Chapter 1
"Sheldon we got a problem." I quickly place the phone back in its cradle and race down to the server room where I see Jim, my network manager frantically typing on a keyboard. He's somewhere in his late thirties, slightly overweight and wears thick glasses that look as though they were made out of the same glass they use in banks to separate the tellers from the customers. Behind him is Brian, he's our server guru. He’s a tech-head, and as far as I can tell he has no other life other than this job. He just turned twenty-five, but he could easily pass for fifty. He is very slim with a receding gray hairline that he's had ever since he started working here.
"What’s going on?" I ask.
Jim slowly turns his head and looks at me. His expression is sour. "It's not looking good Sheldon. I think we have a virus. We now have six more servers down. I've never seen anything like this before." He looks behind him at one of seven large-enclosed racks containing our thirty-five servers. Each rack is about six feet tall and resembles a robot from a sci-fi movie. "I don’t think we're going to make it in time."
I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I try to ignore it but I know what will happen if our servers go down and production stops. We are a large defense contracting company where every minute counts. Time is money as they say in our business. My phone continues its vibrating crusade and feels like it is going to shake itself right out of my pocket, so I decide I better answer it. I take a jump back hearing Michelle’s voice.
"Tommy is missing."
"What?" I hear the word come out of my mouth, but I can’t tell if it is actually coming from me or someone else.
"He didn’t come out and they were dismissed twenty minutes ago." I feel the air getting stuck in my lungs.
"He's probably talking to his teacher or something."
"I just saw his teachers and they said he was dismissed early. I'm going to check with the office now"
"What?" I yell again causing Jim and Brian to look at me curiously. "How could he do that?"
"He can't. Only an adult can sign him out. Hold on a second they're looking through the log." I don’t answer I just stare into the black screen in front of me. "He was signed out by Lawrence."
"My brother?"
"Yep."
"Hold on. I'll call him right now." I ignore all the incoming email and calls and hang up the phone. There's no way Lawrence would pick Tommy up without telling us. We added him to the emergency list because we are supposed to provide two people for alternative pick-ups, but Lawrence lives and works in DC. He answers his phone on the second ring, business must be slow today. "Lawrence, do you have Tommy?" I hear him clear his throat; obviously confused by my question and tone.
"No, I don’t have Tommy. Is there something wrong?"
"I'm not sure. He didn’t come out of school today and the log says you signed him out."
"Can't be me. I've been in court almost all day. How can it say that?"
"I don’t know, but I have to go. Thanks. If you hear from him please let me know."
"I promise. Let me know if I can help." I quickly end the call and redial Michelle.
"He doesn’t have him." I can hear her breathing quickly.
"The lady at the desk remembers him coming in. He showed his license and everything. She even described him."
"He said he was in court all day. Something's not right. I'll be right there." I look over at Brian and Jim who are until desperately trying to get the servers back up and stop this crisis.
"I got to go guys. My son is missing." I can't believe I just said that. It sounds so surreal. They both look at me for an answer so I say. "I'm sure it's nothing, I should be right back. Keep trying to figure out what's going on here and let me know." I throw my stuff down on an empty table, and feel my legs and feet moving below me in a direction and speed unbeknownst to me. The next thing I know, I'm in my car heading for the school. I arrive at the school and park my Tahoe right out front where I think the buses usually park, but I don't care. I don’t see Michelle or Tommy anywhere, so I run in through the front door, it's unlocked but I guess that's because it's after hours. As soon as I see the main office I see Michelle seated in a chair her hands covering her face.
"Do you know where he is?" She looks up at me. Her face is ringing with stress.
"No, they said your brother came and got him around one." I look at the group of women gathered behind me looking concerned. I immediately recognize one of them as the Principal, Mrs. Jackson. She's a small stocky woman somewhere in her mid to late fifties who must get her hair permed at least once a month because it always looks the same. Tight short curls.
A frail looking woman with sandy-colored hair who has to be close to retirement age walks over to me and says, "She's right Mr. Smith, your brother came and signed him out. We made him show his driver's license because we have never seen him before." I look closely at the woman. I can see the pain in her face. I think she's one of the assistants who work in the office. I think I have seen her before.
"Shouldn’t you call us if someone comes and tries to pick our son up?" I yell. The Principal steps between me and the woman.
"He's on your emergency pickup list and we ID'd him." I shake my head and look at Michelle.
"You better call Lawrence again Sheldon." She places her head back in her hands. I pull out my cell phone and start dialing. I hear the Principal tell the other ladies to search the school again, and then call the police. I feel myself start to gasp when Lawrence answers.
"Hey Sheldon, any news on Tommy?" I can hear the rustling of papers in the background.
"The school is claiming you came and got him at 1:00 today. Even showed them your driver's license and signed for him." I look down at the log and sure enough it looks like my brothers signature. I have seen it enough times since he has been our acting attorney since Michelle and I got married. "It's your signature Lawrence."
"I don’t know what they're talking about I was in court at 1:00. You can check with the judge and the bailiff if you don’t believe me." I hear him breathing harder on the phone.
"I do Lawrence. I do. I just don’t understand where he is. Hold on a second." I quickly pull out my iPhone and find the picture I am looking for it’s my brother and me at my birthday last year. I hold it up to the secretary. Her face is now full of perspiration and her hair is a little more out of place. "Is this the guy that picked up Tommy?" She grabs my phone and stares at the screen for a minute and then shakes her head. "I'm not sure…I mean he looked sort of like that, maybe a little bigger though." I look down at the phone. I somehow disconnected Lawrence, but if he was in court how could he have taken Tommy. He knows we could easily check that so why would he lie. I hear the sirens in the distance and look at Michelle. She hasn’t moved. Two custodians enter the office and shake their heads. I hear them telling the Principal they have checked the entire school and didn’t find Tommy. Everything is beginning to blur. I feel my head spinning around everything is out of control. I can't believe Tommy is missing. I want to start screaming. The next thing I know I'm sitting down next to Michelle. Her hands are on my shoulders. I see police officers begin to filter in and quickly disperse. I guess they are checking the building and immediate area. Two men in suits walk in and Mrs. Jackson briefly speaks to them and then points them toward us.
"Mr. Smith, my name is Detective Stanton and this is Detective Adams." I reach my hand out and shake the large man's hand. He's probably around my age, but has at least three inches and fifty pounds on me. He has a thick head of dark hair parted neatly to the left. He points at the smaller man, who introduces himself as Detective Adams. He is roughly the same age but much smaller and fairer with glasses and is losing his light thin hair. They almost appear as opposites. Michelle bri
efly looks up and acknowledges both of them. I feel my phone vibrating and ringing incessantly in my pocket. "Do you need to get that?" Detective Adams quickly asks. I immediately reach down and look at the number being displayed.
“It's my work. We have a small crisis going on." Michelle looks at me and then turns away. I put the phone back in my pocket. I watch Detective Stanton get the log from Mrs. Jackson. He scans it quickly.
"So tell me who Lawrence is?" He has a very authoritative voice.
"He's my brother. I just spoke with him and he was in court at 1:00." The detective nods and hands the book to Adams.
"We'll need to confirm that because we have his signature and a positive ID. Has he ever picked up your son before?"
Michelle quickly answers no.
"We just have him on the list in case neither of us could get here in time. We live too close for Tommy to take the bus, so he's considered a walker. We don’t let him walk home alone because we don’t want anything to happen to him…and now he's gone." I feel my voice trembling.
"We've got officers searching the school and the nearby neighborhood. If you have any recent pictures that would help." I immediately pull out my iPhone again and show them some pictures of Tommy from about a month ago. The Detective takes my phone and emails the pictures somewhere. I'm not sure to whom and I really don’t care. "We've also got a helicopter on the way and we've already put out an amber alert, so if he's nearby we will find him."
"Has this ever happened before?" The detective looks at Mrs. Jackson who shakes her head no.
"Not around here as far as I know. Usually it involves a custody thing, but both of you are here. There's no one else involved right? No other spouse or anything?"
I shake my head. "Nope, just us and Lawrence who is always so busy we only see him a few times a year."
"Does he have a family?"
"No, it's just him. He's always working."
"Okay. We will need to check him out. Detective Adams is already contacting DC to verify his alibi."
I nod my head. I can't believe he just said alibi. How can this be happening? "So what do we do now?"
"We hold tight. We need to let the officers do their jobs and let the Amber alert get out." He looks around the office. "Do you have a TV in here?" Mrs. Jackson quickly opens a wooden cabinet and a large CRT TV pops out. She turns it on to a local station and on the screen is Tommy. I look over at Michelle who is just staring at the screen; her eyes glassy. I can’t stop looking at the screen either. I'm mesmerized seeing my son's face.
"Tommy. Tommy." Michelle is calling out. I place my arm around her and she buries her face into my shoulder. We both can't help but start to cry. I feel the tears streaming down my face and on my shirt from Michelle. The Detectives are speaking into their phones. We remain this way for about ten minutes. I keep glancing at the screen seeing Tommy's face smiling back at me.
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we just confirmed your brother was in court this afternoon, so that leaves us with who picked him up and how did he get your brother's driver's license."
I take out my phone and dial Lawrence's number again. He answers it after the first ring. "Lawrence, the police just confirmed you were in court. Do you have your driver's license?" I hear shuffling in the background.
"Got it right here."
"Thanks Lawrence. Somehow they got a copy of your license."
"I'll head right over there. I'm going to call some of my contacts on the way."
I nod my head into the phone. "Thanks." I look at the two detectives who are standing in front of us now. "He has his license with him." I watch as they both look at each other.
"That means we have a fake license and it's someone who knows who is on your emergency pickup list, any ideas?" I look at Michelle and she stares back at me shaking her head.
"I can't think of anyone or any reason for someone to know that. I don’t even think Tommy knows that Lawrence is on his list."
The detective looks at the frazzled secretary. She says, "It's all on the computer. I think only the office staff can access it."
"She's right, there are only a handful of us in here and I'm sure the IT folks." Mrs. Jackson slowly answers, her eyes glued to the TV as it begins to show images of Blue Creek Elementary.
"We'll need to check everyone out." Detective Stanton takes out a small notepad.
"I think everyone you need is in this room." Mrs. Jackson looks around. I decide I need to get out of here. I head out the door and step outside into the lobby. It's a normal elementary school lobby. There are a few benches for parents to wait on for their kids and PTA signs taped to the cinder walls. There’s even a small monitor displaying today's events and the lunch menu. Pizza today, Tommy's favorite. I head outside and as soon as I step onto the sidewalk, I feel like I'm on a movie set. There are police cars everywhere, helicopters flying above me and news vans with their spiraling antennas setting up in the parking lot. I can’t believe it, it doesn’t feel real. I want to start screaming Tommy's name, but it probably won’t do any good with the sound of all those rotors above me. I slowly walk around to the side of the school. It's a fairly large school for an elementary. I think I heard Tommy tell me there were almost eight hundred kids here. How can it be my kid missing with all these kids? I look up at the sky and hope God is up there somewhere keeping an eye on Tommy. I'm not a regular church going guy, but I do believe in God, and Tommy and I have spent a lot of time talking about him. I hope he's looking above now for support as well. I end up behind the school near the playground equipment. I can see the officer’s shadows moving through the woods, but I try not to watch them. I climb up to the top of the slide and end up sitting up there. I close my eyes trying to imagine Tommy is okay. I know they say the more time that goes by the less chance you’re going to find someone, but I wonder why someone would go through so much trouble to take Tommy just to hurt him. I mean we have no enemies and I know Tommy doesn't for sure. I don’t think he's ever got into any kind of fight or anything. I don’t know how much time goes by, but after what seems like hours Michelle, the two detectives and Lawrence approach me from the side of the school.
"He's not the one who picked up Tommy." Detective Stanton points at Lawrence. The secretary is adamant it was someone else." I slowly climb down the steps and embrace Lawrence who hugs me back. We remain there until the detective tells us we need to go home in case Tommy tries to contact us. I look at my watch and notice the game should be starting any minute now. Tommy should be standing next to third base, not on a TV screen above the words "Amber Alert".
Chapter 2
We finally arrive back home and the house is way too quiet. I feel like screaming just to hear my voice. I see the answering machine indicating we have three new messages. I carefully listen to each one, but I am let down after hearing they are not from Tommy. Instead, they are all from parents of the kids on the team wondering where we are. My iPhone is vibrating non-stop, I check each time to see if it's him, but it's just callers from work wanting to know about the server crisis. I decide to deal with them later. I'm not really sure why I keep checking, because Tommy's phone is upstairs on his dresser. The reason I know that is because I just called it and heard it ringing the latest Katy Perry hit. I decide to head upstairs and I end up standing outside Tommy's room just looking at his empty bed. The dark blue comforter is pulled up tight to the head of the bed. Definitely not Tommy’s doing. He takes after me as far as that kind of thing goes. Michelle is always getting after us for not making the bed or cleaning up. The two detectives and Michelle are downstairs. I can hear them talking. I need to stay away from them, it's too depressing. They think Tommy may try and contact us here, but I think what they're really saying is someone else may try and contact us; so we’re told to sit tight which is something I really don’t feel like doing right now. I need to go search for him. Michelle is already on the phone calling every friend or parent he has ever come into contact with just in case, but I’m pretty sure if he left wit
h a stranger he is probably with him. The detectives have a sketch of the man that called himself Lawrence. There is definitely a resemblance between him and my brother. The police took Lawrence to the police station to try and figure out how or why someone got a hold of his driver's license and probably ask him a few more questions, but I think everyone is pretty convinced it wasn't him that came and got him. I hear Michelle slowly coming up the steps behind me.
"Did anyone see him?"
She nods her head back and forth. "I called as many as I could and no one has seen him since this morning."
I hug her close to me and feel her arms wrap behind my shoulders. "The part I just can’t seem to understand is why would Tommy go with a complete stranger and not say anything."
"I've been thinking about that too. He must have said something to him." I hold her tighter.
"Like what though. I mean he had to know it wasn't Lawrence. There's no way." I hear someone behind us.
"There might be a way." Detective Stanton says in a low voice just above a whisper. "The secretary remembered Tommy being upset, almost crying."
"What's that mean?" I release Michelle a little.
"It could mean a lot of things. Like maybe the man told him something happened to one of you and he had to go with him."
"But wouldn’t he have heard him tell the secretary his name was Lawrence?" I ask. "I mean I know he's only thirteen, but he's not that naïve."
"Not necessarily. Apparently the man had already signed Tommy out when he came into the office, so all that would have taken place before Tommy even got there."
"But Tommy would ask who the guy was?" Michelle replies.
"According to the school he was waiting right by the door, so he got to Tommy before anyone could hear what was said. Remember they said Tommy looked sad."
"What was the official reason for signing him out?" I ask.
"Again, this is according to the school and you may know better than me, but you don't have to have an official reason for signing your kid out." He pauses and talks even quieter. I have to lean in. "The secretary was told it was an emergency and the guy wouldn’t go any further than that. He wasn't a man of many words." I hear footsteps coming up the stairs behind him and see Detective Adams eagerly appear.
Fatal Decision Page 1