Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Lieutenant Deviled Yeggs.  I work homicide in the big city of Tracy.  Working for me are my old partners: Detective Sgt. Jim Wednesday and Detective Poached Yeggs, my nephew who is slowly becoming a good detective.

My daughter has again insinuated herself into police business, but this time when she got herself and someone else into harm’s way, they had a backup plan and members of the police force were all over it.  I would have loved for them to wait for more backup and maybe a better plan, but with the resources they had, this was good police work.  The report is a first-person report by Sophie.

I knocked on the door of the MacDougall apartment where I had been summoned.

Menzie said, “Just a second.  Yes, now you can enter.”

I entered.  Menzie was sitting in an easy chair with a sheet draped over her.

Menzie pointed to the sofa next to her.  “Sophie, I am so glad you could come.”

I shrugged, “I was working in Aunt Hortense’s lab, and she really did not need me today.  I can give her a break from my presence and Blaise will love the peace and quiet.  Why the sheet?”

Menzie rolled her eyes.  “I had forgotten that I called you and I did not expect you this quickly.  When Sammie wanted some milk, I just pulled my top off.  Mommy has been fussing that I have to be prepared for visitors and I have to be discrete in public.  I had been folding the clothes before Sammie got hungry, so I just grabbed a sheet.  I guess I will have to wash it again.  I think Sammie slobbered on it.”  As she waved a hand while talking, the sheet slipped off.

I noted, “Wow!  I am nearly a year older, but you have me beat in the chest department.”

Menzie rolled her eyes, “Yeah, like duh!  Your breasts get bigger when pregnant and while nursing to support the milk production.  But let’s not talk about my half naked body.  My Mommy might have a nanny cam active in the room.  Security chiefs know how to keep an eye on you when they aren’t here.”

I leaned over and helped her get back under the sheet.  “Why did you ask me over?”

Menzie had tears in her eyes.  “Samuel Farquharson was supposed to come by yesterday to check my homework and he never showed up.  I called the Farquharsons and they said that they had no idea where he was, and they have filed a missing person report.  He was coming over on his bicycle.  Please, Sophie, you have to help us find him.  He is Sammie’s father.”

I shrugged, “But I cannot interfere with an active police investigation.”

Menzie cried, “But you have to.  I really like Samuel.  He is the only boy who has ever made me feel special.  And he wants to be part of Sammie’s life.  Please, Sophie.  The guys who would get this case are the same people who had not discovered who was the father of my mother, my aunt Claire, or even my father.  You found all that out.  Please, Sophie.”

I rolled my eyes, “I can make a few phone calls.”

My first call was to Poached, “Hey, Po, who got the Samuel Farquharson missing person case?”

Poached spluttered, “How did you find out?”

I replied, “One of my best friends in the whole wide world is Menzie MacMenzies MacDougall.  You do know that is what the name change request now reads.  It is to honor her father who died in Afghanistan.  You know, the ‘Mac’ means ‘son of’.”

Poached moaned, “Yes, I know that.  But how did she know?”

I sighed, “Samuel was coming here yesterday.  When he did not show up on his bicycle, Menzie called the Farquharsons.  She is worried, Po.  Give us a break.”

Poached sighed and did not say anything for a few seconds.  “Where are you?  If you are with Menzie, stay there.  Georges and I will be by in about a half hour.  Callie was going to drop by and visit with Jochebed, so Georges is bringing me by there anyway.  See you then, Shorty.”

I said, “Hey!”  But he had already disconnected.  I told Menzie who was coming.  She burped Sammie and put him to bed.  And then she quickly got dressed.

It was a few minutes later that Georges and Poached showed up.  We all sat around the kitchen table.  The MacDougall apartment had three bedrooms, but the main room that you entered was a great room, part living room, part kitchen, part dining room.  It was fine until they had enough money for a down payment on a house, but Missy was not too eager to move.  What they could afford was too far away for her to be on call all the time.

Georges said, “This is a strange situation, ladies.  We usually do not announce a kidnapping to anyone other than family, but with Samuel being Sammie’s father, we are trusting that you will be discrete.”

Menzie asked, “Someone kidnapped my Samuel?  His father may be a judge, but there are a lot more affluent people in this part of town.”

Poached shook his head, “The ransom demand is for Elspeth Farquharson to deliver a moderate amount of money to a restaurant on County Line Road.  That’s no-mans land between the Rotten Apples here in Tracy and the Leafy Greens in Stout County.”

I asked, “Is it the same restaurant where Jemima went and overheard that conversation, and then you and Daddy stopped a gang war before it started?”

Poached looked at Georges, and then nodded his head.  “But, Shorty, it was an entire police force that stopped that gang war, not just the homicide team.”  Georges snickered.

I sighed, “Po, I will accept Sophie or Soapy.  I don’t much like Shorty.”

Poached said, “And I don’t much like Po.  So, we are even.”

I smiled, “With that in mind, Shorty is starting to grow on me.  Yep, it’s an okay nickname.”  Poached growled.

Georges explained, “Ladies, I am the lead on this case.  Those detectives that handle domestic affairs dropped the ball on the Ruth Collins case, but this one smells a little rotten, not rotten apples, but something bigger.  We think that them insisting Elspeth delivering the ransom demand is a means of taking both Samuel and Elspeth and removing their testimony.  Ruth is still in jail, but she dealt with human traffickers.  If that worldwide organization loses a stream of fresh people, they have many more tentacles, but if Ruth Collins ever talked about them, it might hurt the organization.  She was denied bail, so if a couple of witnesses are killed, maybe the others will become mute and the case collapses.”

Menzie cried, “Is Samuel dead?”

Poached interjected, “No, they have to video him very much alive to draw Elspeth into their trap.  From what we saw in the last video, the location looks familiar.  They were sloppy.  They could have put up a sheet as a backdrop, but it looked like the basement that they kept your Mom in when she was kidnapped by Braeburn Apple.  When Braeburn was killed not long ago, Jonathan Apple got the property, but he has left it unoccupied.  The no-man’s land is being enforced here of late.  Georges also agrees the video looks like that house.”

I stood up.  “Good, then let’s go get Samuel.”

Georges stopped me.  “No, this is a police operation.  Besides, tomorrow is the day that our contacts say will be the pick up day.  We think that they have Samuel at the house, and a few girls that they have picked up around Tracy, probably all of them near your ages.  So, no, we are going in tomorrow morning along with the Feds that are trying to make a small crack in the human trafficking within the USA.”

Menzie burst into tears.  “No!  Samuel could be dead by then.  You have to save him.  You are supposed to serve and protect.  Waiting until tomorrow could be too late for him.  They want to sell him off as a slave.  Or they want him dead.  You said so!  No!  If you don’t move in on the house tomorrow, Sophie and I will go there tonight.  We will find a way to rescue Samuel and if we free some girls from slavery, then that’s a bonus.  You have to.  You have to.”

Poached said, “Menzie, we’ve been thinking about your relationship with Samuel.  When we rescue him, you cannot have outward signs of affection.  The D.A. is painting a picture that Samuel was forced by a misguided mother, and you had sex against your will.  We are ignoring the statutory rape charges to nail everything down on your grandmother, but if you two show affection in public, it will be in the press and the jury will be tainted, thinking you two wanted to make a baby.  They might not buy the truth which is that you got to know each other during your hardship, and you have that in common.  Understand?”

Menzie asked, “Do I have to pretend I don’t like him forever?”

Poached replied, “Only until the verdict of guilty is read.  Really, I doubt seriously if the most lenient jury in the world won’t find her guilty on multiple accounts, but you can show signs of liking each other after the verdict is read either way.  And him helping with your homework, it makes it look like community service and being responsible when he is the father of the child.  At least it can be spun like that.  Just no hugging and kissing in public.”

Menzie asked, “But you are talking about rescuing Samuel tomorrow or tonight?”

Georges heaved a heavy sigh.  “I’ll call Jim Wednesday and Tuesday.  They can help, especially if someone runs away into Stout County, since Tuesday is a detective there.  I think Polly and Wise Guy are available.  Let’s do it now.  If we can draw the muscle out of the house, we might avoid a hostage situation.  And every scenario that the Feds offered had hostages written all over it.”

Menzie said, “I have an idea.  Sophie and I can pretend to be selling cookies.  They are out getting pre-ordered cookies this time of year.  We don’t need any cookies, just a sheet of paper in a folder.  We lure the first guy out of the house.  He won’t show a gun, since he’s just talking to a couple of girls.  If he shows a gun, we run.  Then you might get the next one to come out once we run back to the police car or hide in the bushes.”

Poached said, “We clear it with Uncle Deviled and Missy first. Any sign of trouble, the girls run.  As soon as the first apprehension goes down, the girls run.  Do you know the routine for selling cookies?  You have been locked in a room for the past couple of years.”

Menzie nodded, “Yeah, I would listen from my window, dreaming that if I had any hope of escape, I wanted to sell those cookies.”

Everyone was set up and hidden when Menzie and I went to the front door of the house on County Line Road.  They did not have uniforms, but they wore Kelly green berets.  Georges had used an infrared camera.  There were four figures in the basement, huddled together with two figures not far away, one being a small figure, probably Samuel.  On the main floor, up a few steps to a porch that had no railing, there were two men pacing back and forth just inside the front door.  If they could take the two men upstairs without making too much noise, this may easily work.

A surly man answered the door, “What are you kids up to?”

Menzie put on her best smile ever, “Sir, would you be interested in buying some cookies?”

The man said, “I don’t see no cookies.”

Menzie was undeterred, “Sir, you order the cookies now, and then we come back to give you the cookies once they arrive.  We are trustworthy.  That is part of what we learn in the program.”

The man growled, “Sorry, kid, if I don’t see cookies, I don’t buy cookies.  Understand?”

Menzie was undeterred, “Sir, we don’t have any cookies, but the two of us can show you our cupcakes!”

I gasped and looked at Menzie.  The man said, “You might be interesting, but your little friend seems reluctant.”

Menzie said, “Nope, both of us together.  Sophie, do as I say, and we do it together.”  She stepped to the left.  That way, if we jumped backwards, we would land in a pile of long grass and snow.  “Top button.”  We both undid the top button of our blouses.  Our coats were already unzipped.  “Next button.”  I followed Menzie’s lead.  The guy was leaning out the door and not checking his peripheral vision, focused on Menzie’s bra.  Georges was almost close enough to take him down.  He needed to get the guy a little further out of the doorway.  “Next button.”

I said, “Menzie, two buttons came loose.”

Menzie said, “No worries, I’ll catch up.” When Menzie undid the next button, her blouse came completely undone and her bra was exposed.

The man looked closer.  “Hey, wait, what is going on?”  I looked and saw that when Menzie had gotten dressed in a hurry after feeding Sammie, she was leaking a little milk, and her bra showed a wet stain.  The guy must have noticed.  He stepped out onto the porch to grab her bra for a closer look.  Before he could grab Menzie, she grabbed my coat and pulled us backward into the snow.  That put the man off balance, and Georges quickly subdued him.

The man’s partner then emerged.  He had drawn his weapon, but he was fiddling with the safety.  He asked, “What the …”  He didn’t have time to add the cussword.  Poached slammed him to the porch.  They gagged both men and cuffed them.

Polly and Guy Weiss went in with their weapons drawn.

The guy in the basement yelled, “Will you two idiots keep it down up there?  I’m making a final ransom video.  That judge’s wife either shows up so we can kill her, or we kill her son right here on the next video.  You have the iron.  I’ll let you do it.  I tell you.  I was told you two were the best muscle in Tracy, but you two are as dumb as boards.  But be quiet so I can get this video made.”

With Jim and Tuesday Wednesday coming in through the back door, they guarded the entrance to the basement while Polly and Guy went downstairs.  The video man was so engrossed in videotaping Samuel mumbling something that he did not hear the police right behind him.  Guy Weiss announced their presence.  The man turned around and started wrestling with Guy.  Polly got behind the man and started to massage his back.  The man crumpled to the floor.

Polly yelled, “Yes!  It worked!”

Guy Weiss looked at her in horror. “First that Niblick doctor woman and now you?  They need to outlaw that death grip.”

Polly giggled, “I have been babysitting little Baffy, and Pauline has been teaching me some things.  This is the first time that I actually tried it!  Do you want me to do it to you?  You’ll get a nice thirty-minute nap.”

Guy Weiss said, “No, not on your life.  That crazy doctor lady is enough.”

While they were putting the cuffs on him, Samuel asked, “I heard Menzie and Sophie.  Are they okay?”

Polly laughed, “Hey, Tuesday, can the girls come down?  Someone wants to see them.  He recognized their voices on the front porch!”

The four girls, huddled in a small, barred cell, none with a stitch of clothing on, yelled, “What about us?  We’re girls too!”

Guy asked, “Hmmm, now what do we have here?  What are you girls up to?”

One of them said, “We were given an invitation to a private party, you know, guys who would give us gifts for favors.  We thought we might get some tuition money for college.  Then we got here, and we were given a drink and the next thing we knew we were in this jail cell without any clothes on.  They say we are going to be sold to someone on the far side of the world tomorrow.”

Polly yelled, “Tuesday, bring four blankets, maybe five.  Samuel may need one too.  The girls down here are naked.”

When I got to the bottom of the steps, I identified the four girls as being among those who were sexually harassing Margie last year on the softball team.  Two of the girls had been there for three days.  The other two had arrived earlier that day.  None of the parents had reported them missing, probably used to prolonged absences due to their promiscuous ways.

Menzie stood back away from Samuel.  She was crying, but she did not go up to hug him.  I went up and hugged him and told him what Poached had said to Menzie.

The talkative girl in the cell said, “The ‘little twerp’ kept saying that he was doing all this for his girlfriend.  Over and over again, the same thing.  Then, it’s two busybody Bobbsey Twins that show up instead.  Some girlfriend!”

The Wednesdays had arrived in an SUV with enough room for the four girls.  Polly and Guy drove away with the three perps.  And Samuel rode with us in the backseat of Georges’ squad car.  Once in the backseat with no prying eyes, Menzie and Samuel kissed and hugged, but not a lot.  Samuel had not slept in over 24 hours, and he fell asleep in Menzie’s arms.  We dropped him off at his home first.  Poached told the judge and his wife that Menzie and I were the heroes, distracting the gang’s muscle while the police moved in. The judge really likes Menzie, but Elspeth is still cold.

On the way back to Lily the Pink, I told Menzie, “You didn’t have to flip us around so that I fell on top of you.  I could have hit the snow, too.  That would have saved you a few bruises.”

Menzie said, “Sophie, I can never thank you enough.  If you hadn’t been in the woods, Mommy would have never met my new Daddy, Angus.  Then none of this would have happened.  Then you did the detective work that led to Grandmama going to jail.  Then you found Mommy’s biological Daddy, and I got another set of grandparents.  And then you just rescued my boyfriend, or he will be when the trial is over.  They said it.  They were going to kill him once they had their hands on his mother.  Name anything, and if it is in my power, I will get it for you.”

I said, “People talk about BFF, but they don’t really mean it.  How would you like you and I being BFFs for real?”

Menzie asked, “What’s a BFF?”

I snickered, “Best Friends Forever, silly!”

Menzie threw her arms around me, “Yes!!!!”  But then I started thinking, how am I going to explain this to my sidekick, Margie!?

From what they heard before apprehending the bad guys, the higher ups did not know the two people hired to be muscle.  Poached and Georges went back to the house.  They played the roles of the muscle.  Police department personnel acted the roles of the girls downstairs.  Then the Feds that Georges had been working with surrounded the house.  The only problem was that the guy downstairs was known by the human trafficking bosses, but Poached and Georges got them to say enough before the Feds moved in.  Jumping the gun to rescue Samuel did not ruin the sting planned by the Feds after all and it avoided a hostage situation.

Credits

No Credits that I can think of here, but it brings two old stories from a couple of years ago back into play, for the money drop restaurant and the kidnappers hideout.