Uncle Bill is up drinking coffee and reading the newspaper as usual when I come downstairs in the morning. “Breakfast is on the stove,” he says in his gruff voice, over the edge of his paper.
I expect my uncle to just go back to what he’s doing like he did the night before, but to my surprise, his eyes stay on me as I walk over to the stove. “You’re not coming down with something, are you?” he asks. “You don’t look good.”
I must really look like crap if I’m keeping him from reading his paper. “I’m fine.” I make sure to smile. “I was just up later than I thought I’d be, doing homework.”
“Do you need to stay home? I can write you a note. Nothing wrong with a day off every now and then.”
“My homework’s due today. And I…I have a test.” I try to remember if I actually do.
Uncle Bill grins. “When we were kids, your dad liked to try and talk Mom and Dad into giving him a day off. It never worked.”
There it is again—bringing up my dad out of nowhere. Does he expect me to respond? My heart suddenly pounding into my throat, I turn to the stove and serve myself some eggs and bacon.
He returns to his paper.
I force down the food to hold off any more questions. My uncle points to the front page and says, “It says here somebody called the police, claimed a girl was killed.”
My heart leaps into my throat, and I almost choke on my eggs.
Uncle Bill doesn’t seem to notice as he continues. “It says when the police got there, there was nothing. No body. It was a prank call. Did you hear about this?”
I carefully wipe my mouth. “Uh…no.”
“Well, the police chief sounds pretty upset. He’ll probably find out who did it.” He puts the paper down and checks his watch. “Gotta go,” he says. “Have a good day at school, Alden.”
As soon as the door closes behind him, I grab the paper and pore over the article. Charlie’s dad does seem pissed. He’s quoted as calling it “reprehensible,” and mentions other prank calls made in the past. Then he goes on to say, “I promise we will do our best to track down the people responsible and make sure they are arrested and punished to the full extent of the law.”
For someone whose department supposedly doesn’t have the tools to track me down, he sure sounds determined. I expect police cruisers to drive up to me any minute, sirens blaring, as I walk to school.
* * *
At school, Amy is a no-show. Every worst-case scenario plays over and over in my mind. I’m practically jumping out of my skin by the time I see Charlie at lunch.
“Yeah I know. Amy’s not here,” Charlie says before I even open my mouth. “She’s at church camp.”
“Church camp? How do you know?”
“I know people who know Amy,” she says.
“You asked around?”
“Don’t worry, I was subtle. I can be subtle, you know.”
Charlie is friends with the jocks who use the weight room. It makes sense she would know a lot of the same kids Greg does, though Charlie doesn’t play any sports. What doesn’t make sense to most of my classmates is her friendship with me.
“It’s a three-day camp,” Charlie continues. “She got today off from school so she could go.”
“How do we know she’s really there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe she never made it to camp. Her friends think that’s where she is, so no one’s suspicious. It gives Greg plenty of time to get rid of her body and any evidence.”
Charlie gives me a funny look. “Greg’s in school today, you know. Don’t you think he’d at least call in sick if he needed to get rid of a body?”
The sarcasm in her voice is obvious, so I don’t bother answering.
“I told you, Alden, this isn’t a TV show. Besides, don’t you think her parents would notice her missing and report it to the police?”
“Unless they think she’s at camp, too.”
“And how would that work?” Charlie scowls. “You’re not making sense.”
I open my mouth, then close it. I decide to change course. “I’ve been keeping my eye on Greg.”
Charlie’s scowl deepens. “What do you mean keeping an eye on him?”
“Not following him. Just…watching him when I see him in the hall.”
Charlie starts to say something, then stops and shrugs. “So?”
“He doesn’t seem himself today.”
“Oh, really.”
“You know how he is. Smiling all the time. Always friendly.”
“All that to hide the fact that he’s really a vicious killer.” Charlie wiggles her fingers in front of her face while singing the beginning of the theme from The Twilight Zone. A year ago the two of us binged the entire series during spring break. We loved it.
“He’s just not himself, Charlie. He’s quiet, sullen.”
“Maybe he misses Amy.”
“I thought I caught him looking at me a couple of times in the hall.”
“So?”
“It might be because he saw me running away at Miller’s Park.”
“But you weren’t sure he even saw you, right?”
“Well…yeah. I mean, no, I’m not sure he saw me.”
“You’re not sure about a lot of things.”
“But, Charlie…”
“Yes?”
“He doesn’t have his backpack today.”
Charlie blinks.
“He always has it at school,” I continue. “With all that sports stuff on it. He had it yesterday when I was following him. But not today.”
After a few seconds, Charlie asks, “What’s he carrying today?”
“An old gray one.”
“It doesn’t mean—”
“I told you what I saw at the park.”
“What you thought you saw.”
I lean in. “If he killed Amy with it, it might have her blood on it. I thought I saw blood on it. Which is why he couldn’t bring it to school today.”
“Maybe he just broke a strap.”
I glare at her in silence.
“I’m going to regret this,” she says, shaking her head. “What do you want to do?”
“Come with me to Miller’s Park. Help me look for evidence.”
“Evidence? The police were there, don’t you think they would have found something?”
“They expected to find a body. When they didn’t and figured they just got pranked, they probably didn’t look too hard.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Charlie, it wouldn’t hurt just to take a look.”
“The police might still be keeping an eye on the park, you know.”
“Why would they if they didn’t find anything the first time? If we see a police car, we’ll just leave.” I give her my best imploring look. I can tell she’s wavering.
“What evidence do you think we’ll find?”
“I don’t know. Blood on the grass. Or somewhere. Maybe we’ll find Greg’s backpack. He might have left it there or threw it in a trash can.”
“That’d be pretty dumb of him,” Charlie says. She goes silent. I know to wait and keep my mouth shut as she thinks about it.
Finally, she says, “All right. We’ll do it. After school. Let’s go to my house, we’ll use my bikes. If we get there and see a police car, we won’t stop. We’ll just keep going, and we’ll forget about it. Clear?”
“Clear,” I say.