Chapter 4

By the time Monday came, the world had improved considerably. Beth and I were back in operating condition, partly because we had not indulged in sex since our first night. However, Dad had helped me get the beds switched so that Beth and I were now sleeping in the same regular bed. That alone was great as far as we were concerned.

The only comment I got from Dad about our new status was a warning not to discuss it with anyone because of the legal ramifications. There was a bill in the legislature to legalize incest, but nobody expected it to pass. Until it did, Beth and I had to be quiet about our new status. Not only were we siblings, but we were too young to marry in this state. Oh, well, it was not the only secret that we were keeping.

As far as school was concerned, it was back to business as usual. We tailed Rodney Johnston as much as we could. I was not completely sure what the situation was developing into because Johnston stared at Beth very hard a couple of times, sort of as if he suspected that she was tailing him. We hoped not, because he was our only link to the drug business.

It turned out that Johnston had “lettered” this season while playing power forward for the high school basketball team, who had won the state championship in our division. That automatically pushed him one level higher than most kids in the school, so we were going to need solid evidence if we were going to make a drug peddling accusation stick against him. He had already received offers from several colleges, and he had some feelers out from a couple of pro teams. Yes, Rodney Johnston was a big fish in our pond.

At last, we got a break. I was able to get pictures of Johnston making a sale to a cheerleader. I couldn’t help wondering if she got a discount because I saw him rub his hand over her pussy under her uniform. He was smelling his fingers as he walked away. The girl frowned, but stuck her packet of powder under her bra. Yes, I got all of that in photographs. Later that same week, Beth got a photo series of Johnston selling to a boy. We thought that he was a Junior.

The pressure was now on us because Johnston would graduate with this year’s class, and we had to get some potent evidence if we were to catch him while he was still a student. The importance of that was we needed him to have a felonious connection between the high school and the drug ring.

Dad was pretty sure that Johnston would break rather easily if the police put pressure on him. Hopefully, he could name members of the adult drug ring that was pushing the drugs into the high school.

Suddenly, we got even luckier and were able to hear a conversation between Johnston and his supplier when he was making a buy at the little pond. We figured that we had all of the photos that we needed, so we were trying to get an audio tape of them talking.

Dad had been able to borrow a super sensitive tape recorder from the company where he worked. It was one that was used by another department in some of their experiments, and it had all kinds of adjustments on it. Yes, we got all of a relatively long conversation between Johnston and George; we never got his last name.

For some reason, in this particular case, George counted the money that Johnston had given him, and George spoke out loud as he counted the money. At the end of the counting, George said, “Okay, this is for 45 packets of heroin. Are you sure you don’t want any cocain?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Cocain doesn’t move well in this crowd. It takes too long to get addicted.”

“Okay, what ever you say. I’ll see you back here on Thursday.”

“Wait a minute, please. I may need some help. I think that I may have been fingered. Some bitch has been following me, and she’s not a customer.”

“Okay, do you have a name or a good description? The regular rates will apply.”

“I have a name, Beth Argo. What will you do to her?”

“We’ll snatch her. If she looks good enough, we might sell her to Mexico. Is she a blond? If she is, we could send her to Saudi Arabia. They go for blonds there. I don’t understand it, but the customer is always right.”

“That sounds good. I’ll get my cut if you do sell her, won’t I?”

“Sure. See you on Thursday.”

I almost charged the both of them when I heard that about snatching Beth. Thankfully, I was able to control my temper, but it was really difficult. This little discussion surely was enough to warrant arresting Rodney Johnston and George. We needed to talk to Dad about this when he got home after work.

I waited until Johnston had disappeared before I went to meet Beth. I had the recorder with me, so she may not have heard the part about kidnapping her and selling her as a prostitute or a sex slave. If she had heard, I am surprised that she didn’t attack right away. On the other hand, she may have been so shocked that she was frozen in place. Well, I would know in a minute.

As soon as I got to her, she asked, “Did I hear it right? Are they planning to kidnap me and sell me as a slave to Mexico or Saudi Arabia?”

“Yeah, Beth, that’s what I heard. Don’t worry, they won’t do that because we will stop them. We need to talk to Dad as soon as he gets home so that we can handle this correctly. I’m proud of your self-control, though. I almost charged at them when they talked about kidnapping you, but we do have bigger fish to catch, and maybe this is enough to let us do it.”

When school let out, we exited like everybody else, but I had Beth walk with me to a vacant area in the parking lot. I called Mom. “Can you pick us up right now instead of us walking home like we usually do? I have a bad feeling about doing that. I’ll explain when we see you.”

Mom picked us up 15 minutes later, and I told her about the possible threat of kidnapping Beth and selling her as a sex slave. I should have waited until we got home to tell her all of this. She nearly wrecked us when she heard the full story, she was so upset. She said, “Bob, call your father right away. We need to discuss this with him as soon as possible.”

I just finished talking to Dad as we drove into our driveway. We went into the house from the carport. In this climate, very few people have garages. I went to every door and window and checked to make sure that they were all locked. I was going to watch for Dad and let him in through the door to the carport. I had told him about the kidnapping plot, but I did not say anything else. I didn’t want to delay his return home.

He came in a whole lot sooner than it usually took him to get home from work. “Okay, what’s this I hear about a plot to kidnap Beth and sell her as a sex slave?”

I didn’t blame him one bit for being upset, and he was even more so when he heard the whole story. I played back the tape of the conversation between Johnston and George. Dad said, “We need the cops in on this right away. As far as I am concerned, this has become personal. I’m calling Det. Carlson right away.”

Dad called, talked for a few minutes, and slammed the phone down. “The cops are not going to do anything. It is up to us to protect Beth. They claim that they cannot do anything until a crime has been committed. Okay, it’s up to us, is it? We’ll show them that they cannot push the Argos around. All of you, come with me.”

Dad led us into his office and opened a cabinet that he always kept locked. When we saw inside, Beth and I gasped. Mom just looked concerned. Inside the cabinet was a regular arsenal of guns and knives. He turned to Mom. “June, you used to be a damned good shot with a 9 mm. Do you think that you can still handle one?”

“Yes, I know I can with this kind of incentive. Give me my old Glock, if you still have it.”