Eyewitness News

by Aiden Vaughan

  This time the euphoria was tempered by his restraints, causing Jonathan’s mind to react in a strange way. He had crazy dreams and images that he was a prisoner of war, up for trial and about to be executed. He kept trying to defend himself, but was prevented from doing so by the gag, which kept growing larger and more confining on his face. He then imagined that he was being pushed out of an airplane, floating in the air, and helpless to call for assistance or do any thing to break his fall as he headed for the ground at incredible speeds. His body became covered with sweat and he felt uncomfortable as his clothing stuck to his body. The rushing sensation of falling that he was experiencing became too much for his mind to absorb. His body began to shake and he struggled against the ropes binding him to the chair. He closed his eyes tightly and braced himself for the inevitable crash and the pain of death that it would bring!

  Suddenly, Jonathan’s dreams were shattered by the cold, white rays of the dim light in the cabin. Scott had his hands on Jonathan’s shoulders and was shaking him so he would wake up from his dream state. “It’s okay, boy, hang in there. You are just having a bad trip!” Scott then untied the ropes and pulled the gag out of Jonathan’s mouth. He held up a bottle of water for him to drink from. “Calm down and let things take their course. You are back in the real world now.”

  Of course he wasn’t. Jonathan still had many hours of winding down from the effects of the drug. It would be another long and sleepless night, another night of frustration and endless floating from the effects of the drug. “How did my life come to this,” he kept thinking over and over.

  Over in another part of the cabin, Scott watched Jonathan for a while as he slowly came down from his methamphetamine high. “Maybe that boy won’t try to fight me so much tomorrow,” he thought to himself. “At this point it is simply a matter of time before the drug controls him and he is mine!”

  Chapter 25

  Jonathan Is Missing

  (Thursday and Friday Morning)

  Thursday morning Tim Wilkinson tried to reach Jonathan on the telephone but there was no answer. He wanted to find out what happened with Jonathan’s mother and Scott Brewster. Even though he tried calling several different times during the day, no one ever picked up the telephone. Eventually he couldn’t stand it any more, and rode his bicycle over to Jonathan’s house. The house seemed deserted, as no one answered the door, and even when Tim went around and peeked into Jonathan’s bedroom window, there was nobody there.

  By Friday morning, Tim was very worried that something bad had happened to Jonathan. He called up Daniel and told him about everything that he had done to contact Jonathan to no avail. Daniel replied, “You should be concerned, Tim. I don’t like the sound of this either. That Brewster guy has already beaten Jonathan up once, and if Jonathan did what he said he was going to do, there could have been a very unpleasant argument! I’m going to call Jason and see if he will come with us. Then we need to get over to Jonathan’s place to try and find out some answers.”

  About a half hour later, Tim, Jason and Daniel drove over to Jonathan’s house. This time when they knocked on the door, it was answered by Jonathan’s mother, Madeline. “Hi, boys, what do you want? Jonathan’s not here right now.”

  “Where is he?” Tim asked. “I tried to reach him all day yesterday, and even rode my bike over here, but there was no answer and no sign of him.”

  “That’s because he has gone up to the mountains with Scott. They are spending a few days up there. Scott has taken Jonathan away to his mountain hideaway so they can get to know each other better.”

  “You let Scott take Jonathan away by himself?” Daniel said with some anger in his voice. “The same guy who beat the crap out of Jonathan a few days ago and is a drug dealer?”

  “The last time I talked with Jonathan,” Tim added, “he was coming home to confront you about the consequences of your life with Scott! The last thing I think he would want to do is go off somewhere to be alone with a man who beat him up, and then persuaded you to pawn the most important thing in his life, his musical instruments, so you could pay for more drugs!”

  “I can’t believe you would actually permit such a thing to happen to your own son!” Daniel continued with even greater emotion. “Don’t you understand that what you have been doing lately has been destroying Jonathan’s life, and now you have let him be taken away by a vicious drug dealer! If Scott isn’t already abusing him, he will probably try to lead Jonathan into a dead end life of drug addiction!”

  “Did you actually talk to Jonathan before they left on Wednesday night?” Jason wanted to know.

  “Now that you mention it, I can’t remember,” she said and burst into tears. “I have totally failed Jonathan, haven’t I? I don’t know what I can do,” she said in between sobs.

  “What you could do is start doing something about your addiction to drugs!” Daniel exclaimed with even greater anger in his voice. “Even if you don’t care about yourself, look at what you have done to Jonathan’s life! What is left for him? What is your legacy for him? You have sold off or pawned just about all of your possessions for drugs. You even took Jonathan’s instruments away from him! He is a talented musician and those instruments were a very important part of his life! Now they are gone and for what? Another hit of meth! Even worse is that now he is under the control of a dangerous drug dealer. Shame on you! What kind of mother are you?” Daniel was so angry he stomped around on the front porch trying to control his temper.

  “I would like to quit but I don’t know how. I need my drugs to survive!” Madeline insisted.

  Jason then intervened with a calmer voice. “Mrs. Kowalski, you do have a serious drug addiction problem, but right now Jonathan is our first concern. Do you have any idea exactly where he has been taken? Have you ever been to Scott’s mountain hideaway, as you describe it?”

  Madeline thought about Jason’s question for a few seconds. “All I can remember is that it is in the Santa Cruz Mountains somewhere. I have never been there myself. I think he called it Black’s Hill, or something like that.”

  “We have got to get more information, and we have to find out how Jonathan is doing,” Tim said with determination. “I’m very worried about him, Mrs. Kowalski. Jonathan is a good friend of mine and I don’t want to see him harmed any more!”

  “Why don’t you boys come inside. We can sit down and talk about things.”

  Madeline led the boys into the kitchen and had them sit down around the table. There was hardly any furniture in any of the rooms. The house was dark inside, as the drapes and shades were all drawn. The kitchen table was a cheap metal table with a linoleum type finish on it. The chairs were metal also, with plastic covered seats and backs that were cracked and worn.

  “Mrs. Kowalski, does your boy friend Scott Brewster have a cell phone?” Jason asked. “Is there any way to reach him right now?”

  “Scott doesn’t have a cell phone. He says he doesn’t like to be tied down to it, and he doesn’t like the high cost of monthly service.”

  “Is there a telephone up at this cabin?” Jason continued. “When was the last time you heard from Scott?”“It was when he left on Wednesday night. We had a big argument at first, Jonathan stormed off to his room, and then Scott decided to make up. He brought in a bag of sandwiches and gave one to Jonathan. He said that he wanted to start over and make things up. This was a surprise to both of us, especially Jonathan, because he was afraid that Scott was going to hit him again.”

  “So Jonathan was in his bedroom eating a sandwich, and tension was in the air, but it looked like there was going to be a peaceful resolution?” Jason asked.

  “Yes, Scott took me by the arm and we went into the living room. He had a little glass pipe and he gave me a rock of meth to smoke in the pipe. ‘Here, babe, he said. “Smoke this and you will feel a lot better.’ He then lit the pipe and handed to me. It was very high quality stuff and soon I was on a very pleasant high.”

  “Did you see or talk to Jonathan
after you began smoking the meth?” Jason followed up.

  “No, I guess I was in my own world after that. I did hear Scott tell me that he was taking Jonathan with him up to his mountain cabin.”

  “But you never actually saw him leave.”

  “No, now that you put it that way, I just heard from Scott and he made it sound like the two of them were going to have a pleasant time together to work out their differences.”

  “Unbelievable!” Daniel interjected. “You left your son in the care of this creep while you were off getting high! Scott just conveniently gave you a rock of meth to smoke!”

  Madeline burst into tears again and put her face in her hands. Jason put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder as a signal to tone things down.

  “Can we go into Jonathan’s room?” Jason asked in a soothing voice. “We might be able to find out more in there.” Madeline nodded her head ‘yes’ and the three boys went to check it out.

  “His room is down the hall to the right,” Tim said, leading Daniel and Jason into Jonathan’s room. Jonathan’s room was depressingly like the others in the house. There was only a single bed, a cheap dresser, and a chair and wire music stand. Of course there were no musical instruments any more.

  Daniel looked in the dresser. “I don’t know how much Jonathan had in the way of clothes, but there are clothes in all the drawers. I would think he would at least pack underwear and socks if he was going away for a few days.”

  Tim was looking in the closet. “His backpack and canvas athletic bag are still here. I don’t think he had any other luggage. It sure looks like he didn’t pack anything for this so called visit to the mountains.”

  “Guys, take a look at this!” Jason exclaimed. He had been checking out the bed, which was made with sheets and a blanket. The bedding was in disarray and the bed itself was pulled out slightly from the wall. Jason pointed to two things that had fallen behind the bed on the side by the wall. “There is a small piece of rope and a folded up handkerchief!”

  The three boys looked at each other. “This doesn’t bode well for Jonathan,” Tim said. “I know he was very angry at Scott and his mom for how they had been ruining his life. I just can’t believe he would willing go by himself with that lowlife drug dealer!”

  “It looks more and more like Jonathan was forcibly taken, probably beaten up or bound and gagged so his mother couldn’t hear his protests!” Jason replied.

  “We have to do something!” Tim exclaimed. “I really fear for Jonathan’s safety. He is no match for that brute drug dealer! I can’t imagine that anything good is happening to him right now!”

  “Can’t we bring in the police? I think we have a pretty good circumstantial case for kidnapping or at least child abuse!” Daniel added.

  “We have to think this out carefully,” Jason answered. “We want to find Jonathan but we don’t want to ruin his entire life and get him institutionalized in foster care if we can prevent it. I think that our first step is to get Madeline Kowalski into a complete drug rehabilitation program. She needs to be into that program by the end of the day, so that she no longer has any communication with Scott and so that she can start dealing with her serious addiction problem.”

  “How can we do that?” Tim replied. “Doesn’t that cost a lot of money, and doesn’t she have to enter on a voluntary basis?”

  “I fully believe that Jonathan qualifies for assistance from the Whatever Foundation. I think that saving his mother from her drug addiction so that she can be a real mother again would qualify as part of that assistance. At this point, monetary costs or fine points of law are not important to me. Foundation staff members can deal with that later. I think we need to do whatever it takes to locate Jonathan, rescue him from Scott, and start helping him get his life back together! Are we agreed?” Jason said holding out his knuckles.

  “Oh, yes!” both Daniel and Tim replied returning the knuckles.

  “Then let’s get on it right now! Tim, I want you to stay here with Mrs. Kowalski until the rehabilitation team is able to arrive. Keep her occupied and away from any drugs! Is your father working around town today? See if he can come over also, and maybe bring you some food. Hopefully your presence will keep her focused and you can persuade her to enter the program if she starts to waver at all. A second piece of the solution is to persuade Mrs. Kowalski to give a responsible adult temporary custody of Jonathan. I believe that an ideal choice would be your father, Tim. By doing that we have another defense against anyone in authority who would want to place Jonathan into child services. The custody would last until Mrs. Kowalski has been through the detoxification program at the clinic. Do you think that he would be willing to do that, Tim?”

  “That’s a great idea. Ever since we have gotten back together we have become a lot closer, and I know that Dad likes Jonathan. I’m sure that he would be willing to help, especially since it is only temporary in nature. As far as staying with Mrs. Kowalski and persuading her to do all of these things, I’ll do my best. I’ve known Mrs. Kowalski ever since I became friends with Jonathan and that was over three years ago during much happier times. In terms of persuading Mrs. Kowalski to enter herself into rehabilitation, I think my dad could be very helpful. He can be very persuasive when it comes to a discussion about drug addiction. I don’t think he had that much to do today, and I will make it a big deal for him to help! I’m going to call him right now!”

  Tim got on his cell phone to call his father while Jason and Daniel returned to the kitchen where Madeline was. She was actually doing some cleaning up. Jason then told her about his plan to rescue both Jonathan and her. He explained a little about his foundation, and told her that Tim could tell her more about it. “Mrs. Kowalski, I am offering you a chance to get your life back and to be a real family again. Jonathan is a good kid! He has been worried sick about you! He deserves a proper home and a sober and caring mom! It is up to you to decide, but I hope you understand that once the police and social services have to get involved, you can be sure that you will lose custody of Jonathan and he will most likely have to go into foster care! That is the last thing I want to see happen to him, and I hope you agree!

  “There is another thing that you can do to help Jonathan while you are in rehabilitation — give temporary custody of Jonathan to another responsible adult. I would like to suggest Mr. Wilkinson, Tim’s dad for that responsibility. Tim is Jonathan’s best friend, and he and his dad live in a big house with a guest room. They could easily put Jonathan up while you are at the clinic. If you agree, I will send an attorney over with the paperwork to sign before you go into rehabilitation.”

  Tears came back to Madeline’s eyes as she answered, “Yes, I’ll do anything to get out of this trap. I can’t believe I let Scott take Jonathan away without thinking about the consequences. My whole life is a shambles and a failure!”

  “Fixing your life is what the rehabilitation program is for, Mrs. Kowalski,” Jason continued. “Don’t blow this chance to make things right again!”

  Soon Jason and Daniel left, leaving Tim with Mrs. Kowalski to wait for the intervention team, the foundation attorney, and for Tim’s father to arrive. There was a lot to do. Jason got out his cell phone and made four calls. The first call was to his foundation business manager to set up the recovery program for Madeline Kowalski. The second call was to Mr. Williams, the foundation attorney, to prepare and bring the custody forms over to Jonathan’s house for Mrs. Kowalski and Mr. Wilkinson to sign. His third call was to the Hope Falls Clinic to get an intervention team from the rehabilitation clinic out there to the Kowalski house as soon as possible. He then called Captain Garcia to alert him to Jonathan’s situation.

  “This does sound like a kidnapping, and we can put out an APB for this Scott character,” Captain Garcia responded. “I will need more evidence or a specific location to send out a SWAT team. Has his mother reported him missing yet? We would need that to start a missing persons investigation or call in a federal CART team. If this perp is running
a meth lab I think that the DEA would be even more interested. But the main concern is the safety of the boy, Jonathan. Meth lab people are often very ruthless and mean criminals. They are super protective and paranoid about their turf. Don’t try anything on your own! They won’t hesitate to shoot at you to kill and ask questions later. I am going to put a team on alert. I will have Sgt. Malone do some investigating on Scott Brewster. If you find out anything more about Jonathan’s whereabouts, let me know immediately so we can act!”

  “What can we do now?” Daniel asked after Jason ended his conversation with Captain Garcia.

  “We play our one trump card!” Jason exclaimed. “Remember the cross I gave to Jonathan? It was the same one I had on me when we went to rescue Tim and Cody. It has a tracking device in it and I put in a brand new battery. If Jonathan has it with him — and I told him to wear it around his neck at all times as a good luck charm — we should eventually be able to locate him! I will call Joe Connor to find out the frequency of the device, and then we will start combing the Santa Cruz Mountains until we get a signal.”

  “But that could take days, Jason! Plus there are a zillion little trails and dead ends that aren’t on the regular maps.”

  “Daniel, you are thinking two-dimensional. For this operation, we need to think three-dimensional! I think our best search chance is to go by helicopter. And we very well could need a rescue team! I am going to call up Stan Henderson right now and see what he can do for us!”

  “I think I have said this before, but Jason, you never cease to amaze me!” Daniel replied.