chapter 37

word count: 1558

the disappearance of little simon learnagle had hit the city of new albany like a mack truck..  still reeling from the still unexplained discovery of the defiled, lifeless corpse of young bobby brown some weeks earlier,, the thought of yet another child from the city having disappeared into thin air was more than the people of new albany could suffer.

although the press releases from the local police department continued to emphasize that there was no reason to believe there was any tie in between the two cases, (as no body had yet been found in the learnagle case) detectives bowman and bettencourt ‘s respective guts told a different story..

no real evidence had been presented to back up what their combined nearly fifty years of on the job caused them to know to be true,, therefore,,  the name and likeness of jake lichtenstein, had never been connected to the bobby brown case in the press. and in light of the fact that leichtenstien himself had vanished from the streets of new albany the very night of the little learnagle boys disappearance,, maybe that was a good thing.. the one thing the new albany police department  did not need in an emotionally charged situation such as this was an incensed public calling out for the heads of the presumably inept detectives that failed to take their prime suspect into custody before yet another child went missing.. 

although a thorough forensic investigation of room 7 at the travelers rest motel, the last known address of jake leichtenstein, had taken place the morning following the learnagle boys disappearance,, it turned up no concrete evidence that young simon had ever been in the room.. the fact that the room had been stripped bare,, right down to the disappearance of all the motel owned bedding and bath towels, solidified bowman and bettencourt’s suspicions that leichtenstein was their man,, but failed to bring them any closer to discovering  his whereabouts. with leichtenstein MIA, and no physical evidence tying him to the learnagle case available,, the only thing left for them to do was go public with the search for leichtenstien,, not naming him as a suspect,, but rather reaching out to him as a person of interest who may have valuable information about the case.. hundreds of calls poured into the 45^th st. precincts information hotline in the days that followed,, but thus far, none of them had panned out.

the only eye witnesses in the learnagle case,,  had been a distraught mother of two who last saw the little blonde boy, who was later determined to be simon learnagle,, as he played with her children on the playground at wildwood creek park.. to date, she remained unable to give a detailed description of the man she had last seen entertaining the children with a red remote control truck..  due to the fact that he had been silhouetted in the late afternoon sun,, she could only be sure of the fact that he was bald, clean shaven, and was wearing what had appeared to have been a dark shirt, and light colored pants.. despite the fact that they had presented her with  a numerous photo line ups of prospective suspects,, each containing mug shots of leichtenstien, in a variety of past incarnations, she was still unable to positively identify anyone in the arrays as the man in whose company she had left little simon learnagle.

so it was with gut feelings, and not a whole lot more that detectives bowman and bettencourt decided to take the case file over to buzz for review.. even in light of his inexcusable shortcomings as a husband and father, they agreed buzz was a damn good detective.. one of,, if not the best.. if anyone could breathe some new life into these investigations it was buzz miller.. and at this point in the game his expert insights might be all that stood between them bringing leichtenstien in (it remained unspoken, but they had all but lost hope of finding the learnagle boy alive) and looking helplessly on,  as both cases grew cold and lichtenstein got away with murder. 

***

jake leichtenstein slipped into the front seat of the stolen white ford F150 pickup and yanked the sweat soaked knitted earflap hat off sweltering head..  it had taken him till well past noon in the blazing hot sun just to panhandle the fifty odd dollars it would take for him to get a room for the night.. if he was lucky,, he would have enough left over to buy a pre-made sandwich,, or a couple of hotdogs. they couldn’t survive forever on candy bars and potato chips.. 

he swiped at the rivers of sweat with his shirt sleeves,, as they trickled through the short stubble of growth on his head and slipped silently into the dense thickness of his weeks old beard.. he started the truck and gunned it,, squealing the tires as he tore out onto the highway leaving yet another unprofitable exit ramp behind him in a cloud of dust.. 

it was hot.. too hot.. jake wanted to pull over and make sure ‘it’ was ok,, but he couldn’t take the chance.. instead he sped down the highway till he saw a billboard exclaiming a roadside motel and a gas station awaited him at the next exit..  veering onto the exit ramp he saw the motel, a little mom and pop looking place with small bedroom size cabins, located just behind a BP gas/convenience store.. 

‘perfect.’ he thought to himself as he swung wide into a parking spot just out of view of the motel office..  slipping his still sweat soaked cap back on his head to hide his dark stubble,, he checked his look in the rear view mirror, gave himself a wide toothy smile and headed toward the office to check in.. 

the registration came off without a hitch and he had more than $10.00 to spare as he walked over to the BP where he grabbed a couple of hotdogs, a large bag of chips, and a thirst buster size orange  soda..  he took them into cabin 12,, cranked up the air and proceeded to unload the truck.. he brought what amounted to his few earthly belongings, a dingy gray back pack and a slightly worse for the wear red white and blue one, in and set them on the bed before climbing into the bed of the truck and opening the heavy steel toolbox that ran the length of the bed of the truck.. he withdrew a limp duffle bag,, threw it over his shoulder and made his last trip to the room.. after carefully laying the duffle bag on the bed,, he closed and locked the door.. 

“whew!!” he exclaimed as he quickly loosed the drawstring on the duffle bag, and wiggled the visibly delicate body of the little boy out of the duffle and on to the bed.. he then went to work on the strip of duct tape that covered the boys mouth.. soaking it first with a stream of baby oil,, he worked it off slowly,, but even his best intentions could not save small patches of skin and newly formed scabs from pulling away from the boys cheeks and lips as he loosed the harsh adhesive from his delicate skin..   

simon laid still,, he didn’t make a sound.. he knew there would be hell to pay if he did,, and if the truth be told,, he was just too tired and too numb to care anymore... 

“come on kid,, sit up,, gotta get some fluids in you.. too damn hot out there.."jake said as he jostled the limp little boy and slapped him sharply on the cheek a time or two..  

“drink this.” his voice hardened as he jammed the straw between the little boys parched lips.. “drink it,, damn it!!!” 

without opening his eyes.. simon obeyed.. he sucked heartily on the straw.. he was so hot,, he was so thirsty..  

“not so damn fast, you’ll make yourself sick..”   jake cautioned him, in what could have easily been mistaken for a tone of genuine concern until he opened up his mouth and spewed, “if you fucking puke, you’re cleaning it up yourself!!” before yanking the cup from the little boys cupped hands and having a long cool drink for himself.. 

jake pulled a bag of chips and a couple of cold hot dogs out of a plastic BP bag.. he ripped one of the hotdogs in two and handed half of it off to simon,, who accepted it gingerly.. 

he was so hungry,,  he wanted to gulp it down in one bite.. but, instead he took a little tiny bite.. no matter how loudly his stomach screamed out for more,, he knew he had to take his time.. he knew he had to take little bites, and chew them slowly and carefully.. despite his ravenous hunger,, he knew his stomach would rebel against the food if he ate too quickly,, as it had seen very little of it since jake had found him that sunny afternoon, in wildwood creek park, and lured him back to his motel room with the promise of his very own remote control truck..