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Chapter 14

  Zane felt the color drained from his face. How?, he asked himself. How did they know we were here?

   Josh was now up on his feet. His own face had become even paler than before, his blue eyes seemed frozen from fear. His face asked the same question: How in the world did the cops know they were in the house?

   The booming voice spoke again, pulling the boys out of their thoughts. "Joshua Rogers and Zane Kealer! We know you're here! Come out with your hands on your heads!"

   Zane thought quickly. He threw himself onto the floor and slid under Erin's bed. It was cramped; much too small for Zane, but he managed to make it work. He heard Josh run in a different direction, but he didn't see where he went. He better not have hid in the closet, he hoped to himself. That's the first place they'll check.

   The door suddenly slammed open. Zane jumped in surprise, hitting his head on the top of the bed. They didn't hear that, he assured himself. They didn't hear that.

   It didn't seem like they did. Zane could hear multiple footsteps walking around the room. They were opening drawers, searching the closet, even behind the curtains. "They're not here", a male voice said suddenly.

   "Well then keep looking!", a female voice boomed. "They just got here. They couldn't have gotten far."

   Zane held his breath. He was relieved that he had chosen to wear his black hoodie and dark jeans. It might actually save my life. Another set of footsteps walked into the room. "Find anything?", a new voice asked. Zane recognized it as the voice that had called out his and Josh's names.

   "Nothing sir", the female voice responded, "but we'll find them. They couldn't have gotten far."

   "They could have", the third voice growled. "We would've been here earlier if we hadn't had to deal with a flat tire."

   "That wasn't my fault", the female voice retorted. "We couldn't have predict that a nail would be in the middle of the road."

   "I'm not saying it's your fault", the third voice muttered. "All I'm saying is that we have to find them."

   "Even if we did miss them", the first voice said calmly, "we know where they live. We could just interrogate them at their houses."

   "And let them know where on their tail?", the third voice hissed. "Our chance to catch them was now."

   The voice paused. Zane pushed his face into the floor to muffle his sharp breathing. "Because they don't know we know what's going on", the third voice continued, "we have the advantage. They won't be expecting us to be watching them. They'll continue to talk freely about their little investigation, giving us the ability to be one step ahead of them."

   Zane tried not to shudder. One step ahead of us? How could they be one step ahead of us?

   "Sir!", a voice called from downstairs. "We've checked the premises. There's no sign of the boys."

   "Head back to the car", the third voice ordered. To his colleagues, he said, "Let's go. We'll get a lead soon."

   "I hope you're right", the female voice muttered as the threesome left the room.

   Zane didn't move. He waited until he heard the front door shut, and the sound of their car pulling out of the driveway. Once he was sure they were far away from the house, Zane slid out from under the bed. His legs were cramped up from being squished for so long. He leaned his back up against the bed and stretched his legs out. That was close. Too close. Who were those guys? How did they know we were here?

   "Josh", he called out, keeping his voice low.

   No answer.

   "Josh", he tried again, this time a bit louder. "Josh, where are you?"

Tap. Tap. Tap.

   Zane whipped his head towards the window, where the sound was coming from. He sighed in relief, and even chuckled, when he saw Josh on the other side of the window- on the roof- tapping on the glass.

   When he saw that he had gotten Zane's attention, he pushed the window open. "C'mon!", he urged. His face was still pale, and he sounded slightly out of breath. "Let's go!"

   Zane got up and slipped through the widow. "I thought you were a goner", he said, closing the window behind him.

   "Same", Josh said quickly. "Let's get to my car. We can talk on the way to your place."

   Zane nodded. There was no other place he would rather be than home at this moment.