Page 38 of Thunder Road

The man suddenly seemed to realize his story could be taken the wrong way. “I didn’t do nothin’,” he protested. “I swear to god, I didn’t make it happen.”

Vic held up both hands, palms out, in a gesture of peace. “I believe you. I just want to hear about what you saw. Don’t add anything or take anything away. But first, I need to read you your rights.”

Once Vic finished with the Miranda warning, he sat across from the drunk. Ross hung out in a corner of the room where he could help if the man got agitated.

“What’s your name?”

“Jay.”

“Alright, Jay. Who disappeared?”

“My buddy, Don Cutter.”

“Can you tell me what Don was doing right before he disappeared?” Vic asked.

Jay looked around nervously. “Am I in trouble?”

“You were brought in for being drunk in public. You aren’t in trouble about Don.”

“Okay. Look, Don and me, we’ve been friends for a long, long time. We party together a lot, look out for each other. Know what I mean?” Jay made sense even though his voice had a blur of beer to it.

“We walked outside the club to get some air. We were hanging around the back steps, and Don gets a phone call. He put up a finger to tell me to stick around and walked a few steps away. I’m watching him talk on his phone, and then—poof. He just disappears.”

“When you say he disappeared—” Vic started.

“I mean he fuckin’ disappeared!” Jay roared. “He was standing there, talking on his phone, and then—beam me up, Scotty—he’s gone. I grabbed Jeremy and we walked all around the lot. I thought he might be pranking me, but that wasn’t really his style. His phone was right there on the ground, broke the screen when he dropped it. The call was still live. He wouldn’t have done that for a joke. You know what phones cost?”

“So you and your friend looked outside—could he have slipped past and gone back into the club?” Vic asked.

Jay ran his free hand through his long, tangled hair. “We looked. Asked everyone. Got the DJ to make an announcement. No one saw him again.”

“Did he manage to go home on his own?” Vic didn’t believe Don left voluntarily, but he had to explore the options.

“That’s where Jeremy and I went next, but he wasn’t at his place. We called our friends. No luck.”

“Was Don with you all night up to that point? Was he hanging around anyone you didn’t know?” Vic asked.

“He was with us. When he went to get a beer, he talked to the bartender and a couple of guys who were at the bar, and then he came back to our gang,” Jay replied.

“Was Don going through a rough time?” Vic pressed.

“His mom was real sick, and he just broke up with his girlfriend,” Jay said. “We were all trying to cheer him up.”

“The guys at the bar, were they still there after Don wasn’t?”

Jay thought for a moment. “I wasn’t paying them a whole lot of attention, but I think that one of them wasn’t around at the end, the tall one. I was focused on finding Don.”

“Can you state for the record Don’s name, phone number, and address? We’ll send a team to check his apartment,” Vic requested. Jay complied, and Vic signaled for the recording to stop.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Vic said. “I hope he turns up okay.” Vic felt certain that the troll had taken Don. He felt sorry for Jay, who looked truly miserable.

“Come on, let’s get you settled so you can sleep it off.” Ross walked Jay to his cell.

Vic put in a good word for him on account of his cooperation.

If Simon’s theory is right about how often the troll can make someone disappear, this resets the counter to one. Useful to know.

“I’ll get Simon to stop by and examine the bell tomorrow,” Vic said when he and Ross returned to their office to wrap up for the night. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t have some ideas about the witch who made the bell. If she’s not still around, she might have a successor.”

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