Toy Soldiers

by Keith LaHue

  There were other places too. A place called Los Angeles. One called Rome. Another called Byzantium. Paris. But they were all finite, a part of a hodge-podge world created without continuity. A world where the areas that abutted one another didn't always correspond to what the (real?) world was like. In the grand scheme, this was a tiny part of something much bigger. The world that had created them had come about through nature, not magic. Tom tossed and turned in this half-sleep he was undergoing.

  When he awoke he told some of the others about his dreams. But not all. There were some that had yet to evolve as far as him. He sat and awaited the new arrivals; the ones from the far-off but curiously close New York. He could feel it in his bones. All over the land, things in Pangaea (yes that was the word for this world) were changing. Pangaea was coming truly alive.

  29

  Marigold answered the side door knock; it was Don Hawkins, who was to accompany her on her fact-finding mission to the Stenger household. Marigold was seriously concerned for the welfare of young Karl, who until the recent death of his mother, had leaned on the happy side of life. He may not have had a perfect life, but who did? Until the death of his mother, he'd always worn clean clothes and hadn't worn the sunken-eyed stare he now fashioned. He'd lost weight too.

  "I called child protective services; they said they'd look into it. When I followed up they told me they couldn't discuss the case with me," she said to Don.

  "Well we'll get to the bottom of it today, that's for damn sure. I'm not going to let a drunk like Stenger destroy a little boy's life. Did you hear that he got fired from the dump? It was something about him exposing himself to some woman. If you ask me he should be in jail."

  "I don't know why he isn't in prison for killing his wife. We all know he did it. The police botched that one too. There is no reason why a healthy woman suddenly stops breathing in the middle of the night. You went to the funeral, as did I. Stenger didn't shed a single tear, he just sat there trying to hide the smirk on his face telling the tale that he'd gotten away with murder."

  "I want to talk to David before we leave. Is he awake?"

  "Yes, he's much better now. He'll be up and about in no time. Go on in. He's in the downstairs guest room as the stairs would have been problematic."

  Don Hawkins threaded his way through the house, which was model number three of the tract housing in the area. He knew it well. He knocked on the door and heard Dave call out to come in. He let himself in.

  Closing the door behind him, he tried not to look shocked at the state of his neighbor.

  "Man, you got beat up bad," said Don.

  "Let's put it this way. I'll never make it through the metal detector at the airport anymore." He knocked on the titanium plate in his head. "Piece of bone almost killed me. The filled the hole in my head with some kind of metal."

  "I know it was bad, still, I didn't know how close a call you had. When do you get out of the cast?"

  "A few more weeks. Not long."

  "Look, I want to talk to you about Stenger. I'm not sure Mary should go with me. That creep has worked at the dump for longer than I can remember, and now he gets fired after his wife dies suspiciously. Supposedly he was jerking off in that little shack when some woman caught him. I know Steve Brower down at the station, and he told me that while the suspected Stenger of murder, there wasn't enough to charge him. If he's beating up on his son, he's gone to pay for it. I'll see to it myself, to hell with the law."

  "So you can see why I don't want Mary to go with me."

  "I think she should go with you. You just made the case for it. If she's there, he's not going to pull anything shady. She'll protect you from him lashing out at you. See?"

  "Well...I don't know. I just don't like the idea of him getting away with hitting that kid. I raised two sons of my own and never had to lift a hand to them. There are other ways to discipline. "

  "And I've never had to spank Davey. That doesn't mean that all parents think the same way. I guess sometimes it's called for. Mary said the Stenger boy looked thin like he hadn't eaten in a while. She said his eyes were sunken, and he looked as she put it "psychologically abused", though I'm not sure how one could tell that by looking at him. Go take a look - with Mary. He's not going to try anything."

  "If you say so, I'll take her. But I'm going on the record as saying I'm against it."

  "It'll be okay. Go on, do it. If you find it's something you'll have to do outside of police channels, remember what the neighborhood has always had as an unwritten law: We take care of our own. Period. Do what you have to do Don, but if it comes to it, don't get caught."

  "All right them. Time for us to go. We'll give you all of the details when we get back."

  David managed a weak smile as Don left. He could hear the muffled sounds from the kitchen as the two prepared to leave. Then the sound of the door, and he knew they were off.

  Don and Mary walked the short distance to the Stenger household. They'd waited till Saturday because they knew Stenger was off. If Mary had known he'd been fired she would have come earlier. They arrived and Don knocked hard on the front door.

  Stenger answered, dressed in his dump-issued coverall. He wore no shirt underneath, and he still smelled like the dump. Mary wondered when the last time he'd had a shower.

  "We're here about Karl. Is he here?" Mary was content to let Don talk at this point. She was scared of Stenger.

  "What the fuck do you want with my son?"

  "We want to know that he's okay," said Don.

  "It's just that he had this gaunt look in his eyes, and maybe he hasn't been eating since the loss of your wife? His mother?" said Mary.

  "Don't you ever mention her again. She was a fine woman. Karl and I have been through a lot and we don't need the likes of you coming around here and making trouble. I bet you're the ones that sent that woman from the government. She didn't find anything and neither will you. There's nothing here to hide, but I sure as fuck aren't letting you in to poke around either."

  From somewhere deep in the house they heard a cry. It was a little girl's cry, and it sparked a memory in Mary. There had been an Amber alert about a missing girl from one of the towns outside of Indy.

  "What was that?" asked Don.

  "Fuckin TV is on. Asshole. Now get the fuck off my property before I call the cops." With that, he slammed the door in their faces.

  Don and Mary stood on the sidewalk in front of the Stenger house. They'd failed to learn much, and lacking authority, there was little they could do.

  "There was an Amber alert three days ago. A girl from...Cumberland was abducted. Do you think that's what we heard?" asked Mary.

  "I don't know. It could have been a TV, but it didn't sound like it came from that direction. The living room, where most people keep their TV, is right off of that foyer we were in front of. You know the layout of the house as well as I do. Mine is exactly the same. And yours is a variation of it."

  "I just don't know what to do," said Marigold, wringing her hands. "Don, I'm afraid."

  "Right now I'm taking you home. Then we're going to talk, you, me and Dave. I'm going to be coming back, but I'm coming alone. This time I'm not going to knock."

  They walked in sullen silence back to the West house. Mary had to choke back tears. She was sure that Stenger was beating his son. And now she thought that he had that child that had been taken.

  Randy Stenger slammed the door on the two nosey fucks. He yelled for his son to come into the living room. It was time they had a talk.

  Stenger sat in his piss-stained armchair, while Karl demurely sat on the floor. Much of the overall filth had been cleaned up, or at least glossed over, by Karl. His father had made him after the visit from the Lady.

  Stenger knew that fucker Hawkins would be back. He was going to be ready for him when he was. But now he had his son to deal with.

  "What the hell have you been telling people Karl?"

  “Nothing dad. I swear. Nothing." Karl was withdrawn, speak
ing with a blunted affect so common to a child that had been violently abused.

  Stenger cuffed him one on the head. "Tell the truth. You un-gagged the bitch in the basement, didn't you? You know you weren't even supposed to go down there. But you found out and I didn't even punish you did I?"

  "I don't know." Karl was slipping into his dissociative fugue that was his only retreat. His voice droned on in a monotone, his consciousness having retreated to the back of his mind. Karl's brain was on autopilot. He'd do anything to get away from the horror of what he knew was to come. He would kill his dad, and free the little girl, but it didn't matter. None of it did. He was broken now, and all the king's men couldn't put him back together. He might be stuck in this state for the rest of his life. He didn't care.

  He came to a little when his dad struck him across the face, hard. He was bleeding some, and he saw from a distance that he had used a beer mug on him, and he had hit him so hard it had broken. Like him. Fractured. He had a nasty cut on his forehead. He didn't care. His father ordered him to get him a new mug and a beer and to grab him a pack of smokes from the kitchen while he was at it.

  Karl was in robot mode, so he got all of the things, and brought them to his dad. Then his dad told him to take his pants down. Karl knew what was to come. A cigarette burn again. He didn't do that nasty thing unless Karl was in bed.

  He didn't cry out until the cigarette had burned almost all the way down. Then the tears and the cries had started. He was screaming. Stenger removed the cigarette and took a drag off of it, tasting the burned flesh. His son was sobbing. Stenger just sat back and smiled.

  "We know he drinks," began Don. "And I'm willing to bet that he's passed out by nine. I'm going back, alone, tonight and find out what the son of a bitch is doing. If he had that little girl, I'll make sure she's saved. We can't ignore this anymore."

  "Maybe we should call the police," said David.

  "They won't do anything. Child Protective Services were just there. It's on record, although we have no idea what's in the report. Apparently, it wasn't enough to give them a reason to take Karl away."

  "I don't like this," said Mary. "If he did take that child, he's dangerous. I'm worried."

  "Well, I'm not going to sit back and do nothing. I'm not going to let this abuse continue. Don't you agree?"

  "When do you plan on going over?" asked Dave.

  "As soon as I can be reasonably certain that Stenger is passed out. If he isn't, I'll make sure he's unconscious before I investigate. I'm searching the place. He'll be sleeping by ten at the latest. I'll go in through the basement."

  "I guess it's decided then. One thing though. If you're not back within two hours of leaving, we're calling the cops, got it?" said Dave.

  "That's fine. If all goes like I think it will, I'll have placed a call to them from my cell phone long before that. I know he's guilty. I can smell it."

  "His place smelled like a toilet," said Marigold. "Let me make you some dinner. Please. It's the least I can do." Don Hawkins' wife had passed three years ago from cancer, so he had cooked for himself ever since. He was a good cook and had Dave and Mary over at least once a month for one of his gourmet meals.

  "I'd like that Mary. Thank you."

  Marigold left for the kitchen. Davey was in there, with a too-innocent look on his face.

  "I guess you heard everything big ears," said Mary. There was warmth in her tone that made Davey giggle.

  "Well, I told you he was a bad man. I want you guys to get him. Karl and I used to be friends. I want him as a friend again. There was something Karl told me once too. He said he saw his daddy kill his mom."

  May was shocked by the revelation. There had been a lengthy investigation after Karl's mother's death, and they hadn't found enough evidence to charge Randy Stenger with anything. The whole town knew he had done it, and now Davey had just told him that there was an eyewitness. No wonder Karl was so...so absent from the world. He was adrift she thought, and no wonder why.

  Mary brought Dave his tray. Don was still talking with him when she announced that dinner was served, they'd be eating in the kitchen. Mary told them both what Davey had told him. Right away Dave told them they should call the police. Don said "No dice", because the Stenger kid had testified that he hadn't seen anything, and would probably do so again if questioned. No, Don was going to deal with this the old fashioned way. No one was particularly happy about it.

  Dinner for the three of them was mostly quiet, neither Don nor Mary wanted to say much about the situation in front of Davey. They knew he knew of course, and Mary had sent him off to play after dinner. Don insisted on helping Mary with the dishes and she uncharacteristically let him. She finished loading up the dishwasher and started it.

  Don said he'd be back in an hour and left for home next door. Mary told him she wanted to know absolutely everything that went down that night. He said he'd check in with them again before he left for Stenger's.

  She sat with her husband. David had never wanted to be out of his bed more than he wanted to be out tonight. He felt; as he put it, "worthless as tits on a boar hog". All either of them could do was sit and wait. Davey appeared at the door and Dave told him to come on in, no more secrets, no hiding. He asked them what was going to happen, and Dave. gave him the gist of it, leaving out the details.

  Don Hawkins let himself in the side door and found them in the bedroom. He said he be going now. He was sporting a flashlight, his cell phone, and a gun. Mary was shocked at the gun and asked him if it was truly necessary. He told her to relax, it was just for show. It wasn't loaded and even if it had been, the firing pin had broken long ago. It wasn't a functional weapon. Mary breathed a sigh of relief, as did Dave.

  Mary walked him to the door and told him to call no matter what.

  Don Hawkins had dressed all in black. The moonless night helped. Once he neared the Stenger residence, he kept to the shadows, intending to come in from the basement. He neared the living room window and snuck a peek in. Good, he was asleep in his chair, a beer next to him. The large wet spot on the front of his pants meant that he was far enough under to piss himself. Disgusting, he thought. Karl was nowhere to be seen.

  He crept around back and found the basement door to be locked. He looked inside to see if he could make out anything. It was too dark. But he heard something. A muffled sob. He broke one of the window panes and reached inside to lock the door. He felt for the light switch and turned it on.

  He looked in shock at what he saw. There was a bruised and battered young child. A girl that was no doubt the subject of the Amber alert. She was gagged, tied up to the post in the center of the room. She wore no pants. Next to her was Karl Stenger, the son of Randy Stenger. He was tied and gagged as well. Horrified, he took his cell phone and dialed the police. He told them everything; they took the address and told him to stay on the line. He kept the line open and moved to remove the gags, first from the girl, then Karl's.

  Karl yelled at him as soon as Don removed his gag. "Watch out!"

  From behind him, Randy Stenger clocked him one good with a baseball bat. He dropped to the floor heavily. He could hear sirens and struggled to stay awake. Then Stenger hit him again, and he went all the way down the rabbit hole. The last thing he remembered was the sound of one of Indianapolis's finest yelling "freeze" just like in the movies. Then the darkness took him.

  The cops that had responded to the call were still appalled by what they saw. Indianapolis was a big city, and as such had its share of big-city crime. Lieutenant Bernard Walker called for backup even before Stenger moved to attack him. Was this moron really coming at him with a baseball bat? He leveled his gun at him and hit him in the thigh. Walker was a good shot and could have easily killed him if he had wanted to. Stenger went down.

  His partner, Kevin Alan, was already helping the kids. They were both sobbing uncontrollably. Stenger looked at his son with what the officers could only describe as the epitome of evil. Walker had never seen so much hate. When St
enger glared at his son and said to him that "this isn't over", the child recoiled in fear. In the mind of Karl, it was like a horror movie where the bad guy keeps getting up from the dead. It wasn't until Stenger was cuffed and taken away, that the brunt of what had happened fell upon him.

  Through tears, he told the officer down at the station that he had seen the murder of his mother. A child psychologist was present. The Dr. asked him what else his father had done, and he told her. He told her about the dirty things he had done to him, and what his dad had made him watch him do to the little girl.

  He retreated, losing himself and going back into the fugue. The Dr. told the police that was enough for now, and they left Karl Stenger in the hands of the kind Doctor. The police just shook their heads in dismay. They wondered if the kid would ever get over it.

  Down at the hospital, the parents of Jill Sodaberg were being told of the condition of their daughter. Kyle and Jane Sodaberg were crying as they were told of the multiple rapes, and the two weeks of hell their daughter had been through. She was malnourished, having been fed only enough to keep her alive. They were told that physically she would be all right, but mentally...that was yet to be determined.

  One floor above that hellish scene, the Mary and Davey had gathered in Don Hawkins room. He was awake and remembered all of it. His head hurt like hell. He told Mary that there were things that maybe Davey shouldn't know. She said she wasn't keeping anything from him; he had just as much a right to know as any of them. She reminded him that if it hadn't been for Davey being friends with Karl, that girl and Karl might have been dead. The police were theorizing that Stenger had planned on abusing both of the children until they were dead, and then taking his own life.