The Fort (23 page)

“I’ve thought about all of that, Tim. Over and over again. Like I said, I’ll talk to Mom, and we’ll see what she has to say now that she’s had the chance to cool off for a few days, all right?”

“Dad, listen. Unless you guys decide that you believe me, I don’t even want to not be grounded anymore. I’d rather just do the punishment and know, for sure, that you guys don’t trust me anymore.”

Stan stood, shook his head like he was trying to clear water from it, and walked to the doorway. “We’ll see you in the morning,” he said. “Hopefully your mom will come around.”

“Sure,” said Tim, but all he could think was that if he got caught sneaking out, being believed wasn’t going to matter one bit. Still, it could be worse. He felt sure that it was for Molly.

46

Van Endel and Dr. Martinez had talked to three more prostitutes, all with varying degrees of success. None had helped as much as Bambi, but they had helped fill in the gaps of her story. They told the same tale. Van Endel felt sick after hearing the words over and over again.
We missed it, we missed all of it.
He saved himself one indignity: he didn’t puke as they left the city to head north, back to the station. Finally, Dr. Martinez broke the silence.

“You can beat yourself up all you want,” she said. “But you have to wait until later. You need a plan. What are you going to tell Chief Jefferson?”

“I’m going to tell him the truth,” said Van Endel. “We need to get those kids on the horn right now and see what they have to say. First the boys they saw Molly, and then later, the teenagers. The sooner it happens, the better, for everyone. Christ, even for us. I can’t believe we didn’t make those boys go over the story again. We should have talked to all three, tried to wring out any small details that were there to be found. If only—”

“You need to stop,” said Dr. Martinez. “You’ve been busting your ass on this, and for that matter so have I. My practice could use a little more attention than I’ve been giving it, believe me, but
all I’ve wanted to do is bang my head against this with you, and that’s exactly what we’ve both been doing.

“And besides: even if you’d wanted to keep after those kids, there’s no way Jefferson would have wanted to hear it, not after finding that body. Everything pointed to those boys’ lying. There’s no one who thought otherwise.” She shrugged. “Now we have the chance to do something about it.”

“So you think this is right?” Van Endel asked, his hands tight and sweaty on the steering wheel. “You think this is for real?”

“I do,” said Dr. Martinez. “I think we have most of the puzzle put together. All that’s left is to find Molly and whoever took her, and of course pray that she’s still alive. Can you imagine the state she must be in if she’s still alive and was taken by Riverside?”

“No,” said Van Endel with a grimace. “I really can’t.”

Once they were back in the station, which was running on a skeleton crew, thanks to the holiday, Van Endel headed for his desk and his long-abused chair. Dr. Martinez borrowed a neighboring chair from one of the other desks and sat next to him as he dialed Jefferson’s pager number. A few short moments later, Van Endel’s phone began ringing.

“Van Endel.”

“What do you need, Dick?” Chief Jefferson sounded as out of sorts as Van Endel had guessed he would. “Lanie and I got a room downtown to watch the fireworks out the window, and we’re expected in the lounge soon.”

“We need to reopen the Molly Peterson investigation. We need to talk to old witnesses. I have a very strong feeling that the girl who was found behind the movie theater isn’t Molly. After talking to some sources downtown, I’ve got a hunch that Molly was one of two girls taken that night, most likely by our man who keeps dumping bodies at Riverside. I want to get your permission to apply for material-witness warrants for every teenager she was with that night, and I want to talk to those three boys they saw her as well.”

There was silence from the other end of the phone, and finally, Jefferson spoke.

“Dick, have you been drinking tonight? No offense, but this sounds like you had some sauce and got your noodle a little overdone. Not the end of the world if that’s the case, but if—”

“Chief, I’m serious,” said Van Endel. “I really want to grill Molly’s pals and get them to break. I know they will. As for the boys, I need to hear what they saw. It could be vital to this case. It could mean the difference between that girl living or dying.”

“Dick, I think we can have a talk about this on Monday, after the holiday weekend is over, but right now, it’s Saturday and my wife’s giving me a stink-eye. As for today, I’m going to stick with the assumption you gave me a couple of days ago. If you recall, both you and the coroner agreed that the girl was almost definitely Molly. Also, we do have an inquiry out on that situation, to try and figure out that whole mess with her teeth. As for bothering those kids and stirring up that sort of hornets’ nest? Are you out of your mind? We knew those boys were lying, and we still know it.

“Let me guess how this all started. You and the doctor were out talking to that pack of whores-cum-witnesses, and after you either threatened them with arrest or rewarded them with money, they gave you information. Dick, you’re a good detective, but your cop-sense needs calibration. Get the ship righted, and we’ll talk about this in a couple of days, OK?”

After a long moment of silence, Van Endel sighed. Jefferson was an ass-hat. “All right.”

“There you go. I can hear it in your voice, Dick. You need to either start drinking if were dry or stop if you were already wetting your beak. Christ, we’ve already got the body; leave those people alone. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” said Van Endel, and hung up the phone.

“What did he say?” Dr. Martinez asked, though it was obvious from her eyes that she knew.

“He said that I need to let sleeping dogs lie.” He clapped his hand together and stood. “That means no material-witness warrants, and those teenagers are not going to break without them.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We are going to go get a beer. I’m buying. After that, I’m going home, and first thing in the morning I’m going to find those boys and see if they feel like talking to someone who is ready to believe them.”

“And apologize,” said Dr. Martinez. “You are someone willing to apologize and listen. Where are you buying me a beer? I’d prefer not the Shipwreck.”

“Oakway it is.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Shipwreck, then. But the fact that you had the name of an even worse bar so handy is not a good thing, Detective.”

47

Luke was alone in the fort. The Fourth of July fireworks had finally ground to a stop, and now all that was left to do was to wait for his friends to show up.

Hooper.
The name from the mailbox was stuck in his head like a piece of stringy beef between two molars. He was almost sure that he was familiar with the name in some local way, but he couldn’t come up with anything, and so the name stayed just a name, rather than a solution. The house seemed a likely enough place for Molly to have been kept, or was possibly even the place she was still being kept, but Luke was no detective, and he knew it. The truth was, their criteria for discovering which house it was had no sort of scientific method. They had decided what they thought the house would be like, but that was based on stupid kid stuff, not on reality.

It was all going to come down to Tim. Luke had decided hours ago that no matter what he came up with, none of it would matter if Tim didn’t have info on the car. And even then, if Tim discovered the make or model of the car and it was just a normal car, like a brown sedan or something, even that wouldn’t matter.

Not for the first time, Luke wished they had just been believed in the first place. It would have made everything that they’d had to do unnecessary, and they could have just had a normal summer.

He was surprised to find that he missed being at home. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was that made him feel that way, because when he thought about all the separate elements of home, none of them made him miss it at all. Still, the thought of his bedroom, and particularly his bed, seemed almost magical compared with the fort. Not that a few days away from it wouldn’t make him miss their secret space in the woods, but as for sleeping in it, he’d had enough.

He looked as his watch: they’d be here any minute. As if in answer to the thought, Luke could hear the sounds of feet on the boards of the ladder. He smiled.
Finally.

Tim came up first, followed immediately by Scott. Both of them wore the smile of the guilty, something Luke had felt on his face a lot lately too. It still sucked not to be trusted, but it was pretty cool to be doing something about it.

He let them get settled, then sat Indian-style in the fort with his friends. “Well?” Luke said. “Don’t leave me hanging, I’ve been bored for like six hours.”

“My sister got us some info,” said Tim. “Apparently, the guy who took Molly was driving a green Dodge Dart.”

“Kind of a boring car for a kidnapper,” said Scott. “I expected something cooler. A Dart’s like something one of our parents would drive. I guess if that’s the car, then that’s the car. But it still seems sort of lame.” Then Scott perked up and began digging in his left pocket, his hand finally emerging with a nickel-plated revolver. “It’s a .38,” he said. “Carl says it doesn’t kick too bad, or at least that’s what he told my mom when he was trying to get her to keep it in her purse.”

“Is it loaded?” asked Tim, sounding nervous.

“Of course it is,” said Scott. “It holds six bullets. Do either of you want to hold it?”

Tim waved his hand no, but Luke took it from him. It felt cold and a little bit evil to Luke. A rifle could be used for lots of things, but as far as he knew, a pistol like this was used for killing people, and not much else. He handed it back to Scott, handle first.

“I didn’t do as well as you guys,” said Luke. “Looking for weird houses was way harder than I thought it would be. They pretty much all look a little weird if you don’t know the people who live inside of them. There was one that stuck out, though. It had a name on the mailbox. ‘Hooper.’”

“Nope, that can’t be the one,” said Scott, irritated. “That’s one of Carl’s Vietnam buddies. He’s a little weird, but not like that kind of weird.”

“What kind of car does he drive?” Luke asked quietly, feeling like he already knew the answer.

When Scott replied, his voice was weak. “I’m pretty sure it’s a green Dart, you guys.” Luke saw him swallow, or try to. Luke’s own mouth had just filled with cotton. “Holy fucking shit,” Scott said. “Do you really think it could be him? It just doesn’t seem possible that I would know the guy. He’s been over like a million times.” He put his hand on top of his head and clamped down on it. “You know what, though? He was supposed to come over and help Carl with Mom’s car, but he got sick or something.”

“Or he kidnapped a girl and got shot for his trouble,” said Tim. “We all knew there was a strong possibility that we were going to know the guy who did this. Now it looks like we do, or at least Scott does.”

Scott was nodding his head, still holding the top of it, and looking like he might puke.

“So what are we going to do?” Tim asked.

“I’m going to go there tomorrow and knock on the door,” said Luke. “When he opens it, I’ll know if it’s him from how his leg looks.”

“Are you nuts?” Tim asked. “What are you going to say? He’s probably not going to like getting bugged.”

“I’ll just tell him I’m running a lawn service, and if he wants his cut by a kid looking to make a little bit of money, I’ll do it for $2.50 on a date of his choosing.”

“That could work,” said Tim. “It’s really not a bad idea at all. The mowing thing isn’t either. I bet people would for real pay us for that, and we could make some bucks.”

“Let’s figure this out first,” said Luke with a grin. “You two are still under house arrest, no way are your parents going to let you out to go make money. Shit, with all the luck we’ve had lately, they’d probably make you go do it for free, as, like, a community service or something.”

“What if it really is him?” Scott asked quietly. “What if it is Hooper and he just, like, grabs you or something?”

“Easy,” said Luke. “I take Carl’s gun. If he grabbed me, I really doubt that he’d search me, then I’d just blast him when he turned around. No one would think a kid was coming armed, not even a really crazy person.”

“I need to get this back,” said Scott, staring down at the gun in his hand, then up at Luke. “You have to promise to bring it back, like, for real promise. If you don’t, I’m going to be grounded forever.”

“Scott,” said Luke. “Of course I’ll bring it back. I don’t need it for anything except this. Besides, all that’s going to happen is he’s going to open that door and say no to the lawn mowing. I’ll get a look at his leg, and that will be that. We meet up here tomorrow night, I tell you what I saw, and maybe this whole thing is almost done.”

“All right,” said Scott. He held it out, butt first, to Luke, who took it. It felt somehow heavier in his hand than it had before. “Just be careful with it,” Scott said. “Don’t shoot yourself or anything.”

“I won’t,” said Luke. “I’m not a complete moron. Though some people might question my choice of friends.”

“No jokes,” said Tim. “Not now. We meet here tomorrow, same time?”

“Same time,” said Luke. “Unless I save Molly tomorrow.” He grinned. “Then you guys can see me on the news, and maybe we can hang out again.”

48

Tim slipped through the woods, gliding on exhausted legs through the trees. It was odd how the woods had once been so terrifying at night but now were amazing. It was the only place where he felt like himself after everything that had happened. He felt free there, like the world really held possibilities. It was a nice feeling, especially with the patio, the policemen and parents who thought you were a liar looking for attention, and the tyranny and ever-looming danger of the upcoming school year. The woods at night were a peace away from that, in a way that almost didn’t make sense. If anything, after he’d seen the man with Molly, the woods should have been terrifying, and the fort less than a fort. If anything, it had had the opposite effect. Tim didn’t know what growing up was going to be like, but if it was anything like the freedom of walking alone through a forest, able to do whatever he wanted, it was going to be great. An invisible owl hooted from some impossible perch, and Tim walked home.