Second Chances Part 2- The Trouble with Teenagers

Second Chances Part 2 - The trouble with Teenagers by bethhawke

Chapter 4

At Cody's school, the janitor had finished mopping the classroom floors. He just had to put the chairs back on the floor then he could go home. He placed the chairs untidily under the tables and rushed out to catch a bus. Home was his sister's place. It was small, too small for them all; his sister Marie, her husband Jack, their two small kids and himself, but it was all he could afford on his low pay and the small rent he paid was a help to them. Jack had been out of work since getting fired from his old job for being drunk in charge of a forklift truck, a joke down at their local bar, but serious to Jack and his wife, who was pregnant with their third child. She was working part-time as a school secretary but would have to give up soon.
Tony jumped off the bus while it was still moving and ran all the way home. He stormed into the house, calling for his brother-in law.
“Jack, hey Jack, you there?”
“Quiet! I've just put the kids to bed.” Marie appeared from the kids' bedroom looking tired.
“Sorry,” he whispered, “where's Jack?”
“Where do you think?” she sounded exhausted and leaned against the wall, “I suppose you're going to join him. Tell him dinner's in an hour.”
Tony didn't even bother to get changed before heading for the pub. He found Jack at the bar, with two empty glasses in front of him.
“Hey Tone, just in time. Buy me a beer.”
Tony bought them both a beer before dragging his brother-in-law to a quiet seat in the corner. He got straight to the point before Jack got too drunk to listen.
“You know that kid you had me watching? Well I think we should move now. He's in big trouble with his folks, something he did wrong at school.”
“How does that help us?”
“If we take him after school tomorrow his folks might think he's run away. He did once before, remember I told you I overheard him telling his girlfriend about it. He's really scared of his old man.”
“I still don't get it. How does that help us?”
“Have you got shit for brains, Jack?” Tony was getting exasperated with his brother-in-law's lack of intelligence, “It gives us time to hide him and make the arrangements. If he just disappeared out of the blue they would be suspicious and call in the cops. And if we're really lucky his brother will cover for him like last time.”
“You really think this will work?”
“I know it will. It has to, it's our last chance. You and Marie have done all the background checks and know they're good for the money. Come on Jack. I know you're as sick and tired of having no money as I am and with another baby on the way....”
“OK, OK. Buy me another beer and we'll work out what to do.”
“Good, but we'll have to make it quick if we're to get home in time for dinner. We're going to need Marie's help so we don't want to piss her off by being late for dinner.”
Settled with another beer each they got down to business.
“Marie will need to get the spare key to the basement storage closet. I've got the original and no one ever goes down there but we don't want to take any chances. The room is pretty much soundproof, you need to be right outside the door to hear anything.”
“How are we going to take him?” asked Jack.
“I'll get Marie to call him into the office. She'll think of some way of keeping him there until we can get him to the basement. You can come into the school under the pretence of picking Marie up. I may need you if he puts up a struggle.”
They stayed for another beer, making plans on how to collect the ransom before heading home for dinner.


On Wednesday morning Cody dragged himself out of bed and into school. The day dragged and he felt like he'd been there a week when the bell for end of school finally rang. As he was putting his books into his locker the school secretary called to him from her office door, just along the corridor.
“Cody can I see you for a moment?”
Cody sighed and wondered what he had done wrong this time. He followed her into the office.
“Take a seat, I just need to finish typing this letter for your parents.”
“Can't I get it tomorrow?” Cody asked, desperate to get out of school.
“I need them to see it tonight. Why don't you run an errand for me while I finish typing. By the time you get back I'll have finished.”
“OK.”
She handed him a key, “Take this to the janitor, he's probably in the basement.”
Cody took the key and made his way to the basement. The corridors were empty now and seemed eerie without the noisy bustle of students. He opened the basement door and called out, “Hello.”
When he got no answer he ventured inside. The lighting was dim and he took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust before descending the staircase. “Hello! I've got the key you wanted.”
Still getting no reply he continued along the dim corridor feeling strangely nervous. He'd almost got to the door at the end when a man stepped out of the shadows and clasped a hand over Cody's mouth.
“Don't make a sound or I'll hurt you.”
Cody had no intention of getting hurt so he did as he was told. The man took the key from him and handed it to another man who was standing quietly behind him. The door was unlocked and Cody was pushed inside. He landed heavily on the cold floor and let out a sob as he heard the door lock behind him.


Josh was waiting for his younger brother to get home from school. He thought his father had been too harsh on Cody the night before and he was worried about him. He had run away once before and last night had threatened to do so again. Josh thought he had successfully talked him out of it but wanted to be sure.
Dinner came and went and Cody still wasn't home. Josh covered for him, telling his parents that he had gone to a friend's house to do homework and was staying there for dinner. He gave a sigh of relief when his parents finally went out for the evening, after packing for a short vacation they had starting the next day. Cody still wasn't home when Josh went to bed. He tried to stay awake to wait for him but finally fell asleep at about 2am.


Josh woke the next morning to the sound of his mother shouting goodbye. They were good parents but didn't go in for big goodbyes, his father was away too often, so he was sure they wouldn't come into their bedrooms. Not hearing Cody reply, Josh shouted, “Bye,” in what he hoped was a fair approximation of Cody's voice, then “Bye Mom, Dad. Have a good time,” in his own voice.
They must have fallen for it because his father called, “Bye boys. You behave now,” before slamming the front door behind them.
Before falling asleep the night before, Josh had decided to give Cody until the end of school before doing anything. He thought he had probably stayed at a friend's house, worried about coming home.
That afternoon he hung around the school gates, talking to a few of Cody's friends but they all agreed that he hadn't been in school that day. In fact they all said they hadn't seen him since last lesson the day before.
Worried, he went back home and decided that he should check Cody's room for any clues about where he was. He realised that he should have done that the night before, but it just hadn't occurred to him. Some spy I'll make, he thought.
Unlike his brother, Cody wasn't one for fancy clothes and it didn't take Josh long to realise that all Cody's clothes, apart from what he was wearing, were still in the closet. And on top of the bookcase was his portable tape player. Josh felt his heart sink; Cody would never run away without that. He sat on the edge of his brother's bed, his head in his hands, and thought. He had to tell someone and he had four choices of who to call. His parents, but he wasn't sure where they were, the police, Archangel or Hawke. He made his decision and rushed to the phone in the kitchen. He had the operator put him through to Santini Air.
The phone was answered almost immediately,
“Santini Air,” it sounded like Mr Santini.
“Is Captain Hawke there please?” Josh asked.
“Yeah, who's calling?”
“Josh Johnson.”
He heard Dominic shout, “String, it's Josh, that kid's brother, for you.”
“Hi, Josh. What's up?” Hawke sounded friendly enough and Josh couldn't understand why his brother didn't like him.
He got straight to the point, “Cody's missing.”
“Missing? In what way missing?”
“I thought he'd run away, but none of his stuff is missing and no one's seen him since school yesterday,” the words came out in a rush, “I'm really worried now.”
“Calm down son. Where are your parents?”
“They're away until Monday. Can you help, please?”
“We'll be right over. Stay at home in case he calls.”


When Hawke and Dominic pulled into Josh's driveway an hour later the young man was waiting for them at the front door.
“Have you heard anything?” asked Hawke.
“Nothing,” Josh looked dejected.
“Don't worry, let's go inside,” Dominic said, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder.
They followed him into the large kitchen and sat around the table. Dominic looked around appreciatively at the expensive fixtures.
“Nice house.”
“Yeah, only the best for Mom.”
“Right. Why don't you start at the beginning, Josh.” Hawke didn't want to waste time talking about kitchen furniture.
Josh explained everything, starting from Sunday night when Cody told him about finding the helicopter. His voice started to shake when he realised that he was being taken seriously.
“Was he going anywhere after school yesterday?” asked Dominic.
“No. I was expecting him home. I waited for him.”
“Why didn't you tell your parents?”
“Dad gets so mad at him. Cody's scared of him and I didn't want to get him into trouble if he was just staying at a friend's house until this all blew over,” he hesitated and looked at Hawke, “and I hate to say this but, well, he was really worried about working for you at the weekend.”
“Why?”asked Dominic.
“Well,” he glanced at Hawke again, “you really scared him.”
“I scared him. Does he realise the worry he put us through?”
“Well String, you were kinda hard on the kid,” Dominic interrupted.
Hawke backed down, “OK, I admit I was hard on him, but it had to be done. We couldn't have anyone knowing where we keep Air....our helicopter.”
“So what are we going to do?” asked Josh.
“Josh,” Hawke sounded hesitant, “do you know if your father is currently working on anything top secret?”
“Not that I know of. You'd have to ask Archangel that.”
“I will. What about money? This house looks pretty expensive. Could your parents afford a ransom?”
“You really think he's been kidnapped?” Josh asked, voicing his fears for the first time.
“We have to consider every possibility. Try not to worry,” Dominic tried to reassure him.
“A relative of mom's died when I was a baby and she inherited loads. I don't know how much, she never said, but I know that dad doesn't need to work.
Hawke stood up and moved decisively to the phone, “I'm calling Archangel.”


After being locked in the closet, it had been a full two hours before Cody had dared to move. He lay where he had fallen, nursing his knee which was bruised and swollen from where he had landed on it. He thought it was bleeding too, the knee of his jeans felt wet and sticky.
Finally he decided that he had to move; he was getting cold and stiff on the linoleum floor. He gingerly put his weight on his sore leg and found that he could stand even if it did hurt. Placing one foot slowly in front of the other, his arms outstretched, he felt his way around the dark room.
He found the door first, it was directly in front of him, and tried to open it. It was securely locked and too thick to even try breaking down. Next he found the light switch and flicked it on; the room remained dark. He tried it a couple more times but with no luck. Feeling around the room he found several items that he couldn't identify in the dark and a few that he could. He got excited when he found a few metal coat hangers and decided to have a go at picking the lock.
An hour later he gave up.
Cody sank to the floor and put on a jacket that had been hanging on one of the coat hangers.
He was cold, hungry and scared. He instinctively raised his wrist to check the time on his watch. He pushed the button that lit up the watch face and couldn't believe that only three hours had passed. The light comforted him; even though it was dim it was a pleasant change from the coal black of the room. He made himself as comfortable as possible and fell asleep.


Hawke was watching from the window when, two hours later, Archangel arrived.
“Subtle, Michael, subtle,” he muttered under his breath as a spotless white limo pulled up outside the house.
He moved to open the front door and was surprised to see Beth standing next to Michael. They were both carrying large black cases.
“Where's Marella?” he demanded, looking over their shoulders to see if she was following. The limo pulled away from the kerb and disappeared around the corner.
“Let us in Hawke, these cases are heavy,” he said, ignoring Hawke's question.
They followed him into the kitchen and placed the cases on the table. While Michael and Dominic opened them and proceeded to fix the tracking device and tape recorder to the phone, Hawke took the opportunity to talk to Beth.
“Where's Marella and why are you here?” he asked her.
“Marella has gone to sort out a ransom just in case we need it. It'll take a fair bit of negotiation with the committee, especially as we don't even know if Cody has been kidnapped, or the amount of money needed.”
“From what Josh says it looks like it is a kidnapping. But why are you here?” he repeated his earlier question.
“It's my job.”
“That's what Gabrielle said the night before she died.”
“Live with it Hawke,” Archangel had been listening, “Elizabeth asked to be in on this and if Cody has been hurt she will be of more use to him than we will.”
“What about his parents? Have you contacted them yet?” Hawke knew he was outnumbered so decided to leave it for now, but vowed to speak to Beth later.
“Not yet. They're on a walking holiday and we don't know where they're staying tonight. I have contacted a number of hotels that they frequent, with instructions for Johnson to call in as soon as he arrives,” he turned to Beth, “Elizabeth, see what information Josh can give you. I want a list of all the places his parents could be. I also need everything he can tell you about Cody; where he goes when not in school, his friends' names and addresses; You know the sort of thing to ask.”
“Yes, sir,” she left in search of Josh.


A couple of hours later, with everything sorted, Archangel called them all into the spacious sitting room. There was a large open fire place at one end of the room and although the fire wasn't lit, it was the focal point of the room. They settled into comfortable chairs that were arranged in a semi-circle facing the fire and Josh offered them all a drink, the perfect host despite the situation.
“What happens next?” Josh asked.
“Now we wait,” replied Archangel, “I suggest we try to get some sleep.”
“We've got three guest rooms,” Josh looked around and realised there were four guests, “one of you could have Cody's room. It's a bit untidy but clean.”
“That's OK,” Hawke answered, “I'll stay by the phone.”
“OK. Goodnight then. Help yourself to anything you need.”
Josh went to his room and Dominic followed, the only one to take him up on the offer of a bed. Archangel settled into a comfortable chair, his feet resting on a stool.
“Let's get some fresh air,” Beth suggested to Hawke, pulling him up from his chair and leading him out of the room.
“Don't go too far,” Archangel called after them.
“We'll be in the garden. I'll leave the door open so we can hear the phone,” Beth called back.
Passing through the kitchen she took off her jacket and hung it on the back of a chair.
“Hey, you've had the plaster cast off,” Hawke exclaimed as they entered the perfectly tended garden.
“Yeah,” she admitted, oddly subdued.
“I thought you were looking forward to it.”
She flexed her wrist, showing him the restricted movement. “The doctor says it will improve some, but I may never get the full range of movements back.”
Hawke hugged her, “Sorry. Does it still hurt?”
“A little, but not enough to need painkillers, unless I knock it or use it too much. I'm worried about my job though. Archangel needs someone who can drive, shoot and take care of themselves. I can't do any of that at the moment.”
“If Michael can manage with one eye and a limp, I'm sure you'll be fine,” he grinned at her and took her hand in his.
She laughed, “God, I've missed your sense of humour String.”
He laughed too, “I guess this not seeing each other isn't working too well.”
“No,” they walked hand in hand around the garden, “and now we have to spend the night together,” she said impishly.
He stopped walking and turned to face her, holding her close, “Such hardship,” he murmured as his lips found hers. As the kiss got deeper they both realised that it was useless denying what they felt for each other; their bodies betrayed them as they held each other tightly.
Suddenly Hawke pulled away, loosening his hold on her.
“What's wrong?” Beth asked him, puzzled by his sudden change in mood.
“We're being watched.”
“Where...?” Hawke placed a finger over her lips.
He looked casually around, scanning the large enclosed garden, then his face transformed into a wide grin. “It's OK. It's only Josh. Look,” he pointed to a window on the second floor and Beth saw the curtain move slightly.
She rested her head on his chest and clung to him. He could feel her heart beating rapidly.
“Hey, it's OK. You're awful jumpy tonight. Did you really ask to come here?”
“Yes,” her voice was shaking.
“Why?” he sounded like he couldn't believe she would do something so stupid.
“I wanted to face my fears about being kidnapped. This is my first outside assignment, I've been doing paperwork since I went back. It seemed like a good opportunity, with you all around to support me but I can't help thinking about what Cody might be going through.”
“And Michael agreed? He should know better,” Hawke sounded annoyed.
“Marella talked him around. String, is Josh still watching?”
“No. He moved from the window as soon as you looked up. I think he may have a crush on you, I saw him looking at you earlier.”
“No! He's just a kid.”
“Actually, he's closed to your age than I am. But I think I have the advantage here, don't I?” He gently stroked her long dark hair.
“What do you think lover boy?” she teased, pressing herself against his aroused body and reaching up for another kiss.


The next morning they were all up early and congregated in the kitchen for breakfast. They were on their second coffee when the phone rang. Archangel motioned for silence before answering. He put the phone on speaker.
“Hello?”
“Who are you?”
“A friend of the family. To whom am I speaking?”
“That doesn't matter, just listen carefully. We have the boy and if you want to see him alive again you'd better do as I say,” the male voice on the other end of the phone sounded nervous.
“I'm listening.”
“We want half a million dollars. Bring it to the phone box outside the boy's school at 5 o'clock this afternoon. You'll receive further instructions there.”
Archangel tried to delay him. ”It will take longer than that to arrange........”
“Be there or the boy dies.” The phone went dead and Michael hung up, cursing under his breath. The call had been too short to trace.
“That man has watched too much television. 10 hours to arrange a ransom of half a million, he must be mad.”
“Oh I don't know Michael. He didn't sat 'come alone and don't call the cops'.” Dominic put on a voice that was supposed to represent a bad guy.
Hawke gave a humourless laugh and added, “Or 'half a million in used notes'.”
Beth looked at Josh who didn't seem to understand the men's 'humour'. “Don't worry Josh. Marella will have sorted everything out.”
“Yes, of course she will. Elizabeth, see if you can contact Marella. Hopefully she will be in the limo on the way here.”
Beth called the limo and learned that Marella was only 10 minutes away. They decided to wait until she arrived before making any further plans.
Ten minutes later, almost to the second, the limo pulled up outside and Marella got out.
She was on her own and keen to brief them.
“The committee were surprisingly cooperative; apparently a few of them know Johnson. It will just take a phone call from me or Archangel and the money will be ready within the hour. They will even rig the bag with a tracking device.”
“Who'll make the drop?” Dominic asked.
It was Archangel who answered, “Let's see. You and Hawke will be in Airwolf tracking the money and hopefully leading us to the boy. I'm too conspicuous and Elizabeth can't drive. That leaves Marella.”
“And me,” Josh stood up and looked Archangel in the eye, “he's my brother and dad'll never forgive me if anything happens to him.”
Archangel and Marella shared a glance and both gave a slight nod.
“Alright Josh, you'll go with Marella. But you do exactly as she says. No heroics. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”