A few minutes later… Johann ran off into the forest behind his house, calling out for his son. Several officers also joined him in the search, and they too kept calling out for Sawyer. Johann was looking for any clues that would help him track where Sawyer went, or whoever took him.
Johann’s detective instincts were already telling him that Sawyer was kidnapped, that someone had taken him while he was interrogating Roscoe. He tried thinking of anyone who would kidnap his son, then he thought of Florence, an ex-girlfriend who stalked Johann for years before he managed to get a restraining order on her. However, he stopped thinking about her, for she didn’t strike him as the type of person who would kidnap their ex’s boy.
After about an hour of walking through the woods, Johann soon came across a road that goes in between towns in Pittsburg County. He looked up and down the road, however he saw tire marks on the street that looked recent, like around the time the officers got the call.
“Hey! I got something!” Johann yelled, and soon some officers came over and saw the tire marks.
They began examining the marks and Johann looked up the road in the direction where the vehicle seemed to go, and soon a cop says “Looks like the tires of some sort of pickup truck, what do you think detective?”
Johann soon walks back to the forest and says “Get a search team in the area, I want this whole area searched, leave no stone unturned!” he said as he began running back to his house while the other officers called for backup.
A few hours later, Johann went over to the last person Sawyer hung out with, Bethany Johnston. Bethany was a girl who was about 4 months younger than Sawyer, and she was a grade A student who went to the same school as Sawyer, she was a good friend of Sawyer, though if you ask Johann, he’d say these two are possible lovers. She had a brother, but Johann never met him, though he heard he’s an 8 year old.
Johann greeted her formally and sat her down in the living room and began to ask some questions.
“So, when was the last time you spoke to Sawyer?”
“Last night, he came by for my help on a test where doing for Mr. Handson”
“I see” Johann said, and soon he said “What did you two talk about, besides the test?”
“Not much? Why?”
“Did you notice anything… odd about him? Did he ever talk to you about running away?”
“No, not at all! I mean, there was this event at the school, he was looking forward to it!”
“Ah…” Johann said, writing down on his notes.
“Did he have any enemies? Maybe people who might not have wanted him around?”
“Did he get into any trouble with anybody? Like, any gangs?”
“What do you mean exactly?”
“Did Sawyer get in any trouble with any gang? Perhaps he ran into some violent gang member and now he owes him money?”
“No, i’m sure he would’ve told me and you about that, sir”
“Yeah… true” Johann said, “Apologies, Beth. I am kinda disorganized here”
He soon finished his interview with Bethany, and she wasn’t able to provide much information unfortunately. Before he left, Bethany apologized to Johann for his son going missing, she wished him luck in finding his son and said she’d keep Sawyer in her prayers. Johann thanked him before going back to his car, and took a moment to smoke his pipe in an attempt to alleviate some of the stress building inside him.
More and more time passes, and after going around town and questioning everyone who knew Sawyer, and searching for him in the forest, all just lead back to where he started. He’s still no closer to Sawyer than he was when he was kidnapped, everyone assumes he ran away for various reasons, but people who really knew Sawyer think overwise… this included Johann.
Johann wasn’t giving up though, for right now, he continued to walk through the woods near where he saw the tire marks on the road. He shined his flashlight around, and was accompanied by several other people who joined in on the search. Eventually, someone walked up to him and said “Mr Williams, right?”
Johann looked to his left and saw a tall man with a suit on, and had a comically big mustache. “Im Victor Martinez, Sawyers english teacher” Victor said with his hand out for Johann to shake, he soon did and Johann said with a chuckle “I never really liked english”
“Awe, maybe you didn’t have a good teacher” Victor said,
“You can say that again…”
“Who was your English teacher if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Mr. Connors”
“Connors? Ha! No wonder… he’s still poking around, believe it or not”
“Oh I believe it alright”
Victor soon changed the subject, and soon asked Johann “So, when did you become a detective if you don’t mind me asking”
“Well, I became a detective in 1946, about a year after I got back home after the war” Johann said, Victor looked at him and soon said “You fought in WW2?”
“Yeah, I was a part of D-Day after being drafted in ‘43, fought until the end of the war, around when Adolf shot himself” Johann said.
“I see… Well, thank you for this chat, Detective Williams, I hope we find your son” Victor said before leaving with a handshake, and Johann continued walking through the woods with his light, looking for any sign. He was mostly following the road where the suspect truck that took Sawyer, soon heard something from his walkie talkie. He pulled it out and soon said “Detective Williams here, go ahead”
“We got something! On a farm about a mile down the road!” a cop said on the walkie talkie and soon Johann got to his car and drove about a mile down the road and soon, soon arriving at what looked like a ranch.
He soon stepped out and soon said “What’s going on?”
“Well detective, we got a witness to your son’s kidnapping” an officer said, and Johann immediately asked to see the witness and he came upon a middle aged African American man who wore a red plaid shirt, overalls, and had a sunhat.
“Hello detective, I am Peter Davis, pleasure to meet you” the man said.
Johann looked at him for a moment before saying “Hello Peter, as you may know, the victim here is my son and im trying to find him, I would really appreciate it if you were to answer to the best of your ability”
Peter nodded politely, and soon both of them went to the ranch’s barn and sat down on some of the hay bales. “So… what did you see, Peter?”
“Well, I was just doing business on my ranch until suddenly, I heard what sounded like a little boy yelling, and I saw a truck speeding down the road, going really fast” Peter explained.
“I see… What kind of truck was it?”
“It was a gray carryall suburban, possibly late 1947 model, it was a little busted” Peter said, and Johann soon wrote the vehicle description down in his notes.
“Did you see the person who was driving it?”
“Yeah, I didn’t see his face, but it was weird… it looked like some guy with a pyramid hat”
“A pyramid hat?” Johann said, and Peter nodded. Johann soon asked “You think it could’ve been the Klu Klux Klan?”
“Probably” Peter said with a shrug with his shoulders, and soon said “Though I wonder what business that cult could have to do with the son of Johann Williams”
Johann soon began sweating out of worry upon hearing this, and he soon said “Did you see where it was heading?”
“Down Interstate 9” Peter said
Johann soon got up and pulled out his walkie talkie and said “This is Johann, we might have a very serious problem here. We have a lead on kidnapping from possibly the Klu Klux Klan, we need every unit searching out of town in the woods ASAP!”
“Copy that” an officer said on the radio,
Soon enough, more help was called to the county, more officers arrived, this time they brought hounds with them. At this point, Johann was (for now) let off the case against his wishes, letting more professional and higher ranking officers go in and search for his son.
Johann went down to the local bar to clear his head, and try to think, which was unprofessional of him but with all the stress piling onto him right now, you couldn’t fault Johann for having a few drinks.
“Hello detective, do you want anything to drink?” said a bartender.
“Whisky? Do you have whisky?”
“No, but we do have vodka”
Johann rolled his eyes and soon said “Go get me a bottle and put it on my tab” Johann said, and soon the bartender left to go.
The bar he was in was empty, except for a few patrons. It had a generic layout, with a jukebox in the background playing “Can the Circle be Unbroken”, a country song from the 40’s. Johann listened to the song as he drank from his glass cup of vodka, which was already starting to make him drunk.
“Detective?” He heard a voice behind him, and soon saw Peter behind him.
Johann belched and soon said “What are you doing here, blackie?”
“I was looking for you, though I didn’t expect to find you here” Peter said as he sat next to him
Johann chuckled and soon said “You were looking for me?”
“Yes?”
“Hahaha! Someone’s looking for Johann!”
Peter chuckled and soon said “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?”
“Thinking…” Johan said
Peter raised his eyes and soon said “With vodka?”
“Hey, people deal with stress differently, okay?”
Peter sighed and soon said “Well, I have something to tell you”
Johann soon looked at him with a glare of resentment and soon said “Like what? Like how you killed her?”
“Killed who?” Peter said
“My wife! Margaret! You blackies, all a bunch of druggies, thugs, and murders who take frome people! Y-You take… y-you… kill! You-” Johann ranted, clearly the alcohol was getting to his mind and making him drunk.
“Did some black boys kill your wife?” Peter said, and Johann was silent. “Is that why you hate blackies?”
Johann still remained silent, “Hey, why don’t you tell me about yourself detective?”
“Why?”
“So I can understand where you’re coming from, because if there’s one thing I believe, it’s that hatred always has some kind of source,” Peter said.
Johann soon belched loudly, and soon took a drink out of his bottle and said “I was born in 1911, September 14th…”
“I was born in Shawnee, about 100 miles west of Logtown. I lived with my dad until 1918 when he was drafted for World War 1… he never came back home after the war. After he left, I was taken in by my neighbors… who weren’t exactly good people. They liked to drink a lot, and taught me alot of bad manners” Johann said, before gulping another cup of vodka.
“I think school was one of the worst parts of my childhood, all the teachers there were shit, but the students were worse. I remember there was this kid, who’d always jump me during recess or lunch, and would…” Johann said before pounding the table with his fist “beat the shit out of me, he’d also steal my homework, and my lunch money. Yeah… he was a real piece of work”
“And let me guess, he was black?” Peter said, and Johann nodded.
“I had to deal with his ass until ‘25, when he got busted dealing drugs at school” Johann said with a chuckle, remembering seeing the cops take the kid away.
“Well, I graduated high school in 1930, just by the skin of my teeth too. So, I went to college to pursue my career as a journalist, which is why I moved here in Logtown, since there is a lot of tales surrounding this place” Johann said
“Well, I moved here in 1933, and that’s when I met her… Margaret. We met in Plumb Theater to go see King Kong, and we instantly fell in love. We dated for 4 years before me and her got married, that was one of the happiest days in my life. Well, was until we had Sawyer, that was the happiest day of my life”
Peter nodded, “I bet you felt like you were over The Moon, huh?” Johann chuckled, and soon said “Over The Moon? I think I was over The Sun with happiness!”
“Well… things went downhill for me in 1943, when I was drafted for World War 2. Me and my friends where forced away from our home, to go fight the Nazis in Germany” Johann said with a sigh, having horrific flashbacks to World War 2.
“I remember D-Day, we fought in that beach against the Nazis, we we’re already green from sea sickness just getting there. All of us were men with families, men with wives, and men with children. All we could think about was them, and many of us were afraid for our lives, or that “will we ever see our family again?”. I saw countless men get gunned down by the Germans, and I killed quite a few of them myself. The air stinked with rotten corpses, and sulfur from bombs and bullets, and the sand on that beach was riddled with bullet casings, blood of fallen soldiers, and ash. It’s impossible to understand… the horrors we faced during that fight…” Johann said.
“What kept you going?” Peter said
“Margaret and Sawyer!” Johann said before slamming his bottle down on the table, with his shaking hand.
“I think the worst part for me during the war was when me and my squad infiltrated those camps in Germany” Johann said with a shudder, “I one time fell through a collapsing roof of one of the chambers inside those camps… and…” Johann said before shuddering.
Peter soon patted him on the back, “Hey hey, you okay?” he said
Johann then pushed his hand aside before saying “Sorry, got the willies for a second…” he then took a deep breath to compose himself.
“Anyway, I fell into one of the rooms where they would store the bodies of those dead jews… and… oh my god… it was the most horrific thing I had ever seen in my life. It was like something out of a horror movie, just bodies on top of bodies, all butt naked, bald, and with varying degrees of damage, with some corpses rotting!”
Peter soon said, “what do you think was the closest you came to death in the war?”
Johann was silent for a moment, before saying “It was April 28th, 2 days before Hitler shot himself… *under breath* like the coward he was. I was sniping some soldiers out of a hotel in Berlin, I heard someone sneaking up behind me and to my suprise, it was a Nazi trying to assassinate me with a knife. I wasn’t able to shoot him, he drew too close at that point, but I did hit him with my rifle. I managed to restrain his armed arm with my hand and he kept trying to kill me, he got me a couple times with the knife, but I was able to get him to the ground. I… then seized the knife from him and stabbed him in the throat at least 6 times, gosh… I can still remember the taste of his blood squirting into my mouth as I stabbed him. I then… then…” Johann said.
“Then what?” Peter said, Johann cried softly before saying,
“I found something next to him… it was a locket of him and his family… those soldiers where men like me and my squad, men with families who where praying every night for them to come back home”
“Wow…” Peter said, sympathetically nodding as he tried to imagine how Johann felt after seeing that, knowing he was a father who had a wife and son to come back too after the war.
Johann soon flew his nose into a napkin, and soon said “Soon, after Hitler’s death, all that was left of my squad was me and my friend Christopher”
“Where’s Chis, nowadays?” Peter said
“Dead… he took his life a few months after we were returned back home” Johann said.
“I was lucky I made it back alive, although I feel like most of me died inside after that war. However, part of me returned when I came back to my family. Heh… you don’t know how long we made out the night I came home” Johann said with a chuckle.
Peter also chuckled and soon he asked “So… what happened after you got home?”
“Well, I had to take several psychological therapy classes after my release, for because of my PTSD, I would sometimes snap at Margaret and Sawyer, it never got physical, though I did get pretty loud. I was in and out of therapy sessions for almost 3 years”
Peter nodded, and soon he asked him, “So… what happened to Margaret?”
“I was on patrol around town in 1949, driving around town until I heard there was something going on by one of the shops. I came over to investigate, and I saw 4 men, all were part of some violent gang that liked going around and beating white women. I tried to save her… but…” Johann said before more tears formed in his eyes and his voice began to crack.
Peter paused him and said “Say no more, I think I heard about that on the news. I had no idea that was your wife”
Johann whipped the tears out of his eyes, and soon looked at Peter and said before taking another shot “Okay, why are you really here, man? I know you didn’t come here to hear about my life story”
“Right… Right, sorry…” Peter said before clearing his throat, and saying “I decided to follow the truck that I believe took you’re son, and I believe I know where they went”
“I’m listening…” Johann said while cocking an eyebrow…
