Chapter 13: Candy Makes a Discovery
1091 Words
The chief was quiet for a few seconds. Jason realized this wasn’t the best way to start a relationship if they were to help the city and the terrified parents of these children. He’d passed a small crowd with big signs that demanded answers from embattled police. The tension was high over these abductions and he could feel it.
Candy turned and looked to him for guidance. Jason nodded and she was seated.
“Although we appreciate any help you can give us, Mr. Jason,” the chief spoke to him, “I’m not sure how much you can give us. I understand and feel for Ms. Doe over what happened to her. So far, we’ve received no kidnapping notes, no bodies and no communication of any type with whoever has carried out these deeds. The entire town is about to blow wide open and people openly accuse their neighbors of being involved in some kind of child snatch cult. Last week we had to rescue two members of a Wiccan group because their neighbors accused them of being witches who steal children. I’m confident we’ll make some headway on this in a few days. You’re welcome to stick around, just don’t get in the way of what we have to do.”
“I appreciate your understanding, Chief White,” Jason replied. “My colleges thought Candy might be able to find something you’d overlooked. She’s quite good at locating things. If you could give me the address of the latest abduction location, maybe we could go out there and have a look. It couldn’t hurt.”
The police chief sighed and looked down the table at a uniformed black office that was close to Jason’s age. “Mike,” he called out, “why don’t you run Mr. Jason and Candy over there to see what they can dig up. I don’t think they’ll find anything, but you might as well try.”
“Sure thing, Chief,” the officer said as he stood up. He turned and led them out the same door they used to enter the room.
“I don’t know why he didn’t give us the address,” Jason spoke to the officer on the way over. “No sense in wasting one of his men when all we needed to do was look the site over.” Jason rode up front with the officer while Candy stayed in the back and stretched out. She found the bars disturbing and touched them a few times.
“And then those reporters would follow you,” the cop explained. “You don’t want that. You can leave at the end of the day. They might follow you just the same, but they’d be right on you if you left in the middle of the day. An ordinary radio car won’t attract them; we come and go all the time.”
About fifteen minutes later, the car pulled in front of the house. All three of them got out and looked at the small dwelling behind the tidy yard.
“Nice little neighborhood,” Jason observed as she looked at some of the white picket fences. “Should we wait out here for you to inform the family we’d like to have a look around the property?” Jason made sure Candy was in visual range at all times.
“That isn’t necessary,” Officer Mike informed him. “They’re staying with some relatives in Cincinnati until we can come up with some information on what happened to their son. Let’s go around back and have a look. It was the last place they saw him.”
The trio moved to the backyard, which was dominated by a swing set. It was a grim reminder of why they were there and Candy walked over to it and had a look. She seemed to understand it was for a child’s use and looked the swings over. As Jason watched her, she moved to a far corner of the yard and stopped at the fence line. Candy looked down, then across the nearby yards.
“We didn’t find much of anything back here,” the cop told them. Anything she’d turn up with is a big help. All of these cases are like that. One minute a child is left alone, and then he or she is gone. It’s got me worried as I’ve got a daughter at home. I’m scared to let her out of the house.”
Before Jason could respond, Candy had slipped out of her shoes and was walking around the back of the yard. The officer turned and looked at him in confusion. “She doesn’t like shoes,” Jason explained. “It has to do with how the ground feels. I think she’s trying to find something.”
Candy stopped again, and then returned to a corner in the yard. She walked to the fence line one more time and seemed to see something in the distance that interested her. This time she leaped over the fence before they could say a word. Seconds later, she was across the next yard and into the park on the other side. Jason and Officer Mike took the gateway out and headed in her direction.
“Why did she do that?” the cop asked Jason as they watched Candy at the Park walk around. “She didn’t even say a word.”
“It’s a problem with her,” Jason explained. “Candy was on her own in the wild for years. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with her.”
By the time they reached the park, Candy had climbed to the top of one of the trees and was looking down at the ground. She didn’t acknowledge either of them, but came down from the tree in a few minutes. As they watched, she walked to a park bench and pulled out a child’s shirt. She padded over to the cop and handed it to him.
“Here,” she informed the cop. “I saw it from above.”
- Writer
