Wednesday, March 22, 2006

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT - Payin' It Forward - Part One

MIKE - It's a beautiful day in the house of Batz & Robinson. Eddie finally got over a huge hump in his life, thanks to yours truly, of course, and there was another hump we both had to get over - each other (hee-hee). Naw, seriously, Eddie faced and exorcised all kinds of demons in the last couple of weeks and he's gonna be a better man for it. In fact, that was all gonna be put to the test - comin' right up. I hugged and kissed him good mornin', and held him in my arms as I said, "Eddie, ya know today's the first day of the rest of yer life, right? Now with all this crap behind ya, you can finally be happy, and so can I."

He did seem a little down, though, but he said, "yeah, I know. Just a little tirin', I guess. Mike, I really don't know if I could've ever faced all that without ya. Heck, I wouldn't even be alive today without ya. You remember, the gun under my mattress."

"Hogwash - ya woulda bounced back. You're a strong, intelligent boy. Since we teamed up, ya showed me you can get through anything. Ya got yer wits about ya, ya don't give yerself enough credit. But, anyways, this'll make ya a better crimebuster, you can use this whole thing to be more compassionate toward our clients, makin' damn sure a thing like this doesn't happen to someone else. This was all good, I'm tellin' ya. All good."

The doorbell rang, about 8 times, real rapid fast-like. "Gosh, what the heck is that all about."

"Only one way to find out."

I opened the door and there was a woman cryin' at our doorstep.

"Oh, mornin' - how can we help ya?"

"This is Batz & Robinson? Detectives?"

"Yeah, ya got Batz. Here. Whay dontcha come in - plant it and make yerself comfy."

Poor woman, guess she was about 30 - 35, had the Hillary Clinton look about her. Ya know, all cold and corporate and stuff. She was carryin' a package.

"I hope you gentlemen can help me. Our family's facing a terrible crisis, probably a tragedy."

"Oh, geez, what's goin' on?"

"My son's been missing for a few days. He went to school this past Monday and never came home. It's now only Thursday, yet it feels like weeks ago."

Eddie piped in, "how old is he?"

"Seven. He's only in second grade."

"What school does he go to?"

"Grant Jennings. It's a private school, on 95th street."

"Uh-huh...How's he get to school? The bus? Someone gives him a ride?"

"He usually walks with a boy who lives down the street - they've known each other forever."

"Did ya see the other kid since then? Does he know anything?"

"Only that he saw him get in a strange man's car. He saw he wasn't going willingly and he tried screaming at the man, but he pulled a knife on him and said he better not say or do anything if he ever wants to see his little friend again."

"License plate number!"

"No. He didn't even think about that. He feels so bad he let this happen."

"No, not his fault. Does he think he can recognize the creep's face if he saw it again - like in a mug shot or somethin'."

"I don't know if I want to put him through that, I mean, he is only seven years old, himself. I'm not sure his parents would go for the idea."

"He'd only be lookin' at photos, and he'd be in the company of two guys. We wouldn't let nothin' happen to him."

"Well, I think you should talk to his parents - about that, I mean. But I wanted to show you this. I found this in my mailbox yesterday."

"Good Jesus, this creep knows your address?"

"Ya think it's someone ya know?"

"I really don't know, I haven't been thinking straight. In fact, I didn't even go to the police with this. I thought I could handle this myself."

"Yourself? Where's the kid's father?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Ah, I get it. Divorced - ya lost track of each other."

"No, I can't tell you where he is...because I can't tell you who he is. I don't know."

Aw, Jeez. One of them types.

"Ya sure there's no way to know? I mean, when two people..."

"So I slept around a lot - up to 8 years ago, that is, so what? Do you have to interrogate me? That's all you've done since I've been here is give me the third degree. If you feel like you're above me and don't want to handle my case..."

"Wait, wait, wait HOLD EV'RYTHING! We never said anything like that. We just met ya here, see. We don't know where to start, and one word borrows another...."

The woman regained her composure and nodded a bit - realizing we were talkin' sense and she wasn't.

"Yes, you're right, and I'm sorry. It's true, I had a bunch of one night stands years ago, any of them could be Chuckie's father."

Eddie grinned, "Chuckie - that's a cute name."

"Thank you. He was so cute when he was born, round little head. I guess that's the first thought that came to my mind. Calling him Chuckie, that is. I'm sorry, you must be Detective Robinson."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm Barbara Deepenthaler. I should've introduced myself earlier."

"No problem. But what was it you got last night?"

"I'm very disturbed by it. It's a note from whoever took my child."

"Let's see it."

She opens up the note and we both have a gander at it.

Eddie was a little perplexed, "There's a lot more where that came inside? Holy malapropisms. Isn't the right phrase there's a lot more where that came from?"

"OH yeah! You know - we say that to the bad guys when we flatten 'em."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. Uh, what's in the package, though?"

"I don't know - I've been too nervous to open it."

"How bout lettin' us?"

"Sure."

We open up the package, which was wrapped in Christmas wrap, no less. God, how sick is this puppy? Huh, it's a DVD.

"Looks like they sent ya a movie."

"What are they, bootleggers?"

"Ms. Deepenthaler, ya mind if we, uh..."

"No, not at all, please do."

I pop the disc outta it's box and stick it in the player. Not much is happenin' at first, then...Oh My God.

Ms. Deepenthaler jumps outta her seat and turns paler than a ghost. "Dear God, not my baby."

"Holy Al-Jazeera!"

"What the hell is this, some kinda sick joke?"

It has to be. Man, oh, man, I never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd actually see somethin' like this. I mean, I'd heard about this sorta thing before, but...

Eddie started hyperventilatin' - "That's your kid there? Child pornography!"

Deepenthaler wept buckets. She was inconsolable. I think we were, too. I won't say much about how it looked, except to say it was disgustin' and painful as hell, and the boy was screamin' for his mommy, but he kept gettin' slapped, told to shut the fuck up, and that....his mommy didn't want him anymore. Some creep grabbed him by the back of his head and forced his face into the camera, tellin' him to smile for his mommy, but his face was contorted in agony, his eyes were bloodshot and flooded in tears. Then, just when we thought we seen ev'rything, a pair of bloodstained underwear was shoved in the camera.

Deepenthaler almost went into convulsions. Eddie grabbed her and held her, tryin' to soothe her, turnin' off the DVD player and takin' the disc out. He was about to fling it when I cut him off, "NO! Eddie - that's evidence. We gotta take care of it!"

He looked at it and looked back at me, then he finally composed himself, "You're right, Mike.", and placed it back in the jewel case it came in, then went back to comfortin' Ms. Deepenthaler, who held onto his arms and cried on his shoulder while he stroked her hair and kept sayin' that we're gonna get her boy back.

"Oh, how?"

"You just leave that up to us. That's why ya came here, right? Now, listen, Ms. Deepenthaler. I've seen stuff like this before. It happened to me once - yeah, as a kid - my old man took me away from my mom. Ya wanna know how I got away?"

He pointed at me.

"It was him. He got me outta that jam. My dad let a neighbor do it to me, then later on, he snatched me away, locked me in a closet, but Mike rescued me. See? Look at me. I turned out okay, and little Chuckie will, too, 'cuz Mike over there is on this case. We both are. That help any?"

Deepenthaler was composin' herself, too, and looked at Eddie, and was wipin' her tears off, "I hope so, Detective, I hope so."

"It's Eddie to you."

"All right, thank you....Eddie. But what will you do first? Do you have a plan?"

I interjected, "that's just what me-n-Eddie are gonna formulate right now. You, on the other hand, can know that we're on this and we're gonna make it all okay. We're gonna get this creep. So today, just take it easy, go home and relax - and remember, ya did good bringin' this pile of filth over here and not openin' it up right away. If ya get any more of this stuff..."

"Any MORE?!?"

"Well, ya did read that note - this one's threatenin' to send ya other stuff. We don't really know that there's gonna be anymore, but in the event there is, you don't open a thing, bring it right to us. We're security, see? We'll watch this crap so you don't have to. You're not alone in this, Ms. Deepenthaler, ya got us here."

"But do you have any friends or family you can turn to?"

"NO! I mean, I don't want to worry any of them. I'm not telling anyone else about this."

Eddie was stunned, "why the heck not?"

"It might make me look like a bad mother. It'd make me look negligent. I mean, how could I let something like this happen, and..."

"Aw, heck, that's such a load of...."

I cut him off with a look, "EDDIE!"

He stopped himself cold and thought about what he was about to say and held back, noddin' his head in agreement, clutchin' his fist and grittin' his teeth, "of course...I'm sorry."

"Not to worry. Ms. Deepenthaler, again, just take it easy today, and know that we're in charge here and if anything should pop up, just turn it all over to us."

"Thank you, Detective."

"It's Mike to you."

"Thank you so much...Mike. I'm glad I found you...and you, Eddie."

Eddie winked both eyes and nodded.

"I guess there's nothing I can do at the moment, so I'm taking you both up on your advice. I'm just going to relax tonight, read a good book, take a hot bubble bath. Well, good day, Mike...Eddie. Thank you again."

She left. I showed her to the door and closed it after her. I turn to Eddie and he turns to me. We look at each other mystified.

"Holy Mount Everest"

"What makes ya say that?"

"'Cuz that's a game of leap frog compared to this."

I walk over and put my arm around him and pat his chest with my other hand while he clutches his fist.

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth, my boy."

"Gift?"

"Naturally. Ya told her all about what happened to you. You were rescued by me and now we're both gonna rescue this kid. Yer gonna pay it forward."

"Huh?"

"Ya know, you seen the movie, right? Somebody does somethin' for ya, ya can't really return the favor to this one, right? So ya do it for someone else. Ya pay it forward."

"Holy Haley Joel Osment - that's right! What's our first move?"

I just looked straight ahead as Eddie looked at me for the answer.

WHAT IS THEIR FIRST MOVE? OUR HEROES REALLY DON'T KNOW THAT YET, BUT NOT TO WORRY- YOU'LL FIND OUT AS SOON AS THEY DO - AND AS SOON AS YOU SEE THE NEXT CHAPTER.

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