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Patrick & John Reprise (Anton and Daniel 14)

“We Got Shoes”

A Fourteen Story

by

Philip Marks

gayadult49 at gmail dot com

Bear Trap Lodge Motel

Luzerne County, PA

Thursday, July 12 – 0400

Despite its name, the Bear Trap Lodge Motel looks nothing of a hunting lodge, situated a shade more than a stone's throw from the intersection of Bear Trap Road and State 2078 and not much farther from the interstate. To one side a long and weedy lawn – this week it happens to be mowed and looks rather groomed and green for a change – on another, what people might call the “front” side, a parking lot faces the state highway.

Neater, cleaner, perhaps a tad newer, it is nevertheless a cookie cutter generic standard; kith and kin of bottom rack cheap motels anywhere. Nor is the service any better distinguished; it rates a bare two out of five stars according to its undiscriminating clientele. Some might well hesitate to book the place just on that basis.

Then again if, as fugitive from justice, you are booking a room, there are some advantages to Bear Trap. On the two sides not previously described, rising onto a hill, lay a tightly packed, nigh inaccessible thicket of stunted beech and sycamore, offers perhaps a slim hope of cover for an escape – or alternatively, as good a backstop for stray bullets as anyone could hope. You just have to use the copse as cover, get to the other side of the hill, maybe take the high ground and put up a stand against all comers.

Today the challenges of a good night's sleep are much more than those related to its unsatisfying service or unremarkable and unpromising amenities. Today is without doubt the most memorable day in Bear Trap Lodge history, distinguished as it is by the presence of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, which moves in about four a.m. and begins quietly removing sleepy and confused travelers from below and to both sides of Room 240, near the north end of the two-story motel.

Once the adjacent rooms are empty, they begin moving people out of the other rooms; and as well, from any property within rifle shot of the place. The structure itself is brick-faced reinforced concrete, offering a little protection for anyone who hasn't gotten out of the way, thus making the effort simpler and faster.

FBI sniper observers consider themselves among the most skilled marksmen in any military or law enforcement organization for they possess technical skills consistent with the most elite long range military shooters; they also must possess situational awareness not usually needed on a battlefield. Gaining a line of sight to the room is challenging because, in the present instance they have to deploy in a birch copse, on the one hand gaining direct outlook on the east face of the motel, and of Room 240, yet on the other hand the copse makes entry and camouflage, in the words of the HRT commander, “a bitch.”

Units of the State Police and Sheriff's offices are stationed on the nearby interstate and ready to shut down traffic both ways to ensure no passer-by will become the accidental recipient of a stray round.

And in Room 240 two very tired men sleep somehow unaware of the busy and, well, unforgettable day that lies before them.


FBI Field Office

Cincinnati, Ohio

July 5, 2018 – 1005

“Don, it's Wilson. We've got a lead in the Jeremy Gates case.”

“Have you found him?”

“Well no, that's still a mystery, unless the parents change their minds and tell us where he is. And we've had the case pretty much back-burnered given that the boy was seen with Fisher and now seems to have turned into a runaway, but we still needed to look at the abduction, make sure no one else was involved.”

“Are we sure it was an abduction?”

“Yes I think it was though confirmation would be nice. I've been working with Phil Donte and Bill Dodd on this. Our theory is that Fisher hired someone to abduct the boy and so that's why we have been pursuing this even against the parents' wishes. The evidence on the scene and the fact we can't link his disappearance to Fisher initially, in fact Fisher was in the Boston area for certain that night, and there's no doubt after the boy ended up with Fisher he was held captive with the fake necklace bomb. There was an abduction and not by Fisher at least not directly.”

“What's your new lead?”

“The fingerprint on the boy's cell phone we couldn't match finally came up with a hit, forensics says this is good.”

“What's the deal?”

“Well they had no hits for months but they ran it against new uploads; there's a new entry into the DB from Hershey, PA; Patrick Hunter, age 22, bust for shoplifting last week. It's a solid match. No doubt it's his.”

“Priors?”

“Nothing. I don't know where he's from, except born Manhattan Beach, California. He's young so he could have some juvie. We'll try California and Pennsylvania; need a warrant to get to those records.”

“What's next, pick him up, interview him?”

“Yes but I want to know as much as possible before we go into an interview. We need to have leverage to pressure him to talk.”


FBI Field Office

Harrisburg, PA

July 11, 2018 – 0930

Six days later Special Agent Wilson Jameson met with Hershey detectives, Barry Hrulska, a black man of immense proportions, at least six foot seven inches tall and three hundred pounds, providing almost comical contrast to his partner, Jennifer Candleman, a petite woman at just over five foot two and one hundred twenty-five pounds, a woman of plain features but at forty as sharp as any in the department. Representing the FBI with him, Special Agents Philip Donte and William Dodd came to review what was known about Patrick John Hunter.

Jameson started the briefing.

“You probably know the salient points but let's just be sure we have a common picture of the crime and our man, and I'm sure as we go through this there's going to be questions for us so don't hesitate to ask.

“August 9th, Jeremy Gates, a fourteen-year-old boy was abducted from the street near his home in Chillicothe, Ohio. The boy spent the evening at the county fair with friends, rode his bike home shortly before midnight. About one-thirty his parents Remy and Greyson Gates, pretty decent folks, were worried that he hadn't arrived home more than an hour late. They went out to find him and instead found his bike, cell phone, wallet and such lying in the street half a block from home. That is the primary evidence of abduction. No witnesses, no surveillance cams in the area. No ransom demands, no calls at all.”

These detectives and agents were parents; there was a brief silence as each contemplated what the experience must have been for the parents in that street, that night; then they collectively shoved the feelings away and got on with their profession.

Jameson continued, his voice more subdued. “We know that about a week later he was in the company of a seventy-one-year-old retired surgeon from Boston named Levi Fisher, traveling in his RV across country headed west, a trip that stretched out for four months to early December in Arizona. We have some mixed signals. The boy was seen, and talked to a lot of people including various LEOs on the trip; in fact he was left in the RV alone for a week at a time; but you'll hear we have reasons to think he was still a captive. December 4 Fisher caught a flight from Arizona to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and thence he traveled under false passport to Danang, where he killed himself in an ancient monument of some sort, by means of injections of this and that, not really relevant. Fisher was suffering from an inoperable, untreatable brain tumor, something he'd had diagnosed about sixteen months before he began what we refer to as his Bucket List Trip.

“Jeremy was last seen that same day in the Flagstaff area. One theory was that Fisher killed the boy before he left. We are now sure that's not the case. The boy's parents have told us they talked to him in April and told the public the same thing. We have some independent verification from a schoolmate of the boy who also talked to him on the phone in April. We're still working on finding Jeremy so we can get an interview. The parents want the investigation closed we are not sure why, perhaps they may be afraid the kidnapper might go after him again, or try to eliminate the boy as a witness.

“It was no surprise Fisher ended up in Vietnam, he basically started his adult life there as a Navy Combat Corpsman with a Marine platoon. He made a huge name for himself, won a Navy Cross for heroism; served three tours. Most of his buddies on his first tour were blown up in barracks by a kid who was known to be Fisher's houseboy during Tet 1968 – for those of us too young to remember, which,” he wryly remarked, “appears to be all of us here; Tet is the New Year's holiday in Asia, and in 1968 it also was a nationwide offensive where the commies tried to take the country. It didn't succeed but many say that's what turned the U.S. against the war. At any rate it seems this boy took on a suicide vest and blew up the barracks, notably excluding Fisher who was elsewhere at the time. We aren't clear whether that was the intention or just happenstance.

“Evidently Fisher was consumed with guilt and never completely got over it. He spent every minute in country there trying to save lives to make up for it, volunteered for more tours. At least, that's what his ex-boyfriend told us. Yes, Fisher was gay and wasn't particularly secretive about it. He went on to become a physician and surgeon and kept on saving lives.

“When Fisher found out he was dying, he set out to meet every survivor of his original unit, got his RV ready and took off on this grand farewell tour that I'm convinced was always intended to end up in Vietnam. Nevertheless Jeremy Gates ends up with Fisher.

“Phil, your turn.”

Donte, a bookish fellow looking hardly in his thirties with heavy black framed glasses took up the story.

“We couldn't find any connection between Jeremy Gates and Levi Fisher but one. And this is tentative. It seems Jeremy Gates may also be gay.”

He paused for reactions. But these were battle-hardened cops, they wouldn't show much surprise to anything. Fourteen – no, fifteen-year-old gay boys were not a surprise in these enlightened days. It was not known to the rest but Jennifer Candleman has two gay sons still in high school. She felt a whisper of winter against her neck, thinking of what could have happened had they been in the wrong place one August night.

        `                                                                                

“We aren't sure of that, what we have is two teenagers the boy encountered on this long trip and he told that to both of them. One in Missouri, one in Nebraska. So we consider that reasonably solid confirmation. I might add, we don't know whether he has told this to his parents; obviously we have not.

“For quite a while our working theory has been that somehow the boy met Fisher online and arranged to rendezvous with him in Ohio and maybe they staged the abduction or Fisher surprised him with it. As you'll see we've moved on from that idea.”

“Now there's a lot more to that story, but there's a new piece we haven't let anyone outside law enforcement know and don't want to let it out now either. We finally think we know how Jeremy got to be with Fisher. Fisher bought him.”

This did prompt some wide eyes and reactions, though it wasn’t as if kidnapping, sex trafficking and the like were strangers to this crew.

“Fisher apparently wanted a young guy for company, and we assume, for sex, on his trip. He went looking on the dark web and met up with someone we have not identified yet. We didn't get this until we cracked the codes on his phone and computer, and it took us months to get those back from Vietnam partly due to Fisher using a fake identity there. Anyhow, he paid $2000 cash as a finder's fee. Fisher had closed his bank accounts and was carrying a lot of cash – and got it seems, one Jeremy Gates in exchange at a place you fellows know”—he paused for effect—“Gifford Pinchot State Park, less than forty-five minutes from here; more or less halfway between here and Chillicothe. We don't have any details but a rendezvous was set up after dark four days after Jeremy was abducted.

“Now to be clear, Fisher did not ask for an innocent child kidnap victim to rape, he wanted and was told he'd get a nineteen year old street hustler albeit one who looked maybe fourteen, who wanted a ride west and some money. From the exchanges of message Fisher wasn't picky about actual age; he was looking for an Asian, but settled for what he could get. He was offering to pay the candidate for his time and trouble and presumably his sexual services, and take him to San Diego.

“We didn't find any messaging between Jeremy Gates and Levi Fisher. There's a lot more in Fisher's files we're still sifting through we had back-burnered work on those records until this week. Of course, as it happens events took a different turn.

“Fisher decided the boy would suffice even after learning his age and the fact that he'd been kidnapped, and to control the boy he apparently put a piece of jewelry around his neck that was loaded up with C-4 on a timed dead man’s switch.”

“JE-SUS!”

Uttered in a low tone, that came from Hrulska, the others were showing shock and outrage too. This was far from an ordinary case. And Hrulska had been in the Army and had some acquaintance with explosives. Candleman was looking shocked and guarded.

“Well it turns out that was a lie. He left a note that said in effect 'tell the boy there were no explosives in the necklace.'

“In fact he and Jeremy apparently made peace with the whole mess; the boy was literally nursing Fisher when he got too sick to take care of himself. We're pretty sure that Fisher was thinking of taking the boy with him to Vietnam but gave up on it when his health declined suddenly and his plans moved up. When he left the country he left an old but fairly valuable RV parked with the title signed over to Jeremy and his parents. Assuming Fisher was not totally deranged by his tumor we see that as independent confirmation that the boy was alive. We don't know where he left the boy, or what he did with him. At this point the boy disappears for several months.  All we know between December and April is that the boy has called home from somewhere.

“We need to find out if this Patrick Hunter is how Jeremy got to that state park or if we're looking for the wrong low-life and if anyone else was involved. And we need to question him to find out what he might know, if anything, about Jeremy's location now.

“So that's the basics of the FBI's interest here in that man, I understand Hershey has some background for us and we have some too.”


Keystone Gardens Apartments

Hershey, PA

Wednesday, July 11, 2018 – 0530

John was bushed. It had been a very tough job getting the park's largest roller coaster serviced after closing, tested and ready to run again, and it was nearly dawn by the time he was done. So he got home just as the sun was peeking over the horizon; was on his way to their apartment when the door next to theirs opened and an older man, perhaps 50, dressed in dirty wrinkled denim pants and a stained sweatshirt slipped out.

“Hey.” John stepped past not expecting any response since they barely knew their neighbor.

To his surprise, the African American's hand snaked out, grabbed his arm, and pulled John to him, whispering “What you been up to John Cannon?”

“Up to nothing old man...why you asking?”

The response was quiet, almost whispered, but with vehemence and menace. “Cuz the Man been buzzing around your ass John Cannon. Word to the wise, don't get them into my business, you hear?”

Oh. So.

“Message received.”

Opening the door with a casual air he entered through the kitchen, shut it quietly behind him making sure it didn't slam. Stepping lightly and quickly, leaving his jacket on, he stepped into Patrick's bedroom.

“Patty boy, wake up; wake up now. We got shoes.”

He went to his room to get the revolver.


FBI Field Office

Harrisburg, PA

July 11, 2018

“Agent Jameson, that was a hell of a story. I'm afraid ours isn't as sensational,” boomed Barry Hrulska. “But I'll give this a go for you.”

The black detective used magnets to attach two photos of young men, one blond, one dark, to the whiteboard.

“Hunter is half of a Mutt and Jeff team. He's the tall dumb blond one as far as we can tell, age 22, and the shorter, smarter one is John Cannon, 26. Seems they've been a pair since they met in Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles County in 2009. They overlapped about a year and Cannon was out but Hunter got into some pretty serious trouble inside, stabbed a kid for one thing. So he was in from '09 to 2014. Some time after he got out they teamed up and have been tramping across country gradually moving east for the most part of the past four years. We haven't found any real trouble since they got together, a few traffic tickets for Cannon. A bit of bar brawling. Suspect some of that was that they conned some gay men out of their money without providing sex they promised. Nice guys but they never got anyone's attention for anything much.

“The earliest date I can find for their arrival in this area is August 14. Five days after the abduction in Ohio and one day after the meet you described in the state park.”

Jameson interrupted. “We would like to put Hunter and Cannon in Ohio around the time the Gates abduction occurred, we couldn't prove it; these guys are drifters, they had no fixed address, pay cash for everything so there's no credit card record, they've changed cars at least six times in four years that we can tell, they don't use banks, they've got burner phones, and all in all leave no paper trail; nothing that will let us pin them timewise, nor geography-wise to Chillicothe. Except that one fingerprint.”

“So....it's not a lot to work on. What do we make of this print on the kid's cell phone?” asked Candleman.

“Hard to say. First it's a good match; no doubt it's Hunter's. But he could have just found the phone, kid walked off and left it on a table and he handed it to him. There's a thousand possibilities. The print links them but we can't say it happened in time proximity to the abduction. But, I don't see how the print gets on that phone if they weren't in Chillicothe. So FBI has planned on issuing a warrant for the kidnap of Jeremy Gates if we need to. We've got probable cause. We're never going to make it stick without more evidence. And we don't want to arrest Hunter just yet we want to question him without him lawyering up.”

Hrulska resumed. “Their current vehicle is still registered to a guy in the Hershey area, we've interviewed him and he says he sold it last October for $1400. Didn't think much of them, they gave off a vibe he didn't like but other than failing to transfer the registration –  Cannon took the ticket for it when Hershey patrol officers stopped him outside the Walmart. He had insurance and he had a bill of sale so they didn't tow. His California license is valid though he was told he needs to change now that he's here. The patrol cops said Hunter, on the other hand, was literally crying when they told him he'd have to go to the station but Cannon told him he'd be bailed out before the end of the day. And he was.”

Jennifer Candleman was one of the most senior female dicks Hershey had. She took up the briefing.

“What sticks out, way too close for comfort is that they are arguably in the general area of the abduction around the time it happened; and you tell us the kid is being shopped over to this Fisher guy just one day before they settle in here.”

There was a general pause. No one liked that coincidence, that's sure.

“Why did your guys take him in, I understood it was misdemeanor shoplifting?” asked Donte.

“He lifted a pack of gum, if you can believe that. Well two factors really,” said Candleman. “One is that they ran, or rather, Hunter did when store staff tried to stop him, jumped into their van and they took off. The other, he didn't have any ID with him so they took him to the station to print him, they didn't have a portable print device in their unit. Before the prints run was sent out Cannon showed up with Hunter's ID and posted $100 bail, so the prints didn't get run for three more days. No rush on them since they had IDed the guy. And, hell, shoplifting.”

“Do we know where they live?” asked Dodd.

Candleman continued, “Yeah they've got a two-bed in the Hershey Park area, it's a pretty low-rent place. They haven't made any fuss; the neighbors haven't been directly interviewed yet because we didn't want to stir up a fuss or give them any warning. Suspicious of authority over there you might say. But we've been asking informants about them and did some surveillance.

“Hunter works for a food service company at a middle school cafeteria not too far from there. A lot of the women there find him quite attractive if not overly smart, and he's been warned not to flirt with the school girls. They didn't think he was chasing the girls or anything, the company has a lot of cafeteria facilities around the county and they'd have shifted him to the college or one of the hospitals they have if there had been even a hint of it. But the girls try to talk him up, he's a looker, it seems it was just a quiet word, hey don't talk to them.”

Hrulska took over again.

“His buddy, Cannon, he's at Hershey Parks, works as a ride mechanic. I talked to his boss, we often are in and out of the parks talking to management because the staff of those places do tend toward the sketchy, so I went in to talk about another employee and casually asked a few questions about Cannon. Boss man has a high opinion, describes him as quiet, but a wizard mechanic and not the complaining type. Dependable.

“That's about all we've dug out so far but I understand FBI has been on the backtrack?”

Agent Dodd took his cue.

“Jeremy Gates was at a county fair the night he was abducted so we thought for a moment you had something with Cannon but we've definitely been able to eliminate either one of them from the work crews at the fair. These characters haven't traveled with any outfits, so they aren't carnies in the classic sense. In fact Hunter has only worked the entertainment parks a few times, usually he's at some other kind of place; Cannon has a knack for this mechanical stuff so he tends to pick up work easily at such places.

“We haven't been able to backtrack them entirely, we're still digging. It seems they've been doing the same sort of stuff all the way across country, we've placed them in Nevada, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois at least. They seem to stay about six months then suddenly up stakes and drive off. They don't usually give notice, sometimes they leave paychecks behind. And...” He paused heavily.

“We are trying to see if we can match them up with disappearances of kids – or anyone else. And in fact we put them at the time and in the near vicinity of three boys who have disappeared. No conclusive evidence so far but— ” he is frustrated, “I have a very bad feeling about these guys.”

Jameson took over.

“Well that brings us up to date and fills out the profiles a bit, there's a lot more detail in the briefing books but I'd like us to turn to the development of a plan to get Patrick Hunter into an interrogation room...and his buddy as well.”


Bear Trap Lodge, Room 240

Luzerne County

July 12, 2018 – Dawn

The phone on the motel nightstand is ringing shrilly, John is startled out of a deep sleep, eyes it suspiciously and reaches to answer.

“Yeah.”

“Hello who is this, Patrick Hunter, or John Cannon?”

That wasn't the name they'd registered under, John grabs for the revolver next to the phone, as he speaks to the caller he quickly opens the cylinder to check to see all seven slots are loaded.

“Who is this.”

“John, I think? I'm Jason Remand with the FBI. Before you react, please there's nothing to be excited about here. We just want to interview you and your roommate.”

“What about?”

“We want to know if you know anything about the disappearance of a young teenager. We're really trying to find him. He's been missing a while and we had a tip that at one point he might have been with you.”

“Don't know anything about it. Don't hang with kids.”

“Well that's fine, John, we'll be able to wrap up the questioning pretty quickly then. But we do need to talk to both of you.”

Patrick is stirring and sitting up.


“It's been hours now, John. We really need you and Patrick to come out so we can end this. Nobody has been hurt, and we want to be sure no one does get hurt. It's no big deal; let's end it now.”

John looks over at Patrick, on the end of his bed. He is shaking, though not crying.

“Look stop fucking with me you're gonna arrest us.”

“John, not necessarily, it depends on what you tell us. We know you guys didn't hurt the Gates boy. We don't have any grounds for an arrest.”

Sure, sure, and after we'll all go out for drinks and a steak dinner.

He covers the mouthpiece with his hand.

“Patty boy, what do you want to do? They say they won't arrest us but I think it's bull.”

The red-eyed young man is holding himself arms crossed and gripping, rocking back and forth.

“John. I— I can't go to prison, John.” He starts sobbing, “Please John don't let them take me to prison. I can't do it again...”

John lets out a slow breath.

“It's okay Patty boy, I'll talk to them about it. We'll work something out.”

A pause.

“I promise you won't have to go there Patrick. I've never let you down, and I won't ever, will I?”

That seems to reassure Patrick.

“I gotta go to the can.”

“Okay but be sure they ain't in the window or anything, they're sneaky that way.”

He hears the toilet flush, waits for the door to open, and when Patrick comes out says, “I need it too.”

As he passes by the taller, younger man, he turns, pulls the revolver up out of the back of his waistband, firing twice into the back of Patrick's head.

“Shots fired! Shots fired!”

“You won't have to go back, Pat,” he whispers, “I kept my word.”

There is yelling now; the phone is ringing insistently.


Chillicothe, Ohio

Gates Residence

July 14, 2018 – 1025

Remy Gates is shaking when the bell rings.

As Greyson goes to answer she forces the kitchen towel she had been crying into against her eyes and demands that her body take control and stop the tremors. And being the sort of in-control woman she is, she gets her way. The medication helps. The buspirone reduces the anxiety from “out of this world” to “almost tolerable at moments.”

“Ms. Gates, I'm Don Wickenheiser, Special Agent In Charge of the Cincinnati Office. We've spoken on the phone once before I think.”

“How do you do, Agent Wickenheiser.”

“It's very kind of you and your husband to meet with me, I know this is a very painful time and frankly I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd asked me not to come.”

“Not at all. I think it's true that we have been, well, feeling a bit misused but we never thought the FBI was less than forthright with us. I'm just, just... so afraid for my son.”

“May we sit down, Mr. Gates, Ms. Gates? This is going to take some talking.”

“I'll get us some coffee, would you like some Bundt cake, Mr. Wickenheiser?”

“Please call me Don. Of course, it's lovely, did you make that yourself?”

“Baking is a stress reliever.”

“Looks delightful, Ms. Gates.”

“I'm Grey and she's Remy.” Grudgingly.

The formalities, the ritual of brewing and laying flatware and serving food that no one is going to eat helps to steady them, let Wickenheiser start to build a little rapport. The tension diminishes a bit and he is finally able to start what he fully expects to be the most difficult discussion he's ever had with parents whose child wasn't dead.

Don Wickenheiser begins. “I know you have heard about the shooting in Pennsylvania and of course Jeremy's name has been bandied about in the news. I am truly sorry we couldn't comment as it was happening, we couldn't even warn you what was to transpire. We didn't know. We did tell reporters off the record that we had reasons to also believe Jeremy was alive. And I know you say that he is well. But we could not say that and don't now want to go on the record with that claim.”

Remy freezes mid-move in raising her cup to lip. “Don, whyever not?”

“Because until we know where he is and how he is, we think saying anything on the record could jeopardize his well-being. Because we just don't know. Where is he? Who is he with? What has he been doing? Is he truly absent of his own volition? Is he a victim now of some crime?”

“I see,” interjects Greyson, clearly a little hot under the collar. “But you must then think we also should not say anything, it doesn't make sense if you don't and we do. And you know we're telling people he is alive and free because we have talked to him.”

Spreading his hands, “It's why I'm here.” True, it's part of why...

“We're listening,” Grey says, crossing his arms and leaning away from the man.

“First I want to let you know some things that cannot be publicly released just yet about those two in Pennsylvania. I trust you will keep this information to yourselves.”

Don Wickenheiser has little doubt; they will not want this information to become public.

“I'm afraid it's worse than the press says. Cannon wrote a detailed statement of the kidnap and murder of eight boys and young men from San Diego to Pennsylvania over four years.” Pausing. “And while Jeremy is alive, we know he was probably their last victim, their ninth. Jeremy, for reasons not clear, was allowed to live. However, he was not … treated well. They didn't kill him but – they did otherwise victimize him.”

A frisson runs up Remy's body. She is transfixed.

“Cannon confirmed it...”

Don doesn't tell them what Cannon's written statement said.

That kid from Ohio we got him in Chilcothy, We fucked that one for four days not quick like the others. He was different, I liked him a lot he had some balls, and I'm glad I didn't have to kill him. I'm glad that old fucker we sold him to didn't kill him.

“...and we've found a witness to partially verify it.”

Remy's face is stone and Grey's is redder than any Wickenheiser has ever seen.

“Jeremy did not willingly go with Hunter and Cannon. They're con men and good at getting kids to trust them but then they wouldn't have had to force him into the car and leave his belongings on the ground.

“We believe Jeremy accompanied Fisher because he understood the alternative was death; eventually over time his participation has elements of the willing and the unwilling. Nothing has changed; we consider Jeremy to be a victim of a kidnapping, and suggest he was trafficked to Fisher, though Fisher didn't see it that way.

“Levi Fisher met with those two jerks and took your son from them. He did not buy your son; he paid a fee, a finder's fee, for someone who wanted a ride to San Diego and was willing to be a companion to him on his trip. Now I can tell you he was specifically expecting an agreeable if quite young man, not a boy, not a kidnapped child. That's from messages we've found between Fisher and those two. But he was seeking a sex partner for the trip.

“And there is some evidence to suggest Jeremy might have had intimate contact with Levi Fisher. Of course because of the circumstances and his age, Jeremy is a victim no matter what. He couldn't consent. And we know at some point he was unable to leave that situation. He was being held against his will.”

“Don. This is … this... it's hard to hear...”

“I am so sorry to bring this to you.”

“Better now than later, I think,” says Greyson, his eyes black and dead. “But who is this witness and how could he know that?”

“It seems these – bozos,” he edits, “...had a habit of picking up women when they could. One woman spent a few hours in a motel room with Cannon and Hunter and a boy who was supposedly Hunter’s little brother. She didn’t know about Jeremy being abducted. The woman admits to having sex with Cannon.”

Don Wickenheiser pauses. What she really said was that Cannon had sex with her, then Hunter and the boy, both naked, got out of the bed and the boy got dressed and was walked out with the chain by Cannon while she had sex with Hunter. And they suspected she had sex with the boy too, but she denied it. But this visit is traumatic enough without all those details.

“I wish there was a way to say this that would make it easier to hear. She has identified Jeremy as that boy. She remembers Jeremy and Hunter were in one bed together. And while she was very drunk at the time she thinks perhaps he had a chain of some sort around his neck. And—” he pauses heavily. “Jeremy was unclothed. So was Hunter.”

How many times in a single conversation can one be hit in the face? Remy turns her head. Grey is equally stunned. And angry.

There is a long silence. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the living room seems to grow louder and louder until it somehow drowns out the noise of the reporters outside, on the sidewalk.

Remy dabs at her eyes. Wickenheiser lowers his voice; speaks gently. “I am really sorry to have given you such a devastating story, but you need to prepare; whenever Jeremy comes home to you, wherever he is today; he has arguably been … damaged. And that is part of why we want you to help us to bring your son home.

“The FBI needs to talk with Jeremy even if he is no longer being held against his will. We have a number of specific reasons we need to interview him. And I'm hoping you will see that it is to his benefit and yours for that to happen. Now I realize you may already have heard some of what I say from him. But it needs to be said anyway.

“First, we want to be sure he has access to care for his specific… needs. We fully respect your desire to give Jeremy some space to recover from these,” he searches for a tactful word, “insults, as a young boy this will have been extremely traumatic. In fact it's all but a foregone conclusion that he is suffering from some form of PTSD.

“You spent time with Dr. Betzen. We have another psychiatrist we'd like to offer to you to help both you and Jeremy work through whatever his condition today. She specializes in working with victims of crime including these sorts of assaults and being held hostage. We've spoken to you of the Stockholm effect; of what happened to Patty Hearst; it looks to us that he experienced that. His smart efforts to protect his life may have been at the cost of his mental well being.

“We see him as running away from what happened. And I want to impress upon you the need for him to have treatment. We have an obligation to ensure that he is in fact in a safe and appropriate environment both as a victim of crime and because he is a minor. He is a victim.

“Second we need his story about what happened. He is a witness. He may have information he doesn't even realize may lead us to other suspects, other crimes, and god forbid, other victims. He can help us tie up matters, I hate to say 'loose ends' because it sounds trivial – these may be anything but trivial.

“Obviously you know some of this, we are concerned about his journey after Fisher left for Vietnam. We are aware you told some people he was in the care of Fisher's friends but I don't know how much you know. We found email and texts in Fisher's computer and phone. It has not been in the news yet; we now think we know where he was. But he is not there now.” Don Wickenheiser looks carefully at each of them, hoping to spot a clue as to whether he is right or wrong.

“There is a rather tiny little commune in the middle of nowhere in Northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon. It's a dozen people, headed by a man who was a friend of Fisher's back in Boston, actually served with him in Vietnam and Fisher saved his life there and later his son's life in Boston. He apparently took Jeremy with him, to allow Fisher to make his getaway to Vietnam without interference. We're negotiating for more information, he's offered complete facts in exchange for immunity. He tells us Fisher's plan was once he was in Vietnam, they would take him to an airport and fly him to Ohio. We are going to find out why that didn't happen.

“A young boy in the commune told us Jeremy left their little slice of heaven with another member, an older teen, named Cordell Faulkner, on February 26 and they believe he was headed to San Diego.

“Faulkner has disappeared as well.”

The Gateses sit, rigid, afraid to display any reaction.

“This makes Jeremy a possible material witness to further crimes. And we need to assure ourselves of this other boy's safety. We're wondering if you know anything about him. We're wondering if he might be with Jeremy now. And I've been wanting to ask, didn't the two of you travel to San Diego just about then?”

Don Wickenheiser pretends to consult his iPad; he is very specific because he hopes to make them think he knows more than he does.  “Yes, Delta out of Columbus. A red eye landing the morning of the 27th. Returned the 29th. Stayed at the Marina Marriott San Diego.”

The two parents exchange looks but say nothing.

“Your announcement didn't mention this visit to San Diego, which happened within a day of when Jeremy left the commune.”

“I am sure we've no useful information about this other boy,” Greyson says carefully.

Wickenheiser waits, expectantly. The silence stretches. Ah well, it was worth a shot.

“All right,” says Wickenheiser. “But at the very least we need to know what Jeremy's situation is, where he is, what he can tell us about the people who have literally surrounded him since he was taken. And we are looking for Cordell Faulkner for a number of reasons and it would be a bad idea to conceal his whereabouts from us.”

“I will tell you, Don, we have no idea where this Faulkner boy is, none at all. He is not with Jeremy. And for the record, we have never met or even seen this boy. We did not meet Jeremy in San Diego, either.”

Wickenheiser hesitates, judges this is the moment to press. “I'll accept it for the moment. Now....” A long pause.

“We have gathered some information in the course of our investigation and we've debated whether to tell you this for a variety of reasons. Because we cannot fully judge whether it is true; because we aren't sure of its relevance; because it's not in our wheelhouse; because we had hoped Jeremy would come home and if it's... well that he would tell you in his own time. But we have to think it might matter and he might not really feel he is able to tell you about it. In fact, it might help account for any unwillingness to come home.”

Silence. Grey, a tornado of conflicting thoughts and feelings whirling in his mind, afraid to hear what might come next; yet he gestures, Go ahead.

“This is, I said it already, Jeremy's to tell you in any normal world. But we're not in that world I'm afraid.

“Jeremy met teenagers in two different states, met alone, where he could have told them whatever he wanted. About the kidnapping, about Fisher, about Cannon and Hunter. Now we can't know to what degree he was in fear of saying the wrong thing. People who've been held for a while can be very afraid to tell the truth. You remember Elizabeth Smart? When the police questioned her she kept lying about who she was for more than forty-five minutes. I want to say again, we do not know for sure this is true.”

Another pause.

He is striving to be delicate but reminds himself it is just part of ”the most difficult discussion I've ever had with parents whose child wasn't dead.” And also that he's doing an interrogation here, even if it's dressed up differently.

“What he wanted to tell these young men, unsolicited from them, was that Jeremy is gay.”

Wickenheiser is measuring the Gateses' reception of this information, which...is nothing; a pure suspension of emotions...

“I am truly sorry that it falls to me to convey that to you. Not,” he continued, “because of any negativity about or to gay people, but because it should not be we who tell you. But you need to know because it may play a part in his motivations or concerns about coming home. He may be gay. He may merely have been led to feel he is gay by the extraordinary circumstances of his life since last August. Or there might be some other explanation.

“But nearly forty percent of runaways are gay or lesbian or trans far out of proportion to their numbers. And we have to consider that Jeremy not coming home may be a piece of that.”

Some time passes in silence, finally Remy takes up her coffee but does not put cup to lip. Grey stares at the table, lost in thought.

In the silence, “Won't you please help us bring Jeremy home?”

An earlier version with illustrations of this story is available on my Wordpress site at:

Fourteen: Patrick & John, Part 2: “We Got Shoes”

https://gayadult49.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/patrick-john-part-ii-we-got-shoes/

Updated and illustrated versions of some of my other Fourteen Submissions:

Chapter  36 Patrick & John, Part 1: Summer Camp Day

https://gayadult49.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/summer-camp-day/

Chapter 27 Levi:  Dustoff

https://gayadult49.wordpress.com/2019/11/06/dustoff/

Chapter 24: The Chillicothe Interlude

https://gayadult49.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/the-chillicothe-interlude/

Other stories I've written at Nifty:

 https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/a-fathers-love.pdf

 https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/i-can-see-clearly-now.pdf

https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/stories-in-the-human-calculus/ 

Thanks so much to Philip Marks for contributing this Fourteen Story chapter. — Eliot Moore