Harley Takes the Case

Odyssey is in an uproar. Young Steve Larson has never shown up for softball practice, and by now half the town believes he has been kidnapped. While Steve's parents and their neighbors search every place a boy might go, Officer David Harley has followed a quieter trail of clues out past the power lines to a sagging old barn in Gower's field. Steve is there, exactly as Harley suspected. Unfortunately, the moment Harley tries to coax him down from the hayloft, the whole tired building gives way and buries them both.

Across town at the carnival, Chief Smithson has a lead of his own. A woman named Mrs. Wilkerson is certain she saw a boy matching Steve's picture talking with a stranger, a man with a scar on his cheek. When she spots the man near the merry-go-round, Steve's father charges after him, and the chase very nearly turns into a riot. The cornered stranger turns out to be no villain at all. He is a worried father searching for his own son, a boy named Andy who got turned around in the House of Mirrors, and who happens to look remarkably like Steve. The mix-up dissolves into apologies, and the chief sends the exhausted Mr. Larson home to wait.

Under the collapsed barn, Harley and Steve are pinned from the waist down in the dark, with the walkie-talkie lying just out of reach. There is nothing to do but talk. Steve admits that his knapsack held cupcakes and books, the two things he loves most, and that his father keeps pushing him toward sports he has never enjoyed. He believes his dad only loves him when he plays ball. Harley tells him the truth plainly: running away was a foolish thing to do, and the people combing the woods for him are doing it because they love him. Then the officer offers something more than a lecture. He once ran away himself, because his own father had spent years promising him he would grow up to be a rich and famous doctor, and he could not bear to say he wanted to be a policeman instead. What finally broke his father's heart, Harley explains, was not the choice of career but the years of silence before it. His dad still wishes he had a doctor for a son, and is still glad his son is happy.

The conversation ends abruptly when something starts growling outside. The rumored pack of wild dogs has found the barn, and the only thing standing between them and the two trapped prisoners is the door that fell shut when the loft came down. Harley cannot reach his gun. He can, barely, reach the can of dog repellent clipped to the other side of his belt, and when the dogs finally shoulder through, he calls them right up to him and lets them have it. In the scramble, one of the dogs kicks the walkie-talkie close enough for Harley to grab. He radios the chief with his location, promises a present that will have to be picked up in person, and passes along Steve's request for cupcakes.

Meanwhile, at home, Mr. Larson has finally confessed to his wife what has been eating at him all day. He and Steve fought that morning about quitting the team, and he lost his temper. Together they pray, and shortly afterward the rescue party reaches the barn with an ambulance that nobody needs beyond a few scratches and bruises. Steve is grounded on the spot, every Saturday until further notice, but his father also offers him something he has wanted far longer: a good long talk about softball, and about everything else.

Officer Harley later receives a citation and a Medal of Valor on the steps of City Hall, with his own father there to watch. Not long after, the State Police offer him a place in their motorcycle division, a job he has always wanted, and Odyssey gathers at his driveway to wave goodbye. Steve is sure he will be back. After all, he still owes the boy a ride.