“That can be very difficult,” Father Caleb said. “On both the child and the parents.”
“There was another incident. More serious,” Ben said. He hated telling this story, but it had to be done. “I’d pick him up from the front steps of school every afternoon. One day he wasn’t there, so I went inside. I looked in his classroom, talked to his teacher, went to the principal, but we couldn’t find him anywhere. So we called the police. They started interviewing the staff members and Charlie’s classmates and parents. An Amber Alert was issued. The FBI got involved. They sent his picture to every patrolman in the city. Still we couldn’t find him.”
“Oh, my,” the priest said.
Ben cleared his throat. “Our other son was only two months old. And my wife was…still recovering. I didn’t know what to do. Caroline sat by the phone with police and the FBI, but I couldn’t stay in the apartment. So I walked and walked. I remember it was freezing outside. At some point, I got it into my head that Charlie would be okay as long as he wasn’t taken out of Manhattan. There are only so many ways off the island, and the Holland Tunnel was the closest to our apartment; I just couldn’t shake the idea that maybe he was being taken through it that moment. To New Jersey and then to who knows where. If they got him through that tunnel, he’d be gone forever. I was sure. So I stood there by the entrance all night, looking through the windows of cars for Charlie. It was impossible, it was stupid, but it was only thing I could think of.”
“Where was he?” Father Caleb asked.
“Around ten o’clock the next morning I got a call on my cell phone from the school. The janitor had found him. Some boys from Charlie’s class had taken him down to the furnace room and locked him in a closet. He’d been trapped in the dark for nineteen hours.”
Sometimes, at night, Ben tried to imagine what that might have been like. He tried to build the closet walls around himself in his head, but all he could envision was a coffin. No wonder it was so hard to keep Charlie inside the house.
“That’s ghastly,” Father Caleb said. He rested a hand on Ben’s arm. “I can’t imagine how terrible that must have been. For everyone.”
“The kids responsible had been questioned by their parents, the police, the FBI. They lied to all of them.” Ben shook his head. “We couldn’t send Charlie back there after that.”
“We’re very vigilant about things like that here, Mr. Tierney,” Father Caleb said. “We have a zero-tolerance policy to make sure that our students respect their parents, teachers, themselves, and one another. Charlie will be safe here.”
Ben nodded and turned away, pretending to look for Hudson.
Father Caleb showed Ben the classrooms, gymnasium, and cafeteria. Ben was impressed by how modern the facilities were. He’d never have guessed it from the medieval exterior. Many of the classrooms were outfitted with banks of flat-screen computers. The cafeteria was airy and welcoming. The only building they didn’t visit was the chapel, as there was a mass in progress.
“Is that where the rest of the brothers are?” Ben asked him.
“Some of them; the rest are in Gracefield, setting up for the soup kitchen the parish there is hosting this weekend. Lots of people have been hit hard by the downturn.” Father Caleb shook his head. “?‘Downturn’ doesn’t quite do it justice up here, does it?”
“I guess if people didn’t find comfort in euphemisms, we wouldn’t use them.”
“The priory is in good shape financially, thank the Lord, but a lot of families have been forced to make tough choices.”
They had arrived back at the priory’s front gates, and Ben again noticed the wall that encircled much of the campus.
“This looks more defensive than decorative,” he said. “It reminds me of some old Italian monastery.”
Father Caleb nodded. “It used to encircle the whole priory, and it was built to do exactly what most walls are meant to do. The foundations were set in the colonial period, when this whole area was frontier. Rough times, and rough country.”
“It’s still rough country.”
Father Caleb laughed. It was deep and genuine enough to make Ben smile.
“That it is, Mr. Tierney.”
They reached the Escape, and Ben opened the door to let Hudson jump in.
“I think Charlie could thrive here, but it would be nice to meet him, too,” Father Caleb said.
“Of course. When would be the best time to bring him by?”
“I’m actually going to be near Swannhaven on Thursday. I could drop by the Crofts in the late morning, if that’s convenient?”
Considering the state of the Crofts, Ben doubted Caroline would be thrilled by the prospect of receiving a visitor.
“The place is still a work in progress,” he said.
“I don’t mind in the slightest if the place is a disaster. But I don’t want to put you out.”
“Of course not. It’s no problem. I think you and Charlie will like each other.”
“Until Thursday, then,” the priest said.
Ben climbed into the car. “Do you need directions?” he asked.
The priest shook his head and smiled.
“I know the way, Mr. Tierney.”
11
Caroline admired the way Ben could turn a look of shock into a pleasant smile. He’d developed a thespian’s finesse for such things. She didn’t know how interesting the Preservation Society meeting would be, but the flash of surprise that lit his face when she told him she’d attend it alongside him had already made it worthwhile.