“I’ve got too much to do here before the school year starts,” said Jack. “I can’t waste any time.”
He opened his mouth to question Jack’s itinerary, but then decided against it. “Huh,” Stephen said instead.
“I’ll tell you someday,” Jack replied to the question that Stephen hadn’t asked.
**********
Stephen tossed and turned that night, his sleep troubled by disturbing dreams. He woke in the middle of the night wondering if he was coming down with a cold. When getting a bad cold he would always have the same dream over and over again, like he was stuck in a loop until his fever broke.
In the worst dream he rode a bicycle down hill and couldn’t find the brakes. The bike had curved handlbars, like his touring bike, but where his bike had levers, this one had nothing but white grip-tape. He spun his feet backwards thinking maybe the bike had coaster brakes like his dad’s antique bicycle. Looking down, he couldn’t see any mechanism to slow himself, and the ground kept streaking by faster and faster.
To make matters worse, the smooth asphalt road gave way to gravel and eventually to hard-packed dirt. He would wake up from the dream just as he steered the bike into a tree or over a cliff. About two AM he woke from this dream and sat straight up in bed. Something besides the dream had woken him up, but he didn’t know what was wrong.
Through the window he saw a thin moon shining between the maple leaves. He thought he saw a shadow move near the foot of his bed, but as soon as he blinked twice, the shadow disappeared. Closing his eyes tight, Stephen slid down in his bed until just the top of his head poked out from under the covers. There might be something in his room, but he decided to ignore it and wait for morning.
Despite his fear, he fell asleep again within ten minutes and returned to the same terrible dream.
**********
Stephen slid halfway out of bed before completely waking up. His cell phone, perched on the end table and plugged into its charger, was ringing its alarm.
He planted a hand on the floor and pulled himself the rest of the way out of bed. His feet hit the floor and he straightened up to grab his phone. Pulling out the charging cord, he flipped it open to read the alarm.
“Meet me near salamander rock. Come right now,” said the display. Stephen shut off the alarm and thought about the message. His clock read seven AM.
The salamander rock part was easy, he remembered that rock. A few weeks earlier, before the hotel adventure, the boys spent an hour trying to catch a salamander in the creek. Ben caught it on a rock which became known as “salamander rock.”
Stephen couldn't guess why Jack wanted to meet him at seven in the morning, or why Jack put the appointment on his phone instead of just asking.
He had to make a quick decision, and thought about the fourth of July. Jack stood up for Stephen, even though they didn’t like each other then and he had no reason to risk his neck. Stephen decided to return the favor and settle up with Jack. He pulled on his pants and got ready to meet Jack in the woods.
**********
Heading down the path, Stephen felt like a bundle of nerves. He felt like he was waiting to take a test and he had forgotten to study. Breath shallow and heartbeat fast he tried not to rush—he wanted to be ready for whatever Jack was calling him towards. Despite his resolve, he accelerated until he heard voices up ahead. He stopped and listened.
“Listen kid,” a raised voice said and then trailed off.
Stephen darted off the path and followed a thicket of pine trees closer to the creek. Hunched over, he could make it under the dry branches. The pine needle carpet let him approach silently. He stopped when he heard the voices coming from the other side of a burm.
“Do you want the deal or not?” someone asked. The voice sounded firm and forceful, but young. It took Stephen several moments to realize that the voice belonged to Jack.
“First you gotta tell us how you got my phone number,” answered a deeper voice.
“I got it from Vigue,” said Jack.
“Vigue doesn’t
have
my phone number,” said the voice.
“I guess you don’t know what Vigue has,” answered Jack.
“Well, we got half the money already anyway. You don’t want to tell me where you got my number? Maybe we’ll just keep your cash and you can get fucked,” said the voice.
“That’s funny you should say that, Danny,” said Jack. “Because it suggests that you’ve got the upper hand here, and that’s really not the case.”
The conversation stopped, and Stephen wondered if something had happened. He wanted to move forward to get a better look, but he couldn’t judge how far away Jack and the other man stood.
“Yeah?” asked the voice—Stephen guessed it belonged to Danny. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Well, two things: one is that I wrote a letter to Sheriff Kurtwood and told him how he could prove it was you two who killed those dogs and cats.”
Stephen held his breath.
“The second is that one of my friends is over there in the woods, and he runs fast,” said Jack. “You can screw me over, but as soon as you do, he’s going to run back to the house and give my dad the letter and tell him that you guys snatched me from the back yard.”
Stephen could now picture the conversation. Jack was facing off against Smoker and Bag Man and was threatening them. He wondered what Jack could possibly want from these two and why he had revealed that he knew about the shootings.
“See, I told you it was this fucking kid,” said Danny. Stephen heard another gap in the conversation and figured it might be Bag Man talking low to Danny. “Yeah, you don’t have anyone in the woods kid, so you can stop fucking pretending.”
“Hey, make some noise,” yelled Jack.
It took Stephen a second to realize that Jack was talking to him. He wondered how Jack could be sure that he was listening. He thought for a second more and then yelled, “Hey.”
“What the fuck?” said Danny. “That’s it, kid. You’re done.”
“Get ready to run,” yelled Jack. He continued in a softer tone and Stephen had to strain to hear Jack above his own beating heart. “Just wait a second. I didn’t tell the sheriff shit, or else I’d have nothing to tell him now. It was that target-shooting guy that ratted you out. Let’s just do this deal and go our separate ways. I’ll even throw in an extra hundred.”
There was silence after Jack’s proposal and Stephen got ready to run. He knew that Smoker and Bag Man would come for him any second. He started to slip back from his position when he heard Danny’s voice again.
“Okay,” said Danny. “It’s in here. Where’s the cash?”
After a pause, Jack said, “Under that rock, there’s an envelope.”
“What about the extra hundred?” asked Danny.
“It’s in there. Check,” said Jack.
“Alright kid, just remember, we’ve got friends too. If you fuck us over, we can find out where you live and one of our friends might pay a visit to your mom one day when she’s alone,” replied Danny.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m just a happy customer,” said Jack.
Stephen heard footsteps moving through the leaves. He let out his breath slowly, trying not to make any noise, and slumped to the ground. Danny’s voice receded to his left. Moving right, Stephen wanted to put extra distance between himself and the animal-killers. As the drama faded, Stephen wondered what Jack had purchased.
He looped around through the woods to the west of the trail and made his way back to Jack’s house. He rejoined the trail right where he thought. Around the next bend, Jack waited for him, holding a plastic grocery bag.
“What the hell was that about?” asked Stephen.
“I had to get this,” said Jack, holding up the bag.
“What is it?”
“What do you think?” asked Jack.
He guessed that Jack had purchased a handgun. “I can’t believe you did that. That could have gone really badly,” said Stephen.
“I had the whole situation under control, and we won’t have to worry about those guys anymore,” said Jack.
“What are you going to do with it?” Stephen pointed at the bag.
“I think I may need it by the end of the week,” said Jack. “The kidnapper is going to come back and find that I’ve rescued the Vigue kid, and then he’s going to come looking for me.”
“Oh man, you’re nuts,” Stephen tried to reason with Jack as they walked down the path. “Just time-out on all this crazy talk for a minute. For one, if you think you know the kid is alive, and you think the kidnapper isn’t going to be back until the end of the week, then why not get the police involved right now. You’re smart, I’m sure you can think of some excuse to get the police to search that place.”
“Yeah, I thought that through,” said Jack. “But a couple of things to consider—he might have a way of knowing if the police go into the hotel and he could blow the place up, or escape. I want the kid alive, and I want the guy to go to jail. Getting the police involved now could risk both of those things.”
“No offense, Jack,” countered Stephen. “But
we’re
just kids. We don’t have any business screwing around with this stuff.”
“I think that’s the whole point,” said Jack, stopping and turning to Stephen. “He’s only letting us get in there
because
we’re kids. It’s his game to see if kids can rescue another kid. If we get adults involved he’s just going to kill the Vigue kid and move on. I read about these types of guys, they have a code that they stick to, like rules of a game. If you stick to those, they’ll give you a way to win.”
Stephen thought about that; he wanted to save the kid if they could—he wanted to be a hero and help outwit a killer, but knew he shouldn’t be involved and that it was wrong. Stephen considered Jack either overconfident or just wrong about the situation.
“I can’t be a part of this, Jack,” said Stephen. “I don’t think you should be either.”
“It’s okay,” said Jack. “I figured it would be too much for you, and I think I can do it alone anyway.”
“If you’re trying to psych me out, it’s not going to work,” warned Stephen.
That made Jack chuckle. Stephen noted that Jack’s mannerisms and laugh made him seem much older than just a few weeks before.
“I’m not trying to trick you,” said Jack. “But I am going to ask you to do one more thing with me, and then perhaps you should head back south a little early.”
Stephen was greatly relieved. He waited to hear the request.
“I’m going to show you evidence that our kidnapper is out of town for a few days, and I want you to help in the hotel one more time.”
Stephen ignored the request for a moment—fixated on the idea of being safe at home. “What excuse am I going to use to leave early? I’ve already got plane tickets for the thirty-first, and today is only the twenty-third. Those tickets are expensive to change.”
“Don’t worry,” said Jack. “We’ll think of something, I’m sure. But, will you help me?”
“I don’t know—what’s your evidence?” asked Stephen.
“I’ll tell you back at the house,” said Jack.
**********
Back at the house they removed their shoes in the garage and snuck up the stairs to avoid Jack’s parents. As they passed down the hall to the safety of Jack’s room, Stephen noted that lying and sneaking around had become second nature to him.
Jack waved him into the seat in front of the computer.
“First,” said Jack, “look at this.” He leaned past Stephen and pressed a key, waking up the computer.
A CNN webpage appeared on the screen. Stephen scanned the article. It regarded a missing child in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The details of the case included a kid snatched from his pre-school; no witnesses. Then, the article discussed the similarities to the Gabe Vigue case. The police investigated a possible connection between the two. Stephen scrolled back up to the top of the article and saw what he was looking for—the article had been posted just four hours before.
“What if it’s not the same guy?” asked Stephen.