Chapter 14. The News
We had the radio on early the next day, and kept it on, wondering when we would hear some news. There was nothing all day and night, and it wasn’t until Monday morning, Labor Day, that we heard anything. We turned on the radio at seven, and the local news was all about us.
“Essex Junction police report that four twelve-year-old boys are missing. The four were last seen Saturday afternoon at the Champlain Valley Fair, and were officially reported missing Sunday afternoon, after searches and enquiries by their parents did not result in their being found. The names of the boys are being withheld for the time being, at the request of the parents, until such time as the police determine that it would be helpful to the search to release their identities to the public.
“In a statement released at six o’clock this morning, Chief Mulrooney indicated that the boys would be back home very soon, and placed the blame squarely on the carnival workers at the Fair. He said, ‘Sources within the Department have confirmed that the boys were known to have associated with the carnies, and we believe that they were, if not outright kidnapped, heavily influenced to run off with that crowd. Those Gypsies cannot be trusted, and they will stop at nothing to recruit young people into their criminal culture.’
“The Chief went on to say that Essex Junction officers, along with officers from the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department, are on their way to Rutland right now. Most of the carnival workers follow the same circuit of State and County Fairs across New England and New York, and the State Fair in Rutland, which opens today, would be the next stop for most of them. Chief Mulrooney is confident that the missing boys will be found, probably in the Rutland area, with the carnival workers.”
How we laughed! So far, everything was working out just as we had hoped. It was several minutes of joy and hilarity before we were able to discuss the situation rationally.
Tom, our Security Chief, pointed out that there was no mention on the news report of any local searches taking place. Was that really possible, that they weren’t even looking around the Town of Essex in places where we might be hiding? It seemed too good to be true.
“Mulrooney thinks we’re off with the carnies,” Rollo said, “and that’s the way we planned it, right?”
“Yes,” Tom agreed, “but we also planned for a search. That’s why we spent all summer burying our cabin underground.”
“They’ve got to search for us,” Win said, “but the news report said nothing about it. Is Mulrooney really that stupid?”
“Well, he might be,” I replied. “That’s one of the things we’ve been counting on. But not everybody in Essex is stupid, and our parents certainly aren’t. When the cops don’t find us with the carnies, our parents are going to freak out. If there hasn’t been a search by then, there will be one soon after.”
“We have to assume,” Tom said authoritatively, “that they are going to search the woods, even though the news report didn’t mention it. For all we know, they’ve already started. We’ve got to put our security routine into full operation.”
So we talked over the routine, and, for the time being, we followed some strict rules. Nobody went out of the cabin alone. Whether it was going to the latrine, or to the stream to wash or fill canteens, there was always somebody else standing guard. We kept a rake hidden behind the spruce hedge, and we raked over our tracks every time we went out and came back in. The weather was still quite warm, and it would have been nice to sit on the rock ledge and enjoy the sunshine, but it was too risky. Until we had better information, we would stay inside.
We followed the news every day, of course. That first week, it was our only source of information. It was too risky for the other kids to come out, so we just had to sit it out and wait. We found out later what was going on.
The cops, and our parents, had assumed that we would be quickly found, so they hadn’t released our names, but, after a couple days had gone by with no result, our names were broadcast to everyone so they would know who they were looking for.
Apparently Chief Mulrooney was so convinced that the carnies were to blame that he went down to Rutland himself to oversee the investigation. He set up headquarters in a motel room, at public expense, and directed his men from there. Some of the carnies had traveled on to other fairs and carnivals in upstate New York and Massachusetts, so the Chief sent Sheriff’s Deputies here and there chasing them down. He pissed off the Rutland Chief of Police and cops in every other place he sent his men, because he never had any real evidence to support his theory, and, being the arrogant blowhard he was, he was assuming authority he didn’t really have.
By the end of the week, the pressure from our parents was becoming pretty intense, and Mulrooney had come up with nothing, so he had to return to Essex and start over. They did, finally, order a search of the whole Town of Essex to make sure we weren’t lying dead in a field somewhere, or in somebody’s basement.
We had all seen in the movies or on TV how they would do a search, with people walking just a few yards apart to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Well, they didn’t do that; the area was too large and there weren’t enough people. But they sent searchers through every field and every bit of woods in the town, including our own.
We actually heard them on Saturday. We were staying in and keeping quiet, and, three different times we heard people walking through, or near our clearing, and we heard voices calling to each other. Nobody ever walked right over our cabin, though, which was lucky. As it turned out, that was the only time they ever got close to us.
Jimmy came out, by himself, on Sunday afternoon. He filled us in on everything that was going on, and said that they had searched our area “thoroughly” the day before, and had now shifted to the river and the southern part of the village. He thought that, by the next weekend, the other kids would be able to come out and bring us stuff, but, for now, all our friends were being closely watched and repeatedly questioned.
Jimmy and Larry had told the cops and our parents and everybody that they had seen us with the carnies’ kids, but they didn’t know for sure that we had gone with them. In addition to being the finest shoplifters in the village, those two kids were both superb liars. Larry had a face so angelic that no adult could not believe him when he talked, unless they knew him as well as we did.
Jimmy had brought us a loaf of bread and some more baloney, as well as four Ring-Dings. We would have to wait another week for a bigger load of supplies.
Meanwhile, we settled into our routine, figuring out all the little things we hadn’t thought of and adjusting to each other and to our subterranean life. We washed ourselves at least every other day; washing in a cold stream took some getting used to, but it soon became routine. We washed our clothes and our dishes in the same place, using bar soap for everything. The cabin itself quickly took on a distinct aroma, but we didn’t really notice. Every time the kids came out, they remarked on how bad it smelled, but I guess we just got used to it.