by Kathi Daley
“Make it back from where?” I asked.
Larry hesitated.
“It’s important that you tell us everything you remember,” I said.
“Shouldn’t you be asking Colin these questions? He still lives in Foxtail Lake. I’m sure his memories will be sharper. I’d only lived there for a few months when Austin went missing, and I moved again not long after that. I barely knew those kids.”
I glanced at Dex.
“We do plan to talk to Colin, but we really want to know what you remember as well,” Dex said.
Larry blew out a loud breath. “Okay. I guess there’s no harm in telling what I know at this point.” He glanced back in my direction. “I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but there was some serious partying going on that evening. Josh brought a bottle of tequila, and Colin brought weed. After Josh made that kid, Toby, go to bed, we broke out both and started smoking and drinking and telling ghost stories.”
“Go on,” I said.
He hesitated.
“If you know anything at all that might help us figure out what happened to Austin, you really do need to tell us,” I encouraged.
“It happened a really long time ago. It’s hard to remember what was said and done so many years later.”
I could tell he was holding something back, but I wasn’t sure what.
“Did you tell the investigating officer about the weed and alcohol?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t tell, and the other kids didn’t either. I know how that sounds. Looking at the situation through the eyes of an adult, I can see that knowing the mental state of everyone involved could have been important to the search, but at the time, I really wanted to fit in. Do you have any idea how hard it is to go to a new school every year? My parents moved around a lot, so when I found a group to hang out with, I made sure to act in such a way so they’d be happy to keep me around.”
“I guess I understand that,” I said. “It is hard when you move around a lot. And I understand that the group as a whole seemed to have agreed to keep the drinking and smoking weed to themselves.”
“Colin told us we would all go to juvy if we admitted to getting wasted, so we kept quiet.”
I wasn’t sure that was true, but I could see how Colin was able to convince everyone that it was. “So what happened after everyone started drinking and smoking weed?” I asked.
“Mostly, everyone just got really silly. There were a lot of bad jokes being passed around, and the content of our conversation isn’t one I’d want to repeat in front of a lady.” He paused for a moment and then continued. “There was this one thing that might not have been mentioned.”
“Go on,” I encouraged.
“I don’t know if anyone told you this, but Austin and Colin weren’t getting along. Colin was older than most of us by a year, and as the oldest, he expected to be the leader of the group, but Austin had the strongest personality, and there was constant friction between them. It got really bad when Austin and Colin asked the same girl to the Valentine Dance, and she ended up choosing Austin.”
I’d heard this before, but I sensed he was building up to something more, so I kept quiet and let him continue with his story.
“After the dance,” he continued, “Colin and Austin got into a fistfight, the first of many during the three months between the dance and the campout. And it wasn’t just the fights between them. They also started pranking each other.”
“Did one of them pull a prank on the other the night Austin disappeared?” I asked.
He lowered his head but didn’t answer.
“If something was going on, I’d really appreciate it if you’d tell us,” I coaxed. “We’re just trying to figure out what happened to Austin all those years ago.”
He looked up. “Can you go to jail for knowing something, but not telling what you know?”
I paused. “I guess that depends on the circumstances. Do you know something and are afraid of going to jail for not telling before this?”
“Maybe. Remember, I wanted those boys to like me. I had no one else. I was the new kid in town, and if I would have made someone like Colin mad, that would have been the end of it for me.”
I glanced at Dex.
“We aren’t law enforcement, and have no interest in causing you any trouble,” Dex assured him. “If you know something and tell us, we can keep your name out of it. You can be a confidential informant.”
Larry bit down on his lip but didn’t speak. He appeared to be thinking it over.
“We understand that it was a long time ago, and you were just a kid. You all were,” I added.
“What about the others?” Larry asked. “Could they go to jail for playing a prank on someone twenty-five years ago?”
“Austin is probably dead, Josh and Bobby are definitely dead, and I’m going to assume Toby wasn’t part of what happened. We’ve promised to keep your name out of things so that just leaves Colin. Was Colin the one who played the prank?” I asked.
Larry nodded. “Remember, this is all in confidence.”
“We understand and agree,” Dex assured him.
“Colin wanted to play a prank on Austin. There was this guy Colin knew who had drugs. Hard drugs, not just weed. The guy sold Colin a pill.”
“What sort of pill?” I asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but the guy said it would make Austin freak out. I guess the pill caused hallucinations. Colin took the pill, ground it up, and slipped it in Austin’s drink. After a while, Austin started hearing and seeing things. At first, it was funny, but then Austin got really scared. He was sure there was a monster of some sort after him, and he took off running into the dark woods. None of us ever saw him again.”
I put a hand to my mouth.
“Colin told us not to worry,” Larry continued. “He told us the pill would make Austin pass out, and then he’d be fine the next day. I was scared, and I could see that Bobby was as well, but eventually, Colin was able to convince us we were only going to make it worse by overreacting.”
“So, what did you do?” I asked.
“We all went to bed. The next morning, we waited for Austin to come back, but he didn’t, so we all went looking for him. When we couldn’t find him, Josh decided that we should go to town and get help. Bobby was really freaked out. He was crying and saying things about Colin killing Austin. He wanted to tell the cops what really happened, but Colin convinced us that we’d go to juvy. He assured us that Austin was just out in the woods somewhere and that the search team would find him. He told us that the best thing we could do was to tell the cops that none of us knew what had happened and to totally leave out the part about the alcohol, weed, and especially the pill Colin had bought.”
“But they never found him,” I pointed out.
He slowly shook his head. “No. They never did.”
“So why didn’t you tell then? After he wasn’t found?”
“It seemed too late by that point. We’d all already talked to the cops and the search and rescue team, and we’d all lied by that point. We all told the adults that Austin had simply disappeared, and we had no idea when or why he’d left the camp. Bobby waffled a bit, but Colin made sure he would keep quiet. The longer the lie was out there, the easier it was to convince ourselves that the lie was the truth.”
I guess that was common psychology. The longer you hang onto a lie, the more real it becomes until, at some point, you forget altogether that the truth you think you know started out as something you simply made up.
“So, what do you think happened to Austin?” I asked.
Larry shrugged. “I really have no idea. Yes, he was freaked out when he ran into the woods. He really did seem to think this huge bear, Bigfoot, monster, or whatever he saw was after him. But even if he would have run and hidden, he would eventually have come down from the trip Colin sent him on and found his way back. Even if he would have fallen and gotten hurt, he would have been found. Heck, even if he’d fallen and died, someone wo
uld have found his remains. The fact that he was simply gone never made sense.”
I had to admit that even with the help of a hallucinogen, it didn’t make any sense that neither Austin nor his remains were found.
“So, you really don’t have any idea what happened to Austin after he ran off?” I asked, mostly to clarify.
“I really have no idea what happened to Austin after he ran off.”
I glanced at Dex. His complexion had gone pale. I could see that this bit of news had affected him deeply. After a few minutes, Dex spoke up. “It sounds as if it was Colin who gave Austin the hallucinogen and made sure that everyone kept quiet. Bobby was shot this past Sunday. Do you think it’s possible that his conscience finally got to him and he’d decided to tell the authorities what really happened, so Colin shot him before he could give the secret away?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. When I heard what happened, that thought did cross my mind. I guess Colin has the most to lose since he was the one who actually drugged the guy. The rest of us simply didn’t tell anyone what we knew. Having said that, I want to assure you that I have no proof or evidence of any sort that Colin killed Bobby. I wouldn’t even know that Bobby was dead if Deputy Wylander hadn’t called me to ask me some questions and get my alibi.”
“I want to thank you for speaking to us today,” I said. “You really have been very helpful, and I promise to keep your name out of any article I write relating to the disappearance.”
“I appreciate that.”
Dex and I left shortly after. Initially, we drove in silence, but eventually, I asked the question on my mind. “What do you make of all that?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t believe that Colin gave Austin a hallucinogen without his consent. I mean, he was just a kid and probably did mean for it to be a funny prank. I doubt he had any idea what would happen. But still, that was a twist to the story I really hadn’t seen coming.”
“Something had to have happened to Austin after he ran off, but what? I agree with Larry that even if he’d suffered an accident due to his mental state, his remains would have eventually been found. How does someone simply vanish?”
“Good question.” He slowed down as he approached the car in front of him. “What are you going to tell Cass?”
“I’m going to tell him the truth. I won’t mention Larry’s name, but he’ll figure it out. I trust Cass. He’s not going to arrest Larry for keeping a childhood secret that he probably only agreed to keep due to peer pressure. I’m sure he’ll handle the situation with the care it deserves. I mean, he certainly can’t prove any of this. Even if he confronts Colin, all Colin has to do is insist that Larry is lying. No one is alive who can corroborate it. Josh and Bobby are dead, and based on what we’ve been told, Toby was never in the mix, and, of course, Austin is missing and probably dead.”
“Yeah,” Dex agreed. “Going at Colin head-on is not the way to the truth. Cass will need to prove Colin’s guilt another way. I really don’t think the guy is the sort to ever admit to wrongdoing, no matter how much pressure is applied.”
Chapter 11
Dex dropped me off back at the house, which I found empty. There was a note from Aunt Gracie saying that she wasn’t sure what time I’d be home, so she planned to pick Paisley up from school and take her to a town an hour to the east to pick up some fabric for their next project. I usually picked Paisley up on Wednesdays and gave her a piano lesson, but the trip to Steamboat Springs had taken longer than I’d anticipated, so I could see why she might have assumed I wasn’t going to make it back in time to fulfill my normal obligations.
Her note also said that she and Paisley would just grab dinner while they were out and that Tom had headed over to the lodge to spend time with friends, so I was on my own for the evening meal. I supposed that worked out just fine with me since I planned to call Cass and see if he wanted to get together. I had things to share with him, and I suspected he might have things to share with me.
I figured that Cass might be busy, so I simply texted him and let him know I had news, and he could call me at a convenient time. I then headed up to the attic with Alastair on my heels. I wanted to jot down a few notes for my article on Austin Brady while my conversation with Larry was still fresh in my mind. It was going to be tricky telling the story I had to tell without betraying Larry’s trust, but I was an intelligent woman. I was sure I could figure out a way.
I sat down at my desk and logged onto my computer. I opened the drawer of the desk to look for a pen while it was booting up. The tray that held my pens was empty. It seemed like I managed to misplace an inordinate number of pens. I looked at the cat who was forever knocking them off the desk and batting them around the room. “What did you do with my pens?”
“Meow.”
“Don’t meow me. I left two pens sitting on top of this pad when I last left the room, and now they aren’t anywhere in sight. I suspect that you might know something about that.”
“Meow.” Alastair trotted across the room. He squeezed into the opening where the intake for the old heater used to be before Aunt Gracie replaced the unit with a more efficient model. It was a small opening that barely looked large enough for the cat, but Alastair found a way to squeeze through.
After a moment, a pen slipped out from the opening and slid across the room. Alastair came trotting out behind it. I bent down and picked up the pen. And then it hit me. What if the reason the search and rescue team couldn’t find Austin was because he’d hidden somewhere that would have been accessible to a twelve-year-old but not an adult? I glanced at the magazine I’d left on my desk.
I took out my phone and texted Cass again. “I know I just texted and said to call me whenever, but I had a thought. Perhaps a relevant thought. Call me as soon as you can.”
Two minutes later, my phone rang.
“Hey, what’s up?” Cass asked.
“I just got back from my interview with Larry. He told me something in confidence, and I agreed to keep his name out of things. I want to share something with you, but it needs to be off the record.”
Cass hesitated.
“It’s nothing that you can prove anyway. At least not at this point. But it might explain what happened. If you want to act on what I tell you, you’ll need to promise me that Larry will be treated as a confidential informant.”
“Did he confess to anything that I might, at some point, want to prosecute him for?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Okay. Then I will promise to keep Larry’s name out of things and to treat him as a confidential informant. Up to a point, at least.”
“Okay,” I said. “I trust you to use discretion and do what is best for everyone involved. Larry was hesitant to talk after all these years, but it seems that one of the boys put a hallucinogen in Austin’s drink on the night of the campout. He started seeing and hearing things which caused him to run into the woods screaming, as a monster only he could see, seemed to him chase him away from the campfire.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain further when we have a chance to meet. The main thing I wanted to ask is if either the cops or the search and rescue squad searched the old mines in the area when they were looking for Austin.”
“I’m not sure. I can find out. Why do you think he might be in a mine? They’re cold and dark and pretty spooky.”
“Austin was running from a monster. What if he knew there was a mine entrance that was big enough for him to squeeze through, but not big enough for the monster that was chasing him? Maybe he knew where the mine entrance was located because he’d explored the area before and decided to hide there.”
“Okay. Say that’s what happened. Why didn’t he head back to camp when the drug wore off?” Cass asked.
“I don’t know. But I think we should look at the idea that Austin knew the best way to get away from the hallucination chasing him was to squeeze into a place where the hallucination couldn’t follow.”
“But it was a
hallucination. It could follow him anywhere,” Cass pointed out.
“Maybe so, but the anonymous informant described the hallucination Austin was running from as a large bear, Bigfoot, or some sort of large monster. Austin didn’t know the image was only in his mind. To him, it was real. If I knew the location of a tiny hole leading into a mine or cave and Bigfoot was after me, I might think that was a good hiding place. Especially since it was dark. It’d be hard to find a new place to hide in the dark, so I’d head for a place I already knew about.”
Cass let out a breath. “Okay. I need to finish what I’m doing. How about if I pick you up in about an hour. We can have dinner and discuss your theory. If Austin did duck into a mine or cave, do you have any idea where that might be?”
I glanced at the magazine with the map of caves and mines in the area. “I have a good idea of where to start.”
After I hung up with Cass, I picked up the magazine, curled into the attic window seat, and studied the map. I found Logan Pond, and then I traced the underground systems near the pond. The major openings to the mines weren’t located all that close to the pond, but there were underground tunnels everywhere. Maybe Austin had found an air vent of some sort and slipped into the mine that way. Door size entrances would be easy to notice, and I would assume the search and rescue folks would have checked them out, but a small hole created to provide fresh air that might be tucked behind a rock outcropping or a screen of bushes might be just the sort of place an inquisitive twelve-year-old would find.
If Austin had managed to crawl into a small opening to the tunnel system that he might have found earlier in the day or even during a prior visit, why hadn’t he crawled out? The only thing I could come up with was that once he’d made his way into the mine, he’d either gotten trapped or injured himself and couldn’t crawl out. The whole thing was just so disturbing. I really did want to solve this case and figure out what happened to Austin Brady, but I hoped with every fiber of my being, that poor child hadn’t died all alone in a cold and dark mine he’d found his way into but couldn’t find his way out of.