coming around shortly, if they weren't on the premises already. They could potentially make searching for Jason a much more public event, which had its fair share of positive as well as negative aspects.
Liz looked out onto the adjoining property. A few horses were meandering around aimlessly. «I don't see him anywhere.»
«Should we start over there?» Max pointed at the barn.
«It's as good a place as any," Liz said as they started off in that direction.
The barn was set off to the back corner of the property and looked like it had been added much later than the rest of the buildings. Max found that to be odd, since the barn was usually the whole purpose that this type of property existed and was generally kept rather close to the house for obvious reasons. He couldn't help but suspect that the barn had been moved to its present location in recent years considering that having sheep too near the house would probably be in conflict with maintaining its clean exterior.
As they made their way across the field, Max's eyes tracked across the Lyleses' property. There really wasn't much to see other than an open field, the main house, a rather large garage, and a small guest house-which he assumed had once been a house for the ranch hands back in the early days of the property.
Max thought about the guest house and figured that would be their next place to search on the property. He didn't think Jason seemed the type of boy to hide out with the sheep in the barn, but in keeping with their plan to work from the back to the front, it was the first place they
would have to rule out. Actually he assumed that Jason wasn't playing a game of hide-and-seek on the property at all. But before they could leave the grounds, they first would have to confirm that Jason wasn't on them.
«Wait a second," Max said as Liz was about to open the big barn doors. «Maybe we should look in the window first and see what's inside. I would hate to open those doors and let a flood of sheep loose.»
«Good point.» Liz let go of the handle. «We should also check for those ranch hands. It's weird we haven't seen anyone yet.»
Max had to climb on top of a barrel to reach the window. Once he managed to get his balance and see inside, he was surprised to find absolutely nothing in the barn. «It's empty," he reported back to Liz.
«No ranch hands?» she asked.
He hopped down off the barrel. «No ranch hands. No sheep. No anything. The place is deserted.»
«Who owns a sheep ranch with no sheep?» Liz asked the obvious question.
Max pulled open the doors. «Jason, are you in here?»
Stepping inside, their voices echoed in the emptiness.
«Jason, this isn't funny," Liz added as the words she spoke reverberated off the walls.
«He could be in the loft.» Max pointed to a ladder along the back wall that led to the second floor of the barn.
«I'll go check," she said, and started heading to the ladder.
«I can go," Max offered.
«You climbed up on the barrel," she replied. «Now, it's my turn.»
«We can both go," he said when they reached the ladder.
«It doesn't take two people to look in an empty loft," she said as she started up the ladder. «Stop being such a gentleman. It's starting to get a little sexist.»
«Sorry," he said as he watched her climb the ladder. «Is there anything up there?» he hollered to her.
«Nothing but a bunch of flies!» she yelled back, working her way down.
«Flies.» He turned the word over in his mind. «That's it.»
«You know where Jason is?» she asked excitedly.
«Not exactly," Max replied, «but I think I know how he got there.»
11
He rang the doorbell once again.
Kyle waited outside the Evans home hoping that Isabel would answer. He had experienced his first night of uninterrupted sleep in the longest time and it was all thanks to her generously spending the entire day with him yesterday-as well as a large part of the night. Sure, he still had troublesome dreams, but they did not rouse him from his precious slumber. He knew that he hadn't caught up with all the sleep that he had lost, but it was certainly a start.
Tired of waiting, Kyle started to walk back to his car not knowing what he would do with the rest of his day. He knew that Mr. and Mrs. Evans weren't home, but he hadn't expected Isabel to be out so early since she had stayed up late with him. Then again, maybe she's not up yet.
Since he had come over to thank her in person, Kyle figured he should at least confirm that she was, in fact, not in the house. Making his way around the Evans residence, he decided to try what unofficially had become the primary way of entering homes for him and his friends. Peering into
Isabel's window, he confirmed that she, indeed, was still asleep.
Hope no one thinks I'm a Peeping Tom.
Kyle checked around to make sure he wasn't being watched as he was watching Isabel. She looked so peaceful that he decided not to disturb her since he was the reason she was sleeping late that morning. He was about to leave when the inherited detective traits he had received from his father and grandfather kicked in and he noticed several things wrong with what he was seeing.
Isabel was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, which he did not think to be all that odd considering that she might have been too tired to change when she got home last night. But, as he looked further into the room he also noticed that she must have been too tired to turn off her desk lamp as well. Then there were other bothersome clues that something was wrong, like the fact that she was lying on top of the covers on what Kyle knew had been an exceptionally chilly summer night. Not to mention that her body was sitting up and twisted in what looked to be a very uncomfortable angle for sleeping.
Concerned, Kyle pushed open the window and stepped inside. «Isabel?» he whispered so he could wake her gently. That didn't work. «Isabel?» he tried more loudly, «Isabel!» Moving in, he progressed to shaking her-first gently, then roughly. «Isabel, wake up. Come on, you're scaring me!»
Her head rolled to the side, but her eyes did not open.
Kyle laid Isabel down in a more comfortable pose and frantically searched the room for clues as to why she wouldn't wake up, but found nothing. What's going on? He
thought of the myriad of reasons why she would not be responding to him. Alien disease? Body snatchers? Are we under attack? Do these things hibernate?
Grabbing a hand mirror off her dresser, he tried a trick that he had learned when taking care of his grandfather. Holding the mirror above her lips, he held his breath as he waited for proof of hers. The «mirror fogged as Isabel exhaled, confirming that she was alive. With that done, he had no idea what to do next.
Liz.
Seeing Isabel's cordless phone lying on the nightstand, he picked it up and started to dial Liz's home number, but then he remembered that she was out of town and she had taken Max with her. He considered trying her cell phone, but with Artesia an hour away, he was hoping for some more immediate help since he wasn't sure that now was a good time to be alone.
Michael.
But he didn't know that phone number.
Continuing his frenzied search through the room, he tried to find Isabel's phone book, but it wasn't by the phone and he had no idea where she could have put it, if she even had one at all. He gave up on that search, figuring that she probably knew Michael's number by heart and didn't have it written anywhere.
With his father pulling yet another disappearing act and going out before Kyle had even gotten up, there was no reason for him to even try his own home for help. Suddenly, his small group of friends seemed to be considerably smaller.