Spin Out by James Buchanan Page A

“Elder Taylor shut the door and then go get Elder Hall. Tell him I want to see him in my office.” As the door snicked shut, he set the papers off to the side, pulled his reading glasses from the bridge of his nose and stood, reaching across the desk to hold out his hand. “I’m John Stacy, we spoke on the phone.”
    “Yes, sir.” I moved my Stetson into my other hand—habit, I’d taken it off the moment I walked into the building—and took his shake. “Thank you for setting this up. Like I told you over the phone, I need to speak with Elder Hall about a couple friends of his.”
    “I know you said something about two missing boys.” He released my hand and sank back into his chair. I settled myself into one of the two guest chairs. “Can I ask why you need to discuss it with Elder Hall?” He tapped his glasses against his lips. “It sounded like the boys went missing a while back.”
    “Before the first big snow.” Not knowing what else to do with it, I hung my hat on my knee. “We’re going back over things to see what might turn up in light of new evidence we have.”
    That got him leaning in a bit. “New evidence?”
    Weren’t really any reason to hide it. “We found Lane Walker’s body.” Heck all the local papers and even a couple national ones ran the story. “The other boy, Chris Harris, is still missing.”
    “Oh. And you’re thinking…”
    “We don’t right know.” I shrugged ‘cause I really didn’t. I had a bucket full of suspicions, however I didn’t know, so I wasn’t exactly lying. “But it does change how you approach the disappearance of a couple of teenage boys.”
    Don’t know why it bothered me to think on whether I was lying or not to the Mission President. Other than maybe just hold over from my time as an Elder. Lord knows my weekly sessions with the Mission President had darn near did me in. A lot of half truths and not quite admissions went past my lips during that time. Cain’t say that I’d actually lied then…or maybe it was more I lied to myself so much about who I was and what I wanted that I didn’t know what the real truth was. All I can say, is I did a lot of praying asking God not to test me with another woody in the showers.
    I realized I let the conversation drift a moment with my memories. “Something unfortunate happened and we need to dig into what.”
    “We’ll assist in any way you need.” He offered up a tense, but genuine smile. “We cooperate with law enforcement whatever nation we’re in.”
    That’s about the time I heard footsteps in the hall. Not a minute later a tentative knock sounded against the door. President Stacy called out, “It’s open.” I stood and turned…didn’t feel comfortable with my back to the door.
    After a moment, a good looking young man, with a big set of ears and a shock of fuzzy brown hair, pushed open the door. “You wanted to see me, President Stacy?” I recognized him from some of the pictures in my file: William “Trey” Hall.
    “I did, Elder Hall.” Stacy used his glasses to point towards me. “This is Deputy Peterson from Garfield County.” Then he tucked his glasses into the pocket of his shirt. “He needs to speak with you.”
    It looked like Trey had just sucked down a barrel of lemons. “Joe Peterson, from Panguitch?” His eyes went from me to President Stacy and back again. “That Deputy Peterson?”
    I wish I didn’t know where that attitude came from. I shrugged like it didn’t matter. “There’s only one of me.”
    Trey didn’t move out of the doorway. “Do I have to talk to him?”
    “He needs to ask you some questions,” Stacy stood, rested his knuckles against the top of his desk and leaned toward the boy, “about your friends who went missing.”
    “Why did they send you? Why not someone else, especially here?”
    That brought Stacy around the desk. He crossed his arms over his chest and his voice went stern. “Elder Hall, I would suggest you mind your manners in