I was going to find out everything she knew.
MY MOTHER was tight-lipped with me that night. Not even my tacos could soften her up to tell me much more about the investigation, though perhaps it was because there wasn’t much to tell. The Chalmerses were not happy that GPD’s search had proved fruitless and consequently were already making threats about suing the department. My mom had also been up since 4:00 a.m., so she was a tad bit cranky.
“I was surprised to see Dare Chalmers in my kitchen this evening,” Mom said, taking a sip of chilled white wine. She’d brought the bottle of wine home with her. White wine was her choice of alcohol when she was working on a case because if she got called in, she didn’t want to be too inebriated. Whiskey was for when the case got hard. When I didn’t comment on it, she continued. “I didn’t realize you two were so close.”
“We’re friends. And I understand what he’s going through.”
I didn’t need to make the connection for her; we’d gone through the same thing with my dad. For two days he was missing. The only thing worse was discovering him in a seedy hotel room off US 441, dead.
Mom set her rather large glass of wine on the table and primly wiped her mouth with her napkin. “We were able to pull Mason’s phone records.”
Finally, I thought. Now we’re getting somewhere.
“Anything interesting?”
“The last call Mason received was from Dare. It lasted five minutes.”
“Is that suspicious?”
“Dare didn’t mention it in his interview.”
“Did you ask him?”
She sighed. She thought I was being obtuse. “Dare also couldn’t account for his time prior to arriving at Waffle Kingdom.”
“What do you mean, ‘couldn’t account for his time’?”
“He said he was out driving.”
“That seems legitimate.”
“He was driving on back roads—no cameras, no stops, no people. And his phone records show him in the same vicinity as his brother.”
“It’s a small town. Can’t a guy go for a drive without being accused of murder? Besides, why are you even talking alibis? There’s no proof a crime’s even been committed.”
“Confirmation bias,” she said.
I harrumphed at her insinuation that I couldn’t be objective. “That was a low blow.”
“Maybe, but until this investigation wraps up, I don’t want you spending any more time with this boy than you have to.”
Ever since school started up again, my mom had been riding me to make new friends. Not everyone at that school hates you, Charlie, she’d told me countless times. Maybe not the freshman, but even those who weren’t affected by my bust took it personally. No one liked a narc—I’d proven it. Now I had a friend who was in the middle of a real crisis, and she was telling me to abandon him?
“I’m old enough to pick my own friends.” I stood and pulled Boot’s leash off the back door. She had no reason to accuse Dare of anything. It was obvious to me he was hurting. Having compassion for his situation didn’t make me biased; it made me human. “I’m going for a walk. I hope no one in a five-mile radius is murdered, or I might become the prime suspect.”
“Charlie,” she groaned as I left, somewhat dramatically, out the back door, holding it open for Boots to follow me and letting the screen door slam behind us. Dare would be proud of my theatric exit.
I took a dirt path that wound through the woods behind our property, using a flashlight to guide us and Boots’s nose to lead the way. If my mother was being completely objective about this case, then I should be a suspect as well. I’d had a previous run-in with Mason Chalmers, I’d spoken to him the afternoon he went missing, and on Friday night I was home alone with Boots.
Dogs don’t make for the best alibis.
But as the investigator, I could rule myself out. How easily I’d slipped into that role. Part of it was because I wanted to help Dare, but another part was because I wanted to be the one to solve the puzzle first. Other kids got a rush from winning wrestling matches or performing on stage or acing a test. For me, it was helping to solve a crime and doing my part to make sure the person responsible was caught.
An animal scurried away on the forest floor, breaking a twig in its path. The pine needles rustled in the wind. Shhh, shhh, shhh, they said, keeping secrets. Boots stopped and growled, his neck fur thick and stiff. I listened for anything suspicious but heard nothing. I calmed Boots with a reassuring pat, and we continued on. I probably shouldn’t be roaming the woods at night with a kidnapper on the loose, but then, Mason could just as likely be marrying an exotic dancer in Vegas at that very moment.
I sure hoped that was the case, for Dare’s sake.
Chapter 5
BEING AN International Baccalaureate kid meant I didn’t have a lot of classes with the “general population,” as the IB teachers called them. They were a bit elitist about the program, which only served to feed the perception that we were intellectual snobs. In any case, the only classes we shared with Gen Pop were electives, and I usually chose more advanced placement classes over the arts or athletics, so my mom and I could save money on college tuition. I’d already decided I was going to study criminology at the University of Florida, if I got in. Mom thought I should apply to a few other schools, even some out of state, but I didn’t want to leave Gainesville, or her and Boots for that matter. The three of us were a good team.
In any case, being in IB meant I had no classes with Dare or his group of friends and not much opportunity to ask questions. I did manage to find Tameka in the halls between third and fourth period and ask her a favor.
“Have you seen Daniela?” I asked.
“She’s not at school, but she’s been posting pictures of her and Mason all weekend.” She made a gagging motion with her finger.
I’d seen the photos as well. It was unnerving how they almost seemed like tributes, as though Daniela realized their relationship was over. Was it because he’d been cheating on her, or was it for some other, more sinister reason?
“Can you keep an eye on her for me? Maybe take her temperature on this whole Mason situation?”
“Am I on the case then, Dick?” Tameka asked with a sly grin.
I smiled. I was actually starting to like the nickname. “I’d appreciate your help.”
She nodded. “I’ll get the dirt, but I’m not working for free. And I will collect.”
She made the motion of “making it rain,” and I only hoped I could afford her fee.
At lunch I usually read a book on the couches in the media center or played mindless games on my phone in some lesser-traveled corner of campus, but today I wanted to check in on Dare. Despite my mother’s warning, I wasn’t going to abandon him, especially with so many unknowns floating out there. I went to their usual hangout spot, under the shade of a sprawling live oak tree where there were usually a dozen or more people, but the only person present was Joey, picking the crusts off his sandwich and feeding them to the squirrels and birds swooping in to collect.
“Hey, Joey.” I ducked into his circle of shade, feeling a bit like an intruder.
“Hey.” He pulled his hat down lower over his eyes. Hats were against dress code, but I doubted anyone had bothered him about it that day.
I didn’t know if my mom had spoken to him, but Joey might know something about Mason’s whereabouts, whether he realized it or not. It certainly couldn’t hurt to ask a few questions. I took another step closer and sat down across from him in the grass. I’d always known Joey to be the sarcastic and somewhat grumpy sidekick to the Chalmers twins—the third leg of their table, with the power to approve or exclude someone from their ever-widening circle—but he seemed in this moment very fragile and not at all like the wise guy he portrayed.
“How you doing, Joey?”
He glared at me from under the hooded brim of his hat. “How do you think I’m doing?”
From past experience I knew Joey didn’t like attention or
talking about himself—he usually let the twins have the spotlight. He also had a very low tolerance for small talk. The thing about the twins, and Joey too, was that even though they were incredibly popular, they didn’t get there by shitting on other people. They didn’t bully others or put down people who didn’t deserve it—they just made high school really fun and exciting, so you wanted to be around them to see what happened next. You could go to an Eastview party that was jocks mixed with drama kids and everyone got along fine. Which was why targeting Mason last year was pretty stupid on my part, because even while Mason and Dare seemed to have gotten over it, no one else at the school had.
“I heard Daniela stayed home today. Did Dare also?”
“No, he’s walking the track.” Joey jerked his thumb in that direction. Maybe Dare was trying to get out his nervous energy.
“Were you at the party Friday night?”
Joey glanced up briefly and then nodded. “I got there early to set up. Daniela was supposed to help me, but she was late.”
“When did people start arriving?”
“About seven. We wanted everyone ready for when Dare and Mason got there.”
I pulled out my phone and sketched a timeline. Mom told me the high school had footage of Mason pulling out of the student parking lot a little before seven. The cell phone was thought to be discarded by 9:00 p.m., which meant if someone had abducted Mason in that time period, it wasn’t Joey. I didn’t like to think of my classmates as potential suspects, but I also wasn’t ruling anyone out.
“Where was Daniela?”
Joey looked at me warily. “Daniela didn’t do anything.”
I studied my phone without saying anything to contradict him. I hoped the awkward silence would balloon until he felt compelled to speak. Joey glanced around, looking uncomfortable. I waited.
“She got there a little before nine.”
“And the party was supposed to start at eight?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did Daniela say she’d been?”
Joey shook his head and threw another piece of bread on the ground. “She didn’t.”
“Did you ask her?”
“Yeah. I mean, she stuck me with decorating. I don’t know how to tie a balloon or hang streamers. I did the best I could.”
“So, what did she say?”
“She said nowhere.”
Nowhere. That wasn’t very encouraging. “What was her demeanor when she got there?”
“I don’t know. She seemed… out of it.”
“Drunk?”
“No, just… weird. She wasn’t acting like herself.”
“Was she angry?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader.”
I backed off. Joey seemed protective of Daniela. Perhaps it was my reputation for getting them in trouble. Or loyalty to Mason. Or something else altogether.
“When did Dare get there?”
“A little after nine. Mason was supposed to meet him at Waffle Kingdom, but he never showed.”
“And when Dare arrived, what was he like?”
“Freaked out. He kept calling Mason’s cell phone. He sent people out to look for him. The whole vibe in the house was tense. Around midnight Dare sent everyone home except Daniela and me. He called his folks, and then they called the cops.”
Either Dare was genuinely concerned, or it was a pretense to shift blame away from himself. I didn’t like how so much of this case depended on my assessment of Dare’s character. If he had a valid alibi, this would be so much easier.
“Did it seem unusual that Dare would worry so quickly?”
“Not really. Everyone we knew was at the house, so where would Mason be? And the two of them are like that. If Mason doesn’t text him back, Dare will call me. Or Daniela. And Mason does the same with Dare’s drama friends. Their parents are kind of hands-off, so they’ve always had to look out for each other.”
Mason saved Dare’s life when he got stung by a wasp, and Dare found Mason in the woods after a dirt bike accident. I thought of that expression, my brother’s keeper, except that was a bad example because Cain was a killer.
A cold wind blew then, and my arms raised up with goose bumps.
“Was there anyone you thought should be at the party who wasn’t there?” I asked.
Joey opened his mouth and then shut it again. “Some of the guys from his wrestling team weren’t there yet, but I figured it was because they had practice.”
I made a list of people to talk to: Daniela De Costa, Peter Orr, Coach Gundry, the staff of Café Risqué…. My finger hovered over my phone, hesitating. I added one more name to the list: Dare Chalmers.
“Is there anything else you can remember, either from that day or at the party that seemed unusual to you? Something that at the time you dismissed, but now, looking back, seems really strange?”
Joey pulled off his hat and traced the rim of it with his thumb. His lower lip jutted out, causing his chin to pucker.
“There is one thing,” Joey said at last, obviously conflicted about it. I was okay with that. I could be patient. “Daniela was still wearing her cheerleading uniform.”
I tried to find the significance in that; I’d seen her in her uniform at school more often than not, including the day of the pep rally. “Is that strange?” I asked.
“She wears it for games and stuff, but she doesn’t, like, party in it. She always goes home and changes into something—I don’t know—cute. And her makeup and hair were a mess. That’s not like her.”
Perhaps because she’d just found out Mason had been unfaithful and did something awful to get back at him.
“Was she wearing Mason’s jacket?”
“No.”
“Did she mention a fight between them?”
“No, but they fight all the time. And it’s not like we talk about that stuff. Look, whatever you’re thinking, it wasn’t her. I mean, she’s annoying as hell and petty, but she wouldn’t hurt Mason.”
I couldn’t tell if he was trying to convince me of it or himself.
“Do you know if Mason was cheating on her?”
Joey’s eyes cast downward, and he studied what remained of his sandwich. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“But you suspect it.”
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” he said severely, eyes flashing with anger. Joey was loyal to Mason, and he wasn’t going to say anything that might paint him in a bad light. I understood that. He was also worried for his missing friend, which probably heightened his sense of duty. I knew when to back off.
“Thanks, Joey. This has been really helpful.”
“Does this mean you’re going to help find Mason?”
He had that same hopeful expression as Dare when he asked. I didn’t want to make any promises, unsure of what I could deliver. “I’m just asking questions.” As an afterthought I added, “For Dare.”
Joey nodded. “Good.”
I told Joey to text me if he thought of anything else, then headed out to the football field, where Dare was drifting in and out of lanes and ping-ponging back onto the track when he hit grass. I sat on the bleachers and waited for him to come around again, hoping he’d notice me without having to call out to him.
About halfway around he glanced up and saw me. Instead of finishing the lap, he cut across the field and joined me on the bleachers.
“Any news?” he asked. I wasn’t sure if he meant through GPD’s efforts or my own.
“I talked to Joey. I want to talk to Daniela too.”
Dare’s brow furrowed a bit. “She’s not here today.”
I nodded. “You get any sleep last night?” If anything, the hollows under his eyes looked darker and more chronic. His clothes were wrinkled as well, like he’d picked up whatever was lying around on the floor this morning or slept in it overnight.
“No,” he admitted. “I keep imagining the worst possible thing. And it just feels wrong to sleep or eat or do anything while Mason is missing.”
“You have to take care of yourself.” I thought back to the last time I saw Mason in the passenger seat of my car and the concern in his voice when he warned me not to harm Dare. I considered telling Dare about it, but I didn’t want to complicate things between us. “Mason wouldn’t want you to suffer like this.”
Dare shrugged and squinted across the field to the athletic parking lot, where a police cruiser was pulling in. The car parked, and a deputy got out of the driver’s side, shielded his eyes from the sun, and surveyed the field. A lady in plainclothes climbed out of the passenger side. My mother. She spied me and Dare across the track and said something to the deputy, then started to make her way across the field.
“They found him,” Dare said and bolted toward her. It looked like he was trying not to run, which made for a ragged, hiccupping gait with his long scarecrow legs. I jogged after him and arrived at about the same time.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” Mom said to me with momitude.
“It’s lunch,” I said back with teenitude.
“Did you find Mason?” Dare asked.
Mom placed a hand on his shoulder. Only I knew that meant it wasn’t good news. My stomach clenched, and I braced myself for whatever she had to report.
“We found some tire tracks,” Mom said, “at the edge of Newnans Lake. We have a crew of divers out now investigating. Your parents are there. They asked that we come get you.”
Dare swallowed, and his shoulders caved as a look of bleak understanding washed over him. “It’s Mason,” he said fatally.
“We don’t know anything yet.” Mom was trying to sound positive, which only meant it was as bad as I thought. “Why don’t you get your things, and we’ll give you a ride there?”
“I’m ready now.” Dare glanced over at me. “Charlie’s coming too.”
Mom stiffened. “Charlie has class.”
“Charlie can miss an afternoon,” I said. Mom shot me a look.
“Please, Detective, I need him there. Please?”
It was the second please that got my mom; it was so desperate and sad. There was some quality about Dare that made you want to protect him. Certainly Mason had felt the same way. Mom just nodded tersely and turned on her heel. I jogged back and grabbed my backpack from the bleachers and Dare’s too—he was ready to abandon it completely—and chased after them to the police cruiser. The deputy opened the door, and we climbed into the back. I’d done several ride-alongs with my mom, and I always knew a police cruiser by its smell—metallic, like biting a coin, mixed with the stress sweat of past perps who’d made the journey to the police station. The entire back seat was made of hard plastic, because people did strange and nasty things in the back of police cruisers.
In the Pines Page 5