Day 0: I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened

[Ezeze]

It’s a warm spring day in Normel, Nebraska. It’s a Saturday. And it has been six months since Stephanie Barre – known affectionately to her friends as ‘Steph’ – went missing, along with her boyfriend Hunter. She was sixteen, a Junior at the local high school. He was eighteen, a new recruit going through boot camp at the local airforce base. The perfunctory missing persons posters hung around town were starting to fade from the snow and the rain and the sunlight, and they haven’t been replaced. The police, Steph’s parents, and even command at the base all assume that Hunter washed out and deserted, and that he took Steph with him. The fact that a suitcase full of clothing disappeared from Steph’s room, and all of the personal articles Hunter had at the barracks, and about $500 from Steph’s parents’ bank account all disappeared at the same time seem to corroborate that theory.

Steph’s friend Kacey isn’t so sure. Steph and Hunter had only been dating for a couple of months before they disappeared and, frankly, Steph hadn’t seemed that serious about him. Maybe that was wishful thinking, though; Kacey certainly hadn’t liked him. He was an idiot – which Kacey could have put up with, if he didn’t also think he was a genius. But the police won’t take her seriously, and Steph’s parents are mostly just upset that Steph ran off before graduating high school. They can’t be convinced that their daughter might be in danger. No one is listening to her. No one except the ragtag little group of friends she’s put together.

Emily, who has clung to her in hope of friendship for the last two years ever since she started going to public school.

Jackson, the football player who has gone to the same school as her for ages and has had a crush on Steph for nearly as long.

And Cole, the new kid her grandfather has been pushing her to hang out with who has turned out to be helpful and weirdly OK with committing minor felonies.

The four of them have talked to just about everyone at the high school, including any faculty who would give them the time of day. To Hunter’s peers at the military academy (though none of his superiors will return a phone call). At one point they even got a phone number for Hunter’s parents in Florida. They seem to be the only other people taking any of this seriously, and Hunter’s father in particular was so kind and accommodating that Kacey couldn’t help but wonder how Hunter happened. But they are hamstrung in how much they can help by geography and the need to care for Hunter’s four younger siblings. They were at least able to confirm that they haven’t seen him, and nor had any of his friends they knew of still living in Florida.

This particular Saturday is important because it’s the day an envelope addressed to Kacey showed up in her family’s mailbox. It’s standard sized. Not postmarked. There is no stamp on it. The only word on the front is ‘Kacey’ – no last name, no address. Whoever wanted her to have this put it in that mailbox themselves. Inside is a letter scribbled on paper ripped from a spiral notebook, judging from the lines and the jagged left edge. The handwriting on it is cramped but neat and sightly slanted to the right in nondescript black ink.

Kacey

Meet me at the abandoned bus station on elm street at noon.

Tell no one

burn this letter once you've read it.

 

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey nods to herself as she reads the note, her face betraying nothing. After a long minute, she sits on her front step, pulls out her phone, and dials Cole.

 

"Emily! Hi, it's Kacey," she announces as soon as he picks up, her voice perhaps a little too loud and pitched to carry. "Look, something came up, so I can't make cheerleader practice at noon today. I'm going to need you to handle the squad. Okay, Emily? For the routines, initially do Bach's Unfinished Symphony and Electro Lumbar Motion. Did you get that? Bach's Unfinished Symphony and Electro Lumbar Motion. Initially. Write it down if you need to. See you at noon. Or actually, I guess I won't see you, because I have this thing I need to go to. Anyway, just lead the squad and observe. You got all that? Okay, babe. Hasta lasagna, don't get any on ya!" Her teeth clench only slightly as she forces herself to say the cutesy goodbye.

 

The she goes back into her house. Without breaking stride, she puts the letter back into the envelope and then into a pocket, she grabs a notebook out of her bag by the door and tears out a sheet of ... history notes, apparently. Tossing the notebook aside, she folds up the page and goes into the back yard.

 

Front door to back door, the process takes maybe ten seconds.

 

A half a minute later, Kacey watches paper ash flutter in the updrafts from the gas grill. Anyone watching would have just seen her do all the right things. Now all that was left was to head to the meeting and hope that Cole got the message.

[Mister Doctor]

Cole looked at his phone for a long, long moment. That was, perhaps, the strangest conversation he had over the phone. 'Intense' did not cover Kacey. The girl was on some other level and Cole often considered whether she was quietly going off her rocker. Still, he reached into his bag and grabbed a pen, scrawling out 'Back's Unfinished Simphony' and 'Electro Lumber Motion' on his forearm.

Lowering himself from tree branch to tree branch, eventually his boots hit the soil and he yawned, scratching the back of his neck. He would have to find Emily next. She might have a better idea of what weird spy-stuff Kacey was on about now. Knowing Kacey, she probably wanted Jackson there too. He was smart enough to realize that noon seemed to be some kind of deadline so he had better get moving now.

Opening up a group text with the rest of Kacey's little band of minions, Cole laboriously typed out.

kacey wants something.

where you at emily.

jackson meet up with us.

[Knave]

The dots that indicate Jackson is writing something appear. Then disappear. Then appear again briefly and vanish again. Then back for a really long time.

Finally a short message appears on Cole's screen.

Wrkin 2day. Wen + were. Bring beers?

Edited February 12, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Ozma]

Emily's response appears on Cole's phone, near simultaneously with the original message. Emily must have been holding her phone when he sent the text out.

At home, studying. Where does she want to meet?

Emily's writing was as prim as the cheerleader herself was. She never used shorthand. As Jackson's text comes in, Emily begins typing again.

We are underage. 

[Mister Doctor]

no beers.

its kasey stuff. so serious.

probably.

meet outside emily's place.

don't want parents giving me weird looks again.

Cole got his bicycle from where it sat at the base of the tree he had been dozing in and set off towards Emily's address. He knew better than to try and walk in boldly as the last time he had introduced himself to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, he had gotten 'the look'. They were not overtly hostile, but Cole knew they were seriously questioning just why he knew Emily and if the gossip that crept around town had any weight to it. In some ways it was worse than being hostile.

Stopping at the end of the block, Cole pulled his phone back out and shot the group one more text.

out by the stop sign.

[Ozma]

Cole gets a simple text confirming Emily had gotten the message.

The Anderson household was a charming two-story mid-century home with brick and white paneling. They even had a white picket fence that wrapped around the house and separated it from its neighbors. Cole sees Emily open the front door, then turn and call back inside - presumably informing her parents she was going outside. She shuts the door carefully and crosses the path to the front gate, unlatches it, and carefully closes it behind her. 

"You could have come in while we wait for Jackson." Her tone isn't accusatory. Over Emily's shoulder Cole can see Mr. Anderson's head by the living room window, what looks like the Saturday morning paper unfurled in front of him. Not looking at Cole - that would be uncouth of course - but most likely acutely aware of where his daughter was.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Ozma (see edit history)

[Knave]

Jackson idles the engine while he reads the exchange a few times. He slowly drafts; Depends wot u talkin about;)  Then hits backspace until it disappears. Stupid. He considers for a while. Nebraksa is a winter wheat state, and with it getting hotter and there being not much water, he was supposed to be checking irrigation for leaks. But... it wasn't the sort of job where someone could easily tell if it had been done or not done. He'd say he found a couple, be vague. Then when he came out to fix it, he'd find them for real. Or not, didn't really matter

1hr

Edited February 13, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Mister Doctor]

As usual, Cole found properly articulating just why he did not want to come in as difficult as climbing a mountain. So he switched to his default of giving a noncommittal shrug and immediately deflecting.

"Kacey called me up, n' talked at me like I was you and planned out a cheerleading practice. Didn't seem to listen to anything I said," Cole said and rolled up his sleeve to reveal where he had scrawled 'Back's Unfinished Simphony' and 'Electro Lumber Motion' on his arm. "She said to practice these routines first... was really insistent on that part and that she had somewhere to be around noon. I think she was trying to say something without saying it, like she was around someone she couldn't talk freely in front of."

[Knave]

A loud backfire presages Jackson's arrival on the Anderson street; the rust-eaten pickup was definitely not generating as much power as it used to. He pulls up beside the odd couple, one prim and proper in her Sunday best every day, the other one looking like he had been sleeping in a tree, both now gently wreathed in a somewhat excessive amount of untaxed dyed diesel fumes. He rolls down the window and listens to Cole explain the situation.

"Sounds sketchy as hell. Where's she now? She might be in trouble, guys."

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Ozma]

Emily watches Jackson arrive without comment, though as always she was a little sad at the state of his vehicle. She felt it would hurt his pride too much to offer potential solutions for it though, and instead keeps talking to Cole.

"I think you should tell me exactly what Kacey said on the phone, since that sounds like a coded message." She reaches out and grabs Cole's arm, pulling him closer so she can study what he'd written down carefully. 

[Knave]

Jackson watches the two reading Cole's arm, totally nonplussed. 

He texts Kacey

Where r u. Cole being wierd about it. I can pick u up? 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey checks her phone when it bings, then takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of her nose.

 

She writes back,

The number you have texted is temporarily out of service.

-AT&T Customer Relations Department

 

With a few button presses, she sets her phone to airplane mode.

[Knave]

"Whoa guys look at this. That's not right. I reckon she's in trouble maybe. Let's go find her!" He revs the engine impatiently.

[Mister Doctor]

Cole tensed up considerably when Emily put her hands on him. He hardly seemed to be breathing. Some of it might have been a girl suddenly entering his personal space without warning but he felt more like he was resisting the urge to pull away until she had had a chance to look at his arm.

When he could finally extricate himself, he clambered into Jackson's truck as quickly as possible and laid out the one-sided conversation that Kacey had had with him as best as he could remember.