Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [75]
“And your brother never said anything about what was going on out there?”
“Not a word. You know, my mother really believed Sierra had cleaned up her act. Afterward, we figured both boys had probably agreed not to tell Mom the truth, because they knew she would put an end to Ian’s visits out there.”
“So they got along really well, Ian and Zach?” Miranda asked.
“As far as I could tell. They were close in age, and there was a strong resemblance between them. People often thought they were brothers. I’m assuming they got along well. I spent as little time as possible with them,” Kendra explained. “After all, I was a college junior that summer. Adolescent boys were beneath my notice. Except for the second week that Zach was at our house, I barely saw them at all.”
“Let’s go back to early in the summer.” Adam glanced at a notebook upon which he’d obviously prepared some notes. “You had mentioned once that Ian had been having trouble in school that year.”
“Yes. He’d been defiant . . . his grades had been poor. He was in real danger of not being permitted to return in September.” Kendra rested her elbow on the arm of the sofa. “My mother was at the end of her rope. She’d told Ian she was sending him to some kind of boot camp instead of Arizona and he changed both his behavior and his attitude practically overnight. I think that was when we first realized just how much those weeks in Arizona with Zach meant to him.”
“What do you suppose the attraction was?” Miranda leaned forward. “What was it, do you think, that mattered so much to him?”
“I always thought it was the freedom. The hiking into the hills, the sleeping out under the stars. So different from life out here. And Ian was really into Native American artifacts. He had several things that he found in the hills, plus some items he bought with birthday money every summer.”
Kendra paused, then added, “As a matter of fact, that last summer, he’d taken quite a bit of cash with him. Zach had told him about an old man who lived in the hills who claimed to be a descendant of Cochise and who was getting ready to sell some of his ancestor’s things. Ian thought he’d be able to buy something really terrific—like a bow and the quiver that Cochise kept his arrows in. I gave him money to buy something since I’d been away on his birthday.”
“How much money did he have with him?”
“I don’t know. Whatever Mom gave him, plus his allowance, plus what I gave him.”
“A hundred dollars?”
“More than that, probably. I gave him fifty dollars toward the bow and quiver. Mom usually gave him spending money. And I have no idea how much of his own money he took.” Kendra looked at Adam. “Ian could well have had several hundred dollars with him.”
“None of it was ever found?”
“No,” she told him. “At least not that I know of. Of course, it could have all been in his backpack when they left for their camping trip.”
“So your cousin was here for a two-week visit after which time your mother put the two boys on a plane to Tucson,” Miranda reiterated. “How long were they there before they disappeared?”
“Less than a week,” Kendra told her. “Ian apparently was anxious to meet the old man and see what he had for sale. I think it was the fourth or fifth day that the boys set out on their hike.”
“The plan was to hike up into the hills, buy some things from this man, then hike back down? How long had they planned on being away?”
“Adam, from what I remember, my aunt said they left on a Tuesday morning. Early, like six or so. Before the heat of the day. They would have walked several miles to the foothills, then camped someplace overnight. I think we were told that the old man’s cabin was up in the hills someplace.”
“And no one saw them after they left the ranch?”
“No one. Except Edward Paul Webster,” Kendra said bitterly.
She paused, then added, “And Christopher Moss.”
“Who is Christopher Moss?” Adam asked.