Missing Boy

by Rick Polad

  Rosie closed her eyes for a second and lowered her head. “What the hell was he doing here?”

  “I asked him.”

  “Oh, Spencer.” I’ve never heard two words filled with so much despair. For a brief moment she looked overwhelmingly sad, but then regained her detective composure. “Let’s get this under control. I have to go look.”

  “Before you do, would you put some cuffs on Belva?”

  Belva looked shocked. “Why? I told you I’m on your side!”

  “I hope so,” I said. “But until we know for sure, I’m not taking any chances.”

  Rosie cuffed her and left the room.

  I took Walters’ gun out of his inside jacket pocket and took the rag out of his outside pocket. It smelled of chloroform. I turned to the women.

  “Sadie, take Vincent and go call an ambulance and the police. Tell them Detective Lonnigan was involved in a shooting.”

  “What about Meyers?” she asked.

  “Good question.”

  As Sadie and Vincent moved away from her, Belva said nervously, “I’m on your side. I need to explain.”

  She told me about a house where kids were kept and a factory where they worked. I told her she’d have to repeat it to Lieutenant Powolski when he arrived.

  Rosie came out of the back room with tears in her eyes and the saddest look I’ve ever seen. She just shook her head.

  “Did he kill Walters?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “I can’t imagine,” she said. “All these years with all that sadness and hurt.”

  I walked over to her and tried to put my arms around her.

  She pushed me away. I thought it had something to do with us, but she shook her head quickly and said, “If you do that here, I’ll lose it. And I can’t lose it here.” She bit her lower lip.

  I moved away and realized I would have lost it too.

  “What now?” Belva asked.

  Rosie answered. “We get this sorted out. But let’s get outta here.”

  Chapter 40

  It was almost ten and the park was closing. As we stood outside the shack, tired happy people walked by on their way out... just twenty feet or so from a horrible tragedy. They’d read about it in the morning papers and be shocked.

  Belva sat on a bench. Rosie and I stood next to her.

  “Glad to see you, Rosie,” I said with one eye on Belva.

  She nodded.

  “I thought you had night duty.”

  “I did. You were it.”

  “Pardon?”

  “The lieutenant assigned me and Pitcher to follow you around.”

  I was confused. “To protect me?”

  She scrunched up her face. “Maybe partly. But more because you tend to find trouble, or trouble finds you. Our best lead in this case was you. So I followed you to the park. I was about to enter the shack when I heard the shot. I started to move, but then I saw Marcel running toward the shack. He must have heard the shot too.”

  I could hear faint sirens. “That’s ironic.”

  She looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  “The lieutenant questioned my idea to use people as bait, and I’m the biggest bait in the bucket. He warned me several times to stay away from here, especially after the restraining order. Speaking of which…”

  We turned to Belva who was sitting slumped over on the bench. This was a different Belva than the hard, tough woman in the police station. She had tears in her eyes and looked defeated. Perhaps that was because she had been caught. I needed some convincing to believe she wasn’t one of the bad guys.

  “Belva, there’s a little matter of a restraining order.”

  She looked startled when I mentioned her name. “Pardon?” she asked.

  I repeated the sentence.

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that. He made me. He…”

  I stopped her. “Save it. The police will be here soon.” The sirens were loud.

  It struck me that Belva was in a pretty good position if she was involved. She could blame it all on Walters and he couldn’t deny it.

  I looked out over the crowd of people moving up the Midway and saw Harvey. He watched for a minute and then joined the crowd walking north.

  A fire department ambulance was the first to arrive. It pulled into the park and drove down the Midway. Two police cars were not far behind. I told the paramedics what they would find inside.

  I turned back to Belva. Tears were streaming down her face.

  “Mr. Manning. The kids…”

  “Hold on a few more minutes, Belva. The lieutenant will be here soon.”

  She nodded and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

  Five minutes later the Midway was filled with official vehicles. Ambulances and police cars, both marked and unmarked, were lined up farther than I could see.

  Sadie made her way through the crowd with Vincent.

  “I called Vincent’s parents and told them what was going on and that Vincent might have to talk to the police. I told them someone would call them.”

  “They’ll want to get a statement. You and he will probably have to go back to the station.”

  “Okay. We’ll wait over there.” She pointed at the cotton candy stand. I watched to make sure Sadie was going to be okay.

  I looked for Rosie and found her talking to a sergeant as Lieutenant Powolski walked up. They talked for a minute and then she pointed in my direction. I had no idea what to expect from the lieutenant, but it probably wasn’t going to be a pat on the back. Steele was the worst part, and Stosh was the one who had okayed Steele’s involvement. But it was me who had brought him into this. He headed in my direction with a very strange look on his face.

  “Rosie filled me in. I’ll want a statement from you too.”

  I nodded.

  “We have a lot to talk about.”

  “Yes.” I couldn’t imagine how he felt about Steele. “But first, this is Belva Meyers. She says she knows where the missing kids are.”

  “Mrs. Meyers, what’s going on here?”

  She looked exhausted.

  “The boys are being kept in a big house. Every day they’re brought to a factory building to work. At the end of the day they’re brought back to the house.”

  Stosh gave me a confused look. I returned it.

  “What kind of factory, Belva?” I asked.

  She shook her head and her eyes welled up. “I don’t know for sure, but it has something to do with drugs.”

  “Do you know where it is?”

  “No, but I know where the house is.”

  “Where?” the lieutenant asked.

  “1212 Division.”

  Stosh glanced at me again. That was a high crime area known for gangs and drugs.

  The lieutenant asked Belva to come with him.

  “There are a lot more questions, Mrs. Meyers. We need to get a full statement at the station.”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  He motioned for her to get up. “Not at the moment. We just need more information.” He walked her over to an officer and asked him to bring her to the station. Stosh said he wanted to be in on the questioning and would be there shortly.

  He let out a big sigh as he turned back to me. “I have questions for you too, but you’re on the bottom of my priority list at the moment. I want you in on the questioning since you have more information than we do. Meet me at the station.”

  “Okay.” I slowly shook my head. “Stosh, I’m so sorry about Steele.”

  “Yeah, me too. It’s always hard losing part of the team, but this…”

  I’d never seen Stosh cry, even when Francine died, but I knew how badly he felt.

  “He had me convinced that he was okay. We’ll talk about that too.” He started to walk away and then turned back to me with that strange look again and said, “Lose the moustache.”

  I had forgotten about the disguise.

  I found Rosie and told her what Belva had said and that I was heading for the station. She sa
id she would be there soon.

  We looked at each other. My look was serious. I wanted to say something about us, but this wasn’t the time or place, so I just looked. Her look started out as serious, but then a tiny smile crossed her face.

  “What?”

  “If you want me to be seen with you in public, don’t ever grow a moustache.”

  “I’m glad I can provide some comic relief.”

  She touched me on the arm. “Me too. I needed some.”

  I held out my hand and she took it. “Thanks for having my back, Rosie.”

  “Protecting the taxpayers… that’s what we do.” She turned back to an officer.

  When I got into my Mustang I peeled off the moustache. As I backed out of the parking space, I noticed that the passenger side mirror needed adjusting again. A light bulb immediately went off in my head.

  Chapter 41

  Stosh, Belva, Pitcher, and a stenographer were in an interview room when I got to the station. They were collecting Belva’s personal information. Stosh took me out of the room and told me that Belva had waived her right to an attorney for the moment. Whether or not she needed one depended on the rest of her story. He also told me he wasn’t sure whether she had been involved or not, but based on what she knew it looked like she was. He didn’t trust her and asked me to pay attention to any discrepancies in her story and ask any questions I thought were pertinent. Based on the Belva I knew at the park, I wasn’t sure either. She was a great actress. The Belva in Walters’ office was a different person from the one tonight. I just needed to find out which was the real Belva.

  Pitcher offered her something to drink. She asked for water.

  The lieutenant started with questions about what Belva had already told us.

  “You know a lot about what has been going on, Mrs. Meyers. How is that?”

  “I’m in charge of personnel at the park. A while after Walters became the chief I noticed that the turnover in kids was higher than normal and they didn’t stay as long. Usually kids kept their jobs for the whole summer. It’s a fun job for them.”

  Stosh nodded.

  “One day I was out on the Midway and saw Marcel walking with a boy. Something about it seemed odd. I followed them to the shack where we were tonight and they went inside. Not thinking much of it, I followed them in.”

  Her hand holding the glass started to shake.

  “Take a drink, Mrs. Meyers,” said Stosh. “Take your time.”

  She continued. “The boy was passed out in a chair, and Marcel was standing over him with a rag in his hand. Walters was seated at the desk.” She paused with a quivering lip. “I immediately knew I shouldn’t be there and tried to leave, but they wouldn’t let me.”

  “What did they do?” Stosh asked.

  “Walters told me they couldn’t let me go and that I had only two options. One was to join them and help.”

  “Did they say what the other was?”

  “They didn’t have to.”

  I started to say something and Stosh stopped me. “Mrs. Meyers, you may be incriminating yourself. Would you like a lawyer now?”

  She shook her head. “No, I need to tell you. I’ve been living with this a long time. It’s been killing me.”

  “So you helped them?” Stosh asked Belva.

  She just nodded with a very sad look.

  “I need you to answer verbally, Mrs. Meyers.”

  Looking down, she very quietly said, “Yes, I did.”

  “I have to ask why.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes again and she started to shake. “Because he threatened my son.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Walters said if I didn’t do as I was told my son would end up like the others.”

  The door opened and Rosie joined us.

  “How did he know you had a son?” We already knew the answer to that, but it would be a good check of her story.

  “My son, Albert, had been arrested for theft. Walters got him off. I was very grateful. But then Walters came to me when the chief job opened up and told me if I didn’t get him the job he would have to look back at my son’s case and he would go to jail.”

  “So you got him the job?”

  “I recommended him and that was enough. Mr. Block doesn’t like dealing with those kinds of things.”

  I knew that was true. Mr. Block didn’t seem to like dealing with any kinds of things.

  “You had no problem recommending him?”

  Her forehead creased. “Yes, but he was a policeman so I figured he would do a good job. I had no idea all this would happen.”

  “And what happened?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know much about how it happened. I only know what’s going on now, and that there are others involved.”

  “Do you know who?”

  She shook her head.

  “Verbally again, please.”

  “I do not.”

  “You gave us an address for the house, but not the factory. How do you know the address?”

  “Walters wanted me to know exactly what would happen to my son if I didn’t go along with them. One Saturday morning Marcel drove me to the house. We sat in the car for ten minutes before a van pulled up in front. A few minutes later five kids came out with two men and got into the van. They put a blindfold on me. When they took the blindfold off we were inside a building. They led me to a room that had two rows of tables with people sitting there filling tiny packets with white powder. Most were kids.” She started to shake again and then regained her composure. “I have gone to sleep every night with the image of my son sitting at that table. Some nights I didn’t sleep at all.”

  “You could have come to the police and told us about Walters. We would have protected you.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t think you could have. Walters was a cop. And he said he still had friends on the force. So who would protect me and my son?”

  We were all very quiet. I was glad the lieutenant didn’t respond because I would have agreed with Belva. Stosh and I had talked a lot about the things the police couldn’t do because their hands were tied by the law. They sure couldn’t give Belva and her son personal bodyguards. A heavy blanket of sadness hung in the room.

  I broke the silence. “May I ask a question, lieutenant?”

  “Yes.”

  “Belva, you’re wearing a diamond bracelet. Where did you get that?”

  She violently shook her head, took off the bracelet, and placed it on the table. “It’s from him.”

  “A present?”

  “That’s what he said. But he wanted me to have something that would remind me to not say anything.”

  “So he bought you off?”

  She sighed. “I guess, but he didn’t have to after threatening Albert. If it wasn’t for Albert I wouldn’t have done this.”

  “You could have not worn the bracelet.”

  “No, he made me wear it. One day I forgot to put it on and he said if I forgot again Albert wouldn’t like it.”

  I still wasn’t sure whether Belva was acting. “The day before Benny was killed I was in the Fun House and someone behind me asked me to meet him at the hot dog stand. He didn’t show up. Were you there in the Fun House?” I had no proof, but I had a suspicion based on the flash I had seen when I looked back in the darkness. Everything depended on her answer.

  Belva started to cry and buried her face in her hands. “It’s my fault Benny is dead,” she said with a shaky voice. “If I… I didn’t know…”

  I knew what she meant, but had to ask.

  “So you were there?”

  She nodded and then looked up at me. “I was. Walters told me to follow you and report where you had been and who you talked to.”

  “I didn’t see you.”

  “There are walkways for the workers behind the maze. I saw you go in and then saw Benny go in after you.” She paused and looked confused. “How did you know I was there?”

  “I didn’t for sure. But I saw a sparkle of light th
at I thought may have been from your bracelet.”

  She was quiet.

  “So it was Benny who wanted to meet me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know who killed him?”

  She looked down and then back up with half-closed eyes. “Walters took him down in the tunnels to teach him a lesson. He brought his baseball bat. He made me come with… to show me what could happen if I didn’t cooperate.”

  “You can’t teach someone a lesson by killing them, Belva.”

  “No. He didn’t mean to. But Benny put up a fight and Walters hit him in the head.” She started to sob. “I didn’t help. I just backed against the wall and froze. I felt so awful.”

  There wasn’t anything any of us could say to help her with that.

  “How about the others?”

  She shook her head. “Well, there’s Marcel. He was meaner than Walters.”

  “One more question, Belva,” I said.

  She looked up at me.

  “Harvey is your cousin. Is he involved in any of this?”

  “No. He knows nothing about it.”

  I looked over at Stosh and winked.

  He narrowed his eyelids ever so slightly and took over the questioning. “Who else is involved, Mrs. Meyers?”

  “I don’t know any of the people outside of the park. Walters and Marcel and I were the only ones at Riverview. There were probably others who brought the boys to the shack, but they had no idea what was going on.”

  “Last question. There were three people killed before tonight—Benny, Harold, and Gertrude Morgan, Mr. Block’s secretary. Do you know anything about Harold?”

  She shook her head. “Poor Harold. I overheard a conversation between Walters and Harold. Walters didn’t know I was there. Harold evidently saw something and said he was going to the police. Walters said that wouldn’t end well for him and he should think it over. I guess he didn’t get the chance to do that.”

  Rosie raised her hand halfway.

  “Go ahead, Lonnigan,” Stosh said.

  I said I had a question too.

  “Why was Walters doing this?” Rosie asked.

  Belva shook her head. “Money. Why else? Someone was paying him a lot of money for each kid.”

  Stosh nodded at me.

  “Belva, Gertrude Morgan was Mr. Block’s secretary.”