Chapter 2 #2
Cory nodded. “He’s barely hanging on to his required grades.
I’ve suspected him of running drugs, maybe Abyss.
I hate to even think it, a fourteen-year-old doing that.
Caught him sneaking out a few times, though I couldn’t find anything on him but a bunch of pictures of the same kid.
His missing brother, he said. I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or using it as a cover. ”
“I’ll have a chat with him, see what I can find out.”
Kasabian found Lyle at a computer in the library.
The kid quickly closed the browser screen, a suspicious move.
Kasabian decided not to call him on it, turning a chair at the next computer and sitting down backward.
Although it was obvious that Kasabian was there to talk to him, Lyle opened a new screen and pulled up one of the curriculum programs, ignoring him. His eyes were bloodshot, face gaunt.
“You came from the Vale, didn’t you?” Kasabian asked, finally getting the kid’s attention. The Vale was a run-down area populated by the addicts.
“Yeah.” Lyle kept his gaze on the computer screen, but he was working hard to do it.
“I’m investigating some disappearances. Have you heard anything about kids going missing from there?”
Lyle turned to him, his mouth working. He pulled back whatever words he was going to say and affected a nonchalant shrug. “I’m not sure you could call it disappearing. They supposedly went to some kind of camp, while the mothers moved to this weird neighborhood for a better life. ”
That surprised Kasabian. “The mothers left the area?”
“It was some kind of government assistance thing. Crescent government. We were told that the kids went to their family’s new residence.”
Kasabian considered what angle to use. “But they lied.” Not a question. “How do you know?”
The kid was clearly at war with himself: tell the nosy guy the truth or distrust him as he did everyone else.
Kasabian knew how he felt. Sharing didn’t come easy for him either, but he needed to if he was going to get anywhere.
“I was kidnapped when I was eight. I was lucky. I escaped. The people who took me, I think they’re still taking kids.
I want to stop them. Maybe it has something to do with this camp. I need to find out more.”
Lyle’s expression slowly revealed his pain. “My brother went to a camp a year ago. They said I was too old to go with him.”
“How old was he?”
“Four.”
Like a gut punch. “And you never saw him again.”
Lyle chewed his lip, his eyes staring at nothing. Finally, he shook his head. “We moved to the Bend soon after.”
“Is that the weird neighborhood?”
Lyle nodded.
The Bend. Kasabian had heard about the gated community that housed middle- and low-income Crescent families, and claimed to help the drug-addled clean up their lives. particularly single mothers. It was touted as being safe
“They never returned your brother,” Kasabian said gently.
“They said three months. Then it was six months. All my mom kept talking about was our beautiful house and wasn’t our life so nice now? She didn’t even seem worried.”
Because she knew the kid wasn’t coming back.
“When I threatened to go to the Guard, she admitted that Jonathan had been adopted by another family.” Lyle met Kasabian’s gaze with a fierce expression.
“She said it was kind of a trade-off; she got a new life and a family got a child they’d been wanting.
I accused her of selling him, and then she was all like, ‘I didn’t say trade-off! ’ I ran away and came here.”
The pieces were coming together. “You sneak out to to look for him.”
Lyle searched Kasabian’s face, sensing whether he could trust him. He nodded. “I ask around, talk to people. But no one knows anything.”
“Can I help you?”
“I can do it on my own.”
Just like Kasabian, not wanting to involve anyone else. The poor kid had been dealing with this alone, driving himself to exhaustion.
“I understand. No one cares about your situation like you do. But sometimes what you’re after is more important than your need to do it on your own. I’m going to look into this for my own reasons. It would help if I had a picture of your brother.”
Lyle pulled out his worn nylon wallet and extracted one of several color copies.
On the back was the boy’s name, age, height, and weight, along with the date he’d gone missing.
The boys looked nothing alike, Jonathan had straight brown hair while Lyle’s was dark blond and wavy.
Lyle’s face was lean and sharp; Jonathan’s round, his eyes soulful.
Kasabian ran his thumb along the edge of the photographic copy paper. “Thanks.”
“I should be thanking you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Kasabian left Lyle in the library, feeling the unease sympathy caused in his body.
Caidos didn’t feel pain at their own emotions, only a sense of discomfort.
He let the tightness in the chest come as he gathered information from both the kids and the counselors.
Nothing conclusive, just tidbits here and there that added up.
It wasn’t just the camp. One kid was thought to have drowned in a canal.
No body was ever recovered. One kid wandered off and was never seen again. Too convenient.
Kasabian took a picture of the photo and sent it to Hayden, who called.
“Who’s the kid?”
Kasabian filled him in on what he’d learned. “Drug addict mother, kid supposedly adopted. Is there anyone you can discreetly ask whether this is the kid who was found?”
“With the Concilium involved, it’s going to be dicey knowing who to trust. Cecily will be my best bet.”
“Other kids are missing, too, supposedly drowned. But I don’t have any specifics on those, just hearsay.”
“If we can connect Jonathan to the kid at the station, we’ll know where he came from.”
Kasabian found Cory in the worn-out chair at his desk. “Lyle’s not running drugs. He’s trying to find his little brother. Give him space, okay?”
Kasabian saw Cory’s reaction in a quick-fire burst: surprise, guilt, and then a nod. He didn’t stick around to say more. Cory would have questions, but answers, well, he was painfully short on those.
You have the answers…
Buried in the recesses of his mind. He rubbed the scar. Counseling and even hypnosis had failed to unlock his imprisoned memories. He would always be screwed-up, and it wasn’t only because of his abduction. But he could help these kids, get to the bottom of the abductions, and put a stop to them.
Good thing for him he knew a chick from a bar with just the kind of magick he needed.
He’d vowed to stay away from her. But now he needed to get close. Very, very close.
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