THE
GRADE 12 DETECTIVE CLUB
THE
CASE: KIDNAPPING THE SCOTTS AND GLORIA - Ep. 5
Graphic
Design by: Marilyn Russell / Written by: James M. Russell
Like any good employee, Cuppie
followed the JAG and, just as instructed by his boss, wrote down the addresses
each time one of the kids got out.
Bridgit was the last to be dropped
off, so once the JAG drove away, Cuppie parked in a deep shadow cast by the
streetlight just a couple houses down the street from Bridgit's home. Cuppie’s boss figured that she was the leader
"of that bunch of nosy kids" - his words - so he wanted Cuppie to
report back to him “every
time that little bitch so much as sneezes."
Slouched in the driver’s seat of his boss's black, '64
Cadillac Coupe DeVille - lights off, windows up, Cuppie played his favourite
Eagle's CD over the Caddy's Blauplunt sound system, safe in the knowledge that
because it was so late, and because the Caddy was black, and parked in the
shadows, nobody would notice him or the car. What he didn’t figure was that Mr. Hockless,
Bridgit's neighbour to the east was the Vice-President of the Neighbourhood
Watch Committee and, due to a recent bout of insomnia, spent nearly every night
for the past month or so sitting on his screened porch watching reruns of '60
TV shows. Not only did Mr. Hockless notice the Caddy park in front of the Stein's
house but he had written down the Caddy's license plate number before the male,
balding, thin build, wearing a dark blue or black t-shirt, had even shut off
the engine. As was his practice, Mr. Hockless gave the unidentified vehicle a
four-minute grace period before calling the police non-emergency number.
Bridgit never noticed the Caddy
sitting outside her house, nor the driver, nor the black police cruiser pull to
a stop behind the Caddy. Bridgit was busy using her favourite search engines to
find a reference to 'J.A." other than 'Junior Achievement', 'Jamaica',
'Juvenile Activity', and 'James Allen', a recently deceased rapper who
interestingly went by the stage name 'Deadman J.A.' It was 1:46 and Bridgit had
just loaded "Crawlie" - the automated search program Keisha wrote -
when she received Janet's text.
Sewer
runs E for 200 M then branches N and S. The N branch passes within a K of the
Scott's house. Thnk we should chk it out?"
What
sewer? Bridgit replied
NE
corner of ABC. Heri and I discovered it... worth checking?
Definitely! Bridgit replied because
she knew that the sewer could have been the answer to the question that had
been nagging her since they took on this case, “how
did the kidnappers get their victims out of their gated community without first
passing the guard at the front gate?”
{{ }}
Sewers are dangerous places. Not only
are they filled with various toxic gases, some of which are also flammable, but
also, they aren't a claustrophobic's
best friend, so Bridgit and the others didn’t
understand why Ramu volunteered to descent into the 'rabbit hole'. Although he
was the only SCUBA diver in the group and therefore the only one with breathing
apparatus - admittedly designed for negotiating through water not gas-filled
sewers.
Bridgit and Janet decided that Lansdown and St. Clair was the best entry point. Problem was, some idiot positioned the sewer entrance in the middle of the intersection and there was constant traffic flowing through the intersection, despite it being 2:13 in the morning. It was Janet who came up with the idea, "remember the Mystery of London’s Forgotten Australian Timber Roads?” It took a few moments for Keisha and Heri to get the connection. Emma, Janet and Kaseka knew immediately. Working in teams of two they fanned out and removed two ‘one way only’ and two ‘do not enter’ signs from side streets then attached them to the poles to the north, south, east, and west. It must have confused the hell out of drivers but it worked.
They used the ¼ inch Blueline braided rope Kaseka
always kept in Juggernaut's trunk, tied it to the back of Ramu's belt with a
Munter Hitch then handed the rope to Emma, the strongest of the members.
"We don't want you triggering any
sparks,” Bridgit said as she gave Ramu her
ProTac 2L, LED flashlight, which she had rendered gas-proof by wrapping it with
a metre or so of duct-tape.
"One tug from us is asking if
you're OK... one tug from you means 'yes'."
"What happens if I'm dead and
can't answer?"
"You can't die. You're a geek. You
have no life to begin with!"
"Emma!" said Bridgit with a
bark. "Two tugs from you means 'get me out of here'. Got it?"
Ramu nodded, positioned the facemask
over his eyes and nose then climbed onto the metal ladder and began his descent
into the ominous blackness.
{{
}}
Although the cops could easily have
arrested, or at least detained, Cuppie for loitering, they simply ordered him
to "move on", which he did - around the block – and back, although this time he
parked a few houses south of his original spot. Half an hour later Kaseka and
the gang picked up Bridgit and Cuppie began following the JAG.
Cuppie drove around for nearly half an
hour, secretly hoping he would never find another entrance to the sewer – but he did eventually. Of course he
would have rather sat in the Caddy and just watched the kids from afar. The
sewer entrance cover looked heavy, a foul smell rose from it, and besides, he
was a little afraid of the dark. Cuppie was on the phone with his boss for
several minutes before he was finally swayed by the words, "I need to know
what those kids are up to so you’re
going down there –
either now, or later in pieces after I finish with you."
His boss always managed to be convincing.
The cover weighed a ton but he finally
pried it up with the aid of his boss' tire changing wrench then wrestled the
cover to the side. Cuppie couldn't find a flashlight in the car but he figured that
the flame from his lighter would provide enough light.
{{
}}
Ramu couldn't remember one traumatic
event that may, or may not, have given birth to his claustrophobia. He did
however recall being terrified of confined spaces as far back as kindergarten
when playtime included what Mrs. Rolf named 'camp stories' - a mandatory and
agonisingly long time that two students had to spend in a pup tent she erected
in a corner of their classroom. They were supposed to use the time to create a
story about trees, or the earth, or birds, or other forest animals, which they
then had to share with the other kids. Ramu would spend the entire time sobbing
quietly so it was always the other kid who had to create the nature story.
Ramu’s heart began racing and sweat oozed
from every pore the moment he set foot on the top rung. It wasn’t the wetsuit or the twenty-five
pounds or so of breathing equipment strapped to his back that caused him to
perspire, no, it was blinding terror.
The ‘ladder’, nothing more than bent iron bars
imbedded in the concrete wall, ran out about four feet shy of the bottom, so
Ramu had to lower himself using just his arms. At gym Ramu could do ten pull
ups easy but in the sewer Ramu's arms quivered under the added heft of the
tanks and fear.
{{
}}
Emma was focused on the rope feeding
through her two hands when she noticed Janet squat on the ground, pull
something, and then something else from her backpack. In the murky dark night,
it was difficult for Emma to see what Janet was holding but from the way she
waved her hands, the zoned-out expression on her face, and the mouthed words
Emma had a pretty good idea what Janet was doing.
"Tell her to stop!" Emma barked
impatiently at Bridgit who looked up from her cell, glanced at Janet then
replied in a conciliatory tone, "She's not hurting anybody."
"She's not helping either!"
Emma replied.
Janet muttered, “It’s
a spell to bring good luck, usually in business, but I think it might be
appropriate in this situation as well."
"What's that," Emma said
with an accusatory tone.
"What's what?" Janet shot
back.
"In your left hand."
"Mandrake root and a pinch of red
clover. I really could use some dragon’s
blood but…."
Janet dug into her backpack and pulled out a small clear glass bottle
containing a red liquid, “…
but this extract of wild beets will have to do.”
"Witch!" Emma shouted.
"Bitch!" Janet replied as
she dropped three dimes into a small, red felt bag then added five drops of
beet extract.
Just then, nearly a foot of rope raced
through Emma’s
hands, burning her palms.
When Ramu's size 13W shoes slipped off
the sewer wall he was sure he was headed for an unfortunate landing but his
right hand maintained its firm grip on the bottom rung. So instead of executing
a belly flop in the dark he remained upright as his Nike's sank into the black
slime that carpeted the sewer’s
floor.
"You OK?" Bridgit said from
above then remembered their system and jerked once on the rope.
Ramu tugged back once.
The round sewer was quite spacious,
with a diameter more than enough to accommodate his six foot two inch height.
To the left, the sewer ran straight - for at least twenty feet - beyond that
the light from his ProTac 2L surrendered to the darkness. To his right however,
the sewer branched left and right. Ramu chose the left - but for no particular
reason. He regretted the decision the moment he noticed the left branch
beginning to narrow about twenty feet from the Y's crotch. This is
impossible! he thought as he dropped to his knees and began crawling on all
fours. Once, then twice, he scraped his tank on the underside of the tunnel
before he decided to turn back. Unfortunately there was no room to turn around so
he had to back out.
{{
}}
Cuppie had only reached the third rung
down when he pinched his nose with the forefinger and thumb on his left hand.
"Jesus, this place stinks!" he said so loudly that his words echoed
thrice off the sewer's walls. The orange light cast by the streetlight overhead
had faded by the time he climbed down two more rungs so he pulled the lighter
from his right pant's pocket and flicked. The blast not only set his clothes on
fire but the force of it blew him out the sewer entrance and three feet into
the air. Fortunately, the driver of the car whose hood he landed on had a fire
extinguisher in his trunk.
{{
}}
" ’dat sound like thunder or an
explosion?" asked Emma.
"I'd go with 'explosion' and
unless you recently contracted some rare condition that resulted in paralysis
of your tongue, moving forward, please pronounce the ‘th’
in that.” Janet said with a sarcastic tone.
Bridgit was the first to notice the
smoke oozing out of the sewer and immediately gave the rope a sharp tug.
{{
}}
Ramu had already re-entered the large
sewer when he felt the signal. He responded with two short jerks then grabbed
the lowest rung of the ladder and began climbing. The search had been a bust
but the explosion, somewhere further down the sewer to his left, had produced
so much grey smoke that there was no point continuing.
Once he returned to ground level,
Bridgit and Heri helped Ramu wrestle free of his tank and straps while he
continued coughing uncontrollably.
"You OK?" Bridgit asked.
"Found nothing, sorry," He
replied in a hoarse voice, coughed twice more then finally managed to take a
deep breath.
The first few notes of Pachel Bell signaled
to Bridgit that computer program had finished its search.
Bridgit scanned the three news
articles found in the search - two from newspapers and one from MacCean - then
said with conviction, "I know where to find the Scotts and Gloria."
"About bloody time Watson!"
said Emma.
"We notifying Rezoski?"
asked Heri.
"No time," Bridgit
responded.
"Jolly good Sherlock. How did you
figure it out?," said Kaseka in an unconvincing British accent.
“Well,” replied Bridgit as she hurried toward
Juggernaut, “As
Holmes said famously in A Study in Scarlett, ‘There is nothing like first-hand
evidence". Which is exactly what I discovered, although it was more
like a clue, but I didn’t
know where it would lead –
until now.”
“And
the clue was?”
asked Kaseka.
“J.A.
Watson, J.A.”
No one spoke during their entire
journey to 3230 Albion Rd., what truckers call "The Backyard" a
curious name for a level, nine acre gravel and broken brick parking lot for
trailers - hundreds of them - all positioned in neat rows.
The Members stood at the entrance to
The Backyard, stunned by the enormity of their task.
"Surely we don't have to check
every trailer," said Keisha with a hopeful tone.
"The J.A. on the Perp's arm
stands for Judas's Army, a motorcycle gang heavily involved with drugs and
prostitution in eastern Ontario and Quebec. About nine years a rival gang, The
Dead Spirits ambushed their clubhouse with automatic weapons and, according to
reports, mortars. Our Perp must have survived somehow, and since the Dead's are
still around, the Perp is undergoing treatment to remove the incriminating
tattoo.
“But
what does this place have to do with…”
“Smashing
question Watson. The J.A.’s
owned this lot before the bank repossessed it.”
"OK. But how is that information
going to help prevent the seven of us from spending the next three weeks
searching every one of these bloody trailers," Kaseka asked.
"Elementary Watson, notice that
the ground is still damp from the rain two days ago? The doors of these babies
are several feet off the ground so the Perps would need a platform or ladder in
order to place the Scott's and Emma inside, so...."
"We look at the ground behind
each trailer until we find one with four impressions in the soft earth."
"From a step-ladder," said
Janet
"Or stool," added Heri
"Exactly!"
The excited members fanned out in The
Backyard - each of them with hope in their hearts and a ProTec flashlight in
their hand.
Within a half hour they heard Heri
shout, "Awesome!"
{{
}}
The Duty Desk Officer was busy filling
out an incident report when an exhausted Robert and Cecile Scott and little
Gloria walked through the front door of Station 52. Mr. and Mrs. Scott each
carried a partially eaten hamburger in their hand while Gloria licked furiously
at a chocolate dipped ice cream cone. Considering what they’d been through, the three former
kidnap victims looked surprisingly calm to the casual observer despite reeking
of sewage.
{{
}}
Gilles was just about to start up his
Soft-tail when his cell beeped to signal an incoming text.
“Damn
kids,” he muttered then shouted toward the
front door of ABC, “Cuppie,
the game is up. Pack our stuff. We’re
flyin’.”
The
End of: THE CASE:
KIDNAPPING THE SCOTTS AND GLORIA
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