“Fuck me,” Asa mutters. “Where do you go to high school, Ben?”
When he tells us, we all look at each other and Asa drops his head before he shakes it.
The kid is local.
And I’m pretty sure Keelie works at his school and Asa’s kids go there too.
Isn’t this the shits.
“You still in high school, Jace?” Asa keeps on.
“No way. I’ve been out for a year.”
Asa looks up at Crew and tips his head to the ringleader.
Crew sighs. “Let’s separate them.”
“No!” Ben and Jace scream at the same time but we don’t move to them.
Jarvis and Grady have Gary up and are dragging him out of the barn. I have no clue where they’re taking him and I don’t really give a shit because these two are the ones who will talk. If they turn out to be young and stupid like it seems, we’ll drop them and they can make their way home and will never know where they’ve been or who we are.
“Here’s how it’s going to go,” I start when I know Gary is out of earshot. “We found the fuel cans in your building. The arson investigator already traced the ammonium nitrate. That shit put together is lethal.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be so big,” Jace admits. “I thought we were going to blow up a mailbox or something. He didn’t tell us what was really going to happen when we filled the box. I mean, shit. It was small.”
“How do you know Gary?” Asa demands.
“He’s my cousin,” Jace says. “What are you going to do to us?”
“Who was the woman who came to your camp tonight?” I demand.
“They didn’t introduce us, but Gary called her Wendy when they were fighting. She didn’t pay up like she said she would. She found out no one was at the house. I’m glad no one was there. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Gary told us this chick only wanted to send a message. Can you at least take this thing off my head?”
“No. And trust me, you do not want to know what happens if you see our faces,” Crew says.
Ben whimpers, “Was anyone hurt?”
“No.” I roll my eyes. “Ease your conscience, kid. You only blew up a house; you didn’t kill anyone.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jace chants.
Apologies aren’t going to replace my Nationals T-shirt collection, which was practically vintage. Thank fuck I have Abbott’s pictures stored in the cloud. “I’ll think about forgiving you if you start talking. Who else have you seen there who might want to create havoc in people’s lives and blow shit up?”
Ben says nothing and I wouldn’t be surprised if he pisses himself soon. I’m also not surprised Jace keeps running his mouth. “Some guy, but that was a week or two ago. If they said his name I can’t remember. He was older, sort of balding but trying really hard to make it look like he’s not. Sort of talked through his nose. It’s the only thing I remember because he reminded me of a cartoon character.”
If that wasn’t Nick Peterson then I’m not a-fucking-mazing. I look to Crew and nod.
“Was he with the woman who was there tonight?” Crew asks.
“Yeah.”
A modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, trying to fuck with my already-complicated life.
Those two cannot support that bankroll on their own. “No one else has been there? Did they mention any other names?”
“No one, I swear. I’d tell you because I really want to get out of here,” Jace says.
“This is what we’re going to do,” Asa states. “We’re going to drop you two shitheads off somewhere. As you find your way home, do it knowing we have your fingerprints on the ammonium nitrate and the fuel containers. We also have footage of you fucking around at the house you blew to smithereens. On top of that, we’ve got enough footage for a ten-episode series on Netflix of you two coming and going from that place. If you don’t think that’s enough to throw each of you into federal prison, you’re more stupid than we gave you credit for. And Ben, there’s almost a hundred percent chance they’ll try you as an adult. And all the shit you hear about prison is real. Given your boy-band look, they’ll love you.”
Not surprisingly, Ben starts to whimper again. “I promise. I’ll never go back.”
“What about Gary?” Jace asks.
I shrug. “Not sure. Depends on what he can do for us.”
“Oh, shit.”
“We don’t fuck around, guys. In the last three minutes, we found