* * *
At lunch Magda told her friends about her meeting in the principal’s office and what she had overheard on her way out. Manny had told Amanda that Magda had something important to tell the group and she had cut her ethics class and was with them as well. When Magda finished her story they all sat around looking at each other for a long time, their lunches sitting untouched on the table. The thing they were all thinking hovered around them like a dense cloud, smothering both their appetite and mood.
“Do you think Matt is—” Danny started to ask.
“I don’t know,” Magda said, cutting him off quickly. She didn’t like thinking about what might have happened to her friend. She took out the card the FBI woman had given her and twirled it slowly with her fingers. “I know they were worried. And they said his disappearance fit the pattern of the other kids who were kidnapped. But I don’t know.”
In spite of everything she had learned, some part deep down inside of her refused to accept that Matt was dead.
“What about the car?” Reed said.
“What car?” Magda asked.
Reed pointed to the card in Magda’s hand. “You said the FBI woman wanted to know about anything unusual. Did you tell her about the black SS we saw in front of Matt’s house?”
“I didn’t think about that,” Magda said. She knew about Reed’s passion for cars and didn’t want to hurt his feelings by dismissing him offhandedly, but she didn’t really see where it had anything to do with Matt. “Anyway, it was just a car,” she said finally.
“A car that nobody’s ever seen around here before,” Reed said. “And a car that was on the street in front of Matt’s house at the same time that he went missing.”
“When you say it like that it does sound kind of suspicious,” Magda admitted. “But how do I tell them about the car without telling them what we were doing when we saw it?”
Reed chewed his lip for a moment. “Yeah, that could be a problem,” Reed said.
Paige clamped a hand over her mouth as her eyes grew wide. “Oh my god! If it is the same guy… What he did to those other kids…” A chill ran up her spine.
“He just better not try to get any of us,” James said. He paused and looked around at the others. “Maybe we should go out and look for him. We might be able to stop him before he can hurt Matt. Then we’d be heroes, real heroes.”
The friends looked around at each other. Some of the boys were starting to get an excited look in their eyes at the prospect of going after the killer.
“People are supposed to let the police handle things like this,” Tom said slowly. He seemed to be battling against a part of himself as he spoke. “But I understand what James is saying. If the same sick-o who snatched those other kids also kidnapped Matt, well, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’d enjoy getting my hands on him.” He balled his hands into fists and tapped his knuckles together, a fierce look in his eyes. “He wouldn’t be snatching any more kids off the street, I can promise you that.” Then he forced his fingers to unclench and lowered his hands to the table. “But we’re not the police. And we’re not crime fighters.”
“But we could do this,” James insisted. “He wouldn’t stand a chance against us. No one would. Think about it. With what we can do we’d be able to take this threat off the streets once and for all!”
Tom studied his cousin for a moment. It was obvious that James’ words were having an effect on him. In his mind he was already trying to come up with a plan for going after the kidnapper. But one thing was bothering him.
“We don’t know where to start looking for him,” Tom said. “This guy’s been snatching kids from towns all over the island. Just because he might be responsible for Matt disappearing doesn’t mean that he’s still around here anywhere. For all we know he could be holed up miles away from here. Even the police don’t know where this guy is.”
“As far as we know,” James said. “It’s not like they’re sharing all their evidence with the news. Besides, it doesn’t mean we can’t do something ourselves. Matt was our friend.”
“James!” Magda gasped.
“I mean, he is our friend. You know what I mean.”
It was quiet for several moments as they thought about what James was suggesting.
“Okay, let’s say that we do go out looking for this guy,” Tom said. “And let’s say that by some miracle we actually do find him. What then?”
A hard look came into James’ eye. “Then we—”
“We turn him over to the police,” Manny said.
“After we pound the snot out of him,” Danny added.
“That wouldn’t make us any better than he is,” Dimitri argued. “We should turn him over to the police and let the courts handle it.”
“But what if he’s hurt Matt? Or worse?” Paige said.
“Then we beat the living crap out of him,” James said, crossing his arms with a note of finality.
“So we should act like judge and jury?” Manny said. “Maybe we should just lynch him while we’re at it.”
“Why not?” James said defensively. “Whoever this guy is he’s a real scumbag. We’d be doing society a favor.”
“Really?” Tom said. “You could actually kill someone?” He knew his cousin and knew that he was mainly just blowing smoke.
“That’d be murder,” Dimitri said. With his six-foot-five-inch height, long hair and beard, and tattooed left hand, Dimitri presented an intimidating presence to people who didn’t know him. But inside he was a devout pacifist and the thought of intentionally hurting someone bothered him.
James looked around at his friends in disbelief. “What do you think this guy’s been doing? Kids our age are being kidnapped right off the street and murdered! If we find the guy that’s responsible I wouldn’t have any problem with taking him out.”
“James!” Tom hissed as he elbowed his cousin and nodded at his hand. Looking down James saw the plastic cup in his hand staring to smoke and sag. He dropped the deformed cup quickly and began blowing on his palm as his eyes darted around the cafeteria. No one seemed to have noticed.
“What about the rest of you?” James asked, wincing as he began picking bits of melted plastic out of his palm.
“I don’t know if I could actually…you know…do that to anyone,” Amanda said. “Maybe if we caught him in the act and needed to stop him from hurting someone. That’d be one thing. But I couldn’t just kill somebody.”
“I’m with Amanda on this one guys,” Magda said. “I know he probably deserves it, but to actually do something to him is just wrong.”
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Danny said. “It’s no more than he deserves.” For Danny, it was simple: bad people deserved to be punished.
“Maybe so,” Manny said, “but are we the ones to make that decision?”
As the rest of the group debated, Paige found herself watching Reed. She could tell by the expression on his face that something was going on in his mind.
“You’ve been awfully quiet, Reed,” Paige said to her friend when there was a brief lull.
Reed had been tracing designs in a ring of water on the table as the others talked. He stopped when he heard his name and looked up.
“To be honest, this whole discussion is a waste of time. We’re not going to go looking for this guy.”
“You seem pretty sure about that,” Paige said. “How come?”
“Because it’s too dangerous,” Reed said matter-of-factly.
James laughed. “Are you kidding? If he tried to go up against the group of us we’d mop up the street with him.”
“Exactly. That’s why he wouldn’t take on the group of us. Look, if it is the same guy, he’s been kidnapping kids for months, and he’s been doing it one at a time. The group of us would be too much for him to handle, even without our abilities. Besides that, Tom is right. We don’t even know how to start looking for him. He could be anywhere. The only way to bring him out into the open would
be for us to go around by ourselves, to make ourselves targets. But that would be pretty stupid. In spite of what James thinks, any one of us by ourselves can be taken down.” James started to object but Reed cut him off. “If he came up behind you and hit you in the head you’d be out cold before you could do a thing, and you know it.”
James grumbled under his breath but didn’t argue the point. The mood in the others seemed to deflate after Reed finished talking. He was right. They each sank back in their chairs and stared at the table top.
“I will say one thing,” Reed said. He paused, looked around at his friends and caught each of their eyes. “If we ever do come across this guy, I wouldn’t have a problem with seeing that he never turned up again.” There was a hard finality in his words that hung in the air around them. Without saying anything else he stood and picked up his tray.
Chapter Eight