“But there has to be a reason why he has these articles.”
She nodded. “Yeah, there has to be. But why?”
I smiled. “Now that you’re done freaking out and thinking your brother is some kind of pedophile, why don’t we go to the kitchen and you whip us up one of your gourmet lunches? I’m starving. With full bellies, we can come back in here and read through all of these and figure out what’s going on.”
Marj created some amazing beef stroganoff out of leftovers she found in the fridge. She finished her glass of wine and elected not to have another. A half an hour later, our bellies sated, we went back into her room.
We perused the articles and arranged them in chronological order. There were six altogether, all boys abducted between the ages of eight and eleven, except for one girl. Only one of the boys had been found. The other five children had never been found. The articles ranged from thirty years ago to twenty-five years ago. Only one of the boys was from Snow Creek. The rest were from Grand Junction or other towns in the vicinity.
I cleared my throat. “So over a span of what looks like about five years, six kids were abducted, mostly boys. Only one was found—dead, starved, and strangled, showing signs of physical and sexual abuse.”
Marj nodded. “I wish I knew why Jonah was keeping these articles.”
“Do you think he might have known one of the kids? Thirty years ago he was what, about eight?”
Marj’s eyebrow
s shot up. “I bet that’s it. I bet he knew the guy from Snow Creek. But what was the boy’s name?” She searched through the articles. “Luke Walker, nearly twenty-six years ago. Joe would’ve been twelve. But it says this kid was nine when he was taken. That would’ve been Talon’s age.”
My heart jolted. “Do you think Talon knew him?”
“Maybe. That doesn’t explain why Jonah was keeping the articles, though.”
“You know what we have to do, don’t you?”
“What?” she asked.
“We have to ask Jonah.”
“Problem with that on two counts,” Marj said. “Remember how he reacted the last time we went to him demanding answers? And this time, I was snooping through his house, not just snooping through my dad’s old documents in the basement.”
“I know. But this is going to eat at both of us until we know what’s going on.”
“Let’s ask Ryan,” Marj said. “He’s so much more easygoing than Joe, and I know he’ll keep the secret that I was snooping.”
I had almost suggested asking Talon, but that would have been ridiculous. Talon was less than forthcoming about most things, so even if he knew anything about these articles, he would be as tightlipped as Jonah.
“I’ll text him right now,” Marj said, “and see if he can come over.”
I perused another one of the articles, this one about the one girl in the bunch. Raine Stevenson, aged nine. Never found. My blood ran cold.
About fifteen minutes later, a knock sounded on Marj’s door.
“I’m here,” Ryan called.
“Great, come on in,” Marj called back.
Ryan entered, looking like he’d just gotten out of the shower. His dark waves were plastered to his neck. “What’s got you all in an uproar?”
Marj gestured to the bed where we both still sat. “This.”
Ryan walked forward, and his eyes widened into dinner plates as he sat down on the bed and shuffled through the articles. “Shit. Where the hell did you find these?”
“Promise you won’t get mad if I tell you?”
Ryan shook his head. “You can’t ask me to make such a promise.”
“He’s right, Marj,” I said. “If you want to get to the bottom this, you’re going to have to risk angering some people.”