After locating the yearbook, the first thing I did was look up each teen on the page that featured his individual photo. Zane was a good-looking kid with an athletic build. He had a nice smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes but based on the image portrayed, I was willing to bet he was popular with the girls. The online edition of the yearbook contained links you could click on that took you to other photos and mentions of a student in the yearbook. Zane had a lot of links associated with his photo. Most of the links led to photos of the various athletic teams he participated in, but there were also casual photos of him at a school dance, a Friday night bonfire, and a fundraising dinner for the booster club.
Kalen was a tall kid with a mop of dark hair and a long scar on his cheek. He only had a few links to click on, which included a link to the page featuring the wrestling team and a link to a group photo taken at the high school auto shop.
Trevor was short and skinny. He had blond hair, a thin face, and serious-looking glasses. Trevor’s “home page” had more links than Kalen’s but less than Zane’s. I clicked all the links to find that Trevor had memberships in a variety of academic clubs and organizations. I remembered that he was super smart, so I supposed that wasn’t surprising.
By the time I’d finished looking through the yearbook, it was time to meet up with Jemma, so I turned my computer off and headed in that direction.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “I got my project for work completed, and I managed to pull cell phone records for all three boys.”
“And? Did you find any phone numbers the three had in common?”
“Just one. Underground Comics. Underground Comics is a comic book and video game store over on Edmonton Street. It’s popular with a lot of high school-aged kids as well as quite a few adults, so it’s not surprising that all three boys might have spent time there. Still, it is a lead, so I figured we could stop by after we speak to Artie.”
“So you were able to get ahold of Artie?” I asked.
She nodded. “Artie has a full day planned today, but he said that if we want to ask him some questions, we should meet him at the school at noon right when he gets out. He said he’d wait for us on the bleachers located at the football field.”
I glanced at my watch. It was already after eleven. “I guess we should head there first. If Artie doesn’t know anything and the comic book and video game store turns out to be a dead-end, I guess we can take a second look at the phone logs this afternoon.”
By the time Jemma freshened up a bit and grabbed her bag, it was time to head to the high school. Jemma volunteered to drive since she knew where everything was. I really appreciated the way Jemma was always willing to drop everything and help me. I’d offer to buy her lunch if she had time, but I supposed I’d have to wait and see how the afternoon went. I needed to be at the office by three o’clock, but that should still leave us time to eat unless Artie had news that provided an additional clue.
As he said he would be, Artie was waiting for us on the bleachers when Jemma and I arrived.
“Thanks for taking the time to meet with us,” Jemma said to the tall boy with broad shoulders and sandy blond hair.
“If I can help you find Zane, I’m happy to do whatever is needed.”
“When we spoke before, Zane’s paddleboard had been found, but word about the other missing boys wasn’t known yet. Now that you know that Zane, Kalen, and Trevor all turned up missing over the same three-day period, have you thought of anything else that might help us figure out what might be going on?” Jemma asked.
Artie swiveled his mouth to the right. He narrowed his gaze and then spoke. “There is something. I’m not sure if it’s important, but after Kalen went missing, it occurred to me that I’d seen Zane and Kalen together a couple weeks ago.”
“At school?” Jemma asked.
He shook his head. “No, in town. They were standing in front of Underground Comics talking. I was in the car with my mom. We were on our way home from a dentist appointment, so I didn’t talk to them, but I did think it was sort of odd. Zane and Kalen used to be friends back when Kalen was still on the football team, but then Kalen decided to quit sports and focus on cars. I was sort of surprised when Kalen announced he wasn’t going to do football this year, but since his dad is really into cars, I guess I sort of get it.”
“Is Kalen’s dad is a mechanic?” I asked.
“No. Not by profession, but Kalen’s dad likes to restore old classics, and working in the garage on his latest project was something Kalen and his dad enjoyed doing together. After his dad left, Kalen started hanging out with the kids who hang out at the high school auto shop, and he stopped hanging out with the guys from the football team.”
“So Kalen has always been interested in cars, but he really only tinkered with his father until his father left, and then he quit his other after-school activities and started hanging out with the car guys full time?”
Artie nodded. “Zane was pretty mad when Kalen quit football. The two worked well together, and Kalen leaving really hurt
