Aric Davis - The Fort

Van Endel finished the beer and stood, not feeling better, but feeling grounded. Molly Peterson was dead, and that was that. Now it was his job to find out who, and maybe even why, though usually the latter was nothing worth knowing. Van Endel slapped a ten-dollar bill on the bar, waved to the barkeep, and walked out.

31

The sound of the alarm woke Tim slowly, but once he realized what it was, he turned it off quickly. His heart was thumping in his chest as he slid out of bed. He was trying to be as quiet as possible, but every noise felt like the gunshot in the fort all over again. Thank God I sleep with the door closed. He got dressed in the clothes he’d helped his dad with the patio in—the last thing he needed was for one of his parents to notice extra laundry—walked to the window, and slid it the rest of the way open. He pushed in the buttons to raise the screen up, and it squeaked slightly as he moved it out of the way. Wincing at the squeak, Tim slid himself out of the window, then dropped silently into the bark around the landscaping. He gave a last look at the house, still not sure if this was a good decision, and took off running, headed straight for the path to the forest.

The grass made his feet wet through his sneakers, but Tim didn’t care. The lights from some of the other houses gave off threatening beams of illumination that he avoided, and within just a few minutes he was in the darkness of the forest. Fumbling with the flashlight he’d stuck in his pocket and then turning it on, he began to run to the fort, no longer worried about noise or anything else. He just wanted to see his friends. Most of all, he was anxious to hear if Luke had come up with any other plans.

By the time he got to the ladder he was panting, but a glint from the forest floor made him smile. When he ran the flashlight over the spot, he saw two caps, Coke and Sprite. Tim dropped the Budweiser cap next to them, stuck the flashlight in his mouth, and began to climb.

When he got to the top and pulled himself into the fort, he felt his friends’ hands pull him over the hole in the floor. He brushed himself off and then sat heavily by the window they’d been shooting from. It sure didn’t feel like it had been less than a day since they’d been here, but that was the reality of it.

When he looked at his friends he saw smiles, and he didn’t know if he’d ever been happier to see anyone in his whole life. “Think you’re going to get caught?” Scott asked, and Tim smiled even wider. “No, but you probably are.” All three of them erupted into tired giggles at that, and, not for the first time, Tim wondered at the logic in banning a kid from his best friends in the world.

“All right, all right,” said Luke. “That’s enough screwing around. We need to figure out a plan.”

“To catch the guy?” Tim asked. “That’s sort of what I figured we have to do to clear our names.”

Luke and Scott exchanged a glance. “That’s what we think too,” said Scott. “It’s our only option.”

“So we all agree,” said Luke, a touch of annoyance in his voice. “Great. But how are we going to do it?”

Tim thought about that. He hadn’t really considered the middle step, he had just figured they’d find the guy who had kidnapped Molly, thus saving both her and the currently doomed summer. Nothing in his life had ever prepared him for how to find a kidnapper, not even a wounded one.

“Since neither of you is saying anything,” said Luke, “I guess it will come down to me to figure this out. We were the last people to see Molly, right?” Tim and Scott nodded, and Luke continued. “Here’s the question, though. Besides us and the guy who took her, who else has seen her recently?” Tim and Scott just stared at Luke, waiting for an answer. Luke scowled and said, “Fine, I’ll just figure the whole thing out for you guys. Becca saw her, Becca and all of her friends. And they all saw who she was with when she disappeared.”

“That won’t help,” said Tim, a little forlornly. “Becca already told the cops everything, and they still can’t find the guy.”

Luke shook his head, and Tim wondered what else he’d missed. “Becca was with your folks when she talked to the cops, right?” Tim nodded, and Luke continued. “While she was already in trouble for how she was dressed—you told us that too. So here’s the thing: What else were she and her friends doing that would have gotten her in even more trouble?”

“You mean like drugs or something, right?” Scott asked. “Because if it was something like that, no way was Becca going to rat herself out, especially if she’d already decided in her mind that Molly was perfectly safe.”

Tim nodded. “It’s true. Becca would lie about just about anything to keep from getting in trouble. It’s just how she is. There’s still a problem, though. How am I supposed to get her to tell me the truth?”

“You’ll have to figure that part out on your own,” said Luke. “You know your sister way better than we do. Plus we’re not allowed in your house. What you need to find out, though, is who they were with, not just at the end, but all night. Who they were with, everywhere they went, everything. For all we know, one of them got some older guy to buy them cigarettes and he just followed them until he got the chance to get to Molly. The possibilities are pretty much endless. It’s possible they never even went to the movies at all.”

Tim was flabbergasted. Was Becca really capable of lying that well, to be able to fool both her parents and the police? He thought it was possible, but not very likely. Besides, what would be her motivation for lying in the first place? She knew one of her friends was in trouble; why try and hide information that could help the investigation from the police? There was only one explanation for any of that, and it could be only if they were doing something that would get her into huge trouble. Tim didn’t know what that could be, or how to extract the information from her, but he knew he better come up with something fast.

“So here’s the plan,” said Luke. “Tim, you’re going to talk to Becca and get the truth out of her. Do whatever it takes to get her to level with you, and make sure she tells you everything.”

“Are we going to tell the cops?” Scott asked.

“No way in hell,” said Luke. “That Van Endel guy might be smart, but he wouldn’t believe a word out of our mouths, at least not until they figure out the body they found behind the drive-in isn’t really Molly’s. After that, he might even call us back in, but I don’t think waiting is exactly in Molly’s best interest.”

“All right,” said Tim. “I’ll make Bacon an offer she can’t refuse.”

“Perfect,” said Luke. “I’m going to stay in the fort until Saturday, minimum, so I can watch that trail that we saw them walk down. I don’t think they’ll come back, but you never know. Plus, if I’m here all the time and one of you guys needs to run away—like if you get busted for sneaking out—we’ll have an easy meeting place to start from.”

“Wait,” said Scott. “Are you not in trouble? Because Tim and I are in, like, all the trouble, and you get to stay out of the house for a few days?”

“It’s not quite like that,” said Luke darkly. “I’m kind of already running away. My mom came home super drunk last night, and I decided the punishment she would give me when she was hungover from that wasn’t worth sticking around for.”

“Aren’t you worried she’ll come looking for you?”

“Guys, I know this sounds weird, and probably even a bit dramatic, but except for the stuff I do around the house to help out, my mom would rather not have me there at all. I know that you both come from normal families and that might sound crazy, but it’s true. This way will be easier, and hopefully there will be nothing for me to even be in trouble over by the time we’re done.”