Chapter Thirteen
"Yea, John is walking Sam all over the place. I know my dog." Autumn tried to sound authoritative. "Now, are they back or not?"
"No. What happened back there?" Athena asked changing the subject.
"He walked in on me changing." Autumn said with a shrug slumping down into one of the arm chairs sitting I the living room.
"You're messed up."
"I know, that's why you love me." Autumn smirked.
"What do you think Mom and Dad would think of where we are?" Athena asked sitting pretzel legged on the couch folding her clothes and placing them back in her bag.
"I think Dad would be pissed off that we're sharing a motel room with two bachelors, and Mom would be impressed that we're being so grown up about it. But they're both dead, and I don't want any damsel in distress moments on this trip so keep your mouth shut about them."
"Knock. Knock." Sam opened the door and John came bounding in the room in front of him.
"John-Boy, how's abouts we take another sweep of the park?" Autumn asked the dog who ran straight back to the door. "Thanks, though Sammy, for walking him." Sam shrugged.
"Not a problem." Autumn hooked the dog back to his leash and headed back out the door leaving Sam and Athena alone in the living room to recap.
"So…" Sam began.
"So…?" Athena said putting her last pair of jeans into her bag.
"So, while I was gone; did you guys figure anything else out?"
"Nope. Dean took a shower, Autty got dressed in Dean's room, Dean walked in on her, blah, blah, blah. No one's really thought much about it I guess."
"Where's Dean now?"
"I think he's in his room getting dressed. Why?"
"I was just wondering," Sam sat down next to Athena on the couch. "is it just me, or are things awkward between us?"
"What kind of awkward? There's lots of kinds. Just breaking up and seeing each other on the street, seeing your ex with another person, talking and then everything go silent, I could go on and on."
"You know what I mean."
"Sam,"
"Athena…"
"Can we discuss this later? We've got a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. More and more kids are going to be put into this state of shock if we don't do anything about it. Look, we've got to find a pattern or something."
"Only two kids have been attacked so far. There can't really be a pattern, and if so, we can't tell it yet."
"Sure we can." Dean said coming in and dropping in the arm chair Autumn had occupied minutes before. "Where'd Autty go?"
"She ran out. So have you an idea?" Athena answered.
"It's the boogeyman. He was invented to scare kids, so these kids have something scarier in their pasts than most." Dean said tossing the door a glance as if he expected Autumn to walk back in.
"Alright, so what's wrong with these kids?" Sam asked.
"I don't know, but we can find out." Athena stood up grabbed her purse and pulled out a memo pad and pen. "Autty, we're at the library. Come see us if you like. Kill ya later, Athena" Athena read aloud as she wrote the note. "Let's go boys." she said sitting the memo pad on the table where Autumn kept the dog leash.
"Kill ya later?" Sam repeated skeptically.
"Before Autumn went to college we had a huge fight and she said she was going to kill me if I tried to run away again. I tried to run away because I didn't want her to leave me. We made up a few weeks later but e-mails, letters, phone calls, we end them all with 'kill ya later'. It's like a running joke." Athena explained. Dean and Sam shared a look that didn't last more than a split second but they both understood Athena not wanting her older sister to leave. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go."
Dean went straight for his car but Athena drew him away telling him to follow her. She led them up this street and down another. Three blocks away in the heart of town, was the library. They went in and set to their research. They were lucky. Two kids a seven year old and an eight year old don't make it in the papers too much. A class photo here, quick mention in an Obit there, nothing much at all.
"Hey, guys." Dean and Sam looked over to Athena who was at the computer between them. "Look what I found." the boys scooted closer to her to read the screen.
"July 31st, at Happy Duckies Day Camp started out like any other day. The children piled out of minivans and tackled their finger paints, and jungle gyms. But Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs didn't know when they dropped their son, Michael, off that morning that it would be the last time they would see his sweet face. Little Michael Jacobs wandered off and was missing for three hours, when Grace Summers, Madeline and Kenny Fingal, and Jonathan Smitts found the boys beaten bloody body. His uncle, George Jacobs is pleading guilty for the boy's murder." the three read silently.
"What do you think? Is that enough to scare a little kid?" Athena asked her eyes glued to the screen where the boy's school picture was next to a picture of the crime scene.
"Sure as hell would have scared me at their age." Dean offered.
"Print it I'll put the kids names in the computer see if I can't find where they live." Sam said rolling himself back in front of his monitor. Athena clicked print and went to pay for her copy. Dean entered Boogeyman into the search just so he looked like he was doing something while Sam got addresses . It took another twenty minutes and they were walking out as Autumn walked in.
"You find what you were after?" she asked re-braiding her hair as they walked.
"Yea, the two that have already been spooked and a couple of others found a boy dead." Athena said folding the copies and stuffing them in her pocket.
"Chink in the armor, theory?" Autumn asked.
"Pretty much." Dean confirmed.
"So how many kids we have left to go to the loony bin?" Autumn continued her integration, ignoring the look of a passing elderly woman.
"Two, and they're twins from what I saw." Sam answered.
"Sounds like an easy case, then. Just got to figure out when he'll strike."
"We've got the papers at home. I think the attacks are about a week apart. So we might have a few days before we can do anything at all." Athena said giving Autumn a conspirator's grin.
"Let's just go home and check the dates before we go planning any toilet papering sprees or eggings."
"You two wouldn't do that." Dean said sarcastically.
"Come on. We're small town backwoods we're total angels." Athena's voice dripped with sweetness.
"Says the girl the built a potato launcher for science fair, then used it to TP old man Wilken's place." Autumn said just loud enough for Sam, who was walking next to her, to hear.
It was a fifteen minute walk back to the motel, after that it took Athena another ten minutes to find the correct clippings from the mess she called an organized notebook. The quickly confirmed that it was a week between the frights. Jonathan had been scared Saturday, they'd arrived in town Monday morning, which gave them three days to wait. It took them all of two seconds to come to the conclusion that in that time they would have to find a reason to be in the house that night.
"Something'll come to us." Autumn reassured as she paced back and forth. John was at her heels making the small living room seem even smaller.
"We've got a few days and you think better when your not thinking, plus you promised our dear agent that you'd have the next book ready to meet the editor by the end of the month." Athena said thrusting their shared laptop in her sister's arms.
"Fine, I'll go write another adventure for little Joey and Chris. But what about the rest of you?" Autumn asked.
"I was thinking maybe rent a movie, bag of popcorn, and couple of beers. You know I don't do the thinking." Athena answered.
