The Day They Disappeared

Chapter 7

It was 5 o'clock on a Saturday and I was in my usual spot: the Maxwell family home. Except this time it wasn't Lucas and I sitting at the dinner table waiting for everybody to finish so we could go look at Lucas' new comic book. I was here in the company of Ali in her bedroom while she dug around for some paper and pencils.

"We have to start with the basics--the victims." Ali spoke so nonchalantly and it kind of surprised me.

"They're people...friends...family. Not victims."

Ali's eyes immediately filled with sorrow. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Anyway..."

Ali took my comment as a sign to continue. She finally produced an old, beat up notebook and a few different colored pens. Ali studied the pens before picking a dark red one and the she began to write.

"Why are you writing down family," I questioned as I studied her as she wrote.

Ali glanced at me from her cross-legged position on the floor. "Suspects."

"Their family are suspects?" I know I sounded very confused.

"Of course! We need to investigate every possible lead. Except for us of course." Ali smirked. "Unless you're not telling me something, Will."

"Not funny."

She frowned. "I know. Sorry." Ali crossed out names off of the sheet of paper. "Well let's take a look at this. Charles is dead so that's obviously a no go." Ali proceeded to scratch out Lacey's father and scanned the sheet. "Who else?" She looked at me.

I took the list from her hands and looked over it. "Nicholas Steeley is only 14. He's also super small. It's not him. Cassidy Steeley too. She's only 15 and much smaller than Nicholas." I scanned the sheet again. "Your parents. My parents. They may be assholes at times, mine more than anything, but they aren't crazy." I glanced up quickly and I swore I saw Ali flinch slightly at the word crazy but I shook it off as nothing and continued.

"Nina for sure. She's like six or something. Mr. Ramos because he hasn't been around since we were kids. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew didn't do it. I don't think George did it. He adored his little sister."

I gave the list back to Ali and she scratched out the names I suggested. "So who does this leave us with?" Ali spoke as she studied the list.

"Amanda's parents, her sister Marsha and her brother Robert."

"A girl couldn't do this." I said.

Ali nodded and bit her lip. "Yeah, right." She scribbled out the names of the rest of the girls.

"So, Mr. Steeley, Robert Steeley, Mr. Montgomery, and Francisco Ramos."

"That's only four leads. And I highly doubt any of them did it." I sighed.

Ali set the sheet of paper on the floor and thought a moment. "How about that creepy guy at the end of the street by Miller's Diner?"

"Mr. Wells?"

"Yeah!" Ali said, perking up. "He's so creepy. He doesn't go out much and there's rumors that he's got this weird fetish for little kids. When we were little he would just sit at his window and watch all of us running up and down the block. Maybe he couldn't hold back the urges anymore."

The thought of the middle aged man at the end of the block doing who knows what to my little sister and best friend made me sick.

"But wait...why would he take Lucas then? The rest of them are girls. Lucas is the only boy."

Ali shrugged. "Maybe Lucas saw something he shouldn't have and Mr. Wells couldn't risk him identifying him?" She questioned.

"Maybe."

"I think we should investigate him, Will. Maybe sneak around his house when he does go out."

I gave Ali a look. "He rarely goes out though. Plus I thought we were only coming up with a reasonable list of people to hand over to the police, Ali."

"I know we were just going to make the list but he does go out for groceries every other week and we should take the opportunity to get some kind of reliable proof or evidence or even a reliable reason as to why he could be behind all of this. The police would take us more seriously with evidence or something so let's just do a little bit of snooping. We could snoop around while he's out and that way we would avoid being caught by him." Her green eyes were filled with hope that I would agree to the proposition.

I thought over the idea for a moment. "It'll be risky though. And potentially dangerous if he is the sick bastard behind this all. I mean, this person is a goddamn psycho and they belong in a nuthouse. We would have to be very careful, Ali. I'm willing to do it if you promise we're going to be beyond cautious."

"It's a psychiatric hospital, not a nuthouse."

"Huh?"

"Nothing...I know we'd have to be careful. So are you down?"

I sighed yet again. "Yeah...I'm down."

Ali smiled widely. "Good. Let the investigation commence!"

I smiled at her but I felt a stinging sense of fear deep inside of me.

I wasn't scared because of Brian Wells. I was scared because I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I found out who killed my best friend and my sister. The fear wasn't for me, it was for the person who brought me all of this pain. I feared for them because in that moment I felt as if I could murder them.

And that's what scared me.