The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

"But you think they knew something?"

"Oh, yeah. Half of them were drinking or taking drugs within weeks of Young's disappearance."

"How many kids we talking about?"

"Seven. They were good kids at heart, but a little wild. They tended to egg each other on when in a group situation."

And that was when a lot of bad things had happened. Peer pressure could be an incredibly powerful thing, especially when you were a teenager and trying too hard to fit in. As I suspected Young might have been. "What do you think might have happened?"

"Probably an initiation gone wrong. We had a gang problem at the time - most of the kids were in one, except for a couple of the wolf cubs. These seven represented the rowdiest of them."

"So initiations were common, as well?"

"Hell, yeah. Usually it was something simple like stealing a street sign or getting their head flushed down the toilet, but Harvey's mob believed in testing the strength and commitment of their inductees."

"How?"

"We had one kid crack his head open with a rock. Apparently he'd been told to hold it above his head for several hours - starting at noon, in midsummer."

"They sound like they were a bunch of charmers." And if that was a sample of their stunts, then it wasn't hard to imagine them slipping into more testing - and more dangerous tasks. "Who's this Harvey you mentioned?"

"He was the gang's leader. A real tough nut, with a mean streak a mile wide. He definitely didn't have a heart of gold."

"What happened to him?"

"He was found in the bush not far from where Aron Young was last seen. He'd been dead a few days by the time his body was discovered and the animals had gotten to him. His guts had been eaten away."

A chill ran through me. Bhutas fed on the intestines of the dead, and it seemed a little too coincidental that the man in charge of the gang just happened to be found that way. So why didn't he kill Denny back then? Or Ivan? Or even Cherry Barnes? Why wait until now?

"What did the coroner say?"

"There was a large contusion on the side of his head, but there was no indication of a struggle or other injuries. The coroner said he probably slipped and smacked his head open, and died as a result of blood loss and exposure."

And I was betting the blood loss had more to do with his guts being munched on than any head wound. "Time of death?"

"Ten o'clock, give or take an hour."

Bhutas could walk in daylight, so it definitely wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that Young was behind Harvey's death. "How soon after Harvey's death did Young's parents move out of town?"

"You're not thinking they were involved, are you?"

"No. Just curious."

He paused, and in the background a kettle whistled. "It wouldn't have been more than a week or so afterward that their house went up for sale. We did question them, by the way, before we got the coroner's report. They both had watertight alibis for the day of his death."

Of that I had no doubt. It was their son who wouldn't have, I bet.

So were they responsible for stopping Young's rampage before he could even fully begin it? Was he the reason behind their sudden decision to move? "Where exactly was Harvey's body found? We may need to go up there and have a look at the area."

"We didn't miss anything." His voice had sharpened slightly.

"I'm not saying you did, Mr. Mayberry. We just have new evidence about Young's disappearance, and it may help us understand it better if we see the area."

"Oh," he said, sounding mollified. "He was found in Historical Park, near where the gang used to meet. It was a clearing surrounded by granite outcrops and black cypress, which made it something of a natural amphitheater."

"You can't give me anything more direct than that?"

"Well, it was past the old powder magazine building, down near Spring Creek. You'll know it when you see it."