“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 planwould 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?”
