The Kidnapping

by Aiden Vaughan

  Jason ended his interview account of his kidnapping with Friday’s events—his elation at being able to take a shower and put on his own clothes again. Then he told how the kidnappers said he was being ransomed and wanted to know who his most reliable friend was. “They tied me up again like those first days, dumped me into their van, drove for more than an hour, and left me helpless at the City Park maintenance building. The happiest moment of that week was when my blindfold was pulled off an hour later and it was my friend, Daniel, and not the kidnappers. I was finally free!”

  “Oh, my, God, Jason! When I hear your harrowing story of how they treated you, it brings out the maternal instincts in me and I just want to give you a hug and hold you for a while.”

  Jason smiled at her. “Thank you for the love. You can be sure I needed a lot of that after my ordeal. What you are feeling was exactly what the kidnappers wanted my family, friends, and the community to feel. I’ll explain why shortly.”

  “Please continue with your story then.”

  “The next twenty-four hours were like a blur. Daniel called my parents on his cell phone, and they and the police quickly arrived where we were. It was very emotional being reunited with my parents after all that we had gone through that week. Lt. Garcia from the missing persons unit took charge. He explained about all of the procedures we needed to go through such as medical examination and treatment for me, debriefing for the police of myself, my dad because he paid a ransom, and my rescuer, Daniel, plus counseling to deal with the trauma I had experienced. The media even started to arrive, so he had me taken away to the hospital by the EMTs.

  “The doctor there examined me. He said my cuts and bruises were all superficial and that I would have no trouble recovering from the physical stress of my ordeal, especially because I had been doing exercises while in captivity. Some hydration and a return to eating good food would also do wonders for me. What he said I needed to look out for was the mental repercussions of my ordeal. Right then I was on a high because I was free again, but he warned me to watch out later for other emotions like embarrassment, humiliation, sorrow, and anger...even guilt. Right away he called and set up a counseling session for me with a psychologist who I met with the next day. She told me to expect some mental flashbacks as part of the way my mind would deal with my experiences in captivity. She asked me if I was feeling any guilt yet.”

  “Why would you feel guilt, Jason? You were the person who was wronged,” said the interviewer.

  “She explained that it was a very common reaction. Because I was suddenly taken away from my family and friends, they were put through an equally horrendous time. Not with physical pain, like I endured, but certainly a lot of mental anguish. It was especially hard on my parents and my best friend, Daniel. I felt guilty because after my return I found out how they reacted when I put their love to the test by disappearing. She said that I should respond by reaching out to them with companionship, mainly just being there when they needed my support and reassurance in the future. That’s when I began to realize how important family and friends were in my life; how they were more valuable to me than any possession I owned.”

  “That is a very nice thought, Jason. Did you learn anything else?” she asked.

  “Yes, the psychologist had me look at what she called my personal demons—disturbing images and thoughts from my ordeal that were starting to bottle up inside me. She told me that much of these were due to the mind games that my kidnappers played on me. It was clear by their actions, especially at first, that they were trying to break my spirit. They did a lot of things they didn’t have to do to humiliate me and keep me off balance. Keeping me tied up and isolated in a dark basement room was part of that game. They had control of me physically, but I wasn’t going to let them control my mind!”

  “You are a very brave and courageous person, Jason. A lot of people couldn’t take that kind of punishment.”

  “I learned what it means to be a victim of a major crime. It was a very hard lesson to learn, because you only learn it through extreme physical and mental pain. And the victimization of a human being comes with a lot of mental baggage. That was the hardest thing I had to deal with.”

  “Let’s take a break as we hear from our sponsor.”

  When the cameras stopped rolling, she held Jason’s hand and told him, “You are doing fine. Your story is shocking but very compelling. Would you like some water or anything before we continue?”

  “Yes, please,” Jason said. Quickly an aide brought them water bottles.

  When the taping resumed, Jason described his homecoming and how great it was to be home and reunited with his friends. It was like graduation and his birthday all rolled into one. “My parents and I were able to spend the next day on the coast. It was very relaxing to be outside with nature, after being confined in a dark room all week. But already flashbacks were beginning to haunt me and all of that confidence I felt on Friday and Saturday was starting to slip away.”

  “How did you cope with the deterioration in your mental state?”

  “It was actually my friend Daniel who got me started on my recovery process. That Monday we got together after lunch to hang out and play some games like we had planned the week before when I was kidnapped. My mental state was getting worse with flashbacks of that week and I totally lost my mental concentration and was unable to play competitive games. After about a half hour in which he totally slaughtered me in every round, he couldn’t take it any more. I think he actually baited me! He told me that the kidnappers had only returned my body. That my spirit and mind were still missing and I was a discounted kidnap victim! Of course, that made me go ballistic. I swore at him saying, ‘You’re not being fair! Look at what I had to endure all last week!’

  “Then Daniel did the most remarkable thing he has ever done in our friendship…”

  Telling of this part of the story again seemed surreal to Jason. As he verbally continued to describe Daniel’s challenge to him, his mind wandered and focused on what an exceptional friendship they had. He thought, Most kids our age walk around with blinders on, just looking straight ahead, seeing little else and living for the moment. Very seldom do they ever think about the needs of other people, even their friends. But with Daniel, our friendship has this deep, mental and spiritual side to it that makes it special. It isn’t physical at all. We aren’t gay and in a few years we will probably go our separate ways to different colleges and into different careers. Yet, somehow Daniel knew what I needed in order to become a whole person again—to be free again. I have never had a friend before that I could talk to on such a high level of understanding. I am indeed fortunate to have a loyal friend who has been willing to give up all his time and energy to help find the truth so that I could have closure on my kidnapping.

  As he finished his verbal description of Daniel’s challenge to the interviewer, Jason said, “Daniel told me, ‘Don’t worry about our age or lack of experience as detectives because we have the ultimate motivation—our lives are at stake.’ He reminded me that I wasn’t their intimidated captive any more. He told me to use my analytical mind to defeat them!”

  “But wasn’t your friend, Daniel, asking you to return to and relive the horrors that you had just escaped from?”

  “Yes, and he acknowledged how difficult that must be for me to do. ‘Take your time to decide,’ he said. ‘Ask whoever you want for advice. No matter what you decide, I will do my best to be your friend. And I won’t bug you about this challenge again. Let me know when you are ready to decide.’

  “That evening I asked my father about the ransom note. He actually had made a copy of it. Everything Daniel had said about it was true! When I told my father what Daniel had asked me to do, he thought it was a long shot that two teens could solve a mystery that the police couldn’t. But then we started talking about the fact that there had to be a family connection somewhere. How else would they have known where to grab me on Monday, or that he would have $50,000 in cash in his safe dep
osit box?”

  “So you were on the verge of making a decision about Daniel’s proposal. What pushed you over the edge?” the interviewer asked.

  “Actually it was playing some basketball with my long-time friend, Chauncey Jackson. I knew that he had a lot of experience dealing with intimidation because he is a star athlete and had been involved in a lot of championship games, so I wanted to ask his advice. He really surprised me with his answer….”

  Again Jason’s mind came to an important conclusion: That conversation I had with Chauncey was another extraordinary moment for me. I had never realized how deep our friendship was and for the first time both of us were admitting it! And Chauncey’s advice was as perceptive as Daniel’s. They were somehow on the same wavelength urging me to take action, knowing that I would never be whole again until the case was solved.

  “At that point I knew I had to go with Daniel. I was still scared about reliving that horrible week again, but that was the cost of doing business. And so the detective team of Hunter & Holmes was born!”

  “We will be back shortly to hear more of this fascinating story,” the interviewer said into the camera.

  After a short break they were ready to continue.

  She began, “When we left off, Jason, you had just decided to accept Daniel’s offer to work on solving your kidnapping case. But how did you actually go about doing it? Was there any kind of plan?”

  “Actually, yes. My friend Daniel continued to surprise me with his thoughtfulness and insights. In his room, he had cleaned out a corner and borrowed a large white board on which we could write and assemble whatever evidence and knowledge we had about the kidnapping. And that’s what we proceeded to do.

  “First, we wrote out the entire timeline of the case as we knew it. The second thing he said was, ‘We have to look at this case with a fresh pair of eyes. Don’t accept anything as is. Question everything again.’ I must tell you that seeing all of this in front of me, in outline form, was very strange and eerie. About then my emotions started to get the better of me. Daniel said to me, ‘Don’t worry about it. These moments are going to happen. If they do, let your emotions out! Don’t bottle them up. You will need to control them and draw on your inner strength to do what we are about to do. Remember our ultimate goal is for you to be truly free again!’ ”

  “What did you do to look at the case with a fresh pair of eyes as you cleverly described it?”

  “Well, the whole kidnapping seemed so strange because there was no continuity to it. At first I was treated so brutally. I could have been seriously injured with even a few more hours of that torture. Then it was like a guardian angel stepped in….”

  Jason couldn’t help but think how bizarre his whole experience had been. It was actually three kidnappings in one! The first kidnapping was the work of a predator, Frank Encino, who really had it in for me. The second kidnapping was part of the plan by Vladimir Koslochevsky to break into and steal the contents of the Hunter & Sons safe deposit box. This kidnapping was carried out in a more traditional manner with a lot better treatment for me. The third kidnapping was a farce. A ransom note with a godfather theme, a bargain-priced ransom amount and a timeline that suggested that the money didn’t even need to be paid, although probably the threats to Daniel during the phone call he received telling him where to find me were said just in case the money wasn’t actually placed in the library book.

  Aloud Jason finished his description of the different stages of his experience. “After driving around for an hour in Frank’s van, they left me tightly tied up at the maintenance building so I couldn’t get away on my own because they had dropped me off before anyone could have possibly collected the ransom money!”

  “But what the kidnappers had done to you was very real! You had the physical and emotional scars didn’t you?”

  “You are absolutely right. I was treated very cruelly by the kidnappers. The shocking thing we discovered was that my kidnapping was meant to be a diversion for another crime! I was tortured and abused by them just for show! And, unfortunately, it worked! All the attention was focused on what had happened to me and they then had free rein to commit the real crime that they had planned. Earlier in this broadcast, you showed exactly the same reaction that the people had in my community.”

  “I know. I was outraged by what they did to you. Even more so now that I find out it was part of a cruel hoax! But what was the real crime then...the one covered up by your kidnapping?”

  “That is what we had to figure out next. At that point, everything seemed to focus on my father. What was the real purpose of the kidnapping and ransom note? It wasn’t Dad’s money, although they did get some of it and in a way that kept the police out of the picture completely. We finally figured out that they had wanted my dad to go to his safe deposit box at the bank and open it. The ransom note had forced him to do that. It was there that he kept operating cash for the business and also some other valuables called legacy items. These are boxes of valuables placed there for long periods of time by estate attorneys so that their contents would be out of circulation until recalled. The holder of these items, Dad’s business, was not told their contents, but their size and weight usually indicated that they contained precious stones or other small objects of great value.

  “Sure enough, that is what they wanted. While Dad was getting the money out of the safety deposit box in a private room, one of the conspirators was inside the vault placing low-grade plastic explosives in the storage slot where my dad’s safe deposit box would be returned.

  “A second conspirator turned out to be the bank employee running the safe deposit area. A few minutes after Dad returned the safety deposit box and left the bank they ignited the explosive and broke open the locking mechanism on the client’s side. It was then a simple matter to grab the box and remove its contents. The criminals were so sure that they would be long gone by the time this was discovered, that they didn’t even try to cover this up on the bank’s security tapes. So now we had the real crime and video of two of the criminals. The bank was really great about getting right on this and within a few days both of these criminals were tracked down and caught.”

  “So now you had the why of the crime, and some of the persons responsible. Were these criminals also your kidnappers?” the interviewer asked.

  “No, they were co-conspirators in the kidnapping but they weren’t actually involved in grabbing me. We found out later that the bank employee was coerced into it because of gambling debts. The mastermind of the crime, Vladimir Koslochevsky, a Ukrainian immigrant with some mob ties had purchased these debts. Adrian Evans, the bank employee, was told that if he helped out in the bank vault, his debts would be retired and he would receive additional money to leave the country. Koslochevsky maintains that he actually helped me out. When he found out how I was being treated by the actual kidnappers, he says he insisted that they stop torturing me and treat me humanely. He didn’t want me to be damaged goods when it was time to release me.”

  “How did you track down the other criminals, your true kidnappers?”

  “Again I have to give my friend Daniel credit for this. A friend of his told him about one of the famous sayings of Sherlock Holmes. You’ve probably heard this: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’.

  “The two of us would often go outside and shoot some baskets to take a break from the intense mental efforts of the detective work. One day when we got back from our exercise, Daniel said, ‘I had an epiphany out there! The whole key to how you were kidnapped has to be your thirteen-year-old cousin, Victor. Besides yourself, he was the only one who could influence what you did on that Monday morning. Remember the Holmes quote and think about it!’

  “And as it turned out, Daniel was right. The next day we went over and talked to Victor. I demanded to know why he had set me up at the park that day….”

  Jason again began to experience another surreal moment during the inter
view. In his mind he thought: All my life I have put up with Victor’s attitude and putdowns, mainly because my parents insisted on maintaining a family relationship. Then the little twerp sold me out to Frank Encino under the pretense of a mind-control game. That was bad enough but then he bought into Frank’s idea of giving me an “attitude adjustment.” If Victor wanted to fight or get even for some perceived wrong-doing, why couldn’t he have been man enough to bring it up to me face to face, instead of helping Frank kidnap me? Maybe after a few punches the hostility could have been broken down and we could have laughed about it and the two of us might have actually had a friendly conversation. Now it looks as if Victor will do some time in juvenile hall. Maybe this will give him time to seriously think about the consequences of his actions. Best of all, there will be no more forced Hunter-Encino family get-togethers!

  Aloud he continued, “Victor was really fortunate that Daniel was there when he told us how he had set me up with his cousin, Frank. Otherwise, I might have seriously hurt him. I did get in a satisfying roundhouse punch in partial payment for five days of torture for me, five days of pain and suffering for my family and friends, and for that matter, a life time of his constantly acting like he was better than me!”

  “Jason! I am really surprised. That doesn’t seem like you!” exclaimed the interviewer.

  “I know. It wasn’t my finest moment, punching a younger kid like that. But you know, he really deserved it for what he had done to me!”

  “Then what happened, Jason? It seems like you were having another break in the case.”

  “You are absolutely right. After our run-in, Victor was like a little songbird, telling us everything he knew. After the police came and questioned him the Monday night of the kidnapping, he was really scared. Frank had told him, ‘If anyone asks about it, say you had just forgotten about Little League practice. Otherwise, if you say anything, you will be arrested as an accessory, and put in juvenile hall.’ Also, Frank said, ‘Jason will be released in a few more days and no one will know the difference’.