Hunted by the Moon

Vanishing Trails

✰Caitlin✰

The conference room at the precinct was cluttered with files, coffee cups, and a whiteboard filled with scribbled notes and red lines connecting names. I stared at Jonathan Swatch’s face – his college ID taped next to his autopsy report – and tapped my pen against the table.

"We are missing something," I muttered. "There has to be a connection we are not seeing," Stanley, who was seated across from me, let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"The only link we have between all the victims is that they are young. Some were taken at the college, some were taken from the streets. We don’t have a cause of death. We don’t have any physical evidence. We have nothing,” Stanely remarked sourly, and I sighed. This case was a damn nightmare, and I flipped open my notepad.

“Well, let’s start with…Robert Jones – Jonathan’s roommate,” I said. Stanely nodded and within minutes we were in the car and on our way to the college.

“How do you want to do this? Good cop vs bad cop?” I rolled my eyes at Stanely’s attempt at a joke. Hunting down Robert Jones wasn’t as hard as one would expect. The young man was between classes and the Principal was more than happy to accommodate us. Thankfully. We were led to Robert’s dorm room and as soon as we stepped inside, the scent of old pizza and laundry detergent made my stomach twist with unease. Robert looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and his hair was messy.

“I already told the other officers everything I know,” Robert said as he waved his hand around.

“That’s fine, Robert, but why don’t you tell us about it,” I urged. He actually rolled his eyes but then he nodded.

“We left here around six…but we weren’t there long when Jonathan came to me and told me he wasn’t feeling very good. It was about…nine or so. I wasn’t ready to leave, but he told me not to worry about it. He was going to walk back here with a few buddies from hockey,”

“Do you know who he walked with?” Stanely asked and Robert nodded slowly.

“Jonathan and I have always had each other’s backs…so, yeah, I walked him to the door. Judith, Brian, and Joel were waiting for him,”

“Do you know their last names?” I asked as I nodded over at Stanely to take notes.

“Judith Tucker. Brian Peters and Joel Matthews,” Robert said, and Stanely hurriedly wrote down their names. However, I couldn’t help but feel something tugging at my gut.

“Did anything seem weird to you before they left?” I asked.

“No. Jonathan was pretty stressed out, and he wasn’t really feeling up to partying. I mean we do have midterms coming up,”

“What about the other three?” Stanley asked.

“Brian was pretty hammered. Joel was fine, same as Jonathan. Judith wasn’t sober, but she wasn’t drunk,” Robert said.

“Ok, well…if you think of anything else, please let us know,” I said as I handed him a business card. As we left his dorm, the Principal led us to Judith Tucker’s room. When she answered the door, her eyes were red, and her face was pale and blotchy.

“Hi, Judith. Can we come in?” I asked as I stepped forward. Judith hesitated, but then she stepped back to let us in. “I know you have…” it suddenly dawned on me why Brian and Joel seemed familiar. They had also been reported as missing. All three of them had disappeared the same night. I suddenly felt like I wasn’t doing my job right and I silently scolded myself for not having all the facts. “Sorry, um…I know you have already spoken to the police, but would you mind going over that night with us again?”

“I mean…sure…we left the party, and it was…I mean, it was normal. Nothing weird or anything like that. Brian was really drunk, so Jonathan and Joel were helping him. They walked me home and Joel promised to call me as soon as he got to his dorm. He never did. I mean, I was pretty pissed that he hadn’t called, but I figured he was dealing with Brian…but then…yeah,” she abruptly stopped as a fresh wave of tears fell. What was the connection? What was I missing?

“Do you remember anything out of the ordinary?” I asked as I carefully looked around her room. I spotted several pictures of her and some guy. Clearly, they were a couple, and I wondered if she was Joel’s girlfriend.

“I didn’t see anything, but the next day, Sue said she saw a van parked on the street by the boy's dorms,” she said, and I glanced over at Stanely. “I don’t know anything about it, sorry,” Judith added. “I can’t believe Jonathan is gone…do you think Brian and Joel are ok?” she then questioned.

“We don’t know yet,” I admitted softly. “Do you know Sue’s last name?”

“Oh, yeah, Sue Walker. She will be home in about ten minutes if you want to wait,” Judith offered tiredly. Stanely and I excused ourselves for a minute and stepped outside. The Principal offered his apologies before he left us to continue our investigation alone.

“f**k, I forgot about Brian and Joel,” Stanely muttered as soon as we were alone – or alone as we could be while standing outside a dormitory building.

“Same,” I said as I looked around. The boy's and girl's dormitories weren’t far from each other, but that didn’t mean anything. The boys had clearly been taken on their side of the campus. Was the van somehow involved?

“Look,” Stanely remarked as he pointed out a camera. I nodded in acknowledgment. We would have to get a copy of the security footage for that night. “Sounds like we may have to talk to Kathy and Jack,”

“Ugh,” I groaned even though I agreed with him. Kathy and Jack were handling the missing person's case. But now it was extremely clear that there was a link. While we had assumed so before, this was the first time we could put two and two together.

“Hello?” a soft voice called out, and we spun around to see a small girl coming toward us. “Judith texted,”

“Oh, you must be Sue. She mentioned that you saw a van that night…what can you tell us about it?” I asked.

“It was parked over there,” she said as she pointed out where the van had been parked. “It was pretty weird…not going to lie,”

“What was weird about it?” I asked.

“Well, for starters, I haven’t seen it before. But…it was just parked in the wrong spot. Most of us that have cars use the student parking bay…this van was just…parked alongside the road,” she explained.

“Ok, thank you, Sue,”

“Please find them,” she said before she hurried inside. Stanely and I looked at each other before we went to hunt down the security officer so that we could get a look at the footage from that night. All I could do was hope that we could see something useful.