PART ONE
The two man sat directly across from each other, at a table in the backroom of the dimly lit bar. A no name band was playing one of the latest hit country songs, a little off key, well a few couples attempted to dance.
The shorter of the two man, hated country music, and was only there for one reason. He grabbed his glass, and took a long drink, the warm liquor sliding down his throat, warming his insides. To him, if you were gonna drink, you might as well drink the goodstuff, and to hell with the mixer.
"Damn," he said, "Nothing like burbon on the rocks, to put hair on your balls."
The taller man, who also out weighed the shorter man, by at least fifty pounds, pulled a filterless cigarette out of
the breast pocket of his overly expensive shirt, placed it between his lips, lit it, then placed it back down into the ashtray, before picking up his glass of water. He had stopped drinking eight years earlier after a drinking binge in which an innocent victim was killed. He couldn't remember any of it, and ended up spending five years in prison. Even though he was out of prison, and was attempting to get his life back together, attending the AA meetings every Tuesday evening in the basement of the Methodist Church, volunteering his time talking to students at junior highs through out the state about the dangers of drinking and drugs. He still felt like he was going nowhere.
The shorter man, pulled his own cigarette from the breast pocket of his ten dollar Mervyn's clearance sale shirt, adjusted his three dollar, also from Mervyn's clearance sale, tie, before grabbing the pack of matches on the table, with the Bud Light symbol on one side, and the name of the bar on the other, striking the match and placing it to the end of the filtered cigarette.
"You know if my wife finds out I'm here," He finally said, "she'll probably end up divorcing me, if she don't kill me first."
"You worry too much," the taller man replied. "Nobody you know would be caught dead in a dump like this, let's face it the band is horrific, the waitress is about one ugly looking chic, and the only people who come in here are hoochie mama's and desperate man, who don't care what kind of women they leave with, as long as they get some pussy."
He took another drag of his cigarette
"So tell me who you expect to meet here?"
The shorter man picked up his glass and drained the last few drops of bourbon from the glass, before setting it back down. He could already feel the effects of his third drink, flowing through his body. The way he was drinking, you would have thought he was quite the drinker, but if the truth be known, he rarely ever drank, but when he did, he made sure he tied a good one on. The band had switched from a country song, to a classic rock song, bringing a few more couples onto the dance floor, the majority of them being women in the early to mid-twenties, grinding their bodies in suggestive ways to the strained singing of the long haired singer.
"Let's cut with the small talk," The shorter man, said, "how much money are we talking about?"
"Twenty grand," the taller man replied.
"Twenty grand, that's a hell of a lot of money, but I'm not sure if I can go through with what I need to do before I get the money. Can I have a few days to think about it?"
With that kind of money, he could get himself out of the gambling debts he had concurred over the years, plus have a couple of grand left over for a down payment on a new boat and take his son fishing just like him and his old man used to do. With work and everything, he realized he hadn't spent enough time with his son. He thought of himself as a good father, he worked hard to make sure his family had everything they needed, a home in a nice neighborhood, with a two car garage, a tan Chevy Suburban on one side, and a Apple Red Chevy S-10, fully loaded extended cab on the other. A vacation every summer to their cabin at the lake, and keeping his family supplied with all the latest technology. Yea, the money would sure save his life, as well as his marriage.
"Fuck no," The tall man said, "I need an answer before I leave this bar, and you know what your answer better be, and if it isn't what it should be. Then you better have the seventeen grand by Friday or else." The man but his hand into the shape of a gun, and pointed it straight at the shorter man, "Bang" he said.
He picked up his fresh glass of bourbon, the waitress had left at his table, compliments of some semi-attractive blonde sitting at the end of the bar, somewhere in her late twenties, dressed in a low cut blouse showing off her assests to full effect, and drank the whole thing in one shot, sending a chill down his spine. To hell with it, he thought. If he was going to ruin his life, then he might as well go all the way.
"Before I say yes," he said, "Can I ask you one question?"
"I figure your intitiled to one question," the tall man said.
"How can you stand to look at yourself in the mirror every day?"
The taller man laughed, "I don't have any mirrors in my house."
Thirty minutes before the first Child arrived at Angel Falls Junior High School, the blue van pulled into the same spot it had occupied for the past two weeks. The sole occupant of the vehicle pulled a Marlboro Red from the pack on the dash, tore off the filter and lit it, before taking a sip of the luke warm coffee, he had bought at the 7-11 across the street. The only reason he was parked across the street from the school was for the money he was being paid to keep his eye on one child inparticular.
He hated the Angel Falls weather, he knew it was gonna be another scorching day, it hadn't rained for over two weeks, and the daily temperature had falling no lower then the high eighties, and the damn airconditioner in his stupid van was on the fritz again. If it hadn't been for the cash the man, who's name and face he didn't know, was paying him, then he would have been sitting in front of his TV watching Mauray, Oprah, Jennie Jones, and Montel to see people who's lifes were more messed up then his.
After two weeks, he knew the manersims and rituals of each child as they were let off in front of the school. He looked down at his watch, quarter 'till eight, any minute, the brown sedan would pull up, he knew enough from his days has a troubled teen to know it was a police car. He knew the two children getting out of the White Chevy Celebrity would get a kiss on the check from their mother, the boy acting like it was the worst thing that could happen, well the girl acted like she could care less. The boy getting out of the old Ford pickup seemed to get out as fast as he could. Each and every Child acted in different ways.
He lit another cigarette, and patiently waited, looking at his watch, he noticed it was a quarter after eight and the Tan Chevy Suburban still hadn't pulled into the school yard. For the past two weeks, the vehicle had been there by no later then ten after the hour. Maybe he's sick today, he thought, yeah thats it, he's sick today.
He was about to pull out onto the street, when a Apple Red Chevy S-10 came cruising by and turned into the School Yard. He had never seen the vehicle before and waited to see who would get out of it. The door opened and the boy he was being paid good money to keep his eye on stepped out. He wasn't really sure why he was being paid to watch the boy, but from the looks of the boy, he figured, the old fuck was some goddamn pervert, since the boy was quite a handsome young lad. He knew from first hand experience about man like the one who was paying him. He had his own terrifying experiences with them. In the city, where he grew up, he had seen them hanging around the park, the arcade, in front of the picture show, anywhere Children, boy or girl, seemed to hang out, waiting for that one child who seemed to be alone.
He had been that lonely Child.
At a quarter 'til eight, just like clockwork, Robbie McLaughlin, checked his hair in the rearview mirror, made sure it was in proper place, hoped the new shirt his mother had forced him to wear wasn't too dorky looking, he had argued with her, but he knew she wasn't going to budge.
He could have worn whatever shirt he wanted, since she wasn't there in the morning to see what he wore, but he knew he would hear it when she came to pick him up that afternnon. Since his mother worked nights as a nurse at the hospital, his dad drove him to school each morning, and since his dad had to be to work by eight, or has his dad had put it too him, crime doesn't keep bankers hours. He would always drop him off at a quarter 'till eight, leaving Robbie standing in front of the school waiting for the doors to open. Thank God it was springtime and, the wait wasn't as bad.
"Robbie," his father yelled to him, as he got out. "remember your mother has an appointment at the beauty shop this afternoon and will probably be a little late."
On most days, this won't have bothered Robbie so much, he was used to spending a lot of time alone, he was what the experts had labeled a latchkey kid, but for the past couple of weeks, every morning when he was dropped off at school, he had noticed a blue van parked in the same spot. At first he hadn't thought much of it. He thought it was probably just some man on his way to work, who stopped to have a cup of coffee and maybe eat a little something. That was until two days ago, when the news report about the missing boy in Wheeler was splashed all over the National Headlines. A strange van parked in front of a school, everyday, would kind of make a child a little scared.
He thought maybe he should mention it to his dad, what if it wasn't a man on his way to work, but somebody who was casing out a child. He made a mental not of that evening to let his father know about the van. If the man checked out to be all right, then he could relax, and if he didn't then maybe, just maybe, he would have saved some unsuspecting child's life, or even his own.
"Is that the van," McLaughlin asked, his son, as they turned into the parking lot of Angel Falls Junior High School.
"Yeah," Robbie said, "It's been parked their almost everyday for two weeks. It's probably just a man enjoying his cup of coffee, maybe eating a donut and smoking a cigarette before starting a hard days work"
"You could be right," McLauglin said, "but just in case, I better check him out."
Robbie grabbed his backpack, flung it over his shoulder and went to stand against the wall, waiting for the school day to start. He watched his father pull out of the parking lot, and drive right over to the van.
"Excuse me, sir," McLaughlin said, approaching the driver's side window of the van. "I'm Lieutenent McLauglin of the Angel Falls Police Department, can I see some identification."
"Sure thing officer," the man said, grabbing his wallet out of a pair of pants, McLaughlin knew didn't come from any Wal-mart. He knew cause he had seen the same style of pants for eight-five dollars at Wendy's Fashions, where his wife shopped.
"What seems to be the problem?" the man asked.
"I'm not really sure if their is a problem" McLaughlin said, "but I drop my son off each morning, and for the past two weeks I've noticed your van parked here. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing you of anything, but I think you make some of the children, and to be honest with you, a few of the parents just a little nervous."
The man pulled a cigarette from the pack on the dash, tore the filter off, and lit it, "Care for one?" he asked McLaughlin.
"No thanks," McLauglin declined, "I quit."
"I assure you officer," the man said, "I am quite harmless. In fact, if you'll check with the school principal, you will find out I'm scheduled to give a lecture to the students about the dangers of drugs and drinking on Friday. I think that each child is different, and I've been watching them to see which children I think are the high risk ones. I like for them to sit towards the front, to make it seem like I'm really talking to them. If I've frightened or alarmed anybody, then I appologize, it wasn't my intention."
"I need to check on your story, just to satisfy my own curiousity," McLaughlin said. taking his cell phone out of his pocket and dialing the Principals office, after a short conversation, and the principals confirmation, he wished the man a good day and walked away.
It was cold and he was scared.
He could feel the rubbing of the ropes against his arms and legs everytime he moved. He could hear the voices, but was unable to make out what was being said. The last thing he could remember before this moment was being let out in front of the school like he had been every morning. He remembered being sent to the principals office for alegedly cheating on the math test, which was a complete crock of shit. Why would a straight A student stoop to cheating on a simple, stupid math test. He could remember storming out of the school, his backpack flung over his shoulder, starting the journey home from school.
That was all he could remember, 'till the moment he opened his eyes and found himself in an ufamiliar room. As his eyes came into focus, he noticed it was a plain room. Four walls painted an off white color, a single bulb hanging over a single bed. No paintings or pictures on the walls, No windows, just four walls and a bed.
The door to the room slowly began to open, and a man, who appeared to be around the same age has his mother's latest boyfriend walked in.
"I won't ask how your doing," the man said, in a deep southern accent. "since I can assume your probably not real happy with you current conditions."
The boy lifted his head up, looked straight at the man and asked one simple question.
"Are you gonna kill me?"