“I don’t know.” That dashed my hopes for a nice poker to stick in the other boy’s sides. “I caught it out of the corner of my eye ‘cause I’m on Trey’s side of the truck and wasn’t really looking towards Cooper’s side.”
Still, if I could find that rifle, I’d be set. “Remember where he threw it?”
“Somewhere along that road.” Another helpless shrug cut that rope. “I don’t remember exactly where.”
Tried not to let disappointment cloud my voice. “Alright.”
“And then I kinda looked over at Alex and saw that there’s all this reddish stuff mixed in with the mud on his jacket and jeans.” He wiped his hands over his belly and thighs as if to show me where. “And I know it’s wrong, but I’m thinking, oh God, what are they going to do to me. I didn’t even want to ask what happened to Lane.” Got the sense from those few words that Chris would hate himself for the rest of his life for not asking. “So we get to Lane’s house and nobody’s around.”
Chris took to his feet and started pacing. “Trey and Cooper made me help them get Lane’s bike and put it behind the garage, like he’d come home or something.” He kept wiping his hands on his thighs like he wanted to rid them of muck. “They’ve got the same crap all over them. Alex is puking in the bushes. And Trey’s like, ‘Get back in the truck.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’ll walk home.’” He stopped, turned and stared at me for a bit then shook his head. “Cooper pushed me into Trey’s truck. So we’re in the cab, all squished together…” He brought his clawed fingers up in front of his face and mushed them together. “Me, Trey and Cooper. Alex is in the back. And Trey says, ‘We ain’t gonna say nothing. We were up horsing around, we came home dropped Lane off and we ain’t seen him since.’ Cooper’s just nodding and repeating, ‘Okay, okay.’ And I think I said, ‘I don’t think I can do that.’ And Cooper, he says, if I know what’s good for me I will and that they’re going to make sure Alex does too.”
He seemed to drop out of the story then—standing there in jeans streaked with grime and looking like Job facing yet another of Satan’s attacks. I almost wanted to give him peace at that point and walk away…but I couldn’t. “Go on.”
Took him awhile, even after my prompt, before he could marshal himself enough to continue. “We got to Trey’s and the three of them start stripping off their muddy clothes.” Chris rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and bit his lower lip. “And Alex is whining that his mom’s gonna kill him if he comes home without his clothes. Trey gives some of his little brother’s stuff and says, ‘Just tell her you fell riding and got ripped up.’ Cooper’s grabbing the stuff and says he’s gonna take it to the mill and burn it in the incinerator there, he’ll sneak it in and figure it out. That’s when I went home. And Trey’s like, ‘If you tell anyone, you’ll regret it.’”
Like he almost couldn’t hold himself up any longer, Chris grabbed the lip of a table and leaned over it. “I got to my sister’s house and I can’t sleep and I’m wondering what really happened to Lane, ‘cause I didn’t have the guts to ask, I was too scared.” He darn near swallowed the next words rushing it all out. “Then I’m also thinking, well if they can do something like this, then what if they find out about me. It’s like three o’clock in the morning and I’m thinking, I’m just going to go take a walk. And I don’t know why, but there’s this big rig at the gas station and I went up to the guy and told him my sister was sick in Cedar City and could I get a ride down the mountain. Pulled all my money out of my bank account when I got there and then hopped another truck and hitchhiked into Vegas.”
See, that told me something I still waited for. Folks, those who watch the movies, TV and all, think an officer snaps his fingers and companies throw their records at them. Not by a long shot. We’d filed a request for Chris and Lane’s bank account info, maybe a week after the boys’ been reported gone. Still hadn’t come in. Financial institutions and credit cards, maybe, took three months or more to process and that was with a court order…could take upwards of six to get phone records under a full blown subpoena.
Chris kept on talking. “Stayed for a bit in this hotel, real cheap place. I tried to make it and just couldn’t.” I got hit with another haunted stare outta his eyes. “So, I ah, went to a LDS church there and said, I need to go home and they bought me a bus ticket back to Cedar…no questions asked. Got back here and realized I couldn’t really go home either. All them are still there and my dad would beat the crap outta me. So I figured I’d just stay here.” Pushing himself away from the table, Chris crossed his arms over his chest; looked like he wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. “Got the job, found a roommate wanted sign over on campus and just kept my head down.”
I processed all that. Had to say, Chris’ emotions tasted a heck of a lot more honest than either Cooper or Trey’s had. Mumbled, “Well, that puts some things into perspective, I think,” to buy myself some thinking time.
Chris insisted, “I’m telling the truth.” It interrupted my thoughts some.
I hit him with the hard stare I leaned while working the State Pen. The kind that said
I’d as soon cut you as look at you.
“Shut up, boy.” I growled it out. “You are in so much hot water you’ll be lucky you have skin left when we’re done.” Then I willed my face to relax, just a hair. “But,” I let that word hang between us…a little thread for him to grab onto, “You check in with me, every day.” Fished out one of my cards and tucked it into the pocket of his shirt. “Let me know where you’re at, I’ll consider playing nice with you.” I stepped in close to his body, right up in his personal space. “You run though, I will hunt you down and you’ll wish you’d never been born. I found you once, don’t doubt I can do it again.” Somehow I just figured, knowing Chris’ past, he’d respond to that attitude. Not that I liked myself giving it to him, but I went with what the case demanded. Knew I’d end up telling myself that over and over when I tried to sleep. “You go on now, get back to work.”
“Okay.” He nodded his head so hard I thought it might fall off. “I will. I promise.” When I didn’t give him no answer more than a set of dead eyes, he backed up a few steps and then scooted out of the room.
I closed my eyes. A fair deal of pondering Heavenly Father’s plan sat between me and a good night’s sleep. Didn’t like having to play that hand with Chris. Sometimes though, you just did what needed to be done. You pushed those who needed pushing. You sweet talked those who needed a soft hand. Mostly, you got the job done.
As I’m all wrapped up in my thoughts, Kabe whispered, right behind my ear, “Dude, massively harsh.”
I actually busted up laughing…all the stress of it just popped like a soap bubble. Managed to get out between breaths, “I wasn’t any harsher than I needed to be.”
He still stood all close. “Yeah, well, that’s why most guys go on their knees for you.” Then he bumped my shoulder with his. “Don’t think that this means I’m completely over it yet.” At that he tucked his hands in his front pockets and sauntered on out. Kabe didn’t even look back or nothing.
Now I had two things to ponder for the rest of the day.
All alone, in separate little interview rooms, a couple boys with nothing to stare at but a set of institutional green walls whiled away time while I made them wait. Sheriff Simple and I watched Trey and Cooper fidget on the video monitors. The sound from Trey’s room…didn’t give me nothing. Trey was one cool customer. Right now he just sat there, literally twiddling his thumbs and acting bored out of his mind. The state trooper who’d brought him in said Trey hadn’t done more than read his Italian language phrase book all the way up. When the President at the MTC called him out to go with the officer, Trey shrugged and reassured the man that “it had to be a mistake.”
Mistake my left nut…it was an arrest warrant.
In the other room; well, Cooper’d done gone through every curse word he likely knew in the last fifteen minutes. He paced the tiny little room and kicked at the chairs. Reminded me of a coyote in a pen. Knew he didn’t want to be there, but had no clue how to get himself out.
Figured I’d start with Trey first and let Cooper simmer a little longer in that pot of anxiety he had going on.
Gave a nod to my boss, grabbed my file and headed on in. “How you doing, Trey?” Started speaking the moment I opened the door, ‘cause I didn’t want Trey to have any bit of time to get used to the intrusion. “I know the Trooper done advised you, but I’m gonna tell you again.” Although the Trooper said he had, I wanted to dot the
I
and cross the
T
on this. Relying on other folks could land you in hot water if they didn’t do what they claimed. If’n I got up on the stand, I could tell a judge that I gave Trey his rights myself. “The law says you don’t got to talk to me, but if you do we can use what you say.” Plus, if Trey ever got ornery about it, I’d have it on tape. “I can get you an attorney, at no cost if you cain’t afford one. You understand all that?” Trey just shrugged instead of answering. “Yes or no, boy,” I prodded, “do you understand?”
“I get it.” He glared. “Whatever.”
I’d have to take that as a yes. Hopefully, if a jury ever saw it, they’d read his attitude. I pulled out the only other chair and sat myself down at the little table bolted to the wall. “Now, Trey, you ain’t been all that honest with me.” The place weren’t fancy, but it was fairly modern—wired for sound and video and all. Sheriffs, corrections and the State Troopers’ outpost on the other side of the building all shared this bit of space.
He shifted, just a skosh. “Who says?”
“All your friends,” I kinda spread my hands open and smiled, “and maybe some folks who ain’t much of a friend to you.”
“Yeah, right.” All sorts of disbelief came out in his snort. Boy didn’t believe that any one of his friends had rolled. Boy didn’t believe that I’d talked to none of them. Boy didn’t believe that there weren’t anyone out there who didn’t just kiss his butt.
Dead wrong on all counts.
“No, look boy, the rules, they have changed.” Put my elbows up on the table and rolled my weight onto ‘em, getting up in his space. “See, your buddy, Cooper,” jerked my head over towards the door, “he’s over in that other interview room.”
“So what?”
I lied. “He knows about Lane and what you all did.” Folks think cops cain’t lie in situations like this. They’s dead wrong. I dropped one my hands down and tapped a finger on the folder, implying all sorts of things I kept in there. “I found Chris.” Well, that weren’t a lie. “And Chris, well he ain’t singing the same song y’all were. See now, I’ve heard all about the fight that y’all were having.”
“Chris is an idiot. He’s lying.” Trey rocked back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “What fight?” I’d just put him on the defensive. Score one for the deputy.
“Right.” I grinned and tossed in another grenade. “Him and Austin.” Caught the tiny little reaction—bit of sucked in breath, the corners of his mouth going tight and a little twitch at the corner of Trey’s eye—that told me I hit the mark. “Yeah, Austin came back and me and him had a talk.” My turn to rock back in the chair and cross my arms over my chest. “Very interesting talk. So see I got five boys up on a mountain, fighting together and one don’t come home.” ‘Course my gesture reeked smug and self-satisfied…lot different than Trey’s reaction.
It took him a moment to collect himself. “Nothing happened up there.” He insisted…without uncrossing his arms. “We dropped Lane off at his house.”
I let that hang heavy in the air for a bit. Then I popped the balloon. “That ain’t what Chris says.”
“Yeah, well Lane and Chris went off together.” Everything about his voice said he was darn sure of that. His body told me different. Heard his heels start to knock on the tile, meaning they weren’t confidently flush on the floor. He brought up his hand, don’t even think he knew it, and scratched some little spot on his chin. And his breathing, it’d gone just a hair over on the ragged edge. “I’d look real hard at Chris.”
“Now, see.” Me, I was confident, I opened up my whole body with wide hands and a big grin. “If you’re gonna go on and insist on keeping this whole chain of lies going, you gotta be sure you don’t have no weak links.”
“Bullshit.” He spat, giving the word six times more force than it needed. “This is all bullshit. Nothing happened up there.”
I shrugged and kept smiling. “Ain’t what Cooper’s saying neither.”
“You know what.” He smacked the table with his fist. “If you’re going to try and trick me into something…I want a lawyer.”
Damn. “Well, I can get you one.” I pretended it didn’t matter none. “But, you’re gonna have to wait in holding for a while.” Didn’t have to lie about that. We didn’t actually have anyone full time for that job, so it might be a while calling around. That is, unless Trey’s folks ponied up for a private defense attorney. “And you ain’t gonna ever get to tell me what your side of the story is.” I stood up, rested the weight of my body on my fists pressed against the table top and leaned over him. “Everyone else is gonna be talking and you ain’t. Don’t look good.”
“Yeah, right.” He sneered at me like I was stupid or something. “I watch TV. Lawyer!” He pointed down at the table. “Now!”
Well, that meant we were done. Didn’t like it none at all, but unlike that boy, I respected the law. “Alright then.” I stood and gathered up my file. “Sit tight and we’ll get you counsel.” I knew it would be quite a while, but I didn’t tell him that. Didn’t have any duty to. Figured I’d let him sit in that tiny little room and let the worms of doubt I’d planted start to wriggle in his mind.
Walked out, pulling that heavy door closed behind me, and tossed the file on the video console. “Darn fool’s lawyered up.” I growled out the obvious. I kinda knew I had Trey, even if I couldn’t hook him right then. Still, didn’t like him stringing me on. “Won’t bite on that fly.” I could throw the line out there, but I couldn’t get the boy to take the bait if he wouldn’t open his mouth.
“Them’s the breaks sometimes.” Sheriff Simple swung his boots off the desktop. “You’ll probably have more luck with the other boy. He’s acting as antsy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”