Chapter 21: I Don’t Think So

I’d stopped Lynn and Erin from storming into the office of the Sunset School. The girls had not come out of the building at the end of the day and after our experiences with the principal and the teachers earlier today Lynn and Erin were ready to kill someone. Literally.

“Are you relaxed now?”

“Not if you don’t get out of my way!”

“Lynn, we can’t just charge in there. The girls could be late for a very good reason. It might just be that the teachers want to meet with us. So, relax.”

She paused for a bit and then nodded. I took her by the hand and we went into the school’s office, went to the counter, and addressed the secretary sitting at a desk behind the counter.

“Hi, I think we need to speak to the Principal.”

“And who are you?”

“We are the O’Dells and our children didn’t come out of the building at the end of school today.”

“Oh. Yes. Just a moment.”

The woman picked up her phone and pushed a single button on the phone.

“They’re here,” was all she said and hung up.

A door to our right opened and the principal, Mrs. Joan Crawford came out, alone, and walking with stiff posture. She walked right up to us and spoke quickly.

“What do you want?”

Lynn lost it.

“What do we want? We want our children, bitch! Now. Right now or I’m going to tear this place down brick by brick until I find them.”

Mrs. Crawford was taken aback by the viciousness of Lynn’s verbal assault. Her posture changed slightly and was about to speak when Erin laid into her.

“My wife is the calm one in our family. Where are my babies? If you want to be able to walk out of this building today you damned well better get them. I’ve lost one daughter to a shooting and I’m not going to lose another for any reason. Get them. NOW!”

“Call the police!” the principal said to the secretary.

“Yes, you do that. They’ll want to investigate the kidnapping of our children.”

The principal looked smug and said calmly, “What children? What were their names?”

“The O’Dell children! Margaret Erin, Paula Erin, Penelope Erin,” Erin responded immediately.

“And Genevieve Lynn and Erin Lynn.

“I don’t recall any children here by those names. You are mistaken, please leave the building.”

When Principal Crawford said those words, a 5’9”, buxom, enraged, blonde, mama bear came across the school offices counter and dove for the principal’s throat. Before I could get a hold of her, Erin had Crawford by the throat and was squeezing as hard as she could. The secretary screamed and ran out of a door at the far side of the office.

Erin was on top of the woman, who was now clearly in distress, before I leapt over the counter and grabbed her arms to pull them away from the principal’s neck. While I did that Lynn ran around the counter and through the swinging half door. She ran to the door the secretary had gone through. She scanned the room, seeing a door to the outside, she ran to the door and saw the secretary running towards the road.

“Erin! Erin! The babies aren’t in here. Check their classrooms!”

Lynn took off out the office door as she yelled at her wife. Erin heard and took off over the counter and towards the central hub. I quickly followed. Lynn ran to B 106, Erin to B 103 and I took off down the “C” wing to C 113. My room was empty so I went back to the central hub and looked down the “B” wing to see my two wives crying in each other’s arms.

I ran to them, took them in my arms and said, “Come on. Let’s get back to the office. The police should be here by now.”

As soon as I said the word ‘police’ Lynn and Erin separated and we ran back to the office finding the door locked. We checked the doors on either side of the office door and found one open. It appeared to be a teacher’s lounge and had an open door to the office. No one was there. The principal had taken off or gone to a more secure location. There were also no police.

That was strange. I would imagine that a call to the police from a school would bring out everyone from the cops to the National Guard but no one was in the driveway except for our van. At that point I picked up the office phone and dialed 9-1-1.

“What are you doing, Paul?” Lynn asked.

“I have a bad feeling that they didn’t call the police. Lynn, call Margaret Williams and get her over here as well.”

“Hello. What is your emergency?”

“I’m at the Sunset School and my children are missing. The principal is not here and neither are any of the teachers.”

“What is your name, sir?”

“My name is Paul O’Dell and I’m the girl’s father. There are five girls missing!”

“Just a moment, sir.”

There was a short pause and the dispatcher came back. “OK sir. I have a couple of units on the way.”

“Did you already have units coming? The principal told the secretary to call the police earlier.”

“I’m sorry sir but I have not call on the board from the Sunset School.”

“Thank you. Should I hold on until the police show up?”

“Yes please.”

“OK.”

“Margaret Williams.”

“Margaret! This is Lynn O’Dell. Our children are missing from the Sunset School!”

“What!?”

“Paul is talking to the police right now. What should we do?”

“First, are you sure?”

“Yes, Paul, Erin and I went to their classrooms and the principal told us our girls were never here.”

“What!?”

“That’s right. What do we do? Can you come to the school?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Margaret Williams disconnected the call and Lynn dropped her hand to her side and walked to Erin and leaned on the tall woman’s shoulder.

“I’m going out front to wait for the police. You two stay here in case the girls suddenly show up. If the principal or the teachers show up, don’t kill them until we find about the girls.”

“OK, Lover.”

I took off for the front door and ran out to the van. I opened the driver’s door and took out the folder that had all of the registration papers in it. Lynn had left it in there this morning and we never thought to take it in with us when we went looking for the girls at the end of the school day.

Not five minutes later, three police cars came hauling ass into the driveway, sirens blaring and lights flashing. One pulled up behind the van and one next to the van. The third parked on the curb behind the first car. Police officers immediately flew out of each car and some ran inside the school while two came to me.

“I’m Paul O’Dell. I called you. My wives are inside.”

“Please explain to me what’s going on.”

“Well this morning we came here and enrolled five of our children into the school. One first grader and four kindergartners. When we came back to pick them up, they didn’t come out. We went inside and asked for the principal. She told us that our girls were not there and never had been.”

“OK, please show me your ID and then we’ll go inside.”

I took out my wallet and removed my driver’s license and gave it to the officer. He looked at it and then back at me.

“You the O’Dell who has all the kids and had the home invasion last year?”

“Yes, sir. So you can understand why my family is a bit edgy about five of our girls missing.”

“I remember being on the response team to that. Come with me.”

The officer turned and headed for the front door of the school. I followed him and the other officer followed me. We got to the door and he opened it for me. I entered, his partner followed and then he came in. Just inside the door he got in front of me and stopped me with a hand gesture.

“Bill, check in the office.”

The other office went to the door with the big “School Office” sign on it. He grasped the door handle and tried to turn it, finding it locked. He looked through the window and rapped on it several times. A female officer came and opened the door. As soon as it opened I heard Erin crying. I pushed past the officer and moved quickly to my big, blonde wife.

“Paul, they say that they called the principal and she says that the girls were never here.”

“That’s bullshit! Here are the registration forms we got this morning,” I held the folder over my head.

“May I see that?”

“Officer, please don’t take this wrong but right now the forms in this folder are the only proof that our girls were brought here today. I don’t want to let it out of my sight. Lynn, would you please call John Smith and have him come over here ASAP.”

“And who is John Smith, Mr. O’Dell?” said the officer who was apparently the senior officer.

“He is our family lawyer. He handles all of the legal stuff we have to deal with.”

“OK. And ... Lynn? What is your relationship to Mr. and Mrs. O’Dell?”

“I am their other wife.”

That stopped everything in its tracks.

“Officer...”

“James.”

“Officer James, I have papers in this folder that will explain all this. Erin, the blonde, and Lynn, the redhead, and I, are in a legally binding civil union. We have another wife, Blossom O’Dell. Right now she is at home with our other twelve children.”

I paused at that point because I knew that some sinking in of the information had to take place. I opened the folder and removed the copy of the contract. I presented the paper to Officer James. He looked at it.

“Paul,” Lynn said. “John said he would be here in about fifteen minutes.”

“OK. Have we heard anything from Margaret Williams?”

“No Paul.”

“Margaret Williams? From Family Services?”

“Yes. She’s been working with us since our oldest daughter was shot and killed last year. But none of this is helping to find our five daughters right now.”

Officer James spoke into the mic on his shoulder, “Unit 300, 302 have you found anything?”

“302, negative. Nobody. No teachers, students, janitors, nobody!”

“Roger that 302. 300 out.”

He looked much more serious when he addressed me and my wives.

“That’s just strange. No one is here at all. The place is unlocked and wide open and no one is here.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.”

He walked away talking into his mic as he went.

“Lynn, call Margaret again, please.”

Lynn pushed one button on her phone and it was answered almost immediately.

“Margaret Williams.”

“Margaret, this is Lynn O’Dell. Do you know when you’ll be here?”

“As soon as the police at the door let me in.”

“Shit! The woman from the Department of Family Services in out front and the police won’t let her in,” she said to no one in particular.

One of the officers left the office and in a few seconds Margaret Williams rushed into the office.

“Hi, everyone. Who’s in charge?”

“I am, ma’am. Sergeant Leroy James,” he said offering his hand.

“I’m Margaret Williams, the head of DFS,” she said to the officer and taking his offered hand. “What happened?”

“These folks came to pick up their children at the end of the school day and were told that their children were never here. As far as we can tell no one is in the building.”

“No one?”

“No ma’am. Not even a janitor.”

“Where is everyone?”

“We have no idea. I have a unit dispatched to the home of Mrs. Joan Crawford, the school principal but they haven’t arrived yet.”

“I assume that you called her.”

“Yes ma’am. She claimed that there are no O’Dell children enrolled here.”

“Has anything like this happened here before?”

“I don’t know. Since I’ve been in Boise I don’t recall anything.”

“Me either,” Margaret answered.

“So what are we supposed to do?”

“About what?” a voice said from the office door.

It was our lawyer, John Smith. He walked in and greeted Margaret Williams and then Sergeant James.

“Hello John. John, five of our girls were enrolled in this school this morning and when we came to pick them up they were not here and the principal said they were not enrolled here. No one can find them. We need to have all the papers in this file copied for the police and with a few exceptions they are the only copies available. Would you please copy them and see that they are notarized as to being correct?”