December Park(68)

“A dispatcher,” Scott and I said at the same time.

“Yeah. So the person staying at home base can have one of the walkie-talkies.”

“Who gets the other one?” I asked. “We’ve only got two.”

“My sister has some toy ones at home,” Peter said. “They work just like real walkie-talkies, though maybe they don’t go as far.”

“You can bring those tomorrow,” Adrian said.

“So who stays back at home base?” I said.

“Do we have to call it ‘home base’?” Michael groaned. “Can’t we come up with something cooler? Like Zanzibar Outpost or Ice Station Zero or something like that?”

“What about Echo Base?” Peter suggested.

Michael’s bright eyes widened. “Yes! That’s perfect.”

“What’s Echo Base?” Adrian asked.

We all gaped at him.

“It’s the Rebel Alliance’s base on Hoth,” Peter explained. When Adrian’s confounded expression didn’t change, he added, “From The Empire Strikes Back.”

“Oh,” Adrian said, and it was obvious he didn’t know what Peter was talking about.

“It’s the second Star Wars movie,” I said. “Haven’t you ever seen it?”

Adrian shook his head.

“Holy shit, this is a travesty,” Michael wailed. “I don’t believe it.”

“Have you ever even heard of Star Wars?” Peter said.

“Sure,” Adrian said. “It’s spaceships and stuff, right?”

“Good Lord.” Michael moaned, holding his stomach. “The boy’s a caveman.”

“It’s cool,” I told Adrian. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got all three on videotape. You can come over and watch them sometime.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Michael blurted, “Darth Vader is Luke’s fa—”

“Shut up!” Peter, Scott, and I shouted. Then we all laughed.

Adrian stared at us as if we’d lost our minds.

“So Echo Base it is,” Scott said. “Who stays at the base first?”

I grabbed a longish twig off the ground, broke it into five pieces of varying sizes, then tucked the pieces into one fist so that just the tips of the sticks poked out. “Shortest stick stays back.”

They each picked a stick, leaving one in my palm. Peter had drawn the shortest. Adrian gave him one of the walkie-talkies.

“There’s one last thing,” Adrian said. “I came up with jobs for everyone, too. Something we can do on our own when we’re not down here in the woods.”

Michael looked skeptical. “Jobs?”

“Yeah,” Adrian said. “Like, Michael, you’ll be the listening tower.”

“Ironic title for a guy who never listens,” Peter joked.

Michael shot him a look, then turned to Adrian. “So what do I do?”

“Keep an ear out around town and at school for anything that sounds suspicious.”

“Like if I overhear someone talking about a stranger they saw at the park or something?”

Adrian nodded. “Exactly. And you’re good at talking to people, so maybe you can get them to tell you stuff, if you think it’s important. But that’s not all. You should come up with a list of possible suspects.”

“Oh, man,” Michael said, chomping at the bit, “how do I do that?”

“Deduction,” said Adrian. “Based on what you hear, you keep a list of potential suspects. When you have enough names on it, we’ll review it and see if we can add any names or maybe take some away. Then we can narrow it down to a few realistic suspects.”

“What about me?” said Scott.

“You’re the weapons guy.” He addressed us all now. “We have to be safe, to be able to protect ourselves. We’ll need weapons.”

“Yes,” Scott trumpeted. “That’s what I’ve been screaming about for months.”

Adrian nodded. “If we’re gonna hunt down a serial killer, we’re gonna need more than walkie-talkies and headphones.”

“What kind of weapons are we talking about?” I said.

“That’s up to Scott,” said Adrian.

“Blowtorches and chain saws for everyone,” Scott said, grinning from ear to ear.

“What’s my job?” asked Peter.

“Make a list of all the possible places in town where the killer could hide,” Adrian said. “Dangerous places, too, where we might stand a chance of running into him.”

“That’s a lot of places,” Peter said. “You’re talking about the whole city or just the local neighborhoods?”

“At least within the perimeter where the kids have gone missing,” Adrian said. “We need to pinpoint the locations where they disappeared as best we can and search around those areas.”

“How do we do that? The newspapers don’t give specifics.”

Adrian turned to me.

Oh, boy, I thought.

“That’ll be Angie’s job,” he said.

“Is it?” I retorted.

“You need to keep talking to your dad and get details about the missing kids that haven’t been in the newspapers,” he said. “If we can find out the specific places where the other kids went missing, it could help narrow down our search.”