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Caitlin’s eyes widened and suddenly my friends were all crowded around me as I leaned forward, my hands gripping the counter so hard my knuckles were white. I was right. I wasn’t crazy. And they weren’t crazy for heading to Crystal Shores with me. “Was he in a gold car?” I said it so quietly it was barely above a whisper.
Both employees, probably no older than nineteen, looked at each other, then back at me. The one who’d spoken looked concerned as he nodded slowly and handed my phone back to me. Wally had obviously made quite an impression on him. “Yeah, man. He was in a gold car. He pumped gas at the same pump you guys are at. It was kind of late, and he was like one of three customers I had that night. He was giving me some real weird vibes.”
“Was anyone with him?” I demanded.
The guy hesitated. Carl, his nametag said. “Well, no one came inside with him. But there was someone in the car. I couldn’t see them well. I’m pretty sure they were asleep.”
My heart dropped a little, but I pulled up a picture of Jamie. “Could it have been him in the car?” I handed the phone back to Carl.
His eyes widened. “Oh! I can’t be sure, because the angle wasn’t right for me to get a clear view of his face, and it was dark outside, but yeah, I mean the hair kind of looks the same. It’s definitely possible.”
“This is Jamie Bryant,” I said, taking my phone again, “If you Google his name, you’ll see that he’s been missing for weeks. And the guy in the first picture I showed you is currently in jail awaiting trial for Jamie’s murder.”
The guy paled, and he looked about ready to cry. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I…that guy came in here to pay for gas with cash. He bought a bunch of food and stuff, too. I remember he bought a bunch of stuff that would keep, like bottled water, beef jerky, dried fruit, crackers. He was really, I don’t know, I’d almost call it hyper. On edge, but excited? A little jumpy. He said he was getting stuff together to go out to his cabin. I figured that was why he was excited. It sounded like he was on vacation or something, and I figured he’d taken something to stay awake for the drive since it was so late. But he was just…weird. He had this weird look in his eyes. I don’t know, I haven’t been able to explain it fully, because it wasn’t like he wasn’t friendly and polite. He just gave me the creeps. I was glad when he left. But I didn’t know…I had no idea that he’d kidnapped someone.”
I really wanted to be angry with him. He could have called the cops back then and maybe everything would have been different. But what would he have said? “Some guy is acting weird. He didn’t do anything illegal in the store, and he’s being nice. I don’t have a reason to suspect anything in particular, but he gives me the creeps?” I knew I couldn’t be mad. They wouldn’t have taken him seriously and no normal person would have ever made that call. But I was still kind of mad.
Suddenly, though, what he said dawned on me. “Cabin?” Cabin wasn’t normally what you’d call a beach house. Or even a regular house in a little beach town that you were so proud of. But Wally didn’t own a cabin, at least not in his name. And the nearby forest, which was a spot you’d think of a cabin being, was a state forest. They didn’t even have any cabins available to rent there, or any type of camping areas, we’d checked. And even if they did, that would be a stupid place to take someone you’d just kidnapped.
“Yeah, that’s what he said. He acted like he was going camping or something. He bought a bunch of batteries, too. I assumed for flashlights or lanterns. He didn’t say where he was going, though. I don’t know any more, man, I’m sorry.”
I glanced at the screens behind the counter, screens from cameras that were directed both inside the store and at the pumps. I wanted to see Jamie. I just wanted to see that he’d made it that far. I wanted to see for myself that he was truly asleep and not already dead in that car. “Do you still have the camera footage from that night?”
He shook his head, looking regretful. “No, sorry. We only keep it if something happens. Which, I guess it did, I just didn’t know that until now. I’m really sorry, man.”
I just nodded and headed for the door. Caitlin paid for my food behind me along with hers and grabbed all of it because I would have just abandoned it. I walked outside, thinking about the fact that Jamie had been in the exact spot I’d been sitting, not that long ago. I was thinking about how right I’d been and trying to hold on to hope I’d been right about other things, as well.
My friends all followed me outside with their snacks and we piled back into the van. Caitlin handed me my food and soda. She practically forced it into my hands because I didn’t feel like eating any more than I had ten minutes prior. I took a sip of the soda to humor her. And actually, the sugar and caffeine were kind of nice. “What are the odds,” Jeff murmured from the driver’s seat.
“I told you guys he brought Jamie up here.” I wanted them to understand how right I was. I wanted them to tell me I was right, about all of it, including the part where Jamie was still alive.
“It definitely sounds like he went home,” Amber said, “And the cabin part might narrow it down a bit. Unless he was lying, of course. But what a weird thing to lie about. I’ve seen houses on the beach that look like cabins. Maybe there’s one in this town.”
“We won’t know unless we look,” Jeff said, pulling back out onto the highway, “And yeah, it looks like you were right about this part, Caden. Do you think you should text the detective?”
I really thought about it, but I hadn’t mentioned anything to him about going to Crystal Shores. If he found out Jamie had really been there, he’d send the cops out and they’d stop us from going anywhere. They’d question the guy at the gas station, and search the town and woods, and we’d never be able to search ourselves. I knew the decision was one I might later regret, but at the time, it seemed like the right one. “No. I’ll let him know, but not yet. I need to be able to look freely first.” I knew time was of the essence, and I wasn’t sure which way would be faster, but I wanted to look for Jamie and I didn’t want anyone to stop me from combing the forest or bursting into an abandoned building.
My friends did not question my logic. They hadn’t the whole time, so I didn’t really expect them to start. Well, they may have questioned it at some points, but not enough to stop me, anyway. With the slight glimmer of hope I’d been granted, I managed to eat the beef jerky and some of the chips as we made our way to the hometown of the person who was, in my opinion, the worst person who’d ever been born.
Chapter 19
February
Jamie was pissed. At me. I may have made one…a couple…a few mistakes at the party, but I hadn’t meant to upset him. I just…wasn’t thinking clearly, and when I was drinking with friends, sometimes the ideas I thought were good were, well, not so good.
Jamie hadn’t even wanted to go to the party at the frat house, but the whole team was going to be there, so Jeff and I invited Caitlin, Jesse, Jamie, and Amber. Jesse had been a little hesitant, too, both because he hated Brad, and because he was getting to the point with Luke that he no longer wanted to pretend to date Jamie. Back when Jesse and Luke had first started seeing each other, they’d been completely casual, so he hadn’t been worried about someone calling out the fact that he was supposedly seeing Jamie. But they were getting a little more serious, and he didn’t want it getting back to Luke that he and Jamie were supposed to be a couple. He wasn’t going to be able to play it up with Jamie anymore. He would let everyone assume they broke up and were still friends. I knew it would hurt my story, but I wasn’t about to ask my friend to sacrifice his own happiness so I could be comfortable, so I decided I’d just figure it out as I went.
In my ready-to-party brain, I still thought everything would be fine. I was pretty sure Brad would steer clear of all of us, anyway. He’d told the coach I’d punched him, so I’d gone into the coach’s office armed with my list of times Brad had approached my friends with a racist or homophobic slur. I brought up the time he’d physically assaulted Jamie in the quad without provocation, and exactly what he’d called Jamie the day I’d finally punched him. The coach didn’t want racism or homophobia attached to the team. I was told not to hit my teammates. Then I was excused so Brad could get his own tongue lashing. And both Brad and I knew that if he made one wrong move, he’d be kicked off the team.
I really intended for my friends and I to stick together as a group, to hang out, drink, and have fun together. But our team was poised for the playoffs, and everyone was excited. They all wanted to talk to me and Jeff. They kept pulling us away, from our friends and from each other, to talk about hockey, school, and whatever else they could come up with. They continuously fed me liquor, and by the time I’d finished more mixed drinks and shots than I could count and done a keg stand, I was absolutely hammered. As I was helped upright after the keg stand, I caught a glimpse of Jamie and Amber sitting alone on a couch as the party raged around them.
I swayed as I glanced around the room trying to focus. I spotted Caitlin making out with some girl I didn’t know in a corner of the room. Jesse had found some friends, and they were all playing beer pong on the patio right outside the door. Jeff was nearby, talking to some of our teammates while people crowded around him just to listen to him talk. He was eating it up because there were more than a few girls clambering for him. At that point Jamie just looked bummed and ready to get the hell out of there, and Amber looked uncomfortable as hell.
I started toward the couch to try to get Jamie and Amber to join us, but I was stopped by another group who wanted to talk hockey. I kept glancing over there as I talked, and it had to be obvious that I wanted to leave the conversation, but my classmates weren’t taking the hint. Jamie wasn’t even looking around; he was staring at the coffee table in front of him. The crowd surrounding me had grown, and Jeff had somehow gotten closer to me, as had Brad, to my chagrin. The whole crowd around us was trying to talk and dance at the same time. Jeff was dancing with two girls while still carrying on a conversation with three other people and holding two drinks. Brad was giving me the evil eye.
Then Renee found me. She sidled up next to me and purred, “There you are. Been looking for you.” Even as I tried to move away from her, she followed me, pulling on my arms and staying on my heels like a puppy, while trying to dance and grind on me at the same time. Brad was eyeing us. Everyone knew we’d dated, but I was pretty sure he’d always had a thing for her, even back when I was with her. Everyone also knew we broke up. I wasn’t sure why she wasn’t taking the hint, but she wasn’t.
Someone handed me a beer and started talking to me. Brad was still watching Renee and me. Then I could have sworn he glanced over at the couch. At Jamie. And possibly, just maybe, I panicked a little. If Jesse wasn’t going to pretend-date Jamie, then I would have no cover for all the time I spent with him. Brad was already suspicious of something, though I wasn’t sure it was the right thing. Even so, with the scrutiny I felt, mixed with the alcohol and the fact that Renee just wasn’t letting up, I thought it would be a good idea to really throw Brad for a loop. And for some reason, I thought that flirting back with Renee was the way to do that.
