214 Palmer Street(25)
“Sounds awful.”
“After we bought the house, I only went down there once and that was enough for me. Bert slipped on the stairs and nearly broke his neck. After that his back was never the same. Then when Kirk’s friends claimed it as their own, I worried about the usual things teenagers do when parents aren’t around. Once I went to call Kirk for dinner and I got a definite whiff of pot when I opened the door. After that I worried they were going to start a fire down there, get trapped, and die of smoke inhalation. Or burn alive. I tried to make a rule about no girls allowed, but as you can see, that happened anyway. Bert thought I was getting worked up for nothing, but it never left my mind. When Kirk and Gavin came in one day and said they wanted to fill it in with concrete, I was relieved.”
“Then you went ahead and filled it?”
“No. We looked into doing it that way.” She ran a finger over the edge of the page. “But it would have cost a fortune and the truck would have torn up the lawn. So one day Bert had the boys clean their stuff out of there, then he padlocked the door, and they covered it up.”
“With what?”
“Dirt. Bert bought bags of garden soil and put those boys to work. He said they were old enough to take care of it and he wasn’t going to strain his back.” Judy laughed. “I never saw Kirk so sweaty or red in the face. His clothes were wet by the time he was done.”
Sarah pursed her lips in thought. “I can’t really picture this. If the bomb shelter was underground, why did they need to cover it up?”
Judy nodded. “The metal door was flat but not quite level with the yard. Once they’d covered it with dirt, and the grass grew in, though, you’d never know it was there. Kirk took care of seeding and watering too. Did a good job.”
Sarah’s forehead furrowed in thought. “Why did they say they wanted it closed up?”
“Because it wasn’t the same without Jeremy there. I guess they outgrew it. And Gavin’s dad thought it was a hazard. He recommended we seal it up.”
“I see.”
Judy shrugged. “I didn’t care what their reasoning was. I was glad to be done with it.” She waved her hand as if whisking away a fly.
Sarah sat quietly, considering everything her mother-in-law had told her.
When Kirk came home from the car show they were definitely going to have a conversation. She wanted to know why he’d kept his friendship with Clarice from her, and just as importantly, why had he never mentioned the disappearance of one of his best friends? She hadn’t held back about anything in her life, thinking that there should be no secrets between a husband and wife. Unlike most of the guys she’d dated, he’d always been forthcoming about everything, telling her stories about his childhood, sharing opinions on everything from restaurants to employees. He’d answered every question she’d ever asked. Nothing seemed off limits between them. Her heart sank, realizing that Kirk hadn’t been completely honest with her.
Her mother-in-law cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to bring you down.” She smiled apologetically.
“Oh, no,” Sarah assured her. “I’ve found this very interesting.” She tapped one of the photos. “I see Gavin hasn’t changed much. Always with the weapons. Probably why he wound up in law enforcement.”
Judy leaned over to take a closer look. “I never noticed that before.” Her brow furrowed.
“I hope when they cleaned out the bomb shelter he remembered to take his knife.”
“It wasn’t his and it wasn’t a knife.” Judy’s voice became more serious. “It was a machete made of Damascus steel. Bert’s. Kirk borrowed it without permission and the boys lost it. Bert was furious. Gavin’s parents offered to pay for it, but we didn’t accept, of course. It had belonged to Bert’s dad. It couldn’t be replaced.”
A machete made of Damascus steel. Sarah felt a cold chill go up her spine. She swallowed a knot in her throat. “Did you ever find out what happened to it?”
“No. We heard varying stories about who had it last. I imagine one of those kids walked off with it and couldn’t bring themselves to admit it.” She sighed. “Live and learn, right? That’s how it is with kids. A hard lesson for all of us.”
SIXTEEN
After her conversation with Judy, Jeremy Bickley and his family were on Sarah’s mind. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a child with no clue of what had happened. How would a mother cope? The grief had to be crushing.
Besides feeling sympathy, she also found it puzzling. How was it that a young guy about to start his last year of high school just takes off and is never seen again? He had to go somewhere and in doing so, leave traces behind. No one just vanished. Judy seemed fairly accepting of the circumstances of Jeremy’s disappearance. The story played out in a believable manner, at least on the surface. It began with a drunken, abusive father who beat his children, or at least his son. The son finally has enough and takes off, leaving a note in the mailbox.
A note in the mailbox. The thought nagged at her. It was too close to the troubling note left in her own mailbox. Besides that, it was an odd way for a teenager to notify his family that he was leaving and starting a new life. Wouldn’t he have told his friends of his plan? She thought back to her own high school years. Friends were everything then, and in a case like this she imagined his friends would take him in, or at the very least give him money and drive him to the bus station.