Girl Jacked (12 page)

As Jack went up the stairs, he moved along the edge of the wall to try to minimize any creaks, knowing that any sound would be loud in a building this quiet. On the next level, the worn wood floor ran straight back. The last door on the right had a bit of light creeping out from underneath it.  

He could feel his face contorting as he struggled to think of a reason why Replacement would be here this late. He could not come up with any plausible answer.

What’s going on?

He stood outside the door and debated if he should knock or just try to open it. He tapped on the door.

“Replacement?” He listened to the silence. “Replacement?” he whispered again, and this time he heard movement from the other side of the door.

A couple of soft footsteps and then the door slowly opened a crack. Jack wished it hadn’t.

Replacement’s head appeared, but she refused to look him in the face.

Her lips trembled. It wasn’t from anger or fear, it was from shame. He could see it in her eyes. The same look he had seen so many times in his own, he knew it well.

Jack put his hand on the door and gradually opened it.

A storage room. It's more like a closet.

His anger rose. He was angry with himself. He knew or at least he should have known.

She said Aunt Haddie was in a nursing home so she couldn’t be living with her. She didn’t mention any friends and what was she eighteen? She would be out of the foster care system. This explains the showers every time she came over…

Jack looked at the sleeping bag on the floor. There was a small table with a little light. Three green bags were in one corner and a couple of boxes in the other.

“The homeless shelter… you know some of the freaks that live there are weird,” she looked down sheepishly. “Aunt Haddie tries to give me money when she can but this… this is just temporary… I mean, I don’t need much.” She looked around.

He imagined this small eighteen-year-old girl at a homeless shelter and he clenched his teeth.

“Things will change.” She smiled at him. The smile was so forced, but there was some glint of hope. That little bit of light cut right into Jack.

A closet in a storage facility. She’s living in a closet.

“Yeah.” Jack cleared his throat. “It’s temporary because it’s over. From now on, you’re staying with me.”

She looked up at him.

“Hand me a couple of things and I’ll go get the car.”

She started to tremble. Jack stepped forward and pulled her close.

Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.

Her arms started to rise as if to give him a hug, but then stopped, dropping loosely to her sides. Jack hugged her tighter. Her arms shot out and wrapped around his waist. He patted her back.

“Aunt Haddie’s kids have to stick together, right?”

She nodded. He held her for a minute. Then she stepped back and rubbed her eyes.

Jack reached in and grabbed the trash bags. “I’ll get the car.”

By the time he returned, she was already waiting for him, everything else she owned was in the two boxes at her feet.

“Not much of a life.” The shrug that accompanied her words cut Jack to his core.

“Your new one starts today, kid. Come on; let’s go.”

“Hey, Jack.” Chandler’s voice was happy. “You gonna have any?”

Chandler held up a plate covered with scrambled eggs as he tried fit his large frame into the small booth.

“In a minute.”

“The best part of this German food is breakfast.”

Jack chuckled. “You’re like a giant hobbit. What is this, your second breakfast?”

“I’m a growing boy!” Chandler shrugged. “You know if we were home right now Aunt Haddie would be waking us up singing ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ Oh, what…”

“…a beautiful day. I got a wonderful feeling everything’s going my way.” Jack smiled. “Yeah, how could I forget?”

“Do you remember her fire drills? She’d get freaked about having so many kids in the house she’d have those mock evacuations. All of us standing out on the sidewalk freezing while she did a head count.” Chandler started choking a little as he laughed.

“She woulda made a hell of a drill instructor.”

“Remember that one where you and I decided to go out the window and slide out over the porch? She nearly killed us.” Chandler chuckled as tried to keep his food in his mouth.

“We had to copy that entire fire safety book over.”

“My hand still hurts!” Chandler jokingly flexed it.

“Don’t forget why she did it, big man. She always said ‘keep your eyes on the exit whenever you go someplace new and be prepared’. Guess she made us ready for this…” Jack sighed and stopped laughing.

Chandler tried to change the subject, “Hey, I have it all figured out what I am going to do when I get out.”

“We haven’t even left Germany. Then we have to get through Iraq and
you
have it all figured out?”

“I’m going to be a teacher. I want to teach Math.”

Jack burst out laughing.

“Thanks, jerk.” Chandler tossed down his fork. “I thought the plan was we both go in and get the money for college.”

Jack put his hands behind his head. “I just came to watch your back.”

“Yeah, but it’s been the other way around.” Chandler grinned. “Seriously, do you think that’s stupid?”

“No. My dad’s a math teacher. Did he bite you or something? Made you some sort of math zombie?”

“He gave me the idea. It’s a great job. Help kids. You get the whole summer off.”

“It’s not stupid.” Jack held up a glass of orange juice as a toast. “I just don’t know how any kid is going to have the guts to ask a question with you standing in the front of the room!”

They both laughed.

“Seriously.” Jack kicked back the last of the orange juice. “You’d make a great teacher.”

“Do you like eggs?” Chandler asked with a big smile.

“Do you like eggs?” Jack heard the words again, but he struggled to try to stay dreaming.

“Up you go! Get up, sleepyhead!” Replacement proclaimed as she started to pull the blanket off him. He grabbed it but she still caught an eyeful.

“Wow, I didn’t know that you slept
au naturel!
Nice butt.”

“Get out now!” He was tempted to stand up and give her the full show, but from the look on her face, he didn’t think she would back down, and he’d be the one to get embarrassed. “Can’t you wake me up nicely?”

“I try! I start off really gentle, but you won’t wake up. So… I have to escalate it. You could snore through a train wreck.”

“I don’t snore!”

“Sure!” She tilted her head at him. “I made breakfast. Get dressed now,
nudist
or I’ll eat it all!” She laughed as she sprinted out of the room.

Jack wrapped the blanket around himself, and went to the bathroom. He pulled on some sweatpants and then he smelled the eggs.

She made me a hot breakfast!

Jack had just about given up on ever having a hot breakfast again. When he had to work the night shift, his mornings suffered and he frequently woke up in the afternoon. He never liked to eat breakfast later in the day, so the meal was slowly being worked out of his diet.

He yanked open the bedroom door and saw that the kitchen counter was set with two places. Replacement stood there grinning like the Cheshire cat with a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. She was wearing a big old Fairfield High School shirt. Jack walked around the counter and saw that the shirt was all she was wearing.

“Knock off surprising me in my bedroom and go put on some pants.” He shook his head. “That stuff is weird.” Jack couldn’t bring himself to frown because he was so happy about breakfast, so he settled for trying to look stern.

“You like scrambled eggs?” She pushed a large plate toward him that also had four pieces of buttered toast.

“I love them!” Jack grabbed his fork but stopped with his hand half way to his face.

Replacement had the same look Aunt Haddie would give him when he didn’t say grace. He sighed, folded his hands, and bowed his head as she began.

“Thank you, Lord for this food. Thank you for Jack’s help. Please help him to find my sister and have her be okay. Bless Aunt Haddie and say hi to my brother. In Jesus’ name, thanks.”

Jack kept his eyes closed, and his head bowed. There were times when he felt like he didn’t have something that was core to his being. That he was missing something about being a human. Missing was the wrong word to use even. Missing meant that at one time, he had it, and it was now gone. He shook his head. He didn’t think that he ever had this thing that Replacement possessed. It was like he was defective. Something inside him was incomplete. This was one of those times. With his eyes still closed, he shook his head. Replacement understood something he didn’t.

He opened his eyes and dropped his fork in surprise. Replacement’s face was right next to his and staring into his eyes as if she were searching for something.

“There you go again, kid! You have to give me some space.” He protested but swiftly grabbed his fork and started to eat.

“What? I’m just looking at your face. Did you just think of something?” she asked, eyeing him.

“You can just ask me. Don’t get right next to me, don’t sneak up on me, just ask.”

She walked over to the far counter and returned with two cups of coffee. “Are we off to the reservoir?”

“Coffee! Whatever you want... No, no, no!” he added. “I will call Sully this morning first. But I was thinking last night, we should go see if we can find one of those kids. They may know something.”

“Why are we going to hunt down kids first?” Replacement didn’t mask her disappointment well.

“Look, I think the kids are just that, kids. We need to know if that is where they found the car or if they drove it there. On the other hand… maybe they saw something. There’s an Eddie’s Sport on 54, and it has a small garage for ATV’s, snowmobiles and dirt bikes. It’s on the way to the reservoir. It has to be local kids so a short conversation might yield us a name.”

Jack looked down at the empty plate, and then glanced at his watch. 7:05 am. He didn’t think breakfast was a bribe, but if it was, it worked. “How soon can you be ready?” By the time he finished speaking, she was already pulling out a pair of jeans.

“I need a minute.” He grabbed his coffee and headed into the bedroom.

Between Ben Nichols’ shotgun and the dogs at Sullivan’s, Jack had wished he had his gun twice in less than an hour. He opened the small safe under the medicine cabinet and grabbed his pistol and holster.

As they drove out to Eddie’s Sports, Replacement kept fidgeting in her seat.

She looked up as they turned. A large sign read Ridge Hill High School with a picture of a mountain lion in blue and white.

“The high school? What’s here?” she asked.

“Kids. We’re looking for the group of teenagers at the car. One of them has that helmet, another‘s a hefty, fat boy in a giant red parka. It’s worth a drive by. We might be able to see them here.”

“That’s great. How are we going to pick them out of that crowd?” Replacement pointed to the sea of teens arriving at the school.

Jack scanned the crowd and began to doubt the wisdom of his decision too.

“There!” Replacement called out pointing to a heavy kid in a red parka. “Wait over there too!” She pointed again.

“I get it. Look for the Mohawk kid.”

“Third red parka but sort of thin.”

He scanned the sea of jackets and slowed down even more.

“Fourth fatty in red off the starboard bow!” she bellowed.

A large group of students turned to glare at the car. Jack realized she had rolled down her window and was now halfway out of the car as she yelled.

Jack pulled her back into her seat, “Keep it down, Captain Obvious.”

She sprang right back up. “There he is! It’s him!” Replacement almost opened the door as she frantically began jabbing the air with her finger.

“What did I just say?” Jack was getting ready to abort the whole thing.

“No! There he is! It’s him!” she was yelling and gesturing wildly.

“Where?” Jack scanned the crowd who milled around outside the buses.

“The chicken headed kid!” She grabbed his chin and turned his head. Jack saw the teen parking his motorcycle, and atop his helmet was a large gold Mohawk.

Jack double-parked right behind the bike, blocking him in. “Stay here.” He jumped out of the car, and the rider, who was being greeted by a group of friends, turned back toward him.

“Excuse me!” Jack called. He wanted to talk to him without the friends. “Can you come over here for a second? I need to ask you a quick question.”

The kid has to be close to eighteen. Judging from his helmet and the fact he’s driving a motorcycle in winter, he thinks he’s a tough guy.

“You a cop?” he laughed as his friends circled a little closer around him.

“I am. I just had a question.”

“Talk to my lawyer.” The teen held up both middle fingers and his friends laughed.

Replacement pulled herself up so her whole upper body was halfway out the car window.

“How about you come and talk to me? I don’t bite… hard.” She giggled.

The kid laughed, punched one of his friends in the arm, and sauntered forward.

“I’ll talk to you, babe.” His arrogance made Jack’s anger rise. He didn’t change expression, but his eyes grew blacker. He got right up next to the kid.

“You can talk to me you wiseass and answer a couple of questions now, or I can have your bike towed, impounded, and checked by the MVD and then I’ll throw your sorry ass in a cell.”

The teen gulped and the color drained from his face. Jack nodded to the other side of the car, and the boy followed him.

“I need to know about when you were out at the reservoir near a blue Honda Civic.” Jack spoke low.

The kid looked back at his friends and his bravado returned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He might as well have been a peacock with how much he gestured and posed.

 
“Okay,” Jack leaned in, and his voice turned cold. “Listen up. Now I’m doing you a favor by treating you like a man in front of your friends. If you try jerking me around one more time, let me tell you what I’m going to do. I noticed you swerving when you pulled into the school, and I suspect that you are under the influence of class B drugs in a school zone. Under paragraph 95 of the DEA act that means I can detain you until the school principal comes and the two of us will escort you down to Mrs. Kazikinski’s office.”

Mrs. Kazikinski was the school nurse. He knew she taught a couple of self-defense courses at the local Y. She was also the wrestling coach for both the boys and girls teams. She was large, burly, and at almost 6’2”, she had the widest frame he had ever seen on a woman. Jack was making up the codes, but he bet the kid would know Mrs. Kazikinski and he would be extremely afraid of what Jack said next.

“Under section 53 part C, any student who is viewed as being under the influence of a class B narcotic can and will be subjected to a full body cavity search by trained medical personnel. That would be Mrs. Kazikinski.” Jack smiled. “So what’s it going to be?”

“Teddy, Tommy, Brian and Scott and I were down at the reservoir.”

Jack smiled again.
The kid just threw everyone under the bus.
Jack took out his notebook and started to write the details.

“And your full name?”

He swallowed hard. “Ricky Matthews.” He rolled his eyes as Jack wrote it down.

“You saw the car and then what?”

“I saw the car, so we figured we’d just check it out.” He shrugged.

“What did the car look like?” Jack’s voice was still cold.

“I don’t know... Ah... it was blue. It had been there, you know. And …”

“Been there?”

“The windshield had snow on it. It snowed the night before.”

“Did you go in the car?”

He looked at his feet and shuffled them awkwardly. “Yeah, but… I opened the door. There was nothing in it. The keys were still there, but … I just looked.” He looked Jack straight in the eyes.

He is lying.

“Did you start the car?” Jack leaned in.

“Yeah … I was just sitting there, so I turned it over. It started right up. It was busted up already. There was glass in the front seat and the window was broken open. “

Jack frowned. He was holding something back.

“Ricky, have you ever looked at the size of Mrs. Kazikinski’s hands? She can palm a watermelon. You’re leaving something out, and you have one chance to give it up.”

The teen was squirming, and his eyes went wide. “There was a smart phone. It was wedged in the seat.”

“Where is it?” Jack’s eyes narrowed.

“I took it but… I forget.” Ricky was starting to whine, and he looked like a little boy who had to go to the bathroom.

Lie.

Jack pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“No, no!” Ricky begged. “Wait a minute… I got it! I got it!” He pulled off his backpack and desperately started looking through it. “Here!” He handed Jack the phone.

“Is there anything else?” Jack’s eyes bored into him.

“No, nothing else.” Ricky waved his hands back and forth.

“Thank you for your time. I would hurry to class if I were you.”

Ricky bolted, avoiding the friends who called after him. Jack laughed as he opened the door of the Impala and hopped in.

Replacement reached out and attempted to grab the phone.

“Hold on. I think there should be a plastic bag I threw into the glove box.”

She pulled out the bag and handed it to him.

“It’s dead,” he said as he placed the phone into the bag and sealed it up.

Jack saw the excitement on her face change to disappointment. “Do you have a charger?”

“I have a normal phone, kid.”

“You mean an old one.”

Jack drove around the busses and headed for the exit.

Replacement stared down at the phone. “Good job getting this. I hope it works.”

“Me, too.” Jack nodded back toward the school. “Think Ricky will make the bathroom?”

“I think he peed himself next to the car!” She started laughing.

“The kid’s angle is what I thought really happened. Three people have confirmed the car had been there a while: Sully, Nichols and now Ricky.”

Jack’s eyes turned back to the road and he smirked when he pictured that wise-ass kid running for the bathroom.

Jack’s phone rang.
Ding-a-ling
, it was an old-fashioned bell like telephones used to have.

Replacement laughed. “What kind of ringtone was that?”

“Hello?” Jack scowled at her as he answered. “Yeah, thanks for calling back Sully. I just needed to know where on Reservoir road you found the car.”

Jack nodded his head as Replacement tried to put her ear up to the phone to listen.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” He hung up.

“What did he say?”

“Sully said he found it near the sharp curve in the road.”

“Are we going out there now?”

Jack nodded but his mood soon turned as gray as the sky as they drove out to the reservoir.