“No ma’am,” Sally said. “He was found in a neighborhood swimming pool five months ago. We weren’t able to identify him until today.”
“But how can he look the same? Shouldn’t he have…uh…”
“We think his murderer kept him frozen all this time,” Jaxon said, and she flinched at his voice. It was the first time he had spoken since they met.
“Frozen?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“I don’t know, June,” Sally said. “Whoever did this to your son is a very demented individual.”
“You don’t know who did this?”
“Not yet,” Sally said, “but we’ve made some progress and we will catch him.”
June turned back to her son. “Twenty seven years. He would be thirty nine now.” A single tear tracked down her face and then she began to sob. Sally went to her and put an arm around her. Jaxon knew exactly how she felt.
Chapter 22
That evening, everyone was there, even Patrick. Luke wasn’t sure if Patrick was still sore at them and he guessed it didn’t matter. This was more important than any petty differences they may have had.
All the kids knew about most of the stuff, but the Facebook friend William Smith, and the text messages and phone calls Luke and Ellie had gotten were all new to them. ‘George,’ the pool dummy, drew a few laughs but most were shocked at how the dummy had been traded for a real dead boy.
“That must have been a shocker for you guys,” Ralph said.
“I about crapped my pants,” John said.
Luke’s older sister, Deana, looked mad. “I think you guys are stupid,” she said. “The police need to know about this and you idiots are keeping it from them.”
“Didn’t you hear a single word I said?” Luke asked. “He threatened Ellie and me, and said that if we told anyone, he would kill us. Don’t you think we would have done something by now if we didn’t have that hanging over our heads?”
“The police can protect you,” Deana said.
“Like they protected Paul?” Alan shot back.
“Paul was out all by himself. No one could have helped him,” Deana said.
“That’s right,” Luke said. “Paul was out all by himself and that’s what we need to make sure doesn’t happen to the rest of us. We stick together. Nobody goes anywhere alone. Nobody talks about what we know unless it’s with each other. Nobody keeps any secrets from the rest of the group. Something happens, you tell us.”
“I still don’t like it,” Deana said.
“Deana, we’re trusting you,” Ellie said. “Luke didn’t want to tell you all because he thought the group couldn’t keep it to themselves. Please don’t prove him right. We need help, and we wanted to make sure everybody else was safe. I convinced him to break the silence, but if you involve any adults at this point, you could be hurting your brother. And me.”
Deana was quiet for a minute, then finally said, “Alright, I’ll keep quiet for now. But if I feel like you guys are being dumber than normal, I’ll involve the police.”
“Come to us first,” Luke said. “If we go to the police, it will be a group decision. Ok?”
Everybody agreed, even Deana.
“Now that’s out of the way,” Jimmy said, “let’s play.”
Luke thought it had been the best game they had played in a long time.
Chapter 23
Luke, Ellie, Jimmy, and John were always the first at the pool in the morning. It was their job to open up. Jimmy pulled the keys from his gym bag and unlocked the gate. They split up with Luke and John opening the locker rooms, while Jimmy checked the pump house and Ellie started working on the lane dividers.
Luke was singing in the locker room, the echo creating a cool sound, when he heard Ellie scream.
“Ellie!” he shouted, and ran out of the locker room onto the deck. She was standing at the edge of the pool, one hand holding a lane divider and the other clasped over her mouth. In the pool was a boy. He was resting on the bottom at the six foot mark and the water was tinged pink around him. As Luke walked closer, he could see the body was missing its head. It was floating a few feet out, face up. The eyes were half open and the mouth was set in a gasp with water sloshing in and out of it.
“Ah crap” Jimmy said, kneeling at the edge of the pool.
Luke stood next to Ellie who turned and buried her face in his shoulder, crying.
“I think it’s Jason Margot,” Luke said.
“Damn,” John whispered, coming up behind them.
Jimmy turned and threw up all over the deck.
Jaxon turned to the swim coach, Will Francis, and asked, “So the kids open up every morning?”
“Yes. They get everything ready for practice,” Will said.
“Does anyone else have a key?”
“Yes, several people do, including the head lifeguard, snack shop manager, and the management company.”
“What time do the kids usually show up?”
“Probably around 7:15. Practice starts at 7:30.”
“Right. Thank you Mr. Francis. Please help keep all the kids out of the area for a while. The pool will be closed for a couple of days while we gather evidence.”
Jaxon walked over to where Harrison and his little group were sitting. “You guys keep showing up whenever something happens. If I didn’t have in my possession proof you didn’t do anything, I’d swear you were involved. You’re lucky I have that proof.”
He knelt in front of Ellie. “Are you alright?”
She nodded. He could tell she wasn’t, but couldn’t do anything about it. Sally hadn’t arrived yet, but when she did, he’d have her talk to the girl.
“Think you guys can talk about it?” he asked them all.
He watched them all nod.
“Who wants to go first?”
“I found him, so I guess I will,” Ellie said.
He listened as she went through the trauma of finding the decapitated boy. The story was pretty consistent with what the coach had described and then what the boys told him next. He felt bad for them. They seemed to be getting caught up in a lot of stuff kids their age shouldn’t see. His cell phone rang and he looked at the number expecting it to be Sally. It read ‘unavailable’ and the number showed up as 000-000-0000.
He answered it. “Jaxon.”
“Hello Detective.” The voice was grating and high pitched. It had a metallic quality to it and he could tell it was being electronically altered. It drew out the word ‘Detective,’ mocking him.
“Who is this?” Jaxon asked.
“Did my little gift help?”
“What gift would that be?”
“The picture, of course. You really didn’t think the animals were meant for you, did you?”
“Not really. But we had already identified the boy yesterday morning.”
“So you say. I was becoming worried you would never honor him. Five months is a long time to find someone, isn’t it Detective?”
The voice was hurting his ear. The way he liked to drag out his title caused a kind of feedback through the speaker of the phone and he had to pull it away from his head. He saw Sally walk up and he frantically signaled for her. She walked over briskly.
He put his hand over the phone. “Call downtown,” he whispered to Sally, “Have them set up a trace on my cell. Hurry!”
She took out her phone and moved away.
“Still there Detective?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Come now, Jaxon. We don’t have much time. Can’t you think of something more useful to ask me?”
For some reason, Jaxon could think of only one thing. “Why?”
“That’s better. That wasn’t too hard was it?”
Jaxon remained silent.
“Because I can, Detective.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“Help me.”
“There you go. You just answered that question yourself.”
“Where are you?”
“Tell Winston I like her yellow blouse.”
Jaxon’s eyes snapped up as his heart leapt into his throat.