“Monahan. And you are?”
“Winston, sir.”
“What’s your first name?” Derek asked, sitting in the chair next to the boy, hoping to get him to open up quickly. He wasn’t sure when Emerson would be back from his latest class.
“It’s Eli, sir.”
“What can I do for you, Eli?”
The boy, who appeared to be no more than fourteen, looked around quickly. “I uh, I got permission to come ask Coach Gardener if I could clean out Charlie’s locker. See, um, Charlie borrowed my…um, my glove, and I kinda need it back.”
“Charlie?”
He nodded. “Charlie MacMasters. He was my best friend.”
Was? Derek straightened. “What happened to Charlie?”
Eli hesitated, then mumbled, “I don’t know. He’s just gone.”
Derek’s head pounded, as did his heart. Jesus. His second day on the site, and he’d already learned about another missing boy. He kept his voice low to ask, “When did this happen?”
“Last Thursday night.”
Derek couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In any normal boarding school, the disappearance of a student would have had searchers pounding the grounds day and night. He hadn’t even heard any gossip before now, and certainly saw no cops around. It was crazy.
“He just disappeared?”
“Yeah.” The boy sniffed, and looked down at his own clenched hands, obviously trying not to cry over his missing friend. “They say he ran away.”
Derek heard the emphasis and realized Eli disagreed. What was he really doing here? The glove story hadn’t sounded convincing. Was Eli perhaps looking for information on this Charlie’s disappearance, and did he think Coach Gardener knew something, or could help?
Either option wasn’t good. Because it sounded like the boy was engaged in a little Scooby-Dooing on his own.
“You don’t believe he ran away, do you.”
The kid shook his head slowly.
“What do you think happened to him?”
No response. Derek bent over, elbows on his knees, and looked into the boy’s half-lowered eyes. “You don’t know me, Eli. You have no reason to trust me yet, but I hope you’ll take a chance. I’m here to try to make things better. I really want to know what’s going on at this school. Can you at least tell me why you really came down here today?”
He could see the wheels and cogs working in Eli Winston’s brain. Despite his visible nervousness, the boy’s dark brown eyes were intelligent, intently studying him. They weighed and measured him, gauging his trustworthiness. Judging by the instructors and the atmosphere here, Derek understood the boy’s caution. He only hoped Eli decided it was worth the risk.
The kid’s slow nod indicated his decision. “I thought, maybe if I could find out from Coach Gardener why Charlie was crying, and tell him what I think is going on here, he might help me figure out who took him.”
Took him? Or killed him?
He doubted Eli was ready to think that far yet about his best friend. But Derek knew more about the history of this place than Eli. He’d hoped they were in time to stop any further attacks this year. Unfortunately, they were almost a week too late for Charlie. He had failed a kid he had never even heard of until five minutes ago.
Can’t think that way. He just had to focus on preventing any other kid from disappearing from the world, as if he’d never been in it.
Sitting up again, he asked, “Did Charlie cry a lot?”
“Not really, except at night the first couple of weeks. He’d never do it in gym class! But our other friend saw him crying last week after Emerson rode him real hard on the field. Real blubber tears and snot running.”
“Where was this?”
“In the locker room. Jeremy pretended not to see ’cuz he didn’t want to embarrass him.”
“Sounds like Charlie had some good friends here. He was lucky to have you.”
The boy shrugged. “We have to look out for each other.”
Derek heard the rest of the unsaid sentence: Because none of the adults will.
“I have to ask you something, Eli. If Charlie was so unhappy that he was crying and trying to hide it, do you think it’s possible he really did run away?”
“No way! He wouldn’t. You don’t know him.”
“So tell me about him.”
Eli hesitated. Derek remained silent, watching and waiting, and the young teen finally began to speak about his friend. Every word he said made their closeness obvious. Though he didn’t appear confident Derek would understand, he even compared their friendship to a literary one.
Derek had a well-read copy of Of Mice and Men on his nightstand. “I get it,” he told the boy. “I totally see what you’re saying.”
Eli sighed in relief. “Good. I hoped Mr. Andrews would feel that way, too, and would help me, but he wouldn’t let me talk about it.”
“Mr. Andrews?”
“Our English teacher. He, Gardener and a few others are pretty decent. Not pricks like most of the other teachers here, and nothing like the Head—Headmaster Fenton.” Eli’s eyes rounded and he quivered, suddenly remembering who he was talking to. “I’m sorry, Mr. Monahan, I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t worry about it, kid.” Derek rose and dropped a hand onto the boy’s bony shoulder. “I promise you, I’m not like your other teachers. I want to know how bad things are around here, and I want to help if I can.
Eli didn’t relax entirely, but he did take a deep, calming breath. “Mr. Andrews stopped me from even talking to him about it, but he also whispered a warning to me to be really careful. That made me think he knows something bad is going on here, too.”
Derek moved away, giving the boy a chance to mentally regroup, thinking about what he had said. First, he needed to talk to this Mr. Andrews. From Eli’s description, Charlie didn’t sound like the type who would run off without telling anyone, especially the best friend who looked out for him and who relied on him to do the same.
In that respect, he sounded a lot like Isaac Lincoln.
A soft throat clearing drew his gaze back to the boy. “Do you really mean it? You want to help me? And help Charlie? Do you swear?”
“I swear I want to figure out what is going on around here. I don’t want to involve you, though. You need to stay out of it—stay safe—while I work on this.”
The boy immediately shook his head. “I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but until we know why boys are disappearing…”
“Boys?” Eli gasped, looking shocked. “You know about the others?”
Shit. Too much revealed. But the kid obviously knew more, too. “I know.”
“Do you think what I do? That they’re connected?”
Derek didn’t trust quickly, but something about the not-at-all-a-spoiled-rich-punk appearance, and his genuine concern for his missing friend, made him like Eli already. Besides, trust was a two way street. Eli Winston was taking a risk being so open with him, when, for all he knew, Derek was a spy for Fenton. So he gave back a little.
“I do think that.” He turned and walked around the desk, adding, “I’m not convinced all these boys have run away.”
“No way.”
They shared a look. Seeing the boy’s determination, Derek knew it would be impossible for Eli to go back to his room and forget this conversation. “You can’t talk to anyone else about this. Not teachers, not administration. Not even other students.”
“My friends are all worried too.” Eli gulped. “We even went through Charlie’s stuff to see if we could find his parents’ phone number. He used to say they dumped him here because they were embarrassed of him, that he was their stupid son. But they should still care, right? We don’t even believe the head has called them yet.”
Derek gritted his teeth. “Don’t. You’ll get caught. I know how these places work. If the staff thinks something is going on, they’ll work on the weakest link, the kid who’s most scared or has the most to lo
se, to try to bring you all down and find out what you’re talking about or planning.”
“Like Cho Chang.”
For the first time all morning, Derek managed a genuine smile.
Eli appeared startled. “You know who that is?”
“Just because I like Steinbeck doesn’t mean I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan.” His smile faded as he lost himself to memory. “Harry and his friends helped me through some rough times in my life when I was young. I really wanted to escape to Hogwarts.”
The boy’s eyes gleamed and he visibly relaxed. “I kept waiting for my acceptance letter.”
“Me too.” He leaned over the desk and lowered his voice. “I’m lucky I never got one to Fenton. And I’m really sorry you—and your friend Charlie—ever did.”
Their stares met, and a bond was formed in one shared moment of silence. He was connected to this kid, connected in a secret and in sadness. Eli Winston was young, but he was his first ally here. Although he fully intended to keep the teenager out of it—and safe—he believed he could trust Eli enough to carefully share information.
“Okay, Eli, I want you to start at the beginning, and tell me everything you know about all the disappearances.” He glanced at the clock. “Can you stay for a while?”
“I’m on second lunch and ate really fast before I left the caf.”
Cafeteria. Derek made a mental note of the boy’s slang.
“As long as you give me an excuse note, I can stay. But I have to leave right at twelve-twenty-five. If I’m late for Leggett’s military history class, I’ll be in deep shi…uh, trouble.”
Derek waved a hand. “Don’t sweat it. I think we’ve already established I’m not like most of the teachers here.”
“Thank God,” the boy whispered.
Eli began to speak, revealing far more than Derek ever could have imagined about Fenton Academy…and the dark deeds that went on within its walls. With every word he said, Derek grew more firm in his belief that this case was about much more than a couple of runaways.
This land had attracted evil for more than a century. It appeared, with the arrival of this school, it had done so again.
“So you really think there’s something in those emails that could help?”
Sitting at her desk on Tuesday, Kate looked over at Taylor Kirby, the pretty young college student who had been Isaac’s online crush. Her face was eager and hopeful.
The first time they met, Taylor had handed Kate her phone, encouraging her to read the emails she and Isaac had exchanged. Today, she’d brought them over in print. Realizing they might contain something important that she hadn’t even recognized, Kate wanted to share them with Derek and had asked for copies.
Although she had read them before, Kate glanced over the emails again. The cyber conversations were chatty, slightly flirtatious, and, from Isaac’s end, more than a little sad. He talked about the younger boys who had three long years ahead of them, and how he tried to stand up for them. That didn’t surprise her, but it did break Kate’s heart all over again.
The most painful part was when he talked about coming to live with her once he escaped Fenton. Oh, Isaac.
“Yes, I really think they could help,” she said, putting the paper into an envelope.
“Good. What’s the latest on the case?”
Wishing for both their sakes she had better news to share, Kate replied, “Nothing much yet. But it’s early going.
“You did hire Extrasensory Agents, though, right?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. They will get to the bottom of this.”
Kate had begun to share Taylor’s confidence. Derek, at least, had convinced her he would not stop until he blew the Fenton Academy’s secrets wide open.
“Have they made any progress at all?”
“Some.”
“Who got assigned? Is anybody undercover at that crazy school yet? It’s Derek, right?”
Knowing Taylor had had her own experiences with the psychic detectives, Kate wasn’t surprised the young woman so quickly leapt to the correct conclusion. From their conversation the first time they’d met, she knew Taylor had complete faith in the agency. Her passionate reference had been what drove Kate to check out the company in the first place.
Still, she had to be discreet. Though Kate already liked Taylor, who obviously cared about what had happened to Isaac, she didn’t know her well enough to share confidential information. “I can’t really give you specifics. I’m just the client.”
“I get it.” Taylor threw herself back in the chair. “I wish I could go undercover at that place. Too bad it’s run by misogynistic assholes who would pee their pants if a girl walked through their precious gates.”
Kate jerked. “Don’t even consider going there. Promise me you won’t!”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “I’m not dumb. I know I’d stick out like a sore vagina.”
Worried as she was at the thought of this pretty coed being near the deviants at Fenton, Kate still managed to laugh. Taylor had struck her as determined and ballsy when they met. She hadn’t realized the brunette was also irreverent and snarky, and liked that about her.
“I’ve got another class in an hour and should get back to campus. I hope the emails help.”
Having finished with her few appointments for the day, Kate rose and grabbed her purse. She’d already put away her files and locked her desk, knowing she would be leaving after Taylor stopped by. “I’ll go with you. I’m heading out, too.”
“Cushy job, huh?”
“You could say that. I’m only part-time.”
“You really did throw everything else aside to come here and find Isaac, didn’t you?”
Yes. She really had. “I love him.”
Taylor’s smile was wistful. “I’d do that for my kid sisters, too.” Several blinks of her lashes said she was welling up over the one sister who was lost to her forever.
“I’m sure you would.”
Clearing her throat, Taylor changed the subject. “Isaac was crazy about you, you know. He thought of you as his mom.” Gasping, she quickly added, “I’m sorry. I mean, you’re so hot, and young, it’s not like you could really be his mom.”
Kate shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m so glad he felt that way—that he knew I’d never stop being there for him.”
Or looking for him. No matter what she found at the end of her search.
They walked together through the administrative wing of the hospital, and with every step, Kate noticed Taylor nibble her lip, clench her hands, twist her fingers, or merely sigh. She didn’t have to be a pro to know the girl had something else on her mind, something she was reluctant to share, but also wanted to.
Reaching the glassed-in vestibule, she went not to the door, instead leading Taylor toward a corner with a large potted plant. “Are you all right? Is there something else you want to talk about?”
Taylor stiffened. “Uh, no, why do you ask?”
“You seem worried about more than Isaac.”
Clearing her throat, Taylor said, “School stuff. You know, projects and finals.”
“You’re sure that’s all it is?”
A long moment of silence followed. The door swished open and an elderly man walked in, smiling as he passed. A young man on crutches exited. Soon they were alone again.
“I know you were a light in my brother’s life during his final months, Taylor, and there’s no way I can repay that. But if you need somebody to talk to…”
“Vonnie would say I do,” she mumbled. “And that somebody like you would be perfect.”
Vonnie—the incredibly intelligent roommate. “Why?”
“Oh, typical Vonnie, worrying about typical Taylor. I’m too frantic, too excitable, too…too quick to believe in crazy fantasies.”
Ahh, there it was. Taylor had come around to the subject by a side route, but they had definitely arrived. “Fantasies?”
Taylor’s laugh sounded forced. “Von’s so ana
lytical. She’s impossible to watch a movie with. She about ruined that one with Matt Damon being left on Mars for me.”
Smiling, Kate admitted, “I had a few problems with the science in that one, too. Still, it’s always fun to watch Matt Damon being left behind in one place or another.”
Taylor snickered, as Kate hoped she would. Visibly relaxing, she said, “Look, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, Jen’s a worrywart.”
Kate stilled, wondering if Taylor realized what she’d said.
Taylor’s face reddened. “I didn’t mean that. I meant Vonnie. They’re a lot alike. I mean, Vonnie’s a lot tougher than Jenny was; she had to be with everything she went through even before we were taken. But she thinks like Jenny.”
“How so?”
“She’s careful, lectures me a lot, that kind of stuff. While I always take risks.”
“Left brain, right.”
“Yes, exactly. We have both taken those brain quiz things and it always comes out that way. Just like me and Jenny.” She smiled. “I’ve been lucky enough to have two super-smart best friends who look out for me.”
“Yes, you have.”
“So I guess I should stop being mad at Vonnie for trying to talk me out of….”
“Out of what?” That lip went between her teeth again. So no, they hadn’t gotten to the heart of it. “Taylor?”
“Forget it.”
“Maybe we could go get lunch somewhere and talk some more.”
“Class.”
“Oh, right.”
Taylor glanced at her phone. “Oh, crap, I really do have to go. This is Biology, and I can barely keep up as it is. Vonnie might be my sister now, but she and I can’t exactly change places so she can cover my science classes for me, like Jenny did.”
Kate allowed Taylor the subject change, but made a mental note to check in with her in the next few days. “Okay. Good luck.”
Walking outside together, Taylor said, “You’ll let me know if you learn anything more about Isaac?”
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