10: Spinning Wheels
The door opened before Robert even had a chance to knock. Light came pouring out of the house into the darkness, illuminating Robert; but preventing him from seeing the person standing in the doorway.
“I saw you pull up, you must be Robert. I’ve been expecting you since my son told me he ran into you. No need to stand there looking awkward, you know who I am, so come on in, sit down.”
Robert nodded his head and walked into the house. It was a quant house, nothing extravagant, very old fashioned looking. He looked at Mrs. Gatchet with her graying hair and kindly smile, she seemed a joyful person, but her eyes told him her life hadn’t been, and wasn’t all smiles and laughs.
“In here.”
He followed her into a living room with antique furniture and sat down where she motioned. She offered him tea, he accepted, even though tea wasn’t really one of his likes. She left and came back in three minutes.
“Already had the water boiling, you caught me at tea time. Here you are.”
“Thank you.”
“Your welcome, now tell me, what has brought you out here after dinner hours.”
“Well, first off I would like to thank you for your letter, it really did help me and I found myself back in good graces you could say, but I have another matter I wanted to discuss.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, but you certainly do look the worse for wear. Not sleeping well I presume. What would you like to get off your chest?”
“I’m afraid to bring this up, but it is about your husband. I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but your husband escaped last night and was found this morning and returned, but the police suspect him of murdering someone while he was out.” He watched Mrs. Gatchet’s expression change as a worried look came over her. She wiped her eyes and sat there starring into space.
“I’m sorry to bring this news, I’m sure that I am breaking something by telling you before the police, but I don’t believe their suspicions. I don’t have much to go on, but it just doesn’t sit right with me and I’m willing to find out what is going on here.”
She gazed at him with red eyes, “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
“Well I have a thought that might help out, though it might sound crazy. I’m going to suggest you have your husband moved here. I’ve already talked to the local nursing home and they are willing to hire someone to see after your husband. They seem to know you and your family and would love to help.”
Robert could see Mrs. Gatchet starting to look angry; after all he was prying into her life.
“Look your son said you haven’t been able to visit him, so this will move him closer, and I have this feeling that he is getting blamed for something he didn’t do. They think he is escaping on occasion and killing people. Now one could wait this out, but if this rumor is being spread by someone to frame him and we can prove it wrong, then it would remove their fall guy, so to speak.”
“Look I appreciate your concern, but I still don’t understand what you are saying. You think someone is using my husband as a fall guy? None of this makes any sense and I don’t think you have any business with any of this, as I said in my letter. I think you are letting yourself get carried away.”
Robert buried his head in his hands. What was he doing here? Why did he think this was necessary, he would get in trouble if anyone found out he had come here. He was supposed to be working on theft, not murders and mental wards. He got up and mumbled his apologies and started for the door.
Mrs. Gatchet watched him go, feeling confused and sorry for this man. She didn’t really follow what he was saying, but he had touched on something she had long wished for, moving her husband closer, maybe this was a sign.
“Robert, I’m sorry, I’m afraid you have touched on a sore spot in my life.”
Robert turned to see a more sober Mrs. Gatchet.
“If you think moving my husband is a good idea then I guess I am willing to try it, I really would like to have him closer, in fact I’ve tried on a couple of occasions, but the place where he is now won’t hear of it. If you think you can get this done, then it will help me out, and I don’t believe my husband would kill anyone, I don’t think he has become Frennur, no matter how much he has lost.”
Robert nodded, the idea still seemed desperate, but something told him he should do it. “Let’s do it then. Go to the nursing home here tomorrow morning and get the paperwork done, I will handle the other end. Let’s keep this quiet for now, outside your family that is, if my half brained idea is going to work I’m going to need some time to see things through.”
Mrs. Gatchet nodded, then without another word Robert walked to the door and left. As he pulled out of the driveway and started home he once again thought he was going crazy, but crazy or not, he had already set things in motion.
When he got home, once again he found he could not sleep. If anything, his mind was more preoccupied with this new task. He was taking a big risk with this and with no clear advantage. If Guy found out what he was doing he would certainly let him go on the spot, but there would be plenty of court followings after, for him and Guy (who let him go down here to begin with).
Morning dawned and he went into the office, nothing new came about by the time lunch rolled around. Robert told Jeremy he was going to step out for lunch, but would be back in a few hours. He headed over to the mental hospital. By using his badge he managed to get a meeting with Gatchet’s doctor. He explained the moving of Gatchet closer to his family and got Mrs. Gatchet and the nursing home on the phone. The doctor was not thrilled with the idea, but given Robert’s status and the family’s approval, he didn’t have much of a choice. Robert told the doctor that this was not to be published news and made sure that Bart would be moved that evening, he wanted this done before any press or anyone above him could find out.
He left the hospital two hours later, he was going to be a little late, but he doubted Jeremy would mind. Robert got in his car and started driving back. He knew the area well enough now to know of a shortcut through a residential area, so he took it. He had rolled the windows down to get some fresh air, which helped keep him awake and keep his mind clear. As he passed a house he heard a scream. On instinct he slowed down and stopped at the next house. He waited a few moments but didn’t hear anything else. He parked the car. Something about that cry didn’t sound right; it sounded desperate. He got out and walked up to the driveway, it didn’t look like anyone was home. This could be a domestic dispute, which was well out of his jurisdiction, but he had to find out and calling it in would take too long. The police patrol through this area was over by a half hour. He walked up to the door and noticed it was slightly ajar. He reached for his gun, only to remember he wasn’t allowed to carry one. He slowly pushed the door opened and heard a man telling someone to stop screaming. It came from the back of the house. He crept in and peered into a family room. There was a man trying to restrain a teen age girl and keep her mouth covered. He was threatening to kill her if she made a noise. He was holding a pistol in the other hand, the arm of which was wrapped around the girls waste. Robert broke into a run and before the guy knew what had happened Robert had wrenched the gun hand from around the girl and around the man’s back, causing the girl to break free. She screamed and ran into the bathroom next to them locking it behind her. The man tried to struggle; Robert shoved him down on the ground and pried the gun from the man’s hand, which was still pressed into his back.
“What are you doing here?” The man started screaming and tried to shake free. Robert put the gun to the man’s head; he didn’t have time for this. He pulled the trigger, the gun went off. The man went quiet. It took a few seconds for the man to realize Robert hadn’t shot him, but a few inches from the man’s head lay a bullet hole in the floor.
“I’m not playing games here,” Robert said. “I want an answer now.”
“I was just, just tryi
ng to take that laptop and blueray player, honest. I didn’t know the girl was here, when she came in I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t really going to kill her, honest.”
Robert couldn’t believe his ears. He had been on this case weeks with no clue, then on a side track, happened to stumble right into an act of robbery. He had no time to figure out the odds on that.
“Are you part of the wholesale theft going on in this city?” He added some pressure on the man’s head with the tip of the gun to remind the man of his situation.
“Yes, but I’m not the only one.”
“Who is heading all this up?”
“I don’t know; we get a call on where to be at what time, and what items are of value.”
“Where do you drop the things off?”
“We don’t, we get to do whatever we want with them.”
“What, that doesn’t make sense!”
“That’s what I thought, but after we all saw the first couple robberies go off smoothly it only made sense to jump on board.”
Robert heard sirens off in the distance; the girl must have called the police. His first instinct was to run. This was his case, but he wasn’t supposed to be in a house with a gun pointed at a person. There was no use. He wouldn’t get away fast enough and the girl and man had already seen him; besides, he had to make sure this man didn’t get away, his information would be useful. His mind started racing, the information the man gave him didn’t add up. This didn’t sound like grand theft. There wasn’t enough of a money trail. He heard cars screech to a halt outside and soon heard the door swing open; he looked up. Police entered the room with guns held on him.
“Drop the gun!”
Robert dropped the gun and raised his hands. The cop closest to him recognized him.
“Mr. Drake, what are you doing here?”
At this Robert stood up and backed off of the man. The other cops came in and pulled the man up taking him out to one of the cars. “I was out on lunch break and took a shortcut through the neighborhood and heard a scream and noticed the door was open. I came in to investigate and found this man holding a girl, who’s in the bathroom now, must live here. I wrestled him down and took his gun and the girl ran into the bathroom. I got the man to tell me that he was trying to steal this laptop and blueray player to sell later.”
“Is that your bullet hole in the carpet?”
“I’m afraid I lost my temper a little.”
The cop smirked at this. “Well you had better get outside; we are going to need to get a statement from you. We will try to get the girl out of the bathroom and get her statement as well.”
Robert headed out the door. As he walked down the driveway a car pulled up and two worried looking parents got out. They started to run up the driveway and were stopped by a cop. Robert cut in: “I’m guessing you live here?”
“Yes we do, what is going on, is our daughter okay?”
“Your daughter is fine, she walked in on a burglar, who tried to grab her, but we got here just in time to get him down. Go on into the house, they are trying to get her out of the bathroom to give a statement.”
The cop let them go and nodded at Robert. Robert started walking down to the car that was holding the thief when Jeremy pulled up. He got out and walked over to Robert.
“I heard the news, I still can’t believe it. How in the world did you catch one of our thief’s? I haven’t passed anything on yet, but you aren’t even supposed to be working out of the office, why didn’t you call this in?”
“I didn’t have time; I already knew the patrol had gone by. Look Jeremy, before we go on can we take a walk? I want to talk to you away from prying ears.”
“Sure.” Jeremy told the men with him to take charge and then started walking with Robert.
“What’s going on, what did you find out?”
“I got the man down and found out he didn’t know who he was stealing for, but there were a lot of different people involved. He said he got a house number, a time, and a list of objects to look for. This is where it gets strange; the man said they get to keep the stolen objects. They can do whatever they want with them.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, though it explains the lack of money trail. It would also appear that our office is either transparent, or this is an inside job, which we have already checked twice.”
“I’ve been thinking the same things. Look, we already checked inside our doors and the robberies happen too often for someone to study our routes, so this leads me to think someone else privy to your information is involved, maybe even someone from the FBI.”
“What! Robert, are you sure? You haven’t been getting any sleep lately and you’ve had a lot on your mind, don’t you think you are overreacting?
“It is very possible, but I don’t think so. This would still involve one of your employees, but all they would be doing is allowing the FBI to get current information, maybe without knowing what was being done with it. Given that I am here, they might think it was to keep an eye on me, I don’t think either of us has checked that.”
“True, but this just seems too…”
“Too far fetched, I agree, but I think this is all a diversion; a distraction if you wish, which I would say has been working. Why else send people information on stealing items only to let them keep them? It just doesn’t make sense.”
“No it doesn’t. If what you say is true Robert, then what would we do about it, you are already going to be in trouble with the FBI for disobeying orders.”
“You have no idea Jeremy. Look, forget what I’ve told you. This is well over our heads and the more you get involved the more danger you will be in. If what I am saying is true, then we are dealing with someone too involved in something to back out now, they won’t take kindly to anyone that is starting to figure it out. Here is what I want you to do. We are going to go back and you are going to arrest me.”
“What!”
“Hear me out. You are going to arrest me for being involved with passing the inside information on to the robbers. Listen, this will get the attention on me and it will also start an outside investigation of the police, which will require you to temporarily stand down, where you can stay home with your family. We don’t want to under estimate out danger here. This removes you from the picture for a while and gets whoever is doing this uncomfortable.
“I think I understand, but I’m not sure things will stand up.”
“No, not for long anyway, but maybe long enough for something to fall out. Our target will have to adjust, and just maybe make a mistake. And don’t worry about me, as you have already said, I’m already in trouble, at least I can try to take someone down with me. Have you got this?”
“Yes, I’m still not sure you’re talking sense, but I’m going to trust you on this one.”
Robert and Jeremy turned and walked back to the gathering cops. They approached the house and Robert acted before Jeremy could do anything, to save him some the trouble of explaining.
“Well looks like you got things wrapped up here; I’m going to head back to the office to see what we can do with this new information.” Robert started to head to his car.
“Wait!” A cop shouted, “You haven’t given your statement.”
“I will give it to you back at the office.”
“I’m afraid you have to give it here, proper procedure.”
“Look, I’m tired and if you haven’t noticed, I saved the day, so I’m entitled to a change in the proper procedure.”
Jeremy piped in: “Hey, no need to shout Robert. Why are you in such a hurry?
“I’m not in a hurry, I’m just tired, and I need to think this through.”
Jeremy hardened his look. “You are acting as if you have something to hide? Now that I think about it your appearance here was convenient, trying to get away before we catch on?”
“Oh I see, now you think I’m in on all this! Just had to drop by and ma
ke a call!”
“Careful Robert, you may want to save this for your lawyer.”
“I can’t believe this, I’ve been helping you for weeks and this is all you give me, blames? I don’t think you know who you are dealing with!”
“Perhaps not, but I’m putting you under arrest all the same, just as a precaution.” At this a few cops jumped on Robert and tried to get a hold of him. Robert didn’t make it easy.
“Oh come on Jeremy, on what charges, what are you playing at?”
“On aiding in theft, I think you wanted to meet this thief with new information and when you were caught, were forced to become the hero and turn him over.”
At this Robert tried to struggle free and run, but was brought down hard. As the cops put him into a car he stared at Jeremy with as much hate as he could show: “You will regret this Jeremy, I would watch your back. I would keep an eye on your family if you were wise.”
At this one of the cops shoved him in the car, bumping his head in the process (couldn’t blame him) and slammed the door. The trip to the police headquarters wasn’t as easy as he thought; he had to keep up his act to convince the cop looking back at him. Soon he found himself locked up in a cell and waiting for something to happen, whatever it would be.