Finding 01 Finding Kaden

by Jean Reinhardt

  “What about some food?” shouted Tuck.

  One of the boys looked through his rucksack and found some protein bars and a canister of water.

  “Hey there’s food in here. I’m starving. Do you suppose we are meant to eat these now?” he asked, looking around the room.

  Kaden checked his rucksack.

  “I’ve got some too, but maybe we should wait a while - just in case this is for another stage in our journey. We don’t know where we might be brought next. Why don’t we give it about half an hour and see if anyone brings us something to eat.”

  Tuck snapped and pushed Kaden against the wall, holding him there with both hands on his shoulders, shouting into his face.

  “Who elected you spokesman? If we want to eat, we can go ahead and eat. You stay hungry if you like.”

  Two of the boys pulled him off Kaden.

  “Come on Tuck, back off. He’s only making a suggestion, and he could be right. We should wait and see,” one of them said.

  Tuck shrugged and let go, brushing down Kaden’s clothes in mock concern.

  “Oh, did I scare you? Sorry about that. Here, let me tidy you up.”

  Something familiar flashed in Kaden’s head. The sudden attack, being pinned against a wall, a name, Tuck - and then he knew what he was remembering. As Tuck turned his back on him, Kaden dived forward and both of them landed on the ground. All the pent up emotion and fear served to heighten the tension in the room. The boys gathered around the two that were wrestling on the floor. In spite of his sore ribs Kaden was a capable opponent for Tuck. Before they could do much harm to each other, the door opened and two guards ran in, separating them. Another guard carrying a rifle stood by the door.

  “Just like a pack of wild dogs, can’t be left alone for any length of time before a fight breaks out,” shouted the man who was twisting Kaden’s arm behind his back.

  “No wonder your face is in such a state. Roy, bring your guy over here,” he said to the one holding Tuck and they handcuffed the two young men to a steel bar attached to one of the walls. One of the guards left for a few minutes, returning with a trolley loaded with plates of food and steaming mugs of coffee. He placed it in the middle of the room and told the boys to help themselves. The door was slammed shut and locked, the boys once again left on their own.

  Tuck yelled at Smokes to bring him some food.

  “Ask me nicely,” said Smokes with a big grin on his face.

  At this, the other boys burst out laughing and a lot of the tension left the room. Even Tuck laughed. Only Kaden remained quiet and sullen, never taking his eyes off Tuck. Some of the boys brought a couple of mattresses and the rucksacks belonging to the two young men over to them. Smokes brought them their food and hot drinks.

  “You two should kiss and make up, we all need to stick together,” he said, placing their supper within reach.

  Tuck apologized for losing his temper and taking his frustration out on Kaden. He held out the hand that wasn’t secured to the wall in a gesture of friendship. Kaden ignored it.

  “I know what happened to my face now. It was you, in an alley with another guy. You jumped me and it’s your fault I’m here.”

  Kaden was so mad he felt he could wrench the bar he was attached to right off the wall. Tuck let his hand drop.

  “Okay, whatever. That was me and Milo. Nothing personal, really. It’s just what we do.”

  Kaden asked if he had seen any ID belonging to him.

  “Do you still not remember who you are?” asked Tuck.

  Kaden shook his head.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I looked at your ID card, all we wanted was the cash. We dumped the wallet and threw your phone in the river. Milo has your jacket and shoes.”

  As Tuck was speaking he looked away from Kaden’s glare and saw that the other boys had stopped eating and were staring over at both of them.

  “Okay guys, I’ve apologized, there’s nothing more I can do now, is there?” Tuck said impatiently then picked up a spoonful of food and began to eat.

  Smokes crossed the room carrying his plate and sat next to Kaden.

  “You should really eat now, they’re bound to come back soon and take this stuff away. Hey you lot, this guy was right when he said we should wait and see if we were getting any food. I think he’s worth listening to when he makes a suggestion, don’t you, TUCK?” Smokes said.

  Nodding his head in agreement and putting his plate down, Tuck asked Kaden to put any bad feelings aside. They all needed to stick close and support one another.

  “There could be an opportunity for us to escape if we put our heads together and form a plan,” he said. Once again, Tuck held out a hand to Kaden.

  Thinking about this, the practical side of Kaden got the better of him. He grabbed hold of the outstretched hand and shook it firmly.

  “I still want to kill you,” he said, “But I can put it on hold, for now.”

  When the guards returned to take away the trolley they were bombarded with questions, all of the boys speaking at once.

  “Just tell us, are we in Canada?” shouted Kaden.

  They left the room without uttering a single word.

  Tuck called a couple of the boys over and spoke in a hushed voice.

  “Do you see any cameras in the room? Have a look around, will you?”

  After a thorough search nothing was found.

  “Just in case, huddle around me as if we’re whispering to each other.”

  Smokes couldn’t help smiling.

  “We are whispering,” he said softly, making the others laugh.

  Tuck asked Kaden to discreetly pass over to him the piece of paper he had in his boot. The group put their heads closer together as the note was unfolded.

  “It’s just a receipt from a service station, what use is that?” Tuck crumpled up the paper and threw it on the floor.

  Kaden asked one of the boys to get it for him. When he looked at it, he smiled.

  “At least we know we are not going north. This is from a place in Texas - that’s south of Chicago. Then we were in the clinic overnight and after that another road trip to the airstrip. Judging by how long we were in the plane and how cold it is here, we must be somewhere in South America. Maybe in Peru, in the mountains. Could we be that far south?” he asked, looking at each of the boys in turn.

  “Don’t look at me,” said Smokes, “I get lost in the subway.”

  The others laughed and one of them chucked a pillow at him.

  “Why give us such warm clothes, it’s not even that cold here?” one of the younger boys remarked.

  Kaden was thinking the same thing.

  “Maybe we’re going even further south, or higher up. There are thermals in our backpacks. So we must be going somewhere much colder than here.”

  There was a rattling at the door as it was unlocked and an armed guard appeared, beckoning them to follow him.

  “Time for bed, you lot. There’s a toilet down the corridor where that guy is standing. Go down two at a time.”

  Two more men came in and freed Tuck and Kaden from their handcuffs.

  “Are you two going to behave?” one of them asked.

  They both nodded, rubbing their wrists. He put the handcuffs in his pocket.

  “Any more trouble and you’ll be back in the cuffs. That’s not a very comfortable way to spend the night now, is it boys?”

  Surprisingly, they all had a good night’s sleep.

  Very early next morning a loud voice woke them and the trolley was once more wheeled into the room. After the boys had eaten, they were allowed use the bathroom again, then told to put the thermal clothes on under the padded gear. Tuck looked over at Kaden and raised an eyebrow.

  When they were packed up and ready to go, two armed guards led them out of the building to board the same plane that had brought them there. They were not the men who had been with them on the last journey. They looked friendlier and joked among themselves. This made the boys feel a bit
more at ease. As a third man secured them to their seats with the now familiar handcuffs, Smokes smiled up at him.

  “You guys are much friendlier than that last lot. Any chance of a cigarette?”

  The man stopped what he was doing and whacked the back of his hand across the boy’s face, cutting the skin with a large ring he was wearing. A trickle of blood ran down past the corner of his mouth and Smokes licked it away. Nobody spoke a word. The young prisoners had been given a reality check, and realized they could never let their guard down. Everything about their situation was unpredictable and they had no control over anything, unlike their life on the streets.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Jasper’s statement was taken at the station and he was put into a cell on his own for the night. Detective Matthews had arranged for him to be sent over to Juvenile Hall the following day. Jasper knew he wouldn’t sleep but lay under the cover and pretended. He just wanted to be left alone, and for the first time in his life, felt deflated. The fight had gone out of him and he didn’t care what happened any more.

  Martha had given him a taste of what home-life was like and it was painful to have it so callously taken away. He felt empty and alone. In spite of everything, he didn’t blame Martha. After all, he had approached her in the first place. Eventually, tiredness overcame Jasper and he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

  Breakfast came next morning and Jasper was left in his cell until midday. He wondered why they were waiting so long to bring him to Juvenile Hall. He wasn’t in a hurry to get there so it didn’t bother him. Jasper thought he heard a familiar voice down the hallway and strained to listen. The sound of footsteps, echoing on the tiled floor, grew louder.

  “You’re a lucky boy. Somebody has come to collect you.”

  The guard who had brought him his breakfast unlocked the door, handing over his belongings. Jasper thought he must be referring to whoever was there to bring him to Juvenile Hall. As they went through the door his heart skipped a beat when he saw Martha, arms outstretched, tears on her cheeks. She had been arguing with the officers on duty.

  They had wanted to wait until Detective Matthews arrived before signing Jasper out, but she had the paperwork with her entitling him to be released into her care. They tried to delay things but she was making such a fuss, they had no choice but to hand him over. Jasper found himself enfolded in Martha’s arms.

  “Come on, sweetie, let’s go home,” she said.

  She released him from her embrace to gather up some paperwork from the counter.

  The two of them left the building and walked towards the library car park. They were both very quiet on the journey to Martha’s apartment, afraid to break the silence. Once inside, she took Jasper’s bags from him and put them back in the guest room.

  “Let’s get some lunch, or did you have some already?” she asked, putting an arm around Jasper’s shoulders and steering him towards the kitchen.

  The boy shook his head and allowed himself to be mothered. It was a strange situation for him to be in. The last time someone had looked after him like that was before his older brother disappeared. Being treated so kindly released a pain that had been bottled up for a long, long time.

  Martha sensed that this may be an opportunity for her to prove to Jasper that she would take care of him. She sat him down on the sofa and took both his hands in hers. Looking him in the eye, she spoke in a soft voice.

  “You will never have to worry about your safety again, Jasper. This is your home for as long as you want.”

  She told him that her son couldn’t come home at weekends for the next four weeks as he had some important assignments to hand in.

  “So we can spend that time getting to know one another better, how does that sound to you?”

  Jasper thought about this for a moment.

  “What if your son doesn’t want me here when he gets back, it would be better for me to go sleep on the street tonight than get soft living here for a month.”

  Martha took his face in her hands and kissed his forehead.

  “I used to foster kids your age before I adopted my son. I had been fostering him for three years by the time the adoption was finalized. He was fifteen years old and it was as if I had always been his mother. Do you think my son is going to deprive another boy the chance of having a family that loves him and a home to live in? In fact, he is always telling me to foster again, especially now that he is hardly ever here.”

  Jasper stood up and tried to explain how he felt, turning his back to Martha so she wouldn’t see his face as he spoke.

  “I really am grateful for what you’ve done for me. But if things don’t work out I’ll be worse off than I was before. I don’t know if I can take that chance, or make such a big decision right now.”

  Martha didn’t want to push it.

  “Tell you what, let’s just take this day by day, no strings attached. I will call my son and let him know you are here. How does that sound to you?”

  Jasper turned around slowly.

  “Okay, ma’am, I mean, Martha. I’d like to give it a try, day by day.”

  “Right then, that’s sorted. Now, let’s eat,” she said and clapped her hands.

  ******

  Detective Jake Matthews was annoyed, extremely annoyed. He had wanted to question Jasper some more and felt that at Juvenile Hall it would have been much easier to get information out of him.

  “Now I will have that busy body to contend with. The paperwork she handed in was in order. She certainly knows her stuff and who to go to,” thought Jake. “Well, at least it will be easy to find him if he stays at her place,” he said to himself.

  Jake picked up the files he had brought home the night before. He had been so tired it was hard to concentrate so he needed to look them over once more. Finding an empty office, he closed the door and sat at a desk putting the paperwork in order by date. He noticed that Jasper, aka Jason Perry, had reported his brother missing two years previously. Since that time there had been a few problems with him, mostly petty theft, from shops and diners, or to be correct, from the diners’ bins.

  “What hard-hearted moron reports a hungry kid for taking food out of a bin, for pity’s sake?” thought Jake.

  Flicking through the pages, he came across Jasper’s statement from the night before. He needed more information. If what he suspected was true, Kaden was in real trouble and Jake, even with his connections, would find it difficult to help him.

  After mulling things over for a while, the detective decided that there was only one thing to do. He took out his phone and sent a coded message to someone he didn’t particularly like, but who needed to be informed of the latest information about Kaden. They would know where to meet him as it was not something to be discussed over the phone. Jake scanned the files he needed into his phone and returned them to the girl in the records department, signing them in.

  “Funny how with all our technology, we still need paperwork, isn’t it?” he said as she put them in a basket to be filed away later.

  “Yes Jake, I do feel sorry for the trees, but it keeps me in a job,” she replied laughing.

  On his way to the meeting place Detective Matthews thought about his friendship with Kaden’s father. Lloyd had been so supportive of him when his wife passed away, his whole family had. There must be some other explanation for the boy’s disappearance. Otherwise, there wasn’t much hope of him ever coming back. The Alliance would not allow it. He parked up a block away and a short walk took him to the door of “McCauley’s” where he would be having the meeting he was dreading.

  Getting himself a coffee, Jake chatted to the barman, before making his way through a door behind the counter. He entered a narrow passageway, which led to two closed doors. One of them had an intercom and Jake punched in the code “Pied Piper,” unlocking it. As the door opened he saw the man he had arranged to meet standing with his back to him, behind a table.

  Grant Brubaker turned around to face the detective.

  �
�Sit down, Jake” he said as he pulled out a chair and seated himself.

  Both men were drinking coffee, the steam rising up from the mugs between them. Jake placed his phone over the one on the table and transferred the files he had copied. Then he told him how Jasper had brought Kaden to the shelter.

  “So, this young guy says he found Kaden beaten up in an alley and brought him to the shelter for the night, is that right?” asked Grant.

  Jake sighed before answering.

  “Yes, his street name is Jasper, real name Jason Perry. He’s now in the care of one of the volunteers who works there. I have no reason to doubt what he says. That’s why we held off offering a reward. If someone comes forward with information there will be nothing in it for them, making it more reliable.”

  Grant thought about this for a moment.

  “Then why didn’t Kaden just tell him who he was or let them know at the shelter? They would have called Lloyd.”

  “He must have had some kind of amnesia, he didn’t even know his own name. It’s all there in the report,” Jake said, pointing to Grant’s phone.

  “Maybe there’s more he’s not telling us, but the fact is, Kaden did stay in the shelter and they got separated. That was the last time the kid saw him. The woman volunteers there a couple of days a week. She spoke to Kaden and says he was still with Jasper when she left to go home.”

  Both men looked at each other without speaking. They knew what it meant when street kids spend the night in Soup n Sleep only to disappear next day.

  “Is there any way of finding out if Kaden has been mistaken for a homeless kid and somehow got sent off to…” Jake couldn’t bring himself to say it.

  He knew he couldn’t tell Lloyd that his son was alive but would never be coming home. It would be easier on Kaden’s family if they were to think he was dead. His friend would never accept the fact that nothing could be done about it, and that would put them all in danger. They would have to find some way of convincing Lloyd that Kaden was dead.

  “You know who I have to give this file to, don’t you Jake?” said Grant.

  The detective nodded, a pained expression on his face.