Chapter 2

With a heavy head from too much whisky from the previous night, Victor reluctantly went to work. As soon as he arrived in his office, Victor was informed by a colleague that Captain Miller, who was in charge of the Missing Persons Unit, wanted to see him. He had known Miller for years but still thought it was odd to be called by the head of another Unit, but he obliged.

Victor knocked on the door and waited outside of Captain Miller’s office door. He could hear the captain yelling at someone over the phone. Then he heard the phone slam down. He waited few seconds in silence.

“Come in.” A loud voice called from the other side of the door.

Captain Brent Millar was a small man in his early 50’s with short blond hair that was starting to turn grey. He had a face that showed the stress of handling cases that almost always ended badly. He was wearing a pressed white shirt with a dark blue tie. He looked up at Victor through his dark rimmed glasses.

As soon as Victor came into his office, Captain Miller looked at Victor with a faint smile. He asked Victor to close the door and take a seat. Captain Millar then rose from his chair and began to speak. His voice was calmer but it was apparent that he was trying hard to control his emotions.

“The reason why I called you first thing in the morning...”

He stopped talking for a few seconds and apologetically said to Victor,

“Ah, I don’t mean to be so rude my old friend. At least I should have said ‘hello’ before I began talking about business. Please forgive me for being so abrupt. I don’t need to tell you how upset I am, you probably heard.”

Then Captain Millar lowered his head and continued.

“I hate to admit it, but as you know our Unit is in crisis. All those missing children! And we haven’t found any clues as to what’s happened to them.” As he talked, the volume of Captain Millar’s voice increased gradually to the point of almost yelling at Victor.

Victor nodded sympathetically.

“Eight of them. God damm it! We don’t know where they are or who took them. Everyone in Los Angeles is concerned about the missing children but we don’t have any explanation to give them. You saw a mob of people protesting outside the station, didn’t you? And all those prying media types are gathered like hungry jackals, Christ!”

The Captain Millar hit his desk hard with his fist and said angrily,

“They continue to criticize us saying that we’re incompetent. I’d love to take them out to the parking lot and shoot them all. Those buffoons!”

He took off his eye glasses placed them on the desk and slowly rubbed his eyes. Then he stared at Victor and said,

“Not only parents and media but the whole damn city is expecting us to solve these cases, like Right Now. It’s not that we don’t sympathize with the parents. I have three kids of my own. I feel so badly for them. What they don’t realize though is that cases like this take a long time to solve at the best of times. The kicker is that they’re happening one after another so quickly, we can’t keep up with the investigations.”

The Captain was breathing so rapidly that Victor was getting concerned. Miller continued.

“We are doing the best we can do to solve the cases, you know. As a matter of fact, half the force in this Unit is assigned to this investigation. But so far, they’ve come up with nothing! Absolutely nothing! The bizarre thing is that there is not one witness. It seems like all the children have disappeared into thin air.”

“That’s too bad Brent. I’m really sorry to hear that.” Victor said while searching for something positive to say, but failing.

The Captain cursed under his breath, then sat back in his chair trying to steady his breathing. Then he began to talk in a calmer voice.

“Victor. I know you’re quite busy with your own homicide cases. But I begged your boss to lend you to our Unit because I think you are the only hope we have. So, could you please help us? We are desperate. We know you can come up with something. You always do. After all you are the best investigator we have in the LAPD.”

Victor wanted to say to the Captain that he was dying to get involved in the abduction cases, that he couldn’t stand being on the sidelines, just being a bystander. But he decided against it. He knew it was unnecessary to say how he felt. Instead, he said to Captain Miller,

“Brent. As long as my boss permits me to work for your Unit, I will accept the assignment and take over the files. I have two conditions, though, if I’m to lead the investigation. First, I would like to have one of the detectives who has been working on the cases as my partner, so he can brief me on the details.”

“Of course.” Brent reached the intercom and pressed the call button and said,

“Chris?”

“Yes, Captain.” The voice from the intercom replied.

“Get Jack Boyd in here immediately.”

“Right away, sir.” Chris replied politely.

After he released the call button, Brent sat back down and said to Victor softly,

“Jack is still young but he is quick to learn and remembers everything. Also, he’s a big boy, so he can protect you if you get into a jam. You’ll like working with him.”

“We should be fine. But you haven’t heard my second condition.” Victor said.

“What is your second condition, Victor,” sighed the Captain

“If I request more force to accomplish certain tasks, it will be provided immediately, no matter how large the force I request.”

“You don’t ask for much do you?” Miller asked with a touch of annoyance in his voice. Miller looked like he was reaching his breaking point. After a moment of silence he said,

“It’ll be done, even if we have to supply you with an army.
Anything else you need?” he asked as if challenging Victor.

Victor was very pleased to hear this from Brent. Obviously, the captain was struggling with the situation and eager to meet his demands. With a feeling of satisfaction, Victor stared at his old friend across the desk.

For a minute, that seemed like an eternity, they were silent. Then Brent said,

“You know, Victor. We’ve known each other since the Academy. You always were the smart one in the class. All of us envied you for what you could do. You really were a wonder boy when it came to solving a crime. As we expected, you are becoming a legend in your field. Everyone in this city knows your name and respects what you can do.”

Victor was taken aback somewhat by Brent’s praise and replied,

“Thank you for the compliment, Brent. I really didn’t expect that. But what you don’t know is that I felt exactly the same way about you. I thought you were the wonder boy!”

Brent chuckled for a moment remembering their younger days. Victor also began to reminisce about their school days while they faced each other. For a moment Brent looked happy, as if he forgot about his immediate problem. Then he said,

“We’ve been through many things together. It’s been almost 20 years, hasn’t it? We’ve really had good times together. Two decades… My God…” Brent continued to dwell on their past.

There was a knock on the door and a young man waited in the door way.

“Good morning, Captain Miller.” Jack said.

Jack Boyd was tall and heavyset with neatly combed short dark blond hair on his baby face. His broad shoulders reminded Victor of a college football player he once knew. He was wearing a dark blue suit with a striped red and dark green tie.

“Good morning, Jack. Come on in.” the Captain said.

Jack filled the doorway as he entered the room and closed the door behind.

“Jack, this is the detective I told you about last night. Victor, this is Jack Boyd. Jack, this is Victor Peterson, the famous detective.” Victor flinched at the remark.

“You may have met each other before. Anyway, as we discussed yesterday, Detective Peterson will take over the missing children files. He needs someone who is familiar with the case details. You’re going to be his partner and assist him until these cases are resolved.”

“Detective Peterson, it is my honor to work with you, sir.” Jack looked towards Victor and greeted him.

“Good morning, Jack. So, I guess we’re working together. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Do you have the case files with you? I would like to familiarize myself with each case as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir. They are all on my desk.” Jack said firmly.

“It’s good you two have finally met. We can’t waste any time.” Captain Millar said to them.

“Would you like to discuss anything else, Brent? If not, we’re going to start right away.” Victor said.

“That will be fine, detectives, and good luck!”

Captain Miller got up from his chair and walked around his desk and shook the hands of both men before they left his office.

***********************************

In a small meeting room, Victor and Jack began to review the case files. In each file, a picture of the victim was included, smiling innocently.

1)Name: Darren Brown
Age: 15 years old
Height: 5’ 7”
Description: Male, blond hair, blue eyes, last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans.
Last seen on Tuesday, September 7.

2)Name: Kyle Jones
Age: 14 years old
Height: 5’ 5”
Description: Male, Dark brown hair, brown eyes, wear glasses, last seen wearing a dark blue sweat shirt and sweat pants, and a black baseball cap.
Last seen on Tuesday, September 7.

3)Name: Nelson Wright
Age: 13 years old
Height: 5’ 2”
Description: Male, Light brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a grey striped shirt and blue jeans.
Last seen on Wednesday, September 8th.

4)Name: Eric Hill
Age: 15 years old
Height: 6’ 1”
Description: Male, Brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a red T shirt and blue jeans.
Last seen on Wednesday, September 8th.

5)Name: Theodor Young
Age: 16 years old
Height: 5’ 8”
Description: Male, Black, Dark brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a blue jean jacket and blue jeans, Nike running shoes.
Last seen on Thursday, September 9th.

6)Name: Andrew Cook
Age: 13 years old
Height: 5’ 2”
Description: Male, blond hair, blue eyes, last seen wearing a white jacket and blue jeans.
Last seen on Thursday, September 9th.

7)Name: Rebecca Morgan
Age: 17 years old
Height: 5’ 7”
Description: Female, Dark brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a black shirt and a pair of black jeans.
Last seen on Thursday, September 9th.

8)Name: Timothy Bryant
Age: 15 years old
Description: Male, dark blond hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a black T shirt and blue jeans.
Last seen on Friday, September 10th.

After reviewing all 8 case files, Victor said,

“Jesus! What do those bastards want with these innocent children?”

Jack slowly shook his head.

“Besides, how could 8 children disappear without any witnesses? Someone must have seen something.” Victor said.

Jack looked at Victor and shrugged with embarrassment. He had been on the case from the beginning of the investigation and was frustrated with the lack of progress that had been made. Jack and his co-workers had been putting every effort to solve the mysteries, but could not find any clues. Not one lousy clue!

Chapter 3 will be uploaded on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2020.