Ellie apparently felt the same way and was distant and depressed at lunch. He couldn’t seem to get through to her and he knew she was blaming herself. They had filled Jimmy and John in on everything and the two were feeling some of the burden also. He could see the stress in John’s face. Paul had been a jerk sometimes but he didn’t deserve to die and they all felt somehow responsible.
“What if we had gone to the police?” Ellie asked all of them. “Maybe we could have saved Paul.”
Nobody had an answer. They all felt as she did and the burden of guessing what could have been laid heavy on all of them.
At the bus stop, Patrick seemed edgy and Alan hadn’t even shown up at school. Paul had been his best friend. Many of the parents picked their kids up at the bus stop or even went as far as to provide their own transportation to and from school. Fear was weighing heavy on the community. Luke’s little group had assured their parents they would stick together so they were some of the only ones walking from the stop. They dropped Ellie off at her house and then strode the short distance to their houses. Luke wasn’t worried. He knew the killer wouldn’t touch them in the open. He seemed to be someone who liked remaining hidden, yet put the results of his actions out there to taunt everyone.
As he reached for the front door, his cell phone beeped and he stopped, pulling it from his pocket. You’re off the hook…for now! Luke could hear the voice in his mind as he read the text message. He shivered in the afternoon cold.
He dialed Ellie’s number and she answered on the second ring. “You just left. Are you ok?”
“He just sent me a text message,” Luke said.
“I didn’t get one.” Just then her phone beeped and Luke could hear it through the speaker. “Wait! I just got a text. Hold on…”
Luke prayed her message was the same and that the jerk hadn’t decided to mess with her more.
“It says, You’re off the hook…for now!”
“That’s what mine said too.” Luke let out the breath he was holding and leaned up against the door.
“Do you think we should believe him?” she asked.
“I don’t see why. I’m planning on keeping my eyes and ears open. You should too.”
“Ok.”
Luke could hear the disappointment in her voice and he wondered if maybe he should have told her to relax. Everything will be ok now. She was so tense he could feel it through the connection.
“Hey, at least we should be ok for a while,” he said, changing his mind. “He’s probably had his fill of things and will leave us alone for now. Maybe for good. We did what he told us to. We haven’t told anyone.”
“I hope so. I can’t take much more.”
“I know. Call me if you need to talk. Do you want to come over later? I could come and get you.”
“Ok! That would be good. You always make me feel better.”
He could feel her smiling and he smiled too. “Alright. I’ll call in a bit and come get you.”
“See ya’.”
“Bye,” and he hung up and went inside. He only hoped William Smith would keep his promise.
Chapter 14
Jaxon had just gotten off the phone with the Medical Examiner and was doodling on his napkin as he thought through what he’d just learned. They still had no name for the first kid in the pool and the autopsy had shown very little. He had died of asphyxiation caused by the inhalation of a chemical. Diethyl Ether. The ME thought a rag had been held over the victim’s mouth and nose until he passed out and then the killer continued to hold the chemically soaked rag on his face until the kid died. Mild bruising had been found on the face around the mouth and nose consistent with this theory.
Paul Bannon had died the same way. Asphyxiation. Same chemical traces in his bloodstream. Same bruising of the face. What was bothering Jaxon more than anything was the peculiar state of the first kid’s body. The ME had told him some of the boy’s internal organs were frozen.
“Are your refrigerators set too cold?” Jaxon had asked.
“I checked. They’re fine. The rest of him was not frozen but he had some patches on his skin that resembled freezer burn. I think this boy has been frozen solid and recently thawed.”
“How long?”
“I haven’t been able to determine that yet. I’m checking with a colleague in North Dakota. He has some experience with this kind of thing. I should know something within a day or two.”
Freezer burn? What the hell? Jaxon thought. This kid may have been missing longer then they originally thought. He’d have to start looking back months and see if anything came up. In the mean time, it was probably worth it to take a trip back out to the neighborhood and see if any of these kids had anything to tell him.
Luke had just picked up Ellie from her house and they were heading back to his place through the frozen streets when a car pulled up next to them and rolled down its window.
“Lucas Harrison, Eliana Pemberton. Can we talk to you a moment.”
It was the two cops who had been to Luke’s house that Sunday morning when they thought the body was him. Luke looked at Ellie and then back at the cops and shrugged. “I guess,” he said.
“Was Paul Bannon a friend of yours?” the one named Jaxon asked.
They both nodded. “He lived a couple of houses down from me,” Ellie said.
“Had Paul said anything to you two about being frightened or worried?”
They both shook their heads. “No,” Luke said. “He seemed normal to me.”
“Had he been absent from school more than normal lately?” The woman cop asked.
“No,” Luke said. “He was always there. He never missed a day unless school was canceled.”
“Did you guys get along?” Jaxon asked looking hard into Luke’s eyes.
He hesitated. “Yeah…I mean we were friends and stuff. He was mad at me for a little while when he had his stitches.”
“What stitches?”
“We would have these snowball fights and he had the bright idea to put ice inside of the snowballs. He hit my friend Jimmy in the arm with one and made his arm numb. The next battle we got him back, only he got hit in the face and had to have stitches. It was stupid, I know. We don’t use ice balls anymore.”
Jaxon turned and looked at the woman. She raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
He held up a picture and asked, “Do either of you know this boy?”
Luke and Ellie leaned in to get a better look. It was a shot of a face. A kid about Luke’s age. His skin was pasty white and his lips looked slack and lifeless. His eyes were mostly closed, but not because he was sleeping. One of his irises could barely be seen through the cracked left eyelid. It made Luke shudder involuntarily. He leaned back, looking away quickly.
“No,” Luke said and Ellie shook her head, a frown now on her face.
Jaxon put the picture away and Luke asked, “Was that the kid from the pool? The first one?”
Jaxon looked at Luke’s shoes, ignoring the question, and asked, “What size shoe do you wear?”
“Uh…I don’t remember. You’d have to ask my mom. I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff. Why?”
“What happened to your coat?” the detective asked next, pointing to the rip in his sleeve.
“I’m not sure,” Luke said. “I think I ripped it on a branch while we were playing kick the can the other night.”
“On a branch, huh?”
Luke nodded and looked at Ellie who nodded too.
Jaxon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a baggie. Inside was the piece that had been torn from Luke’s coat. He swallowed and his knees felt a little watery.
“I don’t think it was a branch,” Jaxon said. “I think you ripped it climbing the fence to the pool. This is the torn piece I have in this bag and I took it from the top of the chain link fence. Are you gonna stick with the ‘branch’ story?”
Luke decided to remain silent.
Jaxon opened the door and stepped out of his car. The woman did the same on the other side and walked around the front of the car to stand next to Jaxon.