Maxie Miles. It's a production of a typical artists and I heart radio. Miss Honeywell Maxine, lovely afternoon, isn't it. Well? Oh my goodness, what happened? Oh it's nothing, just just a little sprain. Are you all right? Yeah, it really wasn't a big deal at all. I just it was stupid. I was just running and tripped. Not exactly the worst thing to happen in the last few days, obviously. What do you mean, Wait, you haven't heard heard what Riley?
A boy from the high school he went missing? Oh god, I guess you're not tapped into the Hastings rumor mill yet. Are there any leads? No? No, All they know is that he was in city Hall Monday afternoon talking to the mayor and after that nothing oh mm hmm, what well? I think I may have seen him there. I took your advice to go to city Hall for the old blueprints, and there was a boy there about your age. He was, well,
I'm not sure I should say no, tell me. Well, as I was leaving, I passed him as he was leaning against an office door like he was listening in to the Mayor's office. No, it was a different office. I think, Maxine Miles getting this car right now? Oh god, I'm serious, Max Joe, I'm kind of in the middle of having it in. Sorry, that's all right. What about
come right home after school? Did you not understand? I was right home, but I had to pick up a book at the library, Maxine, I mean it this time, really, Max, After that stunt you pulled last night, I was allowed to be there. It's not joining the search party that I have a problem with. It's the fact that you went running after god knows what in the middle of the woods. I thought we agreed last night that you would keep this to a purely notebook based activity. We did,
and I have been Oh you sure have. Guess what I found taped on the back of your door, A full on conspiracy board, red string and all. You said I could take notes. We're well past that. You are throwing all of it away and leaving this to the adults. Sorry, kiddo, but you lost your curiosity privileges when you lied to me and went running head first into danger from a typical artists And I heart radio. You're listening to Maxim Miles. This is chapter three the Treehouse. Yes, fine, I'm throwing
it out. Good, I'll just go ahead throughout all of my hard work. What are you doing? God tell her? Lurk much? What is all that junk? It's not chunk. It's evidence evidence about Riley. Nothing that's actual evidence. I'm not holding valuable information or anything. Just my case, your case. You really think it's a good idea for you to keep going on this after yesterday? Don't you start? Yesterday was just a misstep in the investigation. Literally, but there
was someone in those woods. It was a deer. It was not a deer, and you know it. Look, if you don't want to throw all that away, I might know a place you could put it, somewhere your uncle won't find. I thought this place was condemned years ago. Oh you can't actually condemn a tree house. You know what I mean? I made it up. Hmm, the tree house being dangerous and about to collapse. What why? I have four siblings, Okay, all right, only child. You don't
get it, well, it's a nightmare. I don't know. It sounds kind of fun to me, trust me, it's not. I share a room. I never get to be alone. So you lied to your family. It's not my fault. They're gullible, they'll never come up here, and my parents are too lazy to take it down, so all mine. That's messed up. Ross. Hey, you're lying to Joe. No, I'm not. If you keep your murder board up here, you are, it's not a murder board. Riley isn't dead, you know what I mean? Either way, you don't have
to do all this, No I do. I need to figure this out. Why you got the hots for rial or something? What? No? God? No, Hey, he's not that bad. No, that's not Riley is great, but I don't like him like that. Right, I forgot? He's not THEO what? Nothing? You're sure that no one will find this stuff? I'm positive, really really really really okay, come on show me what you have already? Mostly just major players, Riley's parents, everyone he talked to the last day, people saw him, his
best friends, so suspects. Yeah. Cool. You know you don't have to actually help me with this. I can just come over here by myself. You nearly broke your ankle yesterday. I don't think you should be left to your own devices. Don't patronize me, Teller. You're the one who looked like he was going to pass out from sheer terror. How's it feeling, By the way, It's totally fine. The swelling is completely gone. It's basically acton normal. Sure. Wait, why
is Mr Beati's name in here? Oh? Riley mentioned something about helping him this summer, like mowing the lawn and stuff. I have never seen Riley Stephens mowing Mr Beatie's lawn. It wasn't that exactly. It was something had to do with housework or repairs or I wrote it down somewhere. Um, okay, So I'm up here most nights until late okay. And the other night, Monday night, I saw Mr Beady pulling out of his driveway at two am. He had a shovel and a tarp Monday night. Yeah, you're sure, Max.
You saw Mr Beatie get into his truck with a shovel into tarp the night Riley went missing. You don't think Mr Beaty, what ever, yeah, hurt someone? Do you What was that? Mr beat Oh my god? Do you think he hurt us? More importantly, what's quit that deffel bag? Where is he going? Probably the same place he went on Monday? Ross? Yeah, Max, you want to find out for sure? No, no way, Ross, Max, we can't just follow Mr Beatie. Why not because at ten o'clock at night,
we're fourteen and he's in a car. We can take our bikes. You have a sprained angle, I'll sit on your handlebars. Then you don't think he's going to notice two kids on one bike following him. Like you said, it's almost ten, it's too dark for him to notice. Do you hear yourself right now? Who knows what he was doing with that shovel or what the hell he's got in that duffel bag? And you want to follow him in the middle of the night with let me remind you again a sprained ankle. I told you I'm fine?
What if he has Riley? Okay, this is officially insane. Why did you even tell me about it? If we weren't going to follow him, Max, you can't just go running off after every shadow in the woods? Are half big idea? Have? This is serious? You can't always be such a coward all the time. Wait, Ross, I didn't Matt shoot. Sounds like you should probably get back home. Wait, Ross, better get going right? Hey? What are you doing cleaning up? I told you you could leave your stuff here? I
meant it even after I keep my word. Max. Okay, thanks, Ross, Yeah, whatever, I'll see you tomorrow if you haven't gotten yourself killed between now and then, right see tomorrow. Is that homework? Uh huh? Why aren't I supposed to be doing my homework? Not the morning is due. It's fine, I'm just finishing up some things. This is exactly why I made you throw out all that stuff. You can't go getting distracted and falling behind in school. Not falling behind in school.
I get straight a's, and I'd like for you to keep it that way, which means whatever you were doing at the Tellers last night, you can't be going that lake. I was just helping Ross with some school stuff. I thought you guys hated each other. What gave you that idea? The fact that you've been at war for the past three years. At war you stole his basketball. Okay, the bouncing sound was driving me crazy. He knocked your bike into a puddle and the gears rested. I was able
to clean it up. I've only ever heard the two of you yell each other's names. That was all middle school stuff, and now that you're in high school, you're mature adults. As mature as you. We've come to a day taunt a date. Taunt. Huh? What for? We have compatible resources? What does that mean? It means that we're helping each other with school stuff. All right, you're sure it has nothing to do with Riley. I got all that stuff out of the house, just like he wanted. Good.
Now that your schedule has freed up, I thought it might be good for you to get a job. What wait, you you just said I don't You're right. You're a great student, so school doesn't eat up that much of your time, and you don't have any extracurriculus. And that's because they won't let me start environmental club with only three people. And I don't need you going around and creating your own extracurriculars. So you're getting a job. Isn't there a job shortage in this town? Isn't that like
the whole point of the new mining project. There's a shortage of full time, well paid jobs. Yes, part time minimum wage jobs for teens who need to stay out of trouble. There are plenty of those, and you start in one of them this afternoon. What I called the manager at the general store. This morning, I fixed her car for free the other month, and she owed me a favor. She expects you every day after school until five thirty and on Saturdays starting at eight. You can't
just force me into a job. M hm. Well, the other option is you come to the auto shop and help me fix cars. What would you rather do? Get discount gum and workings out a warm store, or freeze your butt off with me and a bunch of old geezers in a drafty garage. Crap, that's what I thought. Eat up. You've got a long day ahead of you, and that's pretty much all of it. We're supposed to be getting a credit card reader next month, so we'll both have to get trained on that, but for now,
nothing over our fifty dollar bill, got it? Got it? You're paid every two weeks. You get a ten percent store discount, and that does not extend to your friends, so don't even try it sounds good, that's it, no questions, no, I got it? Mm hmmm. What Usually hiring a kid from the high school means trouble. I'm not going to be trouble. If I have to be here, I might as well do a good job, all right. It then your miles and your heart's too damn big pack of
pall malls and a lighter please seven dollars. Those things will kill you, you know. That's why you shouldn't smoke them. I wasn't planning to good for you, and you shouldn't either. Thanks for the tip, kid, but I don't let thirteen year olds dictate my life. I'm fourteen. Your point, fine, do whatever you want, but you can't smoke that in here. I owned the building and everything inside of it, so I'm pretty sure I can. Later, Max by miss Ransom Archer.
M hm, that guy that you're staring at, that's Ransom Archer. Oh I wasn't well, hi, Maxie, surprising you here. I got a job I see that first day, and already familiar with all the customers. Impressive. Ransom isn't a customer. I don't know if you notice what this store is called, Archer General Store. Well, I see, yep, which is why you're not supposed to charge him what ransom? When he comes in, you just give him what he wants. He doesn't pay, He didn't say anything about just next time
he comes in, don't charge him. Where is the sales ledger? Oh? It's here, what were you doing with it? Nothing, I wasn't there before. I should probably help this customer right right as you were. What can I do for you? Well, I was coming in here for a screwdriver, but now that you're here, you might be able to help me.
Oh yeah, the inn is well, it's in a bit of a rougher state than I expected, to be completely honest, And there are some repairs that I can handle on my own own, hence the screwdriver exactly, But there are other things that are well beyond my scope. You seem to know quite a bit about the people in this town. I've lived here my whole life. It'd be hard not to well know of anyone who could help me out
light carpentry, some plumbing. Your best bet for both the screwdriver and the help is going to be the hardware store, right of course, I'm still getting acclimated. You know. It's not what I expected, Hastings, What do you mean? I think I expected the suburbs to be all big box stores and sprawling developments. But in some ways it's not so different here from New York from New York City? Are you kidding? Well, sure, it's a lot smaller, and a lot quieter, but the sense of community, the half
dozen different shops for all your different errands. My neighborhood in Manhattan was like that too. What neighborhood were you in the West Village? A charming part of the city. I bet you'd like it. I bet I would too. Why do you leave? I don't understand why anyone would leave a place like New York to come live in Hastings. Sometimes life pushes you in unexpected directions. So this hardware store right, it's just down Maine, left on Poplar Archer's
Hardware of course. Thanks for the help, Maxine. Anytime have a new in owner. Yeah, mm hmmm mmmm what I don't know. I don't like new people. She's amazing. Just because someone's new doesn't mean they're suspicious. People in this town need to have a little more faith. M Oh hey, Ross, didn't expect to find me in my own treehouse. No, sorry, I just didn't think that you'd want to whoa, Oh yeah, I thought i'd take a crack at organizing your notes so far. Okay, now it really is a murder board.
I see you found my string. You had all the makings for a full on conspiracy layout in your pile. I just put it all together. Wow you what what? What did I do wrong? No? No, nothing, it's this is exactly how I would have put it all together. Oh, thank you Ross. Whatever it wasn't hard. Your notes are pretty clear there was an obvious structure to it. Still, you didn't have to do this. I had to kill time waiting for Mr Beatie to come back last night. Anyway,
you waited up for him. M hmm. I thought you didn't want to investigate him. I didn't want to go running head first into the darkness with no plan to follow an adult man two days after a kid hour age went missing. Don't mistake my practicality for cowardice. I didn't. I'm sorry about that. It's not like I don't know what you think about me. Well, I know that you think I'm a stubborn, naive idiot who does things without thinking them through. I don't think you're an idiot. But
everything else no comment. Did he come back? Who? Mr Beatie? Oh? Yeah he did at three in the morning. What you stayed up until three? Yeah? I don't get much sleep anyway, but he came back at three. No duffel bag and he just went right inside. He didn't even turn on the lights when he got home. He didn't have the Duffel bag. Still, Nope, that's weird, yep. I just think that if next time he decided to go somewhere in the middle of the night week No, come on, no, Ross,
I'm not coming with you. Fine, I'll go alone. Know why you're doing that. I can take care of myself. Come on, Max, you really think that Mr Beatie has something to do with Riley's disappearance. I don't know, but he's doing something shady. So do what you do best. Investigate. That's what you're good at, right, ask around, try to find out where beauty would go without risking your life
for it. That's too it's too slow. Ross. Everything I've ever read talks about how the first forty eight hours of a missing person's case is the most critical period. We're already past that. I know, Okay, I just I can't just sit by and do nothing. What if? What if Riley really did run away? Have you been talking to Jenna? It's not the craziest theory in the world. I feel like everyone I know has thought about running away from Hastings at one point. Or another, well almost everyone. Yeah, yeah,
I'm the weirdo for liking Hastings, I get it. I just don't think Riley would do that without telling anyone. He knows that the whole town would freak out, so that just leaves him getting lost or hurt or or something much much worse. Maxie Miles was created by Lauren Chippen and his Production of A Typical Artists and I Heart Radio. This episode is written and directed by Lauren Chippen, dialeg editing and sound design by Morrissy Owing at Hemlock
Creek Productions, with editing assistance from Laurian Davis. It featured Jordan cob as Maxie Miles, MAXI Follow as Ross Teller, Michael Smallwood is Uncle, Joe, Andrew Norock as Ransom Archer, Jacquelin Land Graphics, a lot of Honeywell, and Lauren Shippen as the manager. Original artwork by Shane McMullan. For more information about the show, plea's visit Maxie Miles dot com and follow at A Typical Artists on Twitter and Instagram.
Maxine Miles is executive produced by Laurence Shippen and I Heart Radio and For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you for listening, and keep curious.