"Nice work on those hurdles."

"Thanks."

"I used to play football myself."

For a few minutes, Jared talks about his football days. It makes it seem like any ordinary conversation, like any ordinary friendship. My big brother talking to me as he takes me home. Then he changes the topic without any hesitation.

"Any leads? Anything unusual going on?"

"Every day is unusual around here."

"Give me specifics."

There's still a hesitation and a doubt. I don't know why. I really don't.

But I tell him first about the passageway I found under the house. He listens and doesn't give away whether it's a surprise to him or not. I don't mention the creepy old man, because I've started to think I might not have seen him. I don't know. All I know is that I did discover a hidden passageway under our house.

"It was just like one I found in an old cabin above our house."

Jared nods.

"What are those? Who built them?"

"I don't know," he says in a matter-of-fact way. "I've heard rumors of such things but have never seen them myself. You said the tunnel you were in led out to the middle of a country road?"

"The middle of nowhere."

"How'd you get home?"

"I walked."

A lie. A simple lie. For some reason, I can't tell this guy the entire truth.

You have to trust someone, Chris. You have to or else you're never going to trust anyone.

"Did you tell your mom?"

"No."

"Good. Don't. Don't say anything until I'm able to check it out."

"I'm not going back down there."

"Did you see anything strange?"

Yeah, I saw Scrooge looking for the ghosts of Christmas but wandering around like a blind man.

"The whole thing is creepy," I say. "The fact that there's a secret passageway that leads into the bathroom. It makes me think-I'm wondering if people have been slipping in and out of our place."

He doesn't react to this. It doesn't seem like anything is going to surprise Jared.

"I found pictures," I tell him. "A camera with pictures of Uncle Robert. Many of them with a woman."

"What'd she look like?"

"She was blond. Pretty. Older."

"How old?"

"I don't know," I say. "My mom's age maybe. Maybe a little older."

Jared sighs.

"What? You know who she is?"

"Maybe."

"I was thinking-I mean, she didn't look like you."

He laughs. "If you're wondering if that's my mom, no. No way. She's out of the picture. That all you found?"

"Yeah."

Again with the lie.

Maybe if he gives me more to work with, more to believe, then I'll do the same for him.

"You see anything else at school? Any strange or weird things happen to you? Any calls or emails coming in? Anything?"

"Why do I feel like you're interrogating me?"

Jared slows the truck down and pulls to the side of the road. We're in winter darkness in the middle of the country.

"Listen, Chris. I don't know what it's going to take to get you to totally trust me, okay? There are reasons why I'm not telling you everything. Other people might want that information and might end up getting it from you. The more you can tell me, the more I can help you. The more I can keep you out of trouble."

"Who was the woman?"

"Her name is Heidi."

"What's she have to do with your dad?"

"I think they fell in love. And that's a problem. A big problem."

"How come?"

"Because she's married to Pastor Marsh. And whatever happened between her and my dad, it ended up with both of them missing."

"But I saw her. She's the one-she told me about what was going to happen to Jocelyn. She warned me and tried to get me to help."

"Chris, listen, okay? If you see her, you have to tell me. You have to let me know right away."

"Why?"

"Because I have a feeling she might know what happened to my father. She might even be the reason he's missing."

36. Maybe.

That night I try to find out what's on the zip drive that belonged to my uncle. But all I find are files that I can't open after an hour of trying. The next day, I find Newt and ask him if he's any good at computers.

"Why do people automatically think I'm good at computers and electronics?" he asks me, as if it's a question he's been asked a hundred times.

"Are you?"

"Well, yeah. Of course."

I shake my head. "Here. Take this home and see if you can do anything with it."

"It's an older model."

"It can't be that old."

"A couple of years at least."

"See why I asked you?"

"Whose is it?"

"You just tell me if you can open it, okay?"

"Did you steal this?"

"No. But make sure nobody steals it from you. Okay?"

He slips it into his pocket and walks away from me as if I've just given him drugs.

Maybe this zip drive holds all the information I need on this town. Maybe it has one of those "If you're reading this now, then ..." letters from my uncle.

The maybes remain with me in my classes and in my breaks and in the hallways and in the vast canyon of my mind.

I see Poe, but she still continues to ignore me.

Maybe she's with them and knew all along.

But that doesn't make sense. She suspected something was wrong when a guy she liked went missing the year before Jocelyn did.

Maybe that's when she went over to the dark side.

I try and tell myself that this isn't Star Wars and that there's no Darth Vader reeling me in. I already know who my father is, thank you very much. I don't need to scream No! as my father asks me to join him, because I've already been there and done that.

Maybe it's time to tell your father.

But I can't and won't. There are people out there to ask for help. The problem is they'll want proof. I have nothing. I have nothing but stories that seem made up by a new kid who's been nothing but a problem since he got into town.

Maybe she's still alive.

That question comes up daily and gets shot down right away. I saw Jocelyn there, dead and lifeless. She's gone. I know it.

In history, as Mr. Meiners smiles at me while most of the other students seem to be drifting off, I make a list of names.

DON'T TRUST: PASTOR MARSH.

SHERIFF WELLS.

KEVIN ROSS (MORON DEPUTY).

ANYBODY WITH A LAST NAME OF STAUNCH.

NOT SURE:.

MOM.

POE.

RACHEL (THOUGH SHE'S GONE, SO WHATEVER) RAY.

PROBABLY:.

NEWT.

JARED.

THE BLOND WOMAN (HEIDI??).

I glance at the list and see how pathetic it looks. I don't trust my own mother. My father doesn't even make the list. As for friends and family-nope. None are on it.

I decide to add one more name to the probably list. Just to make it even. Just to make it seem like I'm not a complete and utter loser.

Kelsey I don't know her any better than most of the people in this place. But it just seems like if there's someone I might be able to trust, it's the shy girl who blushes several times a period every art class.

I have to start somewhere.

This is where I'm starting.