Hangman’s Alley was obviously named for the headless hanging figure outside a door that led into the alley, but it was easy to ignore. Nick walked past the decomposing corpse, remembering how the settlement was a raider settlement until he and Nate cleared out the raiders and set the place up for decent folks to live. The idea of a family living there was very promising for the future in the synth’s eyes.
Lack of space forced Nate to become creative when he organized building up the settlement. Instead of having most of the settlement on the ground level like he usually did, this one was built with half the space devoted to crops, the rest was a series of palates and stairs connecting them in the air. It was a testament to Nate’s ability to adapt to his new surroundings.
Valentine nodded to a guard who was watching the crops and the people who tended them. The guard nodded back and went back to staring at the alley entrance. Nick was barely past the door when he heard a man call to him.
“It’s about time you got here,” the man demanded.
It was Rashid Collins, the father of the boy who was missing. The man had come to Nick’s office three weeks ago, asking Nick to return his missing son to him. The family was an average settler family with two sons. The father ran the ammo stand in Hangman Alley. The mother, Amber Collins, was a provisioner who traveled between Hangman’s Alley and Oberland Farm.
When Rashid came to him for help, his youngest son, Davey, had gone missing. His older son, Jasper, said that he just woke up one morning and Davey wasn’t there. Nick was overwhelmed with cases that needed to be closed and had to prioritize them when Rashid came through his door. Hoping that young Davey had just wandered after his mother that day he offered other avenues that may be available to the worried father and promised Rashid that he would check up on them in one month. The detective was a week early.
Nick climbed the steps to the ammo booth. “I take it he hasn’t returned on his own, yet?” Nick asked Rashid.
“No, it’s been three weeks, and still nothing,” the worried father bemoaned. “Now will you take my case?”
Nick stood in front of the booth. “My rate won’t change.”
“I don’t care,” said the worried father. “I just want Davey safe. I’ll pay anything.”
A familiar song and dance that Nick had heard so often. He looked the father up and down. The man was running a booth, one that Nick remembered Nate investing in. The man had money, and he seemed like the type to pay his debts. Nick always had a soft spot for cases where kids were concerned, even if he never saw a cap, he would take the job.
“Okay,” the synth agreed. “I’ll hear you out. Would you like to talk here, or somewhere in private?”
“Can we talk in private?” the settler asked.
“There’s some tables nearby from a former restaurant. We can talk there. I’d like to buy some assault rounds before we go,” Nick told him.
“How many?”
Nick wanted to buy all of them. He didn’t mind the fact that Ellie had been teasing him about how he was stocking up on ammunition he couldn’t use.
She could use them.
Ever since they worked the case with the missing caravans together, Nick had been purchasing ammunition for her gun every time he passed an ammo booth. He hoped to help keep her stocked up on ammo. If he ever saw her again.
“I’ll take a box,” Nick said. It almost pained him to keep the amount that low. It had been two months, he had heard rumors of her kicking around the wasteland, but even the rumors were hard to substantiate as her. He had enough ammunition for a gun he didn’t use to fight a large band of raiders. Maybe he was just wasting his caps. Maybe she really did go back home.
Nick pushed that line of thinking away. He didn’t want to think of her as “gone”. Not after what MacCready told him would happen if she did go back. Instead, he gave some caps to Rashid and pocketed the 20 rounds.
“Jasper!” the man called to his oldest son. “Watch the booth for a while!”
Jasper, a boy who looked like he was in his mid-teens, came running up the steps before sliding behind the booth to replace his father. The two family members had the same face, it was obvious which parent this child took after. Nick wondered if there was a possibility of resentment, where the father didn’t see himself in the younger son and showed favor to the oldest. Years of being pushed aside or being unable to live up to older child’s accomplishments, even if the younger was better at said accomplishments, had been known to drive more than one child to running away. That wasn’t Nick’s business, though. His business was finding Davey and making sure to get him home safe.
Rashid followed Nick down the stairs and out of Hangman’s alley. The detective led the client to a nearby area with restaurant tables that overlooked the river. Nick remembered bringing Jenny to dine there once. She prattled on about her job as a social worker. It was a hard job, and it was obviously taxing on her, but when she talked about those moments where she helped someone, she glowed. Nick thought those were the moments she was the most beautiful.
The Old Nick did those things. These were someone else’s memories. Nick Valentine, the synth detective, never lived those moments. His Boston was a city that was little more than a memory of what it used to be. Just like he was little more than a memory of what the original Nick Valentine used to be.
The two men sat down, and Nick took out the case file that had the basic information. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper to take notes on and put it next to his file. He then fished out his pen and made a show of clicking it before he was ready.
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“I want to go over what I know before we go into more detail,” he began. “You said your son disappeared in the middle of the night?”
The father took in a breath and sighed it out before beginning. “I don’t know how it happened,” Rashid told him. “It had to be out of the South entrance since the guard said he didn’t see it happen. But Davey and Jasper share a pallet. Jasper said he woke up like the rest of us, but Davey wasn’t there. He didn’t say anything at first, Davey tends to wander around after everyone is asleep. Sometimes he just needs to relieve himself, but sometimes he has troubles sleeping. He wanders around the outskirts, so he won’t wake anyone up. Jasper thought that was what he was doing that night. So, he didn’t say anything until later that day when he realized he hadn’t seen Davey for several hours. Davey is a good boy Mr. Valentine, he may have ran away before, but he always came back.”
Nick looked up suddenly. “Ran away before?” he repeated.
Rashid looked away for a bit. This was obviously something of a family secret. Nick had solved more than one case on little more than family secrets. And he had failed in more than one case because of them. He couldn’t let a twelve-year-old die because of such secrets.
“Mr. Collins,” Nick said, calling the father’s attention to him. “I understand that kids can do things that embarrass their parents. I can respect that you don’t want to air your family’s dirty laundry to the world. But I need to know everything. Any detail may be the one I need to find Davey.”
It seemed to be enough to convince the father. Rashid sighed again, but now he was able to look at Nick. “Davey has a bit of a temper,” he explained. “He’s never hurt anyone. Not really. But he gets mad a lot, over little things. Sometimes he even gets destructive in his anger. I’ve gotten him put on crop duty so he could take his anger out on the weeds, but that never seemed to be enough. I don’t know what to do. The best we can hope for is that the rest of the settlement continues to politely pretend like nothing is happening. But his temper just keeps getting worse as he gets older.”
“Did he have a fit the night before?” Nick asked.
“Yes,” Rashid confirmed. “He and Jasper were arguing, again. He was upset about something Jasper said and was screaming and yelling about it. I told him to calm down, but all he did was run out of the place yelling that he wouldn’t come back. But he did come back two hours later. He always does.”
“What did you do about it?” Nick asked, writing his notes.
“Same thing I always did when he ran away and came back. Put him on extra duty for running away. He needs to grow up and not play these childish games. He keeps putting himself and other people in danger because of them.”
Running away in a fit of rage, saying something dramatic and final. These were not unusual things for a child to do. Sometimes even a kid needed time away from a problem. Still, there was something wrong with the story. Something was missing.
“The wasteland is a dangerous place,” Nick started off. “Does Davey ever take a weapon with him when he leaves?”
“No,” Rashid told him. “I’m normally careful to make sure he is only around weapons when he’s been in a good mood for a while. He has his ups and downs you know. If he starts showing signs of having fits, like whining or pouting, I try to make sure that he doesn’t have anything on him where he may hurt someone. Jasper gave him a knife recently, but I’ve never seen him use it. I think Jasper just wanted his brother to have something to protect himself with when he is having a fit, he’s just that kind of a brother.”
“You said Jasper shared a pallet with Davey. Did anyone else see Davey before he disappeared?” Nick asked.
“No one remembered seeing him that night. When he’s not shouting or having one of his fits, he’s normally very quiet. There are times when no one notices that he isn’t around. Sometimes, he ducks out of work that way. I guess everyone thought that was all that was happening.”
“Did you go looking for him?”
“Several members of the settlement helped me look around, but we didn’t know where to start looking. I just don’t know where he could have gone.”
“Thank you,” Nick said. “I will take your case, but I need to speak to Jasper.”
“Why Jasper? He said he didn’t know where Davey had gone.”
“Sometimes people have clues and don’t realize they have them. I just want to ask him some questions to see if that may be the case for him. Please have him come out here.”
The worried father stood up and walked back into Hangman’s Alley. Nick sat back and looked out over the river while he lit a cigarette. There was something wrong with the father’s story. Kids don’t just run away in the Commonwealth. Not good kids with good families and nowhere to run to.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Valentine,” a voice that sounded like it had dropped two octaves in the past year broke into his thoughts.
Nick turned his head and saw Jasper again. “Come, sit down,” Nick told him in a friendly tone. He held out his pack to the kid, “Cigarette?”
“No, thanks,” Jasper said as he sat down.
Nick pocketed the pack. He had gotten more than one kid to trust him over something as benign as a cigarette. He just hoped this kid did already trust him.
“Your father says you were the last person to see your brother before he disappeared,” the detective began as he pulled out a fresh sheet of paper for more notes.
“It’s not my fault he’s always like this,” Jasper shot out. “I point out that he missed a weed, or that he did something wrong, and next thing you know, he’s throwing one of his fits and running away. The big baby. He just needs to grow a thicker skin.”
Nick wrote as quickly as he could to keep up with Jasper’s words. “That’s all very interesting,” Nick said. “But I don’t care about fault. I was hoping you knew something about where he would have ran away to. Did he say anything about a group that would take him in or anything?”
“I don’t know,” Jasper said. “He’s been interested in that one place near Boston Commons. The one with all of the skeletons in it. We’re not supposed to go there, but he always does. Dad always punishes him when he finds out that he goes there, but he always goes anyway. He likes to listen to the Silver Shroud stuff and there’s a radio in there.”
“Thanks, kid,” Nick said. “I think that will help me out a lot. I’ll let you get back to your chores.”
“You’ll bring him home, won’t you?” Jasper said as he stood up.
“I’ll do my best,” Nick promised as he continued working on his notes.
Jasper turned the corner and went back to helping his dad at the ammo booth. Nick still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something that wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. It was a family secret alright, but a deep one. The type of secret that the family is so used to keeping, that they forgot about it. Davey was twelve, old enough to know the secrets, but too young to know why they are kept. Maybe that’s why he ran away, he learned a secret that was too big for him, and no one bothered to explain why he was supposed to keep it.
Nick sat back and looked out over the river again. The city was still beautiful, but a different beautiful. He remembered the lights being so bright that it was hard to tell the difference between day and night. He couldn’t remember what he ate that night he was here with Jenny, or what was said. He couldn’t even remember the name of the restaurant. He just remembered how Old Nick felt like the luckiest man in the world as he stared at her.
The synth put out his cigarette before closing his file. He put it away and got up to start walking toward the Commons. He instinctively felt in his pocket for the box of ammunition as if he was worried that pocket would have sprung a hole in the past few minutes. He remembered how Old Nick had the same paranoia for a box with different contents. The box he held now didn’t have a ring in it, she wasn’t Jenny, and he wasn’t Old Nick either. The worst difference was, Old Nick was told when Jenny died, and he may not get that closure for her fate.