Chapter 2: Promises Kept

I went into town the next day about midmorning to visit with some friends before sticking my nose into a hornets nest. I had known the local cops ever since grade school. They were good guys as well as competent officers. They also knew the work I did and were glad to see me when I walked into their downtown office.

"Hey Amigo, How's married life?", Ricky couldn't help envying my redheaded wife and her redheaded cousin from out west. He knew they weren't really cousins, but accepted the lame excuse because it kept the local bible thumpers from expecting him to be the moral police. Being Sheriff and keeping the peace was enough to keep him busy.

"It's great. You should try it." I said as I sat across from him. " The reason I came by today is to ask if you guys would mind if I snoop around a little and see what I can come up with on the kidnapping yesterday."

"If you let me try it, I'll let you snoop around." Ricky didn't bother to hide his lust for my women.

"I'm not a pimp. It's a free country and we can all make choices."

"The feds will be here by lunch. They won't share that opinion. The Mayor's plenty pissed. He has called everybody from the governor on down. He's been pushing every agency in the area to crack down on the local upsurge in criminal activity and I suspect this is a result of that effort. I don't mind you snooping, but share what you find. You may not give a shit about your career but I don't mind telling you I could use the kudos when I apply to the FBI this fall."

"I'll be in touch. I want to go over the crime scene before it gets any older."

"It's been gone over. The only descriptions of the men were vague. The van was plain white without markings and the plates had been removed." Ricky tipped an imaginary hat as I waved over my shoulder and left the building. There wasn't much time to investigate the scene before Uncle Sam got involved.

I arrived at the park only to find the place crawling with kids who had disregarded the bright yellow police line tape and were having a blast destroying any evidence that may have remained.

I sat on a bench in the shade and imagined the events of the kidnapping. There was nothing high tech about it. A simple snatch and run. It was executed very well though. That suggested that the suspects had planned well, and worked together before.

It was to smooth in fact. During the relating of their tale neither Connie or Tera had said that they had heard any of the men saying anything at all. None of the men had talked. They went to work, got the job done and left. They sounded like pros.

There was something bigger going on here. The rise in crime, the influx of gangs, and now a kidnapping to tell the police to stay out of it. This sounded like organized crime to me. But why here in the middle of nowhere?

My train of thought was broken by a little girl sitting down next to me. I looked at her and she must have guessed from my worried look what was on my mind.

"Are you going to find Nick? He was my friend." her blue eyes were sadder than a child's should ever be.

"Yes." I said it with certainty. I didn't know how, but I was confidant about my abilities. She seemed glad someone was going to help.

"I saw what they did to Nick's mom when then they took Nick." the little angel said.

I was wasting time here. If there had been any evidence it was gone by now. I stood to leave when little miss blue eyes said a mouthful. " They must go to school here. They had the same sticker that my brother has on his car. The one that let's him park at school. Will you look for them there?"

From the mouth of babes. I could find out who owned the van and if it had been reported stolen, or not. It was somewhere to start. Ricky hadn't mentioned anything about stickers or vans being stolen. It was movement, and any movement is better than sitting on your ass without a clue.

I talked to the other kids and determined they hadn't been there the day before. I excused myself from little angel eyes and headed back to the sheriff's office to share my lead. I needed to enlist Ricky's help in approaching school security. We needed to know the owners of any white nondescript vans parking at the highschool. He could at least have a list of possible suspects ready for the Feds, and the Mayor.