“Now that you’re working full time at the newspaper, he may have decided that it isn’t a good idea to share things with you like he used to.”
I narrowed my gaze. “He knows I’m not going to print anything he doesn’t want to be printed. I know there are reporters in the world who feel that the story comes first no matter the cost, but I’m not one of them. If Cass told me something in confidence, I’d keep it in confidence. He knows that.”
“Perhaps.” He merged into the passing lane and sped up to pass a truck. “Still, he might be afraid that you’d mention something to Brock or me, and we’d run with it. I’m just saying you shouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t quite as open as he has been in the past. Do you remember the name of the street where we’re supposed to turn off the highway?”
I took out my phone, punched in the address of the restaurant Larry had suggested and put it into my maps app. “It looks like you’ll need to turn left in about two miles. After that, you’re going to take the second right.”
Larry was waiting for us in a booth in the back when we arrived. Once Larry and Dex greeted each other and Dex had introduced me to Larry, we ordered, and then I started in with the list of questions I’d prepared.
“I guess let’s just begin by you telling us what you remember from that campout,” I said.
He took a sip of his coffee. “Not a lot to tell. There was a group of us who decided to go to Logan Pond and do some fishing. Everything was fine until we woke up on Saturday, and Austin was missing.” He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I really thought he’d make it back.”
“Make it back from where?” I asked.
Larry hesitated.
“It’s important that you tell us everything you remember,” I said.
“Shouldn’t you be asking Colin these questions? He still lives in Foxtail Lake. I’m sure his memories will be sharper. I’d only lived there for a few months when Austin went missing, and I moved again not long after that. I barely knew those kids.”
I glanced at Dex.
“We do plan to talk to Colin, but we really want to know what you remember as well,” Dex said.
Larry blew out a loud breath. “Okay. I guess there’s no harm in telling what I know at this point.” He glanced back in my direction. “I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but there was some serious partying going on that evening. Josh brought a bottle of tequila, and Colin brought weed. After Josh made that kid, Toby, go to bed, we broke out both and started smoking and drinking and telling ghost stories.”
“Go on,” I said.
He hesitated.
“If you know anything at all that might help us figure out what happened to Austin, you really do need to tell us,” I encouraged.
“It happened a really long time ago. It’s hard to remember what was said and done so many years later.”
I could tell he was holding something back, but I wasn’t sure what.
“Did you tell the investigating officer about the weed and alcohol?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t tell, and the other kids didn’t either. I know how that sounds. Looking at the situation through the eyes of an adult, I can see that knowing the mental state of everyone involved could have been important to the search, but at the time, I really wanted to fit in. Do you have any idea how hard it is to go to a new school every year? My parents moved around a lot, so when I found a group to hang out with, I made sure to act in such a way so they’d be happy to keep me around.”
“I guess I understand that,” I said. “It is hard when you move around a lot. And I understand that the group as a whole seemed to have agreed to keep the drinking and smoking weed to themselves.”
“Colin told us we would all go to juvy if we admitted to getting wasted, so we kept quiet.”
I wasn’t sure that was true, but I could see how Colin was able to convince everyone that it was. “So what happened after everyone started drinking and smoking weed?” I asked.
“Mostly, everyone just got really silly. There were a lot of bad jokes being passed around, and the content of our conversation isn’t one I’d want to repeat in front of a lady.” He paused for a moment and then continued. “There was this one thing that might not have been mentioned.”
“Go on,” I encouraged.
“I don’t know if anyone told you this, but Austin and Colin weren’t getting along. Colin was older than most of us by a year, and as the oldest, he expected to be the leader of the group, but Austin had the strongest personality, and there was constant friction between them. It got really bad when Austin and Colin asked the same girl to the Valentine Dance, and she ended up choosing Austin.”
I’d heard this before, but I sensed he was building up to something more, so I kept quiet and let him continue with his story.
“After the dance,” he continued, “Colin and Austin got into a fistfight, the first of many during the three months between the dance and the campout. And it wasn’t just the fights between them. They also started pranking each other.”
“Did one of them pull a prank on the other the night Austin disappeared?” I asked.
He lowered his head but didn’t answer.
“If something was going on, I’d really appreciate it if you’d tell us,” I coaxed. “We’re just trying to figure out what happened to Austin all those years ago.”
He looked up. “Can you go to jail for knowing something, but not telling what you know?”
I paused. “I guess that depends on the circumstances. Do you know something and are afraid of going to jail for not telling before this?”
“Maybe. Remember, I wanted those boys to like me. I had no one else. I was the new kid in town, and if I would have made someone like Colin mad, that would have been the end of it for me.”
I glanced at Dex.
“We aren’t law enforcement, and have no interest in causing you any trouble,” Dex assured him. “If you know something and tell us, we can keep your name out of it. You can be a confidential informant.”
Larry bit down on his lip but didn’t speak. He appeared to be thinking it over.
“We understand that it was a long time ago, and you were just a kid. You all were,” I added.
“What about the others?” Larry asked. “Could they go to jail for playing a prank on someone twenty-five years ago?”
“Austin is probably dead, Josh and Bobby are definitely dead, and I’m going to assume Toby wasn’t part of what happened. We’ve promised to keep your name out of things so that just leaves Colin. Was Colin the one who played the prank?” I asked.
Larry nodded. “Remember, this is all in confidence.”
“We understand and agree,” Dex assured him.
“Colin wanted to play a prank on Austin. There was this guy Colin knew who had drugs. Hard drugs, not just weed. The guy sold Colin a pill.”
“What sort of pill?” I asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but the guy said it would make Austin freak out. I guess the pill caused hallucinations. Colin took the pill, ground it up, and slipped it in Austin’s drink. After a while, Austin started hearing and seeing things. At first, it was funny, but then Austin got really scared. He was sure there was a monster of some sort after him, and he took off running into the dark woods. None of us ever saw him again.”
I put a hand to my mouth.
“Colin told us not to worry,” Larry continued. “He told us the pill would make Austin pass out, and then he’d be fine the next day. I was scared, and I could see that Bobby was as well, but eventually, Colin was able to convince us we were only going to make it worse by overreacting.”
“So, what did you do?” I asked.
“We all went to bed. The next morning, we waited for Austin to come back, but he didn’t, so we all went looking for him. When we couldn’t find him, Josh decided that we should go to town and get help. Bobby was really freaked out. He was crying and saying things about Colin killing Austin. He wanted to tell the cops what really happened, but Colin convinced us that we’d go to juvy. He assured us that Austin was just out in the woods somewhere and that the search team would find him. He told us that the best thing we could do was to tell the cops that none of us knew what had happened and to totally leave out the part about the alcohol, weed, and especially the pill Colin had bought.”