Part one: strangers in the night,

Jonathon Roberts looked down the street and all looked normal he was expecting possibly for things to be different but they weren’t. He just didn’t know what he was expecting it was just something did not feel right. He stopped in front of a news vendor and quickly read through the headlines, he was a little shocked by the fact yet another teenage boy had gone missing. Jonathon or JR as his friends and his mom called him was 17 although slight of build and slightly pretty. Well to be honest to pretty to be a jock although he loved running. There was another side to him, he was very much like his older sister he loved solving problems and he hoped to follow her into the police.

As he turned the corner onto his block he saw his sister’s partner walking down the steps from the brown house where they lived. She turned and smiled when she saw him and turned to walk towards him.

“Hey kid how’s it going?” she asked almost as if h was younger than 17.

“hey Jan not to bad I suppose although all these jocks vanishing is kinda got me worried although they aint started on the track team yet “ JR replied with a slight smile.

“Yeah I know but I can’t talk about it”

“Wow you two been assigned to it then?”

“Yeah but that’s the last I’ll say about it and don’t go pestering Joanie and that’s and order buster.”

“Yes Ma’am “JR pulled a mock salute and walked up the steps to his front door and let himself in.

Inside Joanie was sat in the lounge; she hastily threw a load of files together and slipped them into her case. She smiled and watched as her baby brother walked through into the kitchen, she heard him moving stuff around and then the scrape of one of the dining chairs. She stood up and walked in and saw him moving the files she had left on the table. He was piling them up on one side and pulling his book bag onto the table. She was rather shocked as he did not even glance at the files as he started on his assignments.

“What’s up squirt not even curious?” she asked a little worried.

“Sis I know the rules in particular with a case like this.” He replied with a smile.

Joanie nodded and was rather surprised at how mature JR was now days and the fact that as she had been promoted he stopped pestering about the work she did. This change was refreshing to her and it was better for her to be able to work in peace, she was also a little worried as the observation that it was mainly the sporty type boys that were disappearing. She looked at her younger brother and seemed to notice his fine features for the first time. The way he appeared worried her as she thought he could possibly be a target for the kidnappers whoever they are and whatever their reasons. This recent spate of disappearances had triggered a lot of alarm bells in the police department and all the stops had been pulled out. The biggest thing that hampered them was the fact there was no evidence left at the scene no school books or anything. The first thing the police knew when a new one had gone was the fact that the parents were hammering down the door of the local precinct.

Joanie’s captain had come bellowing that morning and pulled the whole of the child protection team into the conference room. He really wanted some action on this case and was losing it because no one was getting anywhere. The superintendent was leaning on him so he had to spread the load out so unfortunately the lower ranks caught it. Jan had stood up to him and had been chewed out by him and had almost stormed out, it was only Joanie’s cool head had kept control of her partner. She was disturbed by their mother coming in from work and dropping her purse on the entry table. She walked into the kitchen and looked at her children and the pile of folders at one side of the table.
“Joanne Roberts I hope you are not showing your brother case information!” She looked at them.
“No mom JR shoved them aside so he could get his assignments out of the way.”
“Good now JR don’t clutter up the place but I am calling out for a pizza tonight it was a dreadful day.” Mrs Roberts at in a vacant chair she looked at her daughter trying to catch her eye and motion to the back door. Joanie picked up the implied message and took her packet of cigarettes out of her duty jacket.

“Mom want to join me for a smoke?”

Mrs Roberts was a psychologist at the local mercy hospital and she mainly dealt with juvenile cases and would share information with her daughter about possible trouble. The two women walked out onto the back deck and Joanie lit up a cigarette and offered the packet across. Mrs Roberts shook her head and sat on one of the uprights.
“Joanie I need to talk there might be something I can help you with.”

“Mom?”

“there was a teenager brought into the psych ward today, a pretty little thing of about 14 almost perfect skin and body for a child that age.” She went on.

“Yeah so?” Joanie looked at her mother,” What’s so important about her?”

“She’s claiming she was a boy by the name of Jimmy Harwell who was actually 19 and on the varsity trails team and had been missing for three months.”

“probably some kid with a sick sense of humour mom, you know trying it on to get out of school or something.”
“well Joanie if it’s a joke it’s a very well informed one, we contacted the girls supposed parents and asked a set of questions and the girl knew all the answers.”

With that Mrs Roberts headed back indoors but Joanie stood thinking, her mother returned with a folder and handed it to her daughter. Joanie looked at the folder and saw the hospital stamp and raised her eyebrow and opened it. By the case number this one wasn’t the first and this started to worry Joanie was hocked how long had they been disappearing for and where were they being taken and for what. The girl was too young to prostitute unless to paedophiles and a few had been a lot younger, one had even been a toddler. This was totally beyond what she understood it seemed as though it was something out of a science fiction story. Some of the stories were so confused and messed up and there was no real basis for her to be able to deal with the facts that were coming through the files she held and then she looked at the dates and her jaw dropped even further, some of these cases were decades old but some of the patients did not age. They were sent to a facility out in the country just referred as “The Hall”, it was almost an out of sight out of mind reaction. There was no information past when they were sent there and how old the subjects still appear to be.

Inside JR was sat pouring over a physics problem when his mom returned with the file and without thinking she placed it on the table. He knew his mom did not smoke but used his sister’s habit to have a quiet word. He then noticed the file name and wondered what the hall was and why did the hospital have a file just marked with its name. He tried to concentrate on his work as his sister walke

back in following mom through to the lounge. JR fought with himself but you know they always say curiosity killed the cat. As the sounds in the lounge settled JR finished his assignments and then kept glancing at the file. He fought a little while longer and then gave in and opened it and read the contents, he bit on his lip to stop himself either shouting or laughing. Then he looked at the questioning file and he went white. A name jumped out of the page and seemed to bite him, John Marcie he used to be JR’s training buddy until he vanished two years ago and JR thought he had died. John’s parents had buried a coffin and everything.

Just then the door was knocked as the pizza arrived and JR closed the file and pushed it across from him and laid his head in his arms making out he had fallen asleep after finishing his work. Mom walked into the kitchen carrying the pizzas and saw her son laying there, school work scattered around him and his head in his arms. She gently touched his shoulder thinking he was asleep and whispered in his ear. JR made a show of pretending to wake up and smile at his mother and looked at the pile of paper around him and smiled.

“Working hard hon?” She asked

“yeah math always seems to send me to sleep mom.”

With that JR smiled as he collected up his books and thought on, he really needed to know what was going on. He continued to mill it over in his mind the rest of the evening and the mystery intrigued him he wanted to know more.

To be continued........