Eldorado (3 page)

“Did you know he was skipping school?”

Ms. Kingsley’s face flushed red. “Truancy is such a common occurrence,” she said. “I don’t generally hear about it unless it’s getting out of hand. After all, there are so few opportunities provided by education nowadays…”

“But they did tell you.”

She nodded. “Apparently he was skipping up to two or three days a week.”

“Two or three days a week! So why wasn’t I informed?”

“Informed?” she laughed. “You think I’ve got nothing better to do than spend the day calling everyone whose kid didn’t bother making it to class? Welcome to reality, Richard. Half the school skip class on a regular basis, often with the parents’ blessing. A lot of parents would rather have their kids at home looking after the garden, or helping guard the house.”

Richard stared at the desktop, shaking his head.

“Is there anyone he hung out with?” he finally said. “Did he mention any friends here at school?”

“He never talked about anyone outside school. I know he spent time with one or two other students here. There’s one in particular, Matt Foster, that I’ve seen him with a few times. Danny’s become somewhat of a loner. He doesn’t associate much with other students.”

“Can I speak with Matt?”

She looked at her watch. “The next class break will be in fifteen minutes. I can arrange for him to talk to you.”

They walked toward the classrooms in silence and posted themselves outside shop class. A few minutes later the doors opened and students crowded into the hall. Ms. Kingsley called over a thin, dark haired boy with a bad complexion.

“Matt, this is Richard Hampton, Danny’s brother,” she said to the boy. “He’d like to speak to you for a few minutes.”

"But then I'd have to miss Math class," Matt sneered.

"I'll clear it with Mr. Davis," she said.

Matt grinned, “In that case, sure – whatever.”

Richard and Matt parked themselves at a table in a far corner of the school cafeteria.

“You know that Danny’s missing?” said Richard.

“First I’ve heard,” said Matt, slouching down in his chair.

“He disappeared two days ago. I’m trying to find him.”

“Good for you.”

Richard scowled at him. “I thought Danny was your friend. He might be lying injured somewhere. He might be dying…”

“Hey, don’t get on
my
case,” said Matt. “
You’re
the one that wanted this interview.”

“Don’t you want to help him?”

“It’s a tough world out there – you gotta look after yourself. Danny knows that. I’m surprised you don’t. Danny was right – you
are
a tight-ass.”

Richard ignored the remark. “I know he was skipping school. Where was he going?”

“Hey, I’m not the guy’s father…” Matt smirked and looked pointedly at him. “I don’t ask him where he goes every day. Everybody skips school. It’s no big deal. Danny was working an angle, like everybody else. I never asked him what, and he never asked me about mine.”

“Didn’t he tell you anything?”

Matt shrugged. “I know he was going to Surrey. I think he went there all the time.”

Richard’s gut tightened. “Why Surrey, for God’s sake? What could he possibly want there?”

“Sometimes he talked about ‘prospecting’. It sounded like he was looking for something.”

“And he never said what?”

“Nah, but he was all excited a couple of weeks ago. Said he’d found something big.”

“Big?”

“The exact word he used was ‘huge’ – he said he found something ‘huge’.”

“He didn’t say what it was?”

“Hey, don’t ask, don’t tell, man.” Matt ran his fingers through his greasy hair. “You know, this is getting kind of boring…”

“That’s it?” said Richard. “You’ve got nothing else to say to me?”

Matt scratched at the top of the table with his fingernail. Richard rose, pushed out his chair, and began to walk away.

“Thanks for all your help,” he said over his shoulder. “I can see Danny’s got a real friend in you.”

“Don’t go away mad,” Matt called after him. “Hey, he did say one other thing…”

Richard stopped and looked back, “What’s that?”

“He said when I heard what he found it would blow my mind.”

A Plunge into Cold Water

Danny stared up into the darkness and falling rain at the tiny pinpricks of light high above his head. The lights marked the extents of the massive bridge spans that towered above him and the others. The dim glow reflected in puddles dotting the deck over which they trudged, walking their motorbikes across a deeply-potholed section, headed for a rendezvous with Crack and the rest of the gang.

The group made their way toward the crest of the bridge, five or six surrounding him to block off any chance of escape. Zonk trotted behind, held on a leash by one of the men.

The drizzling rain had soaked Danny to the skin. He tried to concentrate, but he was still half wasted from the hooch. The beating they'd laid on him during the interrogation had rattled his brain, and the bruises that covered much of his body were starting to throb painfully.

Unexpectedly, Zonk started to tug at the leash with his teeth, like he was trying to tear it out of the handler’s grip. The man holding the leash responded by swatting him and pulling it tighter. Far from being subdued, Zonk jumped up and put his front paws on the handler’s chest. The handler pushed him back down and tried to kick him, but missed.

“For Christ’s sake, Swallow,” yelled the leader of the group, “get control of that fucking dog!”

Danny thought, what’s with Zonk? He’s never acted up like that before.

Zonk continued his antics, jumping up again on the handler, Swallow, and almost pushing him over.

“You fucking devil dog!” Swallow yelled. He backed up and pulled out a gun, ready to shoot the dog.

“What are you doing!” shouted the leader, rushing at Swallow, grabbing his gun and pistol-whipping him. “You stupid fuck!” he screamed. “Didn’t you hear what Crack said! You’re gonna ruin everything!”

Danny saw his chance. Everybody was focused on Zonk and the two fighting men. He staggered the few yards over to the bridge railing. Mercifully, the night was so black he couldn’t see the water below. He assumed he was going to die, but that no longer mattered. He slipped over the rail and was weightless.
He heard a shot and a bullet whizzed by his head.

The last thing he heard before he hit the water was a voice frantically screaming: “Somebody catch that fucking dog!”

Zonk Comes Home

Richard had just gotten back from his meetings at the school when he heard a familiar scratching at the front door, and it was as if a huge burden had fallen from his shoulders. Danny had finally come home. But when he opened the door his chest tightened and his euphoria evaporated. Zonk stood on the stoop in front of him, but Danny was nowhere in sight.

Danny and Zonk were inseparable. Even if by some unimaginable set of circumstances Danny had tried to send Zonk away, Richard knew the dog would follow him if that were possible. The fact that Zonk was here without Danny could mean only one of two things – either Danny was somewhere it was impossible for Zonk to go, or…he didn’t want to consider the alternative. His hands trembled as he pried one of Danny’s school pictures from a frame on a bookshelf and left the house. There was no longer any doubt – Danny was in trouble.

Richard cringed as he burst through the doors of the Police station. The place looked like a disaster in progress. The reception area was jammed with a cross-section of humanity – from homeless, drunks, and hookers to sharply dressed businessmen and middle-class people like himself. A slow-moving line had formed in front of the reception desk, and Richard took his place its end. A filthy drunk lined up behind him; he was almost overcome by the stench of the man’s liquor-soaked breath.

As it had four years ago after the tragedy, Richard’s mind raced as he waited, walking through scenarios, weighing options, desperate to act but stunned and confused about where to begin. He was so preoccupied he hardly noticed the wait, and didn’t realize he was up until the uniformed officer at reception bellowed at him, “Next!”

He moved up to the desk.

“What’s your business,” said the officer.

“I’ve got an appointment with Detective Leung.”

The officer glanced over his left shoulder. “Fourth desk on the right.”

Richard headed for desk the officer had indicated. The man sitting behind it waved him over and motioned for him to have a seat.

“Richard,” said Leung, wearing a harried expression that reminded him of Ms. Kingsley, the school counselor. “Good to see you again. Sorry, but there are no developments in your parents’ case.”

“I’m not here about that,” said Richard, taking a seat across from him.

Leung eyed him expectantly.

“My brother Danny’s missing, said Richard. “Here – I brought a recent picture.” He fished the photograph from his coat pocket and handed it to the detective.

Leung glanced at it. “How old is Danny now?”

“He’s seventeen,” said Richard. Leung let out a faint sigh as he typed something into the terminal and studied the result.

Richard explained the events surrounding Danny’s disappearance, including his trips to Surrey.

“Look,” Leung finally said, turning from the computer screen. “You had a fight with Danny, and my guess is that he’s gone off somewhere to punish you. It happens all the time.”

“Danny has a dog,” Richard said, realizing how foolish he probably sounded. “This morning the dog came home without him. It would never have willingly left Danny’s side. I know what it looks like – we’ve had our differences, but Danny would never run off like that.”

Leung’s face expressed infinite patience.

“Do you have any record of him?” Richard asked, embarrassed at not knowing the answer. “Has he been in trouble before? For drugs or gangs or anything?”

“That was the first thing I checked,” said Leung. “If he’d been brought in you would have been notified.”

“So what’s the next step?”

“The next step?”

“I assume you’ll be assigning somebody to the case?”

“He’s only been gone a couple of days. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s necessary.”

Richard’s knuckles were white on the arms of his chair. “Look, believe me this isn’t like Danny. He’s got his faults, but he’s never done anything like this before. And the dog…”

“I’m sorry,” said Leung. “We can’t spare the manpower at this point.”

Richard raised his voice. “Don’t you realize that my brother's life might be at stake?”

Leung leaned forward and glared at him. “Do you have any understanding of what's going on in this city? People are out there killing each other for food. We've got a major force that does nothing but patrol the coastline for boatloads of refugees coming in from Asia. We’re up to our armpits in black marketers, street gangs, drug lords, militias – it's a war zone out there.” There was a flash of desperation in his eyes. He leaned back. “Now – we don't know for sure that Danny is even in trouble. Maybe he just ran away…”

“Danny did not run away!” Richard shouted. The other conversations around them stopped and the people at adjacent desks stared in their direction.

“Please lower your voice,” said Leung.

“I’m telling you,” said Richard. “Something bad has happened to Danny.”

“See this?” said Leung, holding up Danny’s photograph. “I’ll just tack it up over there with the others.” He walked over to a large white-board that Richard hadn’t noticed before. It was plastered with so many photographs that barely any white space showed. Looking closely Richard could see that they were all of children. Leung picked out a tiny open patch in the center, taped Danny’s photograph over it and scrawled a short note underneath, then returned to his desk.

“We’ll get to him when we can,” he said bluntly.

Richard stomped out the station doors and down the front steps, kicking up dust as he went. He pictured a thirteen year-old Danny in the hospital room standing over the shrouded body of their dead mother. For a fraction of a second an image flooded into Richard’s mind – the path to their back garden – he jammed his eyes shut and stumbled away in a daze.

“Don’t be too hard on the cops,” said Jim Keller as he sat at Richard’s dining room table later that day. Keller had made one of his rare visits to town. He claimed he needed supplies, but Richard suspected the real reason.

“They’re not lying when they tell you they’re swamped,” Keller said. “I can believe that one missing teenage boy wouldn’t be high on their priority list.”

“Zonk would never come home without Danny,” said Richard. “You know that as well as I do.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Keller, shaking his head. “I hate to say it, but I could have told you what would happen with the cops. Forget them – they’re a lost cause.”