She knew that Buck, suffering from the aftereffects of his severe injuries, didn’t want to talk to anyone, but it wasn’t her place to tell Young that. Instead, she said, “Did something happen when you were kids? Did you witness a crime?”
Young studied her closely, as if he wondered if he should trust her. “Maybe.”
“Can you tell me?”
He took a deep breath. “It was a long time ago—not sure if I remember correctly.”
“Try.”
“As kids, we loved to play games around the neighboring properties, pretend we were spies or cowboys, or whatever. We were inseparable.” He paused, clearly remembering those times. It seemed like he could cry.
“Did you see anything during one of those games?” she asked more gently.
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“What did you see?” she said, trying to be patient.
“Mr. Collins was a mean and brutal man. He would often take it out on his wife and sometimes his daughter, who was only a few years younger than us. Misty was a sweet, innocent little girl and to be exposed to…”
“What happened that one night?”
“He must’ve flipped out or maybe Mrs. Collins had had enough… don’t know for sure.” He looked around the room and then continued. “Mr. Collins came into the barn mad as hell, breaking things, and then he found a baseball bat and left. Ray-Ray looked at me and we headed out after him… following slowly behind.”
There was quiet for several minutes. No one spoke. Again, Katie felt a chill, as if a ghost had passed through the room. Quickly looking at McGaven, he slightly nodded at her to give her the signal that she was doing great.
“What happened next?” she asked Young.
Shaking his head furiously, he said, “I’ll never forget the screams. It was savage and torturous.”
“Did you see anything?”
“No, we were too far away.”
“What did you do next?”
McGaven moved closer to the side of the table.
“We waited for a while, too scared to move. Finally, we heard the sound of a truck. It stopped from where we’d heard the screams for about ten minutes.”
“What did you do then?” she said.
“Nuthin’—what could we do? We were just boys.”
“Were you ever curious about what happened after that?”
“Sure, but we didn’t speak of it again. We had heard the story that Mrs. Collins and Misty had moved away, leaving her husband,” he said. “Then one day we were playing in a nearby area and it looked like a grave had been dug and then covered.”
Katie took a breath and relaxed her posture a bit. “Did you tell anyone about the grave?”
“Never. I don’t think my brother did either.”
“Did you ever see anyone at the Collins property?”
He shrugged. “You mean family or something?”
“Maybe someone you hadn’t seen there before?”
“I don’t remember seeing anyone. But we never went to play on that property again.”
