Murtagh: Didn’t want to think what?
Luis: That he could die. Could be dead, ma’am.
Murtagh: If you were so upset by what happened, why not help the uncle by calling an ambulance or the police? Did you ever consider calling for help?
Luis: Yes. Yes we did, ma’am. We did. But. But we were afraid to.
Murtagh: Were you afraid of getting arrested?
Luis: No, ma’am. I mean, I can’t say that we didn’t know we were in like the biggest trouble. But we were like so more scared of Arnold. I swear. I swear on a thousand Bibles. Like I said, Arnold threatened to kill us and our families if we ever said anything to anyone about his uncle. We really thought he would kill us or hurt us. He would’ve, too. He definitely would’ve. He was legit threatening us the whole ride home. How he looked and sounded, it was real. Driving us back he sped his car right at trees and telephone poles and swerved out of the way at the last minute. The last tree was on Massapoag, near where we’d dumped our bikes. I thought for sure he wasn’t going to stop that time. He was screaming, “This is it,” and we were all screaming, and the car bounced up, off something, a curb maybe, and he didn’t actually stop the car in time. The front of the car skidded past the tree. It was right up against my door and I was sitting in the back. He really tried to hit the tree and missed it because of the curb or something. He tried to kill us right then. He did. I know he did. After he told us to get out of the car and he sat there and we rode away on our bikes.
Murtagh: Did you talk about what happened when you got home?
Luis: No, ma’am. We left each other. Went home. Later that night we were on our Minecraft server and talking and we were ready to call the police. I swear. We were scared but we were going to do it in the morning, but then in the morning we went to Josh’s house and Josh was all upset because in the middle of the night he saw Arnold standing outside his window, staring into his bedroom and watching him. And so we knew Arnold would do something awful to us, or to our families, if we said anything about his uncle.
Murtagh: When did you decide to meet Arnold at Borderland?
Luis: The next day, ma’am. We spent that whole day after talking about Arnold. What we should do. And we didn’t know what to do. It started off mostly me and Josh talking but not saying much more than like what are we going to do? Tommy was throwing up he was so nervous and scared, and everything. Then after a little while Tommy started saying that we had to take care of Arnold ourselves. Make things right. He said we had to fix this. He said that a lot. He said everything that happened was our fault and that we had to make it right. Then Tommy said he had like a plan.
Murtagh: Did you hit your uncle first?
Rooney: Are we going to talk about Tommy? I’d really like to talk about Tommy. I still don’t understand why he tried to hurt me.
Murtagh: What was his plan?
Luis: Have a sleepover at Josh’s house because it was like the closest to Borderland. His backyard is right up against it. Then we sneak out and meet Arnold at Devil’s Rock late at night when no one is around. And then kind of trick him into having an accident. Like fall off the rock or something. Tommy talked about how whenever we were at the rock Arnold would always jump back and forth over the split and if we got him drunk enough maybe he’d fall in on his own.
Murtagh: And what were you going to do if he didn’t fall on his own?
Luis: Tommy said that we would push him, ma’am. Into the split. Or if he got close enough to an edge, he’d push him off. Me and Josh were going crazy when he first said it, you know? We were like no way, there was no way we could do it, we couldn’t push him off. We just couldn’t do something like that. And it would never work. But then Tommy said that he would do it. He would push him. He even said it should be him to do it.
Murtagh: So you planned to kill Arnold?
Josh: No. Not like that. I mean, I guess we did. But we weren’t thinking of what we were going to do like that.
Murtagh: How were you thinking of it?
Josh: Tommy never said we were going to kill him. We just wanted to stop him. Stop him.
Murtagh: Stop him from doing what?
Josh: You don’t understand! He went to my house that night! He knew where I lived. I never told him that. He found my house on his own. He was standing there and looking in my window and he’s been there, outside my window, like at least three more times since Tommy disappeared and he’s probably been to Tommy’s house and Luis’s house.
Luis: Tommy kept saying this is how it has to be. That we had no choice that Arnold was going to hurt us or someone we loved and it wasn’t like if it happens but when it happens. I said something stupid and kind of mean to him about being a seer, and Josh was a mess and kept asking Tommy what he meant by the not-if-when stuff, asking if he knew something he wasn’t telling us. Tommy was the only one of us who Snapchatted with Arnold, right? And I don’t know, it felt like Tommy was hiding something. That he knew something else we didn’t but he didn’t say anything more, asked us to trust him, that this is how it had to be. And even through all that, me and Josh still said no. We did. We told him no and it wouldn’t work. But it was too late.
Murtagh: Why was it too late?
Luis: Tommy said he’d already told Arnold we’d meet him at the rock the next night.
Rooney: I’m not going to talk about this too much because you’re not going to understand. You’ve already made up your minds anyway. I can tell. I can see it. Didn’t the boys tell you I’m a seer? Future teller? Mind reader? Runs in the family, you know.
Murtagh: We haven’t made up our minds, Rooney. We want to know the truth.
Rooney: Let me tell you a secret. We are all seers. We just can’t see everything all the time. Or maybe we can and we’re like purposefully blind to it. We don’t want to see it. We couldn’t live without going totally batshit crazy if we could see the connections to everything, so you have to screen stuff out, ignore some of it. You see what you want to see. That’s it, there. You have to want to see it. Simple as fucking pie. Tommy knew that better than anyone else. He wanted to see.
Murtagh: Rooney, please tell us what happened when you and the boys entered your apartment.
Rooney: I’m going to say this quick. Get it over with. And this is the God’s-honest truth, right? I swear on the pus-covered soul of my mother and if she’s not dead, she should be. Sorry. I’m kidding, bad joke, I know. Sorry. I’m sorry, I’m nervous because I’m not sure you’ll believe me.
Murtagh: We’re here to listen to what you have to say, Rooney.
Rooney: The boys were so drunk and I should’ve taken them home then. They stumbled up the back stairs and I stayed behind them, the caboose, in case one of them fell, you know. I was worried and even then I was like this is a bad idea. My uncle’s probably sleeping. But they went on ahead, let themselves in, and ran into the apartment. They went into the living room and my uncle was there, drunk, kind of half asleep in front of the TV like he always was. I told them I kept the coin stuff in my bedroom but we had to be quiet and the boys were hooting and hollering and didn’t listen to me. They took some of my uncle’s beers and started pounding those down and spilling everywhere. My uncle finally woke up a little and he growled at them. He’s a growler, always was. He gave him a little dose of the Rev’s voice, you know? Told them to get out of there, leave his beer, dropped a few f-bombs on them. And then the boys went crazy laughing and started yelling fuck off and then, Josh, he was the first one, he slapped my uncle with an open hand. Just crack! Like that, and then he hit him again real quick, then bounced back behind his friends, hiding or something. Typical Josh shit, you know? And then it started blurring, the three of them were all over him, like a, like a pack of, what, jackals, or something. Hitting, punching, kicking, and they wouldn’t stop.
Murtagh: Why didn’t you stop them?
Rooney: This is why I don’t want to talk about it. You’re not going to believe me. I know it looks bad, real bad that I didn’t do
anything to stop them, especially after how you found him today. But I did. I froze up, shut down. Have you ever seen a beating? Not a fight or one punch. Have you ever been right there for a total beatdown? It’s awful. Makes you sick. Changes you. It does. It changes you just seeing it. And I’ve seen and taken my fair share of beatings in my life, some really bad ones, awful ones. You have no idea how awful, how awful it can be. And I don’t know, there in the TV room, I did what I always did. I stayed silent. Didn’t move. I just took it. I watched.
Josh: We filled my backpack with a bunch of my dad’s beer. We had to take enough and get Arnold to drink a lot of it. We watched superhero movies until my parents were asleep and snuck out.
Murtagh: Was Arnold at the rock waiting for you?
Josh: No. We were there by ourselves, the whole time.
Murtagh: By yourselves?
Josh: We never saw Arnold that night. We weren’t lying about not knowing what happened to Tommy. I never saw Arnold there that night. He was there outside my window the next night and the night after that, and again after that. But I didn’t see Arnold in the park.
Luis: Tommy said he chatted up Arnold to make it seem like we were still his friends and everything was normal. Said he told Arnold that we were solid, wouldn’t ever tell on him, and you know, said we still wanted to hang out with him and stuff. Tommy said Arnold was totally into coming out to the rock. Excited about it.
Murtagh: Did you see the texts? Why did Tommy think Arnold was excited?
Luis: No, ma’am. They weren’t texts. Snapchats, and they like disappear right after you look at them. Tommy said that Arnold was excited to meet us out there.
Murtagh: If you were so afraid of Arnold, why would you meet him out in the woods in the middle of the night?
Luis: We were totally scared, but because Tommy went ahead and told Arnold we’d be there we were more scared to not show up. If we didn’t show up, then Arnold would think we were like setting him up or something, and then he’d come after us for sure. I was so scared, ma’am. And . . .
Murtagh: What is it, Luis?
Luis: I was scared of Arnold and mad at Tommy. He put us in that spot. We had no choice. We had to go. Walking out into those woods was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Rooney: I stood there even when they started smashing beer bottles over his head. And then, then, they jabbed pieces of glass right into him. Just fucking stabbing him, right there in front of me. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t happening. My uncle, he was passed out, knocked out, and didn’t do anything. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t doing anything. I backed up into a corner, crouched down into nothing, I was nothing, and watched. I watched. That’s all I do, I watch. Those times I’ve been arrested. I never take anything or do anything in their houses, I just watch. I’m not a bad guy and I don’t do those terrible things. I want to see what it’s like to be in those other places, you know, the nice houses I broke into. I just watch. It’s all in my record, right? You know this. It’s all there. I haven’t ever done what they did.
Murtagh: Can you repeat that please, Josh?
Josh: Tommy. Tommy said we had to drink some of the beers. I didn’t want to. I never even liked drinking ever.
Murtagh: Why did you have to drink?
Josh: He said that when Arnold showed up we had to make sure everything seemed normal. I only took a couple of sips. I stood on the rock and poured the rest of mine out right in front of them.
Luis: I did drink a beer, ma’am. Only one. Tommy drank a couple, I think. Josh poured his out. And I was scared because I knew this wasn’t going to work, and I was going to tell Tommy we should go home and come up with something else. Then Tommy told Josh that pouring out the beer was fine, that it was good, because it would make the rock smell like beer, like we’d been there waiting for him for a while. He said that Arnold would be there any minute.
Murtagh: Josh had the backpack of beer. What did you bring with you?
Luis: I didn’t bring anything, ma’am. I’d grabbed a walking stick in the woods, before we got to the rock. I wasn’t planning on doing anything with it. Nothing planned. Maybe protection. Just in case.
Murtagh: Did anyone bring a flashlight or a lighter?
Luis: We used our phones as flashlights, totally drained our batteries so fast. But we could still see okay. It was surprisingly bright out. Especially on top of the rock. Clear sky, big moon.
Murtagh: Did Tommy have anything with him?
Murtagh: Did you ever hit or stab your uncle, Rooney?
Rooney: No. I didn’t do anything. He was dead, right there on the couch.
Murtagh: Are you’re saying the boys killed your uncle?
Rooney: I don’t think they meant to, but they couldn’t stop hitting and jabbing him once they got started. The boys finally quit when they were totally exhausted. Wore themselves out on my uncle. They finished and kind of wandered out of the room into the kitchen and one of them called out to me, said let’s go. So I did. I drove them home in a state of shock. I don’t even remember the ride or where I dropped them, and I don’t remember the ride back to the apartment. Total autopilot, you know? When I got back, my uncle was sitting on the bathroom floor, sitting in his own blood and everything, and I tried to get him up, to help him, but there was nothing I could do. He was gone.
Murtagh: Didn’t you say that your uncle was dead on the couch? How did he get to the bathroom?
Rooney: Yeah, he was dead before he got to the bathroom. He still got there somehow. Maybe he didn’t know any better. I’m sorry, I’m so nervous telling you all this, because there are more parts that don’t make sense like that part. Yes, yes, he was dead on the couch. But when I got back he was in the bathroom.
Murtagh: There wasn’t a lot of blood on the couch or living room rug, Rooney. Very little. A few drops. But there was a lot of blood in the bathroom. Do you—
Rooney: (interrupts) I want to go back. Can I go back now? I want to go back.
Police: Go back?
Rooney: To my cave. I should’ve stayed there.
Josh: It was in the pocket of his cargo shorts. He showed it to us. It was dumb and scary. That’s when I poured out my beer. After he showed us that.
Luis: It was a jackknife, ma’am.
Murtagh: How big was it?
Luis: I didn’t get a long look at it. I remember that he finished his beer before I did and put the empty back in Josh’s pack. Then he didn’t say anything about it or what he was going to do with the knife. He took it out of his pocket, opened it up real quick. It looked small to me. Then he folded it up and put it back in his pocket. I didn’t see him take it out again.
Murtagh: Did you know he was bringing it?
Luis: No, ma’am.
Murtagh: Had he ever previously shown you the knife?
Luis: No, ma’am.
Murtagh: You named it Devil’s Rock, is that correct, Rooney?
Rooney: No, I told the boys that is what it’s called, should be called. I can’t name stuff. I’m not that important. Never was.
Murtagh: Tommy contacted you via Snapchat and invited you to meet them at Devil’s Rock on the night of August 16th. Is that correct?
Rooney: It is. It is indeed. Indubitably. Sorry. Okay, sorry.
Murtagh: That’s okay, Rooney. We thank you for talking with us and helping us. You still want to help us, right?
Rooney: Yes, I do. I want to help.
Murtagh: Did you go to Borderland on the 16th?
Rooney: I did. Yes, I did.
Murtagh: Why did you meet them there? After everything you said they’d done to your uncle, why would you go?
Rooney: I wanted to talk to them. Convince them to turn themselves in and get my uncle the help he needed.
Murtagh: Why didn’t you call for help yourself?
Rooney: Right after it happened I was helping him. I was watching him, making sure he was comfortable. I couldn’t call the police or anything because yo
u wouldn’t have believed me that it was them, all them. So they had to call and tell the truth and then my uncle could get more help.
Murtagh: Who taped up the bathroom door, Rooney?
Rooney: I don’t know. I’m having a hard time figuring that out myself, you know? I don’t remember. Really, I don’t. Seeing them attack the Rev like that, it messed me up pretty good. Knocked me loose for like a whole week. I mean, why would my friends do that to my uncle? And how did they tape the bathroom, you know? It wasn’t me. I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do that!
Murtagh: You don’t have to shout, Rooney. We’re sitting across from you and listening.
Rooney: Yeah, okay. I know. Thank you. I know. Hey, but, yeah, I left. I wasn’t even home for a long time, until today. When you found me there. I was gone before that. For a long time. For as long as Tommy was gone. So maybe they came back to my apartment and taped up the bathroom door. Ask Josh and Luis about that. About the tape. It wasn’t me. I was gone.
Murtagh: Where were you?
Rooney: I was at Borderland.
Murtagh: Where in Borderland?
Rooney: Over in the way north end of the park. No one ever uses those trails, especially over by the old Moyles quarry. Tough hiking and climbing there. Did you know they built that old viaduct in Canton from those stones? It’s true. Look it up. And Tommy’s dad crashed into those rocks. Same rocks. Weird, huh? Coincidence, yeah? There’s no fucking coincidences. You know that. You have to. Your job is about finding how all the coincidences fit together. I know you know everything already and the only reason you’re here and I’m here is to mess with me.
Murtagh: Rooney, that’s not true.
Rooney: After Tommy tried to hurt me I walked around, walked around, tried to figure things out, get my head on straight, and I walked to the other end of the park where there were all those rocks everywhere and I stopped, and this is something you’re not going to believe me about either, and maybe I don’t believe it now, like I said, seeing them kill the Rev totally fried my brain and then Tommy trying to hurt me didn’t exactly help . . . Anyway, so I wandered over to the quarry and there were all these rocks everywhere, and then rocks, they kind of opened up, like, like a flower, and they took me in.
Disappearance at Devil's Rock Page 26