The School Bus

Chapter 2


"Slow down,I can't understand you dear, what's going on?" said Joyce's husband, and Wil's father, Jim Sims as he swiveled in his desk chair trying to grasp what was being said to him.

"It's Wil, he's not on the school bus" cried Joyce as she spoke to her husband at his office. "I walked to the corner to meet the bus and he's not here" continued Joyce, her voice now trembling. "What do you mean he's not there?" snapped Jim in a tone that although sounding harsh and aggressive, was actually now riddled with the same fear that had already overtaken his wife.

"I'm leaving right now, I'll be there in twenty minutes." Jim said as he sprang from behind his desk and began to sprint down the hall towards the front door that would lead him to his car. "I've got a family emergency, I'll call you when I can." Jim yelled to a co-worker as he rammed through the double glass doors and darted from the building, then across the courtyard leading to the parking lot.

After jumping into his car and screeching from the employee parking lot, Jim mashed his foot on the cars accelerator and sped towards the gated community on the outskirts of Red River Valley. Still learning the back roads to the house that he and his family had moved into just two months earlier, and with thoughts of his son Wil racing through his mind, Jim, as he had done on several occasions over the summer, found himself once again questioning why he had taken the new job and uprooted his family from the only home they had ever known back in Myatt, Indiana.

First one, then two, and within five minutes, the third and fourth Red River Valley Police cars arrived at the corner of Rapids Street and Pebble Avenue. With lights flashing and microphones squawking, the normally calm intersection now took on the appearance of a police crime scene or made for television reality show as police offers converged on the school bus, which was still idling with its red traffic stopping lights blinking to alert oncoming traffic that students were unloading from the bus.

"What do we have?" asked Police Sergeant Bruce Anderson as he joined fellow officers already on the scene. "Not totally clear yet" responded Officer Fain. "But, it appears we have a missing child." "This is his mom over here", said Officer Fain pointing to Wil's mom as she stood at the front of the bus speaking with the first officer who had arrived, Leo Arnley. "And", continued Officer Fain, the gentlemen with the pig - tail is the bus driver for the school district.

"Give me the details" said Sergeant Anderson as he reached to turn the radio volume down on the small walkie - talkie attached to his shoulder that under normal circumstances would keep him within earshot of all radio traffic taking place in the fifth police precinct of Red River Valley of which he was the on the ground commander.

"Well, best we can tell" started Officer Fain, "we have a 3rd grade child who according to other students, got on the bus at the school and when his mother came to this stop to meet him, he didn't get off." With that, Sergeant Anderson interrupted the officer to ask, "are there cameras on this bus and are we sure that the child was on the bus when it left the school?"

"I'm sorry but I can't answer those questions Sir, perhaps we can speak with the driver" replied Officer Fain as he began to feel perspiration running down his forehead at the thought of not being able to answer the basic questions asked of him by his boss Sergeant Anderson. "Get him over here, now!" barked Sargent Anderson as he from this point on would take control of the investigation into the disappearance of 3rd grader Wil Sims.



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