MAN, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME. ENJOY! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR'S!

"A large with cream and sugar to go and the bill, please." Chris said mechanically to the waitress as she collected his plate.

"Do you want the other half of your sandwich to go as well, sir?" She smiled politely.

"No, dear. Thanks though."

When she disappeared into the kitchen, Conseiko saw it fit to finish his thought. "Anyway, since Carter's house is getting turned upside down, should we leave it to the uniforms and find out what happened to his car?"

"You're asking me, serge?" Chris asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Conseiko waved him off. "Don't call me that."

"I thought you'd want us to call you that."

"Yeah but you don't mean it. You're just mocking me."

Chris snorted but thought it best to just move on. "Why do you want to hunt down the car?"

Shrugging, Conseiko pulled out his wallet. "I don't know, I just don't like the feeling of leaving stones unturned. Isn't it weird that his car happened to get stolen when we're looking for a car just like his?"

Chris wiped a hand over his mouth. "Yeah, it's pretty weird." He said slowly, rolling his eyes. "We have his license plate clear as day showing up on video surveillance outside a porn shop hours before the child was seen climbing into a car looking just like Carter's. Conveniently, his car is reported stolen. So, outside this porn shop which Carter used to manage, a kid gets out of his car and runs away, then the car takes off. Unfortunately for Carter, he has priors so we get the warrant to search his house. And so far, no sign of the kid. The house is squeaky clean."

"So, what are you thinking? He got his mother to report a theft to make him look innocent?"

"Think about it. Why is he driving such a conspicuous looking vehicle when he's going out to pick up kids? Child abductors typically try to blend in. A 1978 Chrysler Town and Country Wagon hasn't blended in since then. He's playing a game. He's leading us right to him. He wants us to know who he is. We're not going to find anything at his house that he doesn't want us to find."

"So, you think he's a psychopath? Like a serial rapist?"

The waitress eyed him curiously on her return to the table where she laid the bill on the table along with a couple of humbugs.

"Thanks a lot." Chris said with a polite smile at the waitress.

"Have a great day, guys." She replied.

After throwing a few bills on the table, Conseiko followed Chris out of the restaurant closely enough to step on his partner's heel.

"Man, I've told you about doing that!" Chris barked as he brushed his hand over where he'd been grazed.

The sun had completely disappeared behind a veil of menacing-looking rain clouds. The wind was picking up and a moisture in the air could be felt and breathed. Though it had been the first mild day of the season, Chris suddenly felt goosebumps rise on his arms.

"So where are we supposed to go from here? Sit on our thumbs and wait?" Conseiko scoffed, sticking his key in the hole in the car's door handle.

"We need to find out where he went because he ain't comin' back."

Carlo was halfway through his second beer when the sight of his little brother pushing through the crowd at the bar caught his attention. Matthew always looked like Nicky. More than Carlo ever did. They all had the same dark curls but there was something in his brothers' faces that seemed to resemble each other that much more.

By the time Carlo's brain made the realization that it was the youngest Adams brother making his way toward him and not the one he'd been aching to hear from, he had already made up his mind about the very thing on which he'd just been debating.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ma sent me to find you." As Carlo got to his feet, he added: "But we don't have to leave so soon. Besides they don't have to know I'm underage." He said, eyeing Carlo's beer.

Carlo smirked and ushered him toward the door. "Sorry, kid but if I spend one more second waiting here, I'm going to clock somebody and it won't be pretty."

There was a twitch in Matthew's cheek in precisely the spot where the bruising had started to yellow. "Waiting for what? Nicky's a big boy. He's doing what he wants. Let him."

Carlo hadn't realized that Matthew was holding a grudge. "Knock it off, Matty. He's not alright in the head right now and you know that."

He held the door open for Matthew to pass through and as they crossed the parking lot, Matthew started up again. "Look I get he got raped and that's awful but he's being a little prick. He's made it clear he doesn't want any of our help. So, fuck him."

Carlo grabbed his brother's arm and brought him to a halt. "What's the matter?" He said, taking his jaw in his fist. "Did he hurt your little ego, Matty? Huh? Your big brother knocked you on your ass so now you don't want him around anymore? Nice way to treat your family. Is this what they teach you at that fancy school of yours?"

Matthew struggled against his brother's grip. "No. Let go of me!"

"Watch your fuckin' mouth around me, kid. You don't know what you're talking about so show some respect!" Carlo spat releasing him.

They were making their way down the block toward the house. Several paces later, Matthew coughed up an apology. "Look, I don't mean any disrespect. I just don't get why we can't all just move on."

Carlo fell into step beside Matthew and gave him a long, hard look. How he could talk about something so horrible that happened to their own brother as though it was as casual as a fender-bender was beyond him. "You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?" Matthew gawked at him.

Carlo turned away. "Maybe you were too young."

"Too young for what? We just found out about it all, remember?"

Eyes focused on the ground, Carlo made his best attempt to answer. "For the rest of us, it's like it's all fallen into place. We all saw a change in him but didn't know why. Now it makes sense, but we didn't see it back then. We didn't want to see it."

"What do you mean? Carlo, you were what? Ten years old? What could you have done? And Ma and Pop … they wouldn't have understood about that kind of thing. I'm not even sure they understand now."

"Trust me. They understand." Carlo hissed.

"Still. What could you have done?" Matthew said gently. He was watching Carlo and maybe their conversation wasn't quite the exercise in futility that Carlo had imagined.

He didn't answer the question because he didn't know. He had a broad idea of all the things he could've done. The first and most important was putting the pervert coach in an earlier grave than he had already. What he didn't know was how to say it: how to voice how much his heart ached when he thought of his parents' anguish and how angry at himself he was for not being there for his brother. While Nicky was the oldest and always assumed the role of cleaning up after his little brothers' messes, Carlo was the one who stood up for them. Carlo was the big brother in more ways than one and it started on the day that he kneeled on the floor of the bathroom and watched through a keyhole as Nicky cried into his mother's lap with a bloody wrist.

"It's just how families are. Get on board and stop being such a fucking pain in my ass, Matty. Just be glad that was Nicky's shot and not mine. If I had popped you one, that cheekbone would be broken."

Outside the basement door, he wept.

"Don't bother us, Julian. No matter what you hear. You're not wanted down there. Am I clear?" His father told him as they each waited in anticipation for the sound of the doorbell.

"Why can't I come too, Daddy?" Julian asked, following his father around the foyer like a shadow.

"Because … you're a nuisance, you don't listen, and you talk too much. We already talked about this so go on up to your room. Go on."

The bell rang and Julian watched from his hiding place on the stairwell as a young boy carrying a hockey bag as big as him was ushered over the threshold. The boy looked familiar instantly. He went to Julian's school and played on Daddy's team. He wasn't very nice to Julian but one time he let Julian sit next to him on the school bus.

Julian guessed he was still an okay person. Enough to make Julian want to be down there with them.

"Come on down to the basement, buddy. I've set up some tapes from old games that I want to show you. And then we can make sure your new equipment fits nice and snug." His father said convincingly, even making Julian curious as to how he'd managed to set up the basement just in the time since Mommy left for her appointment.

The boy looked nervous and only inched a few feet toward the basement door which his father was holding open. "Are any of the other guys here?" He asked.

Daddy shook his head. "No, I thought about inviting them but I didn't think it would do them any good. They just don't have talent. You my friend have talent." He said, reaching out and clutching the boy on the shoulder affectionately.

The boy looked like he was trying to stifle a smile as they went down to the basement and closed the door behind them. When Julian heard the latch click, he'd made up his mind: he didn't like Nicky Adams one bit.