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 SFC Jim Wednesday and Detective Sgt. Poached Yeggs, my nephew who is slowly becoming a good detective.

But maybe the best detective is my daughter, Sophia.  Sophia has just taken charge of a police investigation.  I cannot blame her.  Her best friend forever is missing.  Don’t worry, I am looking over her shoulder and allocating police assets as necessary.  This is a first-person, Sophia report.

“Daddy, Mommy is naked.”

This was said by Sammie MacDougall, Menzie’s three-year-old son.

Lauren asked, “Daddy, why is Mommy in jail?”

Lauren is nearly five years old.

Oh, wait!  To clarify, Sammie was accurate.  Menzie was indeed naked.  Not a stitch of clothing, just a Fitbit on her wrist.  As for the question about being in jail, Lauren had seen the lockup at the precinct and here, her mother was behind bars.  But if she was in the county jail, we would have provided clothing.  This was a sadistic cage, one that had been used to house humans on at least two previous occasions.

Oh, it just dawned on me that you may need to be brought up to date.

About twenty-four hours ago, we had a non-graduation party for Emmett, my fiancé.  He should have graduated with Margie, Blaise, and Samuel, but the Tracy Central schools wanted a street address, and they would not accept the mission downtown.  Emmett took a year off, practicing the saxophone, writing some music, and doing paid work to help his parents pay their debts.  They had lost everything in the big Tracy flood, and they had no flood insurance.  But then Aunt Pink decided to open the free apartments to mission families, since the mission downtown only had a men’s bunkhouse and a women’s bunkhouse.

Oddly, the break honed Em’s saxophone skills and his music arrangement skills, which led to him now being the music director at our church.  Bad things can work for the good.

I asked Gigi to come up with the goofiest ideas that she could come up with for the party.  All the party games were hilariously fun, and the cake was something that Otto and Mabel spent days figuring out if it was even possible.  As for the party, the party was a smash hit.

There were a lot of people who were invited and they invited their friends.  We had security frisk everyone that beeped walking through the metal detector.  But that can sometimes be less than accurate.  The mistakes in security were devastating in that after Menzie sang a few numbers and the party started to dwindle down, Menzie walked up the stairs to the apartment that she shares with Angus MacDougall and her mother, Momma Missy.  She never made it to the apartment.

Momma Missy called me to find out if Menzie was still at the party.  The children wanted to go to bed, but not until their Mommy had kissed them good night.

Suddenly, I was in detective mode.  I called Dad and explained that Menzie left the party to go to her apartment and did not make it there.  He told me to get something more.  A person is not missing unless they have been gone for 24 hours.  I could not wait that long.

I went to the Lily the Pink security hub.  They dodged my questions, but I finally found out what their problem was.  Because of the party, they were focused on the festivities instead of protocol.  They had a camera go out in the main apartment building stairwell, the one on the bakery end.  To make matters worse, someone had released a stink bomb in the elevator and in the stairwell on the Big House end of the apartment building.  And none of this reached the ears of Julia.  No roving patrol to find out what was wrong with the camera.

I checked out the camera myself and the cable had been cut, no signal, no power.  Since they first noticed when Menzie was singing, the people that took Menzie cut the cable during the party.  Unless there was a security breach, it was a party goer.

We went through the recording from the working camera at the bottom of the stairwell.  We saw two men that were holding Menzie from either side.  Her legs were moving, but not naturally.  She was probably drugged.  They exited through the Emergency Exit.  Yet another alarm that did not go off.

I called Dad back and told him I had what he needed to start an investigation.  We had a strong case for an abduction.

I had Mamma Missy, Elroy, and Julia in the lobby when Dad arrived.  One of the security people recognized the two thugs.  They were employees at the Snazzy Taz.  They worked perimeter security.  We called the Taz manager, and he said that they were new.  They were competent, but they were not terribly friendly.  They had only been at the Snazzy Taz for one of Menzie’s performances, but the reason why they were recognized by the Lily the Pink security people is that they had been on an annual inspection at Lily the Pink.  Thus, the manager did not think it strange that these men wanted to go to the party and see Menzie sing.

I asked Missy about that.  She said, “Yes, we have little projects all the time.  People are going one way and then another.  Then we knock out a wall and expand the building.  I have become good friends with the manager at the Taz, and he sends a couple of his guys over to see if the changes we have made to the campus present new security threats.  You know, blind spots.  He said the two guys that he sent were new, but they specialized in blind spot detection.”

I took in a deep breath. “And these new guys from the Taz were looking for blind spots for a completely different reason.  They were figuring out where to set their trap.  They probably hid their tools and stink bombs while they were here.  No need to frisk.  They were hired by you to do a security job.  We’ve got a good image of each to run through facial recognition.”

Dad picked up the narrative, “We are looking at criminal databases in central Asia first.  That’s what your people in security control thought.”

Julia nodded, “That’s what my impression was.  I felt a little ill at ease, but if I said anything, it would seem like prejudice.”

Missy said, “We’re running a business here.  And our part is to protect everyone that lives here and works here.  If you had acted on your gut feeling, it might have been prejudicial, but my daughter would still be here.  And to Dev and Sophie, you are gonna get her back.  I am not losing her a second time.”

Elroy said, “I have some intel, but the timing is all wrong.  If these guys have been at the Taz for at least a month or two, an airplane sneaking into Stout County airport from middle Asia yesterday does not fit.”

Dad nodded, “Have your people at the airport check as much as they can.  This might be a reunion kind of thing.  Operatives on the ground, possibly the buyer or the boss flying in.  Whatever clout you can muster, keep that plane on the ground.”

Elroy snickered, “We can have the airport run out of fuel, fail to process the flight plan, all kinds of stuff.  We have customs officials standing by already.  All they have seen leaving the plane is a single male.  We are running facial recognition on him.  If they start unloading cargo, customs will pounce on them.”

Mamma Missy asked, “Did your people see where the one man went?”

Elroy shrugged, “I am not in charge of the guys in the mystery hangar.  They swore that they were spread thin already.  I think that was orders from the new Hugh McAdoo, woo hoo, boo hoo.  In that I don’t know much about him other than Jacob likes him.”

Julia laughed, “I think he just likes extending the rhyme.”

Mamma Missy smiled, “So, I am going to have to tell you where your international criminal is staying?  I must do all the hard work to get my baby back?  The police are still running facial recognition.  The feds are making spot checks and not following through.  But I know generally where Menzie is.  And this is a job for Paddy McCreary, unofficial sheriff of the County Line Community.”

Dad asked, “How do you know, Missy?”

Missy held up her phone.  “When Menzie started attracting groupies at the Taz, I installed family trackers.  Menzie knows about it.  She knows that she and Samuel are not going to do anything stupid, so why not know where they are.  Menzie wears a Fitbit on her wrist, and she has an Android phone.  Both are near the same spot along County Line Road.”

Dad asked, “And we have been discussing this case in depth, and you just now drop the bombshell?”

Missy’s phone rang.  It was Angus.  Missy said, “Thank you, Sweetie.”

Missy turned to us.  “Boaz needs to shutdown that house.  This is the third time it’s been used by human traffickers.  At least, I know of two other times.”

I asked, “Are you talking about the house where Menz and I created a distraction so Georges and Poached could get the bad guys, and then Sgt. Weiss and now detective Polly Handel rescued Samuel?”

Dad groaned, “And the same house where Glyce, I mean Naomi, was kidnapped, but then she beat and tied up the bad guys and waited for us to arrive.  But an owner came forward with a deed for the house.  Empire has hidden the money transfer so well that the owner looks legitimate, but whenever our backs are turned, they house humans for trafficking in the building, in that cage in the basement.  Our hands are tied, we’ve offered the owner more than it is worth, but he does not want to sell, but he has never spent a single night in the house.  Neither has he rented the house to anyone.  The only thing that makes sense is that this owner is working for Empire.  We just haven’t broken in on the money trail yet.  We have smart people, but we cannot forget that Empire Apple has a few Ivy League degrees.  He is not a dumb thug.”

Missy said, “We now know the exact house.  I want an extraction like the one you did for the Levys’ son.”

Dad said, “This is not going to be run by your Rogue Scholars, but we will use Blaise’s device in secret.  If anyone asks, we used a non-lethal gas to incapacitate everyone and we rescued Menzie quickly in case the gas might have an effect on her singing voice.  That will redirect the media frenzy to Menzie’s voice and her return to the Taz will be packed.  Maybe for the rest of the summer.  I am not speaking from an economic issue, but there are so many failures that led to this.  The Taz should have done a deeper background check.  Julia should have followed her instincts.  The control room group got very sloppy.”

Julia nodded, “One of the reasons I became the new boss is that the control room crowd had seniority, but they loved the control room.  As for now, they are going to patrol the halls, and the B-Team will run the controls until we work out all the kinks to make sure this won’t happen again, but I can see how I could be crucified by the media if anything happens to Menzie.”

I said, “Nothing is going to happen to my bestie.  We are going to mobilize immediately.  I already told Blaise to wipe the dust off his device.”

Dad insisted on a few things.  We needed to know who we were dealing with.  We needed to find a reason to get a warrant for the airplane.  Elroy said customs violations should give us reasonable doubt.  But Dad wanted the connection to international criminal organizations.  Georges needed to start talking to his European contacts when they wake up, Asia was starting to wake up already.  We needed the raiding party to be well-rested, but us investigators had plenty we could be doing worldwide.  Facial recognition just barely scratches the surface.

I worked with Blaise on the equipment.  All the tests other than making humans go to sleep checked and double checked.  The two of us found a position in the woods where we could not be observed, but we could hear what they were saying.  We clearly heard Menzie’s voice.  Her voice came through most clear when the directional antennae was pointed toward the cage in the basement.  With the infrared heat signature, Menzie was pacing around inside the cage.  And for some odd reason, her body temperature was higher than the others in the basement.  As much as she was pacing, it might have been higher.  And Menzie was hot from an anger situation.

From our eavesdropping, the big man was not going to be there until tomorrow about lunchtime.  Dad would want to capture him.  We were thinking this guy was visiting Turnip Greens since he landed without clearing customs in Stout County, not that Stout County has a customs office.  But when a flight from a foreign country makes an emergency landing, refuses anyone entrance to the airplane and then calls no one to fix the reason for the emergency landing, that gets customs attention.  He would probably have a turnover to the Rotten Apples by sunrise.  And then come to see what his goons had captured by lunch.  If he was smart, there would be nothing on the airplane except airplane.  But international criminals always want a monetary gain when they travel.  Dad wanted to serve the warrant on the airplane at the same time we raided the house on County Line Road.  The warrant and airplane inspection was up to Tuesday Wednesday.

Dad texted back to say that they did not want to have any appreciable presence until the big boss arrived.  If Menzie was the main prize, she would not be injured.  He was setting up a control headquarters in Clyde’s old bedroom in the llama and goat barn of the County Line Farm.

Clyde and Barry were already in their new houses across the creek.  They heard the noise and saw people running around.  As the dutiful farmhands, they checked it out.  Bonnie was checking on Missy, Angus and the children in one of her “health clinic” rooms that were added to her house.  They were naturally stressed, but Missy was the calmest.  Missy either trusted us, or she was planning on going commando and beating up some bad guys on her own.  Edna was bringing coffee and fresh pastries to the MacDougalls and all the police at the barn, water and juice for the raiding party since they needed some sleep before dawn.

Dad picked the farm because Paddy’s Gargoyle House was in the same block as the mystery human trafficking house.  His place needed to seem normal, if the bad guys had a roving patrol to catch police who might be looking for Menzie.  Paddy had contacted Nelly Jefferson.  She said that backups to the raiding party could park in her driveway.  She had walking trails to the backside of that block.  She used it often to check up on Hannah and her baby that would be arriving in a couple of weeks, if on time.  Nelly would join the team, not to be part of the raid, but to make sure they took the proper forks in the trail.  Don’t worry, she had camo clothing.  Even if spotted, she’d look like a hunter checking a deer stand or salting a trail, salting the trail not legal in our state, but they do it.

Menzie is my best friend forever, I would stop at nothing to help her, but she was enough of a celebrity that this was becoming an all-hands-on-deck affair.  Dad was doing the best he could to keep the teams on the ground small.  An army would be spotted when the big boss came in.  So far, Paddy’s paddy wagon was the only visible police presence, but the vehicle had not moved since before the abduction.  And all the raiding party people had farm clothing covering their bullet proof vests and other armor.  The helmets would go on as a last resort, for protection and communication.

Georges texted to say that the thugs were known criminals.  One was from Uzbekistan.  The other was from Tajikistan.  He narrowed the search on the little guy who left the airplane and the guy has dealings in most of the countries in central Asia.  He is a real King Pin of crime in the area.  Other organized crime bosses bow down to the guy.

Blaise got an idea and texted it to Dad.  He had not used the device since the raid in Lithuania.  He noticed one of the bad guys was sitting at a table or something.  Moving his arms seldom, but the movements matched working on a computer.  He wanted to target that one guy.  If he slumped in the chair over the infrared camera, then Blaise will be more sure of the device.  Dad trusted Blaise’s instincts.  The guy went to sleep.  No one noticed that he was asleep until it was fifteen minutes later, and he was coming out of the stun anyway.  Blaise’s test worked, and Blaise also caused a distraction.  Now the thugs were looking at each other to make sure no one else went to sleep.  Blaise’s test created distrust among untrustworthy people.

Then, I heard Menzie pleading for some clothing.  I heard enough to find out they had cut her infidel clothing from her body.  With that on, she would have insulted the big boss.  Besides, he wanted her naked to see what he was getting.

If she was cold, why was her image hotter than the other people?  Blaise explained.  With an unseasonably cool June weather, Menzie was cold, really cold.  Not dangerous, but extremely uncomfortable.  What we saw in her image was skin temperature.  What we saw with the thugs was their outer clothing temperature, a lot cooler than the body temperature itself.

I wanted Blaise to knock all these thugs out and then we could wait for the big boss to show up to an empty house, but Dad would kill me.  I was already taking my first course in police procedure.  Following orders and not going rogue had already been covered, even when your reason seemed just. 

And then my mind drifted.  Menzie had paid a lot for her party dress.  She debuted the outfit at Emmett’s party, but it was going to be her outfit for all the 250^th Anniversary of the USA parties at the Taz.  Now it was not a dress at all, rather strips of rags, cut from her body.  These guys were not even human.  But no, I had to focus on my job.  I was there to gather information.  Text it to Dad.  And protect my sometimes useless, sometimes irritating, little brother.  But right now, I needed him and his device.

Then, I heard Menzie telling them about her life.  She had two children.  She had a fiancé.  “I sing at a jazz club.  A lot of people from this city will be looking for me.  You won’t get far.  Please, Soapy.”

“What is Soapy?” asked one of the thugs.

Menzie said, “My best friend forever.  If she isn’t out there, she won’t stop until she has tracked me down and rescued me.  You jerks have no clue who you are messing with.”

The thug replied, “We not mess with your friend.  If she comes, we take her too.  She might make good price for the big boss’ customers.  But as for you, you were purchased by boss years ago.  Now, we take care of unfinished business.”

I gasped.  Now I knew their reason for being here.  Menzie was a local celebrity, but she did have that one performance in Scotland.  We are so lucky that she thought of making that trip every other year.  We would have a hard time getting the necessary intelligence in Scotland to pull off this rescue.  But they could have had a sleeper cell in Tracy to feed their human trafficking and other illegal activities.  The boss of these guys was the original buyer.  When I helped rescue Menzie two years ago, Menzie was going to be sold as soon as Sammie was weaned.  And this crazy criminal did not accept hearing the word “No.”

By dawn, Angus MacDougall played his bagpipes, probably from the Gargoyle House.  I guess that he did so out of the anxiety he was facing.  He had grown to love Menzie very much.  The music travels long distances.  The thugs thought it was some kind of signal.  Menzie explained that bagpipes were played by the Irish, not just the Scots.  “Didn’t you know this house is in the same block as the Gargoyle House?  That’s Paddy McCreary’s home that he’s turned into a boarding house.  He’s the unofficial sheriff of the County Line.  He’s the only policeman out here.  I think he’s learning to play the pipes.  He’ll never be a good as Granda.”  They ridiculed Menzie.  Her Scottish heritage had to be forgotten.  She would learn new music to sing.  She would not show her body to everyone.  She would not dance those provocative dances.  Besides, bagpipe music was horrible.  Too sour to even be called music.  They hit a nerve.  Menzie was angry, but she had no way to vent the anger.  She was in a cage.

Then, a couple of hours later, the big boss arrived.  We widened the band on the directional antennae.  The quality would diminish, but we would get every word spoken.  By this time, Dad was with us.

Tuesday Wednesday, undersheriff of Stout County Detectives, arranged for the Rextown Fire Department to have a joint exercise with the fire team at the airport.  They will be hosing down the trees around the airport together.  When the undersheriff of detectives is ready to serve the warrant, she will bring the warrant up the stairs to the pilot window.  If there is no one there, they will tape the warrant, with copies all over the windows, blocking the view from the pilot windows.  While this is going on, the fire trucks will form a ring around the airplane.  Then, the stairs will be repositioned to the door.  They will have a couple of people from the mystery hanger there to unlock the airplane doors by lifting a flush-mounted panel and then accessing an exterior door handle.  Undersheriff Tuesday had not done that before.

Now, for the conversation in the basement:

Big Boss:  Good morning, my bride, I am John Wang.  We will get married after you have been well schooled in our ways and customs.  I am very wealthy.  If you obey me, you will produce many sons for me, and remain with me, equal to any queen in the world.
Menzie:  And what if I say that I am already betrothed to someone else.  I have his ring.  I did until your goons took it from me.
Big Boss:  This ring?  This is a mere trinket compared to what I will give you.  You will have jewelry all over your body, not just one finger.
Menzie:  But I have a career.  I am a singer.
Big Boss:  You will sing our songs.  You will learn our customs.  You will make my guests very happy.
Menzie:  But I remain unhappy.  I have friends here that I will never see again.  I have family.
Big Boss:  You will be the mother of a great family.  I have had wives.  None of them produced a son.  You will be the one who will change that.
Menzie:  I am not the only one who can produce a son, and maybe it is not the wives’ fault.
Big Boss:  You will pay for such insolence.  I paid for you.  I gave Ruth Collins a king’s ransom for you.  Then she went to prison, and we lost where you had gone.  Then, one of my associates was at a music festival in Scotland last year.  He thought he recognized you.  We traced you to Tracy, and here I am.  It would have been cheaper to purchase a dozen slaves to do the same thing you will do for me.  But no one denies me what is mine, and I purchased you from your grandmother.
Menzie:  Bestie, if you are out there.  It’s time to push the button.

Dad signaled Angus to start playing Scots Wha Hae.

Menzie proudly sang, “Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome tae yer gory bed, Or tae victorie.”  (Robert Burns, Scots Wha Hae).

At “victory,” all the thugs went down.  Only Menzie remained standing.  When the police rushed into the basement, followed by Dad, Paddy, Polly and me, Menzie lifted her chin.  “What?!  I never got to the next line and now is the time and now is the hour.”

I snickered, “Because it was the time for them to go to sleep.”

While Ruthie Toody, Dieter Koch and his new partner, Don Fife, hand-cuffed everyone, Francine, Ruthie’s rookie and EMT trained, was checking for any injuries since there was a bare concrete floor that caught their fall.  Bonnie, three-months pregnant, and Edna, just now admitting that she was with child came down the stairs to help Francine.  We had the two who had worked at the Taz.  There were four more that we would soon identify.  John Wang was not the name of the big boss.  He was using that name since John is the third most common given name behind Muhammad and Jose to a man worldwide, and Wang fought with Li/Lee as the most common family name worldwide.

But interestingly, Mr. “Wang” had been driven to the house by Swiss Chard and Butter Lettuce of the Leafy Greens, organized crime of Stout County.  The two Leafy Green lieutenants were not just in organized crime “No Mans Land,” they were on the Tracy side of County Line Road, in Rotten Apple Territory.  That would not end well.

The ones who came in next were the MacDougalls along with Samuel Farquharson.  Menzie guided her fiancé to the pocket where her engagement ring had been placed.  A mere trinket, but Mr. “Wang” had placed it in his pocket.

I asked Dad about searching the men to find the one who had the keys, but Dad said, “I have been training you.  Your motivation is that she is your BFF.  So, you have the tools.  Go to work.”

When the children saw Mommie they said the things that the story started with.  She was naked.  She was in something like a jail cell.  And at the moment, they had her handcuffed in such a way that she was spread-eagle against the bars for close-up inspection of what Mr. “Wang” wanted to see of what was “his own property.”  In a few seconds, I had Menzie’s cuffs off.  She slumped to the floor and reached out to hold her children.

Menzie yelled, “I need some clothing!”

Polly, who had entered and then left, returned with a bra and panties, skimpy panties.

Menzie asked, “You keep extra underwear around, just in case?”

Polly reddened, “No, I removed my underwear so you wouldn’t be showing all these guys your merchandise.  Going commando will give Randy a fun treat once I get home.”

As Menzie put on the bra, she said, “The bra’s a little small, but it will do.  Thank you, Polly.”

Detective Polly Handel, who has all the guys in the precinct drooling over her figure, said, “Nice try, Men…”  Then she stopped with her mouth agape.

Menzie asked, “What are you staring at, Detective Handel?”

Polly said, “Quad boobs!”

Ruthie stopped her work long enough to say, “Oo, Oo!  Polly, you’ve met your match, and she’s barely halfway through high school.”

Menzie said, “I’ll be seventeen in a few months.  I guess my curse is that I look like I was born to be a mother.  That’s all this deranged man wanted.  He didn’t have a son.”

I said, “We listened in to most of it.  But I doubt if Captain Hart put a full lid on this story.  You need more than underwear to emerge from this house.”

Francine jumped up and asked Ruthie to call Sgt. Weiss, who was running the control room in the barn.  Francine had something in her patrol car.  Sgt. Weiss would drive the car up to the house.  That way, Ruthie and Francine could drive Menzie back to the precinct for an interview and swearing out a statement.  Paddy had his paddy wagon for all the bad guys.  The rest of us could walk through the woods back to our vehicles.

Polly turned to Menzie, “I guess your fiancé doesn’t love you that much.  Or he is enjoying what he is looking at.  Or maybe he is just a guy…  But he is wearing a shirt that he doesn’t need.  Now for the pants.”

Blaise ran down the stairs with a pair of police dress blue slacks.  Francine had picked them up at the dry cleaners and forgot them in the patrol car.  Nothing fit, but it was good enough.

Menzie said, “Okay, I’m dressed, but I am still in here.  I thought you knew what you were doing, Soap.  As a detective, there is none better.  As a lock pick, you ain’t worth…  I hope everybody heard me stop before I used a word that means excrement.  I don’t want to get kidnapped and then have to pay money to Mommie Pinkie’s swear jar.  Then again, I’ll pay fifty bucks to the stupid jar if Soapy doesn’t hurry up.”

I huffed, “I have never had a lock this tricky, but I am almost there.”  At that moment, the door was unlocked and I opened it.  Samuel ran in and hugged her.  Lauren and Sammie each grabbed a police pants leg.  “And technically, girlfriend, you were abducted.  No kidnapping here.  They had no intention of asking for a ransom.  You were already bought and paid for.”

Menzie moaned, “You heard that too?”  I nodded, and then I joined in the group hug.

Mr. Wang was starting to come out of the stun.  He mumbled something.  Sammie went over and kicked him on the chin.  Not hard, but all that a three-year-old could muster.

Mr. Wang said, “Bastard son of an infidel.  You will die for that!”

Having kept her distance to let the police do their work, Mamma Missy walked up and used her martial arts skills with her feet to break a few bones and rearrange Mr. Wang’s face.  “Nobody calls my grandson names like that.  And Lieutenant Yeggs, this one may need some new teeth before he goes to prison, but I made sure I didn’t kill him.”  Angus wrapped his massive arms around Missy and led her to Menzie, now wearing a shirt that said she was a graduate of Flintheart High school and dress pants from a policewoman’s uniform, waist with a couple of inches to spare, length about two inches too long.

Paddy was with Swiss Chard and Butter Lettuce when they woke up.  He had the foreign thugs outside in  the paddy wagon, the last to be brought up the stairs was Mr. Wang after Francine bandaged his face.  The two Leafy Greens lieutenants remained in the basement.  He did not want the thugs from overseas interfering with his conversation.  He explained that they had willingly entered ‘No Mans Land.”  They had violated their pact with the Rotten Apples.  Since they were arrested aiding and abetting illegal activities in the big city of Tracy (technically, since the entire county was incorporated).  But they might not have much time to live.  They’d be placed in general population with people loyal to the Rotten Apples.  They would not last long.  A message had to be sent to Turnip Greens that no one is to violate the No Man’s Land area unless he wanted a gang war.

All Paddy got out of Swiss Chard was that Turnip was getting old.  He was losing his heart for the rough stuff, but he felt trapped, needing the money flow.  He gave no details.

Butter on the other hand got scared.  He said they were there to ensure the package got on the plane.  When they saw it was Menzie, the singer, they wanted to back out, but they promised Turnip.  Turnip would not have agreed to it if he knew it was Menzie.  They were all at the concert she gave in Rextown.  The whole middle of the state is in love with Menzie.  Turnip had made a business agreement with Mr. Wang.  He has a tricked out drug transportation system.  It isn’t behind the walls.  The narcotics are the walls.  Thin tubes of the inner walls are filled with drugs.  There’s a catch at the bottom of the wall that lets the narcotics pour into your container.  When sealed, even dogs wouldn’t find it.

Paddy told Dad and he called Tuesday Wednesday.

Tuesday laughed, “You’re a few hours late and a dollar short.  No one was in the cockpit, so, we taped the warrant on all the pilot windows.  When we went to the door, the pilot opened one of the windows with a pistol.  The pilot can do that, you know.  Our sniper fired a round through his hand.  Tell Elroy that shooting the pilot in the hand is a way of delaying the flight leaving here.  He’ll be charged with attempted murder of a police officer in the course of his or her duties.  Don’t worry.  He got off a shot but he missed.  But the neat thing is that the sniper’s round penetrated the shell of the aircraft and nicked one of those walls you are telling me about.  The dogs may not detect the sealed walls, but a few pounds of refined powder that is leaked onto the floor?  That they can find.  We will have our hands full for a while.  I have called in DEA.  I don’t have the manpower for a twenty-four hour guard around the plane plus recovery of the drugs by dismantling each panel, one at a time.  I would have the manpower if I were Sheriff.  People want me to get rid of the idiot.  Maybe this is the straw that pushes me in that direction.  Hearing that the Leafy Greens made a deal with this guy is rather interesting.  I hear Turnip deals with no details anymore.  He farms everything out to his lieutenants.  Some think the next boss will be Swiss Chard or Endive.  And thanks for all the efforts Tracy is making on drug traffic.  You are hurting Empire Apple a little, but you are making the Leafy Greens make stupid mistakes, like this one.  But this one might have worked if it was not for the obsession this Mr. Wang had about one little girl.”

I laughed, “Tuesday, my best friend is not that little.  Polly loaned her a bra and Menzie is literally busting out of it.”

Tuesday laughed, “Thanks, Sophie.  I needed a laugh.  A bullet flying by my ear.  A nightmare of drugs possibly worth millions.  My Jimbo is going to have to give me a foot massage tonight.  How did he pull the office job, anyway?  I thought Dev and Jim were the Bobbsey twins of Tracy homicide.”

Dev said, “With Sgt. Weiss running control out here, two SWAT teams, our hand-picked people to run in and rescue Menzie and lock up the bad guys.  I had to be here too since Sophie was running the show from the technical end.  Jim, working with Captain Hart, was the best choice.  And they have both texted.  The media has no idea where we are, but they are crowding our front door at the precinct wanting a statement from me or the Commissioner, which means I have to brief him, or I just do the briefing myself.  And the media will want to see Menzie.”

I said, “You are repeating yourself, Dad.  You need a nap.”

Dev said, “What do you mean?  Who would do the briefing?”

I shrugged, “I was involved since before you officially joined the investigation.  Why not?  Besides. I skipped an entire day of summer school today.  Me giving the briefing in front of live TV cameras might give me extenuating circumstances for a missed day of class.  It might even give the teacher a chance to interrogate me regarding the police procedures that were followed to ensure a safe rescue of a local celebrity.”

Dad said, “The standard answer is that we cannot comment on an active investigation.  We have several suspects under arrest, and they have not been thoroughly interviewed.  This case involves people in the USA illegally and at this point the alleged crime was taking place in two different counties, two different police jurisdictions and two federal agencies, possibly three have become involved.  Then you can say how you personally learned that Menzie MacDougall was abducted by non-citizens working for a foreign organized crime organization.  Menzie MacDougall is fine after a coordinated rescue was made by Tracy’s finest.  Menzie will be isolated and under medical care to ensure she can sing at the scheduled dates for the Snazzy Taz and at the 250^th Anniversary bashes at both the university football stadium and the university fieldhouse.”

Dad leaned in close, “And then you better get some rest.  You are going to have your crew run security for all the celebrities that are coming for those university celebrations.  You are getting to be big time with the talent security business.  I guess you could say that you are Menzie’s personal bodyguard.  And thinking of that, have each celebrity escorted back to their secure dressing room, trailer, bus, whatever.  I know, Menzie was walking within a supposedly secure building, and no alarms were going off, but now you know that you cannot take that chance.”

I nodded, “Yes, Daddy.  Umm.  Daddy, when will I have to stop calling you Daddy?”

Dad smiled, “I love it when you call me Daddy, but when you start calling Emmett the Daddy of your own children, calling me Daddy might get confusing.”

Menzie was pacing back and forth.  “Holy hot flash!  Those jerks had a working heater on the far side of the room.  I was freezing!”  She kicked the heater over, not knowing it was kerosene.  Burning kerosene started spreading.  Menzie screamed.  Dad grabbed her before she was engulfed in the flames, the oil pouring away from her.  The evidence had been placed in bags already.  Everyone grabbed evidence bags and ran up the stairs.

Menzie muttered, “I didn’t know. It was an accident.”

Butter Lettuce suggested that he would state that he tried to escape and knocked over the heater by accident, if anyone started asking too many questions, and he hoped that little lie would be taken into consideration in his case.

Dad suggested that I could add smoke inhalation to Menzie’s worries about singing.  The more focus on Menzie’s health meant less detailed questions about the rescue.  There were some details that we never wanted disclosed.

The briefing went well.  My college professor on basic Police procedures said that I gave a great police briefing, but he wanted as many details as possible when I gave a report to the class next week.  Changing stun ray to a harmless sleeping gas was the only sticking point.  We already had one federal agency that wanted the technology.  If more found out, we would not be able to keep a lid on it.

Mom and Pauline were giving Menzie therapy sessions every other day.  Aunt Pink was giving hugs every day.

The thing was that Menzie was back home with her children wearing clothing that fit her.

And as for the home that somehow was used by Empire Apple as a transfer cage for human trafficking, it sadly burned to the ground before the County Line Fire Department could put out the fire.  So, sad.  It was a nice home with a built-in cage for whatever you wished to have caged.  You never know when you might need a cage.

Credits

The previous uses of this house with a cage in the basement have been part of past stories.  Last summer, there was a Scottish golf outing that became a rescue of Jacob and Dinah Levy’s older son, an architect.  Sophie did some codebreaking and led the team using a device invented by her brother, a multi-stun targeted device, knocking everyone that is targeted out for fifteen minutes while not affecting those that were not targeted.  The Spy Organization wanted it, but Blaise refused.  He would destroy it first.  Good thing that he did not destroy it.

Kidnapping versus abduction can sometimes be interchangeable terms, but usually the definition comes down to the intent of the abduction.  In many state law definitions, an abduction becomes a kidnapping when ransom demands are made.  Or it remains an abduction when other motives are ascertained.

Here are the Corries singing Scots Wha Hae!

Dietrich’s new partner, Don Fife, is a mash of Don Knotts, who played Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show.

Kerosene heaters, modern ones, have a safety switch that turns off the heat source if tipped over.  This safety device might fail, but the kerosene heater, highly inadvisable in a poorly ventilated basement, was probably an outdated model, as Sophia added to her report to the media.