Special agent Chris Carter and his assistant John Travis waited patiently on the red brick porch out front of the villa. They were horse playing like usual as they waited for someone to come to the door. Carter balled up his fist and gave Travis a pretty good charley horse on the side of his leg. If they were keeping score Carter was definitely one up on his partner. They both had their backs to the door and admired the beautifully cut lawn that had been cut diagonally and devoid of weeds or crab grass. Some of the other houses in the neighborhood had signs on their front lawn that read " Vote Quimby".
Carter looked at his watch which read 1:30 pm. He had been up since 4:30 am and was feeling kind of groggy. The front door opened up real slowly this time and Alfred the butler came to greet them at the door. His bright white hair was neatly slicked back but his matching colored bushy goatee still had crumbs in it as if he had just been eating.
"Please come in gentlemen." Said Alfred walking them into the living room.
Judge Anderson was sitting in a brown leather easy chair crocheting what looked to be a red scarf. This was something he always did when he had too much bothering him. On the judges lap was a soft red velvet blanket covered in panda bears. The judge did not look good at all. The purple bags under his eyes revealed that he had been up all night.
When Carter and Travis wended through the living room and sat down across from him the judge didn't even look up. They both watched the judge crochet for a minute before Carter finally spoke up.
"We think we may have some leads as to your daughter's whereabouts."
The judge put down the crochet needles and raised an eye brow as if he was getting ready to talk to a child about smoking.
"Leads? All you have is leads? I'm still missing my daughter!" He said with his eyes filling with anger.
Carter and Travis both backed up in their chair as if a canine was in their face about to attack. The judge gave a cold hard stare while his upper lip curled as if he was thinking about biting them himself. Agent Sanders walked into the room carrying a tape recorder. Carter wondered if maybe Sanders was one of those guys that cuts his own hair in the mirror because his fade looked very much messed up.
Sanders said " The ransom call came in around midnight just after you guys left." He said reassuringly while placing the tape recorder on the coffee table. He looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep either and he smelled like a stinky armpit.
Sanders pushed play and they all sat at the edge of their seats to listen as Tina's voice came on the recorder. Carter and Travis listened intently while Travis took out his legal pad and took notes. The judge became teary eyed and used the scarf he was making to wipe his cheeks.
"I don't understand something." Said Carter," Why did this guy give a 78 hour deadline instead of a 72 hour deadline which would be exactly 3 days?"
"Maybe he's just a bone head." Sniffed the judge. " Or he purposely left us a clue." Piped up Travis. Sanders rewound the tape and played it again but turned up the volume a little this time. They all looked at each other bemused as they heard Tina's voice say " Oh, and one last thing. He says if cancer could talk he'd like to be a public speaker so he could spread cancer all throughout the United States."
What on earth was that supposed to mean? Carter scratched his head and looked around at the animal heads staring back at him." This talk of cancer has us a little baffled."
"Yeah, me too." Said the judge with an imploring look.
Travis nudged Carter and whispered " Steve" into his ear. Carter straightened up in his chair and cleared his throat." I'm afraid we have some disturbing news."
"Oh?" Said the judge embracing himself for just about anything.
"We tried to talk to Tina's boyfriend Steve this morning but his mother said he's missing. Turns out he never came home from the races."
The judge squeezed the scarf while staring at the wooden floor. He purposely kept his head down so they couldn't read his face." You're not suggesting that her own boyfriend kidnapped her are you?"
Carter wiped some fuzz off his pant leg and flicked it onto the floor." At this point we can't rule anything out. This could be their elaborate scheme to extort money from you. However the evidence left behind suggests that the perp may have been someone you dealt with in your courtroom." Carter nudged Travis signaling him to open the brief case. Travis jumped a little in surprise as if he had been day dreaming. He was wondering if the judge was going to offer more of that wonderful hazelnut coffee."Oh yeah." Said Travis opening up the brief case. He reached in and pulled out several computer printed pages and handed them to the judge.
"We stopped by Cozy Ginger's Hair Salon and got a list of names of all their customers they've had in the last six months. As you can see there's a lot of them. The majority of the names are female and we verified that the perfume on the business card was woman's perfume. It is possible the suspect is a woman."
The judge was still staring at the ground lost in is own little world. All he could think about was Tina and Steve and their big kidnapping hoax. She was going to be in so much trouble if he found out that she faked her own kidnapping. After all, she didn't sound that nervous on the phone. The judge quickly skimmed over the names but there must've been hundreds of them.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" He asked. "Just take the time tonight to go over the names and see if any of them jump out at you." Said Travis closing the brief case.
Carter cleared his throat and wiped his sweaty palms on his pant legs." There's more we have to tell you. After the kidnapping the perp left a trail. First at the derelict park where we found the MP3 player. Then at a gas station that was shut down and under construction where we found Tina's prints on a pay-phone. We also found the van used in the kidnapping which got blown up to pieces. We did find the VIN number but the van turned out to be stolen. All this happened in Elkton county right off of Rt.68. We have a team of officers searching through that mountain because we believe they're on foot hiding in the mountains."
The judge had a worried look on his face and he scratched the mole on his neck." She's not suited to be walking through the mountains in that hooters outfit." Protested the judge.
Carter stood up from the couch and reached into his vest pocket. He pulled out a business card embossed with gold ink and a star with a circle around it." We really have to be going but let us know if you recognize any names on these papers. We'll leave these papers with you." He said extending an arm to help up his partner.
Travis paused for a minute before grabbing his hand. Where was the coffee? He felt a rumbling inside his stomach. A sweet aroma lingered in the air and Travis recognized it as a freshly baked cheese cake. He reluctantly grabbed his hand hoping that if he held off for one more second the judge would offer them some cheese cake or at least a cup of coffee.
" Let's go." Said Carter pulling his hand and almost reading his mind.