"Let's start with the fourteenth… yesterday. Tell us what happened, and especially on what was going on with Skinny."

Shaun Valdez was small for his age, and he was younger than the other boys to begin with. Even in the small, cramped interrogation room, those facts combined to leave him positively dwarfed in the space. His mother loomed over his shoulder with arms crossed like a bodyguard, ready to throw herself between her son and the police should any perceived threat arise. Officer Jim Coulter would've found it touching, in a way, if he hadn't known this questioning would be about as pleasant as pulling teeth thanks to her presence. He'd had plenty of the protective types in here before, and she was quite likely to undermine just about every question he asked the boy… there was a reason most interrogations were done solo.

For this first question, though, she merely nodded her head, and Shaun began to recount the day previous. He explained that the boys had been playing a poker game in the park, and that they'd also tossed a football around. "Who won?" Jim interjected. A rehearsed alibi would obviously agree on who won, but a question like that helped to screen out the sloppy ones. If none of the boys agreed, there was your wedge in.

"Logan did," Shaun said, remembering back. "Bluffed us all out."

"Was there anything unusual about Skinny's behavior that day?"

Logan remembered back to Skinny's distant expression when he lost against Logan. He also thought he'd seen the two boys talking privately later that afternoon while tossing the football.

"Nothing at all," he answered.

"You sure about that?" Coulter asked, eyebrow raised.

"Sure," Shaun agreed.

"So, walk me through the rest of the afternoon until this moment."

Shaun explained the end of the poker game and the rounds of catch that they went through. He explained how the boys had parted ways with plans to meet up the following morning at Castle Rock.

"Castle Rock?" Jim asked.

"It's what we call a big stone out in the woods… you can climb on top of it, and it kinda looks like a big castle."

"What did I tell you about climbing on rocks in the woods?" his mother interjected, an angry note in her voice.

"I said you can… the boys climb it often but I usually don't."

The mother looked like she had more to say in retort, but Jim raised a finger to forestall her objections. "Please, keep going."

Shaun then explained how they'd been waiting for Ronnie and Skinny to show up late, and how Ronnie's arrival alone set them worrying for Skinny. He told about their walk to Skinny's house, and how it had turned up empty. He then mentioned heading off to speak with Skinny's mom as the rest headed home.

"Wade Kerrigan went to see his father, correct?"

"Yeah, we figured we'd check both," Shaun replied.

Coulter nodded, taking notes in a small police notebook. "Ok, now let's hear about the thirteenth. The day before the poker game. In particular, take me from morning to right about where you wound up next to Johnson's General."

The mother stepped forwards. "Wait just a second now… this doesn't have anything to do with that robbery down there, does it? I was told this is just about the missing Trent boy. What's my son being near a robbery got to do with that?"

"Nothing, hopefully, but we'd just like to tick all the boxes. We have reason to suspect Trent might have been connected to that robbery, so we're just filling in the details."

"You don't have to answer any questions you don't want to, baby," she said to Shaun. "Don't let them twist you into something you weren't a part of."

"You've nothing to be worried about," Jim responded. "Just fill us in on what happened that day and we can help find your friend."

* * *

"Well, see, we started with a chess match," Parker said. After his mother had asked about (and collected) the hoodie, he'd known that more questions about that day were on the horizon. He and the gang had worked to get their stories straight in case they were ever brought in for questioning… he only hoped the others remembered their parts well.

He knew that it was easiest to lie with the truth, and so they'd all decided to use the day previous as their basis for the lie. What they'd actually been doing before the Johnson's General robbery was testing the extent of their devices' powers. They, of course, couldn't tell that to the police. So instead, they built a fake day using the chess match and hangout from the night previous, the one just before they'd gone to see the burning warehouse.

"A chess match?" Coulter asked, as though he hadn't heard the exact same thing from both Ronnie and Shaun just before.

"Yeah, a game of chess. You play?" Parker asked.

"No I do not," answered Coulter. "Who won?" he asked.

"Not Ronnie," Parker answered. Just as Coulter registered the comment and was wondering if witness testimonies had just contradicted each other, Parker continued on. "Well, yes, Ronnie, but only because I let him win," he said with a smile. Parker's hope was that the attempted humor would help defuse suspicion. He couldn't tell if it worked or backfired… Coulter's face remained stoically unreadable.

"So there's the chess game, the hanging out after the fact, but then what? How is it that you wound up at Trade-In Tom's?"

This was the part Parker was worried about the most… it was where reality ended and fiction began. Any one of the boys could slip up at this part, and detectives pulling that thread could unravel the entire tapestry.

"Well, as we were packing up the chess board, we decided we were bored with the usual activities. Walking, games, the like. We wanted something more exciting."

"So, you go clothing shopping?"

"No, we wanted to do paintball."

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Coulter was silent, allowing Parker to go on.

"I know my mom, being a cop, hates us playing with guns. So we told Tom that we were planning to do some repainting. Truth is, I just had to buy a junk piece of clothing that could get splattered up."

"Why didn't any of the other boys buy anything?"

"They said they all had clothing they wouldn't mind ruining, but I like all of my hoodies." Again, it was good to pepper in as much of the truth as he could, and Parker particularly liked that detail's addition because he knew it was a simple truth his mother could confirm: Parker only owned three hoodies, and he wore them each quite frequently in the colder months.

"So you guys own paintball guns, then?"

"No," Parker answered, "But Logan was supposed to take care of that part."

* * *

"So, you guys went over to buy clothing, but what about the weapons? Did you guys own any paintball markers?"

"Well, not yet," Logan answered, "but we'd planned to buy some. I saw some for sale for about ten bucks at Wasserman's. Took small CO2 cartridges, fired standard shot."

"You have much savings?"

"Plenty enough. I was gonna buy three of them, and we'd take turns using them out in the woods."

"So what happened?"

"Wade mentioned the welts from shot and suddenly Shaun wasn't so interested anymore. General interest kinda sagged at that point. A few wanted to shoot, but nobody wanted to get shot…"

Coulter nodded, writing. So far, all the boys interviewed had been in perfect agreement on every major fact.

"Anyways, so, after Trade-In Tom's?"

"We lit a campfire and chatted on the side. Someone brought a small radio out, and I think Wade was roasting some hot dogs?"

More details that synchronized up. There had to be some new avenue of attack… just then, Coulter remembered Nora's other dead-end case.

"Where did you boys get the radio from?" Coulter asked.

Logan momentarily paused, frowning at the unexpected question. "Uh, I think Ronnie had been repairing an old junk radio he used to own."

Coulter made a quick note to follow up on that and double-check the radio's origins. "You boys meet anyone trying to pawn off radios or other electronics?"

"No sir, that we did not."

"Not even batteries?"

"No sir."

"I heard you boys showed up at the warehouse fire before fire crews," Coulter tried next.

"Due respect, sir, but Walter Cronkite could've flown in from New York City before fire crews arrived," Logan replied.

Coulter chuckled at the jab… he'd have to tell that one to Curtis later. With a sigh, he prepared to move on. "All righty, Mr. Kessler. At this point, I'm just about out of questions. We just have one more thing to ask of you. Do you mind taking your shirt off for a brief body examination?"

"What for?" Logan asked, defensive. He had been calm, collected, and confident throughout the interview, but this last request made him suddenly uneasy.

"The other boys all complied," Coulter lied. Most had, but Shaun's parents had categorically refused. Coulter hadn't minded, because the profile of the robber who was shot didn't fit Shaun, small as he was. "We're just checking for injury patterns to the chest consistent with a known crime. If you're innocent, you have nothing to be afraid of."

"I would really rather not," Logan replied, standing.

"Come on, now, let's not make this difficult," Coulter said. "We can come back with a warrant for arrest and compel you, if you'd prefer it the hard way." Coulter was relatively certain that no such warrant would be written and signed, but clearing the group only worked if they saw every member's chest fitting the description… wasn't a little fear excusable if it served the greater good?

And just like that, the sense of helplessness rushed back in. Logan looked at the cop before him and saw the same type of bully he'd looked at his entire life… someone who would act like a friend, but when they didn't get what they wanted, they'd flex all the strength they could to force you to fall in line. And despite the rising dread he felt, just like had always happened in the past, he was complying before he was even aware of it. His shirt slid off over his head and his confidence went with it. There he there in the room, feeling vulnerable and exposed once again. Coulter swore under his breath and reached for a button on the desk. "Barb, send in the photographer, will you?"

They had him stand with arms over his head facing the camera, and then he was asked to rotate to the left 30 degrees, and turn again, and again still, until he had completed a full orbit. The camera's flashing bulb set afterimages of spots dancing across his vision, shimmering circles of green that drifted like motes of dust in the dark interrogation room.

Logan had always been a skinny boy, but the total lack of any extra fat gave his skin an almost skeletal appearance that only further highlighted the troubling pattern it hosted. He sported several purple bruised patches on his front chest, left side, and back. On his lower back, a bandage dabbed with blood covered an irritated wound. Coulter knew the look of a puncture wound when he saw one.

"How'd you get those?" Coulter asked.

"I fell," Logan replied, not caring how pathetically vague it sounded.

"And the knick on the back? You must be quite the clumsy walker," Coulter added, noting the flash of anger in Logan's eyes. He frowned while the boy offered no additional explanation, eventually shaking his head. "With those pictures, we've got all we need now… you can put your shirt back on."

"Am I free to go?" Logan asked through teeth nearly gritted.

"You're free to go," Coulter said, rubbing at his mouth. He had seen bulletproof vest bruising before… sharp-edged and dark things, they were. The bruises Logan sported were probably not those… but they were concerning all the same, so he'd have the medical examiner double-check. And then the back wound? If they're all unrelated, what's that boy mixed up with? Was it a gang thing? A family thing? He mentally filed the questions away and stretched with a yawn, frustrated but unsurprised at the lack of meaningful information pulled from the five interrogations. They'd all had their stories straight, and the timeline of the hoodie still made no sense. So where did that leave Skinny?

* * *

"So, all five had corroborating stories," Pemberton said. "The Kessler boy was bruised up pretty badly, but not in patterns consistent with vests. So we've got jack shit?"

Nora and Coulter both nodded. The two sat side-by-side opposite to the Chief, who was leaning back in his chair beyond his desk. He tapped his fingers in a gesture that was somewhere between impatience and frustration. "I got two parents out there wanting to start up a search party… when I told 'em that the boys likely knew something, you should've seen the relief they felt. You remember how the clerk at Johnson's said that the second group went on about saving the day? Well I mentioned the boys might've gotten it into their heads to try some kind of vigilante stunt, and they told us Shaun Valdez was real big on comic books. Hero stuff."

"We asked," Coulter began, but Pemberton cut him off.

"I know, I know you asked… you said they all denied it. Course they did. Now what would drive a kid to go out and risk their lives like that, especially being as young as they are? What's a kid against a hardened criminal?"

"Six of them," Nora interjected.

"Oh, you get the point," Pemberton said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"What if we put the boys in a line-up and see if the clerk or the apprehended robber…"

"Valerie Delacroix," Nora offered.

"Yeah, Valerie… see if either recognizes the boys' voices?" asked Coulter.

"Witness testimony is that the one who did most of the talking was the black one… if we're running with this group still as our primary suspects, not having Skinny would drastically hurt ID chances," Nora said. "Are we even still running with this group? I know my son is in there, sir, but they answered each and every question satisfactorily."

"Well, my theory is that this group of six tried to foil a robbery and nearly got killed doing so. Skinny, fearing the noose of the law closing in, decided to skip town," Pemberton said. "I'm open to other theories, but you gotta give me something to work with."

"Maybe the boys had nothing to do with the General Store robbery, and Skinny simply went missing under any number of possible ordinary circumstances?"

"What, just went up and disappeared?" Coulter asked.

"People do tend to go missing sometimes… that's why we've got missing person reports. They were meeting up in a small clearing in the woods… maybe the boy got lost?"

Clyde Pemberton stroked his chin, thinking. "I suppose it couldn't hurt too much to put out a search party… volunteers and spare officers. Start with the woods near this Castle Rock the boys talked about and comb our way back to the town. Nora, I want you spearheading things."

Nora nodded, having been expecting that the moment she suggested Skinny had gotten lost.

"If the search turns up nothing, we might just move to that lineup idea. We gotta give these poor people something," Pemberton said. "Dismissed."