The Kid On The Bike - 6. Chapter 6

Fortunately, Owen and whichever Board members gave Maureen Bergen permission agreed, and Elena was off to visit the family Henry Chang’s parents rented his room from. Maureen felt giving Elena their address might be less intrusive than giving her their phone number.

Elena didn’t take Rob with her, figuring if she went alone it would make the visit seem more casual, and she didn’t drive a police car for the same reason. She actually very rarely drove a squad car and few of the daytime officers did. Elena also went during school hours, in late morning, thinking that was the best way to avoid Henry Chang.

Unfortunately, it also avoided any members of the Scott family, because when Elena rang the bell and then knocked at the door, no one answered. At other times, she could have asked a neighbor when the Scotts might be home, but their house was on a small farm, three miles out Waldron on the Northampton road, and the nearest neighbors were a half mile away.

On the second visit – in early afternoon – Elena had the same luck, so she guessed the family didn’t work from home. Rob had different information: something he’d pulled off the Internet seemed to say otherwise.

“He’s in his late sixties and a lawyer. She’s a bit younger and does hair.”

“What’s that mean?” Elena had to ask.

“She works in a beauty parlor.” Rob hesitated. “Salon? What do they call them these days?”

“I don’t know. I get my hair cut at that shop on Main Street. They cut anyone’s hair.” She smiled. “But I get your idea. That’s what’s important.”

“Anyway,” Rob continued, “the shop has the same address as their home. So I thought it was a part-time business.”

That was also the reason Elena thought one of the Scotts would be home. Instead, as she looked at the front porch, she faced a closed door and windows blocked by muslin curtains. She thought about walking around the house, if that was possible, but just because there were no neighbors nearby didn’t mean no one was watching. Someone could have been in the house and not answering the bell. Though not even a dog barked, which Elena thought was unusual for a farm.

For a moment, she wondered if the Chang family had recently bought the house from the Scotts and if the information Liz knew was outdated. When she got back to the station, she called Liz, explained what had happened, and asked if she could possibly have the phone number. Liz said she’d check but assured Elena that she’d spoken with Ervin Scott recently, and not any of the Changs.

“I thought you said you spoke with a woman.” Elena was puzzled.

“Ervin Scott is a woman. It’s spelled with an E.”

While Elena waited for Liz to check with Maureen, she searched the name “Ervin” on the Internet and discovered it could be a woman’s name, especially in Scotland. Then she laughed, wondering what else she expect with a last name like “Scott?”

Luckily, Liz gave her a phone number – “It’s for their home,” – but even as Elena called, she was half ready for the number to be disconnected. Instead it rang through, though after four rings, a message answered, recorded by a man.

“Hello. This is the Scott family. Please leave your name, business, and phone number at the tone. Thank you.”

Elena did, explaining who she was and that she just needed to talk for a couple of minutes. She also left the station number, unsure it would be kept on the Caller ID..

None of the Scotts called back while Elena was at work, so she tried again at what seemed like a polite time after dinner. Again, she got the message and left a second one in reply, this time from the cell phone she used for business. When no answer came after another half-hour, she decided to drive to the house. It wasn’t far. She smiled at her husband and kids, promised she’d be right back, and was only amused when they said they doubted her.

At the Scotts’ house, a woman in her probable late sixties opened the door, two cats around her ankles. As Elena identified herself, she thought the cats could explain the missing dog.

“Come in,” Ervin Scott said.

“Is Henry Chang here?” Elena asked cautiously.

The woman smiled. “Is that why you’re here? I wondered. Do you need to see him or me?”

“You, actually,” Elena told her. “But it would be easier if he wasn’t home.”

The woman smiled again. “He isn’t. He’s at one of his jobs.”

Elena didn’t ask about that yet and expected to be led to a living room. Instead, Ervin Scott took them to the kitchen, passing a doorway that seemed to lead to a small beauty parlor. That explained what Rob had discovered. In the kitchen, Ervin Scott offered Elena a seat at the round oak table and a cup of coffee.

“No, but thanks.”

Ervin Scott shrugged, poured a mug for herself, then sat. “Now how can I help you?”

“It’s just a couple of questions, really,” Elena began.

“Is Henry in trouble?” the woman cut her off. “I’m surprised. He doesn’t seem like the type.”

“What makes you think that?” Elena asked cautiously.

“Well, he spends most of his time away from here, maybe more at school, since the jobs only take a couple of hours a day. That’s all he’s allowed to work.”

“Why?” She thought maybe it was on instructions from his parents.

“Massachusetts law,” came the answer instead. “He’s under sixteen.”

“But he sounds industrious.”

Ervin Scott smiled. “He is – though maybe not at school. That seems to bore him.”

Elena laughed. “It bores a lot of kids.”

Ervin Scott agreed.

“But this could be related to school,” Elena went on. “We don’t really know.”

Ervin Scott seemed to absorb that. “I may not be much help then. He mainly rents a bedroom and sleeps here. He takes something for breakfast – usually a nutrition bar and orange juice he’s bought – eats lunch in the school cafeteria, and gets fed at one of his part-time jobs – they’re all bus boys or waiters. If for some reason he’s home during our dinner, of course, we ask him to join us. But he usually brings something in or has it delivered.”

“Does he drive? We thought he was in tenth grade, and if he’s under sixteen...”

“He’s fifteen – from what I know. He’s looking forward to getting a driver’s license. Meanwhile, he rides his bike.”

Elena took notes. “How did he come to rent a room?”

Ervin Scott laughed. “Now that’s a funny story.”

Elena waited.

“Well, Pop-Pop and I were getting the mail last summer – the summer before this one – and a car stopped. Then a woman opened the passenger window and asked about an address. As I tried to think of the easiest way to get her there, she added – as if to jog my memory – ‘We were told they rent rooms.’”

Ervin Scott smiled again.

“Well, for a moment, that took me in a different direction, and I simply said, ‘You know, we used to rent rooms.’

‘Oh?’ the woman replied.

‘Yes. Until the colleges and the university told us who we could rent to. And that seemed like too many rules.’

“At that point, Henry’s mother nodded, and I explained that I was uncomfortable having young girls around Pop-Pop.”

“Your husband?” Elena thought that was a very personal thing to say, especially in front of her husband.

“My son,” Ervin Scott corrected, “the older one. It’s because of the kind of man he is – we don’t need complications.”

Elena didn’t ask what that meant and instead shifted back to Henry Chang. “Does Henry fit in well with him?”

“Oh, yeah. They’re great friends – the little Henry’s sees of him. Pop-Pop’s almost always home, except when he’s working at the center. John used to take him to the office and let him do easy things... making photocopies... But that ended with John.”

Again, Ervin Scott didn’t explain, and Elena didn’t ask. Instead, she focused. “So Henry Chang’s been living here for over a year?”

“Yes... summers and all.” She paused to sip coffee. “After I told his mother we used to rent rooms, we talked at the car while Henry and his father listened. Then his mother asked, ‘Do you still rent rooms?’ and I invited them in.”

“I guess they liked what they saw,” Elena responded.

“I actually only have one room left. I long ago converted the other to a sewing room and storage – that’s John’s old room.”

Elena thought her husband must have had a home office, but Ervin Scott explained. “That’s John, junior. He hasn’t lived here for almost thirty years. He teaches in Belchertown.”

Elena nodded.

“High school history,” Ervin Scott finished. Then she moved back to Henry Chang. “Anyway, the Changs liked the room, especially when I told them the cost.” She smiled again. “That was funny, too. I said, ‘Two hundred,’ and Henry’s father immediately replied, ‘That’s a little high – it’s ten thousand a year.’ And I had to correct, ‘No – two hundred a month,’ and Henry said, ‘Sold!’ That was practically the first he’d spoken.”

“Did he move in that day?”

“No... they went back to the city – New York – that’s where they’re from. Brooklyn, actually... a place called Park Slope.”

Elena had heard of it and thought it was typically expensive.

“Henry’s father brought him back in late August, just before school began. There were things about the transfer he needed to handle in person. That’s also when they bought Henry’s bike... used... from the store in Northampton.”

Elena was writing down the important things, though none of the information was really what she came for. But it gave her an idea of what Henry Chang was like, and Ervin Scott was right – he didn’t seem like the type of boy who got in trouble.

Elena was careful not to ask that – or say anything about drugs – because Owen’s instructions were not to attract attention. Though there seemed no way Ervin Scott wouldn’t tell Henry Chang that the police had been asking questions. And if Elena asked her not to mention it, that might make her wonder, and Waldron was a small town. People talked.

“Does Henry pay the rent himself,” Elena simply went on. “Is that why he works so hard – and bought a used bike?”

“I don’t think so. His parents were driving an expensive car – though that could’ve been rented because there was a different one the second time. Pop-Pop really liked it – it was dark red – and they let him sit in the driver’s seat and pretend to drive. Of course, he doesn’t have a license.”

Elena had gotten the idea that Pop-Pop was somehow challenged.

“My husband used to do the same thing with Pop-Pop,” Ervin Scott went on. “When he was alive. That may be the main thing Pop-Pop remembers about John.”

Elena took a note to find an obituary for John Scott, senior. Maybe that explained the beauty parlor and the renting of rooms.

“And that’s all I can tell you,” Ervin Scott seemed to finish, looking at the kitchen wall clock, then getting up and taking her empty coffee mug to the sink. “Time to get back to the hospital.”

“Is someone sick?” Elena asked politely. “Or do you work there?”

Ervin Scott smiled. “No, Pop-Pop’s in overnight. He had a tiny growth on the roof of his mouth that our dentist wanted removed, and – again because of the kind of man Pop-Pop is – it seemed best to sedate him rather than use a local. Then we decided to let him stay overnight – for observation. That’s where I’ve been most of the day.”

Elena took note of that, too. Leaving, it seemed she’d learned a little about Henry Chang and a lot about the Scotts. And – currently – the only one using drugs seemed to be Pop-Pop.