For Johnny (Abercrombie and Fitch)
Finally Pony stopped bawling – "We should go back. We will report to the police maybe they can find the license plate"
The ride back to hotel was in total silence. Pony knew Dallas was going to lose it when he hears what had happened. The air was muggy and stiff, and Pony felt like he was going to throw up or pass out or both.
As they walked into the room they found Dallas, sitting in an arm chair sipping a beer, Steve and Soda on the couch talking about the game they just seen.
"So how was the art museum?" Steve snorted. Then he looked up, and saw the grave expression on two-bit's and Pony's faces.
"Hey, where is Johnny?" Dallas asked casually, taking a sip of his beer. Neither two-bit nor Pony dared to say anything. "What's the matter?" Dally put the beer aside, "where's Johnny?" he repeated, and there was a warning in his voice. "Where the fuck is Johnny?" his voice roared. Pony covered his face with his palm, and started bawling again.
"We were kicked out of the museum," Pony sobbed, "we were sitting in the park and he went to use a restroom, and someone took him."
"What a hell do you mean - took him?" Dally crumpled the beer can in his hand as if it was a sheet of paper.
"He wasn't back for a long time so I went to check if something happened, and I saw them pull him into the car as he was yelling for help. I couldn't get the license plate," Pony wiped the tears with the back of his hand, "only two last digits 78A. A white Mercedes Benz. I think we should go to the police maybe they can track down who this license plate belongs to." Dally was silent, it looked like he lost his ability to speak. And he was paler than a sheet. Looked like he was going to faint. Soda was wiping a tear, and Steve had a shocked expression on his face.
"Let's go," Dallas finally broke out of his haze.
"Maybe we should wait till the morning, it's late," Steve said hesitantly, and Soda glared at him.
"Now," Dallas raised his voice, his eyes blazing with anger.
When they stepped into the precinct, Dally felt antsy - they were from another town, wearing jeans and converses, how would the officers react to them.
The place smelled of mold, and for some reason it was dark inside. There was a big table, there was a guy sitting – a stack of papers in front of him.
"Hi, how may I help you?" the guy looked up from the papers on his desk.
"We are here to report a missing person." Dally's voice shook a little as he spoke, "Actually a kidnapped person," he corrected himself, stepping closer to the desk.
"When did the person go missing?" The guy asked dully as if he dealt with things like this every day.
"This afternoon." Dally bit his lower lip, he was losing patience.
The guy spoke up – "it's too soon for us to declare him missing. It has to be 48 hours."
"You gotta be kidding me," Dallas snapped. "We have a witness, who saw him being kidnapped and pushed into a car, and you are telling me I have to wait two days," Dally looked mad. The guy glanced at him, "Fine, let me get you to the officer." He spoke into the radio, and the next thing an officer walked in. "Hi, I'm officer Rogers please follow me."
They followed the officer inside, passing by many cubicles, people smiling, chatting like it was some sort of social gathering not a police station. Dallas noticed a pot of coffee and a box of donuts in the front of the room on a small table.
Rogers led them into an empty room. "Now please tell me what exactly had happened, where are you from?"
"We are from Tulsa," Pony managed, his eyes wide, sounding devastated, "but Dallas is originally from New York."
"So what exactly happened to your friend?" The officer took out a notepad and a pen from one of the drawers, ready to write down what the guys would tell him.
"We were sitting in Central Park," Pony started reluctantly, "and he went to use the restroom." Pony's voice broke, as he couldn't control himself and started sobbing.
"He didn't get back in time so I went to see if something happened, and when I got there I saw him being pushed into a white Mercedes Benz with tinted windows."
"Did you happen to catch the license plate?" the officer asked in a very serious tone of voice.
"Only two last digits," Pony replied, "78 and a letter A. We thought maybe you could still track the license plate with this information." His voice broke again as he spoke, trying to control himself.
The guy wrote down, everything Pony said. "Alright let me run the digits through the system, and see if we could get the license plate." He opened the door and yelled, "Clair please get the guys some coffee." As he left, two-bit followed him with his gaze, "well, at least he didn't treat us like shit."
"That's something," Soda managed a small smile.
In a minute the secretary, Clair walked in with a pot of coffee and some mugs. She set the coffee pot on the table, - "please help yourselves." Nobody moved, then Pony spoke up, "can I please have a glass of water?"
"Sure thing," she walked out, and was back in a minute with a glass of water, then left. Nobody said anything.
In about twenty minutes officer Rogers was back. "We found three license plate numbers for a white Mercedes Benz with "78A" at the end. We will look into it, please check back in about a week." Dally's eyes flashed in anger, "we need to know who they are," he said in a murderous tone of voice.
"That's not necessary," Rogers tried to say, but Dallas got up from his seat.
"Fine," the officer finally said, "if you insist it's Sam Wilson - New York Academy teacher, Evan Hamilton a musician, and Jason Brown a jewelry store owner."
"I need all their info," Dallas barked.
"Suit yourself," the officer threw a folder with info on the desk. "I don't advise you try anything with the suspects. You can face charges for it." Dallas ignored him, grabbed the folder, opened it checking all the info was there, and started walking away, the rest trotting behind him in silence.
As they left the precinct and turned the corner to their car, Dallas swore a blue streak. "He bet I am going to take matters into my own hands. If I wait for them I'll be waiting till the second visit of Christ."
Once back at the hotel Dallas seemed to calm down a little. He had the info now and was deciding on what actions to take. He looked through the papers carefully checking out the addresses of where these suspects worked and lived. He was silent for about ten minutes looking carefully at the papers then said, "The teacher guy lives on Fifth Avenue, the academy he teaches at is a few blocks away."
"Pony you are going to enroll in the academy, and find out everything about this guy," he swallowed hard, "good thing we have the money, you are going have to look the part." Pony rubbed his eyes, and nodded. In the meantime Dally continued "I'll try to get a job at the jeweler, and you Soda need to get to the musician somehow."
"Ok," Soda nodded, he looked thoughtful for a moment, "I got it, I can be his private chef if he doesn't have one."
"Great idea," Dally approved. His voice shook as he said that, and he quickly turned away so the guys wouldn't see his tears.
It was getting late, but the guys didn't even think of going to sleep. They were talking, discussing all the details of their plan. Dallas was smoking one cigarette after another, and Soda, who usually didn't smoke, lit up as well.
In the morning Dally and Pony went to the mall, while the rest stayed at the hotel. They didn't have a clue about what was in style in New York for the rich kids on Fifth Avenue. Dally hoped there was some sort of uniform so they only needed the outfit once. They entered Abercrombie and Fitch. The music was playing, the clothes were simple enough - tank tops, shirts, trousers and shorts. Dallas looked at the price tag on the back of tank top - forty five dollars. He looked disgusted he could buy a tank top just like that on the poor side of Tulsa for ten bucks.
"I should wear something preppy," Pony walked up to him, "that's what they always show in the movies, people in schools like that wear."
"Alright," Dally nodded. He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. They got a simple white button down shirt that cost fifty dollars and black trousers for forty five dollars. The shirt had a logo on the pocket – "A&F"
.
The next thing they had to do was get another set of fake IDs. They had them as 21 for the casino, but for school they needed something that would state Pony was 15 or 16. They also needed some fake documents from the last school Pony supposedly attended. That was no problem, Dallas knew just the place - Delancey Street in Brooklyn. They took Soda with them since he needed a fake ID too.
In about an hour they had all the documents they needed. Pony was Anthony Winters, who moved to New York from Kansas. Soda was Aaron Davis, and Dallas was Paul Winters. Dallas had to have the same last name as Pony since he had to enroll him in school and pretend to be his older brother.
Pony and Dallas were walking down Fifth Avenue in silence. The street was clean, expensive stores on every corner, cabs passing by. Pony dressed sharply in designer clothes. "I fuckin' hate this place," Dallas scowled. Pony was getting more defeated with every block they passed. It seemed as if the expensive clothes in the window glass of the stores were mocking their very existence.
Finally they reached the Fifth Avenue New York Academy. "Ready?" Dallas slapped Pony on the shoulder, a nauseated expression on his face.
"As ready as I'd be." Pony attempted to fix his hair which had no grease in it and was brushed neatly to the side.
"Alright then."
They entered the school, and were met by a very unfriendly security guard. After they explained they were there to enroll Pony or rather Anthony in school he took them to the office.
Inside there was a woman in her forties - hair and nails done, long gold earrings dangling, shimmering in the light. "Hi, I'm Mrs. Norman, how may I help you?" she was looking them up and down, and Pony didn't like any of it. Dallas seemed calm, putting his poker face on. Pony not so much. This is for Johnny, he kept telling himself. He felt a pang in the stomach thinking of Johnny. What if he was hurt, what if he was dead, and Pony would never see him again.
"Young man?" Pony yanked his head up, "Sorry ma'am."
"What is your name?" she looked rather impatient.
"Anthony Winters." Pony said sheepishly, his thoughts still on Johnny.
"Do you have records from the last school you attended?"
"Sure ma'am," Pony gave her a folder with "his previous school records."
"Ok, I need an ID and proof of address." "Shit," Dally cursed under his breath, they didn't think of proof of address.
"Is there a problem?" She stared directly into Dally's eyes.
"We didn't realize you'd need proof of address. Is it possible to bring it later?" Dally sounded surprisingly pleasant. She was hesitant, "ok, I suppose that would be no problem. I see you've been getting straight As." She was looking at Pony's fake report card. That wasn't far from the truth though.
She kept flipping through the fake school records. "So you are from Kansas, huh? what brings you all the way here, to New York?" Pony and Dally had prepared a story in case they would be asked such a question. "Our parents got divorced, and our dad thought we wouldn't get the same opportunities in Kansas so he sent us to New York." She actually cracked a smile, which Pony thought was not possible. "We need people like this in our school. Now this school may not be similar to other schools you attended. This is truly a privileged place, and I hope you appreciate being able to attend here."
"So I see you took biology already, let me put you in physics then." Pony nodded, and Dallas almost rolled his eyes. Then he cleared his throat, "English, make sure he gets English."
"Yes young man, you will indeed be enrolled in an English class with Mr. Wilson. He is very good, one of the top teachers in the city." The way she spoke was clear that she thought of herself as upper class. Here she was, just an office clerk, but Pony could bet that she'd shit in his face if she knew where he was really from.
"You would need to buy a uniform, let me know your size so I can order it." her words broke in Pony's thoughts. "Here is your schedule, you start tomorrow. We have rules here at the academy, and we expect everyone to follow the rules. Here," she gave him a small bulletin, "you can read it over, see you tomorrow, don't forget proof of address."
Dally and Pony exited the school in silence. "Fucking socs," Dally cursed as soon as they turned the corner.