A Precious Discovery
Part1
Providing back-up for other teams was all well and good, but doing it in the worst part if the warehouse district in the middle of January wasn’t exactly tops on Chris Larabee’s favorite locations or timing. But as things turned out, this one happened to be one of the easier ones, the bust going off without a hitch. Still Team 7 had to stick around for the clean-up, and he wasn’t too happy to be assigned check the alleys.
Relaying the instructions to the rest of his team, Larabee made short work of his assigned alleys. Coming up clear on his last one, Chris noticed another a couple hundred feet up the street on the opposite side. “What the hell, might as well check this one, too.”
Looking into the poorly lit back alley, Chris scanned for anything suspicious and came up empty. Noticing the lack of another exit, Chris saw nothing else of interest and started to turn away. But something in the back of his mind prevented it. Something was screaming at him that he needed to have a better look at that alley.
Trusting his instincts, Chris drew his side arm and stepped farther into the alley. He stopped in the edge of the shadows to let his eyes adjust better to the low lighting, but still saw nothing but trash and dumpsters. Listening carefully, he heard only a few mice scurrying in the corners. Shaking his head, Larabee lowered his weapon and prepared to leave the alley, when his eyes swung to the left side of the alley and spied something under the edge of a broken up cardboard box.
It was a child’s shoe. And there was a foot in it!
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Momentarily stunned, Chris stood and stared at it, his temper rising. What kind of parent would leave a child out in the open in this area! “Hey, you under the box, come on out!” he said forcefully.
The child’s only response was to pull his foot in farther.
Chris holstered his weapon and stepped back as he pulled out his radio to inform the others of what he found. “Buck?” He knew Josiah and Nathan would be listening into, but Buck was the one closest to his location.
“Yeah, Chris? What’d you find?” the ladies’ man said. Buck Wilmington was Chris second in command and team undercover and explosives specialist. Buck had been Chris’ best friend for many years. Only Buck had been able to hold Chris together when his family had been killed.
“I got a child alone in one of the alleys on this side. I’m about a hundred feet past the perimeter on west side of Harborough. Josiah, Nathan, head this way, too. We may need to contact Family Services.”
“Roger that.”
Chris could hear the slight tinge of anger in the big man’s voice. He smirked just a little. Buck Wilmington liked to play the tough federal agent, but the man had two weaknesses: beautiful women and little children.
Quickly checking in with the team they had been backing up,
Chris told them what he had found. Team
12’s Leader told him that clean up was done; he was free to deal with this as
he wished. They were going to head back
to the
Shaking his head, Chris headed back over to where he had seen the child’s foot. Squatting down, he tried again. “Come on out, I ain’t gonna hurt ya’.” There was a slight shifting of the box, but the child made no effort to crawl out of his hiding place. Chris glanced up sharply as someone else entered the deserted alley. Waving Buck over, Chris pointed to the pile of cardboard and debris in front of him and mouthed, ‘He’s under here,’ at his team mate. Buck nodded and positioned himself between the stack and the mouth of the alley.
In one motion, Chris reached under the box, grabbed the child’s ankle, and pulled him from his hiding place. Chris had just enough time to note that the child was a boy of about ten years, before said boy kicked him hard enough to over balance him and send him sprawling backward.
The terrified boy scrambled to his feet and tried to bolt past Buck toward the freedom of the street, but Buck quickly reached out and nabbed the boy around the middle, lifting him clear of the ground. The only sound the boy made this entire time was a started yelp when Buck caught a hold of him, but that was enough to send the alley careening into chaos.
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As if the cry had been a scripted signal, another smaller body hurtled out from behind a dumpster on their left screaming, “Let him go!” Chris reached out to grab the small child and keep him from reaching Buck and the still struggling older boy, but he ended up blindside by a third boy coming from the opposite direction as the second. Where this one came from he would never know.
Grabbing the boy and pinning his arms, Chris took a look at him. He looked to be around seven, but he was surprisingly strong for his size. From the look in the boy’s emerald green eyes though, it was strength born of fear. The boy was absolutely terrified. Glancing over at Buck, he saw that his old friend was having problems of his own. Buck was having to use both hands to control the oldest boy which left the smallest one free to hang on him trying to loosen his grip. Tucking the chestnut haired boy he was holding against his side, Chris moved to help Buck.
The moment he stepped nearer the smaller child, the one in his arms spoke up, “Run, JD!” Chris was surprised by the clear, decidedly Southern accented voice coming from the child he held. Chris saw a fear matching the fear in the green eyes in the brown eyes that turned to him.
Before he could say anything to reassure them, or move to grab the smallest boy, he released his grip on Buck’s arm and fled toward the mouth of the alley. Josiah and Nathan arrived just in time for Josiah to grab him and swing him up into his arms.
With the sudden loss of pull on his arm, Buck jerked and the older boy was able to partially break away, but Buck simply grabbed the back of his much too large jeans and held on.
Turning his mind back to his own fighting, crying bundle, Chris said, “Calm down. We aren’t going to hurt you. We just want make sure you’re alright…” After a few minutes in this vein, the boys calmed down enough for Chris to risk releasing them, but he nodded for his team mates to stay between them and the mouth of the alley. As the three boys huddled together farther back in the alley, Chris took his first good look at them.
The first boy they had found looked to be about ten or eleven with long scraggly light brown hair and large blue eyes. His ragged clothes were at least three sizes to large, his pants held up only by the rope knotted about his waist. His shoes were too small and he wore no coat, just a medium weight jacket, even thought the temperature was in the twenties. He was filthy from head to foot and very skinny.
The youngest looked to be about four with raggedly cut coarse black hair falling into his chocolate brown eyes. Again the ragged clothing was ill fitting, but he was wearing a heavy winter coat. The child sneezed suddenly, then wiped his nose on his sleeve, but all the while he didn’t take his eyes off the faces of the men staring at him and his friends.
Chris turned his gaze to the last of the three boys, taking in a boy of about six or seven years, with curly chestnut hair and brilliant emerald green eyes. From his gaunt face, it was obvious that the boy did not eat properly. Chris thought the boy looked like he was about to faint. Too long pants almost hid the fact that the child wasn’t wearing shoes, but only dark socks. Too large clothes hung on the gaunt figure, making the child seem even smaller. Again the boy had no coat, just a jacket. Fear still lurked in those expressive eyes, but it was tempered now with reason.
The three boys had maneuvered the youngest in the center, most defensible position. Taken all together, they presented a pathetic sight indeed. One that screamed one thing to the men looking at them. These children were abandoned.
Chris’ rage, which had been simmering since he first realized there was a child in the alley, started rising again. He scowled at the pitiful sight, almost growling in anger.
The two larger boys, recognizing the expression overcoming the tall blonde man in front of them, started backing away from the perceived danger pushing the smallest boy behind them.
Buck caught Chris’s arm and said quietly, “Calm down, Big Dog. You’re scaring them.” Stepping half way in front of Chris, Buck squatted down to be closer to their level. “Hi, I’m Buck. Who are you guys?”
The boys said nothing, only stared at the ATF agents guarding the exit of the alley.
“Come on now. It ain’t polite to ignore people what’s talkin’ to ya’,” Buck said.
A young voice piped up form behind the elder two boys. “We’rwe not supposed to talk to strangerws.”
Buck’s smile widen just a tad as he reached for his badge from his back pocket. “That’s true enough, but I’m no stranger. I’m a policeman, see.” He held out the badge so that all of the boys could see it, even the short fellow trying to see around his two protectors. “Besides, you know my name, shouldn’t I know yours? I like to know what to call people I talk to.”
“I guess so, I’m JD,” JD peaked out around others again wanting to get a better look at the man he was talking to. The man looked fun with that fuzzy streak under his nose. He wondered how it had gotten there and what it felt like.
The other two boys looked at each other and nodded.
The tallest simply said, “Vin,” while the other answered, “Ezra.” The boy called Ezra kept looking from Buck to the men standing behind him.
Buck glanced over his shoulder and noted that Chris had gotten his facial expression under control. Shrugging, Buck figured the kid was just nervous. “What about your last names?”
Vin gave Buck a hard look before muttering, “Don’t know yours.”
“Well, you’re a bright one,
Again Buck received one word answers from the older two boys. “Tanner,” from Vin, and “Standish,” from Ezra. But at first he received no answer from JD.
Deciding to push just a little, he asked, “How about you, little’en?”
“Dunne,” the small boy said, stepping out from behind the other boys, though Vin kept a hand on his shoulder just incase he needed to pull him back.
