Chapter 122: Arrested in Houston

Saturday, June 12, 1971

The bus pulled over on the nearly deserted downtown street with the police car right behind us. We sat there for a moment as another car arrived, its lights flashing as it pulled diagonally in front of the bus.

Penny and Anna stepped off the bus with Tommy behind them, instructing Kip to stay with the girls.

The Deputy stepped out of the car in the rear and approached them but didn’t draw his gun, which was good for him. When he saw Tommy, he said, “Look, man, I’m sorry to have to do this, but I have my orders.”

“What’s going on, Ray?” Tommy asked.

“We’ve been ordered to pick up you and the kid,” he replied. “Grand theft of a police vehicle.”

“What?” cried Anna, before Tommy could say anything.

“Yeah. They appointed Ben the acting sheriff and he’s decided to press charges. The DA told him he was wasting his time, but you know Ben. He and Otis were like this,” as he held up two crossed fingers.

“But he was in pursuit, in the middle of a felony kidnapping of two teens!” Penny exclaimed.

“I’m sorry. If it was up to me, I’d be giving you a medal instead of arresting your ass,” Ray replied.

“This is absurd! I’ve got to call Daddy,” Anna said.

I connected with the General, waking him up. “Sorry to bother you, sir, but we seem to have a complication from last night,” I thought to him. “Here’s your daughter.”

I pushed their conversation to the back of my mind as I made my way down the aisle, stepping off the bus. “Let’s just go with them, Tommy, and get this over with.”

“You’re the boss,” he said without emotion.

“Rules say I gotta put these on you,” Ray said holding up a pair of handcuffs. “But if you promise me no funny business, I’ll put ‘em in front.”

I simply held out my hands, wrists together, saying nothing.

“Okay. You have the right to remain silent...” Ray intoned the now mandatory Miranda Rights.

Tommy and I were led to the patrol car behind the bus and seated in the back seat. Penny was still berating the helpless deputy from the other patrol car.

“Let it go, Penny. It’s not his fault. Just follow us to the station. Anna is talking with her dad right now,” I told her.

I had scanned both of the deputies and they were not happy with their orders, but they had little choice. They were just doing their job, I saw as we headed to the jail.

“Michael, Daddy said to sit tight and not do ANYTHING. He is taking care of this and he doesn’t want you to expose your abilities in any way. Okay?” Anna asked.

“No sweat,” I replied.

“You okay?” I thought to Tommy seated in the back of the car beside me.

“Are you kidding? I’m so pissed, I can’t see straight,” he seethed. “But I’ll stay cool. I heard the lady.”

Then I had an idea. If this acting sheriff wants to play rough, I’ll play his game. I quickly ran it by Penny, Anna, and Kip.

“Whoa! When you play rough, you play rough!” Tommy thought before the others could say anything.

When they could find nothing wrong with my idea, I quickly connected to Vickie.

“Vickie darling, have you told Hanna about us yet?” I was referring to our empathic abilities, which Hanna had glimpsed a little of earlier. Vickie had asked me if she could tell Hanna about it and I had agreed. Now I needed Hanna, so I hoped she had already told her.

“Oh my god! You’re not lying!” Hanna squealed.

“Give us a few minutes, Michael,” Adriana added.

“Okay. No hurry. It’s just that Tommy and I have been arrested and are on our way to jail. So whenever you get around to us...” I said teasing her a little.

“Arrested?” Vickie and Adriana exclaimed together.

I quickly replayed what had happened and what my idea was. Then left them to deal with how to make it happen.

It was almost midnight when we arrived at the station and I was amazed at first, by how busy the place was. We were led through a small side door and stopped before a wire cage to deposit the contents of our pockets. They took my Rolex, of course. However, I was surprised when they took my tie, my belt and my shoe laces as well.

Tommy looked at Ray who said, “You know the drill. Lead the way.”

So Tommy led us down the corridor to another set of locked doors. Once through the doors, there was another grilled cage and a female deputy asked for my right hand. Applying a black ink to my fingertips, she quickly rolled each one on a paper card, re-inked them and repeated the process. Then she handed me a tissue.

After she fingerprinted Tommy, Ray then escorted us through another locked door and into the bull pen. A dozen desks sat back-to-back, each with a chair on the end for ‘guests’. “You go see McGillis,” Ray told Tommy. “I’ll take the kid.”

Tommy looked up at a very young deputy standing next to his desk.

“Tommy, go easy on him, okay?” Ray asked. “He’s young and just doing what he was told.”

Tommy nodded once to Ray, then looked his question at me.

“Just keep your cool. Help is on the way,” I thought. “And if you see this acting sheriff, let me know.”

“Will do,” Tommy grinned.

Ray indicated the metal chair at the end of his desk. “If you’ll promise to be good, I can take those off of you,” he told me indicating the metal bracelets.

I just held them up for him to unlock, which he did.

He started filling out the paperwork by hand. Something seemed strange or out of place. It was then that I realized there wasn’t a computer terminal in sight. Sometimes, I forget what it was like before they took over our lives.

I kept my answers short and simple. Ray got a little rattled when I told him I lived on the rail car for right now. He kept pressing until I contacted Catherine who gave me her address on Long Island. After all, I had lived there prior to the accident. Then she gave me Sarah’s address in Tennessee, which is the address they had used in the emancipation decree. So I explained that to Ray. This was already getting more complex than what they usually faced, but Ray was a veteran officer and just wrote everything down. He’d let someone else straighten it out.