“Get ‘em!” Evan yelled this loudly. His eyes were big from the commotion, but he seemed fairly calm for an older man in such a scrape. He dropped the leash and watched as Skippy lunged through the air and locked his jaws around the guy’s arm, forcing him to drop the knife. Evan slowly walked over and picked up the knife and now held the advantage. He stood back and watched as Skippy continued to do the job that he had been asked to do. The troublemaker screamed in agony as Skippy continued to gnaw on his arm even after the weapon had been secured.
The other guy quickly backed away in fear and jumped into the car, which sped away from the scene. Their impromptu plan had not gone down the way they had wanted. Skippy’s jaw was locked onto the guy’s arm and Carter watched in shock as he bled from the forearm, which had been torn right below the elbow. He now suffered from a bloody lip and a shredded arm because he couldn’t keep his bloody mouth shut.
Carter looked on in astonishment, not so much because of the dog’s aggression, but at Evan’s reaction. He could not have been calmer throughout the entire ordeal, even when he had to bend down and apprehend the weapon that nearly killed him. Carter could only assume that his time in Nam and all of his years in law enforcement must have desensitized him to street crime.
“Stop,” Evan yelled out, and Skippy released the guy’s arm and ran back to his master, swirling around and sitting at his feet. The dog was breathing heavily and glaring at the troublemaker in case he chose unwisely to return to the scene. There was the sound of a car screeching around the corner, and there was no doubt what was happening here.
The others in the car had returned, not to fight, but to get their partner in crime. They finally realized that the only thing they should cut is their losses. Evan, Carter and Skippy continued walking away from the scene to allow the pickup to happen. The two other guys grabbed their friend and helped him to the car, then sped off in the direction of the hospital.
Hours later, sirens blared past as they walked along the road with the day coming to a close. There were no leads up to this point, and Carter would check in with the police and Brenda hourly. The only thing the three of them found were flyers for Adam on poles, windows and bulletin boards. Carter was very discouraged, but Evan kept on saying little odd things that would either take his mind off of bad thoughts or encourage him to continue on.
The police car that had been making all of that noise in the distance was now blazing past them, forcing Skippy to get in ready position. He may be an old dog with a bloody snout, but a new trick it was not. Not by a long shot. Evan didn’t give it more than a glance up as the car sailed by with its siren and lights blasting the downtown area. As soon as the siren faded into the distance, more sirens popped up, and it became a whirlwind of activity.
Carter’s phone began to blow up. He got calls from Detective Norton, Channel 4 news, Channel 7 news, and Brenda, at about the same time. He was staring at his phone in panic mode because he wanted desperately to know why everybody was calling about as much as he didn’t want the news to be bad. The first call to come through was from Detective Norton.
“Carter…Detective Norton here. I wanted to be the first to tell you the news, but by all means this is merely a lead and nothing has been confirmed. I repeat…nothing has been confirmed. I need to tell you that some fishermen have discovered what they are describing as the body of a small boy washed up by a rocky shore in the St. Charles river. Carter?”
Carter had his cell phone in his hand as the beep of another call came through. He was so overwhelmed by this tragic development, and he glanced at his phone to see that Brenda was trying to reach him too. Did she know? He froze while staring at that incoming call, unable to switch over and face her. He waited for the three rings until she defaulted to voicemail. He was overwhelmed with grief, having just ignored his wife who was battling the same heart-wrenching battle.
He dropped his head in anguish. If he answered her call, would he be receiving the news that their son had been found dead in the water or would he be delivering the news to her? His bottom half became too weak to support the top half of his body, and he crashed to the ground.
“Carter,” the detective was calling through the phone. “Carter…are you there?”
He could hear the detective summoning him, but he was in such a fog and didn’t know how to respond. His mind was processing evil returns of what kind of world we live in that adults can kill children and dump their bodies into a river. It was unfathomable, and yet he was up against just that with his own son. Evan got him into a sitting position, but could not get him to take the phone. He was so despondent that he could not even grip the phone hard enough to hold it in his hand, so Evan had to intervene.
“Hello, this is Evan…who’s this?”
“Evan, it’s Detective Norton.”
“Hi Detective.”
“Is Carter okay?”
“Not at the moment. What was it that you were talking to him about? Did you get anything?”
“Not sure…but we got an anonymous tip called in by a couple of fishermen who claimed to have seen the body of a small boy matching Adam’s description. He was in the Charles River by some rocks. I was telling Carter that at this point there was no confirmation that there was a subject, so therefore there’s no confirmation that it was his son.”
“Oh boy. We’re on foot, and quite a ways from there. Can you get a squad car over here so we can check it out?”
“Ah…Evan, I think it would be best if you and Carter just sit tight and wait until we at least have confirmation that this lead has any authenticity. The fishermen wanted to remain anonymous and did not have any details. It could be a prank, but of course we take all calls seriously and have cars heading to the scene as we speak.”
“Yeah, they must have been the cars that just went speeding past us.” He got up and turned his back from Carter and took a couple of steps away and said, “I had a suspicion, but didn’t wanna say anything to Carter.”
The phone started ringing while Evan was speaking with the detective. He looked at the phone and saw the name, Brenda. Evan got back on the phone and said, “Norton..I got his wife calling on the other line, so let us know what you find and I’ll sugar coat the news to her.”
“Hello…Brenda?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
“It’s Evan.”
“Where’s Carter?”
“He’s here…just suffering from a little exhaustion.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Actually, he’s checking something out right now and can’t come to the phone at the moment.” He looked over at Carter and saw that he was looking a little better, but didn’t think that he was quite ready to deliver the news that he had just received from the detective.
“Evan, I’m getting calls from the area newspapers and television news about a possible sighting of a boy,” said Brenda, “and they’re saying that it might be Adam.”
Evan heard her drop the phone and let out tears of anguish. “Is there any truth to that?” she screamed.
“Brenda…stay calm…please. There’s no traction to that story yet. I just got off the phone with Detective Norton, and he told me that it was an anonymous tip, and the callers…who claimed to be fishermen…would not even give their names. There’s the possibility that it’s a hoax, but they have squad cars en route now and they’re looking into it. They have to check out everything…big or small.”
“A hoax? What sick son-of-a-bitch would do something like that?”
“The world sucks, Brenda. It’s far from perfect, and there are some people in it that don’t belong. These are the animals that we need to separate from the good people in this world and put behind bars. So until we have any solid leads, yo
u just sit tight and don’t believe everything you hear. I know that’s easier said than done in your situation, but you’ll drive yourself nuts otherwise.”
Evan finished calming Brenda’s nerves and returned to Carter’s side. He was doing better just by listening to Evan speak with Brenda. He began to build trust in Evan and knew that as a former officer, he spoke from experience. He got to his feet without Evan’s assistance, and it was a waiting game at this point. He began to pray that the fishermen’s report was a hoax. He didn’t want to think about the report being real, because even if it wasn’t his son, Adam, it was someone’s son.
CHAPTER FIVE
The sirens continued to blare through town. One officer spotted Carter, Evan and Skippy and stopped for them. After piling into the back seat of the squad car, they raced to the river, where a half-dozen police cars had beaten them to the scene. The exact spot where the fishermen reported the body was vacant, but that didn’t mean anything. The fishermen, who wished to remain anonymous, could have fled the scene, and the body could have moved down the river with the strong tide, or simply gone under.
Detective Norton arrived at the scene and began barking orders. He called in the dive team, and ordered the officers to interview people in the vicinity and keep their eyes peeled. There was a smattering of people around this location, but nobody saw anything. Nobody ever sees anything, especially when cops are swarming. They’re afraid they’ll get stung.
Finding nothing at the scene was a relief. Everybody was hoping that the report would not bring them to the waterlogged body of the six-year-old boy named Adam. He was only six years old, and he had not even experienced life yet. They had seen this far more often than they would have liked, but that’s why they all got involved in this line of work…to make scumbags pay.
Carter arrived at the scene, but could not get out of the squad car. He told the officer and Evan to go on without him. He could not bring himself to be the one to stumble upon the body of his dead son. He loved Adam so much that the six years of memories flooded his mind as he watched the search team do their thing. The river turned into a mob scene, and the dive team arrived and began canvassing in and around the river.
As he watched the fury of activity, he sat back sifting through the memories of Adam with the other half of his brain. He couldn’t believe this was happening and questioned if it was real. He saw images of Adam when he was born, pulled from the C-section of his mother’s stomach earlier than his scheduled arrival. He was a very active boy, and couldn’t wait to join this world that would throw him back like a small fish six years later. No, no, no, that’s not how it’s going to be. Carter’s mind was a ship and he tried to right it. He kept trying to repress horrific thoughts.
He sat himself up when he saw one of the rescue boats tossing a net overboard and the three men aboard rushing around in what appeared to be a chaotic scene. Adam is only six God dam years old. He has a whole life ahead of him. Please, God…God, oh please don’t do this to me! He’s a good boy. He doesn’t deserve such a fate. No child deserves such a fate. Please, God. Pleeeeeeeeeease!
Somewhere along the line he went from thinking about Adam to shouting about Adam, and he wasn’t sure where one ended and the other began. He tried desperately to get out of the squad car, but the back doors were locked. He started pounding the window, but nobody could hear him. They were all busy pulling his son’s dead body from the river. He heard his phone ring and had the sense to at least see who it was, and he saw that it was Brenda, Adam’s mother, so he couldn’t possibly answer the call. Just a minute Brenda…they’re pulling your six-year-old son from the fuckin’ river! No, no, no. That’s not how this is going to play out.
Carter saw a soaking wet image looking in on him from the front windshield of the squad car. Holy shit! It’s Adam! He escaped from the water and he’s making sure I’m okay when all the rest of the community is at the river looking for him. “Adam,” Carter yelled out toward the front windshield. He lurched forward, trying to reach over the front seat, but smashed into the barrier. “You’re alive! They’re all looking for you. Over there.” He pointed to the side window in back to let Adam know where they were searching. They needed to stop searching. Adam was…Adam was…where the hell did Adam go? Why are the searchers still searching?
There was stillness to the late afternoon air, and that was more so the case in the back of the stagnant cop car. Carter looked through the front windshield, and saw nothing. He whipped his head around and looked out the back window, and again he saw nothing. Then he volleyed his head from one side window to the other looking for Adam. Clearly he’s playing a game with me. Adam always liked to play those hide and seek games. He saw the search and rescue teams trying to find Adam, but he saw nothing more. He did not see where Adam went. Again, he had gone into hiding.
Carter heard a commotion and looked up to see that the three men in the boat were yelling something and hoisting the net from the river. There seemed to be something very heavy in the net by the way they were digging their feet into the bottom of the boat and leaning back for a good pull. This was when Carter thought that the reality was about to be revealed to him, and he had his hands on his head in the back of the squad car. His own feet were digging in. He screamed loudly, echoing in the interior of the squad car for only his ears to hear.
A struggle ensued, and several minutes went by where Carter remained calm and just watched from a distance of about 100 feet to see what it was in the net that had lit a fire under the rescuers. He wanted to know immediately and he didn’t want to know at all. This tug-of-war in his thinking seemed to have become a pattern in his life during his son’s disappearance. He wanted so badly to know, but he was afraid to know. He knew that he couldn’t have it both ways and he would find out eventually, one way or another, but when faced with the choice, Carter wanted the choice to go away.
There was a knock on the side window that made Carter jump. It was Evan, who said loudly, “Carter…there’s nothing here, so we’re gonna move on. The officer is gonna give us a ride home.”
“But…what was all that commotion with the dive team on the boat?” Carter yelled this back through the closed window, and Evan opened the passenger side door and got into the squad car.
“No, that was nothing. They hit a snag and they’re still trying to get the net loose. Nothing to worry about. They’re still gonna be trolling the water for a while, but no sense in hanging around here. Let’s just let them do their thing and get back home. I want to regroup and try again tomorrow. They’re gonna be working around the clock, so somebody will always be looking for your son.”
Carter looked at Evan and said, “I can’t just stop looking for my son!”
“Carter…there’s not much more that you can do. They are exhausting this lead, and when they get another…then you can chase after it. For now, you need to get home and get some rest.”
“I suppose you’re right,” said Carter. He looked through the front windshield. No Adam. He looked through the back windshield. No Adam. There was no Adam. He then realized that there probably never was an Adam looking in at him through the car windows.
Brenda had one of the toughest jobs in the search for Adam. She had to stay at home, which meant that she could not search for her missing child. She was a stay-at-home mom, but that was not the reason. She needed to be at the home base to field calls, and what if Adam just walked through the front door and nobody was there to receive him? Sure that was a far-fetched outcome, but what if?
She stayed behind watching TV for any breaking news or phone calls regarding Adam. She was well-informed by just the media alone. The reporters were constantly calling the house looking for a comment on any new developments. She had actually received word about the fishermen before Carter, and that’s when she started calling Carter on his cell phone.
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During the day, Brenda was getting visitors from the other stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood, whom she had befriended since she joined the ranks of motherhood. From the time she was taking Adam for a stroll as a baby through the streets in and around her neighborhood, she had become acquainted with the other mothers, and Adam even had some play dates with their kids. Brenda more than welcomed these visitors in such a time of need, and they helped get her mind to a better place whenever the phone rang or whenever the poisonous outcomes penetrated her thoughts.
She had to survive this day without her soul mate. Carter, of course, needed to be out searching for Adam, and Brenda knew there was no better thing he could be doing, even if it meant he could not accompany her. The whole community was out looking for their son, but Brenda would still choose to have Carter looking too. She loved them both so much, and she needed Carter to reunite the family.
Carter, Evan and Skippy returned to the homestead that Brenda had been holding down.
“That wasn’t Adam at the river,” Carter said, closing the door behind him.
“Yes, I know,” Brenda replied. Her eyes were red and puffy. She walked over and gave him a big hug and both of them exchanged muffled cries into each other’s shoulders, a sign of relief mixed with ongoing fear. Then Brenda turned to Evan and gave him a smaller hug. “Thank you so much for your help,” she said.
“Please,” he said. “No need. See why I told you not to hang your hat on preliminary reports? Things gotta be checked out before you cash in your chips.”
Carter put Brenda’s face between his hands and said, “You gotta have faith, Brenda. You just gotta have faith.” Then he turned away and said, “Damn it,” while slamming his fist down on the table. “If I didn’t shut my eyes…”
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 50