It normally took Amy Heron one-half hour to complete her walk from the supermarket but on this particular Saturday morning she did it in about 20 minutes.

Why was the 65 year old woman in such a hurry? It was the photograph she had seen on the front page of the local paper. She had been idly scanning the headlines on newspapers and magazines while she waited for her turn to pay for groceries when the picture caught her attention.

Despite it having been years since she’d seen that face, the recognition was instantaneous. She didn’t need a second look to know who it was. It was the diplomat Robert Turner. His thick thatch of brown hair had started to turn grey and there were some age lines on his face but it was him all right. She could never forget that face or the ordeal she and her friends had gone through.

Amy’s mind was drifting back to an event that had happened 40 years before. There had been four of them, all nurses and so full of noble ideals they thought tending and caring for sick and poverty stricken people in a strange, foreign land could make a difference. At first it had been fun and exciting but then reality set in and they realized they were in a lot of trouble.

Amy was brought back to the present by a nudge on her shoulder and someone saying,” You’re next ma’am.” She didn’t realize she’d spent so long starring at that face out of her past that she was holding up the line.

Amy grabbed a copy of the paper and quickly paid for her purchases. Once out of the store, she stopped long enough to take another look at the picture and read the caption that said Robert was going to be visiting the city in a couple of weeks.

With that, Amy was homeward bound, walking as fast as she could with her bag of groceries in one hand and the paper clutched firmly in the other. Her thoughts were a jumble as she marched along the streets at her record setting pace but by the time she had arrived at her house huffing puffing from her strenuous workout she knew what she had to do.

The first thing was to tell the others to let them know that Robert was going to be in town. Next they must decide what they were going to do about it. They only had a couple of weeks but surely they could do something to make sure he didn’t escape with his past deeds unnoticed.

When Amy reached her house she barely stopped long enough to catch her breath before she was on the phone to her friend Winnie whose reaction was immediate.

“Robert Turner in town, what are we going to do about it? Remember the way he treated us. Kept us down in the basement of his house with just a bit of food and water for days while the authorities searched everywhere for us. Then when things got too hot and the authorities were closing in on him, he moved us to the top section of his old barn. Remember how we were able to look down through bales of hay and see the police all over his yard. Winnie finally stopped talking when she ran out of breath and Amy was able to interject something.

“But we did finally managed to escape from Robert’s premises and make our way across the border to safety,” she reminded Winnie.

“Still, never the less, Robert has remained silent all these years and it’s time the rest of the world knew what he did,” Winnie concluded.

“I agree,” said Amy. “I’m going to call the others and we’ll plan something to make sure everybody knows about his past deeds.”

As soon as Amy finished talking to Winnie she dialed up Susan, the third member of the nursing group and explained the situation. Although she hadn’t been feeling that well and was living a couple of hundred miles away in another town, Susan vowed to be there when Robert finally got what was coming to him.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world and if you need any money to hire somebody to help us, just let me know and I’ll throw in as much as I can,” Susan promised.

The next call Amy made was to the fourth member of their group. Caroline at 75, was the oldest of the group and in frail condition but she too was very enthusiastic about Amy’s plans for Robert.

“What do you think, should we hire somebody to help us or do you think we can do it by ourselves,” Amy asked her old friend.

“Of course we’ll have to hire somebody. After all, we’re all old ladies and none of us has done anything like this before,” Caroline quickly replied.

“Okay, I’ll ask around and see if we can find somebody that can do the job for a reasonable price,” Amy replied.

“Oh, just a second, I know somebody,” Caroline interrupted. “I think he’s retired from the business now but apparently at one time he was really good at this type of thing. He pulled a few of them off so good that nobody ever found exactly who planned it.”

“Fine, if he’s willing, give him Robert’s schedule and he can go from there. Hopefully we’ll catch Robert by complete surprise and he won’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late,” Amy said.

Amy, Winnie and Susan waited impatiently for several days before Caroline finally got back to them.

“I was right, I found the perfect guy. He’s a real pro. He told me to just give him the money and he’d handle everything very discreetly,” Caroline gushed enthusiastically. He promised me Robert won’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late and nobody will have a clue that we’re involved,” she added.