“So they were on the road by 10:45 a.m. at the latest. Allowing for time to get the information out of you about who to call, time to tie you up again, and time for your shower, which would have only been allowed if they were planning to return you, I would say that they knew about your release as early as 9:00 or 9:15 a.m. if not earlier.
“Now, when did Jason’s father receive the ransom package?”
Jason answered, “He got a call on his cell phone to go to the office about 9:15 a.m. and it wasn’t until he arrived, just before opening time at 10:00 a.m. that he received the package. Then he went to the bank and the library to deliver the ransom. He told me he was finished by 11:30 a.m.”
“So...the whole key to a kidnapping for ransom, namely the delivery of the ransom, hadn’t even started before they were getting you ready, Jason. Does that make any sense?”
“No it doesn’t! I’m totally blown away by what you have just told us. Evidently I was going to be released regardless of whether the ransom was even paid or not! But why? Why was I held for five days if all they were going to do was release me anyway?”
“This is the cruel thing about your kidnapping, Jason. Apparently it was intended as a diversion for something else. Some other bigger crime perhaps? Probably not. But a smaller crime with a much larger payoff. That is where I would look for some answers.”
“All that torture for nothing. It doesn’t make any sense,” Jason mumbled.
“Unfortunately, Jason, you were treated the way you were partly because the whole kidnapping scenario was a ruse to get people focused on you and the suffering you went through. With everyone’s attention on you, they were able to accomplish the real crime with no one even knowing it was being committed. You have to admit it’s a diabolically clever plan.
“Now, because we know your kidnapping was a scam, we now can look to the ways you were treated for clues. I think that the different ways you were treated by the kidnappers will tell us a lot about them. Sometimes the way you were treated was very excessive and unnecessarily cruel so that your personal account of the kidnapping would make everyone cringe when you told them the story of your ordeal. The theme being, ‘Innocent teen brutalized by ruthless kidnappers.’
“When you were first captured, there was no reason that they needed to hogtie you, gag you, or put a blindfold on you. After all, they had you drugged. You were unconscious. You were in that basement cell with no outside contact. Instead, you were treated like Patty Hearst, who was kept bound and gagged in a closet for days at a time in order to break her spirit. And like her captivity, part of that disgusting process was forcing you to relieve yourself in your pants because they wouldn’t untie you for regular bathroom breaks.
“Then suddenly, a whole shift in attitude. Almost inexplicable but fortunate for you, Jason.”
“I think I know why,” Jason said. “The doctor at the hospital thought I must have had a bad reaction to the tranquillizer drugs they gave me. He thought they must have given me a second or third dose and the cumulative effect caused me to go in and out of consciousness for over a day and a half. Maybe they were actually worried that they overdid it and the drug was killing me or making me very sick.”
“That makes a lot of sense, Jason. That also reveals another side to their personalities. It now is clear that they never considered killing you, which has been the very sad fate of some kidnap victims. Either that, or whoever was in charge realized that the kidnappers watching you had gone too far and was worried about you becoming damaged goods, which would have fired up the law enforcement agencies after you were released or found. The last thing they wanted was a dead victim. Instead, after you were released, they wanted you to become the center of everyone’s attention.
“From what you said earlier, you were not ever molested in any way, which is another positive and lucky development. Also another key to what was going on in their heads. I’m sorry to say that an attractive and innocent person like yourself, Jason, would often be too tempting to pass up for a typical low-life criminal who most likely had spent time in a prison. But again the very negative publicity from a kidnapper harming you in that way would raise the hackles of everyone who heard the story. Everyone hates a child molester. I’m sure the order ‘hands off,’ if it was an issue for any of the kidnappers, was in place just for that reason.”
“So my incarceration as a hobbled prisoner, left by myself for hours at a time was a good thing?”
“I would say yes, Jason. For the first time you had freedom to take care of your basic needs and they actually were feeding you and providing you with entertainment. They weren’t torturing you with strict bondage and they didn’t try to molest you.”
“So how do you explain the ball gag that they suddenly brought out and stuffed into my mouth, both Wednesday and Thursday. I wasn’t being a problem captive, I followed their stupid blindfold orders to the letter and I was quiet.”
“Another excellent question, Jason. You really are sharp. Sometime a gag is applied for humiliation as your psychologist told you. In this case, I think it was due to a practical matter. Both your kidnappers, and it looks like there were at least two at the place you were kept captive, probably had to be gone at certain times during the regular work day. They applied the ball gag to make sure you couldn’t suddenly start shouting and crying out for help. It was the only type of gag they could apply to you while not having to completely tie you up again because it had a lock in the back. Each day they came back and removed it, most likely after some shift at a part-time job or for some errand relating to the kidnapping or real crime being committed. As it turns out, this was the only real gag that they needed to put on you.”
“So everything else was posturing.”
“I’m afraid so, Jason. Then the last day, Friday, they went back to the original plan. They wanted you to be a horrendously wronged victim again. That’s why they tied you up again like they did on the first two days. Then they call your best friend to find you bound, gagged and blindfolded, probably with the hope that information about your condition would leak to or be given to the media. Everything was designed for shock value and to get everyone’s attention on the horrible wrong that was done to an innocent kid.
“Just like earlier in the week, everything they did to you Friday was totally unnecessary. If all they intended to do was release you, why didn’t they just do that instead of leaving you tied up in a maintenance building where you would have to be found by somebody. Instead, your release was part of their clever timeline to make it look as if you were released after the ransom was paid. That’s why they had Daniel find you instead of calling your parents. It provided just enough time difference to continue the illusion that this was a kidnapping for ransom. The kidnappers really did a number on you, Jason. I am so sorry to be telling you this!”
“So you are telling us that everything about Jason’s kidnapping was a lie?” Daniel asked in surprise.
“Not only a lie, but I believe they played Jason, his parents, and the police with a lot of clever misinformation so that they could accomplish their goals while a lot of police resources would be spent looking in the wrong places for evidence that didn’t exist.”
“Can you give us an example of what you mean, Joe?”
“Sure. I think that one impression you were meant to pass on had to do with where you were taken. When they grabbed you, Jason, of course you had no idea where you were taken because you were unconscious. But on Friday, just before you left for your drive back to City Park, they made a point of telling you that there was an hour’s journey ahead. They wanted you to pass this misinformation on to the police—that you were taken many miles away from where you had been grabbed. Believing that, the cops wouldn’t think at all about looking for the kidnappers’ hideout around here. Since you were blindfolded, you couldn’t see where you were going. All they had to do was drive around for an hour to create the illusion that you were being brought in from some faraway hideout.
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��And keeping you confined locally actually makes a lot of sense. It explains how the kidnappers were able to grab you and literally disappear within minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t kept right here in town near City Park. It would also explain why you were kept gagged so much. If you were an hour’s drive away, presumably out in the country, you could call for help as much as you wanted and no one would be able to hear you. Not true within the city, where eventually someone would hear you.”
“Joe, you are amazing!” Daniel exclaimed. “In one hour you have totally changed our perception of what happened to Jason and why it happened. It’s mind-boggling!”
“Daniel, if it wasn’t such a horrendous victimization of Jason, you would have to study this case as one of the cleverest hoaxes in recent history.”
“You definitely have provided us with a fresh set of eyes, but how do we prove any of this and how do we go about discovering what the real crime was?” Jason asked.
“You still have a lot of work ahead of you, boys. But now you understand some of the truth about Jason’s kidnapping. We haven’t even touched on some of the other strange facets of this case!”
“You mean there’s more?” Daniel asked incredulously.
“Absolutely! What about the timing of Jason’s actual kidnapping? How did those kidnappers know he would be walking on that City Park pathway around noon on that Monday? How did they get that advance information to be hiding there with a tranquillizer dart waiting for Jason, when he didn’t even know he would be walking on that path an hour earlier? That is an important key to this case.
“If Jason’s kidnapping was the MacGuffin, what was the real crime and what facet of Jason’s kidnapping enabled the real crime to be committed? This is the second key and probably the most important one. If you can solve those two issues, you will have the why of this crime. Then maybe you can start figuring out the who.
“Jason, I think that something in your father’s past is significant in determining why this crime was committed. Kidnapping is a very personal crime, a crime that will mobilize any parent into compliant action when their child has been taken. We now know that his paying the ransom was a red herring, part of the kidnappers’ plan to mislead everyone, and something of greater value or importance was the true motive for the crime. I think you need to involve him in your investigation at this point because some incident in his past life, business assets, or antiquities trading has to come into play. Otherwise, why would the kidnappers target you, Jason?”
“Joe, do you have any other advice for us?”
“Yes, as corny as it sounds, I think that you need to review some of the basic detective literature since this case clearly involves deception and improbabilities. I hear that your generation is not a reading generation and that is too bad because the classic mysteries offer some basic lessons in detection that you might find useful to know. Have either of you read the detective fiction of Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or G. K. Chesterton for example?”
“We read The Tell-Tale Heart in English class last year,” Daniel replied.
“My parents liked the Sherlock Holmes mysteries shown on PBS, and I watched a couple episodes with them,” Jason added.
“They are all fictional detectives, so they are not true crime stories, but each author presented us with a very important concept that I think real detectives use today. Poe, in his story The Purloined Letter told us that often the best hiding place was right out in plain sight. The point being that often the answer or evidence you need is right there in front of you, but you can’t see the forest for the trees. G. K. Chesterton, in his wonderful Father Brown Mysteries made the point that when looking for crime suspects, don’t overlook servants, workers or delivery people like the postman. If you want to commit a crime in a city garden, who better to do it then the gardener or the maintenance worker who you expect to be there and walks around unnoticed. And then there is Sherlock Holmes’ famous dictum: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ ”
“Joe,” Daniel said, “You have really opened our eyes about this case and given us new directions to pursue. You must have been a great intelligence agent.”
“That’s all in my past now, but it was stimulating to use those thought processes again on a new case.”
“Thank you for taking the time to listen to us and help us out,” Jason said.
“It’s no problem at all, as long as you remember our ground rules. I’m happy to help you guys out. Also, I’m encouraged to see that we still have kids who care about each other rather than just themselves, have intelligent minds and aren’t afraid to use them, and have a real sense of justice.
“Since I’m dishing out speeches and advice today, I have something to say to each of you. This advice comes from my past life’s experiences but also from the heart.
“Daniel, since this detective pact is your idea, make sure you take on the lion’s share of responsibility. You’ve asked your best friend to relive his ordeal and put his life on the line again. It must have been a very difficult decision for Jason to say yes. As brave and spirited as he has been, he still is vulnerable to emotional attacks and fears of being recaptured. Don’t ever leave him unprotected during your investigations!”
Then Joe looked Jason in the eye and said, “Jason, during our conversation today, we have talked freely about things that affect your most inner emotions. We have talked openly about some of the cruel things that were done to you and what they meant. Also, we have touched on many of the ways that your kidnappers tried to break your spirit. That had to be rough on you to relive those things and find out how much contempt they had for you as a human being. All along you have shown the inner strength to fight back and overcome your fears. That is your greatest weapon against the kidnappers. Don’t ever let the thought of what they did to you get you down. Instead, let those things motivate you to finally defeat them!”
As Jason and Daniel got up to leave, Mr. Connor shook hands with each of them, which ended up turning into a hug. “This has turned into quite an emotional experience today. Next time can we just talk about sports or music? Take care and I don’t say that lightly!” Joe admonished.
Once outside, the two friends got out their bikes and rode back to Daniel’s place in silence. They each had a lot of things to think about.
CHAPTER 31
BEYOND THE MACGUFFIN
(Thursday Evening)
After Daniel and Jason arrived back at the Holmes’ residence, they quickly dropped their bikes in the front yard and made their way to Daniel’s room where they both collapsed on the floor by the bed.
“Can you believe what we have just been told?” Daniel asked Jason.
“Like you said, Daniel, it’s mind boggling. The worst part is that everything that Joe told us rings true!”
“I know, Jason. You’ve been through so much pain and mental anguish. Now you find out that everything about it was evidently a cruel trick played on you and the rest of us!”
“I am afraid this is just the beginning of a long series of upsetting news. Didn’t Joe say that the whole case now seems to be linked to my dad and his business dealings?”
“Yes, he did. He said that there was probably a more advanced crime involving a lot of money that no one even knows about. The only person in your world who works with large amounts of cash, valuable artwork or antiques is your dad. I am guessing that the real crime is somehow connected to that business.”
“We have to talk to my dad right away, and see if he will open up about some of his business dealings. We need for him to hear the arguments and conclusions that we just heard at Joe’s place, but how do we present them to Dad without violating our agreement with Joe?”
“I think we can use his conclusions as long as we have the supporting arguments figured out. To prove to him that the kidnapping was bogus, we just go through and compare the timelines. I think that argument stands up by itself. Then we br
ing up the fact that the godfather concept is probably phony as well.”
“How can we have this meeting with just the three of us without sending out red flags to everyone else?” Jason asked.
“Why don’t you just call him at work and level with him. Say that we have found something out that we think is very important and that the three of us need to meet right away.”
“I have an idea. I will see if I can get you invited over for dinner. Then it will be real easy to have our meeting with Dad after dinner.”
“Tonight is my mom’s bridge night. We usually just have leftovers or ‘guys make it yourself’ night.”
“Sounds perfect. I think my mom mentioned something about this being spaghetti night. It shouldn’t be hard to stretch that out for one more plate. I’ll call my mom.”
Jason got on his cell phone and made the call. When she answered he asked, “Would it be okay if Daniel came over for dinner tonight? Aren’t you making spaghetti?”
“Actually, dear, I am going to have to put in a late session here at work. We have a huge project that suddenly came up. It’s okay for Daniel to come over. Just have your dad get take-out from the burrito place for the three of you. He just made a big sale so I know he will want an easy night instead of having to make dinner. I’ll see you later tonight, love you.”
Jason then called his dad. “Hi Dad, can you talk right now? Good. Mom just told me that she has to work late and can’t make dinner. Daniel is with me. Mom said to go to the burrito place and get take-out for the three of us. Yeah, he was supposed to come over. We have some stuff to talk about anyway. Can you pick us up at Daniel’s place? Thanks. In about a half hour? Sounds good. Bye.”
Jason told Daniel, “Everything is set now. My dad will pick us up here and we will get take-out on the way to my house. Then we can talk with him. It’s a perfect set-up. I’ll just put my bike in the back of his Explorer and we will bring you home later. Let’s tell your mom now.”
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