“Well,” I scoffed. “It turns out they weren’t the upstanding citizens everyone thought they were. I wonder what other secrets the Weavers were hiding from everyone.”
5
Naomi
Despite the presence of cars in the driveways indicating that someone was most likely at home, I had trouble getting anyone to answer their doors. I wondered if anyone was simply wary of speaking to the police, but that didn’t make sense for this kind of neighborhood. In my experience, it was usually people from low-income areas who were hesitant to speak with law enforcement, while people from higher-income areas tended to be more receptive or, at the very least, want to gossip about what was going on.
I finally got lucky on the fourth door I tried at the house directly across the street from the Weavers. The woman who answered was small and a little nervous looking. She was wearing baggy clothes and had dark circles under her eyes, and I couldn’t help but think that she reminded me of Fiona.
“Hello, I’m Agent Patel with the Military Border Liaison Investigative Services,” I introduced myself. “We’re investigating a crime that occurred across the street. Could I speak to you for a moment?”
“The thing about the kid?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I thought it would be,” the woman replied. “Everyone’s heard about it by now. It doesn’t surprise me, to be honest, those people were freaks.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, a little concerned by her aggressive response.
“I mean, they were fake,” the woman frowned. “I’m Emily, by the way. And yeah, they were total phonies. Half the people around here are. They all pretend to be these picture-perfect, cookie-cutter couples. It’s all a load.”
“I see,” I nodded. “Can you give me any specifics?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “A couple of weeks ago, they sent me an invitation to a dinner party. I’m pretty sure it was a mistake since they don’t like me. I don’t fit into their little ‘perfect world’ narrative, you know? Anyway, I decided to go anyway since I knew it would tick them off, and I was right. You should have seen their faces when I showed up at their door with the invitation in hand. Anyway, they have the dinner party, everything’s boring as heck, but there was this weird vibe the whole time.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Emily shrugged. “You know how when two people have an inside joke you’re not a part of, you can tell they’re laughing about something only they know about, and you’re just sitting there like a jerk? That’s how it felt. Like almost everyone else at the table was in on this joke.”
“Almost everyone else?” I prompted.
“Yeah,” Emily replied. “There was this one other couple there. They just moved into the neighborhood recently. I could tell they felt it too because they kept looking over at me like, ‘what the heck is going on here?’ But anyway, the dinner’s going on, then suddenly we all hear this big crash like glass breaking and everyone goes completely silent.”
“What happened after that?” I asked. The more she explained, the more uneasy I felt about everything she was saying. It was clear that something insidious was going on involving more than just the Weavers.
“Mr. Weaver shot up from the table,” Emily answered. “Didn’t say anything, just took off running. Mrs. Weaver said something about neighborhood kids acting up again and left after him. After that, it was like someone had died. Everyone got super serious, and then we all just left.”
“You didn’t see or hear anything strange after that?” I asked.
“Nah, not really,” Emily shook her head. “Although I did think it was weird what Mrs. Weaver said about ‘neighborhood kids,’ cause there are no kids in this neighborhood. Unless you count that girl that you guys found, I’ve never seen or heard any kids playing around here.”
“I see,” I pursed my lips as I took in everything she’d just told me. “Thank you for your time. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Oh, wait,” Emily called as I was turning around to leave. “So, I can’t prove anything. But if I were you, I’d check out the house two doors down from the Weavers on the left. The Bradshaws’ house” She nodded toward the house in question.
“And why is that?” I asked.
“After the crash,” Emily began. “They were the ones who tried to distract everyone at the table. It was so obvious that they were trying to change the subject, and then they made us all leave through the back door. It was all so sketchy.”
“Thank you,” I replied as I turned to look at the house. “I’ll look into it.”
6
Junior
While Charlie and Naomi headed down into the cellar, I decided to check out the upstairs floor of the house. The Weavers had gotten Kamya from someone, and there was a good chance there would be some kind of record of the transaction on their phones or computers. I found both laptops and Mrs. Weaver’s phone in their bedroom and placed everything in my evidence bag. I couldn’t find Mr. Weaver’s phone, and now that I thought about it, Naomi had mentioned something about Kamya using it to call nine-one-one after she attacked the Weavers. If that was the case, it had most likely been taken by the police as evidence. I’d have to get it as soon as possible to give to Fiona. The faster she got the devices, the faster she’d be able to give us more information to go on, and time was of the essence if there were other children out there waiting for us to find them.
As I was getting ready to leave the bedroom, a pamphlet sitting on the dresser caught my eye. It was for an organization called “Hope for Children” and listed several numbers one
