Jason then telephoned Joe Connor to confirm the time that he would be picking Daniel and himself up in the morning. After confirming that the pickup time would be around 8:30 AM, Jason asked, “Joe, do you know anyone who could test computer chips? I have a couple of samples of the new Ultimo chips that were the target of the thieves at the DCC Chip Company.”
Joe thought about it for a minute and then replied, “Yes, I know of someone who could do that. The only problem is that he lives in Boston, Massachusetts right now. I know his services are in demand, so it will probably cost at least a thousand dollars or so for the testing.”
“That’s okay, Joe. We are in a hurry to find out what these chips are capable of doing and why they would be so attractive to thieves. The foundation will pick up the costs for now.”
“Tell you what, Jason. I will give my friend a call and see if he can accommodate you. If he can, bring the chips with you tomorrow, and we can send them to him by overnight delivery before we leave town for Yosemite.”
As it turned out, Joe’s friend Paul Schwartz was happy to hear from Joe, and said that he would be able to test the chips for him. “I’ve been wanting to get my hands on these Ultimo chips to see if they really can deliver all that they are hyped-up to be.” So before they got on the freeway to begin the drive to Yosemite, Jason, Daniel, and Joe stopped at a packaging store and sent the chips to Paul using overnight shipping.
After Joe was on the freeway, Jason began to consult with him about the Tim Wilkinson situation. “Joe, I was hoping that you might be able to give us some advice about how to pursue our investigation. All we really have to go on is the interpretations and information that we received from Teresa Barnwell, the letters and postcards, and a gut feeling that something is very wrong at this boot camp. My idea is to go in and ask innocent questions, play dumb, and act surprised if the camp authorities can’t or won’t tell us where Timothy actually is.”
“That actually sounds like a good plan, Jason,” Joe told him. “As kids you aren’t going to seem as threatening to them as an adult would be asking the same questions. I really doubt that you will get much of a response however. If Timothy truly is in a perilous situation, they are not going to want to discuss it at all. If they are torturing him in some way, most likely that detention area would be somewhere else, away from the main camp and difficult to gain access to. If it somehow is attached to the camp, I’m sure that they would prevent any visitor from getting near it.”
“All we can do this point is go there and try to find something out. I told Teresa that our chances were slim to none. Her worry and concern about Tim is very touching, which is why I agreed to check Camp Chinquapin out for her.”
“And Tim is a kid who we knew in school,” Daniel added, “although not very well. Even so, I bristle at the thought of anyone being mistreated!”
“One of the main goals of the Whatever Foundation is to help teenaged victims of crime or help them to work out problems,” Jason added. “If what Teresa told me is true, then this is a case for the foundation to pursue.”
“Jason and Daniel, I want to remind you to be careful about your own personal safety. If these people are willing to act in a predatory manner against other teenagers, they will have no problem doing the same thing to you!” Joe warned his young friends.
“I hope you will be able to give us good advice if there is a need for intervention somehow,” Jason replied.
“Let’s not worry about that yet,” Joe told Jason. “You guys should be thinking about having fun on your vacation, not becoming detectives again!”
About ninety minutes later, Joe was pulling into the driveway to his cabin. Although he called it a cabin, the house was actually quite spacious with an A frame design, a large living room with a rock fireplace, two separate bedrooms, a separate kitchen, and bathroom. Much of the cabin had been built with local materials, and it had a comfortable, lived-in look to it.
“Wow, this cabin is great!” Daniel said enthusiastically. “I could see how you would want to spend some time here.”
“I did just that many years ago when I was much younger,” Joe said. “The place needs a lot of repairs right now. I am going to be working on the plumbing and electrical first, and then redo a lot of the kitchen to modern standards. Now let’s unpack and have some lunch.”
Jason and Daniel helped Joe bring everything in from the car. They put their things in the bedroom where they would be sleeping. Joe was unpacking bags of groceries in the kitchen and unloading perishable items into the refrigerator. He then got out bread, cold cuts, lettuce and tomato so that he and the boys could make sandwiches for lunch.
After they had lunch, Joe drove them to the main gate of Yosemite National Park. He wanted to show them some of the main features that everyone should see. “There isn’t a lot of driving around permitted anymore due to the huge crowds that come here. Instead there are shuttle buses that take you around.”
After Joe parked in the main lot, he and the boys got tickets and boarded one of the tour buses that went on a loop around the park. This way they could see many of the main sights of the park and not be preoccupied with driving and parking. The tour lasted several hours and had stops where they could view some of the major mountain formations like Inspiration Point, El Capitan, Cathedral Rocks and Spires, and Half Dome from different places in the valley and from the famous tunnel view. They also saw a number of beautiful waterfalls including Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, Bridalveil Falls and the three parts of Yosemite Falls.
The tour also stopped at Yosemite Lodge, where Joe, Daniel, and Jason decided to get soft drinks and relax for a little bit. “Now that you have seen the general layout, you can plan your day trips. There are free shuttles to many of the trails and sights, and you can catch a bus from the little town near my cabin that will take you to the park and back.”
“This is great, seeing all of this beautiful scenery in just one tour,” Jason said.
“We have been looking at different hiking trail maps and descriptions, but this focuses things for us,” Daniel added. About an hour later, the tour ended, and they went to the lot, got in Joe’s car and made the drive back to Joe’s cabin.
Chapter 15
Visiting Day at Camp Chinquapin
(Wednesday)
The next morning the boys were up about eight o’clock. They had agreed to help Mr. Connor out with his remodeling work that morning. One of the ways that they could help was to do a lot of cleaning and cutting away overgrowth around the cabin. In order to upgrade the electrical wiring in the house, install additional water lines for plumbing fixtures, and eventually seal and paint the outside, those bushes and weeds around the cabin needed to be cut down and hauled away so that it was easy to access the walls from outside. They spent a couple of hours doing that and then another hour helping Joe remove and take away old shelving from the pantry area of the kitchen.
After lunch, the boys went to the visiting day at Camp Chinquapin. Mr. Connor let Daniel borrow his car to drive over there. The camp was located about ten miles south of the main road into Yosemite. The campgrounds were surrounded by two sets of fencing. On the outside there was a high wooden fence at least seven feet tall. Then on the inside of that was another perimeter fence made of chain link and barbed wire. The brush had been cleared out in between the two fences, and also another six or seven yards inside the grounds.
Inside the main gate was a security kiosk, where the boy’s passes were checked. They were directed to a visitor’s parking area and told to go sign in before they could enter the actual camp area. Jason and Daniel got out of the car and followed the signs to a small building where there was a check in counter manned by camp security guards. All incoming items, deliveries, or visitors had to sign in here.
There were several people waiting in line already. Jason and Daniel had talked over whether they should use Tim’s name at the check in. Jason was afraid that they might not even be admitted to the camp, if he was supposed to
be away at anger management training. Each person was asked to show a visitor’s pass and indicate who they were coming to visit. There apparently was a problem with the first group, which appeared to be a married couple with a young daughter. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” a uniformed guard was saying, “but each person admitted must have a visitor’s pass. You only have two for three people.”
“But the third person is my ten-year-old daughter. I just can’t leave her in the car! She will be with me the entire time. So what is the problem?”
“We must follow our security procedures, ma’am.”
“But this is ridiculous. We have driven all this way to see Leticia. I’m sure she would love to see her cousin. Is there a supervisor that we can talk to?” The guard pressed a buzzer and out came the supervisor. The two haggled for a while, but eventually the supervisor relented, and created a third pass for their daughter.
While this was going on, Jason looked at Daniel and said in a soft voice, “We need another name. We need to get a look at the camp list of names.”
“I think that there is a list over there on the wall,” Daniel answered. “I’ll check it out.” Daniel casually walked over to the wall where the lists were posted. He looked through them all but could not see Tim’s name anywhere. He noted that on the list called ‘Red Cadets’ there were a couple of names that had been blacked out. One of the blacked out names was toward the very bottom. Daniel quickly memorized several of the nearby names on the list.
He walked back over to where Jason was still standing in line and told him what he had found out. “The closest names to the letter W were Arthur Vincenzo and Kendall Tran. Let’s see if anyone has used either of those names.”
When the boys got to their turn in the line, the guard asked for their passes and then who they had come to visit. Jason did the talking, acting real friendly with the guard, and engaging his attention. While he was doing that, Daniel leaned over and looked down on his list. He saw nothing checked off at the bottom of the list, so decided to take a chance on Arthur Vincenzo. When the guard again asked, “Who are you here to see?” Daniel responded, “Our friend, Arthur Vincenzo.” That name worked with the guard, and he soon had the boys sign in and gave them visitor’s badges, which they were told to wear at all times while in the camp.
Once inside the camp, the boys found themselves in a large courtyard area. Toward the other end chairs were set up, and the visitors were being directed to sit there for some sort of presentation that was scheduled to begin at 2:00, when the visitation time officially began. It didn’t seem like too many people were coming to the open house, as there were only about three dozen other people in the seats. A few more people came straggling in as the time approached 2:00 PM.
Promptly at 2:00, the boot camp members were brought into the courtyard in groups and directed to sit in rows of chairs on the other side of the main podium. Each person was dressed nearly identically and they all had very short haircuts or almost no hair. Their camp uniform consisted of a camp tee shirt, brown cargo shorts, and non-descript low cut white leather sneakers. Each camp member had a bandana tied around his or her neck. Some of the groups wore red bandanas, others blue, and a few kids had yellow bandanas, which apparently indicated their status in the camp. Each group was accompanied inside by a camp counselor, who wore a green and black uniform like the security guard at the gate.
When everyone had been seated, a tall authoritative looking man came up to the podium. He was dressed more conventionally wearing a polo shirt, gabardine slacks, and lightweight hiking boots. He was about six feet, four inches tall, had black hair with a touch of grey, and a prominent hawk nose. “Welcome to Camp Chinquapin,” he said into the microphone. “My name is Roland Thomason, and I am the director of Camp Chinquapin. Due to the nature of our camp, we do not often have visiting days, but we are pleased to welcome the family and friends of our camp members who are here today. Our camp mission is to mold and change the lives of our young charges so that they are able to cope with today’s complex society, and change the self-destructive behaviors that brought them here to our training program. Throughout our training regimen we stress physical fitness and activities, the development of self-control, respect for adults and authority figures, and above all discipline and self-reliance. Once our cadets have developed themselves individually, we then concentrate on teamwork skills, so that they may fully participate in our society when they leave Camp Chinquapin.
“This is not an easy process for some of our camp members. Depending on their backgrounds and prior experiences, it can take between six months to two years for some camp members to complete their training. On the other hand, some camp members adapt very quickly to our system, find new purpose in their lives, and eventually attain leadership roles in our camp system. The camp counselors and I take the greatest pride in their accomplishments. We believe that they will become successful members of society when they leave Camp Chinquapin. I would now like to introduce to you the members of our camp.”
Mr. Thomason first introduced the counseling staff, then the camp student leaders who were wearing the yellow bandanas. He next introduced the cadet groups, which consisted of the rest of the camp members. Boys were organized into the Red Cadets and the Blue Cadets, and the girls were organized into the Cardinal Cadets, and the Royal Cadets.
After everyone was introduced and the applause died down, Roland Thomason continued with his presentation. “We have a simple schedule of activities for you this afternoon. First we will have a tour of our facilities, led by our team leaders. They will show you where everything is and give you an idea of our daily activities. Once the tour is finished, they will bring you back into this courtyard, where we will serve some light refreshments and you will have time to visit with the camp member that you came to see. Our visiting time will end at 4:00 PM. Please remember that you all must sign out individually and return the visitor passes to our security office as you leave. Once again, I would like to welcome you to Camp Chinquapin. I hope you enjoy your visit today.”
The team leaders got up and came over to the audience area. There were four of them doing the tour. They surrounded the audience area and herded the visitors into two groups of about twenty people each. As they were moving around getting organized, Jason said to Daniel, “I don’t think we should ask the team leaders about Tim, at least not yet. We need to first find out how Tim was thought of by his fellow cadets and then ask them what they think happened to him. If we can’t get any information from the cadets, then we can take the chance of asking the higher ups.”
The tour through the camp took about twenty-five minutes. Once they left the courtyard area, the camp was organized into a series of square buildings that were dormitory buildings, exercise and classroom buildings, a cafeteria building, laundry building, a staff meeting and recreation room, and what appeared to be a number of maintenance buildings in the back. There was another open space covered with asphalt toward the back designated for physical training and sports. It had eight basketball hoops, and a number of painted lines where camp members were expected to line up for exercises. There were grass fields for outdoor sports like baseball and soccer.
The dormitory buildings were designed very much like military barracks. Inside the entry doors were two private rooms, one for a camp counselor and the other for the two camp leaders of that cadet group. Then there were large bathrooms with multiple showers, sinks, and toilets. The rest of the building was a wide open-spaced room that contained 12 bunk beds and not much else. At the base of each bunk bed was a chest of drawers where the cadets kept their clothing. As the cadets were only permitted a few personal items other than basic bathroom items like a toothbrush and toothpaste, there really wasn’t much to see. The walls were bare of any pictures or decorations other than an area for camp announcements.
One of the visiting adults asked if there were recreational areas for the cadets. The guide responded that, “All recreation for the cadets is held in our classrooms, me
eting rooms, and fields. Recreation at Camp Chinquapin is a privilege that is earned through good behavior. It is generally group in nature. Once a week all cadets are given time to write to their parents and friends. As you can see from our facilities, we are not permitted to waste our time with computers, electronic games, or television.”
Another visitor asked what a typical day’s schedule was at the camp for a first year cadet. “All camp members get up at 6:00 AM. They have an hour to shower, use the bathrooms, get dressed, make their beds and clean their personal areas. If everything is ready, they are then brought over to the cafeteria for breakfast. After eating, the cadets clean up their dishes and the cafeteria. From eight to ten, there are two hours of physical training. At ten, there is a break for a half hour. Then the cadets are taken to one of the classrooms for instruction. At twelve noon, the cadets are brought to the cafeteria for lunch. After lunch, there is clean up. The afternoon is similar to the morning, but instead of physical training, camp members work on the grounds, weeding and doing other maintenance. There is a break at 3:00 and then more instruction. From five to six, cadets can use the training areas or fields to play sports like basketball, volleyball, baseball, or soccer. Dinner is from six until seven. After the dinner cleanup, there are often evening presentations, usually a movie, or a chance to write letters, or social time with other cadets. All cadets must be back in their dormitories by nine o’clock and in their bunks for lights out at ten.”
“Is there ever any break from this schedule?” another visitor asked.
“Oh, yes,” the guide replied. “The camp observes the normal holidays like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. On those days there is no physical training, classes or maintenance work. Sometimes the more experienced cadet groups go on extended hikes and camp out overnight.”
When The Chips Are Down Page 12
