“Could you try to get him to come on?”

“I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

The monitor stood up and moved out of view. For a couple of tense minutes, Heinrich was left staring at the wall of a room in Poland. Another one of the teen boys walked by, peered into the camera, and flipped him off. A barked command from one of the monitors sent him scurrying away.

At last Jan appeared. He slumped in the chair and didn’t look at the camera.

“Hey buddy,” Heinrich said, putting on a cheerful voice.

“Hey,” Jan replied without enthusiasm.

“How you been?”

Shrug.

“Keeping out of trouble? The monitor says you haven’t gotten in any fights for a while. That’s great.”

Another shrug.

“Hey, check this out.” Heinrich held up the Airfix model. “I’ll ship this to you tomorrow. Got it at one of those boring collectors’ fairs like the one I dragged you to in Warsaw.”

That got a flicker of interest.

“Cool. Thanks.”

“Oh, and I got some even better news. I have another case, this time in Greece. It pays really well. Once I’m done I’ll come visit you.”

Another flicker of interest. It quickly died.

“Cool,” Jan said without enthusiasm.

Heinrich didn’t say anything for a moment, unsure how to proceed.

“So what would you like to do?”

Another shrug. Jan was looking at something off-screen.

“We could go to the zoo again. Or how about another castle? You like those. The weather must be getting warmer there. We could go swimming. No peeing in the pool, though. Promise?”

“Whatever.”

Heinrich paused again, hurt. Before he could control himself, he snapped out, “What? Don’t you want me to come?”

Jan finally looked at the camera. He glared at Heinrich, the only adult in his life outside the halfway house who’d showed any interest in him.

“What difference does it make? You’ll just leave. You come here on vacation and act like you’re being all generous with me, and then you go back to your friends in New York!”

Jan stormed off. Heinrich sat in his chair, deflated.

So that was it. Heinrich thought he was doing some good for the kid but all he had done was raise Jan’s hopes and then knock them down again. Jan had never had any consistency in his life, and Heinrich was following that same old pattern.

The monitor sat in front of the camera again.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Muller, but he’s gone to his room. He’s been like this every time you’ve left after one of your visits. Just before you come he’s happy and attentive and his discipline problems go down. As soon as you leave, he falls into a slump.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

The monitor shook his head. “I don’t know what you can do.