Chapter Ten

     Officer Gabiola stood in the cold staring at the corn maze. Other officers were walking around and through the maze. There was no sign of any one else there.

     Officer Schneider walked out of the maze holding a small shiny object in his hand, “Hey, Gabiola, I found something.”

     He showed him. It was a silver bangle. This didn’t seem to be a good sign.

     “Do you think that we will find them further out that way?” Gabiola asked.

     The officers spread out through the field. Nothing else was found. They headed back to Max’s car. Gabiola must have lost track of time because the parents of the missing children were next to the car.

     “Have you heard back from your children?” he asked them and they shook their head.

     “I felt that it was important for us to be here for them,” said Yvonne.

     “They may not be here,” said Gabiola . “It doesn’t look like this corn maze is getting any business.”

     “We did find this bracelet,” said Schneider. “Does this look familiar?”

     Yvonne gasped, “That’s Magda’s bracelet. She got that for her 16^th birthday.”

     “We have to keep looking,” said Joel.

     Gabiola looked at the field, “We can look again, but we have looked everywhere except for that house over there.”

     “Who is that?” Schneider pointed at the corn maze.

     A man was walking from the corn maze toward the house.

     “I don’t know,” said Gabiola . “Nobody was home. Where did he come from?”

     “Let’s go talk to him,” said Schneider.

     “You guys stay here,” Gabiola told the parents.

     Gabiola and Schneider walked over to the man. The man stopped when he saw the two officers. The man was old and was covered in filth.

     “Are you doing on my property?” the man asked.

     “You didn’t see is looking around here for the past few hours?” Schneider asked. “Where have you been this entire time?”

     “I’ve been trapped in that godforsaken field,” he said.

     Gabiola thought that this was strange, “You didn’t have a phone on you to call for help?”

     The man smiled with amusement, “How? Bring a phone with me? Sir, you are insane.”

     “You have a cell phone?” Schneider asked.

     “You own this property?” Gabiola asked.

     “Yeah, this is my property and your trespassing,” the man said. “What is a cell phone?”

     “There is a car parked next to your field,” said Gabiola . “This car belongs to a missing person. Have you seen anyone else here?”

     He looked at the car and then the field, “Oh no.”

     “May I have your name?” asked Gabiola .

     “Why?” he asked. “You’re on my property. What is your name?”

     “I’m officer Gabiola and this is Officer Schneider,” he answered his question. “We knocked on your door and nobody answered.”

     “Well, nobody is in the house right now,” he said. “My name is Warren and I own this land.”

     “Have you seen a group of teenagers enter the corn maze?” Gabiola asked.

     “No, I don’t even know why or how this maze is here,” Warren said.

     “I didn’t see the teens. I wouldn’t recommend going in there.”

     “Why not?” The officers asked.

     “You just don’t want to go in there,” he said.

     “You mind coming with us to answer some questions?” Schneider asked.

     “I do mind,” Warren said. “Can we go to my house? I need to get a drink of water and maybe something stronger. You don’t want to be in this field.”

     “Sure,” said Gabiola as he stopped Schneider’s objection.

     They followed Warren to the house. Warren walked up the stairs and turned the knob on the door. The door didn’t open. He jiggled it with frustration.

     Warren sighed and took out his key to unlock the door. The key didn’t unlock the door. Warren knocked on the door. Nobody seemed to be home.

     “Please come with us,” said Gabiola.

     “You don’t understand,” said Warren. “This is my house. This has something to do with the cornfield over there.”

     They officers looked at each other and smirked. Warren gave in and followed them to their car. The patted him down and put handcuffs on him.

     As they helped him into the car, Mark approached them.

     “What about my boy?” Mark asked. “What about our children? Did the heat did he kidnap them?”

     Gabiola closed the door, “We don’t know if he lives here.”

     “We need to know who owns this property,” said Schneider. “Or if anyone owns it. We could probably do like an aerial search.”

     “Like with some drones?” Gabiola asked. Schneider nodded his head. “What about Warren?”

     “We’ll ask him questions. Maybe find out if anyone is taking care of him right now?” said Schneider.

     “Okay, I will reach out and see if we can get some drones out here,” Gabiola said.