Page 52 of Silent Bones

“Did you see anyone?”

“No. I… I stayed in my tent. At first I thought it was a bear or something, maybe someone had food out. But then I heard… I don’t know. Movement. Crashing through the brush. More than one thing. I thought maybe it was campers messing around, but it didn’t sound right.”

“You didn’t go look?” McKenzie asked.

Logan turned to him, his eyes bloodshot and rimmed with red. “I was high. I smoked a joint before bed. Not meth or anything, just weed. But I was already on edge. Paranoid. I’d seen a guy earlier that day, didn’t recognize him. He gave me… just… a weird vibe. Real quiet, real still, down near the shoreline. He didn’t wave back. Gave me the creeps.”

Noah leaned forward slightly. “Describe him.”

Logan blinked. “White. Baseball cap. Maybe late fifties? Long beard, gray. Wore a poncho or something that lookedlike military surplus. I don’t know. He didn’t say anything, just stared. Then walked into the woods. That was hours before the noise. Maybe around nine. I figured he was just a hiker.”

McKenzie scribbled something in his notepad.

Noah asked, “So after you heard the screams… what did you do?”

“I panicked. I waited a few minutes, then packed what I could grab and left everything else.”

“We saw you didn’t take your hiking boots.”

“I just ran.”

“In what?”

“Sneakers,” he said pointing to them.

“To where?”

“Bushwhacked to Route 3, flagged a truck, got a ride to Tupper Lake. Told the guy I’d been in a fight with a friend. Paid cash here. Been holed up since. Smoking joints. Watching the news. Waiting for someone to come knocking.”

“And you didn’t reach out to anyone? Call your mom?”

“No. I couldn’t. Not after everything. I thought if I went home, I’d be arrested. Or worse, my mom would think I was involved.”

McKenzie stepped forward. “And you weren’t?”

“No!” Logan said, the word bursting out of him. “Jesus. No. I didn’t hurt anyone. I didn’t even see anyone. I just… I just ran.”

Noah studied him. The kid was unraveling in real-time, shame, fear, confusion all spinning out in his posture, his breath.

“Why here?” Noah asked quietly. “Why this motel?”

“I stayed here once. A year ago. Cheap. No cameras. No questions. Just cash. I just needed… to disappear for a couple of days to get my head right.”

“You said you left your gear behind?”

“Yeah. Tent, sleeping bag, stove, even my phone charger. I was too freaked out to go back.”

“Did you see anything?”

Logan nodded slowly. “Yeah. Maybe flashlights. I thought maybe the rangers were already responding to the screams or something.”

“Do you think that man you saw earlier could’ve had anything to do with it?”

“I don’t know. He just… he gave me a bad feeling. Like he was watching more than he should. But I figured he was staying at another campsite. The sites are spread out along the water. It’s not uncommon to see others.”

“Were you taking any meth that night?”

“No. I don’t touch that. Just weed.”