Finding Daniel chapter twelve

Dammit. What the Hell? Hal's mind was swirling. There was no turn off around the bend.

Instead, there were three patrol cars with their lights on parked on either side of the highway.

Hal had come up on them too fast to turn around. Actually, there wasn't anywhere to turn around and even if there were, Hal instinctively knew that if he did, he would surely arouse suspicion and that was the last thing he needed.

After all, he had no idea what they were doing. If they were looking for someone- if they were looking for this kid, then he sure as Hell didn't need to arouse their suspicion.

What he did need was a story and he needed one fast.

He glanced again at Daniel asleep in the seat next to him. Dammit, even he could see the boy didn't look good. Not knowing what the law was doing in the roadway caused Hal a great sense of dread. He hoped they wouldn't have any reason to look too hard at his captor.

Hal knew he needed one more of his so called miracles. If he could just stay calm, maybe he could talk his way through this. After all, it was likely nothing more than a license check.

But if it wasn't and they were looking for this this boy, Hal realized that he had pissed away his opportunity.

The fact that he had literally stumbled onto his latest victim rather than picking him out and then taking some time to think out a plan of action as was was his usual m.o. had kept him a step behind ever since getting the boy in the car with him. After all, other than the idea of drugging any future victims, he had not planned this crime out at all.

And everything was working against him on this particular day, but his sickness wouldn't allow him to pass up this opportunity.

The unfamiliar countryside coupled with the wet, curvy roads had deterred him from getting any immediate gratification. He was having so much trouble just navigating the old station wagon on the wet, narrow highway, he had found it necessary to keep both hands on the wheel, especially sense it had started raining again.

Of course the rain would stop again now with the law in his sights.

He could kick himself in the butt now for foolishly opting to let his excitement build rather than seeking any instant gratification.

Hell, the boy had been out of it for the better part of a half hour and Hal had not done anything inappropriate with him. Now, his desire was nearing a fever pitch and the thought of never getting the opportunity to act on his lust was weighing heavier on his sick mind than the fact that the he was possibly facing going back to jail.

As Hal slowed the car down, he continued to take in the scene ahead.

He observed two police cruisers pulled over on the west side of the road and another one pulled over on the east side of the roadway.

There were two officers standing in the middle of the road, obviously intending to stop traffic. There were two more officers standing next to the patrol cars parked on west side of the roadway.

He knew if this did have anything to do with the boy, his goose was surely cooked and he had squandered away the opportunity of a lifetime.

He prayed, not for the first time in his life, to a God he didn't even believe in. He prayed for this to just be a routine stop by cops who were checking licenses and tags.


Fortunately for Hal, the car at least- was legal. His grandmother had given him her old heap when he got out of prison. He knew she'd hoped he would take it and go away immediately.

Instead, he had stayed with her for a short while, but after he'd taken that money, they had fought and he had lit out.

Not that he had intended to stay much longer. He had gotten all he was gonna get out of her anyways. He had taken the money so he could put brakes on the old wagon and buy a new tag and inspection sticker. He was as ready to get away from her as she was to be rid of him.

Hal took a deep breath and pulled slowly up to the officer in the west bound lane. The officer motioned for him to stop.

"Hi officer." Hal said coolly as he rolled down his window. Is there a problem?"

"No sir." The officer replied. As he looked across the car and saw the boy sleeping in the seat next to this man, he immediately sensed that this might just be more than a routine stop.

The boy sleeping in the passenger seat bore a strong resemblance to the kid in the picture he'd been studying all afternoon.

Actually, he did more than bear a strong resemblance. At second glance, he matched the description of Daniel McFadden exactly.

But, the officer remained calm as he began to realize that he may have actually just found what he and so many other of his fellow police officers had been looking for all afternoon.

Though he was anything but calm, officer Tim Dudley smiled casually at the driver of the car. If this was the boy he was looking for and he wasn't with this man willingly, he sure didn't want to tip his hand yet. "Sir, could I see your driver's license and car registration?" He asked politely.

"Yes sir." Hal answered equally as calm.

The officer took the license from him. "Who do you have with you there?" He answered as he motioned to another officer.


Officer Peggy Hanson was the first female officer in the history of Amador county. It was a very small force as was the county and it's population.

Besides herself and the three officers working this roadblock with her, there were only two other officers on the force, not counting their sheriff.

Officer Hanson had taken this roadblock seriously. There was something about the boy in the picture that just tugged at her heartstrings. He looked like a nice kid. She'd heard that his family was frantic about not knowing his whereabouts.

Add that to that the fact that she had a son at home herself, though he was only six. Just the thought of him going missing would be more than she could bear.

So maybe it was her motherly instincts kicking in, but from the second she'd been told the story and looked at the handsome features of this boy in the photograph, she'd felt a strong urge to do whatever she could to find him unharmed.

She stepped over to the car Tim had stopped. It was an ordinary old station wagon. When she peered over her fellow officer's shoulder and looked inside, she had to will herself not to react.

She didn't know who this guy was, but she was pretty sure his passenger was the boy they were looking for. If he wasn't he certainly looked a lot like him.

"Hanson, could you run this license and registration for me?" Officer Dudley asked her calmly.

"Sure." She turned, but not before giving Dudley a knowing look. He returned it and she too knew what his suspicions were.

"Excuse me, but could I ask what the problem is? My license is valid and so is my registration, isn't it?" Hal asked carefully. He knew it all was in order, so he didn't understand why they were running his license. He wasn't even sure they could legally do that. He was getting more nervous by the second.

"Yes sir. You'll get it back in a second. We're just conducting a search for someone, so I'm afraid I'm going to need you to answer my earlier question. "Who is that young man in the car with you?" Officer Dudley asked again, a little more forcefully this time.

Hal swallowed hard. "He's my nephew." The lie rolled off of his tongue easily.

"And what is your nephew's name?" Officer Dudley didn't take his eyes off of the man for a second. He was watching for any unnecessary movement. He thought he could detect nervousness in the man and he needed to proceed with caution.

"It's Johnny." Hal lied again. He knew this was it. He was caught. He had a gun under his seat, but there was no way to make a move for it. This guy was already suspicious and with three other officers right there and as many police cruisers at the ready, no way could he outrun them in this heap of a car.

"Johnny, huh. Okay, would you mind waking him up for me?" Officer Dudley said, staring intently at Hal.

"Um, he's not feeling well. I was just trying to get him to Sutter Creek. We've been driving all day and he's tired and pretty car sick. I'd really hate to disturb him. He just fell asleep.

"Okay sir. I need you to step out of the car for me and keep your hands in front of you where I can see them, please."

The fact that the boy hadn't awakened on his own had Officer Dudley worried. This wasn't an infant or a toddler. No way a boy his age was sleeping through all of this; unless something was wrong with him.

Not wanting to take the chance of this guy driving off or pulling a weapon, Officer Dudley proceeded cautiously. He wanted him out of the car so he couldn't drive off. He made sure to not to take his eyes off of the man.

"Parker!" He yelled over his shoulder at the officer standing behind him in the east lane, while still staring intently at Hal. "I need you to check on this kid in the passenger seat."

"Sure." Officer Parker replied. He walked slowly around the back of the car. Sensing trouble by the tone in his fellow officers' voice, Officer Parker was also intently watching the man in the drivers seat.

Hal put up his hands and slowly got out of the car. "Officer, this is a mistake, I haven't done anything wrong."

"Door's locked. Hey, kid, wake up for me." Officer Parker said as he knocked on the window of the car. The boy didn't stir. It was then that Parker noticed that he was soaking wet and appeared to be shivering. He looked kind of pale too.

He scanned the inside of the car quickly, noticing a wet denim jacket in the backseat. "Get the keys for me." He yelled over at Officer Dudley.

Officer Dudley instructed yet another officer to come over to assist him. "Get his keys." He said to the other officer, John Larson. Officer Larson walked over and got the keys out of the car and tossed them over to Parker.

Dudley kept a vigilant eye on Hal as he waited for Parker to get to the boy. Hal remained calm and kept his hands in sight. He knew the drill. He didn't want to go to jail, but he sure as hell didn't want to be shot dead by a nervous cop.

Parker searched his memory quickly as he pulled back the blanket covering the young man. But for a denim jacket, the boy was wearing exactly what the McFadden boy had been reported as last seen wearing, right down to the cowboy boots.

"Tim, something's wrong. I can't wake him up." Parker practically barked as he tried to wake the boy by shaking his shoulders and lightly slapping his cheek.

Dudley had been waiting for the license check to go through, but knowing how long that could sometimes take, he decided he had enough probable cause to detain this Harold Jenkins guy... if that was his real identity.

"Mr. Jenkins, we are conducting a search for a missing boy that fits the description of your passenger. Would you care to change your statement about him being your nephew?"

"I got nothin' to say." Hal replied defiantly.


Officer Peggy Hanson hurried back over to her partner. "He's in the system. Paroled from Folsom recently." She said breathlessly. Her heart was beating fast now.

"Peggy, you need to call dispatch and get an ambulance out here, now!" Officer Parker said. "I think this kid's in trouble."

Peggy Hanson did all she could to keep the panic in her eyes from showing. When she'd looked at the lifeless boy in the passenger seat earlier, she had a feeling something was wrong.

She was a woman, but she tried really hard to act like 'one of the boys' when she was on duty. She had to keep her emotions in check or risk losing the respect of her fellow officers.

Female officers were a rarity in this part of the country and it had taken her a number of years to earn the respect of her male counterparts and she didn't want to lose their respect now by acting 'soft'.

Officer Parker quickly checked the boys' pulse and finding a pretty strong one, he then searched the pocket of the kids' jeans.

"Hey Tim, I found a wallet. Yep, there's a library card in it. The name on it is Daniel McFadden." Parker announced as he searched Daniel's wallet.

"Mr. Jenkins, you're under arrest for suspicion of kidnapping. Put both hands on your head." Officer Dudley said quickly as he removed his cuffs from his belt and slapped them on Hal. As he began to read the man his miranda rights, Hal began to protest vehemently.

"Hey, now wait a minute. The kid just needed a ride. He just wanted a lift to Murphys. I was on my way there." Hal protested.

"What did you do to him? Why is he unconscious?" Officer Dudley shouted as he searched the man's pockets. He immediately felt something in the man's left hand shirt pocket. "What's this?"

"I said what is this?" Dudley shouted as he removed the medicine bottle from the mans' pocket and shook it in his face.

"I don't know." Hal answered smugly. "The kid was on something when I picked him up. I could tell it straight off. I got that outta his pocket after he passed out. I shouldn't have given him a ride. I knew he was trouble. Nothin but a strung out little punk I told myself. I shoulda just left him there in the rain. Look what I get for my trouble." Harold continued his rant.

"Well, you better hope he wakes up and tells us a similar story!" Officer Hanson yelled as she came back from her cruiser.

"An ambulance is on the way." She commented to Dudley as she rushed over to the passenger side of the station wagon to assist officer Parker.

"How's he doing?" She asked concerned.

"Not sure. Maybe the paramedics will know what kind of pills those are.

"Well they aren't prescribed to the suspect, but they sure aren't prescribed for the boy either. Name on it is Lucinda Williams." Dudley replied.

Parker was checking the boys' pulse again and began whispering reassurances to the kid, just in case he could hear them.

"Let me see them." Peggy said to officer Dudley worriedly, indicating the prescription bottle. She had briefly studied to be an emergency medical technician before she decided to change course and join law enforcement. She was hoping she could shed some light on what kind of medicine they were dealing with.

"There's an empty soda bottle at his feet. Looks like some of it spilled onto the floorboard." Officer Parker noted.

"Grab an evidence bag, that could be how he got the drugs in him." She said forcefully. Parker was new and green and Peggy didn't want any shotty police work to screw up this case. After what she'd seen on this guy's record, she was fearful that the boy had been assaulted on top of being drugged. She didn't want this slime bag slipping through their fingers because of bad police work.

After placing both the soda bottle and the bottle of pills in evidence bags, Officer Dudley handed over the bag with the pill bottle in it to Peggy.

After inspecting it, she said "Yeah, I know what this is. It's anxiety medicine. Strong stuff too. God, I wonder how many of them he ingested." She said again glancing worriedly at Daniel.

"Well, I saw white residue on the inside of the pop bottle." Officer Parker announced. I wish that ambulance would hurry up." He said anxiously. "Hang in there buddy, we're gettin' you some help." He said reassuringly to Daniel, patting his shoulder softly. The boy groaned a little, but didn't fully regain consciousness.

"They're about ten minutes out." Peggy replied, referring to the ambulance. "You're gonna be okay Daniel." She said stroking the boys' hair as she hovered over him. "Can you hear me, buddy?" She asked quietly. She was disheartened when he didn't respond.

He was cold and shivering so she took off her leather police jacket and spread it over his chest. Officer Parker followed suit, shucking off his jacket quickly and covering Daniel's legs with it.

Officer Dudley stuffed his prisoner in the back of his cruiser. "Man, if you have an ounce of decency in you, you'll tell us how much of that crap you gave him!" Dudley said sternly.

"I don't know nothin' about it. I already told ya." Hal replied adamantly.

Officer Dudley slammed the door in frustration as he ran his fingers through his brown hair. "Okay, we need to call this in to the sheriff. He'll get word out to everybody." Dudley said in exasperation.

"Be sure he intends to call the sheriffs office both in Murphys and Angels Camp. They are both in contact with the family. Tell dispatch to let the family know they'll be taking him to Sutter Amador Hospital in Sutter Creek.

"I'm on it." Officer Larson said.


Amador county sheriff Joe Hollis took the information being dispatched to him with both elation and concern.

Okay so his force had located the McFadden boy and for that he was both proud and also relieved.

But from Larson's accounts, the boy was in immediate peril, being unconscious and there was really no way yet to determine if he had been abused.

He was relieved to hear that the boy's vital signs seemed to be pretty good from what his officers could tell and he didn't appear physically injured in any other way, except for the suspected drugging, was of some relief to the sheriff.

But after immediately looking up this Jenkins' guys record, he knew that the whole story had yet to be told. The thought of what may have happened to this kid was enough to make this twenty- two year law enforcement veteran physically ill.

He had immediately made a call to Sheriff Turner in Murphys. He had strongly suggested to him that he only let the family know that their brother had been located and that he was being checked over at Sutter Creeks' local hospital.

Turner, having been given all the information on the suspect that Sheriff Hollis had, had quietly agreed with him.

Sheriff Hollis then made a call to Angels Camp, having been told that Daniel's legal guardian was waiting for word on his brother there.

Angels Camps' sheriff had not been in his office, so Sheriff Hollis gave the clerk the most important information to pass along to Adam McFadden. That his brother had been located and he needed to get to Sutter Amador Hospital as soon as possible.

It was immediately obvious to Sheriff Hollis that the clerk on the other end of the phone had gotten close to this case... and to the family it involved, because she had asked him a lot of questions that she had no authority to ask; and the sheriff had no intention of answering them over the phone.

She had eventually apologized for her unprofessional behavior and as the sheriff suspected, she explained that one of Daniel McFadden's brothers had been waiting in her office for news all afternoon.

Obviously, this kid had a loving family that would no doubt be of great support to him. Not yet knowing the boys' current condition nor what all he may have been subjected to, Hollis figured that was a good thing.

Knowing that these kinds of cases were going on all over the country, albeit rare in this neck of the woods and that most of those cases had either come to a tragic end, or had gone unsolved with the victim never being recovered, Sheriff Hollis knew that his force had gotten darned lucky. That this boy, assuming he was going to survive the drugging, had gotten darned lucky.