Death at Devil's Bridge by Cynthia DeFelice Page B

sunbathing,” Jeff said. “But nobody came over.”
    â€œAnd you didn’t touch the body?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œSo, as far as you know, no one touched the body and no one else saw it except the two of you?”
    We nodded.
    â€œGood. Now, boys, I don’t know if the body you found is Cameron Maddox’s or not, but I’m betting it is. We’ll know for sure pretty soon.” The chief leaned across his desk and looked at us intently. “We’ve been hearing a lot of stories about this Maddox kid, about what he was doing here and what might have happened to him. We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, and I wonder if you boys might have heard anything that could be helpful to us.”

    The silence stretched on and on. Afraid to look at Jeff, I kept my eyes straight ahead, which unfortunately meant I was gazing right into Chief Widdiss’s face. His eyes moved back and forth from Jeff to me. The frown line in his forehead deepened as the silence grew.
    Say something, Jeff , I urged. But Jeff didn’t say a word. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
    â€œAfter he disappeared, I heard down at the dock that he might have been selling drugs,” I said.
    The chief’s expression remained calm and interested. He didn’t say anything.
    After a while, Jeff spoke. “I heard his parents are pretty mad. They think somebody from here did something to him.”
    â€œWhy would they think that?” the chief asked, almost as if he were talking to himself.
    Jeff shrugged.
    The chief turned to me. “Any ideas, Ben?”
    â€œNo,” I said quickly, shaking my head. I could feel my face flaming bright red. Never before had I wanted so badly to disappear.
    Chief Widdiss looked at Jeff then and said, “You didn’t hear anything else from any of the older kids?”
    â€œNo,” said Jeff, looking at his hands, which were squirming in his lap. His lie was just as obvious as my own.
    There was another long silence. Chief Widdiss sighed and said, “If this body you found turns out to be Cameron Maddox’s, and if it turns out that he did, in fact, meet with some sort of foul play, it will be a very serious matter. Do you realize that? We could be talking about a murder.”
    Jeff and I both nodded.
    â€œIf you know something that might help us in our investigation of such a serious matter, you must not withhold that information, do you understand?”
    I swallowed hard and nodded again.
    The chief sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his stomach. “I’ve known you two since you were knee-high,” he said. “I know you’re good boys. And sometimes good boys get themselves in a fix. They know something, or maybe just suspect something, about someone else, and they don’t want to say anything about it. They want to protect a friend, or they don’t want to ‘rat’ on him. Maybe they’re even afraid of what will happen if they do.”
    The chief paused and looked from Jeff to me. “I want you to know that you don’t need to be afraid. If you give me information, no one will know
you were the ones to give it. You don’t have to worry about falsely accusing someone, either. If something you heard turns out to be just a rumor, we’ll find that out. You can’t hurt anyone by telling what you know. But you can hurt yourselves, and maybe some innocent people, by keeping silent.”
    But keeping silent was what we did. I didn’t know what I would have done if Jeff hadn’t been there. I’d probably have told. I wanted to tell. It was scary to sit in the police station across from Chief Widdiss and not tell. Besides, I’d always liked the chief, and I wanted him to like me.
    But Jeff and I were in this together. When Jeff didn’t speak up, I felt as though I couldn’t, either.
    The chief must have seen in my face something of the struggle that was