Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach

there?”
    â€œI’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Who are you trying to reach?”
    Henry cleared his throat and glanced down the hall in the direction of the family room, where the television droned. He said a little louder, “Is Delilah there?”
    â€œDelilah? I think she might be asleep. Who’s calling?”
    â€œHenry. Henry Barker.”
    â€œOh, the boy with the cat! Hold on, let me see if she’s awake.”
    A minute later, Henry heard Delilah’s voice. “Henry? Wait,” she said quietly. And then, louder, “I’m just going to take the phone in my room, Mom.”
    He heard rustling on the other end of the line and then a door latching shut. Delilah’s voice was breathless and eager. “I’m so glad you called! I have something to tell you. But first, did you look at the rest of the book? What did you find out?”
    Henry took a deep breath. “In 1952, three boys from Texas disappeared on the mountain. Their bodies were never found.”
    â€œHmmm,” Delilah said. “Well, plenty of people have disappeared up there. At least it’s not anything gross, like the heads chopped off.”
    Henry didn’t know what to say. He knew Delilah was waiting for him to go on.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked impatiently.

    â€œWell…” Henry paused. He peered into the darkened hallway again, making sure his parents hadn’t heard him.
    â€œWhat?” Delilah persisted.
    Suddenly the phone call seemed like a mistake to Henry. What if she told her mother? They would all get in trouble then.
    â€œYou’re not telling me something,” Delilah complained. “After I helped you look through the newspapers and the books! After I went with you to Emmett’s house! That’s not fair.”
    â€œNo, I am telling you,” Henry said. “That’s why I called.”
    â€œThen what is it? C’mon, just say it.”
    Henry took another breath. “We went up the mountain. Simon, Jack, and I did, a few days ago. Josie ran away, and we followed her, and we went up there, and Jack fell off a rock down into a canyon, and when Simon and I climbed down to get him, we found him on this ledge with three”—he gulped—“with three skulls.”
    The other end of the line was so quiet that Henry thought maybe she’d hung up. “Delilah?”
    â€œAre you sure they were real? I mean, human?”
    â€œYeah, I’m sure,” Henry said. “It was unnerving .”
    â€œWow,” Delilah said. She was quiet again. Finally, she said, “So you think they’re the skulls of those three Texas boys? And they’ve been missing all this time?”
    Henry nodded, then remembering the phone, said, “That’s what we think. And now we can’t figure out what to do. Simon thinks we have to call the police. But if we go back up the mountain with the police, and the skulls aren’t there, it will be a catastrophe. ”
    â€œYeah,” said Delilah. “And your parents will be really mad at you. I guess you can’t know for sure the skulls are from those boys, right?”
    â€œNo,” Henry agreed.
    â€œBut if they’re not from those boys, they’re from three other people.”
    â€œRight,” Henry said. “So then we were thinking maybe we should go see that Sara Delgado girl, the one Emmett told us about, who lives near the cemetery. And try to figure out what happened to her on the mountain.”
    â€œWhy?” Delilah asked. “How will that help?”
    â€œWell, depending on what she says, we can decide if it’s safe to go back up there.” Henry thought it sounded like a stretch even as he explained it.
    â€œI don’t know,” Delilah said. “She sounds pretty messed up.”
    â€œYeah.” Henry felt bleak.
    â€œBut okay,” Delilah said quickly. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do