The Skin Worshipper

Chapter 13

  The Juvenile Center is located in an idyllic area a mile of the I 20 south of Green Tree. It’s not fenced in, nor does it have a wall around it. It looks more like a summer camp than anything else.

  Hawk parks in the place marked “visitors” and makes his way to the main door. Inside, he finds a reception area with plastic plants to one side and a low table with some chairs around it. A young man with glasses and a red T shirt with the word Staff stenciled on the left side is sitting behind a desk. He looks up at Hawk and gives him a crooked smile.

  "How can I help you officer?"

  "I need to talk to the director, it’s official business."

  He picks up a phone and says a few words in it. Then, looking at Hawk again, he says, "have a seat the director will be right with you."

  Hawk doesn’t sit down, but walks over to a window on the right. Outside is a field and he can see about ten kids running around it in small groups. There are some men and women in red T shirts watching them, like he thought, looks like a regular camp.

  "How can I help you," says a soft female voice behind him.

  He turns around and looks at the tiny woman in front of him, she can’t be more than 5”5’ tall. Her face is beautiful and framed in a short hair cut. She is a brunette and her dark eyes are looking at him with a curious glimpse in them.

  "Hi, I’m Chief Hawk, from Green Tree, and I have a woman there wondering where her husband is. Last she heard he was taking a group of kids from here on a hike."

  The woman nods and says, "please, come with me, we can talk in my office." Hawk follows her and can’t help looking at her butt. She is dressed in a dark business suit, but it can’t hide her body. To his shame he imagines her naked, and quickly shakes his head to clear his mind.

  Her office is small but nicely furnished in light woods and white walls. There are some photos of kids on the walls together with several diplomas.

  He sits down in a chair in front of her desk while she walks around it and sits down.

  "I’m Sandra Darwin, and I’m the director of this Center. You must be talking about Alex Read. He isn’t a full time member of the staff, he does counseling and takes the kids on these hikes, he believes it forges them and makes them team players."

  Hawk nods slowly, and asks, "when did you last hear from them?"

  "I haven’t heard from them since they left, three days ago."

  "Is that normal?"

  "Yes, Alex has done these hikes several times now, and it’s always the same. They leave and come back three or four days later."

  "What about the kids, who are they?"

  Sandra picks up a file and looks in it, and says, "he took five kids this time, which is normal. They were Marlon Jones, Jenna Swansson, Pepe and Jordi Rodriguez and Maria Santos."

  "Any of them violent?"

  Sandra laughs, "Chief Hawk, these are kids who have been in and out of the system since they were very young, they are all violent in some way or another, but if you mean if they are killers, I would say no, they are not."

  "Where were they from, originally I mean?"

  Sandra goes back to the file and says, "Marlon is from Spokane, Jenna from Seattle, the Rodriguez brothers from Sacramento, and Maria from LA."

  Hawk’s head comes up from his notes, and he says, "LA? What was she in here for?"

  "Let’s see, here we go, Maria Santos. Known gang banger since the age of eleven, she was here for assault and battery."

  Hawk pulls out his phone and taps it until he has the photos he took of the dead girl.

  "Is this her?" he asks and gives Sandra the phone.

  She looks at it, and says, "yes, that’s Maria. What happened to her face? Where did you find her?

  "Crossbow bolt went through it, and she was found yesterday north of here on I20. An elderly couple found her on the side of the road."

  "And the others?" she asks with concern in her voice.

  "No idea, that’s why I came here, to see if you knew."

  She shakes her head and takes a last look at the photo and gives the phone back to him.

  "I’m sorry, but Alex never says where he takes them. I know it’s not the perfect system, but it has worked up until now. What are you going to do?"

  Hawk sighs and says, "I’ll call the Forest Rangers and get some volunteers, we have to search the woods around where Maria was found."

  He stands up and stretches his hand towards her, "thank you for your time. I’ll get back to you if I need more information."

  She shakes his hand and then gives him her card with her cell phone and office number.

  "Good luck, and I hope you find them alive," she says, walking him to the door.

  "So do I, but I have a gut feeling I won't. Something happened out there, and I think they are like Maria, dead."