Sons

by Michael Halfhill

  Amal interrupted Jan in midsentence.

  “Excuse me, Effendi. You have a phone call from France.”

  Jan sighed at the interruption.

  “Thank you, Amal. I’ll take the call in my bedroom.” Colin’s eyes followed him as Jan walked to the door.

  Jan turned and smiled.

  “We’ll talk about this later, Colin, okay?”

  “Okay, but there’s a Black as Night concert that William told me about, and I’ve never been to one, and, well, I would need to know pretty soon, I mean if it’s okay.”

  “I’ll let you know pretty soon,” Jan said as he left the office.

  Colin returned to the Knights Templar website.

  Ugh Latin! That’s almost as bad as slide rules. I wonder why he doesn’t want me to look at this stuff?

  Eighteen

  THE phone call from France was Jan’s weekly conference call, a routine catch-up on Mundus’s European activities. One item discussed in depth was a curious jump in tourism in, of all places, Iceland. That in itself was not unwelcome, but the tourists’ countries of origin were unusual. Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Syria headed the list. It seemed Arab nations were supplying an inordinate number of glacier climbing enthusiasts, flooding into the island nation on a large scale. It was this fact that was so troubling, in these troubled times. Was this paranoia profiling, or a wake-up call? That was for future Mundus intelligence operations to determine. In the meantime, Iceland needed watching.

  After the callers rang off the secure Mundus phone line, Jan dialed Nick Flamingo from his cell phone. Nick owned and operated the I Spy Detective Agency in Philadelphia. If anything happened in Philly, Nick knew about it.

  “Nick, it’s Jan Phillips. Please pick up the phone if you’re there.”

  Jan waited several long moments, wondering why the detective’s answering service didn’t respond. Just as he was about to hang up, Nick Flamingo answered breathlessly, “Flamingo.”

  “Nick, you sound all in. Have a rough night?” Jan said.

  “If you call sitting in a car, watching a warehouse all day and half the night rough, I guess I’d say yes. So, what can I do ya for?” Nick said, still groggy from lack of sleep.

  Nick’s English usage notwithstanding, he was as good as you get when it came to detective work, which was why Jan used his services when his law firm needed information denied to ordinary folk.

  “What do you know about a band called Black as Night? They’re playing at a place called the Old Rockadero,” Jan said.

  “Black as Night, eh? They’re a local Goth band. The kids who go to those things are way too young for you, my boy,” Nick replied with a sarcastic snigger.

  Jan brushed off the good-humored jibe. “Very funny,” he said dryly. “What else should I know?”

  “Know? Uh… they’re like a lot of rock bands. They stand up on a rickety stage and, in costumes you wouldn’t wear on Halloween, make bad noise. What else do you need to know?”

  “Nick, don’t fence with me. I’m serious.”

  Nick yawned into the phone.

  “Serious, huh? Okay, let’s see, they’re strictly local, but they’re pretty well funded for a cult band, and they target the under twenty ‘mom and dad have too much money’ crowd. There’s heavy security. That’s supposed to mean no alcohol, no sex, pretty clean for drugs too. The drug stuff is more trouble for the band members than the fans, but what these people do before they hit the stage is anybody’s guess. As these things go, they’re pretty tame, at least on the aisle side of the stage. That’s not to say there aren’t after-show parties. I have seen some lowlifes in big limos hanging around before and after the shows. Why do you ask?”

  “My kid wants to see them.”

  “No foolin’! You gotta kid?” Nick said, letting out a whoop of laughter, then instantly regretting his crack about Philadelphia’s moneyed crowd, of which Jan was a card-carrying member.

  Jan ignored the “You gotta kid?” crack and the attending mirth. He waited quietly for Nick to compose himself.

  “Tell me about the lowlifes,” Jan said, his tone as flat as a calm lake.

  Taking his cue, Nick became all business.

  “Most of them are regulars. They’re smart, and they know their way around the law if they get caught. Like they say, ‘You can do anything you want, but never get caught with a live boy or a dead girl.’ One’s a particularly nasty fellow, a Russian guy. Name’s Pytór Krevchenko. He seems to have a lot of very young nephews and nieces flying back and forth to Mother Russia. This Pytór has a new sidekick, a recently transplanted Saudi national, goes by the name Ben. Don’t have a last name for him. He’s a big guy, looks tough. Oh, and this will interest you. Krevchenko hangs out with your old buddy, Louis Carew.”

  Nick paused to let Jan absorb this tidbit of underworld gossip.

  Jan thought, Carew! It’s been a long time since I heard that name.

  Jan shivered at the thought of Colin running into a man like Louis Carew. His imagination ran riot until Nick jarred him back to the real world.

  “Hey! You still there, Jan?”

  “Yeah, umm, so, Nick, what made you flag Carew?”

  “I got a client. His fourteen-year-old daughter went missing after a party, and somebody saw a limo that looked like the one Carew uses. Given Louie’s track record with underage girls, I’m sorta keeping my eyes peeled. I’m staking out a warehouse he rents just over Vine Street from Chinatown. I figure if he had anything to do with the missing girl, somebody around there might have seen something. Trouble is, see, like, they got lights at this warehouse that go on and off, but nobody goes in or out.”

  Suggesting the obvious, Jan said, “Maybe the lights are on timers.”

  “That’s what I figure, but I still don’t see nobody goin’ in and out, even in the daytime, and it’s supposed to be a business, if you get my drift.”

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Jan said wearily.

  “So, do you want I should keep an eye out for this kid of yours? I mean in case somebody approaches him?”

  “Nah, I’m not going to spy on him.”

  Jan paused a moment to reconsider the offer but decided his first instinct was best. Then, “Okay, Nick. Got anything else?”

  “That’s about it. One thing I heard through the grapevine, Carew the younger runs a smalltime porno studio. The word is daddy’s furious about it. That warehouse I’m watching is where Louie baby is supposed to be filming. That’s the business I was referring to, if you can call it that, but like I said, if somethin’s going on in there, I sure can’t see it. The police haven’t found the missing girl yet. Hey, you want I should dig a little more?”

  “Yes, you do that, Nick. Fax your report to me at the office, okay?”

  “You got it.” With that, the detective rang off.

  Jan sat on the edge of the bed and thought, Carew and kids. That guy just won’t quit.

  “Jan?”

  Jan turned to see Michael standing in the doorway. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I could not help overhearing. What is this about a Black as Night concert?”

  Jan shook his head.

  “Oh hell, I don’t know. Colin wants to take a girl from school to one, and I was just trying to check these so-called concerts out.”

  Michael laughed. “My sister’s son William goes to them. She says she does not mind as long as he washes the purple and green out of his hair and cleans off the black fingernail coloring from his hands. I saw him once. What a mess!”

  Jan winced.

  “Black fingernails and green hair? What ever happened to Walt Disney movies about pirates and crocodiles?” he said.

  “My sister said it is just a stage kids go through.”

  “The Asian community is pretty conservative. Did you go through a stage like that?” Jan asked dubiously.

  “No, but, Jan, you must remember this is America, not China. Besides, it has been many years since we were teenagers
. Still, I think it is harmless. Do not worry so much!”

  Jan was still troubled despite Michael’s gentle assurances.

  “I never heard Colin express an interest in this kind of thing. You really think it’s okay?” Jan pressed.

  “Jan, I am not sure of anything in life. Let him go. He is an intelligent boy, and he has been with us for, what? Four months now? He knows to be careful. I think with a proper warning, it would be fine.”

  MICHAEL and Jan lay smiling in each other’s arms. The bedroom cast in deep, mobile shadows as sporadic moonbeams pierced through thin black clouds, a celestial residue of yet another passing midnight storm.

  “Still in love?” Jan asked.

  It was a question-and-answer game two lovers played.

  Michael scooted against Jan’s pale skin, made silvery in the unstable moonlight.

  “You are the prince of my dreams,” Michael answered.

  Nineteen

  JAN dropped Colin off at the corner of Fifth and Race Streets. He watched with increased trepidation as his son turned to wave, then plunged into the crowd of teenagers dressed like vampires on prom night.

  Colin hurried to join the end of a long line of youngsters waiting to buy tickets. A last minute change listed Misericordia as the featured entertainment for the teen fans who packed the wide sidewalk as they shuffled along toward the ticket booth.

  Misericordia. Jan eyed the band’s poster and thought, Mercy! How apt! At least I don’t have to listen to it. Walt Disney! Where are you?

  Jan merged into the light traffic. He glanced into the rearview mirror for another look at Colin.

  I wonder what he’s thinking.

  TUNES from Misericordia’s previously recorded albums played from weak speakers located at the seedy building’s double-door entrance. Colin looked around nervously and fingered the twenty-dollar bill Jan gave him. Also in his pocket was an additional twenty Michael had palmed him, just in case Zan wanted to get a snack after the show.

  “Don’t tell your father,” Michael had warned with a wink and a nod.

  Colin scanned the street again. Where is she? It’s getting late. She said she’d be here.

  Colin felt a pang of abandonment. What if she and William didn’t show up? What if they were already here and he couldn’t find them in this crowd?

  PARKED across the wide street from the theater, a black Mercedes limousine sat with its engine idling. A lone man occupied the back seat. The figure slowly lowered the car’s smoked glass window and lifted a pair of high power binoculars. He watched the teens shuffling along in the cool night air. A swirl of sewer steam blew up from a manhole, temporarily blocking his view.

  “Damn,” the man swore.

  Rubbing his eyes, he replaced the binoculars. After a moment of scanning the line, he stopped. The man dropped the binoculars to his chest. He sat a moment considering if what he saw was accurate. Slowly he looked again through the lenses.

  “Holy shit!”

  “Sir?” a man behind the wheel looked up into the rearview mirror.

  “Nothing. Wait here.”

  The man put the binoculars on a tray next to a glass of iced bourbon. He yanked the car door open and stepped out into musty Philadelphia air. Dodging taxies and evening delivery trucks, he sprinted across Race Street.

  COLIN jumped when a hand tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Jan Phillips. Out slumming with the kids?”

  Colin pulled away and looked up at a tall man whose face was in shadow, his figure backlit by the bright headlights of a passing car. Colin squinted against the momentary glare. He guessed the man to be around thirty years old.

  “I’m not Jan Phillips. He’s my father.”

  The man took a long look at Colin and chuckled.

  “His son! Geeze, I’m sorry. You look so much like your dad. It’s amazing! I couldn’t help making the connection. But then, I don’t think he’s ever had his hair spiked like a wagon wheel.”

  Colin smirked. “That’d be a sight, wouldn’t it? Who are you, anyway?”

  The man held out his hand.

  “My name is Lou Carew. What’s yours?”

  “Colin. Are you a friend of my father’s?”

  Lou didn’t look like the kind of person his father would have as a friend. There was something sinister about him.

  “Well, kind of. We did some business a while back.”

  Suddenly, there was a commotion in the line.

  Colin asked a fat girl, squeezed into a black Latex bustier, “What’s going on?”

  “The assholes ran out of tickets. This is the last time I get all dressed up to come to this place!” she screamed back as she stomped off down the street.

  “All dressed up and nowhere to go. Pity,” Carew said.

  “She’s pretty cheezed,” Colin said.

  “Not her, you! You’ve got the coolest outfit I’ve seen in a long time.”

  A knot of boys and girls pushed between Colin and Louis as they grumbled their impotent discontent. Colin noticed the older man’s irritation at the interruption.

  He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and said, “I don’t wanna seem rude, but aren’t you a little old to be doing a teen concert?”

  Lou masked his annoyance toward Colin’s make-believe, hard-ass-kid attitude with a hearty laugh.

  “You don’t understand, kid. I’m here looking for talent. I run a film studio, and I scout kids who’re interested in breaking into the movie scene and in making some serious money while they’re doing it.”

  “Movies? Really?” Colin perked up. This could be my way out!

  Louis was an old hand at this. He knew when he had a fish on the line. This one was so easy. All he had to do was reel Jan Phillips’s baby boy in. He’d waited a long time for an opportunity like this.

  “Here’s my card. Come see me. You’ve got style, and I’m always looking for new faces.”

  Colin took Louis’s business card, glanced at it, and then shoved it into his pants pocket when he heard a voice call from across Race Street.

  “Colin!”

  Alexandra waved and hurried to his side with apologies.

  “I’m sorry. The hem on my skirt came apart in the wash, and I didn’t see it until I was ready to leave.”

  She eyed Louis Carew warily. He was still talking to Colin, despite her presence.

  “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “I’m an acquaintance of Colin’s father,” Carew said, masking his frustration at the intrusion with feigned friendliness.

  Colin turned to face Alexandra.

  “Zan, the show’s sold out. We were too late,” he complained.

  “What! I don’t believe it.”

  “It’s true,” Louis said, mocking their disappointment.

  “Well, this sure sucks! Now what do we do?” Zan asked, clearly dissatisfied with the news.

  “Hey, why don’t you two stop over at my film studio, and I’ll show you around.”

  Zan was instantly wary of the stranger. Raised in the city, she knew adults simply didn’t approach kids their age without an introduction. The man was a little too friendly.

  “Excuse me?” she said suspiciously.

  “Louis here has a film studio!” Colin said. “He was telling me about it before you got here.”

  It was clear to Alexandra that Colin wanted to accept Louis’s invitation.

  God, what can he be thinking?

  She had to think fast if she was going to short circuit this idea. This was their first real date, and she wasn’t about to share it with some strange old fart!

  “Yeah, well I told William that since he couldn’t make it tonight we’d go to his house after the show. Now that we can’t get in, I think we should keep him company.”

  Alexandra pushed her nose to Colin’s and narrowed her eyes. Colin regarded her stare and its silent message.

  “Oh. Okay. Sorry, Lou, some other time… okay?”

  Alexandra snatched Coli
n’s hand, and the two walked off, heading toward Chinatown just a few blocks away. To onlookers, they looked like a two-headed monster loose on the town.

  Louis chuckled to himself as he headed back to his limo.

  Yeah, kid. You better bet there’ll be another time.

  Twenty

  “SHH.”

  “Why are you shushing me?” Alexandra said. “There’s no one home.”

  Colin looked around the large living room. Anyone could see that the plush wall-to-wall carpet would muffle the sound of approaching footsteps, but if Zan said it was okay, he wasn’t going to argue. Still, he was nervous.

  “Don’t you think we should check?” he said.

  “My mom’s at work. She never leaves the office before five thirty, unless I’m home sick. Come on.”

  Zan grabbed Colin’s sleeve. She led him down a short hall and up two flights of oak spiral stairs that opened directly into her bedroom suite.

  “Wow! Is this your room?” Colin said.

  “Yeah, kinda big, isn’t it? There’s a computer room through that door. The other one is to the bathroom. My mom’s room is downstairs. It’s just like this one.”

  Alexandra stood close behind Colin as he peeked through the computer room door. Justin Timberlake, Jude Law, and Orlando Bloom as the Lord of the Rings elf, Legolas, beamed sexy, I’m yours for the asking grins from slick posters. Colin noticed they were all blond.

  She likes blonds. Good for me!

  Alexandra’s computer workstation looked like a starship console. Every imaginable piece of computer-related magic competed for desk space.

  As he turned, he accidentally brushed against her breast just as she stepped away. Face red with clumsy excitement, he said, “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be, I didn’t mind,” she said with a smile.

  Colin looked at Alexandra for a long moment.

  He murmured, “I’ve never been this close to a girl before. I mean… alone.”