“Here is the procedure if you want to go ahead and enroll Timothy in our program. First you must sign and agree to the contract I am presenting to you. If you wish to give us Phase II authority, you must sign in several additional places on the document and have it notarized. You must pay for the first year’s camp fee. If you are paying in installments, you must pay the initial down payment and arrange an automatic payment plan for the balance. Then the next step is to take Timothy out of the high school he is attending, so that they no longer have any legal responsibilities for him, and those responsibilities are transferred over to Camp Chinquapin as per our agreement. Once this is completed, we will bring in our team to take him to the camp. We usually prefer to do this in the early morning. If it is uncomfortable for you to observe this, we recommend that you be elsewhere while we take him out.”
“This is a lot to consider and deal with,” Shirley said. “I would like some time to think things over before I make any commitments.”
“Of course,” Walter Gaither said. “Here is my business card. Give me a call when you have made your decision.”
After Mr. Gaither left, Shirley and Frederick spent another hour or so discussing things. Frederick was very much in favor of sending Timothy to the camp, but Shirley was still unsure. “I know that Timothy has been fighting us and fighting authority, but isn’t this something that we can deal with ourselves, without having to take such drastic action?”
“Haven’t you tried just about every possible intervention you can think of?”
“Yes, but I am still his mother. How can I just abandon my only son to strangers?”
“Well only you can make that decision, dear, but perhaps you should look at things in a different way. Timothy needs to grow up and mature, and he needs to learn self discipline. In a way it is no different than young men of our generation going off to military service. They go away boys and come back men!”
“This isn’t exactly the same. Those boys enlisted. I don’t think that Timothy will be going voluntarily. If I sign the paperwork, we are turning over control of his entire life over to strangers. Do you think that we can trust the Camp Chinquapin people to do what they say?”
“We can talk to Bill Laughlin again tomorrow if you would like.”
Shirley and Frederick did talk to Bill the next day, but other circumstances ended up making the decision for them. During the day, Timothy left the house and met up with some of his friends. They ended up drinking and getting high on some drugs. Timothy didn’t get back home until nearly 7:00 that evening. For Shirley this was the last straw. By that time, she had signed and notarized the Camp Chinquapin paperwork, written a check for the first year, and telephoned Walter Gaither to pick up Timothy. He told her that his team would be ready when they returned from checking Tim out of high school the next day. When Tim got back home, Shirley confronted him.
“Timothy, your were grounded and told in no certain terms not to leave the house. Yet, you continued to defy me and do self-destructive things. Tomorrow we are going to Merriam High School and check you out. You need to be removed from this environment, and I don’t want you associating with the people you have been any more!”
“Well I am in favor of checking out of high school, but I’m not giving up my friends!”
“Tomorrow we will talk about your future, Timothy. You can’t just sit around here, get high and do nothing all day!”
The next morning, Shirley and Tim went to Merriam High School to check him out. That took about an hour. When they arrived back at their house, Gaither’s team was in place. Gaither and his assistants quickly took Timothy into custody.
“What have you done, Mom? Who are these people?” Timothy cried out in a scared and upset voice.
“Quiet, Timothy,” Walter Gaither said in a low but authoritative sounding voice. “We are taking you to a place where we will make a man out of you!”
“No, you can’t do this! I don’t want to go. Let go of me!”
These were the last words that Shirley heard as Timothy was bundled into their van and driven off to Camp Chinquapin.
Chapter 5
Justin Strikes Out
(Saturday Morning)
Justin Thorne woke up early Saturday morning. Justin was 12 years old, had light brown hair and eyes, and was a little short for his age. He had a fair complexion, a few freckles, a pug nose, and a slim body. Justin was a shy kid, who didn’t make friends very easily. In one aspect of his life, he was very much like a lot of other young boys his age — he was passionate about baseball, and lived for competition in Little League. Like many of the other things in his life, baseball skills didn’t come to Jason easily. When he first started out in Little League, he was very inept at the basics of throwing, catching, and batting.
That was how he met Jason Hunter. One of the Little League coaches thought it would be a good idea for some of the older players to mentor and work with beginning kids like Justin to build up their basic skills. Justin was assigned to Jason, and together over a period of a couple months Jason helped Justin to concentrate his eye on the ball, practice catching the ball in various situations, and develop throwing accuracy. The extra practices really made a difference for Justin, and by mid-season his skill level had caught up to the other kids on his team. Justin’s self-esteem soared in those weeks, and he was forever grateful to Jason for taking the time to help him out.
Justin actually had a chance to repay the favor to Jason. Justin’s father was Randall Thorne, who was the manager of the bank where Bill Hunter, Jason’s father, did all of his banking for his art import/export business. During the investigation of Jason’s kidnapping, Bill and Jason Hunter had met with Randall Thorne several times. When Justin heard about Jason’s kidnapping, and that his father was actually meeting with Jason, he had his father bring over to Jason a special gift. It was Willie May’s baseball card from his 1963 season with the San Francisco Giants. Justin hand wrote a note with the baseball card saying how upset he was by how the kidnappers treated Jason, and that he wanted Jason to have this special card because of what Jason did to help him become a better baseball player.
Jason was very much touched by the gesture. He wrote his cell phone number down on a piece of paper, gave it to Mr. Thorne, and asked him to thank Justin for the Willie Mays card. “Tell Justin that his gift made my day and to call me sometime if he would like to bat some balls around.” Justin had never gotten around to taking up Jason on his offer until now.
This weekend Justin was staying at the home of his cousins Jonathan, Linda, and Ralph Burr while his parents and older sister Emily were back east at a dance competition. Emily was 16 and had been competing for several years in ballet and other dance movement competitions. This year she had qualified for national finals that were being held in New York. Justin’s parents had decided that Justin would be bored if they took him along, and things would be a lot easier for them to deal with on their trip without him, so they had arranged the stay at the Burr household. The only problem with this idea was that there was nothing for Justin to do there either. His cousins were all significantly older than Justin. Jonathan was attending college, Linda was a senior in high school and Ralph was a sophomore. Justin’s uncle Robin, who had agreed to take in Justin for the weekend, was a doctor on staff at a local hospital and had to work in the emergency room all day Saturday. His aunt Paula wasn’t exactly thrilled that Justin had been dumped on them for the weekend, as she had a lot of appointments on Saturday that she intended to keep. Ralph, who was the closest in age to Justin, was not interested in baseball, and preferred to spend his leisure time playing video games or hanging with friends his age. So it wasn’t a good situation for Justin at all. Sure he had a place to stay for the weekend, but he was basically ignored most of the time.
When he realized what was going to happen this weekend, Justin remembered Jason’s offer to play baseball together sometime and gave him a call earlier in the week. Even though it had been many months since Jaso
n had sent over his cell phone number inviting Justin to play some ball, Jason did honor his promise and they agreed to meet around 11 o’clock Saturday morning. This would be the highlight of Justin’s weekend and he was looking forward to it with eager anticipation. Earlier that week, Justin had gone shopping with his mother, Estelle. As was often the case, Estelle or Randall would buy Justin an expensive gift when he was going to be left out of a family activity or shunted off to his cousins. This way they could feel that they did something good for Justin although what Justin really needed was more family support and companionship from them and from kids his own age.
Justin decided that he wanted to be dressed like a real major league player for his session with Jason, so he persuaded Estelle to buy him a complete pro player uniform for the New York Yankees including their pinstriped jersey, pants, and a new pair of Nike baseball shoes with baseball socks. That morning Justin eagerly put on his new baseball uniform and shoes. After having some cereal for breakfast, he sat around for a while and watched some cartoons on television. Bored, he asked Ralph if he wanted to go with him and check out the baseball fields at the nearby school and park. Ralph was not interested at all, and his Aunt Paula had gone out shopping and running a bunch of errands. Realizing that no one at his cousin’s house cared about what he was doing or wanted to do, Justin decided to go check things out on his own. He put on his baseball cap, and went out the front door.
The neighborhood where the Burr’s lived was a little pocket of development off of Santa Clarita Avenue, one of the major commercial streets in the area. The developer was able to sell the properties despite its proximity to an industrial area because the houses were large and spacious inside, had a lot of custom features, and the location was very convenient. Justin walked down the Burr’s street toward Santa Clarita Avenue. He turned right on that thoroughfare and soon was walking past older office buildings and warehouses. The school and park where he was headed were about four more blocks away.
After walking two blocks, Justin was startled by a series of loud noises coming from a huge warehouse building across the street. Several large trucks had arrived. The drivers of the trucks were waiting for the large warehouse doors to open. The doors clearly hadn’t been maintained for a while, and were making discordant clanging noises as they were being opened. Curious to find out what was going on, Justin crossed over Santa Clarita Avenue to get a closer view of the trucks. He spotted a soda vending machine outside a closed lunch place next door and decided to get a drink and watch the trucks unload. After purchasing a soda, Justin went over to a concrete barrier between the two properties and sat down to watch the trucks while sipping his drink.
Unknown to Justin, two thirteen-year-old kids, Luis and Ramon, began checking him out when he crossed the street. They were hiding around the side of the warehouse with a shopping cart full of stuff that they had acquired by scavenging throughout the neighborhood. “Wow, look at that!” Luis said to Ramon. “That looks like a genuine Yankee baseball uniform! I sure would like to have that.”
“Yeah, and he is wearing brand new Nike baseball shoes,” Ramon responded. “Those have to be top of the line with polished patent leather uppers. What I wouldn’t give for a pair of those shoes!”
“Are you thinking what I am thinking?”
“Yeah, but won’t Uncle Rubino get mad if we do anything to attract attention!”
“Ramon, I really want that uniform! That kid looks like he is about my size. And he looks scrawny and weak. Let’s grab him and take him inside the warehouse. We can tell our uncle that he was spying on the warehouse.”
Luis and Ramon quietly and quickly circled around where Justin was sitting. They looked around the area and saw that no one else was around or watching them. On Luis’ signal, Ramon ran up to Justin from behind, and put a chokehold around his neck. Luis then ran around to his front and sucker punched Justin several times. In the commotion, Justin’s soda was spilled and his wallet fell to the ground. Ramon put his hand over Justin’s mouth and they forced him to go with them inside the factory where they took him over to a dark corner.
While Ramon continued to hold Justin by the neck, Luis got their shopping cart. He then began to pull off Justin’s shoes and socks. Justin tried to resist, but that made Ramon tighten his grip around Justin’s neck. In a menacing voice, Ramon tells Justin, “If you don’t immediately stop fighting us, we are going to beat the crap out of you! Understand?” He again tightened his grip on Justin until Justin nodded his head yes.
Ramon then took his hand off of Justin’s mouth and released the chokehold. “Now take off your shirt and pants!” Frightened, humiliated, and with tears in his eyes, Justin complied with their demands and soon was standing there wearing only his underwear.
Luis picked up the clothing and put it in their shopping cart. He told Justin, “You are our prisoner now.” Luis took a rag and a piece of rope out of the cart, and stuffed the rag in Justin’s mouth and tied his hands in front of him with the rope. He put Justin’s baseball cap back on his head and pulled it over his eyes.
After restraining Justin, Luis said to Ramon, “Let’s take him to Uncle Rubino.” They led Justin along to another part of the warehouse where the trucks were loading and unloading cargo. One of the trucks had a big logo that said DCC. When Rubino saw the boys coming he ran over to where they were.
“What is going on?” Rubino exclaimed. “Who is this kid? Why is he tied up and why are you inside here? I told you to stay outside and watch things from out there!”
“This kid was spying on the trucks, Uncle Rubino!” Luis said. “You said to keep an eye out for anyone doing that.”
“And what happened to his clothes? It’s hard to imagine anyone spying on these trucks from the outside in just his underwear pants!”
“He did have more clothes on, but they were a really cool official Yankees uniform and brand new Nike baseball shoes that we wanted.”
“You stupid kids!” Rubino replied in an angry voice. “No one was supposed to see or have any knowledge of what is going on inside here. You were supposed to be watching what goes on outside so that no one would interfere or know what was going on inside, not actually bring someone in. Not only do you mug this kid, which will attract the attention of the cops but you bring him in here so now he is an eye witness, exactly the opposite of what you were supposed to prevent from happening. What were you boys thinking?”
“I’m sorry, Uncle Rubino, but we could never afford to buy stuff like this on our own! And I pulled his hat over his eyes so he couldn’t see anything.”
“So for two pieces of overpriced clothing and a pair of baseball shoes you not only place yourselves in jeopardy of being arrested, but now there is a witness to what happened here today. And look at the way he is poorly tied up. He could easily get away in five minutes and call the authorities on you! Come with me and bring the kid along. Do you think a baseball cap over his eyes is going to prevent him from seeing things?”
Rubino led the boys to an office room on the other side of the building and went inside. He looked at Justin and said, “Sorry kid, but this is no es su dia afortunado. You are going to stay tied up for a while.” He then said to Luis, “Do you have more ropes and rags in your cart?” When Luis nodded yes, Rubino ordered him to get them. After Luis returned, Justin was then securely bound, gagged and blindfolded by Rubino and placed in the back room of the office. Before leaving, he told Justin, “Don’t struggle, kid. I will call someone in a few hours to let you loose. If you fight too hard against your ropes or your gag you could hurt yourself or choke. Just relax and you will be fine.”
Rubino then dealt with Luis and Ramon in the front office. “By all rights, the two of you should be tied up, gagged, and blindfolded like that kid until this operation is over. If you want to work for me you need to follow orders to the letter, not try something stupid on your own like you just did. I’m going to take it on easy on you this time. You two will just be handcuffed together in this ro
om until it’s time to leave. But if I hear even one sound out of you or see you trying to spy on what is going on downstairs you will regret ever asking to come with me. Understood?”
With fear in their eyes, Luis and Ramon shook their heads ‘yes’. “Sit down over by that radiator,” Rubino ordered. After the boys complied, Rubino took a pair of handcuffs, wound the chain part around a small radiator pipe, and then locked the handcuffs on Luis’ right hand and Ramon’s left hand. “I’ll be back for you when the operation is over.” Rubino then walked out and shut the door.
When Rubino got back to the other part of the warehouse, one of the drivers asked him, “Who were those kids? What was that all about?”
“Those were my nephews, who I brought along to watch the outside and make sure that nobody was spying on the operation. They found another kid snooping around. I have them all confined in one of the offices until the operation is over. Don’t worry about a thing. They saw nothing!”
“I sure hope you are right. The last thing we need is this operation compromised by a couple of kids!”
“Everything is under control. You concentrate on changing the markings on the DCC truck and getting it out of here ASAP!”
The operation went on for another forty minutes. With their business completed, the warehouse doors were reopened and the trucks departed.
Chapter 6
Finding Justin
(Saturday Noon)
Around ten o’clock Saturday morning, Jason rode his bicycle up Daniel’s driveway and parked it. On his back he was carrying a sports bag that held his glove, some baseballs and a bat. He set the bag down and went to knock on Daniel’s front door. When the door was opened, there was Daniel with a big smile on his face and his knuckles out in a fist. “Hey, bro, it’s good to see you!” Daniel said in an enthusiastic voice as he clinked knuckles with Jason. “Come on in!” After Jason came in, Daniel continued, “I’m just about ready to go. I’ll tell Dad I am leaving and then get my stuff from the garage.”
When The Chips Are Down Page 4