The Ruth Valley Missing (12 page)

“Yeah, he pulled my hair and told me
I couldn’t play in the fort he built.”

“Ah. And this happened when you
were...?”

“Six.”

“And I lied to my grandmother when
she bought me this really awful sweater. I told her I liked it.”

“I don’t think it’s really necessary
for you to delve that far into your past.”

“Well, it has been a while since I
confessed anything, so I want to make sure I’m forgiven. Being thorough.” I
thought I heard a chuckle on the other side of the screen. “Hey, who do you go
to when you sin?”

There was a long pause. “I go to
confession as well.”

“To another priest?”

Another pause. “Yes.”

“That seems difficult out here.”

“It is. I don’t get to go as often
as I’d like.”

“Did you have something you need to get
off your chest? I think I’m on decent terms with the big man upstairs. I’m sure
I could put in a good word for you.”

Again, a slight chuckle. “It doesn’t
really work that way. Thanks.”

“I do have a question.”

“Fire away.”

“What if you have a feeling
something bad is going on, but it’s only a feeling. Is it a sin to go about
your normal life and ignore it?”

“I guess that depends.”

“On?”

“Well, that’s more of a
philosophical discussion on morality and ethics, not really what we do here in
the confessional.”

“There’s no one waiting in line
outside, Mike, I think we have the time. What do you think the moral obligation
is?”

There was another long pause. “I
think it’s important to stop evil from happening. But I don’t think everyone is
equipped to do so, so without facts, it would be dangerous to pursue merely a
feeling.”

“Does danger cancel out moral
obligation to stop evil?”

“Good question. Is this the sort of
thing you discussed in your psych classes?”

“Maybe.”

“Perhaps we should discuss this further
at another time. In a more appropriate venue. For now, I absolve you of your
sins.”

“Thanks, Padre.”

I hopped up off the hard bench and
opened the door. Father Mike must have hopped out just as quickly, as he was
standing directly behind me when he grabbed my arm.

“One last word of advice, Jameson.
It’s never wise to jump into anything blind.”

I pulled my arm away and walked
quickly over to Emma, grabbing her arm, heading out the door and down the
steps.

“Wow, you’re in a hurry.”

“Yeah,” I said, “just really looking
forward to movies and ice cream.”

“Me too.” Emma practically skipped
down the street as we headed home.

“Emma, what did Father Mike say in
confessional that has you so happy?”

“That’s supposed to be private,
James.” Her tone was friendly, so I pressed on.

“I know that, but we’re friends.
Anything you tell me in secret I swear, I’d take it to the grave.”

Emma chewed on her bottom lip and
took a deep breath. “Ok. I’ll tell you, but seriously, Father Mike could get in
trouble for what he told me, so you can’t tell anyone.”

I guess breaking promises might end
up in my next confession.

“Of course.”

“So, Andy talked to Father Mike
shortly before he disappeared. Well, not really disappeared. It turns out you
were right. He left town on his own. Nobody was even chasin’ him. And he told
Father Mike that he was in love with me and wanted to be able to be good
enough, so he was gonna go get a job and come back for me when he was ready to
give me everything I deserve. Isn’t that the sweetest thing?”

“That is sweet.”

But it didn’t make any sense. If
Andy wasn’t running away from something, why wouldn’t he have told Emma that
himself, or at least left a note? Why would Father Mike make up that story? What
did he have to gain by making Emma believe that Andy was not only okay, but
coming back for her?

“Let’s stop at the store, Emma. I
think I’m gonna need some more ice cream.”

“This is so sweet of you girls. The
town is buzzing about it.”

Emma and I smiled, cameras around
our necks and a big basket of fresh baked cookies on my arm.

“It was all James’ idea, Mrs.
Miner.”

“I can’t take all the credit. You
baked the cookies.”

Emma and I had spent the past few
mornings and afternoons visiting the townsfolk, offering to take a family photo
and bringing them cookies. I told Emma it would be a fun way to teach her about
photography and at the same time do something nice for the neighbors.

In reality, my plan to figure out
what happened with Andy had a rough start. While the town had warmed up to me,
I couldn’t go around asking random questions without being suspicious. But
casually chatting with people in their homes over chocolate chunk cookies from
behind a camera seemed to put them at ease.

I stood behind Emma, helping her
make adjustments to my camera as she snapped away, while I took the occasional
photo with the old rummage sale camera. “So,” I began, “is it just you and Anne
here, Mrs. Miner?”

“Anne has an older brother, but he
went off to school a few years ago.”

Emma spoke up from behind the
camera, “Yeah, it was such a surprise. You woulda never guessed he wanted to go
to college, but then he got his act together.”

Mrs. Miner nodded in agreement. “He
started volunteering at the church. They were such a great support to us when
my husband left.”

I forced a sympathetic smile, unsure
of what to say. “I think we got some really cute shots here, don’t you, Emma?”

Emma nodded. “Can you take a few of
me with Anne?”

I snapped away as the two stood
together, Emma smiling away and Anne giving an awkward, shy grin. “Got it.
Thanks again for having us in, Mrs. Miner.”

“Of course, dear.”

“We’ll come by with the prints in a
week or so.”

“Wonderful.”

Emma checked her watch as we walked
out. “My shift starts in a little bit. I need to get home to change.” She threw
her arms around me and squeezed. “Thanks for doing this with me James!”

I smiled and walked in the opposite
direction, wishing I had driven around town now that I was carrying both
cameras and the basket of leftover treats. Turning the corner onto the main
avenue, I thought about the various conversations I had throughout the week,
searching for any hints I may have picked up about Andy, or anything else for
that matter.

“You’re looking a bit weighed down
there, Jameson.” Father Mike stared at the camera bags hanging from my
shoulders. “Need a hand?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“So you’ve said.”

There was that smirk.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m
trying to get home with this stuff, so you’ll excuse me if I’m not in a chatty
mood.”

“No problem. I’ll walk with you.”

I shrugged and stayed silent, hoping
lack of conversation might make him go away.

“I’m glad I ran into you. I was
thinking about what you said the other day.”

“About punching a six year old? I
think I’m mostly grown out of that. You shouldn’t be too worried.”

“No, about feeling like something
bad is happening. What your moral obligation is.”

I slowed my steps. I didn’t really
want to be conversing with Father Mike but two things struck me. One, he could
give something away in trying to talk to me. After all, in just about every
crime show I’d seen on TV, the bad guy can’t help but hint about his crimes,
right?

Second, I really didn’t want to be
walking up to the house with him by my side. I didn’t know what his involvement
was with Andy, but if he was capable of making him disappear, there was no
telling what he might do if he saw me as a threat. I decided my best bet was to
engage him in conversation and hope it would end before we got to Oak Lane.

“I think that you don’t have a moral
obligation to do anything if it is only a feeling. Acting without evidence can
end up hurting people for no reason. Now, if you had any evidence to support
your feelings, that might be different.”

“Makes sense.”

“But I understand how even a bad
feeling can weigh a person down, so I wanted to apologize if I didn’t seem
sensitive to that when we spoke. I want you to know that you should always feel
free to come to me with anything.” He smiled, the kind of smile that I would
have found charming if I didn’t think it was covering something sinister. He
stopped walking and stepped in front of me, standing uncomfortably close.
“Really, Jameson. Anything.”

I was holding my breath and hoped he
couldn’t hear my heart pounding. The sound of a car pulling up beside us
drowned out the sounds of my own anxiety.

“Afternoon, Father.” Jack leaned his
head out of the Jeep. “James, you headed to the house? Wanna lift?”

“That would be great.” I tried not
to sound too eager, and turned towards Father Mike. “Thanks for the chat.”

He nodded, looking at Jack rather
than me, eyes narrowing slightly. “Sure thing, Jameson.”

“Everything ok?” Jack asked as I
shut the Jeep door.

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Father Mike is a little...” I
paused, searching for the right word, “...intense sometimes. That’s all.”

“I noticed.”

“It’s not just me?”

“I hate to speak ill of a man of
God, but I don’t know. Something about him just doesn’t sit right with me. He
seems to show a little more interest in some of the women in town than I think
is right for a priest.”

“Do you think he’s been involved
with any of them?”

“Probably not, but sometimes I think
he’d like to be.” Jack looked at me as he pulled into the driveway. “Your
forehead is all scrunched up. What are you thinking?”

“Just thinking about what you said.
And what happened to Andy.”

“Andy?”

“Yeah. Andy gets mysteriously hurt
and then leaves town without a word, then Father Mike is comforting Emma after
confession...”

“What?”

“She went to confession the other
day. He gave her a hug after and told her that he spoke to Andy before he left,
that he wanted to get out of town to find work and better himself for Emma or
something like that.”

Jack shook his head. “That doesn’t
sound right.”

“Right? That’s what I thought.”

We were out of the Jeep, standing in
the yard between our houses. “Listen, James, maybe you should keep your distance.
He’s been showing you an awful lot of attention. I think it might be best that
you didn’t wander alone so much.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“I’m sure you will be. But I’d feel
much better if you don’t go playing detective by yourself. I don’t want anything
happening to you.”

I blushed. “I won’t go play
detective. At least not alone.”

“Alright. I’m headed in, but you
come on over if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

I unloaded my stuff at the bottom of
the steps, grabbing the memory card from my camera and headed upstairs. I
opened my laptop and sat on the window seat, letting the images load, while I
stared out the window.

I said I wouldn’t go play detective.
I didn’t say anything about playing detective indoors.

“James, can I come up?”

Jack’s head appeared at the top of
the stairs, while I sat on the floor, back against the window seat, surrounded
by prints from the photos Emma and I took of the townspeople.

“Wow. No wonder you’ve been holed up
here.”

“Insane, right? I don’t think I realized
how many people we took pictures of that week.”

Jack tried to navigate across the
floor to the window seat without stepping on anything. He held up a paper bag.
“Emma sent over some chicken n’ dumplings for us.”

“She’s such a sweetie. I’ll have some
in a little bit. Don’t want to get grimy hands on the photos.”

“These came out real nice.” Jack sat
down and leaned over my shoulder. “Emma took these?”

“I helped her here and there, but
she got the hang of it really quickly. She’s got a good eye.”

“And a good teacher.”

I waved my hand, ignoring the
compliment. “You can go ahead and start eating if you’re hungry.”

“Can I help you finish up here
instead?”

“Actually, you probably could. I
have this stack of envelopes here with every family’s name on them; I just need
to put the pictures in the right envelopes. They’re already stacked together,
so it shouldn’t take long at all.”