Speak for the Dead by Amy Tector

Author:Amy Tector
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CATE PICKED HER WAY ACROSS THE FIELD TO THE SHELTER OF THE trees. Six tents were arranged in a circle around a campfire. Wood, obviously purchased from somewhere else, was stacked up beside the slightly smoking firepit. A laundry line with sloganned T-shirts, bandannas, and a worn-looking pair of army pants fluttered in the wind. A small generator, currently off, explained how the protesters could power their all-important laptops and cell phones.

The yellow tent was a good-quality four-man from Mountain Equipment Co-Op. She undid the flap and crawled in. The musty warm smell of camping took her back to the summer of third grade when she and Jason, home for two months, had pitched a tent in the backyard. They spent every day holed up in there with comic books and purloined snacks.

Trinity was right; it did seem like Simon would be coming back. The tent was filled with his things: a backpack bursting with clothes, a pack of cards on the ground beside the air mattress, his phone charger sitting in one corner next to an expensive camera. Looking at all these items intensified Cate’s uneasiness. Why would Simon have left his stuff for almost a week? Surely, his disappearance and Molly’s death were connected. She hesitated for a moment. She had no legal right to search this tent, but that unsettled feeling persisted. If she found a clue to Thatcher’s location, she could at least find him and talk to him.

She started with the camera, but the battery was dead. Next, she dumped the contents of the backpack on the tent floor: a pair of jeans, a couple of T-shirts, a ripped pair of cargo shorts. No wallet, no secret diary, nothing of any use. She was stuffing the clothes back into the pack when she thought to check the pockets. She felt around the back pocket of his shorts and came across something. Her heart rate quickened, but it was only a lighter.

She lifted up the mattress, but there was nothing underneath. She checked the hiking boots by the tent door. Nothing in them either.

A jean jacket lay crumpled on the floor. She picked it up and shook it out. It was the same jacket he’d been wearing the day they’d found Molly’s body. It was covered in pins with political slogans and one cartoon monkey. This at least proved that he had returned to the tent after being questioned by Baker. The pockets were empty.

She looked around in frustration. There must be some clue to his whereabouts, but the tent held nothing but standard camping gear, mattress, flashlight, backpack.

Something was missing. Where was Simon’s sleeping bag? July days were hot, but nights could still get cool. Was it rolled up in a corner?

She didn’t locate it, but she hit the jackpot when she found a small wooden box tucked under a pair of beat-up rubber boots. It was deliberately hidden away, and must contain something useful. She sat on the mattress to open it. It was filled with rolling papers and crushed green leaves.

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