Deadly Treatment (10 page)

‘Did everything go okay with the office job?’ Tims, AKA Harrison, was on the phone to Vince.

‘Of course, burnt well, what with all the paper they had stacked up in there — why?’

It’s probably nothing, but I’ve got to ask, did either of you pick up anything from there, a memento, a valuable, a brochure?’

Vince went silent for a moment before answering.

‘Course not; we never take anything from the jobs!’

It was Harrison’s turn to be silent; he knew for a fact that Vince liked to take keepsakes, but he also knew of Vince’s temper.

‘Alright then, thanks, good job. I had to ask.’

D
espite threats of what would happen if he was lying, Azibo remained adamant that he had found the bike, so Detective Rodriguez organized a road trip.

Leaving Daniel to make his own way to the airport from the station, Malone and Erin followed very closely behind the unmarked squad car with the detective and the kid in it. Malone had a vague idea of the suburb they were heading for, after all, it wasn’t too far away from Erin’s, but the detective assured him he knew a shortcut. However, both cars were having trouble battling through the LA traffic, and Malone was reconsidering their decision not to wait until the afternoon commuter traffic had eased.

Finally getting into the right suburb, Azibo directed the detective to the dead-end road. As they made the turn off the main street, the boy spoke.

‘Right there,’ he said as he pointed to the ground near the curb.

‘Are you sure?’ the detective asked as he pulled the car to a halt.

‘Yeah, sure I’m sure. It was just layin’ there in the road.’

They both got out of the car and walked towards where the boy had pointed. Having parked behind their car, Malone and Erin got out and joined them.

‘So, where did he find it?’ Malone asked the detective as he surveyed the area.

‘He said it was right here,’ Rodriguez replied

‘What, here in the road? Is he sure?’ Malone continued.

‘I’m here, you know — you
could
ask me all about it!’ the boy said, disgruntled

‘Oh, so now you want to talk,’ the detective said sarcastically. ‘Come on then, son, tell us all about it.’

‘Like I told you, I’d just finished, um, I’d just been round there um…’

‘We get it, you were round the corner tagging; now get on with it,’ Erin snapped.

‘Yeah okay, I was around the corner doing my thing, and I heard sirens coming my way. I thought it was Five O, so I ditched my markers and got out of there. I ducked down the alley and came out round there.’ He was pointing towards an alleyway behind where the cars had parked.

‘Funny thing was, I ran straight into the sirens. Lucky for me it was the LAFD fire trucks that were making all the noise. That warehouse was burnin’ hotter n hell.’ He was nodding towards a burnt and blackened building.

‘And where was the bike?’ Erin asked, trying to catch him out as he told the story.

‘I told you, it was here, right in front of me. It was just lying there, with no-one around it. I was spooked. I didn’t stop to see if anyone owned it, just grabbed it and rode off.’

‘Where was my son? Did you see him?’ she asked.

‘Nah lady. As I jammed outta there, I looked back to see if anyone had spotted me taking it, but it was mostly the FD and a couple of onlookers, definitely no kids.’

‘So, you’re telling me that Joshua’s bike was here, but he was nowhere to be seen — that’s Bullshit!’

She moved towards him. ‘Why don’t you tell me what really happened. The cops were after you for spraying your crap on some wall around there, and you went rabbit. You came round here, spotted Joshua on his bike, and stole it from him. You’re just a fucking cowardly vandal that mugged my son for his bike. Now, what did you do to him?’ she yelled as she grabbed him by the hood.

‘Get the fuck off me lady! I’m telling you the truth.’ His voice was shaking.

Malone jumped in and broke her grip on the boy.

‘Let’s all just calm down,’ he said as he moved her to one side.

The detective spoke up. ‘Let me jump on the radio and get some time stamps on when the LAFD got here.’ He turned his attention to the kid; ‘In the meantime, you tell these good folks what time you were here — and for your sake, it had better be the same.’

A
rriving in San Francisco in the early evening, Daniel took a bus to the city and found a cheap hotel near the city center and only a few blocks away from the Sacred Mary School. Despite it now being a Catholic school, Daniel still called it an orphanage, because to him, that’s what the place represented.

It had been quite a while since he’d been in the city, so once he’d checked in and dropped off his bag, Daniel decided it was time to take a tour and see some of the sights. ‘What better than grabbing the tram?’ he said to himself as he came out of the hotel.

The SF trams still filled him with joy and a little wonder. He’d been told the burgundy, red, and golden carriages were powered by cables that continually ran under the ground around the city. The drivers effectively used some form of clamping mechanism to grab hold of the cable and drag the tram up and down the steep hills of the city. Daniel didn’t know if this was true or not, and to be honest didn’t care; all he knew was that the sawdust smell of the wooden brakes burning against the rails and the clanging of the big brass bells always brought a smile to his face.

His muddled and impromptu tour took him all around the main streets of the city, and as he hung off the carriage at the top of the city, his eyes followed the long straight tram lines down the hill to the wharf and out to the Bay where Alcatraz floated near the backdrop of the Golden Gate bridge, it was an awesome sight. Having eaten at the wharf, he made his way back to the hotel where, with the window open, he went to sleep filled with the sounds and smells of the city.

The next day, Daniel awoke early and checked out of the hotel. After grabbing a quick breakfast from a small café, he walked the couple of blocks to the orphanage. Standing outside for a moment, he took a deep breath and then pushed open the door to the building.

Ever since the letter had arrived, his dreams and thoughts had been flooded with his past, and in particular, this place. It wasn’t that his memories were all bad, in fact, some of them were the best times of his life. But then there were other times, dour times, lonely times, times where, if it hadn’t been for the kindness of Sister Elizabeth, he may very well have become another faceless member of the youth suicide club.

But now, ironically, with the appearance of the package, his one and only friend from this place could prove to be the one who’d cheated him out of a proper upbringing and the family life he’d craved so much in those dark times.

Because he’d been more or less dumped there at the age of one, Daniel had no recollection of what his life had been like prior to entering the building. Admittedly, short of breastfeeding, filling diapers, and crying, there wasn’t much of a one-year-old’s life to talk about anyway. For Daniel, life as he’d known it had started when these doors had opened, and now, as they swung open again, he was going to fill in the blanks that before the package arrived, he hadn’t known existed.

Immediately, the musky scent of the old building hit him. Oak and stone, polish and disinfectant — a plethora of nostalgic aromas that had been part of his life for such a long time. He took a moment to absorb the smells as they brought a smile to his face. Slowly he climbed the foyer steps, running his hands along the glassy feel of the wooden handrail worn smooth from over a century of use.

As he walked down the corridor towards the main administration office, he thought about how much it had changed. Originally, the place had been set up as an orphanage — in the late 1800s if his memory served him well. But as times and needs changed, the orphanage introduced boarding and term schooling; then, over time, the boarders became fewer until it evolved into what it was now — a Catholic school. Daniel had been deposited there on the cusp of it evolving; he was essentially the last of the orphans to be taken in. Daniel smiled to himself when he thought about a Catholic School and the word
evolution
in the same breath.

They had effectively bent the rules when they accepted him. There were still some hard to place live-ins there, but over ninety percent of the kids were outsiders. Kids with money, kids with cars, kids with attitude, but worse still for Daniel — kids with families that cared.

Daniel was a misfit. Being the youngest orphan, he was easy prey for the older and more established ones there. And being a live-in, the outsiders didn’t want to know him. He was chubby and uncoordinated, so the girls weren’t interested; he had no money to be bullied for, and he wasn’t one of the brightest, so even the academics gave him a wide berth.

Now that the orphanage was a full on school, and one that attracted the wealthy, he could immediately see money had been spent around the place. But Daniel could also tell that despite the aesthetic changes, the core was the same.

Behind the glass panel, the Administration office was a well-lit open-plan area. There were several people milling around, some at their desks and others over by the photocopier; they all looked busy and by the way they dressed none of them looked to be devout Catholics. As Daniel neared the panel, a woman on the other side of the glass spoke into the microphone that was mounted on her desk; her voice boomed from a speaker on his side of the partition.

‘Can I help you?’ she asked.

Daniel looked around for a button to push so he could talk back, but couldn’t find one.

‘My name is Daniel Carter, and I’m here to see the Abbess herself, the Director of Schools,’ Daniel replied.

Daniel called the Director the Abbess because that was the way the frumpy woman used to conduct herself.

‘Do you have an appointment?’

‘Not exactly, but I have a feeling she might be expecting me.’

‘Okay, Mr. Carter, I’ll go and see if she’s available. Please, take a seat in the room next door.’ The woman frowned as she walked away.

Daniel went into the waiting room and took a seat. He was prepared for a long wait. He was pretty sure the Director of Schools would be in, and since he guessed she was the one who’d sent him the package, he assumed she’d take the time to see him.

With nothing to read, no one to talk to, and nothing to see in the vacant white-walled room, Daniel was thankful his wait was only twenty minutes. The same woman from behind the glass panel entered the room and told him to follow her.

Although the façade had changed a little, the walk was very much the same. In the years Daniel resided in the school, he’d dreaded the thought of going to the Director’s office. There were only two main reasons to go there — if you were very good, or if you were very bad. Daniel was never very good. Now, as he followed behind the administration lady, butterflies were becoming restless in his stomach, and he could feel beads of sweat form on the back of his neck.

‘Take a seat there, and she’ll be out to see you in a minute,’ she said, pointing at a line of three uncomfortable chairs. As she walked away, Daniel decided to stand rather than take a seat; he remembered the feeling of sitting in those chairs all too well from the past, and he didn’t want to add to his discomfort today.

The first time he was ever sent to the Director’s office had been for blasphemy and profanity. Some of the outside kids had told him some words and phrases that made them laugh when he repeated them, so of course in order to try to fit in, he would say these phrases as often as possible. That was okay to a point as he never actually got caught saying them out loud by any of the teachers — it was when he decided, in his infinite wisdom, to put those words, comments, and phrases down on the covers of his workbooks that the trouble started. Even now, as he thought back, some of the words he put down on the book covers made him blush; but back then, not really knowing what at least half of them meant, getting peer recognition was all that mattered.

Another time he was an occupant of the waiting chairs was when he discovered the most popular use for the Internet. Nudity and pornography was an entirely absorbing pastime for a large majority of global Internet users, but one that was probably best done in one’s own time and in privacy, not downloaded and networked through the school’s intranet.

Misdemeanors, fights, and general insubordination were usually handled by the teachers, but due to his disruptive background, Daniel was often sent to the waiting chairs for punishment at a higher level. The only person who would always be there to offer a shoulder to cry on or a word of encouragement was Sister Elizabeth. That was why this whole thing was so surreal; why would she have kept such a secret?

‘Hello Mr. Carter!’ It was such a familiar voice and a voice that even now could make him tremble. Lofty and holier-than-thou was the only way he could describe it.

‘Hello – your reverendness,’ he jokingly stammered.

‘Please, come in and sit down.’

The room was exactly how he remembered it: dark and oppressive. Her oak desk was huge, but somehow she wasn’t dwarfed as she sat behind it. Oversized oil-painted murals depicting biblical scenes adorned the dark, wood-paneled walls. Several crosses were dotted around the room, both self-standing and hanging beside the portraits. On the left side of the room was a huge open fireplace with a thick wooden surround and a deep mantelpiece besieged by carvings of the Virgin Mary and a few more crosses for good measure.

Daniel took a seat opposite the Director and immediately regressed at least a decade.

‘Thanks for taking the time to see me,’ he began meekly.

‘I would assume this is to do with the package I sent you,’ she boomed.

‘Uh, yeah, I mean, Yes.’ He was doing his best to talk properly.

‘I am not sure what it is I can do to help you, Mr. Carter.’

‘To be honest, I’m not sure either. I just wanted to ask some questions about when I was left here. What I mean is, you bent the rules and took me in. Why?’

The Director steepled her fingers as she pondered the question.

‘Throughout one’s life, many choices are made; some are good and some are bad — some are made for what can only be deemed
the greater good
.’

Daniel had no idea what she was talking about.

‘I’m sorry, but could you please explain that.’

‘Mr. Carter, there are some things that are only available to be explained between those directly involved and the Lord himself.’

Daniel was becoming completely confused.

‘But you were involved; you were there. I’d love to ask Sister Elizabeth, but she and the Lord are probably having a good talk about it now between them,’ he said sarcastically.

‘Mind your tongue, Mr. Carter.’

‘I’m sorry, but I’m getting frustrated. Sister Elizabeth said in her letter that my mother was a bad person. Was she in some sort of trouble when I was dropped off here, or did they meet again after that? Please, help me.’

Once again, the Director considered her answer.

‘I can inform you that shortly after you were accepted here a man tried to take you from us. After that, you were protected vigilantly by Sister Elizabeth.’

‘A man? Who was he? What did he look like? Was he my father? What happened?’ The questions were flying out of Daniel’s mouth thick and fast.

‘Mr. Carter — please. This is all I can tell you. Your mother dropped you off here and left; I do not know if she ever returned. But shortly after that, a man with evil eyes entered the school and tried to take you. We never found out why he targeted you specifically, but thankfully, his attempt failed. From that time forward, you were under the watchful eye of Sister Elizabeth. I felt compelled to send you the letter and photo from Sister Elizabeth; although in life she couldn’t send it, in some strange way, it appeared to be her dying wish that you received it. Unfortunately, as I said, that is all I am able to tell you.’ Then she was silent, and Daniel was left under no illusion that there was anything more she would add.

He thanked her for her time and left her office.

Under the instruction of the Abbess, the Administrator escorted Daniel around the school as he took in the changes and reminisced about the past. Outside the building, he gave it one last look and flagged a cab to the airport to head back to LA. He now had more questions than answers.