Chapter 4: Secrets Under Black Pine

Jerry Fields had a son, Jacob Fields, who played with us sometimes. With his family falling apart, not many people paid attention to him. I found him with two friends, and we tried to cheer him up. He seemed spaced out, not all that sad. That was good, because Grandpa hadn’t told me to comfort him—he wanted me to see if I could find out where Jerry’s younger brother, Jacob’s uncle, Samuel Fields, had gone.

Jacob was a quiet kid, but he followed us everywhere. We played tag in the empty lots, climbed trees behind the church, and dared each other to go near the old cemetery. Sometimes, Jacob would just stare off into space, lost in his own world.

We kids were wild, running all over the hills. We’d even messed with old, abandoned coffins. Not long ago, a nameless body had been washed out by a mudslide, and Jacob had even picked up the skull to use as a ball.

The grown-ups would’ve lost their minds if they knew half of what we got up to. We were fearless—or maybe just too young to know better. Jacob seemed to fit right in, even with everything going on at home.

So when we talked about Black Pine Woods, Jacob told us everything he knew.

He leaned in close, voice barely above a whisper, and started spilling secrets like he couldn’t help himself. The other kids hung on every word.

What happened at Black Pine Woods was—

Jacob took a deep breath and looked around before speaking. “My uncle said they found bones out there. Lots of ‘em. Like, someone got chopped up and buried under the trees.”

A lot of bones were dug up there. To be exact, it was a lot of bones from one person. That is, the dead person had been cut up and hidden in Black Pine Woods.

We all went quiet. The idea of someone being hacked up and scattered in the woods made my skin crawl. It was the kind of thing you only saw in scary movies, not in your own backyard.

Dismemberment.

Even saying the word felt wrong. Too big for our little town.

According to Jacob, as soon as the police found the body, his uncle took off—vanished into the night.

No one saw Samuel again after that. His old truck was gone from the driveway, and his room at the Fields’ house was left just as he’d left it. People whispered, but no one said anything to Jacob’s face.

I finally understood—

The pieces started coming together in my mind. The violence, the secrets, the fear—it all pointed back to that one moment in the woods.

So, as far as the cops were concerned, he was the main suspect in the Black Pine Woods case. Jacob also said he’d heard his family mention that the body was that of the outsider who raised fish.

I felt a chill run down my spine. If it was true, then everything that happened since—the killings, the silence—made a terrible kind of sense.

I asked Jacob if he knew where his uncle had gone. He said he had no clue. And ever since his uncle left, his family acted like he’d never existed. They never looked for him or mentioned him again.

Jacob shrugged, like it didn’t matter anymore. “He’s gone. Nobody talks about him. Mom says we’re better off.”

So I came up empty. Didn’t feel great.

I kicked at the dirt, frustrated. Just more questions.

But Grandpa didn’t see it that way. When I got home and told him what Jacob had said, his eyes lit up, like he’d just figured something out. I felt a shiver—like maybe I shouldn’t have told him at all.

He leaned back in his chair, a slow grin spreading across his face. “That’s it,” he muttered, almost to himself. “That’s the missing piece.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what it meant.

I didn’t dare ask more.

Grandpa’s mood had shifted, and I knew better than to push. Some things were better left unsaid, at least for now.

But then Grandpa called Uncle Pete over to our house. Only then did I learn what he’d realized.

I listened from the hallway as Grandpa laid it all out, his voice low but urgent. Uncle Pete’s face went pale, and I knew—whatever had started with Joe Ramirez and those catfish ponds was far from over. And in our little town, secrets never stayed buried for long.