"The others were all false prophets. You're the only one among the twelve."BR> Simon Gates "Revelations"
*****
Bethlehem Secondary School
Bethlehem, Ohio
Thursday, April 23
10:03 am
They sat in a semi-circle, seven boys on the cusp of adolescence, shoulders slumped in defiance, eyes rolling. Scully watched them through the window, only half listening to her partner explaining their purpose to Vice-Principal Vickers. They leaned back and forth among themselves, whispering, conferring perhaps on the details. These were they--the last people known to have seen Kevin Cryder, the ones he had left with from the ice cream stand only minutes before Nathan had shown up. They knew what had happened to Kevin and they held it under their tongues, the way oysters held pearls. She wanted to pry their jaws open and force the truth from their throats.
Mulder shook hands with the VP and came over to look through the window. She could see a ghost of him in the glass.
"Tell me again why we're questioning them together?" she asked. It had been his idea to lump them in a bunch rather than pull them each alone into a room and intimidate the hell out of them, which was what she had planned.
"Trust me, Scully."
"Humor me, Mulder."
He smiled grimly. "If we took them in one-by-one they'd shut up like clams. They'd stare at us and roll their eyes and they wouldn't say a damn thing until their parents got here and then they'd lie. If these kids know anything, they're under a lot of pressure to keep it quiet. If we keep them together, it's going to be Lord of the Flies in there in a second, and we get to listen in."
"You don't think they're in there getting their stories straight?"
"I don't think it'll matter. C'mon. Follow my lead."
The boys fell silent as they walked in, casting their eyes downward. Mulder took one of the industrial plastic chairs and swung it around, straddling it and crossing his arms over the back. Scully, who had a skirt on, and was too short to straddle a chair anyway, sat sideways, legs crossed at the ankle. She held a pad with their names on it.
"Andrew Richter?" she asked. A skinny kid with red hair looked up at her.
"Peter Marlowe." A tall boy with dark hair and a long nose scowled, but did not lift his head.
"Lawrence Wolf."
"Call me Larry," said the kid on the far side of the room. He was big for thirteen, and hairy. He reminded Scully of an ape rutting behind glass.
George Junger was the chubby boy picking his fingernails. Scully thought he might want to put one of those fingers up his nose if he thought no one could see.
Samuel Eidel was the one slouched with his arms over his chest, his mouth pursed in boredom and disgust.
Edward Brutus sat next to Samuel, closest to Scully, imitating, consciously or not, the posture of his talle fabric of his t-shirt.
"Now that we've got the names straight," Mulder said, "why don't you guys tell me what happened to Kevin Cryder?"
"What's your name?" Peter asked, eyes narrowing.
"What's her name?" Larry asked. Scully met his eyes and stared him down. Little pervert.
"I'm Agent Mulder; this is my partner Agent Scully."
"What's your real name?" Peter asked. "What's your first name?"
"What happened to Kevin?" Mulder asked, directing his question not to Peter, but to Edward Brutus, crouched little and dark in a yellow plastic chair. He wrinkled his nose, but did not answer.
"You," Mulder said, singling out George. "Did you tease Kevin Cryder?"
George glanced around at the other kids, shrugged. "Sure. We all did."
"Why?" Scully asked.
George smirked. "The kid was freak, man. He walked around here like he owned the place, when he didn't."
"His dad's in the nut house," Gerry added. "He's not really anyone's kid."
"Did you hurt him?" Mulder asked.
Gerry smiled. "Like I'd tell you."
Mulder smiled back, that predatory grin Scully recognized from so many interrogations, the grin that said "you don't have to tell me now, but you will tell, you will beg to tell."
"What did you do to him?" Mulder asked.
"Nothing he didn't deserve," Peter answered, folding his arms across his chest, and Scully felt her heart bump against her rib cage. What did these kids think Kevin deserved? She saw the looks go around the room again, the smug glances, the prideful sneers that said they had gotten something over on the adults, on the authorities.
"Where is Kevin now?" Mulder asked, turning again to Edward, who drew away at the question.
Scully leaned in. "Can't talk, Edward? Maybe I'll ask your friend Samuel, here. He's probably the smart one." She shifted her gaze to Samuel, who simply smirked at her.
"They don't talk unless I tell them to," Peter said. His voice was loud in the dead room.
"Really? You the boss here, Peter?" Mulder asked. "None of these other guys have anything to say about it?" He looked from face to face. "Andy?"
"He's not the boss," Andy said, pushing his hands into his pockets.
"Shut up, Andy."
"Fuck you, Peter, cock-eater. You're not, you know."
"Are you the boss, Andy?" Scully asked. The question brought a puff of laughter from George. She tilted her head toward him. "Yeah?"
"Andy's not the boss," he said, smiling at his own private joke.
"Shut up, Junger," Peter said again, louder.
"Neither are you," Ed retorted, leaning forward, elbows on his knees.
"I am when he's not around, so shut up!" Peter demanded.
Mulder and Scully sat back in unison, distancing themselves from the boys. This was what they had waited for--all they needed to do was stay out of the way.
"Said who?" Larry demanded. "I'll kick your ass, and then I'll be in charge."
"Try it," Peter hissed. "Just fucking try it."
"Shut up, both of you," Samuel said, not stirring from his slump. "Both you assholes know who's in charge--we all know it."
"Yeah," Ed added. "Mr. Chancey could kick both of you guy's asses, so shut up."
The only sound in the abrupt silence that followed was Samuel Eidel's soft curse.
Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance.
"So tell me what happened to Kevin Cryder," Mulder said, lacing his fingers together.
Scully suppressed a smile. If these kids thought they had given up a secret they probably had, but the way to get them to tell wasn't to ask about it, to let it go like it wasn't important. She wrote "Chancey" on her notepad, underneath the names of the boys, followed by a question mark. She wondered if this Mr. Chancey had a record.
"Nothing happened to him," Larry answered.
"Where is he?" Scully asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Peter responded. Scully squeezed her pen, but kept her face motionless. She was beginning to detest Peter Marlowe, even if he was only thirteen. He was the brightest, as far as she could determine, and he was hiding something.
"Yes, I would," she answered. "But you don't have to tell me."
"We know you were the last people to see Kevin Cryder," Mulder added. "We know that you left the ice cream stand with him. We found Kevin's blood on the pavement outside, and we found a shoe print in it. So, all we have to do is match that print to one of your shoes and we have probable cause to arrest one of you boys for kidnapping. Anyone care to guess how long after that you'll all be in trouble?" He smiled.
They were watching each other, glancing back and forth as if they were passing messages along invisible wires, but were not receiving them. Scully noted that Ed kept his head down, only peering sideways out of the corner of his eye. Weak link, she thought, and they all know it.
"If you know what happened to Kevin, you should tell us." She paused and then played a hunch. "It's all Mr. Chancey's fault, anyway. We know that."
Ed's head shot up, his eyes full of hope. "It is!" he cried. "Mr. Chancey made us do it. He said if we didn't he would punish us."
"Made you do what, Ed?" she asked, keeping her voice low and sweet under the cacophony of shouts from the boys. She opened her eyes wide at him, urging him to tell, although she wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him.
Ed hunched under the verbal onslaught from the other boys. Andrew Richter was actually up out of his chair, fists clenched at his side, yelling something about kicking the shit out of the little faggot. Scully stood and took Ed by the shoulder. His arm was thin and bony. Fragile. She wanted to twist it and she wanted to feel this again, feel Emily's tiny bones, Kevin's arm under her hand. She wanted to be grateful to this boy for telling, but all she felt was a mild distaste, a sour flavor in the back of her mouth.
"C'mon, Ed, let's go talk outside."
She urged him out the door, and into the hands of a waiting police officer. "Ed is willing to cooperate," she said. "Make sure that he's kept away from the other boys."
Mulder stepped up next to her as Edward Brutus was taken out of the office.
"I'm going to take the other kids down to the station," he murmured. "I think we'll get some more out of them now."
"You lied to them about the blood, Mulder."
"Yep." He smiled. "You gonna rat me out?"
"I'm going to follow up on this Mr. Chancey," Scully said, turning to face him. "I think he's the key."
He nodded. "I'll see if I can get an address out of one of them."
"Fine." She turned to leave, to get a phone book from a secretary, to get on the phone to the FBI database, to get away from the little monsters in that room masquerading as children. Mulder's voice on her name called her back.
"I think he's okay," he said.
She did her best to smile.
*****end 5/12*****
