Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (22 page)

Charlie touched his face next to his chin
and between his legs.

“
We didn’t want to leave
her,” Charlie said. “The pizza was still warm, and she was really
cold, so I put the boxes on top of her. I think one of the girls
got down and held her. But we were super scared.”

“
Why Charlie?” Sandy
asked. “Why were you so scared?”

“
Because it wasn’t the
first time we’d seen this,” Charlie said. “And she
was . . .”

Charlie glanced at Tim’s parents. Tim’s Mom
had turned into her father and was weeping.

“
Ivy flagged down a car
and begged the lady to take her to the hospital,” Charlie said. “We
didn’t think she could wait for an ambulance. We helped load her in
the back of the lady’s SUV.”

“
Did she have her purse?”
the mustached cop asked.

“
Um . . .”
Charlie scowled and looked at Tink.

“
It’s okay if you took
it,” Tim’s Dad said. “I probably would have.”

“
I don’t really know,”
Charlie said. “We were really scared.”

“
Just go through it like
it happened,” Art said.

Hearing his voice, Charlie jerked up to look
at him. He walked to Charlie and put his hand on Charlie’s
shoulders.

“
You mean act it out?”
Charlie asked.

“
Try to be as exact as
possible,” Art said. “Sometimes, that jogs things loose in your
memory.”

Art nodded. Charlie grabbed the clipboard
from a uniformed police officer nearby. He ran across the river to
the other side. He jogged up the ramp and onto the bridge.

“
I’ll be Jeffy,” Ivy said.
Nash ran over to stand by her. Ivy artificially lowered her voice,
“Hey, that’s a person.”

“
What do you mean?”
Charlie asked.

“
Some girl,” Ivy’s lowered
voice said. “Nobody we know.”

“
Where?” Charlie asked and
leaned over.

He ran across the bridge and down the ramp.
He splashed across the river. The people moved aside and he went to
the sandy bank. He set the pretend pizza on the ground and
pretended to grab a blanket from the dark pipe. Out of the corner
of his eye, he saw the mustached cop signal the forensics team to
check out the pipe.

Charlie kneeled down and pretended to throw
a blanket over the girl. Tink pretended to pull off her sweatshirt
and pressed it onto the sand.

“
Purse,” the mustached cop
said.

Charlie shook his head. Tink looked up and
shook her head. Charlie looked up at Ivy.

“
Did you see it?” Charlie
asked Ivy.

“
I remember there being
something over by those rocks,” Ivy said. “But I don’t know if it
was a purse.”

“
I only remember seeing
her,” Charlie said. “I was kinda freaked out, because I didn’t know
her and she was in really bad shape. The cops had already bugged us
about all of . . . episodes and I figured they’d
think we did it. And she was so hurt.”

He looked at Tink and shrugged.

“
Did you see anything?”
Charlie asked Tink.

“
Maybe,” Tink said. “But I
don’t think it was her purse. It was more
like . . .”

Tink looked at Charlie. He nodded.

“
Her underwear and
stuff . . .” Tink said.

“
Where?” the mustached cop
asked.

Tink was so surprised by his voice that she
shook her head. She looked at Charlie.

“
Over there.” Ivy
pointed.

Charlie got up and went to where Ivy
pointed.

“
Here?” Charlie
yelled.

“
Over there,” Ivy
said.

Charlie walked over to where boulder sized
jagged rocks stood straight up in the sand.

“
Here?” Charlie
asked.

Ivy nodded.

“
She says it was here,”
Charlie said. “But . . .”

“
Did she say anything?”
Tim’s Mom asked again.

“
She wasn’t really awake,
ma’am,” Charlie said. “She looked like she’d been
bashed . . . I mean there was blood on these rocks
and stuff. She opened her eyes . . . She just looked
at me. That’s all. Tink?”

“
Pan said something like
wake up,” Tink said. “And she opened her eyes. I mean, her face was
all puffy and blue and she’d lost some teeth. Like me I
guess.”

“
She wasn’t afraid of
you?” the mustached cop asked.

“
Me? Why would she be
afraid of me?” Charlie shrugged.
“But . . .”

Charlie looked down at the sand next to the
rock.

“
I didn’t come back here
after that,” Charlie said. “I was
too . . .”

He looked at Tink.

“
It was hard on all of
us,” Tink said. “I think we avoided the area. I
mean . . .”

Tink gestured to Ivy.

“
She . . .
happened here . . .” Tink looked at Charlie. “I was
inside then. Did you find Ivy too?”

Charlie nodded.

“
Here?” The mustache cop
sounded surprised.

“
It’s not far from where
I . . . I mean . . .” Tink shifted
uncomfortably.

“
Look around,” Art said.
“Do you see a light? All the fixtures are broken. Zero surveillance
cameras. This piece of sand? That culvert? You could do anything
and no one would see you.”

“
We used to come down here
all the time. No one was here,” Charlie said. ”As long as we stayed
away from the urbanites at rush hour, no one bugged us.”

“
How did you find Ivy if
you didn’t come here?” the mustached cop asked him.

“
I was looking for her,”
Charlie said. “I thought she might have gone with Saint Jude, but
Jeffy said no. We went looking for her.”

“
And Tiffanie?” the
mustached cop asked.

“
Charlie was already
living with us then,” Sandy said.

“
How did you get away?”
Charlie asked Tink.

“
I climbed in there when I
woke up,” Tink said.

“
Woke up?” the mustached
cop asked.

“
They drugged me with
something,” Tink nodded. “Ivy too.”

They looked up at Ivy, and she nodded.

“
They probably drugged
your daughter,” Tink said.

Tim’s Dad looked surprised.

“
I didn’t know what was
happening,” Tink said. “Not at all until I woke up. I’d bet that
your daughter didn’t either.”

“
Tink?” Charlie waved her
over to where he was. “Look.”

He pointed to the rocks. They were all
equally spaced apart except for the one he was standing over.

“
They weren’t like that
before . . .” Charlie said.

“
Come on out of there,”
Art said.

Charlie looked up at him. Art waved Charlie
and Tink away from the rock. He held out his hand and pulled Tink
up to the cement walk way. He helped Charlie out next. He pulled on
latex gloves and jumped down to the sand. Squatting down, he lifted
the rock.

Everyone gasped. Under the rock lay purses
and wallets and other trophies of the assaults.

“
That’s it! That’s it!”
Tim yelled. He pointed to a gold necklace on the side of the stash.
“That’s Barbie’s necklace!”

He tried to get down to the sand, but a
uniformed cop stopped him.

“
Get them out of here,”
the mustached cop said.

Sandy and Mike hustled Tink and Charlie away
from the sand bar. Charlie didn’t say a thing until he was buckled
into the passenger seat of Mike’s old Bronco.

“
What do you think?” Mike
asked.

“
I think there are a lot
more girls,” Charlie said.

“
I think you’re right,”
Mike started the car and drove back to the Castle.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Thirty-Five
Trouble

Wednesday night—11:59 p.m.

Aden grabbed the note pinned to his
apartment door and stepped into the apartment. Seeing the gas
fireplace on, he groaned. He figured the kids must have gotten up
after Sandy went to bed. He took a couple steps to turn off the
fireplace and realized he was standing in a sea of teenagers.

Aden peered around the room at what looked
like a couple girls and a couple of boys. He tried to make out
their hair color to see if these were his kids to be shooed off to
bed or someone else’s kids sleeping over.

“
Hi,” Sandy’s voice came
from the couch in a loud whisper.

Not daring to move, for fear of stepping on
someone, he glanced over to her. She got up and went around the
sleeping kids. Taking his hand, she led him into the kitchen.

“
Did you get the note?”
she asked.

He held up the unopened note. She grinned at
him.

“
I thought I could read it
inside,” he said.

She nodded.

“
How did it go tonight?”
she asked in a low tone.

He shook his head and pulled off his tie.
She reached up on her tip toes and kissed him. He held her
tight.

“
How was tonight?” he
asked.

“
A lot has happened,”
Sandy said. “Did you eat?”

As if he was thinking, he looked up at the
ceiling and then shook his head. She smiled at him and leaned into
the refrigerator. His eyes followed her efforts with keen
interest.

“
Oh, I saved
you . . .” Sandy took out a portion of the chicken
pot pie. “Honey made this for the kids. It’s your favorite. Should
I warm it up a bit?”

He took the plate and fork from her and
began eating. She smiled. After he’d had a few bites, he gestured
with the fork for her to tell him about her night.

“
On his way home from
school, Charlie ran into a boy,” Sandy said. Aden scowled. “No, not
one of those boys. Mike was with him, like we’d agreed. Tim, that’s
the boy’s name; his sister is one of the girls who committed
suicide. Tim saw Charlie at the police station and wanted Charlie
to tell him about what happened to his sister. I guess her family
didn’t know much.”

Aden nodded.

“
Honey made that
outstanding pot pie. Delphie made the crust.” Sandy smiled. Aden
nodded. “Tim and his parents came for dinner.”

Aden raised his eyebrows and nodded.

“
Right,” Sandy said. “It
was nice. They seemed relieved to have something else to think
about. Anyway, it turns out that Tim and Sissy went to school in
Westminster. They moved to town when all this happened and their
daughter was in the hospital. Tim started online high school like
Charlie. Then they sent their daughter to a program out of town.
She was home on a break when she killed herself. Can you
imagine?”

Aden shook his head.

“
Anyway, Sissy was
excited
to see
him.”

Aden furrowed his brow and gestured with his
fork.

“
Yes, he’s sleeping out
there too,” Sandy said. “His parents . . . I can’t
imagine what they’ve been through. Anyway, they seemed happy to see
Tim make some friends. Normal, that’s what his mom kept saying; she
was glad to ‘have a little normal in her life.’ I guess their whole
world fell apart when this happened, and now that their daughter is
dead . . . Everything’s kind of stopped for them.
They seemed to feel relieved that things are moving, even a little
bit.”

Aden took a drink of milk and said, “Did you
go there?”

“
Right,” Sandy said. “We
did. It was a big deal because none of the girls have really said
anything to the police and Charlie . . . well, I
guess we just haven’t gotten there.”

“
Sounds hard,” Aden said,
and took a bite.

“
It was hard,” Sandy said.
“Mike took Charlie so he’d have time to talk if he needed it.
Charlie was so brave. Colin and Art were there, mostly to support
Charlie. They took a video so everything was on the up and up.
Charlie went through finding their daughter. It was really hard for
Tim’s parents. That’s why Tim’s here, to give them some time to
work through it together.”

“
Where did you go?” Aden
asked.

“
Fourteenth and Market on
the Cherry Creek Trail,” Sandy said. “Can you believe it? Right in
the middle of everything this horribleness goes on.”

Aden nodded.

“
There are cookies over
there,” Sandy said. “We made cookies when we got back to calm
everyone down a little.”

Aden smiled and opened the cookie jar.

“
They found a stash of a
bunch of stuff from the girls,” Sandy said. “It looks like there’s
a lot of girls, so it was good that Colin and Art were there
documenting everything. Now Homeland Security is involved. They
won’t take over the case, but it brings in the Feds. Colin said
he’d send the video to the FBI. I bet they’ll assign an
agent.”

“
That doesn’t sound like a
good thing to me.”

“
I don’t trust the cops on
this case,” Sandy said. “I don’t know why. I just
don’t.”

“
You think they’re
involved?”

“
No,” Sandy said. “Not
that. It just . . . Looking at everything Charlie
found, I couldn’t help but wondering why these cops hadn’t done
anything. I mean this has been going on for a long time—at least a
year. They say they don’t know anything, but Tim’s parents were at
a concert at the Pepsi Center. Their daughter went to a dance at
East and then probably came down to get them. Charlie got her to
the hospital. She was in such bad shape that her parents didn’t
know she was there for three days. But, I mean the cops found their
car in the Pepsi Center parking lot.”