Passionate Admiration 10

Passionate Admiration part 10

June 27 2017

John said he would meet them at Alexanders coffee shop sitting outdoors at the long red picnic table that was reserved for police and fire officials. Guy told him that he and Rodger would be there and fill him and the others in on what they knew.

An hour later Guy pulled into the parking lot of Alexanders. John and three men and two women were there waiting for him.

Introductions were exchanged. John said the two women were there

for support in case Iris was to be found. One a police lady and the other a psychologist were both employed by the police department. Two of the men were policemen and the third man was introduced as Arthur Young.

The last name raised Guy's interest and he asked if he were related to Iris Young.

Arthur told him and Roger he was the brother to Iris. and that he had been hunting for her for close to fifteen years.

When the family home was set on fire by an arsonist they had found out their parents were both shot in the head before the house was set afire. Iris was missing. At first the authorities thought she, only age 13, may have been the culprit. But they were proved wrong by her best friend, Jeanie who saw a purse belonging to Iris at the edge of the walk near the garbage cans.

The police investigators talked to Jeanie who clued them in on how Iris loved her parents and with her Granny's help had planned an anniversary party for them. Inside Iris' purse were receipts for a cake to be made by a local bakery, decorations and the bill from a local photographer where Iris had her parent's wedding picture touched up and framed.

So now it was murder, arson and kidnapping that was for twenty-three year old Arthur Young to come home too. He was stationed in Germany when all this occurred. He had taken care of the funerals, the property damage and so forth but since he worked in intelligence his young mind turned to Iris's friend Jeanie and her friends. He asked them to see if anyone saw or heard of anything about Iris, anything at all then with Jeanie's parents permission if he could come to their home and compare the findings. Of course the parents would help as much as they could. A week later Jeanie's father called Arthur and some news a bit skimpy, was to be told.

It seemed that Andy and Carl along with Betty and Cindy were at the park playing kick ball then were over at the picnic table eating hot dogs from the local food truck when Betty looked up at a scraggly man tossing a garbage sack near the can but missed.

Carl told him he missed the can and the man said to mind his own business. The man looked at Betty with a dirty leer but she moved closer to Cindy daring not to look up again. Andy and Carl started running after the guy but he went to the back of his white van where Carl was certain he was taking a leak. Andy looked at the passenger side of the van and thought he saw Iris all made up in gaudy makeup!

She wiped her lipstick on the window saying SOS HELP then smeared it off quickly.

Arthur and the parents reported this to the police investigators who questioned the four kids about van make, marks and so forth. The police artist drew pictures from each of the four as to what the man looked like and what iris looked like and they kept the case open for a while soon writing it off as a cold case.

Arthur continued his search for Iris but nothing positive turned up until a few weeks ago when he met a man at a bar who saw his sketches of what Iris was at age thirteen on up. The man was drunker that a skunk but looked at Arthur and said "That's Iris, sweet little girl. I helped her escape about nine years ago."

Arthur stayed with the man all night trying to sober him up so he could question him about Iris. Arthur paid the bartender extra money to keep the bar open, well at least locked to the outside so that Arthur could make some sense at what the man was saying about his lost sister.

© Julia A Knaake