The drive back to Salt Lake was long and silent, Jem at the wheel, Tean slumped against the window.They stopped at Burger King because Jem couldn’t find a McDonald’s.The food helped, a little.Tean drank some Coke, and he drank more water, but he played with his double cheeseburger, lifting the bun, moving the pickles around, the kind of busy activity that he sometimes seemed to think would fool Jem into believing that he was, you know, actually eating some fucking food.Jem took it away from him before they hit Strawberry Reservoir.
They finally shook off the clouds somewhere around Heber, and after that, the sky was a blue that made his eyes hurt.When they hit traffic again on I-80, it brought a strange kind of relief.They were back in the real world now.Back with some Mormon Daddy in a minivan trying to exit across four lanes of traffic, and a kid in an Acura riding Jem’s ass, and a fortysomething woman trying to put on eyeliner while she drove stick.
“Did they tell you about that Rydel guy?”Jem asked.
The silence went on so long that he thought Tean might not answer, but then he said, “They asked me if I knew the name.They showed me a picture.”
“He’s Zeb’s brother.Or Zed.Whatever his name was, from the campground.”
Tean didn’t say anything.
“And there’s some kind of connection to that ranch.They thought we knew something about it.”
Tean’s head dipped, but that might have been the start-and-stop motion of the traffic.
“So,” Jem said, fighting to put some energy in his voice, “the way I see it, we were on the right track: we went to the campground, and when we started asking too many questions, that guy, Zeb, realized we were on to his brother.As soon as we left the campground with Katie, he must have known where we were going.He called Rydel, who was just getting back with that guy he killed, and Rydel drove over to the gully to get rid of us.Only he didn’t, and we found him.Well, we found the—” Jem almost saidbody.“—ranch.”
Tean took off his glasses and folded them in his hand.
“And Daniel must have tracked him back there somehow,” Jem said.“Remember how I told you I thought Daniel wasn’t telling us something?I bet this guy, Rydel, he has something on his van that helped Daniel figure out where he lived.Maybe he even had something for the UFO place or the ranch.And that’s how Daniel found him.”
“Can we not talk about this right now?”
“Tean, we’re really close.”
The doc shook his head.
Jem tried to keep his voice up.“Trevino said this guy, Zeb, gave up his brother.Well, Van Cleave said it, actually, but you know what I mean.And that can’t mean that Zeb turned him in or helped them find him, because they’re still looking for him.But I think if we talk to Zeb, put a little more pressure on him, we might get some better answers.He’s got to have some idea of where his brother is hiding.”
A horn brayed, long and loud.
“Daniel’s okay—” Jem began.
“Daniel is not okay!”Tean drew in a sharp breath as though he might shout again, but then he shivered, and when he spoke again, his voice was measured.“That man, whoever he is, has Daniel.We don’t know if Daniel is alive.We don’t know if he’s already at the bottom of a mine.We don’t know if he’s being tortured.He’s helpless, Jem.And he’s afraid.”In spite of Tean’s attempts at control, his voice slipped when he said, “For all we know, that man might be using those teeth on him.”
They inched forward.The sun hung ahead of them, so bright Jem had to drop the visor.
“Sorry,” Tean mumbled.
“Yeah, no, I—” Jem stopped.He propped his elbow on the door and rested his head in his hand.“I hope he’s okay.”
“Me too.”Tean didn’t say anything for long seconds as the traffic crawled forward.And then he said, “I thought if I could just—”
But he stopped.
And he didn’t finish.
They swung by Hannah’s house to pick up Scipio, who acted like he hadn’t seen them in years—jumping, whining, doing extra big wiggles.He wanted to ride on Jem’s lap when they got in the car, and nothing Jem could do or say, laughing and trying to lift the Lab and squirming as Scipio took advantage of the position to give extra licks, made any difference.It wasn’t until Tean snapped, “Scipio, move,” that the Lab hunkered down and slunk into the back seat.
When they got home, Tean went into the spare bedroom they’d turned into an office—and started making phone calls.The first one was to work, from what Jem could overhear, as Tean explained why he’d been out that day and why he hadn’t called in until now.The next one was to Lucy.That one was shorter.Tean started to apologize, but the words cut off before he was halfway through, and he didn’t speak again.
Jem took Scipio into the backyard to play fetch.When the Lab finally collapsed onto the lawn, panting happily, Jem sat on the porch and took out his phone and bounced it on his palm a few times.
What did they know?
Someone—maybe someone named Rydel Welker—was killing people.Men.Probably gay men.
Rydel Welker was Zeb Welker’s brother.