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“Well, what are you doing this afternoon? Say, right now?” I asked.
She caved, though not all the way and not without some petulance. “Fine. But even if you’re right, what do you propose to do about it? Should we play cop and try to find the Boynton kid?”
She had me, there. I didn’t have a plan; I just had a goofy theory that no one in her right mind would chase. “We need to…”
“Yes?”
Right about then Karl left the bathroom, tailed by the sound of flushing and his trusty sidekick. They scooted out and into the hallway, the man in the chair making friendly excuses and bidding us good afternoon. We smiled him off and returned to our discussion.
“Well, Ms. Spade, what are we going to do now?” She goaded me on, knowing I hadn’t thought of anything stunning in the intervening minute and a half.
“Several things. Or there are several things we need to do, anyway, if I’m right. ”
“Go on. ”
I froze, thawed, and stuttered. “We’ve got to find out what happened to Ryan Boynton. If I’m right and he’s been murdered, then we keep going. If I’m wrong, and he’s huddled up in an outhouse with a shotgun, then we’re completely off track and there’s no sense in listening to another word that comes out of my mouth. But I bet if we found out where he was, and why he’s gone, then we’ll have a much better idea of why Green Eyes left his charges. ”
“And I guess we’ll just leap ahead of the cops on the Boynton
case, solve it, and be on our merry way before sunset?”
“Yes,” I declared with perfect confidence, which was perfectly counter to what I actually felt. And then I heard Benny placing an order up at the counter.
“I’ll have a latte in a large to-go cup, please. And have you seen Eden hanging around here?”
Karl answered him, from the table by the storefront window. “She’s in the back with Mrs. Marshall. In the hall. ”
“Thanks. ”
Benny gave me the idea I’d been so fruitlessly clamoring for. “Yes,” I repeated to Dana. “Yes, because we have access to resources that the cops don’t. ”
Back at Benny’s place, Dana, Jamie, and I gathered around FrankenHal and watched the lurching lines of the audio track as our EVP collection played. Dana frowned and listened hard. Jamie looked bored as he stroked Tiggy, who sat on his chest and purred.
Benny did his best not to appear nervous in the woman’s presence, but he misclicked a couple of times and blamed it on his head injury. “There—that again. That part, there. What does that sound like to you? Doesn’t it sound like ‘Boynton’?”
“It definitely sounds like you saying ‘you’re all awake,’” Dana said, reaching around Benny’s hand and taking the mouse away from him enough to play the clip again. “The rest, it could be ‘Boynton,’ I suppose. ”
“And the next part, the one I thought sounded like ‘fender,’ but with an extra syllable. I think it’s Van Derveer. I think they’re trying to say ‘Boynton’ and ‘Van Derveer. ’”
“That’s not so far out,” Jamie said. He’d already heard it once and didn’t feel the need to impress Dana or prove anything, so he stayed on the fringes of the circle with the kitten.
I was happy for the backup. “No, it isn’t. It’s beautifully logical, and if it’s right, then we may have all the answers we need right here. ”
“Again, I think you’re reaching. ”
“Maybe she’s right,” Benny chimed in, but his loyalties were divided, and his enthusiasm wasn’t high.
“Sure she’s right. I am reaching. But come on. The ghosts were talking about a bargain, and about Dyer’s field, and about a Boynton. My math isn’t always spectacular, but I can put two and two together without any trouble, and right now I’m seeing four splashed all over the local news. ”
No one spoke until Dana looked up from the screen, clicking the audio player closed. “You think that kid is buried there. At Dyer’s field. ”
“Well. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Can anybody think of a better hypothesis? Come on. Anybody?”
I didn’t get an answer until Jamie put the kitten down. “But even if it’s true, it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it. ”
“What? What are you talking about?” Benny asked, but Dana put a calming hand on his arm.
“Your friend’s right. What are we going to do, go to the police?”
