“I don’t know you.”
Sam defiantly said,
“Yes you do. I told the man in the Factory my name and you were just at my house.”
The man pointed to the sofa and said,
“You both look tired. Go sit on the sofa.”
Gary agreed and was the first to sit. Sam was still loaded with defiance but reluctantly slowly followed. When both were seated and looking forlornly at the man seated by their only escape route, he said,
“Let’s start with my name than shall we. I am Isaac Rutherford, a deputy for Sheriff Cornwall here in Twin Rivers.”
Suddenly relieved that the bad men in the Factory did not capture him, Gary blurted out,
“I know Sheriff Cornwall.”
He then looked to Sam and added,
“Grandma said that he is a good man.”
However, Sam saw a few flaws in the man’s identification and was not as sure as Gary was. Her test for proof started with a good question.
“If you are a policeman how come you are not wearing a uniform?”
“Because I am on night surveillance and don’t need to be in uniform.”
He then looked to Gary and said,
“Somebody broke into your grandmother’s house and did a lot of damage. Because it could not be locked up, the Sheriff thought whoever did it might come back. Plus when you went missing everybody thought you might have to be added to the ‘missing children’ list.”
He then added,
“I presume it was you who went back to the house and stole food.”
When Gary accepted the blame with a nod Isaac said,
“Your grandmother will be very glad to hear that you are safe. She has been worried sick.”
“Where is my grandma?”
Isaac was slow to answer. In fact, he didn’t know.
“The sheriff thought it best to hide her in a safe place. All I know is that she is safe.”
Sam was not impressed and demanded more proof. She snapped,
“Show me your badge.”
Isaac smiled. In fact was impressed with her tenacity. He reached into his pocket and handed her his badge.
After a lengthy inspection, she finally handed it back and said,
“My name is Sam Jackson.”
Isaac thought he might know the name and asked,
“Jackson? Are you Gordy Jackson’s daughter Samantha Jackson?”
She nodded and Gary suddenly looked surprised, laughed and said,
“Samantha? Your real name is Samantha?”
She directed a sneer right into his face and in a very threatening tone hissed,
“Shut up!”
It was clear that they could not stay in the treehouse all night. Isaac wanted a safer hideout just in case the searchers came back and so said,
“We can’t stay here. I want you to come with me to the police station. It’s locked up for the night and nobody is there. Because the people who are after you have large ears everywhere, I don’t want to risk calling the Sheriff to say I found you. He comes in early and that’s when I want you to tell him everything you did and saw up in the Factory.”
After seeing them both nod, he added,
“I mean everything, is that understood?”
Both mumbled,
“Yes sir.”
Chapter 44
The cover of night was kind to the three stealthy shadows sneaking out of the tree house, through the empty block of overgrowth and over to Isaac’s car. With the kids in the back seat, Isaac drove around the neighborhood just to make sure there were no black Cadillac Escalades parked or following them. Once on Maple Street he asked them,
“Are you still hungry? There is a twenty four hour McDonald’s drive through on Maple Street.”
At the thought of real food, very quickly Isaac heard a resounding “yes” and turned left into McDonalds. After a large order of food, he parked in the Maple Mall but closer to the grocery store so nobody would think there was anybody in the police station this late at night. His key got them into the precinct. Once in the entrance he resisted an urge to move his peg to ‘in’. Because the lights were always on, there was no concern of suspicious lights. Isaac directed the kids to the big conference table in the corner of the precinct and said,
“Nobody can see us through the windows from here. Eat what you want. All we have to do now is wait until morning when Sheriff Cornwall comes in.”
Isaac spent most of the night watching Sam and Gary tossing and turning on the sofa. While sitting in his chair, because an hour or two disappeared now and then he was sure he had nodded off a few times himself. He did not snap fully alert until hearing the front door unlock. He bolted tired eyes to the clock on the wall and saw that it was 7:30. From the entrance, he heard Edith say,
“Is that hamburgers and fries I smell?”
Walter entered the precinct, saw Isaac sitting in his chair, and said,
“At work before your shift begins? You’re bucking for a promotion a little early aren’t you?”
Before Isaac could explain, Edith also entered the precinct and saw two pair of sleepy eyes looking back at her from the couch. Because she had never seen Gary and Sam, her question was a natural one.
“Good morning children. And who might you be?”
Walter snapped his attention to the couch and upon seeing them, answered her question.
“Well, well, if it isn’t our missing Mr. Albright. Your grandmother has been very concerned about you.”
Then looking to Sam, he asked,
“And who might you be young lady?”
Isaac responded,
“This is Samantha Jackson. I think both of them have a very interesting story to tell you.”
Both Walter and Edith turned a couple of desk chairs around and sat facing the children. Edith noticed a specific pattern of nervousness in both and so pointed down the hall.
“The bathrooms are down the hall. Hurry back. I am very interested to hear what you have to say.”
As both ran down the hall, all three heard Sam say to Gary,
“No, that one is for me, you get the other one.”
After they scurried off, Walter turned to Isaac and there was no need to ask the obvious question. Isaac started right in.
“After I drew the short straw ---,”
He then stopped and changed the subject.
“I never did see that short straw.”
Walter was not in the mood to explain how he was tricked into the night surveillance duty and so snapped,
“Get on with it rookie.”
“Yes sir. Well ---.”
For the next few minutes Isaac explained the events as he saw them up on Jasper Street. Edith wanted to hear the rest but was forced to say,
“I’ll get the rest of the story later. I have to open up shop.”
She reluctantly returned to her receptionist desk.
When the kids returned and sat on the couch, Walter was prepared to hear their story. However, Gary had a more concerning question.
“Where is my grandma, I want to see her.”
Walter explained that she was safe and they could go see her after they told him what they did and saw up in the Factory. He added,
“So let’s begin. Tell me what you saw up there.”
Suddenly the precinct erupted with a cacophony of two excited kids all at once telling what happened. Recognizing the impossibility of getting an understandable story from both while together, Walter said,
“Okay, stop right there.”
Looking to Isaac, he said,
“You take Samantha to the conference table and record everything she says. Gary and I will go into my office and do the same.”
Sam’s hand gestures waved through the air as fast as she describe how close a security guard’s nose was to her face and how his hand passed right though her chest. Gary was just as animated and energetic with his descriptions while explaining to Walter how he twisted and turned in the room that
gravity forgot. Walter remembered that Ruth had told him how vivid Gary’s imagination could be at times. As she put it, ‘fly off the rails’. He was sure that when they compared his story with what Sam was reporting to Isaac there would come forth much more believable facts. He was in for a surprise.
A few minutes later two Deputies, Ed and Collin returned from their night duty patrolling the streets of Twin Rivers in separate cruisers. As they passed Edith, she asked the same question as always.
“Anything exciting happen out there tonight?”
Because nothing exciting ever happens on night patrol, she was expecting the same derisive snort and chuckle. This time however Ed stopped short, turned to her and said,
“Actually yes and its going in my report. You know all those black Cadillac Escalades they use up at the Government weather station? Well, for some reason many of them were out on the streets tonight.”
Collin contributed,
“Yeah, I noticed that too. It was as if they were on patrol looking for something.”
Edith suspected what they were looking for was now in the precinct talking to Isaac and Walter. However, she lightened the mood with,
“Maybe one of those weather scientists escaped huh?”
At six minutes after eight, Deputy Grant Lloyd stepped through the door to begin his day shift and moved his pin over to ‘in’. Edith commented,
“Late again are we Grant?”
Lately his contempt for time had become a common occurrence. He didn’t seem to care anymore. With a bland expression he explained,
“Yeah, the lineup at McDonald’s was really long this morning.”
As if that excuse was good enough, he simply continued down the hall and into the precinct.
When he entered the precinct room, he stopped dead in his tracks. He saw Ed and Collin at their desks filling out their night duty reports. That was not what surprised him. That happened almost every morning. Looking over to the conference table he saw Sam talking to Isaac and in the Sheriff’s office was Gary talking to Walter. That’s what stopped him cold.
According to the posters distributed by Demetri Warric, they were the kids to be hunted down and with no concern for their safety to be returned to him. Grant knew that the kids had discovered the truth of the Factory and were now no doubt reporting exactly what was going on up there to the Sheriff. Grant felt his wallet suddenly bulge. As Warric had said, “How much I pay you for information will be determined by the importance of the report.”
He needed to get to a secure phone but understood it would look suspicious if he left the police station right away. The importance of a big payoff influenced a bad decision. After walking into the men’s bathroom, he locked the door and made a phone call. Warric’s receptionist buzzed him and said,
“There is an unsecured call coming in from the Deputy. He says it is important.”
Warric snapped up the phone and barked,
“This better be good.”
Although assured that nobody could hear him in the bathroom, Grant still whispered,
“Those two kids are here in the police station and blabbing everything to the Sherriff.”
Warric was upset that the report was coming in from an open line but after hearing the news, he was in an eruptive rage. What he really heard was that his request for an additional budget was now in jeopardy. He had promised Otto Schmidt that the leak in security would be looked after. His additional budget depended on it. Now, with the kids blabbing everything to the police, damage control seemed highly unlikely. In a rage, he slammed the phone down.
Chapter 45
Otto Schmidt was in Geneva boarding a Bombardier Global private jet owned and operated by the International Investment Council. With bribes established guaranteeing the next election, he was on his way to Hong Kong. It had been an intense negotiation. Nowadays politicians are demanding more and more payoffs for favors. He was looking forward to a drink and sleeping on the way.
Although he had no interest in the beauty of a woman, his desires leaning in another direction, for some reason the IIC insisted on hiring secretaries who could easily win a beauty contest. A few minutes after the Bombardier lifted off and retracted its landing gear, a thin blond secretary carrying a phone approached the tired Otto. He was not in the mood. It could only be advisors calling for a compromising of the contract. When a tired hand waved her away, she said,
“It’s coded from our intelligence gathering department.”
He had to take it. After a defeated breath, he reached for the phone.
“I’m tired. Make it worth my while.”
He listened intently and finally said,
“No, that’s no problem. It looks like I just found the 300 million needed for the Hong Kong business. Transfer my call to the fool.”
Warric was pacing back and forth in his office. Plans for damage control securing the overpayments were rejected as fast as they came to him. He didn’t need to hear,
“Sir, a call has just come in from IIC.”
A shaky hand picked it up. He tried to sound pleasant but it didn’t work.
“Mister Schmidt, what a pleasant surprise.”
“Yes Mister Warric, it is a surprise indeed although not a very pleasant one for you. It seems that you have let those two pesky brats escape. I told you earlier, unless your security is tightened I see no profit in our little enterprise. Now what do I hear from my security office? Your deputy called you and reported they were now in the hands of the Sheriff and talking to him as fast as they can. Not very good Mister Warric. Not very good at all.”
Anger and panic surged through Warric. Panic for having his budget put in jeopardy and anger for Grant calling him on an unsecure line. Obviously, the IIC had tapped Grant’s phone and probably half the phones in Twin River. Otto was not finished with his threats.
“Your request has now been taken off the table and I will be awaiting results of this fiasco. If I hear even a hint, a whisper that this operation is in danger, I will withdraw all contracts and association with the IIC. I trust I have made myself clear Mister Warric.”
A groveling Mister Warric stammered,
“Yes, of course. You are doing exactly what I would do if I were in your shoes.”
“No Mister Warric, my shoes are worth more than your puny soul. They will stomp the life out of you and this marginal profit enterprise of yours if the local authorities discover what we are doing up there.”
“Yes Mister Schmidt. Don’t worry. I still have one influential man on the payroll. I’ll look after it, I assure you.”
Otto hissed,
“One whisper and one hint is all it will take to shut your operation down so yes, I presume that you will look after it.”
There was no cordial ‘goodbye’, only a click and cold silence.
Chapter 46
When Sam and Gary had finished their incredible story, reporting everything they could remember, they sat at the conference table nibbling on the few remaining fries. Sam looked to Gary and softly said,
“I don’t think Deputy Rutherford believed anything I said.”
Gary offered no consolation.
“I still don’t believe it.”
She nodded her agreement and added,
“I don’t care if they believe me or not, I’m still going back for Amina. A promise is a promise.”
She then looked hard at Gary and asked,
“Are you coming with me?”
He nodded and said,
“We are friends aren’t we?”
Isaac sat in Walter’s office discussing the interview. Both were faced with a major and unlikely decision to believe the kids or not. They had compared notes on the fantastic recordings and found no inconsistencies. Both told the same bizarre story with only minor variations. Walter was willing to chalk those variations up to the way each interpreted the event. However, Walter was still concerned. Was this just another story from the mind of Gary Albright? If so, then Sam had an incredible mem
ory to memorize and repeat the same story. Because of other suspicions and what they had discovered about the Factory, Walter was more inclined to believe at least parts of their stories, especially the part where the missing children were held prisoner up there and tortured.
He turned to Isaac and asked his take on it. Isaac had no doubt and was quick to respond.
“Okay, I’m not sure I believe all of it but certainly there can be no doubt something is going on up there that has nothing to do with the weather. Merging Doctor Fran Jorden’s story about the missing kids and some kind of a strange brain frequency story plus this town crawling with black Cadillac Escalades looking for Sam and Gary lends some credence to their story. I believe some of what they saw has scared whoever is operating the Factory. I saw at least fifteen of their security men out on the streets combing the area for the kids.”
After a thought Walter said,
“So you think we should go up there and have a look?”
Isaac was confident in his reply.
“Yes sir, I think we should.”
Walter added,
“But we can’t just barge in without a search warrant. We need to find something to charge them with.”
After a thought he said,
“What about them not paying taxes to the community?”
“No sir that will not hold up for a warrant. It could take years of court haggling to prove they do not pay taxes. However, I do have one idea. There is enough on the video that Mister Crow took from across the street to get a warrant from Judge Clemens. You can’t just fly a helicopter into this airspace without proper clearance from the airport. I checked and the tower at our airport had no request for nor gave any approval of that flight path. I also ran the licence plate of the truck they used through our MV registry and discovered it was licenced for private property use only.”
The Factory Page 25