When The Chips Are Down

by Aiden Vaughan

  “Playing music takes a lot of work and dedication, and especially a lot of self-discipline if you are going to do original music. But I like performing so much! I could spend my whole life just playing music and swimming in the pool. Of course I would want some time to be with Rebecca!”

  “Yeah, it is so easy to get immersed in music and just spend all of your time dealing with it. But I am with you in wanting to have some time for the rest of life. Keeping in shape, having time to spend with friends and family, and of course continuing to learn are important too!”

  “Speaking of that,” Eric went on, “and I don’t mean to pry, but I think it is an important consideration. Have you talked to Diana or Jason about this?”

  “I think that is a fair question when it comes to me, Eric. And all I can say right now is ‘sort of.’ I have mentioned the idea of a band to Jason before, and he seemed quite supportive. He is my very best friend, and you know how it is with Jason — when he talks, we listen. At the same time, he isn’t musical, at least at the level we would need to have in a band member, so being a part of the band is out of the question. I suppose he could be involved in some other way, but somehow I don’t see asking him to be the sound man, equipment manager, or even our business manager. He has all this other stuff going on in his life, like his Whatever Foundation. Diana is another story. She has a lot of musical talent as a singer.”

  “That duet Diana and you and sang at my mother’s funeral was really moving,” Eric reminisced.

  “I know and I couldn’t have done that performance without her. The question is would she want to commit to being in a band and performing in public a lot?”

  “And again that points to the direction of the band. Do we want to be an all boy band, or a mixed group to take advantage of her vocal abilities?” Eric said.

  “I guess I should have a serious talk with Diana the next time I see her. This conversation has been really valuable, Eric. I think we will work well together. Now let’s focus on some actual music!”

  Daniel got out his guitar, and showed Eric some song lists he had put together for performance sets. Eric picked up one of Daniel’s guitars and jammed some bass lines along with Daniel’s playing and singing. After each song they would talk about its potential and whether they thought they could use it or not. The morning flew by as they were engrossed in their music.

  Chapter 12

  Jason Raises the Stakes

  (Saturday Afternoon and Evening)

  After his meeting with Teresa Barnwell, Jason decided to take advantage of the offer that Jaime Orlando had made to him yesterday. He called Jaime using the cell phone number that he was given. Jaime was a little surprised to hear back so soon, but agreed to meet Jason for a late lunch meeting at 1:30. Because Jaime was working at the station, Jason arranged to meet him at a downtown sandwich place. He rode his bike downtown and was waiting for Jaime when he arrived a few minutes after their meeting time.

  Jaime shook hands with Jason, and then they ordered their sandwiches and drinks. After their food was ready, the two went to a secluded table in the back. “When we met yesterday, Jason, I thought I was planting a seed for the future. I was really surprised to have it grow overnight!”

  “It’s is funny how things worked out. I guess this collaboration was meant to be, Jaime!” Jason then told Jaime about the two cases that he was working on, the DCC Chip hijackings and Tim Wilkinson and the boot camp. When he was finished filling Jaime in, Jason said. “I was wondering if you had heard anything more about the latest hijacking, or at least what I think the last hijacking was. I have seen nothing in the news about it.” Jason then told him how his young friend Justin had stumbled into what appeared to be another DCC Chip Company hijacking. “The fact that they treated Justin so harshly and left him a prisoner in that warehouse indicates to me that something major had to have been going down.”

  “I haven’t heard anything about a new hijacking involving DCC,” Jaime responded. “What you are saying is a real scoop in that regard, if it is true. The police have not issued any kind of statement or put out any report of a new hijacking and neither has the DCC Chip Corporation. This silence is very interesting. And of course with your friend Justin being a young minor, his crime would have been reported anonymously. Although I find it interesting that it hasn’t been reported at all, to my knowledge. I will definitely check into this!”

  “Please leave Justin out of any story you end up doing on this, Jaime. He had a very difficult time dealing with the violence that was done to him. I spent a lot of time helping him to rebuild his self-confidence and learn how to cope with life better. I don’t want him to have a relapse!”

  Jason then talked about Camp Chinquapin. “Have you heard any rumors of problems at this camp, or brutal treatment of the kids that have been sent there? Tim Wilkinson’s girl friend seems to think that they have a policy of isolating and torturing kids that they can’t get to conform to their system through their normal methods.”

  “When these boot camps for teens first came out, the word was that this was a good thing for troubled teenagers,” Jaime began. “What these kids needed was harsh discipline, you know ‘tough love’, and they needed to be placed in an environment where they weren’t coddled in any way, and had to experience real survival. Just like army basic training was designed to make young men into soldiers, the boot camps were supposed to give these teens self-discipline and a sense of purpose in their lives.

  “From what I have heard, however, the reality was something else. For many teenagers, it was a good thing. They learned team building and survival skills. They discovered that being selfish and demanding would not help them survive in the wilderness. Then the obvious conclusion that they would make is that what was true in the wilderness was also true in the asphalt jungle.

  “At the same time, there were some problem kids with special needs that the system really had no way of dealing with. In the military, if a recruit can’t cut it, or won’t accept the discipline, they can be discharged and then are released from service. But teenagers are signed over into the custody of these camps, and as minors, do not have the same rights as a recruit in the military, who are at least 18 years old, and considered adults. Unless the camp was run by a well-trained staff who knew how do deal with kids having special needs, problem teenagers were sometimes brutalized or traumatized to get them to comply. All the positives of team building and self-discipline were not possible with some of the teenagers who had severe emotional or mental problems.

  “Now there are many youth counselors who do not think that the camps are particularly useful,” Jaime pointed out, “especially when the real issue behind anti-social behavior in teenagers often comes from living in a dysfunctional family environment, where poor parenting, communication, respect or physical abuse issues are the real root of their problems.”

  “I don’t know what the true story is at Camp Chinquapin,” Jason responded, “but my friend Daniel and I will be up in that area next week. I promised to check it out to see what we can find out about Tim Wilkinson, who has suddenly stopped communicating with the outside world. Anything that you could find out about the camp could be useful. We are going to do our best to locate Tim if we can.”

  “I will telephone or text you with any information that I can find out about the camp and its operators,” Jaime promised. “And Monday let’s touch base sometime about DCC. Let me know what you find out in your visit, and I will look up what we have on file at the station.”

  “That sounds great, Jaime. I know that any extra information you find out will be helpful in assessing what we learn.”

  “Please be careful, Jason,” Jaime warned him. “If there are people with bad intentions at the camp, and you know that is true in the DCC Chip case, they aren’t going to look kindly on a young teenager butting into their business!”

  “Captain Garcia tells me the same thing all the time,” Jason answered with a shrug. “I know that I am happy to leave the
heavy lifting to the police. But we can’t get them involved until there is some substantial evidence of wrong doing!”

  * * * * *

  After dinner that evening Daniel came over to Jason’s house. They had planned to play some video games but instead got involved in talking about a lot of things.

  “I had a great meeting with Eric this morning,” Daniel began. “First we did our weekly workout, but then we went over to my house and started planning the formation of a band. Eric was full of good ideas and suggestions that we talked about, and then we spent some time jamming on songs. We decided that the first stage is to start putting together material that we would like to perform. Our long range goal is to come up with our own original songs that we can record.”

  “That sounds exciting!” Jason replied. “I think that it was inevitable that you would want to have your own band. Isn’t that what you want to do for a living eventually?”

  “Yeah, that’s my dream, and probably that of every young musician who sings and plays the guitar,” Daniel agreed. “Making the dream into a practical reality is going to be a lot of work and involve a lot of time and commitment.”

  “But if that is what you want to do in life, it is important that you try to do it right,” Jason advised.

  “We started to talk about who else to have in the band, and where to find all the people,” Daniel continued. “It would be more than just musicians. We would need management, and a sound man. The more we discussed it, the more we realized how complicated realizing the dream could turn out to be!”

  “Daniel, I don’t think you need to stress about it just yet. You are just sixteen years old. You have plenty to time to develop all of the components. And you don’t want to rush into making decisions. Take your time to plan and check things out.”

  “Jason, there is one thing about this that is a little bit of a concern to me. You are my best friend, yet I don’t really see a role for you in the band. Your friendship means a lot to me, but once the band starts it would have to be a big time commitment for me. I don’t want the band to become a wedge between us somehow.”

  “Wow, Daniel, that is really thoughtful of you. I know I can’t help you in the musical side of your operation. You know I can barely carry a tune in a bucket. I don’t have the musical ability you would need. I do have a lot of things to do with my foundation activities, school, and sports. I don’t know anything about the music business, so I don’t think I could do management work for you, at least at the level you would deserve. I know I would be one of your biggest fans! After all isn’t developing an audience and fan base the most important thing that you need to do?”

  “Well of course, Jason. But you are already doing that. And I know having you and Laura sitting in the front row at our performances would mean a lot to me. But is that going to be enough for you?”

  “Actually, Daniel, there is a way that I think I could help your band out. I have never talked to you about this before, but lately I have been developing a real interest in graphics, drawing, and design. You have seen me draw my doodles and stuff before, but I am going to take a class in multimedia production next year at school. I want to learn all about creating graphics, working with photographs, producing brochures and designing websites. You know all the modern computer techniques that are so important these days. I would be interested in doing stuff like designing your logos, helping you put up a website, preparing posters, and creating artwork to promote the band. What do you think about that?”

  “That is so cool, Jason! You know I have been so involved in thinking about the music that I didn’t even think about the technology side of promoting the band. It would be awesome if you could do that for us. And of course that would mean you would be very much involved with the band, while providing us with valuable services! That thought deserves some knuckles, bro!” Daniel put out his fist and the two boys tapped knuckles a few times.

  “You know that I would want to help you anyway I can, Daniel.”

  “That is such a relief!” Daniel said with a little sigh. “Now I am even more excited about forming the band!”

  “Now don’t forget our other obligations. Even though we don’t advertise or promote it, our Hunter & Holmes team has a couple of things on our plate right now!” Jason updated Daniel on all of the developments in the last couple of days.

  “That is far out that a television reporter has sought you out as a resource, and is willing to provide you with information in return. You really are becoming a celebrity, Jason! I know you want the simple, laid back life, but at the same time you have all of these incredible resources you can call on.”

  “Remember that what I told you must remain totally confidential,” Jason reminded Daniel. “No one else can know for it to be effective.”

  “I promise, Jason. I appreciate you sharing that with me.”

  “If we are going to be partners, we can’t have secrets between us!” Jason stated unequivocally.

  “We need to talk about our visit to the DCC Chip factory on Monday,” Daniel went on to a new subject. “Do you have a set of questions planned out for when we interview people there?”

  “Yes, I have started to make a list. Let me show you.”

  The two boys discussed how they would approach things on their visit. They decided that Jason should act as the interviewer, and that Daniel should be the photographer. “You want to get a picture of everyone that you can at the plant,” Jason told Daniel. “Then we will have some faces to study and show other people. They will be especially valuable if we come across anyone from the outside with information, and that would include our young friend, Justin!”

  “I sure hope that Justin has recovered from his ordeal to a state of mind where he wants to get revenge on the people who attacked him, took his clothing, and tied him up,” Daniel said. “He sure was freaked out when we found him!”

  “That’s where you come in, Daniel. Those photos you take could be really important if Justin recognizes anyone in them.”

  Jason then told Daniel about his meeting with Teresa Barnwell earlier in the day. “What is interesting about her is that her analysis of the whole situation is so convincing. I am ready to believe that there is a mass conspiracy against Tim Wilkinson whenever I talk to her! The way she was able to interpret what Tim wrote in his postcards and letters is quite impressive! The other thing that makes what she says so believable is her sincerity and her genuine worry over what has happened to Tim. When you listen to what she has to say, you are ready to believe that something is very wrong with the treatment that Tim has been receiving at the camp.”

  “How do we go about verifying what she has been telling you?” Daniel asked. “I don’t think that anyone at the camp will be very forthcoming about Tim, if indeed they have spirited him away somewhere.”

  “I told her that our chances of finding out anything specific were not good,” Jason replied. “I think our best bet is to play ‘dumb’ so to speak, and just ask questions about where Tim is now and not seem threatening to them or even overly inquisitive. Our position should be that we would just like to stay in contact with our long time friend, and hope that they can provide us with a forwarding address if he is not at the camp.”

  “And if they stonewall us, you know, completely refuse to give us any useful information, what should our response be?” Daniel continued his questioning.

  “I think we should act surprised that the camp wouldn’t know where one of their own inmates is. We should continue to ask everyone we see until we get some sort of real response!”

  “What happens if they continue to blow us off, or tell us to get lost?” Daniel asked.

  “I think that would indicate that indeed they are hiding something, and that Tim is in some sort of trouble,” Jason surmised. “Teresa thinks that he has been put in some sort of solitary confinement, and she thinks that they are intent on completely breaking his will.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Daniel responded. “Isn�
�t one of the goals of these boot camps to take defiant and rebellious teens and remold them into obedient and compliant members of society?”

  “Yes, you are right about that,” Jason responded. “The issue is by what means and to what lengths they are willing to go to accomplish this. It’s one thing to instill discipline and respect for authority. But if this is not done in a humane manner, the person will develop a hatred and resist in every way possible against the camp authorities. Or worse the person can be traumatized or scarred for life!”

  “This is supposed to be a camp to help troubled teens, not a prison camp to break their wills and bully them into submission!” Daniel exclaimed.

  “That’s what we are being asked to determine!” Jason concluded. “I hope we are up to the task! Now let’s play some games and get our minds focused on fun!” Soon the two friends were engrossed in their favorite car racing game.

  Chapter 13

  The DCC Tour

  (Monday Morning)

  Monday morning both Jason and Daniel were up early for a vacation day. This was the day they were going to visit the DCC Chip Company plant, posing as student reporters from the Merriam High school newspaper. Jason was going to be the reporter doing the interviews and asking questions, while Daniel accompanied him as the student photographer. His assignment was to photograph as many people at the plant as he could, without raising suspicion. Luckily he had a very good Nikon digital camera and a four gigabyte memory card, so he could take hundreds of pictures and not worry about running out of memory storage. Jason had a digital tape recorder and also brought along a notebook and pen, in case someone objected to being recorded.