"You can't take me off the case, Chief," complained Chris Larabee angrily. It was the day after Belinda Wilmington's murder and Detective Larabee had been called into his boss's office as soon as he arrived at the station house.
"I'm assigning Detective James - this case is too close to home for you considering your past. I don't want it to be your undoing. You're a good detective, Chris and I want it to stay that way," said Chief Anderson trying to keep his temper.
Chris Larabee thought back to when his own mother had been murdered and he'd gone into foster care after his father had left home. His mother had a good job and had always taken good care of the family. She'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had been chosen as a hostage. She hadn't co-operated very well, and they'd shot her. Chris had only been nine then and had been unable to cry when he'd found out his mom's fate. Chris knew the Chief was right - he could become too emotionally involved in the case if he continued on it. He desperately wanted to find Buck and make sure he was all right - he didn't want Buck to grow up to be angry and anti-social like he'd been, until he had joined the police force and made friends who had helped him change.
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Meanwhile in Matt's apartment...
"Wake up. We need to go and get some groceries," said Matt, shaking Buck to wake the boy up.
Buck opened his eyes and looked at Matt - the man looked dirty and unshaven like he always did; the appearance made the man look scary, but Buck had learnt from previous experience that Matt was only horrible if he was angry about something. He got up quickly, not wanting to upset Matt by being disobedient.
Matt handed Buck a list of things they needed. "I'm a bit short of dough until pay-day, so I've counted out enough money from what was in your pockets. I take it that was your mom's dough?"
"It's Mom's, you can't have it!" said Buck angrily.
Matt raised his hand toward the boy and hit his cheek. "You'll do as I say if you want to stay here, Belinda would've wanted you to live with me and she would've wanted us to share her money."
Buck rubbed his cheek that now stung. He didn't want the dark-haired adult to hurt him again, so would just do what the man wanted. There was nowhere else for the boy to go so he'd just put up with staying here until he was old enough to live on his own and earn money.
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Chris Larabee was in the supermarket with his wife Sarah one day; two months after Belinda Wilmington had been murdered. The serial murders seemed to have ended now, with no signs of being solved by the detective who had replaced Chris on the case.
"That boy looks a bit like the missing Wilmington boy, doesn't he?" remarked Sarah as she looked over at the man and boy talking, farther along the same aisle. There had been a nation-wide campaign set up to find the missing boy who might have valuable information about his mother's murder. Sarah had seen the boy's picture so many times, that she often thought she saw the boy in public places.
Larabee looked over and noticed it was a skinny boy with a small amount of medium-brown hair escaping from beneath a green woollen hat. The dark-haired man with the boy walked a short distance away from him, making it seem as though he wasn't with the boy. Suddenly, the child turned and looked at Larabee, sad eyes on a bruised and dirty face making brief contact with Chris's hazel ones. The adult near the boy seemed temporarily distracted, watching a security guard standing nearby talking to a young female shelf-stacker. Could the young male be Buck? Had that man kidnapped him?
Suddenly the man turned back from watching the guard and coughed. The young brunet looked over at the security guard and shouted, "That man is stealing things, you gotta catch him!" The man had already grabbed some items off the shelves and dashed away with the guard chasing after him. The boy meanwhile grabbed a few tins off the shelf and stuffed them into a bag, unaware that Larabee was discretely watching.
Chris didn't want to get the boy into trouble, although he should report him really. He felt sorry for the boy and reporting him wouldn't make things better. He had to help somehow - before the boy grew up to be a full-grown criminal.
"Chris?" asked Sarah, aware that her husband seemed to be in a daze, then the blond stopped discretely watching the boy and turned to Sarah.
"Sorry, I was miles away," he apologised, noticing the boy was now heading for the exit.
"We need to get some potato chips as well - kids like them. I'm really looking forward to Ezra's arrival," said Sarah smiling at Chris. Ezra was the boy they were going to be foster parents for very soon, as his mother had gone to jail for several months.
The couple started for another aisle; the boy with brown hair already forgotten.
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Outside in the street, Matt and Buck rejoined to go home after Matt had lost the security guard. "Did you get the things we need?" asked Matt.
"Sure; everything you asked for," said Buck, opening his bag to show Matt what he'd lifted from the store.
"Good work, kid. Let's go home and eat," said Matt happily, taking Buck's free hand and leading him home. To all the passers-by they looked like an ordinary father and son.
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Three weeks later, Chris Larabee watched from a distance as he saw the same brown-haired boy with the green knitted hat open the door of the apartment block and walk inside. Larabee visualised the boy walking up the stairs to the apartment where Matt Smith lived alone - well, alone until Buck had moved in.
Larabee had done some off-duty investigating in an effort to find where Buck might be staying. The detective had struck gold when he'd come across Matt Smith, a friend of Belinda's. Further digging into Matt's file had revealed that Matt wasn't a kind or gentle man, but was one of the few remaining local friends of Belinda's. Chris didn't doubt that Matt was abusing Buck judging by the bruises he'd seen on the boy's face and if something wasn't done soon, Matt might end up hurting the boy more seriously. The blond detective was surprised that Buck had stayed there undetected as long as he must've done. Chris guessed that Buck had gone there not long after Belinda had been murdered.
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Once inside Matt's apartment, Buck put tinned vegetables in a saucepan on the stove to heat through, while he opened the box of a microwaveable pie and put it in to cook. Matt sat on the sofa in the sitting room and watched hockey, drinking his beer between shouting obscenities at the screen.
"Hey, Kid? Will you come here with another beer?" called Matt, five minutes later.
Buck took a can out of the refrigerator then reached into the overhead cupboard for a pint glass - the man could at least drink it from a glass rather than a can. His mother had always been against the boy drinking straight from bottles or cans. Buck opened the can then carefully poured the contents into the glass. Then he ran into the sitting room with the beer and put it on the coffee table near Matt. Then he asked, "Is your team winning?" Buck hoped that the answer would be yes; otherwise Matt would be angry.
"No, they're losing - come here!" ordered Matt angrily.
Buck obeyed nervously, knowing what was coming.
"What took you so long with my beer? You're so slow, Kid," said Matt and swiped his fist at the boy's cheek, impacting and making a new bruise there. Buck kept quiet, knowing Matt would do it again if he made a noise.
To be continued...