Chapter 39
“Is Grandpa going to be okay?” Braedon rides shotgun as Clay drives.
Clay gave him a choice. Braedon could stay home by himself, go to the police station and hang out with Sue, go to the fly shop and hang out with Carol, or go to Judd’s and hang out with Mei. Clay was surprised when Braedon chose Mei, but Braedon’s question makes his choice less surprising.
“Grandpa will be okay,” says Clay. “This is hard for him. You and me, we don’t have any siblings, so we don’t know what it’s like.
But Teddy is not only Grandpa’s brother, he’s not only Grandpa’s twin brother, but he’s the person Grandpa is closest to.
We don’t know if what Thomas Becker told his parents is true or not, but if it is, we’ll all be okay.
Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, but we will be okay. ”
“Are you sad?”
“I’m concerned,” says Clay. “If it’s true that Teddy is dead, I’ll be very sad. And that’s okay. It should be sad. We should be sad.”
They ride the remaining few minutes in silence. When Clay pulls up to Judd’s house, Mei stands on the porch waiting for them.
Judd and Zoey decide that Clay should be the one who questions Thomas Becker this time.
Judd spoke to him the first time, and maybe because Judd is Teddy’s twin brother, Thomas was afraid to tell the truth.
Or maybe it’s just that Judd has resting angry face.
And with Graham acting like the boys’ leader, maybe Judd’s hard eyes are needed to crack him.
Zoey goes to Markey Franzen’s house. They will conduct separate interviews in the boys’ homes, and meet at the police station when they’re done.
Steph doesn’t answer her phone so Clay drives by the C3 beauty salon.
Her car is parked in back. He parks next to her and goes in.
He finds Steph washing a client’s hair. He waits until Steph wraps a towel around the person’s head and walks them back to the cutting station.
Then he walks over and says, “Steph, sorry to interrupt. Can I have two minutes?”
Steph excuses herself, and they head to the small break room. Clay explains what’s about to happen—he’s going to Steph’s house to question Thomas one more time. “Do you know that he’s been having nightmares?” says Clay.
Steph shakes her head. She looks like she’s in shock. She hasn’t made eye contact with Clay since he started talking, but now she looks at him and says, “You’ll be kind to Thomas, I hope.”
“Of course. Does that mean I have your permission? Because I need it to talk to an unaccompanied minor. Neither you nor Wags will be with him.”
Steph nods. “You have my permission. God, I hate that Thomas is mixed up with those other boys. This is not his fault.” Steph reaches out and grabs Clay’s forearm. “He’s a good kid, Clay.” The tears start. “Please tell me this won’t ruin his life.”
“It depends on what really happened,” says Clay. “Hopefully we’ll find out soon. Zoey’s sending a K-9 team to Miller’s Bluff.”
Steph goes pale. She takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Thomas is my boy. He’s my baby boy.”
Thomas Becker answers the door looking like he slept in his clothes.
Clay had called ahead, but it appears the boy made no effort to prepare himself or the house for company.
Dirty dishes litter the kitchen counters, and the place smells of burned toast and Cap’n Crunch.
They sit at the kitchen table, which is round and made of oak.
Thomas doesn’t offer Clay anything, nor does Clay ask. He wants to get this over with.
“The nightmares must be pretty bad,” says Clay.
Thomas looks down and nods.
“Do you want to change your story?”
Another nod.
“What happened?”
“Everything just like I told it before, except it wasn’t just Teddy’s stuff. Teddy was there, too. And he was dead.”
Clay takes a breath to calm himself. “Why are you so sure Teddy was dead and not just unconscious?”
“I know what death looks like,” says Thomas.
“I’ve seen pets, two grandparents in open caskets, deer on the side of the road.
Dead things look like something fake. Like the taxidermy on the wall at Knut’s.
Teddy wasn’t breathing. His skin wasn’t the right color.
It was like he wasn’t in there anymore.”
“What did Graham say?”
“Graham said that we’d get blamed for it because that’s what always happens. Whoever finds the dead person actually killed them. That’s what everyone thinks.”
“And you believed him?”
“I guess. I was scared shitless. Finding a dead guy. I was panicking. I’m like, we got to call the police or an ambulance or something.
We have to report this. But then Graham got really mad and told us we’re not saying anything.
And if we did, he’d tell the police that me and Markey killed Teddy and we’d probably go to jail for murder even though we had nothing to do with it. ”
“Anything else you remember about Teddy lying there on the ground?”
“Like what?” says Thomas.
“Any cuts or scrapes? Bruises, maybe? Were any of his limbs at odd angles? Did anything look broken?”
Thomas shuts his eyes for a moment, then opens them and says, “He looked kind of beat up. And dirty. Like he was wrestling on the ground with someone, maybe. There were smudges of dirt on his clothes and on his face.”
“Was he lying face up?”
“Yeah. It creeped me out.”
“Did you roll him over? See if he had any injuries on his back?”
“No. No one touched him except for Graham when he took the earring.”
Clay waits a moment before responding. He is calm. He is warm. He is kind. Any judgment he has is far from Thomas’s view. “Is it possible,” starts Clay, “that Graham had something to do with Teddy’s death?”
“No,” says Thomas. “I’m a hundred percent telling you the truth.
I swear I am. We were on our bikes. I was with Graham from the entire time Markey and I swung by his house to get him.
Then we all rode together and found Teddy together.
Dead. I think … I think if Graham didn’t have that stupid idea to get money out of your dad, then maybe he would have admitted to finding the body.
But Graham didn’t kill Teddy. I’d tell you if he did.
Because shit, man, I wish he would get locked up so I don’t have to deal with him after telling the truth. ”
“So Graham’s definitely the ringleader,” says Clay.
Thomas nods. “He came up with the story and made us go over it a hundred times so we’d all say the same thing. We kept it really close to the truth—everything except Teddy’s body being there. Graham kept quizzing us like we had a test coming up.”
“And when the six of us went there the morning after you got busted, how did you know Teddy’s body wouldn’t be there? Or did you purposely lead us to the wrong place?”
“When Graham came up with the plan and took the earring, we covered up the body with some branches and leaves because if someone found Teddy, then our whole kidnapping plan would be cooked. I thought we would find him that morning we went up there with you guys. Our plan was to say we didn’t see him under all that stuff.
But his body wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened to it. ”
Clay nods. “Did you tell Graham or Markey that you were going to tell us this?”
Thomas shakes his head. “I haven’t talked to either of them since that day at the police station.
We’re all grounded. No phones. No video games.
” Thomas half laughs. “Eli brought me a stack of books to read. I can’t believe it but I’ve actually read one already.
It was really good. I’ve never read a book that I didn’t have to. Now I like it.”
“Eli Hensel? Whose dad owns the scrapyard?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh,” says Clay.
“Huh what?”
“Are you friends with Eli Hensel?”
“No. I just know him. Kind of.”
Clay lets that sit for a while, then says, “Well, there’s something positive that’s come out of all this. What book did you read?”
“James. It was long, but what else do I have to do?”
“Good book. That was nice of Eli.”
“Yeah,” says Thomas. “He’s a super-nice dude.”