The baseball game Thursday night was at home against Juniper, one of the smaller towns in the area, and there was a pretty good chance Barryville would win by the mercy rule. Beth climbed the ladder to the scorekeeper’s box alone since her friends decided they wanted to sit on the bleachers where they could keep a better eye on things. Beth remembered Ryan mentioning he wanted to go to this game back when he’d first won his freedom, and she thought there was a possibility he might show up with Halley. Since Beth wouldn’t be able to see the bleachers from her post, her friends had volunteered to observe, even though they had no idea of the potential threat.
Beth hadn’t told them about the pills or all the details of Halley’s mysterious past. They only knew that there was a chance Halley wasn’t who she said she was and that Beth thought she might be up to something no good. Telling Andi, Lexy, and Brittany that she thought Halley might be a murderer sounded a little extreme, and Beth was growing weary of explaining her thinking to people who didn’t have all of the facts. Not that she had them all either, but there was enough to be cautious.
The popular girls didn’t arrive at the very beginning of the game because it would be uncool to be on time. It was around the bottom of the second when Beth began to hear the familiar giggles from the girls she’d been spending so much time with lately. She stood and craned her neck through the window, trying to get an idea of exactly who was there. Carly caught sight of her and shouted, “Hey, Bethy!”
Still playing her part, Beth smiled back and waved. It was impossible to see everyone, but from that angle, she was almost positive Halley and Ryan weren’t there. Beth wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or worried. What if he was with Halley but somewhere else, in a place where even her lookouts wouldn’t be able to see what Halley was up to?
The score was twelve to three in the fourth with Barryville batting. If they were able to get ahead by ten and hold it through the fifth, the game would be called. Beth was beginning to feel calmer about the situation with Ryan. She imagined his mother had changed her mind and kept him home. If Halley was there, she couldn’t do anything nefarious, could she? Beth had just decided that she was silly for worrying about Ryan when she heard his voice below her. Muttering a curse word, she stuck her head out the window again.
He was there, sitting on the bleachers, and from the looks of it, he may have been there a few minutes. He was sitting beside Carly but there was an empty spot between him and Mindy, and Beth realized he must’ve been shouting something to Halley. Turning her head, she looked down and was greeted with gold speckled eyes staring right back at her from the line to the concessions stand beneath the scorekeeper’s box.
“Hello,” Halley said, the smile on her face anything but warm and inviting.
Feeling like a child caught eavesdropping on her parents, Beth took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “Hey there. How’s it going?”
“Great.” Halley didn’t ask how Beth was doing. Her arms were folded and the smile melted as her eyes narrowed. She flipped her attention back to the concession stand, and Beth slowly sat back down.
The game didn’t end in the fifth inning as Beth had anticipated. In fact, Barryville never did get the ten run lead they needed to finish the game early, though there was no need for a bottom of the ninth since they were up by eight at that point. When the game was over, Beth gathered her book and pencils, flipped all the electronics off, and headed down the ladder, hoping she might be able to catch a word with Ryan before she headed home. There was no way she was going out with the crowd that night. The tension of sitting up there alone for so many hours, wondering what was going on beneath her, was too much. She looked around for him, not even sure what she wanted to say. He wasn’t on the bleachers with the rest of the gang, though, and neither was Halley. Finding that odd, Beth sought out her old friends, the girls who were supposed to be keeping watch, and hoped they’d tell her that Ryan had left early, that his mom had come and picked him up or something logical like that. In the pit of her stomach, though, a nagging began to burn that whatever this was, it wasn’t right.
“Hey, where’s Ryan?” she called when she was a few feet away from them. All three stood with their arms crossed, serious expressions on their faces.
“We aren’t sure,” Lexy admitted. “He got up about ten, maybe fifteen minutes ago, and walked off, that way, into the park. With Halley.”
Beth was confused. She peered off into the darkness. There were no lights at all in that section of the park. Across the street that circled the ball field, there was mostly just wide open space where people flew kites or lay on blankets in the shade. A few hundred yards away, off in the distance, she knew there was a chain link fence that separated the creek from the park so that no children accidentally ran into the water, but she couldn’t see it from here.
“Why? Where were they going?” Beth asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
“We don’t know,” Andi admitted. “He didn’t look so good, though.”
It was getting harder to sound nonchalant. “Why didn’t any of you follow them?”
“And say what?” Brittany asked, a bit defensive. “We also want to go for a walk in the park? I thought you just wanted us to keep an eye on things, not try to come between them.”
“Yeah, Beth. What’s going on?” Andi asked, taking a step forward. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure,” Beth admitted. Her hair was up in a ponytail, but she raked her fingers through the top of it anyway. Frustrated, she turned to the other group of kids, the ones still sitting on the bleachers, though Shane, Marcus, Tom, and a couple of the other guys were standing nearby now.
“Are you okay, Beth?” Carly asked, her forehead puckered.
“Uh, yeah. I was just wondering if any of you had seen where Ryan and Halley went. I had something I needed to tell him.”
“I’m not sure…” Carly began, but Amber interrupted her.
“He said he felt funny. He was all sweaty when they left. Halley said maybe they just needed to get away from all of the lights.”
Beth looked passed her to where he’d been sitting. “Is that his drink?” she asked, trying to sound innocent while panic bubbled up her throat.
“Yeah. It’s just pop,” Amber replied, handing it over. “He didn’t pour any booze in it or anything.”
A forced chuckle came out of her mouth, and it sounded fake even to her ear. “No, I know. He’s just not supposed to drink pop. It messes with his heart medication.”
“Oh. Maybe he forgot?” Amber offered.
“Or maybe he just didn’t want Halley to know.” Carly shrugged. “Could that make him feel funny?”
“Maybe,” Beth replied, she looked in the cup to see he hadn’t taken but a few drinks. On top, however, there appeared to be a fine powder floating. Parts of it were starting to dissolve down between the remaining ice cubes, but the rest still lingered, as if whatever it was didn’t mix well with liquids.
“Holy shit.”
She glanced up to see Michael standing behind her and was glad he was the only other one looking into the drink. “We need to find him. Now,” Beth said, determined.
Michael nodded. “We need to be discreet, though, don’t you think? We don’t know what she’s up to.”
“What’s going on?” Sammy asked, coming up behind Michael. He looked concerned, too, and even though Beth didn’t think he could see into the cup from where he was standing, she remembered how he’d tried to tell her he felt unusual the night he’d been with Halley. While Beth didn’t think she could trust the other kids behind her, something told her Sammy might be helpful.
“Listen, Sammy, we’re not sure what’s going on,” she said quietly, the rest of the group moved on from whatever worry she may have momentarily inspired in them as Shane recounted throwing someone out at third. “Ryan might be in trouble. He went off with Halley somewhere. I’m going to go look for him.”
“Me, too,” Michael added.
“What can I do?” Sammy asked.
Beth glanced over at her friends who seemed to be waiting anxiously for her to decide whether or not they were supposed to go look for Ryan. “Uh… let’s split up. I’ll go that way, Michael, go that way. Sammy—go down there toward the far end of the open space. But be careful.”
Sammy turned and looked at his dad, who was still talking to Beth’s father before nodding and taking off.
“I’ll go grab my flashlight out of the truck,” Michael offered, and Beth let him go, hoping one of the boys would be the one to encounter Halley, even though she thought she might have the most luck at convincing Ryan he was in danger.