“How did the part of the interview with Colin relating to Bobby’s death go?” I asked.
Cass shrugged. “Colin said he hadn’t seen Bobby in years. He said that he never really got along with most of the kids in that group, but he was friends with Josh, who was friends with the others, so he hung out with them. He said after Josh was killed in the auto accident, he decided to move on to new friends and stopped hanging around with the others. Larry moved away, Toby was a lot younger, he had never liked Bobby, who he classified as weak and emotional, and, of course, Austin was gone. He did say he liked Dex okay, but Dex had other friends as well. Basically, he felt that the group as a whole broke up after Josh died.”
I supposed that made sense. There were a lot of groups where the glue that held them together really did come down to a single person within the group.
I turned my attention to something I felt was a bit more tangible at this point. “So back to my idea that Austin might have chosen to hide in a cave or mine that he’d previously located and knew would be a good hiding place from the monster chasing him.” I held up the map I’d brought to the restaurant with me from the magazine Alastair had found. “I really have no idea if we will find any small openings the search and rescue team might have missed in the area of Logan Pond, but it seems like it might be worth taking a look around.”
“I agree. I guess Milo and I can take some time tomorrow. I’ve sort of hit a dead-end in the Bobby Brighton murder case. I’m waiting for some test results on a few hairs and fibers I found at the crime scene. They probably won’t amount to much, but at this point, they’re all I have. Of course, if a new lead comes in, that will have to take precedence.”
“Of course. We can go out to the pond any time that works for you. We’ll bring the map and hike around and see what we can find.”
“Did you talk to Larry about Bobby’s death?” Cass asked.
I nodded. “He said that he hadn’t seen Bobby since he moved away from Foxtail Lake shortly after the campout where Austin disappeared. He was sorry to hear about his death, but he didn’t seem overly upset about what had occurred. Do you know if kidnapping was ever seriously considered in the disappearance of Austin Brady?” I asked.
“Based on the reports I’ve been able to dig up, it appears every angle was explored. The theory at the time was that whoever had been camping along the river had been hiding in the woods, watching the boys until one of them wandered off on their own, and they were able to nab him without the others noticing.”
“Are you suggesting the person camping by the river was a pedophile?”
“Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I am suggesting.”
I wrinkled my nose. This possibility was not one I wanted to consider. “So why Austin? Why not one of the others?”
“In this scenario, Austin was chosen randomly simply because he was the one who was the easiest to nab. The fact that no body or any sort of evidence of an assault was ever found made the theory hard to prove, plus they never did identify the camper by the river.”
I took a sip of my water. “When Dex assigned this story to me, I was excited to have a piece with some meat to focus my attention on. I guess I really didn’t stop to think how hard it would be to investigate what most likely resulted in the terrible death of a twelve-year-old.”
“I guess you can ask him to reassign the article to Brock.”
“No. I want to do it. I guess I just need to work on toughening up my emotions.”
The conversation paused as the waiter brought our food. We ate for a few minutes before picking up the conversation with a new topic.
“I ran into Tom at the hardware store,” Cass jumped in. “He told me he fixed up his fishing boat and that you’d asked him to get the old rowboat lake worthy as well.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I ran into him while he was working on that old fishing boat of his, and it reminded me about the fun I had paddling around on the lake when I was a kid. I thought I’d teach Paisley how to row this summer.”
“You and I had a lot of fun on the lake. Do you remember that really dark night when we rowed out to the middle of the lake, put down some sleeping bags for comfort, and just laid there looking up at the stars?”
“There sure were a lot of them. It seemed like millions of tiny diamonds in the sky.”
“I’m sure there were more than millions.”
“I remember that you were really into astronomy, and knew the names of all the constellations,” I reminded Cass.
“Still do, although I have to admit it’s been a while since I’ve gone stargazing.”
“You and I should go. Soon. If the boat isn’t ready, we can go up to Lookout Point. I remember doing that with you when we got a bit older.”
Cass smiled and winked. “Yeah, we did.”
“To stargaze,” I clarified. “If you were doing something else up there, then it was with someone other than me.”
He didn’t answer, but he did grin, so I threw a green bean at his head.
“So, what time are you going to pick me up tomorrow?” I asked, deciding that I most definitely didn’t want to think about Cass and someone other than me up at Lookout Point.
“I’ll text you. I’ll probably go into the office first thing to check on things, so it could be as late as noon. I’ll just have to wait and see what I’m greeted with when I go in.”
“Do you think it’s even possible to figure out what happened to Austin Brady after all these years?”
Cass shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do know it doesn’t hurt to try.”
Chapter 13
Thursday
By the time Cass picked me up, it was close to lunchtime, so we grabbed sandwiches at the deli and then headed out to Logan Pond. Most years, there would still have been snow on the ground at this time of the year, but between our mild winter and warm spring, the only snow that remained were patches that could be found in crevices and under trees.
“So, where exactly did the boys set up their camp?” I asked Cass after we parked and got out to look around.
“According to the police report, the camp was set up in the southeast corner of the lake. There were six tents since each boy had his own. Someone had built a fire ring, and there were logs set around the ring to sit on while eating, telling ghost stories, or enjoying the fire.”
“Okay. Let’s head over to the southeast corner and start there. We can imagine it dark, and we can imagine Austin being terrified of whatever he was seeing. I guess we can imagine which direction he would have run in, but the reality is that if he was mentally impaired at the time, he really could have done anything.”
Cass, Milo, and I headed toward the southeast corner of the lake. We stood in the center of where the fire pit most likely would have been built and looked around.
“The pond is both in front of us and to the left since it sort of curves here, so Austin probably took off running either in that direction or that one.” I pointed first to the right and then behind me.
“The woods are pretty dense in this area. Either way he ran, he would have had to navigate the brush. If he kept going to the south, he would have eventually run into the river that feeds into the lake. If he continued to head east and then trailed north, he would have eventually hit the range of red rock mountains.”
I paused to consider this. “If my theory was that Austin eventually ran into whoever was camping along the river and that person or persons did something to him, I’d say we should look to the south of our current position. But since my theory has to do with caves or mines in the area, we’re much more likely to find them to the north and to the west once you navigate Logan Pond.” I took out my map and laid it on a large rock. “I think we’re here.” I pointed to a spot on the map. “It looks like the mine runs through this mountain, so the tunnel would most likely be found here along this ridge.” I ran my finger along the ridge. “I say we hike in that direction.” I pointed to a point in the distance.