The Disappearing (2 page)

Quickly averting his eyes, Tim turned to face Nina, but she and Emily had wandered off down by the water. How had they gotten so far away?

“Excuse me, son,” said the man, placing his unusually large hand on Tim's shoulder. “I'm an investigator and I'd like to ask you a few questions.”

“Uh . . . sure,” Tim stammered in reply.

“Do you know the missing girl, Eva?”

“Yeah, everyone knows Eva. I mean . . . we didn't hang out a lot, but we knew each other from school.”

The man's pensive eyes bore right through him, and for a moment, Tim wondered if he could read his mind.

After what felt like an eternity, another question.

“Did you notice anyone unfamiliar in town over the past few days?”

“No, no one I don't . . .” Tim's voice trailed off.

The man stared, waiting for the rest of the sentence, but Tim was lost in thought. He actually had seen a stranger several days ago.

“I did see someone I never saw before,” he stammered. “I forgot all about it because it seemed like no big deal.”

Before he could explain, the man lightly gripped his shoulder, ushering him toward the search area where the rest of the men now gathered.

Two men came forward and stared silently at Tim.

“Tell us exactly what you saw,” said the man with big hands.

Tim nervously recalled the encounter.

It was at Luke's house. Luke's mom had died when he was pretty young, and his dad never remarried. With no siblings, the two had become extremely close.

Luke's dad was a great guy.

When Tim was much younger, he had made the mistake of referring to him as Mr. Eller.

“Mr. Eller?” he repeated with mock sarcasm. “That's my dad. Call me Rusty, okay?”

“Sure, Mr. El—I mean Rusty,” Tim had laughed.

Rusty's hair was as red as the raspberries he grew in his enormous garden, the one his wife had started years ago.

Luke hadn't inherited the color. His was jet black.

Tim hung out at Luke's house a lot. Luke's dad often traveled out of town on business, and the two of them enjoyed the freedom this allowed.

On the day Tim saw the stranger, Rusty had just gotten back from a trip. He had gone to the outside shed to put away his suitcase. The boys were looking forward to him cooking outside on the grill. The meal would eventually lead to an all-night talk by their huge fire pit.

Their mouths watering and their stomachs burbling, Tim and Luke anxiously waited for him to come back inside so they could get started.

Eventually, Luke had run upstairs to shower, leaving Tim alone.

What was taking Rusty so long?

Tim went to the back door, and just as he was about to take a peek outside, the door swung open and in he came.

“Who's ready for some barbecue?”

“I'm so ready,” laughed Tim.

As the door closed slowly behind Luke's dad, Tim spotted the stranger.

Standing on a small hill overlooking Luke's property, he silently stared at the house.

He certainly was not from town. His white blond hair, cropped close to his head, was in stark contrast to the boring way people always styled theirs in Briny Deep.

That was all he remembered. The man had turned and walked away almost immediately. And that was that.

The investigator's questions came popping at him like rain from an unexpected storm, quick and penetrating.

What exactly did the stranger look like?

Did he say anything?

Did he appear threatening?

When it was over, Tim felt dizzy.

He had no information to give. He hadn't seen the guy for more than a few seconds. The only thing that made it odd was the fact that he was a stranger—and strangers just aren't that common in Briny Deep.

The investigator had handed him a card with a phone number, in case he thought of anything else. Tim's stomach hurt.

He made his way back to his friends who riddled him with even more questions.

Nina stood beside him, concerned.

“What did they want?” she asked softly.

“It was no big deal,” he replied. “They just asked if I had seen anyone new in town.”

Emily moved in closer.

“Have you?” she asked.

Tim told his friends about the man with the short yellow hair.

“Oh, man!” Max nearly shouted. “I've seen him, too.”

Tim's throat felt dry.

All eyes settled on Max who seemed to have spontaneously turned two shades whiter.

“He was outside my house last night, sitting on the bench across the street.”

“What does it mean?” Emily asked. “Do you think this guy had something to do with Eva being gone?”

Tim shook off the eerie chill that shot down his spine and tried to look calm.

“I'm sure he was just someone visiting a friend for the day,” he assured his group. “Gone long before Eva wondered off, and that's all this is. Eva probably just got mad at her parents, like she always does, and is trying to make them feel bad by hiding out somewhere. I bet she's back home by tonight.”

Saying the words made Tim feel better.

“Look,” he continued. “Let's just all go back to the water and forget about this for a while.”

Everyone eagerly agreed.

The rest of the day was spent eating, swimming, and laughing. In fact, they were having so much fun, it was easy to forget that Eva was still gone.

That night, the boys met up at Luke's house. His dad was back in town and had invited everyone over for a last day of summer feasting.

“Hope you guys are hungry,” Rusty called out as he balanced several plates of marinated meat and headed out the back door to the grill.

They most certainly were.

The girls would be arriving soon, as well as most of their other friends from school.

All the kids loved Rusty's house.

Actually, ‘house' was probably not the right word. It was a huge, rambling estate where one could easily get lost. But not Tim. He knew every nook and cranny of the house and every trail, path, and hill on the land where it sat.

They had all shared a lot of great memories at this place.

As young kids, they spent hours upon hours playing outside—games like tag, hide and seek, or some other crazy made-up game. They had a lot of those.

Some days they could be found climbing the massive trees that dotted the property, and other days they explored the massive spider web of nature trails spanning the grassy acreage.

But truth be told, the best times were had inside.

The massive house smelled of fresh wood. It had three floors as well as an attic and an enormous basement. Its long hallways led to room after room just waiting to be explored.

During one particularly intense game of hide and seek, it had taken his friends over an hour to locate his hiding spot.

There were just so many good places to disappear in this house.

Everyone had started to arrive for the last gathering of summer. In a few days, it would be back to school.

A huge bonfire roared. The flames from dozens of torches staked out across the property rose into the air.

Typically, there would be music from some local live band. But tonight's cookout was a quieter, more somber event because Eva had not come home yet.

“I thought of canceling it,” Rusty had said to them earlier. “But I think it's good for everyone to be together, to have a little fun, and get their mind off everything for a night.”

Within about an hour, dozens of kids had arrived. Some were eating hot dogs and hamburgers, a few had started up a game of volleyball, and others were milling around talking and catching up with friends.

But everyone had the same thing on their minds—Eva.

It was dark now and a full day had passed since she had gone missing.

“Hey,” called out Max as he rode up the path on his skateboard, kicking it up into his hands as he reached Tim. “Want to go get some food?”

Tim nodded in agreement. The two headed down to the massive grill, selected two juicy burgers, and then proceeded to fill the remaining space on their plates with beans, potato salad, and some sort of marshmallow fruit thing.

Luke ran up behind them and grabbed a roll.

“Where are the girls?” he asked.

“Not sure, should be here somewhere,” Tim responded, wiping barbecue sauce from his chin.

He needed a napkin; a bit of the sticky sauce still clung to his face. As he turned to grab one from the table, he was face to face with Nina.

“Hey you,” she whispered.

How could two little words sound so perfect?

“Hey back,” he tried to sound as sultry as she did, but quickly remembered the sauce on his face and felt like a jerk.

“I was looking for you . . .” he continued, but noticing Emily standing there, too, changed his wording mid-speak.

“I was looking for you girls.”

Nina smiled and gazed up at him with those eyes, those perfectly green eyes.

“I made cookies,” she teased. “You have to try them.”

She didn't have to ask twice.

Tim felt light-headed. Or maybe it was just love.

It started when they were young kids. Their parents had shipped them off to a sleep-away camp just beyond the mountains north and to the west of Briny Deep. It was a week in the woods: fishing, hiking, swimming in the lake, and telling stories by the bonfire. It was by the light of one of those bonfires that he saw her eyes for the first time—really saw them—and how impossibly green and beautiful they were.

Underneath the starry sky, they had shared their dreams of the future. He aspired to be a doctor, and her a scientist like her parents. They had laughed and talked for hours, brushing each other's hands as they spoke. She had gently pushed his shoulder and tugged his sleeve when he would say something particularly funny.

Since that night, their relationship had changed. There was a tender undercurrent of attraction. But through the years that followed, and as they got older, he had been unable to express to her what he felt. Every day that he remained silent made it tougher and more impossible to ever approach the subject with her. He was sure he would carry this agony to his grave.

“Let's play hide and seek!” someone yelled from across the yard, rousing Tim from the fog his mind had suddenly gotten lost in.

“Inside!” called Luke pointing a long finger toward the imposing house.

About ten of them ran inside . . . and the game began.

They hadn't played for a long time. Not inside.

Everyone scurried off in a different direction.

Luke was “it” and he began the countdown.

“1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . .”

Tim took to the stairs and ascended quickly to the third floor. He spotted Emily running into a room down the hall and a brief glimpse of Nina's foot as she climbed the last set of stairs leading to the attic.

. . . Nina . . .

No time for that now, he thought, and ran to the end of the hall. He turned the corner and sprinted up the second hallway to an area that was rarely visited. It was used mostly to store big pieces of furniture and other knickknacks Rusty had collected in his travels.

Large armoires; oversized canopied beds; huge, exotic looking trunks and wardrobes—there were just so many places to hide.

It had been awhile since he was last here. Tim wandered down the vast hallway, peering into the rooms with open doors as he passed. He walked slowly, almost forgetting he was in the middle of a game.

It was just so odd to be here again.

From somewhere far away, he barely heard Luke's call.

“Ready or not, here I come!”

Tim picked up the pace.

As he neared the end of the hallway, he noticed something he hadn't before.

A door . . .

. . . and it was closed.

Curious, he put his hand on the knob and turned. It was locked.

Strange.

He looked up at the wall to the right of the door. A framed photograph hung there. It was of two small children—two boys.

It was grainy and faded. Tim squinted and tried to make out the other two people beside the boys in the image.

Wait . . . isn't that . . . Rusty?

Yeah, it was Rusty . . . and his wife Lenore. They were much younger in this photo, but Tim was sure now that it was them.

He looked closely at the two boys.

With an unmistakable black mop of hair, one was clearly Luke, but who was the other?

Footsteps . . . he heard footsteps . . . Luke.

Tim spun around, retraced his steps up the hallway, and slipped into a familiar room. He climbed into the giant wardrobe and quietly closed the door, leaving it open just a hair so he could hear if Luke approached. He certainly did not want to be the first one found. He had a reputation and a record to uphold.

After what had to be thirty minutes, Tim's foot was asleep and his back hurt from crouching over.

This was not as much fun as he remembered.

He cracked open the door a bit and peered out . . . no one there.

Tim climbed out of the wardrobe—he couldn't breathe in there anymore—too musty.

“Gotcha!” Luke screamed at the top of his lungs.

Tim shrieked in surprise.

After the shock wore off, neither could stop laughing for several minutes.

“Last to be found again, huh?” Tim chortled. “I'm still the reigning hide and seek champ.”

Luke eyed him up and down.

“Sorry, champ, but there's another. I haven't been able to find Anthony yet.”

Tim frowned.

“Ugh, my record is broken by Anthony? The kid already wins like every award in school.”

Luke laughed, and the two headed down to the bottom landing where Max and Nina were waiting. Luke continued on alone down another flight of stairs to the basement where he was sure Anthony must be held up.

Everyone else headed back outside.

Nina grabbed Tim by the hand and led him away from the group.

“Walk?” she suggested. “It's such a beautiful night.”

He felt light-headed again.

The couple strolled along a path, past friends playing Frisbee and others running around trying to tag each other.

“So, are you looking forward to school starting up?” she asked jokingly because she already knew the answer. No one looks forward to school after a great summer break like they had just experienced.

“Uh, sure,” he laughed.

Nina looked serious now. She leaned close to Tim's ear, “What do you really think happened to Eva?”

He stopped and turned to face her, taking both her hands in his. If he answered wrong, he knew he would just upset her.

“She'll come back. In fact, I bet she's already back home, apologizing up and down to her parents for making them worry so much.”

Nina stared into his eyes.

“I don't think so, Tim.”

He had never seen her like this before. She was really scared.

The flames from a nearby torch blazed behind her in the distance, illuminating her hair, giving her an angelic glow. It reminded him of the first time he ever noticed her at summer camp—really noticed her.

She leaned in closer, and the next thing Tim knew she was clinging to him.

He hugged her back.

“Nina,” he said softly. “Everything will be okay.”

That's when they heard it.

Several voices were calling out.

“Anthony?”

“Anthony!”

The panic was evident.

Nina and Tim released their grip on each other and ran toward the commotion.

“Can't find Anthony anywhere,” Luke said breathlessly. “He's just gone.”