The Kidnapping Page 3

  Lt. Antonio Garcia assigned himself the task of visiting and interviewing the Encino family. As the last people to have seen Jason, that anyone presently knew, he was hoping they could provide him with some leads or insight into Jason’s mindset and activities before his disappearance. He told the team that they should meet again at the station around 9:30 that evening to pool the results of their efforts and organize shifts to man the telephone at the Hunter household.

  CHAPTER 5

  WHAT THE ENCINOS HAD TO SAY

  (Monday Night)

  Approximately fifteen minutes later, Lt. Garcia was driving down Halstead Street, located in one of the older neighborhoods, in the southeast part of town. Garcia parked his car in front of a gray duplex, 1243 Halstead Street, which was the address he had been given for the Encino family. He rapped sharply on the front door of the first unit. Soon, a short woman, with medium brown hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing designer jeans, a blue work shirt and flip-flops, came to the door. “Are you Janet Encino?” the lieutenant asked, shoving his identification badge at her. “I’m Lt. Garcia from the police’s missing persons unit. May I come in and ask you some questions?”

  The woman frowned, looked at his badge then asked, “What is this about?”

  “I think you know, Mrs. Encino. I have just received a report that a fourteen-year-old boy named Jason Hunter has gone missing, and that you and your family were among the last people to see him. We need to talk and I think it would be easier inside than out here on the doorstep.”

  “All right, come in,” she grudgingly replied. She led the lieutenant into the living room and indicated that he could sit. Garcia found a chair not covered with toys or papers and sat down. “Sorry, things are a mess but it’s hard cleaning up after two young boys.”

  Garcia took out his notebook and prepared to take notes. “So, you live here with your two sons, and their names are...?”

  “Victor and Kyle. Victor is the oldest, age thirteen and Kyle is eleven.”

  “Is there a Mr. Encino?”

  “Yes, but we are currently separated. He lives in the Stockton area now.”

  “It is my understanding that you arranged with Edith Hunter to pick up Jason and spend the day in City Park with him and your sons. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, with our family situation in a little bit of turmoil, I think it is important that the boys stay in touch with their other relatives to maintain some stability in their lives.”

  “So, how are you related to Jason?”

  “My mother and Bill Hunter’s father were brother and sister, so we are second cousins. Both of our families have lived in the area for generations and we have remained in touch. It’s what our parents wanted us to do.”

  “Please tell me, to the best of your ability, the sequence of events that occurred after you picked Jason up at his house.”

  Taking a breath and thinking a moment, Janet Encino then said, “We drove over to the park. I remembered that I had a couple of errands I needed to complete and I wanted to get some lunch for the boys so I dropped them off at the main entrance. They are used to playing together and I didn’t think that they would want to wait around in the car with me when they could be enjoying themselves in the park.”

  “So, after you dropped them off you never saw Jason again?” Lt. Garcia asked, his pen poised to write her reply.

  “I don’t know what could have gotten in that kid’s head to run off like that. I thought that they would be perfectly happy wandering through the park and playing baseball in one of the fields.”

  “Mrs. Hunter told me that Victor had Little League practice at 11:30 this morning and that’s why Jason wanted to leave...since there would be nothing for him to do except watch other kids play baseball,” the lieutenant said.

  “That was Victor’s fault. He didn’t mention anything about practice to me when we set up the date with Jason’s mother,” she said, not taking responsibility.

  “Is Victor here? I would like to talk to him,” Garcia asked.

  Janet got up, went to the staircase, and yelled up the stairs, “Vic, come down here!”

  “I’m busy, Mom, can’t it wait until later?” Victor called back.

  “Victor Encino, come down here at once! There’s a cop who wants to talk to you!” she again yelled another octave higher for emphasis.

  A few minutes later Victor came skulking down the stairs. He was wearing the latest in logo athletic wear, including a Raiders tee shirt, Adidas shorts, and a new pair of Nike running shoes.

  Janet told him, “Sit down on the couch.” Then she faced him and said, “Vic, dear, this is Lt. Garcia from the police department. He wants to ask you some questions about Jason.”

  “It’s not my fault he ran away. I didn’t tell him to leave,” were the first words that tumbled from his mouth.

  Searchingly, Garcia looked Victor in the eye and said, “Son, I’m not here to blame anyone. I just want to know what happened to Jason and apparently you were one of the last persons to see him before he disappeared. Tell me exactly what happened at the park.”

  “When we got to the park, Mom let us off and Kyle, Jason, and I decided to walk around the park for a while. We got bored just looking around and decided to play some baseball. I have invented a cool new hitting game, and because I made it up, I let both Kyle and Jason play on a team against me. It was awesome. We were having fun playing the game and then my friend, Sammy, happened by and reminded me that we had Little League practice starting at 11:30 that morning. Jason got all pushed out of shape because he wasn’t on the team and couldn’t participate in the practice. That, and the fact that he was losing badly in our hitting game, I guess got on his nerves and he decided to go home. At least that’s what he said that he was going to do.”

  “Can you remember the time that he decided to leave?” the lieutenant asked.

  “The Little League practice was scheduled to start at 11:30 so it must have been around then. I don’t remember seeing him after that because I was involved in the practice. He could have hung around for a while and watched our team like my little brother Kyle did.”

  “Did you see Jason talking to anyone else at the park while you were with him, or maybe just after he left you?”

  “I can’t remember anyone in particular. There were quite a few people gathering around the baseball fields getting ready for practice and once I got with my team, I pretty much forgot about Jason.”

  “Did you notice anyone following you or hanging around when you were playing the hitting game?”

  “No, I don’t remember anybody. When I’m playing ball that is my main focus. I want to become a professional player, you know.”

  “Since you were playing baseball, do you remember if Jason brought his own mitt, bats or balls to the park?”

  “Jason had his own mitt, but I brought the rest of the equipment in my Giants duffle bag.”

  “Did he take his mitt with him when he left?”

  “I guess so, since it wasn’t with my equipment.”

  “Tell me this, Victor,” Lt. Garcia pointedly asked, “if you knew that you had baseball practice, why did you plan to go to the park with Jason? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do that on a day when you didn’t have other things to do?”

  “Yeah, I guess it does. But I forgot about practice. I’m just a kid, you know,” Victor cunningly replied.

  A kid with some attitude when it came to his cousin, Jason, Antonio thought to himself. Aloud he continued, looking at both mother and son, “Can you think of anything else that happened this afternoon that might help us locate Jason?”

  When both Victor and Janet Encino replied in the negative, Garcia took a business card out of his coat pocket and handed it to Janet. “If either of you do happen to think of anything else that might be relevant to this case, please don’t hesitate to call me, day or night. Don’t bother to get up. I can let myself out.”

  As the lieutenant was walking down the driveway, he could hear
Janet and Victor arguing rather loudly. “You stupid kid!” Janet Encino shouted. “Why didn’t you tell me you had Little League practice this morning? Now you’ve made me look bad to the police and people will think I’m a bad mother.”

  Victor shouted back, “Well, if you are so close to the Hunters, why do you always arrange to be gone when Jason is around?”

  Lt. Garcia again thought about what the Encinos had said. There has got to be something they aren’t telling me. I just can’t think what it could be, he said to himself.

  * * *

  Later that evening, at the police station, their team meeting was another series of dead ends. Jackson and Nguyen reported that no one was able to identify Jason in City Park. There were several trails that went through the eastern part of the park, but eventually they all converged at the east entrance. Jason would have had to walk through that entrance if he had wanted to take the shortest route home. That area of the park was primarily gardens, but there was a maintenance building located at the northeast end of the park. To be on the safe side, they had checked out the building but had found no signs of recent activity there.

  Nuñez and Barclay had covered several blocks of homes on the east side. Again, no one had seen Jason and he hadn’t been seen stopping in at any of the small stores or restaurants in that area. Because of the lateness of the day, they hadn’t had enough time to canvass the neighborhood that bordered on the south entrance of City Park, but so far that type of investigating had revealed nothing.

  Sergeant Malone reported that Jason’s cell phone showed no activity after 9:30 that morning. He would be getting a complete printout to study, but a cursory glance at recent phone activity had indicated all Jason’s calls had been local—most likely to his parents and friends. As to the Internet, Malone hadn’t found out much. Evidently Jason didn’t have a page on any of the social sites and a search of his name hadn’t brought up any blogs or negative hits. Financially, the Hunters were solvent, with good credit ratings and they appeared to be current on their mortgage, bills, and taxes.

  In the meantime, Washburn had set up the phone links. Currently the telephone was being monitored by Detective Andrea Spencer, who was at the Hunter house with Edith. The only telephone activity so far had been calls from concerned friends and one from Bill Hunter, who had told Edith he would get on the next red eye flight back to San Francisco and be back home by morning.

  The team then agreed on a schedule of shifts at the Hunter house for the next couple of days.

  CHAPTER 6

  THE WAITING GAME, PART I

  (Tuesday Morning)

  Bill Hunter came charging through the front door of his house. “Edith, I’m home! Where are you?” he yelled. Walking into the living room he saw Jim Malone, who was covering the early morning shift. “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “Hello, Mr. Hunter. I’m Sgt. Jim Malone of the missing persons unit. Mrs. Hunter is back in the bedroom, but she has been having a very difficult time resting or relaxing.”

  Just then Edith appeared at the doorway. “Bill, I’m so glad that you are home. I’m at my wit’s end trying to make any sense of what is going on.”

  Bill went over to her and gave her a big hug. “I’m with you now, dear. We’ll go through this ordeal together.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes as Edith said, “I can’t imagine who would want to harm Jason. He’s such a friendly and nice person.”

  Bill had Edith sit down on the couch and he put his arms around her as he said, “I’ve been going through the same soul-searching and I can’t for the life of me understand why this is happening. We have always lived an honorable life. We raised Jason to be the same way. Why would someone want to kidnap him? I simply can’t believe he would just get up and run away from home for no apparent reason.”

  Edith said, “I know that there are some really rotten people out there, but how did Jason get on their wave length? Have we done anything to offend someone so much that they would take our son from us?”

  Sgt. Malone intervened. Calmly he said, “Please don’t beat yourselves up this way. We have a process to take you systematically through your relationships and events that may help us garner leads. And remember, although this is obviously cold comfort, that this could be the work of some predator or crazy person who doesn’t even know who you are. Now that you are home, Mr. Hunter, I know that our team leader, Lt. Antonio Garcia, would like to talk with you. Should I have him come over now?”

  “I guess so. We need to do whatever we can to help find Jason. Edith, let’s go brew up some strong coffee and I would like you to tell me everything that you can remember about yesterday.” Taking his wife’s hand Bill led Edith into the kitchen while Malone dialed up Garcia on his cell phone.

  “Tony, this is Jim. The husband is back home now and says he is ready for the vetting process. Why don’t you come over as soon as you can?”

  * * *

  Lt. Garcia arrived at the Hunter house about forty-five minutes later. Andrea Spencer was with him, as it was time to relieve Jim Malone on the twenty-four hour watch. After the two were introduced, Mr. Hunter suggested they go into his study to talk. “I think we will be more comfortable in there and it is private. I have a feeling that you are going to be asking a lot of personal questions.”

  The lieutenant responded, “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Hunter. Before we get started, I want to assure you that we intend to do whatever it takes to find Jason for you. But...I must say that this is one of the more puzzling cases that I can ever remember dealing with.”

  “Why do you say that, Lieutenant?” Bill Hunter asked.

  “Because we have so very little factual information to go on. All we have is the knowledge that Jason is missing and a fairly accurate timeframe for when he disappeared. We have been unable to find any evidence at the park or in the surrounding area. We found no sign of a struggle and everyone we have talked to, so far, has seen absolutely nothing. If he was kidnapped, whoever did it was very quick and well prepared. It’s like they waved a magic wand and he just disappeared.”

  “So now your thinking is that Jason was kidnapped?” Bill asked.

  Nodding his head, Lt. Garcia said, “If we eliminate the possibility that he was running away, we think he must have been grabbed by someone and quickly taken out of the area for the trail here to be so cold. The next issue is whether he was kidnapped to extort a ransom or was he taken for more sinister reasons?

  “Usually when someone’s innocent son is kidnapped, it is to extort a ransom, or exact a revenge for some personal affront as perceived by the kidnapper. Has anyone been harassing you or your family lately? Like a disgruntled employee or someone that you may have had a disagreement with in the past?”

  “I can’t think of anyone off hand,” Bill replied. “We try to be outgoing and friendly at work. Mostly we are home and family oriented. Our time is spent at home raising our son when we are not preoccupied with our jobs.”

  “Tell me about your business. I understand you import and export antiques,” the lieutenant asked.

  “Hunter & Sons Antiquities was started by my grandfather at the end of World War II and has been our family business ever since. My grandfather was a member of one of the Army’s teams that was sent to recover the vast amount of art and treasure looted by the Nazis during the war. In the course of his tour of duty, he got to know a lot about art and antiques and met a number of major European and American collectors. After his discharge from the service, he decided to continue dealing in antiques and so Hunter Antiquities was founded.

  “At first the business was just your standard, import/export type of business for people who wanted to buy and sell collectibles. But gradually over the years, the business evolved into more of a shopping and proxy buyer service for clients who wanted to keep a low profile during the negotiating process. The clients could then get more of a true market price that wasn’t inflated to reflect the wealth and status of the buyer. And Hunter & Sons was a perf
ect venue for medium-priced art—the kind of items that would not get much recognition in a high profile catalogue like Christie’s or Sotheby’s.

  “In the 1960s, grandfather’s health started to fail, so he brought in my father and trained him in the business. After dad put in thirty more years, he turned it over to me in the mid 1990s. Now, I mostly deal with clients who live in northern California, but I regularly travel to the east coast and sometimes Europe to meet the needs of my clients.”

  “Is your business successful?” Lt. Garcia pointedly asked.

  “Oh, yes. My work is mostly on commission but even medium-priced, quality artwork comes with six-figure price tags these days.”

  “Have you had any problems with your clients lately?”

  “Again, I can’t think of anyone offhand. Our policy is to deal strictly aboveboard, and we are very careful to authenticate the art or antiques prior to its sale. Occasionally, we get burned by clever forgeries, or find an item is not what it was purported to be. In these cases we are quick to refund the client’s money. We have insurance to cover the liability so usually, if a customer is angry over a bad transaction, it is aimed at the seller who tried to pull a fast one. In this business, your reputation is your livelihood. Both my grandfather and father told me that it is better to give up money in the short run to protect the name Hunter & Sons in the long run.”

  “How do clients usually come to do business with your company and do you check out your clients at all before agreeing to work for them?” the lieutenant asked.

  “Dealing in art and antiquities is a cash business. We are talking large amounts of cash. While we would never willingly take money from a criminal or be a part of a money-laundering scheme, it is not possible to verify the source of all of the income that passes through our business. We do verify that new clients, whom we mostly get from personal referrals, indeed have the money they claim to have for obvious reasons. The IRS and Treasury Department keep a close eye on businesses like ours and especially on large cash transactions. They are quick to step in if something seems suspect.”