by Kathi Daley
“No. It’s really just a story I’m telling myself. But it does seem odd that no one knows anything. I’d find the stories the boys told to be more believable if they weren’t so similar.”
“Callie makes a good point,” Hope said. “I read through the witness statements, and the interviews given by the remaining boys were so similar as to seem rehearsed. The only one that was different was Toby Wallis’s statement. If something happened and the older boys all decided to cover it up, I don’t think he knew the truth.”
I sat forward slightly. “Okay, so Josh, Bobby, Colin, and Larry were all in on the secret. Whatever happened occurred when Toby wasn’t around, so they all agreed not to bring him in on whatever was going on. I guess we should assume at this point that Austin was dead; otherwise, it seems the boys would have tried to help him rather than covering up whatever happened. The four survivors sharing the secret take some time to get their story straight before going into town to get help, so even though they were interviewed separately, they all had the same script from which to answer any questions that were asked. Toby said that Bobby seemed to be the most fearful after Austin went missing, so maybe he was the weak link. The friend the others dreaded might rat them out. But he didn’t. He managed to keep it together, and the others thought they were safe. Well, at least Colin and Larry might have thought that since Josh died a long time ago.”
“And then you start asking questions, and maybe Bobby started to sweat again. Maybe he even said something to one of the other two about the guilt he’d lived with and how it had affected his life,” Hope said. “I suppose the others might have thought that he was a real risk, so either Colin or Larry shot him.”
“Do either of you know Colin or Larry?” I asked.
“Larry moved a long time ago, so no,” Hope said. “I know the name, but I really don’t know him.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Naomi agreed.
“And Colin?” I asked.
“Yeah, I know Colin,” Hope said. “He seems like an okay sort of guy. He’s married to a woman named Babs, and he works down at the lumber mill. He’s actually a foreman of some sort. I think he does okay. He and Babs live in a nice house, and they both drive nice vehicles.”
“Does he seem like the sort of person who would shoot someone in cold blood to protect a secret?” I asked.
“No. But I suppose that before anyone can determine whether or not someone would kill to protect a secret, you’d really need to know what the secret was and what the fallout would be to his current life.”
Hope was right. It would be hard to know if someone would kill without really knowing or understanding why. I wasn’t sure how Bobby’s death was going to affect Cass’s ability to help me out with the Austin Brady case for my story, but I did realize that Austin Brady’s disappearance was the case I’d been assigned by my boss, so it would be best if I stayed focused on that.
Chapter 7
Monday
I hadn’t seen or talked to Cass at all yesterday. He’d texted to let me know he was knee-deep in interviews relating to the shooting and would call me today. I was sorry he missed the cookout the rest of us had enjoyed last evening, but I did understand that he had a job to do. It sounded like he had a lot of leads to work through. Hope, Naomi, and I had only identified a few motives which would have been easy enough to check out, so chances were that Cass had information that we didn’t, which led to his long list.
My list of chores for today consisted of a trip to the newspaper to meet with Dex and to turn in the articles I had ready for him to have formatted. I also wanted to speak to him about both Bobby’s death and the progress I’d made on the Austin Brady case. I remembered that Dex had known the boys in question and had even planned to go along on the camping trip until his father had put an end to it. I supposed if anyone would have an opinion about what might have happened, other than the boys involved, of course, it would be him.
After I met with Dex, I planned to go to the wellness center and have my first workout. There were a lot of options to choose from, but I was really out of shape and wanted to start out slow. I hoped as time progressed, I’d begin to feel more like the self I seemed to have left behind after the accident.
Monday was also my day to pick Paisley up from school and give her a piano lesson. I was really hoping to connect with Cass at some point today as well.
“Busy day ahead?” Gracie asked when I went down for coffee.
“The busiest. I wanted to tell you both,” I said, including Tom, “that I had the best time last night. It was really special to share an evening in the yard by the lake with the people I love the most.”
“It was a special evening.” Gracie agreed. “And the first of many.”
“I loved the steaks, but let’s try ribs next time,” I suggested, smiling at Gracie. “You have always made the best ribs.”
“I think ribs would be a great choice for our second cookout. It seemed as if Ethel had a nice time last night,” Gracie referred to Paisley’s grandmother. “She seems to be doing better.”
“I agree. I know we take her food all the time, but it might be nice to invite her over more often,” I said. “Paisley practically lives here between the sewing and piano lessons, so I imagine Ethel gets lonely.”
“I agree,” Gracie said. “I’ll invite her to dinner one evening this week. So how is your article on the Austin Brady case going?”
“Slowly, but I feel like I’m gaining a better understanding of what went on. Cass has been helping me with the interviews and research, but with Bobby Brighton’s death, I’m not sure he’ll have time to continue to commit to the project.”
“I guess a current murder would take precedence over a long-ago missing persons case,” Gracie agreed.
I looked at Tom. “I’ve learned that Bobby hung out at Jack’s Place. I know you pop in there from time to time. Did you know Bobby?”
“Sure. Not that we hung out together or anything, but I know who he is, or I guess I should say who he was. It seems to me that he was one of those bar patrons who spent a bit too much time chasing the bottom of the bottle if you know what I mean.”
“I do. Has he always been that way?”
Tom slowly bobbed his head. “Bobby seemed to be the sort who might have demons he needed to keep at bay. Sometimes he was fine, even for long periods of time, but then something would happen to wake those demons, and he’d be back to the bottle.”
“Do you think his demons had anything to do with Austin’s disappearance?” I wondered.
“Perhaps. It seems like that would be a hard thing for a kid to deal with.”
“He wasn’t the only camper to make it back to town. Toby seems to be okay. I don’t really know the others.”
“Some folks deal with stress better than others,” Tom pointed out.
I supposed that was true. Maybe Bobby wasn’t the sort to do well with stress of any kind, and maybe he would have been that way even without the trauma of losing a friend.
Once I finished my coffee, I got ready and headed into town. I hoped Dex liked the articles I’d written about the new health and fitness center in town, as well as the upcoming spaghetti dinner and raffle. They were short human interest stories, but at this point in my career, I’d take whatever I could get. I was sure he’d put Brock on the Bobby Brighton murder, as he should since Brock was the newspaper’s lead reporter, but I still had the Austin Brady case, which I hoped would open the door to other investigative pieces.
“Morning, Dex,” I said as I sat down at the desk across from him. “Did you get the two human interest pieces I submitted this morning?”
“I did, and they both look fine.”
“I haven’t had a chance to use my membership at the new health spa yet, but I plan to go a couple times this week, so I’ll write a follow up for next week. The list of classes is impressive. I guess it’s the quality of the instructor that will make the difference between an enjoyable and unbearable class, however. Once I have a chance to t
ry a few out, I’ll offer my opinion.”
He leaned back in his desk chair, crossing his arms across his chest in a familiar move. “Sounds good. How’s the Austin Brady story going?”
“It’s going. I guess you heard about Bobby.”
He nodded. “I did. I’d been worried about Bobby for a while. I really hoped he’d figure it out and pull himself together before things ended the way they did.”
“Do you think that Bobby was shot due to a decision he made or an action he’d taken in the past year or so?”
“Don’t you? It makes sense that whatever Bobby was engaged in that made someone angry enough to shoot him, must have been a recent action.”
“Perhaps. Especially given the fact that according to the few folks I’ve spoken to about things, Bobby seemed to have made a lot of enemies lately. It did occur to me, however, that Bobby being shot could be the result of our digging around in the Austin Brady case.”
Dex frowned. “Why would looking into the Austin Brady case result in Bobby’s death all these years later?”
I folded my hands on the desk. “When Cass and I spoke to Toby on Saturday, he said that he remembers Bobby acting frightened after Austin went missing. Toby said that as far as he knew, Bobby never indicated to anyone that he knew anything specific about Austin’s disappearance, but he did say that Bobby wasn’t himself.”
“Bobby was always the weak link in the group,” Dex admitted. “Josh and Colin were both in eighth grade that spring. They were pretty full of themselves since they were getting ready to go into high school the next fall. Bobby, Larry, Austin, and I were in seventh grade, and I seem to remember that Toby was in first or possibly second grade. Toby wasn’t one of the gang, and as has been mentioned in the past, he was only with the group because Josh’s mother made him bring him along.”
“So Josh and Colin acted like the leaders of the pack.” I assumed.
“They did. Josh was a nice kid who took his leadership role mostly seriously, while Colin simply wanted to push us younger kids around. Colin had a tough home life. His father was a drunk, and the whole situation was dysfunctional. The poor kid was going through something that year. An identity crisis perhaps. I know he was pushing back hard, which caused him to make some bad choices.”
“What sort of bad choices?” I asked.
Dex drummed his fingers on the desk. “He started smoking tobacco and pot, and he seemed to always have a bottle of something alcoholic in his backpack, even at school. There has been talk that the older boys had been drinking and smoking weed Friday. If that’s true, and I have no reason to think it’s not, you can bet it was Colin who brought it.”
“Josh was older and therefore a leader, but he was basically a nice kid, and Colin was also older, but sort of messed up and tended to bring deviant behavior to the group. What did Austin, Larry, and Bobby bring to the party?”
“Austin was a rebel of sorts. He was only in the seventh grade, so he didn’t possess a natural leadership position based on age the way Josh and Colin did, but he had a really strong personality, and there was no way he was going to let the older kids tell him what to do. Colin and Austin were going at each other all the time by that spring. I guess you could say they were friends as they’d always been, but they’d been involved in several physical altercations with each other leading up to the campout. In fact, I think Colin went on that camping trip with a brand new shiner, courtesy of Austin.”
“Do you remember what they fought about?”
“Anything and everything. The two had always butted heads, that was a fact, but it seemed things got worse around Valentine’s Day when they both asked the same girl to the dance. The girl went with Austin, which really made Colin mad. After that, every little thing seemed to lead to a boxing match.”
“Do you think they might have fought on that campout, and something happened to Austin? Something awful that the others agreed to cover up.”
A look of shock crossed Dex’s face. “God, I hope not.”
“What about Larry? What was he like?”
“He was the quiet sort. He liked to read a lot, and was smarter than the rest of us, although, like Colin, he had a tricky home life. His folks moved him around a lot. I know he had a hard time making friends. He’d only been in Foxtail Lake about six months at the time of the camping trip, and moved again before the year was out.”
“I understand he lives in Steamboat Springs now.”
“I hadn’t heard. I didn’t stay in touch with him after he left.”
“Okay.” I crossed my arms on the desk. “Tell me about Bobby.”
“Bobby was a scrawny kid. He was a good head shorter than the rest of us. He could be scrappy, and he did tend to get into trouble at times, but Bobby was the tenderhearted sort who wore his emotions on his sleeve. He had a hard time as he grew older, but as a kid, he was the one who would stop to help an injured bird or bring home a stray puppy.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Okay. Let me make sure I have this right. Josh and Colin were older, and therefore the natural leaders of the group. Josh was a nice kid who took his leadership role seriously, while Colin was a bit of a screw-up.”
“Basically, yes.”
“Larry was the smart one, although also the newest to the group, and the least integrated with the others, Austin was a rebel of sorts who liked to go head to head with Colin, and Bobby was the sweet tenderhearted one.”
“Sounds like you nailed it.”
“What about you? What sort of role did you play in the group?”
“I didn’t go on the trip, so it really doesn’t matter.”
I smiled. “I know, but humor me. Who was Dex Heatherton when he was twelve?”
“I was sort of vanilla. I went to school, kept my nose clean, made good grades, and rarely got into trouble. My parents were well known in the community, and if I even thought about smoking a cigarette or taking a drink, they somehow found out about it. Keep in mind that of all the boys in the group, I was the only one whose parents forbid them from going on that campout. I guess you could say that I was raised on a short leash.” He looked around his office. “I guess it worked out okay.”
I nodded. “It totally worked out okay. If something did happen to Austin on that campout, and the others all vowed to cover it up, your parents saved you from a lifetime of living with that secret by forbidding you to cut class and go along.”
Dex frowned once again. “Do you really think Bobby was shot because of something he knew?”
I shrugged. “I really have no idea. It’s a story that fits for me, but Cass is looking into all sorts of angles. Maybe he’ll have an update for us by the end of the day.”
Chapter 8
After I left the newspaper, I headed toward the new health club. I supposed I needed to settle on a descriptor for the dang place. Since I’d first been assigned the article, I’d been flipping around between gym, health club, wellness center, workout center, and spa. The words wellness center were in the name, so perhaps I’d settle on that.
A beautiful and perfectly fit woman named Ava met me at the front desk. Ava asked me about my membership, and I explained who I was and what sort of trial membership I’d been given. She asked if I’d had the tour, and I assured her I had. She assigned me a locker, gave me a key, and provided directions to the spin class I’d decided to start with. I figured I’d do the class, mess around with the weight machines a bit, take a sauna and maybe a dip in the Jacuzzi pool, and then shower and dress in time to pick Paisley up. What I didn’t know was that the spin class was an advanced class for those who were planning to take a virtual trip up the side of a freaking mountain.
By the time I finished the class, I could barely walk, so I headed straight for the pool where I tried to keep my tears at bay while my legs, butt, and back screamed for a good thirty minutes before they began to relax. I’m not sure how I managed to get showered and dressed in time to make the trip to Paisley’s school, but by sheer determination alo
ne, I managed to get into the pick-up line just minutes later than I usually did.
“How was the spin class you told me you were going to try out?” Paisley asked after climbing into my car once I’d pulled to the front of the line.
“It was fun,” I lied, knowing that I’d probably never touch another bike. “I think I’m going to work with the machines next time so I can set the pace myself rather than trying to keep up with a class. It takes a while to get back into the groove of things when you haven’t worked out for as long as I have. How was school?”
“Boring. My teacher is getting us ready for state testing, but I already know everything she’s showing us. I asked her if I could read, but she wanted me to participate with the others. I can’t wait until state testing is done so we can get back to our normal routine.”
“Hang in there. This, too, will pass.”
“At least I had my piano lesson to look forward to.” Paisley rolled the passenger window down. “I’ve been practicing, and I think I might have finally figured out that middle part I was having so much trouble with.”
“That’s wonderful. I can’t wait to hear it. Anything else going on with you?”
She paused and appeared to be thinking about it. “My friend, Jolene, told me her uncle died this weekend. Someone shot him right in the head.”
I narrowed my gaze. “Was your friend’s uncle named Bobby?”
She nodded. “She told me Uncle Bobby was out with his friends but got tired so he left. When he got home, someone was waiting and just shot him dead.”
I wondered if that was what had really happened. Cass hadn’t filled me in at all at this point.
“The police came to his house,” Paisley continued. “I wonder if Cass was there.”
“I’m sure he was.” I hadn’t filled Paisley in on why Cass hadn’t joined us for the cookout last night. I’d just said he had to work when she asked where he was.
Paisley wrinkled her nose. “It would be gross to see someone who had been shot in the head. I bet there was blood everywhere. I probably would have barfed.”