The Barn Run - Part 2

My bullshit meter hit overload. “If they knew that, then why isn’t she locked up?”

Jojo shrugged. He said, “I dunno. You should get your dad to check her out.”

My dad was a cop. DS Fletts. “He can’t just go in somewhere and start nosing round,” I said. “They need a good reason to do that sort of thing.”

Jojo, of course, had plenty of good reasons.

Like: at night, Cassie was hiding in every dark corner and you could hear her kids screaming.

Like: sometimes at night, her kids hid in the fields, waiting for others kids, to add to the family.

Like: ‘Little Katie’, gone missing five years and no body ever found but everybody knew who saw her last.

Stephi said he was full of crap. “Nobody knows where the missing kids went,” she said. “There was talk of someone kidnapping kids for slaves, as well.”

But Jojo wasn't having it; he knew better. “Everybody knows where they went. They just couldn’t prove it.”

“They didn’t even bother to search Cassie’s place.”

“Didn’t dare, you mean.”

“She wasn’t even a suspect.”

I stepped in before they started arguing it. “If they thought she was involved, they would have gone looking.”

Jojo sighed. “I’m telling you Fat Cassie is evil.”

I said, “Kids hiding in the fields at night? Cassie in every dark corner? You believe all that crap?” and he said, “Give me a reason not to believe it.”

It was like trying to prove there is or isn’t a God. I told him, “Get real.”
He looked away, over at the cars, at the wet tar. “Well, there’s a way to prove it one way or the other...”

Stephi glared at him. “No. That’s not fair.”

“What?” I said. “How?”

“You think the fields are safe in the dark?”

I glanced over at Stephi. She was silent, her lips tight together. “There’s no such thing as ghosts or monsters or Cassie’s family hiding out to catch kiddies.”

“Okay, then.” Jojo was nodding. “Tonight: we’ll run the fields...in the dark.”

“You’re nuts,” I told him. “In the dark?”

“Scared?” he said.

“No.” I said. “I'm just not stupid.”

“Just chicken?”

“Not even chicken.”

He was loving it. All smug and smart-arsed. “Maybe I’m right about Fat Cassie, after all.”

He wasn’t going to win. It was a stupid point, and a dumb way of making it. “Okay. Let's do it," I said. "Name a time.”

Jojo spat on his hand and held it out to shake on it. “Tonight. Midnight.”

I laughed. “A bit cliché, isn’t it?”

“Are we on, or what?”

“We’re on,” I said, spat on my hand, and we shook.

Stephi groaned. “Gee, thanks, Jojo,” she said.

“What?” I said. “Am I missing something?”

Jojo smirked. “Aww—don’t tell me you haven’t heard about the Barn Run...”