by Kathi Daley
“How about here. In the afternoon. Say around three o’clock?”
“I’ll be here.”
Chapter 10
Juggling two cases was going to be somewhat tricky, but I was all but totally convinced that once I spoke to Caroline Grant, I’d be able to close that case with a checkmark in the win column. Valerie had told me that she’d give Caroline my number and ask her to call me. I just hoped she would.
In the meantime, I was supposed to meet Cora at three o’clock this afternoon, and I really wanted to have something to tell her. I wasn’t sure where to start, but physical activity usually helped me to think, so I got up early and set off for a run with the dogs. As winter faded and the long hot months of summer appeared on the horizon, I realized that the dogs and I would be spared the heat we’d had to suffer through living in the south. I was really looking forward to a summer of mild temperatures where running wouldn’t become an activity best done late at night or inside an air-conditioned gym.
After the dogs and I finished our run, I took a shower and got dressed. As I sat on my deck looking out at the bay and sipping coffee, I considered where to start my investigation for the day. As I was speaking to Cora yesterday, it occurred to me that if the three boys had been introduced to someone who was filling their heads with concepts relating to personal power and one life, maybe someone had seen them together. Jemma seemed to be pretty tight with Zane’s friend, Artie Drysdale. Perhaps another conversation with him was in order. Of course, today was Friday, and school had yet to let out for the summer, so it was unlikely I’d be able to speak to him before I met with Cora at three o’clock. Jemma might be able to get phone records for all three boys, so perhaps she was the best person to start with.
Taking my coffee mug into the kitchen and setting it in the sink, I grabbed my notepad and then headed next door to see if Jemma had a few minutes to chat.
“Ainsley,” Jemma greeted. “Come on in.”
“Thanks. I hate to interrupt you during the workday, but I wanted to talk to you briefly before I head out for the day.”
“It’s not a problem. I have work to get done, but nothing urgent. Coffee? I wouldn’t mind taking a short break.”
“Coffee would be great.” I’d just had a cup, but when it came to coffee, a cup was rarely enough.
“So, what’s on your mind?” Jemma asked after she’d poured us each a mug of coffee, and we’d settled on the deck.”
“I had a visit from Cora Maddox yesterday.”
She lifted a brow. “You don’t say. What did Cora want?”
I filled her in on our conversation and shared with her the fact that I wasn’t sure I was going to officially take the case but that I did plan to poke around today and see if I could pick up a lead. “I wanted to ask about the phone records for all three boys. Cora made the same comment others have made about all three missing boys having family issues. She also shared that Zane had made comments to her about personal power and one life, which seem to be terms that keep circling around.”
“So you want to see if you can find a link between these phrases, the behavior issues, and the disappearance of all three boys.”
“I do. The fact that all three used the same phrases can’t be a coincidence. At this point, I figure that if we can trace the phrases back to the source, whether it be a book, a club, a guru, or a cult, we might be able to figure out what exactly is going on. I know that phone records won’t link to the phrases, but if we can find a phone number associated with all three missing boys, that might give us a place to start.”
“It does sound like a good place to jump in. I assume Deputy Todd has already pulled the cell records for all three boys, but it’s unlikely he’ll share. I’ll work on it and see what I can do.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I also thought I’d try talking to Artie Drysdale. You mentioned that he was good friends with Zane.”
“He is. He doesn’t know you, so I should probably go along. Maybe we can track him down after school.”
“I’m supposed to meet Cora at three o’clock, and school doesn’t let out until then, so it might have to wait for the weekend.”
“It’s Friday. The high school lets out at noon on Fridays. I’ll text Artie and see if he has time to meet with us.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to pull you away from work.”
She shrugged. “I usually knock off early on Fridays anyway, and I’m actually pretty caught up. I’ll just finish what I’m doing and then go to work on the phone numbers. Why don’t you come back in about an hour.”
“Okay, I will. And thank you.”
“No need to thank me. I want to find those boys as much as anyone.”
After I went back to my cottage, I decided to pull the high school yearbook up on my computer. I’d heard that the yearbook for this year had already been released, although I wasn’t sure if it would be available online yet. I hoped it was. Maybe I could find a photo that might give me a hint as to what might have been going on in the lives of our missing teens.
After locating the yearbook, the first thing I did was look up each teen on the page that featured his individual photo. Zane was a good-looking kid with an athletic build. He had a nice smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes but based on the image portrayed, I was willing to bet he was popular with the girls. The online edition of the yearbook contained links you could click on that took you to other photos and mentions of a student in the yearbook. Zane had a lot of links associated with his photo. Most of the links led to photos of the various athletic teams he participated in, but there were also casual photos of him at a school dance, a Friday night bonfire, and a fundraising dinner for the booster club.
Kalen was a tall kid with a mop of dark hair and a long scar on his cheek. He only had a few links to click on, which included a link to the page featuring the wrestling team and a link to a group photo taken at the high school auto shop.
Trevor was short and skinny. He had blond hair, a thin face, and serious-looking glasses. Trevor’s “home page” had more links than Kalen’s but less than Zane’s. I clicked all the links to find that Trevor had memberships in a variety of academic clubs and organizations. I remembered that he was super smart, so I supposed that wasn’t surprising.
By the time I’d finished looking through the yearbook, it was time to meet up with Jemma, so I turned my computer off and headed in that direction.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “I got my project for work completed, and I managed to pull cell phone records for all three boys.”
“And? Did you find any phone numbers the three had in common?”
“Just one. Underground Comics. Underground Comics is a comic book and video game store over on Edmonton Street. It’s popular with a lot of high school-aged kids as well as quite a few adults, so it’s not surprising that all three boys might have spent time there. Still, it is a lead, so I figured we could stop by after we speak to Artie.”
“So you were able to get ahold of Artie?” I asked.
She nodded. “Artie has a full day planned today, but he said that if we want to ask him some questions, we should meet him at the school at noon right when he gets out. He said he’d wait for us on the bleachers located at the football field.”
I glanced at my watch. It was already after eleven. “I guess we should head there first. If Artie doesn’t know anything and the comic book and video game store turns out to be a dead-end, I guess we can take a second look at the phone logs this afternoon.”
By the time Jemma freshened up a bit and grabbed her bag, it was time to head to the high school. Jemma volunteered to drive since she knew where everything was. I really appreciated the way Jemma was always willing to drop everything and help me. I’d offer to buy her lunch if she had time, but I supposed I’d have to wait and see how the afternoon went. I needed to be at the office by three o’clock, but that should still leave us time to eat unless Artie had news that provided an additional clue.
; As he said he would be, Artie was waiting for us on the bleachers when Jemma and I arrived.
“Thanks for taking the time to meet with us,” Jemma said to the tall boy with broad shoulders and sandy blond hair.
“If I can help you find Zane, I’m happy to do whatever is needed.”
“When we spoke before, Zane’s paddleboard had been found, but word about the other missing boys wasn’t known yet. Now that you know that Zane, Kalen, and Trevor all turned up missing over the same three-day period, have you thought of anything else that might help us figure out what might be going on?” Jemma asked.
Artie swiveled his mouth to the right. He narrowed his gaze and then spoke. “There is something. I’m not sure if it’s important, but after Kalen went missing, it occurred to me that I’d seen Zane and Kalen together a couple weeks ago.”
“At school?” Jemma asked.
He shook his head. “No, in town. They were standing in front of Underground Comics talking. I was in the car with my mom. We were on our way home from a dentist appointment, so I didn’t talk to them, but I did think it was sort of odd. Zane and Kalen used to be friends back when Kalen was still on the football team, but then Kalen decided to quit sports and focus on cars. I was sort of surprised when Kalen announced he wasn’t going to do football this year, but since his dad is really into cars, I guess I sort of get it.”
“Is Kalen’s dad is a mechanic?” I asked.
“No. Not by profession, but Kalen’s dad likes to restore old classics, and working in the garage on his latest project was something Kalen and his dad enjoyed doing together. After his dad left, Kalen started hanging out with the kids who hang out at the high school auto shop, and he stopped hanging out with the guys from the football team.”
“So Kalen has always been interested in cars, but he really only tinkered with his father until his father left, and then he quit his other after-school activities and started hanging out with the car guys full time?”
Artie nodded. “Zane was pretty mad when Kalen quit football. The two worked well together, and Kalen leaving really hurt the team. After Kalen quit, Zane started avoiding him, which is why I was surprised to see the two of them hanging out together in front of the comic book and video game store.”
“Did you ever ask Zane about it?” I asked.
“Sure. Zane said he was at the store to check out the new stock and just happened to run into Kalen. I guess it could have happened that way. I didn’t think a whole lot about it until both friends went missing.”
“What about Trevor?” I asked. “Have you ever seen him at the comic book and video game store?”
“Sure, all the time. Trevor is a geeky kid, and like a lot of geeky kids, he’s totally into fantasy and role-playing.”
“Role-playing?” I asked.
“There are a few games out there. Dungeons and Dragons is a board game that has been around for a long time. Everyone who is into role-playing has played, but there are other board games as well. In addition to the role-playing board games, there are multiplayer video games that are even more popular at the moment.”
“Was Zane involved in any of these games?” I asked.
“Sure. We both are. Kalen and Trevor too. Role-playing games are huge, but I guess you know that.”
“Can you think of a game that utilizes catchphrases such as personal power and one life?” I asked.
He frowned. “Not specifically, although personal power makes me think of being strong and fearless, which is the key to winning most of the games.”
Artie took a few minutes to describe the setup of a few of the games he and Zane had been involved in recently. None of them sounded like the sort of thing that might cause a major shift in behavior, but they all allowed the player to step out of their lives and be someone else. Someone, I realized, in control of their destiny in a way that an average fifteen-year-old boy might not be. Especially a fifteen-year-old boy with life issues being played out within the family dynamic.
“Had Zane been spending more time playing video games lately than he previously did?” Jemma asked.
Artie nodded. “He’s canceled plans with me in favor of just staying home and playing games, so I suspect he got hooked on something. I like playing, but video games aren’t the most important thing to me. I’d rather go out and hang with friends. Zane used to be more like me, but I will admit that lately, he seemed to really be into the whole online thing.”
Artie had plans to meet up with friends, so Jemma and I thanked him and then headed toward the comic book and video game store. When we arrived, the place was packed, but school had just let out, so we decided to go and have lunch and then come back in the hope that some of the after-school crowd would have cleared out by then.
“You know, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that a role-playing game might be the key we’re looking for,” Jemma said as we nibbled on seafood salads and freshly baked bread. “I’ve participated in a number of online games and have to admit that they can be very addicting. Not only is it hard to stop once you start, but the more invested you become in your character, the stronger the reality of that character becomes in your mind.”
“So, do you think that Zane, Kalen, and Trevor might have been playing the same game?” I asked.
“I think it’s possible. Since you play the game as a character and not as yourself, it opens the door for participants to engage in dialogue as well as quests with people they might not hang out with in another situation. Zane is a popular jock and Trevor is a nerdy science geek, so they don’t really hang out at school, but if Zane’s character and Trevor’s character are allies during the game, then it’s totally possible that the two boys might feel a bond of sorts even if it is a bond that exists primarily within the game.”
“Okay,” I said. “I think the online multiplayer game idea is one worth checking out. I can see how a game that somehow fulfills the needs of a fifteen-year-old boy having a hard time at home or at school might become addicting to the point of providing a brainwashing effect of sorts.”
“Exactly. It sounds like all three boys found themselves in situations where they are suffering from a lack of control in their own lives. Zane’s sister, who had been a buffer of sorts between Zane and their father, went off to college, leaving Zane to deal with the rigid and controlling man on his own. It sounds like Kalen was closer to his father than he was to his mother, and it created a void in his life when his father left. And Trevor seems to be struggling with the challenge of balancing his intellect with new social needs that might be rising to the surface as he matures. I can see where a game which allows all three boys to be in total control of their lives might prove to be addicting.”
“Of course, even if we can prove this theory, and even if we can find the specific game where the term one life is utilized, we’ll still need to figure out how the game led to the disappearance of three of the players and where they might be now.”
Jemma and I agreed that our theory, even if it turned out to be correct, was only a start if we actually wanted to find the boys, which we did; but a start was the first step in any successful investigation, so we finished our lunch and headed toward the comic book and video game store.
“Can I help you?” a tall skinny man who looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties asked after Jemma and I entered Underground Comics through the front door.
“My name is Ainsley Holloway.” I offered the man a business card. “I’m a private investigator who’s been hired to find out what happened to Zane Maddox. I wondered if you might be willing to answer a few questions.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know nothing about those missing kids, but if you want to ask me some questions, go ahead. I’ll answer those I can.”
“Zane Maddox, Kalen West, and Trevor Wilson are all currently missing. I understand that all three frequented this store.”
“Yeah. So, what? Half the kids who attend the high school, including a fair number of girls, com
e here. What does frequenting my store have to do with anything?”
“I’m not saying that frequenting your store is in any way connected to whatever happened to the boys,” I said. “I just hoped that since all three missing kids came in here, you might know a bit about them. We’re talking to everyone who knew any of the boys.”
The man seemed to relax a bit. I supposed it was natural for one to feel defensive when being interviewed about missing persons.
“I guess I did know all three missing boys. What do you want to know?”
I leaned an elbow on the counter and turned my body just a bit so I could look at the man directly. “I understand that Zane, Kalen, and Trevor all enjoyed playing multiplayer games online.”
“Sure. Most of the kids who hang out here are into the role-playing stuff to a degree.”
“I assume that some of the kids who come in here take the game a lot more seriously than others.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s true. A lot of players jump in the game when they have some free time, but a few of my more dedicated customers seem to make a lifestyle of it.”
“And the three boys who are missing? Which type were they?” I asked.
He stroked his shaggy beard before answering. “Zane stopped in most days, and I know he was online most nights and often on weekends. Actually, he’s been online a lot more regularly lately. I think the End Days mission he got involved in really drew him in.”
“And the others?”
He scratched a cheek. “Kalen didn’t come into the store as often as Zane, who stopped in almost every day, at least for a few months, but he has been online more often since joining the same End Days mission that Zane is involved in. Trevor too, for that matter.”
“And the game?” I asked. “What exactly is the objective?”
He shrugged. “It’s really all about surviving in the world that you’ve been forced into. Sort of a post-apocalypse thing.”
“And Zane, Kalen, and Trevor all have roles in this game?” I verified.
