in imminent danger of bodily harm. Since there was no indication of who might’ve taken Erik and why, they would’ve concluded the AMBER alert wouldn’t help. She reached over and shook Mina in the twin bed next to hers. Her cousin sat up, blinking her red-rimmed eyes owlishly.

  “Calm down and tell me everything,” Hannah ordered, putting the phone on speaker and making sure Mina was awake.

  “After you called me last night, I got nervous and phoned around to a few friends, but no one had seen him. I even got hold of Craig Lowe since he and Erik had been spending time together, but he’s got the flu and hasn’t seen Erik since Wednesday. I managed to find someone who said he left O’Malley’s with you and Mina, but your cousin messaged me looking for his cell number. You implied they were together when you phoned. Did she make it home? Maybe they had car trouble.” Her voice grew more and more panicked as she spoke.

  “Mari, calm down, please.” Hannah fought to remain calm even though she felt responsible for what was happening. “I wasn’t being quite honest when I called,” she admitted, regretting last night’s lie. “I was with Mina at the time she messaged you, and we were looking for Erik. We didn’t find him. Mina’s right here in the bed next to mine. We were with him at O’Malley’s, but we got separated a little while later. The last time we saw him, he was going to visit Coach Snow. That’s the God’s honest truth.”

  “Why would my brother want to see the Central track coach?” she asked, the tears in her voice making her hard to understand.

  Hannah licked her lips. “Last night, Erik told us he believes the coach is involved in Liam’s accident.” She told the story cautiously, well aware that unfounded accusations could ruin the man’s life, but a boy was missing—a boy who’d walked down the man’s driveway and vanished.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Mari answered, her tears momentarily stopped by her confusion. “Not only doesn’t that big goof have a shred of evidence, Coach Snow lives out on Flower Lake and doesn’t know him at all. Even if Erik wanted to go out to see him, he doesn’t have a car, and very few friends, let alone some who drive. I can’t see him hitching a ride with a stranger, either. Mom and Dad grilled us on that danger from the second we could walk. He couldn’t possibly have gotten there on his own.”

  “We drove him there,” Mina admitted, speaking up for the first time, her face almost as white as her pillow case.

  “You what?” Mari screeched, and her voice over the phone was loud enough to wake up the entire household. “How could you do such a thing?”

  Mina started to sob.

  “She was trying to help him, Mari. They just started seeing one another, and he begged her to drive him up there,” Hannah explained, tryi
ng to defend her cousin and knowing Mari was right. If Mina hadn’t agreed to drive him to Coach Snow’s, Erik might not be missing.

  “We waited for him, but he didn’t come back. That’s why I wanted his cell number,” Mina explained. “We were trying to find him, but he didn’t answer his phone.”

  Her tear-filled voice tore at Hannah’s conscience.

  “We called and messaged several times, and waited more than two hours for him. We even went up to the door and spoke to the coach. When Erik wasn’t there, we looked for him along the way back, but he was gone. It was as if he’d vanished into thin air,” Mina finished. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

  “That makes no sense,” Mari said, her voice filled with confusion, but she appeared to be more in control of herself. “What did Coach Snow say when you spoke to him?”

  Hannah licked her dry lips. “We didn’t exactly come out and ask him if he’d seen Erik. The idea was for him not to realize the three of us were together. When Coach answered the door, he’d just gotten out of the shower. Apparently, he’d been out bass fishing,” Hannah answered, giving Mina a chance to settle down. “It didn’t look as if he’d been home when Erik had walked down the driveway.”

  “Bass Fishing? At night? By himself? That’s almost as ridiculous as Erik’s allegations. How do you know the man wasn’t lying? If Erik’s right, and the coach was involved in the accident, he wouldn’t want anyone broadcasting it. He could have my brother locked up in that house somewhere,” Mari said, her tone a mix of anger and fear.

  “And he could have nothing to do with this. The coach isn’t a serial killer for heaven’s sake,” Hannah said, coming to Mr. Snow’s defense. After all, she’d seen the man almost every day for the last two school years. Besides, a person was innocent until proven guilty. “I can’t be 100 percent certain he was out fishing at the exact moment Erik walked down his driveway, but there were bass in his kitchen sink. I saw them. I smelled them. They were fresh. I also peeked into the rooms on the main level. There was no sign anyone had been there.”

  “Mari, if the coach had Erik in the house he wouldn’t have let us inside, would he?” Mina asked.

  Her cousin was trying as hard to convince herself as she was their friend.

  “Maybe not,” Mari conceded, anger standing out in her voice now. “My brother and I may have a psychic connection, but he isn’t a magician, and he sure as hell couldn’t have vanished just like that. Something must’ve happened. He’d never worry Mom and Dad this way.”

  “On that we agree,” Hannah stated, far more worried than she’d been earlier. The more she thought about last night, the more convinced she was that something bad had happened to Erik, and the guiltier she felt for her role in the matter.

  Reluctantly, she continued, knowing Mari might well hate her for what she was about to admit. “At first, I was furious with him, thinking he’d pulled a prank on us, using Mina to get up to Flower Lake for some secret reason. That didn’t really make sense last night and seems even less likely this morning, but the bottom line is we left him there, Mari. We left him so we could get home before curfew to save our own skin.” She stopped and waited, but Mari was eerily silent. “Mina and I are supposed to go into Augusta shopping with Aunt Trudy, but we’ll find a way to beg off. We need to organize a search party all around Coach Snow’s house. Maybe Erik foolishly tried to snoop around and got locked inside an outbuilding or something, or heaven forbid wondered off into the woods and got lost. I’m going to call Liam. He’ll know who we can call for help. I wish I could go back to yesterday and have a redo, but ... I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t be. He may be my brother, but in your shoes, I probably would’ve done the same thing.” Mari sounded resigned. “He got me into trouble more than once, and I would’ve been angry with him, too. Searching the area is a good idea, but the police may not want us messing up what could potentially be a crime scene.” Doubt and worry crept into her tone.

  “I realize that, but when that camper went missing last summer, they welcomed community help, and this time they’re getting it whether they want it or not. They may not take Erik’s disappearance seriously, but we do, and so will his friends. We’ll meet you at O’Malley’s in a couple of hours,” Hannah said, knowing the sooner they started looking the better. “Once Mina’s parents know Erik is missing, they’ll be ready to support any effort to find him. Coach Snow thinks we were in Waverley before we stopped by. We can tell the police we saw Erik walking along the road earlier on our way there. If anyone finds out Mina was driving and he was in the car with us, she’ll lose her license for sure. And we really need to watch what we say. The last thing we need to do is start a rumor implicating the coach when we don’t have a shred of tangible evidence.”

  “Searching for proof is how Erik got into this mess,” Mari agreed, the bitterness in her voice unmistakable. “Did you know he spoke to the police a couple of times? That’s why I don’t understand the reason they aren’t taking this more seriously. Of course he was convinced they were all in on it, but that’s my brother—react first instead of thinking and acting. They told him to back off and so did I, but he was determined to get to the bottom of this. Mom and Dad will go ballistic if he got himself into trouble sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.” She paused a moment. “I thought he was going after someone named Sam.”

  “Sam Fitzroy,” Hannah answered, glad her friend wasn’t blaming her and Mina, and well aware of Erik’s collusion theory. Hadn’t she called him on it? “Apparently, he’s the one who put him onto Coach Snow. He was hoping to steal the man’s cowboy boots and prove there was blood on them.”

  “Steal his boots? Is Erik insane? If the coach was involved, and my dumb ass brother stole evidence, it wouldn’t be admissible. Damn it! He watches enough television to know that. My twin may be smart, but he doesn’t have an ounce of common sense. I’ll tell my parents you saw him out on Flower Lake Road on the way to Waverley, and they can contact the police. Unless it’s critical, we don’t need to tell anyone you drove him there, and we should keep his suspicions about the coach to ourselves for now. But let me tell you, the minute I get my hands on Erik, he’s toast.” She sighed heavily. “I just wish I could feel him.”

  “I wish you could, too,” Mina said, her own voice now clogged with tears. “What if he’s...?”

  “Dead?” Mari supplied. “He isn’t. I’d know that for sure. He’s alive and either asleep or unconscious.” Her voice broke on the last word.

  “My vote’s for asleep,” Hannah said, praying she was right. “It’s early. I’m sure you’ll sense him sooner rather than later. I’ve got to go. See you at O’Malley’s at nine-thirty. Call Ronje. I’m sure she can get Caleb and the other boys on the relay team to help us. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  She hung up the phone and reached for Mina who was sobbing beside her.

  “We should’ve searched for him last night,” Mina said, blubbering in her distress. “This is all my fault. I left him out there injured and alone and if he dies—”

  “Mina, pull yourself together,” Hannah hissed. “This isn’t the time for hysterics. You didn’t decide to leave him out there by yourself. There wasn’t any choice. We did everything we could, but it was dark. How would we have helped Erik if we’d gotten injured or lost looking for him? Mari says he isn’t dead, and I have to believe her. As soon as he wakes up, her hocus-pocus twin sixth sense will kick in, and she’ll know where to find him. All we can do to help is show the kids where we saw him last and hope they find something. We’ll tell your parents exactly what Mari will tell hers. We went to Waverley, saw Erik walking along the Flower Lake Road, and waved at him near Coach Snow’s cottage. We didn’t see a movie we liked, so we came back and stopped to talk to the coach about a booth at the Christmas fair. We didn’t see Erik on our way back. That’s almost the truth. The only thing we’re leaving out is that we drove him there.”

  Mina nodded. “But I still feel responsible
.”

  Hannah hung her head. “So do I.”

  “Mina, Hannah, are you awake?” Aunt Trudy called.

  “Yes,” Hannah answered, as Mina tried to dry her tears.

  “I just got a call from Kit Jenkins. Erik didn’t come home last night. She wondered if he was here. Why would she think that?”

  “I don’t know,” Mina said, swiping at her eyes. “Erik and I have been meeting after school. We saw him at O’Malley’s yesterday. Maybe someone thought he’d come home with us.”

  “Maybe,” her mother said, frowning. “You do know you can’t drive him around though, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Mama.”

  Mina’s face was still so white that Hannah didn’t think her mother would sense the lie.

  “Aren’t you feeling well?” Aunt Trudy asked. “You’re quite pale.”

  “I’m fine,” Mina said, swallowing a fresh round of tears. “Erik is special to me, that’s all.”

  “I see,” her mother said, pursing her lips. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  “Mari just called,” Hannah interrupted before Mina fell apart again. “Since we saw Erik on the Flower Lake Road on our way to Waverley, we may be the last ones who did. We’re going to help search for him out that way.”

  Aunt Trudy blanched. “I hope he didn’t get injured in those woods. Mr. Cullum mentioned seeing a coyote out that way last summer and said some of the neighbors had planned to set out traps. I pray they didn’t. Those horrible metal contraptions should be illegal. If Erik somehow got hurt and spent the night in the cold and rain, he could be looking at hypothermia. What would he have been doing out there all by himself?”

  “Maybe he was going to visit someone,” Hannah suggested. “Coach Snow lives out there. We stopped in to see him about a track and field booth for the Christmas fair. He might’ve seen Erik.”

  “Let’s hope he did and took him in for the night. I came to tell you I’m canceling our shopping trip. I want to do whatever I can to help Kit through this. Be back before dark. One missing boy is one too many, and after Liam’s accident ... I’ll call your Uncle Jim. He may want to talk to you about exactly where you saw that boy. Come have breakfast before you go and dress warmly. Tall boots please. I saw yours, Hannah. What did you do? Run through the field? I’ve cleaned them up as best as I can. They should be good as new tomorrow.”