"Who's this guy, Ranger?"

"His name was Ted Fields, not Ranger. A Ranger is a kind of soldier. Some guys were so proud of being Rangers they got the tattoo. Ted was proud."

"What do Rangers do? '"

"Pushups."

Elvis took the photo from Ben and put it back into the cigar box. Ben grew worried that Elvis would stop answering his questions, so he snatched up one of the blue cases and opened it.

"What's this?"

Elvis took the case, closed it, then put it back into the cigar box.

"They call it a Silver Star. That's why there's a little silver star in the center of the gold star."

"You have two."

"The Army had a sale."

Elvis put away another box. Ben saw that Elvis was uncomfortable with the medals and the pictures, but this was the coolest stuff that Ben had ever seen and he wanted to know about it. He snatched up a third medal case.

"Why is this one purple and shaped like a heart?"

"Let's get this stuff away and finish with the car."

"'Is that what you get when you're shot?"

"There are all kinds of ways to be wounded."

Elvis put away the last medal case, then picked up the pictures. Ben realized that he really didn't know much about his mom's boyfriend. Ben knew that Elvis must have done something pretty darned brave to win all these medals, but Elvis never talked about any of that. How could a guy have all this neat stuff and keep it hidden. Ben would wear his medals every day!

"'How did you get that Silver Star medal? Were you a hero?"

Elvis kept his eyes down as he put the pictures in the cigar box and closed the lid.

"Not hardly, bud. No one else was around to get them, so they gave them to me."

"'I hope I get a Silver Star medal one day."

Elvis suddenly looked as if he was made of steel and thorns, and Ben grew scared. The Elvis that Ben knew didn't seem to be there at all, but his hard eyes softened and Elvis came back to himself. Ben was relieved.

Elvis took one of the Silver Stars from the cigar box and held it out.

"Tell you what, bud – I'd rather you take one of mine."

And just like that, Elvis Cole gave Ben one of his Silver Stars.

Ben held the medal like a treasure. The ribbon was shiny and smooth; the medallion was a lot heavier than it looked. That gold star with its little silver center weighed a lot, and its points were really sharp.

"I can keep it?"

"Sure. They gave it to me, and now I'm giving it to you."

"Wow. Thank you! Could I be a Ranger, too?"

Elvis seemed a lot more relaxed now. He made a big deal out of placing his hand on Ben's head like Ben was being knighted.

"You are officially a U.S. Army Ranger. This is the best way to become a Ranger. Now you don't have to do all those push-ups."

Ben laughed.

Elvis closed the cigar box again and put it back on the high shelf along with the gym bag.

"Anything else you want to see? I have some real smelly boots up here and some old Odor-Eaters."

"Ewww. Gross."

Now they both were smiling, and Ben felt better. All was right with the world.

Elvis gently squeezed the back of Ben's neck and steered him toward the stairs. That was one of the things Ben liked best about Elvis; he didn't treat Ben like a child.

"Okay, m'man, let's finish washing the car, and then we can pick out a movie."

"Can I use the hose?"

"Only after I put on my raincoat."

Elvis made a goofy face, they both laughed, and then Ben followed Elvis downstairs. Ben put the Silver Star in his pocket, but every few minutes he fingered the sharp points through his pants and thought that it was pretty darned cool.

Later that night Ben wanted to see the other medals and the pictures again, but Elvis had acted so upset that Ben didn't want to ask. When Elvis was taking a shower, Ben heaved himself back atop the safe, but the cigar box was gone. Ben didn't find where Elvis had hidden it, and he was too embarrassed to ask.

CHAPTER 3

time missing: 3 hours, 56 minutes

The police arrived at twenty minutes after eight that night. It was full-on dark, with a chill in the air that was sharp and smelled of dust. Lucy stood sharply when the doorbell rang.

I said, "I've got it. That's Lou."

Adult missing persons were handled by the Missing Persons Unit out of Parker Center downtown, but missing or abducted children were dealt with on a divisional level by Juvenile Section detectives. If I had called the police like anyone else, I would have had to identify myself and explain about Ben to the complaint operator, then again to whoever answered in the detective bureau, and a third time when the duty detective handed me off to the Juvenile desk. Calling my friend Lou Poitras saved time. Poitras was a Homicide lieutenant at Hollywood Station. He rolled out a Juvie team as soon as we got off the phone, and he rolled out with them.

Poitras was a wide man with a body like an oil drum and a face like boiled ham. His black leather coat was stretched tight across a chest and arms that were swollen from a lifetime of lifting weights. He looked grim as he kissed Lucy's cheek.

"Hey. How you guys doing?"

"Not so good."

Two Juvenile Section detectives got out of a car behind him. The lead detective was an older man with loose skin and freckles. His driver was a younger woman with a long face and smart eyes. Poitras introduced them as they came into the house.

"This is Dave Gittamon. He's been a sergeant on the Juvie desk longer than anyone I know. This is Detective, ah, sorry, I forgot your name."

"Carol Starkey."

Starkey's name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. She smelled like cigarettes.

Poitras said, "Have you gotten another call since we spoke?"

"No. We had the one call, and that was it. I tried reverse dialing with Star sixty-nine, but they must've called from a blocked cell number. All I got was the phone company computer."

"I'm on it. I'll have a backtrace done through the phone company."

Poitras brought his cell phone into the kitchen.

We took Gittamon and Starkey into the living room. I described the call that we received and how I had searched for Ben. I showed them the Game Freak, telling them that I now believed Ben had dropped it when he was taken. If Ben had been abducted from the slope beneath my house, then the spot where I found the Game Freak was a crime scene. Gittamon glanced at the canyon through the glass doors as he listened. Lights glittered on the ridges and down through the bowl, but it was too dark to see anything.

Starkey said, "If he's still missing in the morning, I'll take a look where you found it."

I was anxious and scared, and didn't want to wait.

"Why don't we go now? We can use flashlights."

Starkey said, "If we were talking about a parking lot, I'd say fine, let's light it up, but we can't light this type of environment well enough at night, what with all the brush and the uneven terrain. We'd as likely destroy any evidence as find it. Better if I look in the morning."

Gittamon nodded agreeably.

"Carol has a lot of experience with that type of thing, Mr. Cole. Besides, let's hold a good thought that Ben's home by then."

Lucy joined us at the glass doors.

"Shouldn't we call the FBI? Doesn't the FBI handle kidnappings?"

Gittamon answered with the gentle voice of a man who had spent years dealing with frightened parents and children.

"We'll call the FBI if it's necessary, but first we need to establish what happened."