by Mike Ryan
“We say victims, but in actuality, there were only three. Don’t forget, the undercover officer did survive.”
“Then the question will be, was he targeted specifically, or was he targeted because of something he was doing at that particular time and spot?”
“And we just simply do not have enough information to be able to tell right now,” Jones replied.
“I hope somebody finds out something before another body drops.”
“You keep saying that as if it’s a forgone conclusion. You don’t know that to be the case. It could be that perhaps those four were involved in something that we haven’t yet discovered and that will be the end of it.”
“You’re thinking the cops were into something dirty?” Haley asked, assuming that was what Jones was referencing.
“I’m not thinking or saying anything of the kind. Perhaps it was something illegal, perhaps it was not. I don’t know. And neither does anyone else. And it is way too soon to tell whether this is part of a larger scale plan that will end up with more victims or whether this was a more narrow-minded event.”
“I like to prepare for the worst,” Recker said.
“Yes, I know. And I’m not saying you won’t be proven correct eventually. I’m just saying right now, we don’t have enough information to head in any specific direction.”
“Well, hopefully there won’t be anything else. But I have a feeling we won’t be that lucky.”
Recker stood, ready to call it a night. Jones and Haley were going to keep working, since they didn’t have anyone at home waiting for them.
“Sure you guys don’t mind me taking off?” Recker asked, feeling bad about leaving them.
“Not at all, Michael,” Jones answered. “Not much else for you to do here, anyway. Go home, take care of your beautiful and better other half.”
“I’ll stay if you really want me to.”
“We got it, Mike,” Haley said. “No biggie.”
“It always feels like I’m abandoning you guys when I leave before you do.”
“Well, I never leave so that’s a moot point for me,” Jones replied.
“True.”
“Yeah, and I don’t have much else to do anyway,” Haley said. “If I had a girlfriend, maybe I’d be joining you in walking out the door.”
Jones shuffled his shoulders around like he got some chills. “I shudder at the thought.”
“What? Don’t want me to ever have one?”
Jones stopped typing and turned to look at him. “It’s not that I don’t wish you to ever have a woman, if that is what you desire. My only hope is that if that does become the case, that you don’t engage in a five year back and forth battle with yourself in whether you actually want one.”
Recker squinted as he stared at Jones. “You’re referring to me, aren’t you?”
Jones threw his arms up. “I’m not mentioning any names. I’m just saying, to know what you want and not waffle back and forth for five years on the subject.”
“Hey, it was not five years. You’re over exaggerating.”
“Am I? Jones asked. “OK, maybe the five years is a bit much of a reach. But you have to admit that your feelings for Mia sometimes changed with the weather.”
“They did not. I always cared for Mia. I just wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to get involved.”
“Yes, I know, every other day.”
Recker gave his friend a bit of a nasty face, though it was only in joking. He realized it took him longer than it probably should have to truly embrace the feelings he had for his now-girlfriend. Jones then turned back to Haley to continue the conversation.
“All I can say is, be glad that you weren’t here to live through the torture of him sorting out his feelings,” Jones said, continuing the tease. “It was almost like he was back in high school trying to figure out whether he should ask out a girl in his class for a date or something.”
Recker couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the reference. “It was not. Now you’re being overly dramatic.”
Haley also started laughing at the friendly banter between the two partners. “Well, I promise if it ever happens that I’ll try not to act like I’m in high school again.”
“All I ask is that if it does happen, make sure it’s someone who’s as reliable and trustworthy as Mia,” Jones said. “God forbid you get involved with someone and break up with them after a month and then we get police knocking down the office door.”
“Did you guys ever have any hesitancy about that with Mia? I mean, any doubt at all?”
Jones shook his head. “Not one. But she proved her worth and loyalty very early on before they even dated so it was not so much of an issue.”
“I would trust her with anything,” Recker said.
“Speaking of your beautiful girlfriend, I take it that she’s home tonight?”
“Yeah, why?”
Jones shrugged. “No reason. Just asking. That’s usually the only time you leave, when she’s home.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, not at all. I told you, you’ve never shirked your duties here. You just proved it last night with meeting the detective after hours. So, go home, spend time with your girlfriend, and give her some extra kisses from me.”
“Yeah, me too,” Haley said.
“I’m sure that won’t be too much of a problem. The extra kisses that is,” Jones said with a smirk.
Recker feigned being mad and stormed toward the door. “I’m not sitting here and taking this ribbing from you guys.”
Jones and Haley couldn’t help but laugh. “We’ll see you in the morning,” Jones said.
“Assuming you’re still able to stand up after…,” Haley said.
“Not listening to it,” Recker playfully said, closing the door behind him before Haley could finish the joke.
After Recker left, Jones and Haley continued with their work.
“You don’t have to stay here, you know,” Jones said. “You can take the rest of the night if you want.”
“Eh, it’s like I told Mike, I don’t really have much else to do anyway.”
“As you prefer.”
“Besides, I still feel like I have more to learn. I’m a few years behind you guys at deciphering all this stuff,” Haley said. “I think the more time I spend in here, the better off I’ll be.”
“I wouldn’t think too much about that. You’ve done a very good job at assimilating into everything these past few months.”
“You or Mike haven’t had any regrets about bringing me in or anything, have you?”
Jones stopped working and looked at him. “Not for a second. Why, do you get that impression?”
Haley shook his head. “No, not at all. I just wanted to make sure I’ve been doing all right and that I haven’t made any stupid mistakes.”
“No need to fret about that. You’re exactly what Mike and I were hoping for. We couldn’t have asked for or expected to get a better candidate than you.”
“Good.”
Jones continued looking at him, trying to analyze Haley’s face, hoping there wasn’t more to it than what they just said. “You’re not feeling dissatisfied, are you? Or regret coming aboard?”
Haley put his hand up and smiled, trying hard to reassure his boss it wasn’t the case. “No, really. I love being here. I like being around you guys. I like doing the work. It’s a lot better than what I was doing before. So, no, everything’s fine, really.”
“OK. I was starting to think maybe you were looking to get out or resign or something,” Jones said.
Haley shook his head. “Wouldn’t dream of it. That’s why I was asking if you guys were pleased with me so far. I just . . . I really like and enjoy being here and being part of the team.”
After they finished their little exchange, they kept working straight up until nine. It didn’t seem like it did much good, though, as they didn’t find out anything new about the Rocco case. It was at that point Jones felt the need to ca
ll it a night as well and told Haley to go home and rest up.
“Well, there’s not much else we can do tonight,” Jones said. “Hopefully tomorrow is a more fruitful day for us.”
“You think it’ll go down tomorrow?”
“One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be soon.”
“We’ll be ready,” Haley said.
After eating dinner with Mia, they both tried to relax on the couch for a while and watched TV. Mia had previously asked what case they were working on, so she was already aware of the situation with the judge. As they were watching a movie, she suddenly sat up, Recker’s arm sliding from her shoulders. Mia turned to face him with a look on her face like she was about to surprise him with something.
“I’ve got it,” she said.
Recker looked at her curiously, not sure what she was referring to. “You’ve got what?”
“Your problem.”
Recker let out a laugh. “Which one? I’ve got several.”
“Your judge problem. You know, with the baby.”
“What about it?”
“You said you guys couldn’t figure out how they were going to take the baby in the middle of a big park with a lot of people around.”
“Yeah?”
“Well I figured it out,” Mia said.
“You have?”
“Don’t you see? It’s so obvious.”
Recker wasn’t sure if she really had a satisfactory answer or not, but wasn’t going to dismiss it yet either. “Well then please tell.”
“They would have to create some type of diversion,” Mia said, getting up from the couch. She started walking around the room, getting into the moment like she was an old-time movie detective as she thought about the crime.
But Recker wasn’t impressed just yet. “We’ve already figured that part.”
Mia stopped and pointed her finger at him. “Yes, but how are they going to do it?”
“Uhh, we still don’t know yet.”
A huge smile came over Mia’s face as she started to relay her thoughts. “They’ll have to need the help of a woman.”
Recker immediately knocked the idea. “There’s no woman in the group. It’s a three-man team.”
“That you know of. Listen, they’ll need the help of a woman to pull this off.”
“And just how do you figure that?”
“They’ll obviously need to get up close to get her, right?” Mia asked.
“Yeah.”
“If I’m out walking a baby, and a strange man, or men, coming walking up to me, I’m gonna feel a little taken aback. The threat level’s gonna go up a little. Even if they look completely nice and normal.”
“It’s not normal for men to gawk at other peoples’ babies,” Recker said, catching her point.
“Right. But if a woman does that, it’s not so unnatural. I wouldn’t necessarily think twice if another woman came up to me and did it.”
Recker lifted his head up and looked at the ceiling as he thought about what she was saying. It certainly made sense, but it didn’t really give them much else to work with.
“I mean, I can go along with all that, but it doesn’t get us any closer,” Recker said. “There’s no woman that we know of on the crew. It’s possible they could bring someone in, or have someone that they know, but we still don’t know who that would be. Doesn’t really tell us how either. I’m sure, even if it’s a woman, they’re not just gonna walk up to the nanny, snatch the baby out of the stroller, and run out of the park.”
“Probably not.”
“As soon as the nanny realizes the baby’s been taken, she’s gonna start screaming her head off and alert everyone in the area. There’s no guarantee that woman’s gonna make it out of the park at that point.”
A confident look came over Mia’s face, thinking she came up with the answer. “But not if she doesn’t know the baby has been taken.”
“Well, yeah, that’s the issue. How are they gonna do that?”
“It’s simple.”
“How’s that?” Recker asked.
“They won’t wait until they get too deep into the park. It’ll be right when she goes in, or right when she leaves.”
“And just what are they gonna do?”
“The old switcheroo,” Mia answered.
“The what?”
“They’ll switch babies.”
“And just how do you think they’re going to do that?” Recker asked.
“I’ve got it. I’ve got it.”
“OK?”
“Right when she enters the park, there’ll be a woman,” Mia said, then slapped her hands together as she changed course. “No, make that a man and a woman.”
“Why?”
“For a diversion. I bet they’ll pretend to be a couple, and they’ll approach her as she walks into the park. Maybe they’ll pretend to bump into her or maybe they’ll just start talking about the baby or something.”
Though it was beginning to make some amount of sense to Recker, he still wasn’t convinced that would be the actual plan. “And how will they take the child?”
“While the woman is conversing with the nanny, the guy will take off with the baby.”
“And she’ll just be OK with him taking off with the kid?”
“Of course not. They’ll do something to distract her,” Mia answered.
“Oh, of course,” Recker said in a mocking manner.
Mia paced around the room for another minute as she continued to think of the plot. She then got another look on her face like she just figured something out, then walked over to the couch and stood in front of her boyfriend as she explained.
“What if they have the same exact stroller?” she asked.
“Did they get a buy one, get one free deal?” Recker sarcastically said.
Not amused, Mia rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly. You said there’s probably a good chance they’ve been staking her out, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then they probably took pictures of her with the stroller, then bought the same one.”
Recker raised his eyebrows, curled his lip, and tilted his head, thinking maybe she was on to something. “Possible.”
“I will bet you anything that’s how it’s gonna go down.”
“Anything, huh?”
“Well, almost anything,” she seductively said. “What? You think I’m wrong or I’m completely out of my mind?”
“No, I can’t deny it makes some sense.”
“I’ll bet that the nanny enters the park and another couple walks over to her and starts talking. They’ll have the same stroller. The woman will distract her somehow, then the man will switch strollers and quickly head back out of the park while the women are still talking. The nanny won’t even know what’s going on until it’s too late.”
“Which means it’s likely they’d have a getaway car nearby,” Recker said.
“So? Did I solve your problem for you?” Mia happily asked, holding her arms out wide.
“Well, I guess you will have if that’s actually how it happens.”
“Think about it.”
“Uhh, I am.”
“No, I mean, there’s a three-man crew you said, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, there’s one man waiting in the car, one man in the park with the stroller who’s the getaway man or whatever you call him, and the third guy is milling around, ready to run interference if needed,” Mia explained.
Recker folded his arms and put his left hand over his mouth as he looked at his girlfriend and thought about her idea. He couldn’t readily discount it as he believed it was a credible and thought out plan. Whether it was what the kidnappers would do was another story. But it was something to think about. They talked about it for a few more minutes and Recker thought he should call Jones and see what he thought of the plan. Just before he did, though, Mia stopped him, having a few more ideas to run past him.
“You know what else I was thinking?” she asked
.
Recker couldn’t believe she had more to add. “What, did you just watch the mystery movie of the week or something?”
Mia waved her hand at him. “Oh, stop. You know, I’m off tomorrow.”
Recker didn’t pick up on the hint. “Yeah? I know you are.”
“So. I was thinking, maybe I could go with you and help.”
Recker immediately put his hands up to stop her from going any further. “No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not.”
“Why not? I can help.”
“Didn’t we decide a long time ago that you weren’t going to do that type of stuff anymore?” Recker asked. “You remember what happened when you tried to do that?”
“You always bring that up.”
“To make sure you remember it.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing then,” Mia said.
“And you do now?”
“It’s not like I’d be going out on my own. You’d be there, Chris would be there, I’d only be going to help.”
Recker shook his head several times. “No. Not gonna happen.”
“Don’t be stubborn. You could use the help.”
“I’ve got help.”
“Mike, why won’t you let me help you?”
“One, because it’s not necessary. Two, because you’re not trained for it,” Recker answered. “Why are you so interested in it anyway?”
Mia shrugged, not wanting her reasons to sound stupid. “I just want to be important to you.”
Recker quickly stood and put his arms around her. “Of course you’re important to me. Why would you even say that?”
“I dunno.”
“Listen, you’ve done more for me than you even know, or that I could ever say. You’re the most important thing in my life.”
She put her head on his chest. “I know. I just . . . I wanna feel like I can help you.”
“You know you’ve helped me. In more ways than I can count.”
They sat back down on the couch as they continued their conversation.
“But if I’m right, then you might need another person,” Mia said.
“And how do you figure that?”
“There’d be three people there. The two guys, plus the girl, not even counting the driver. Now, what if you and Chris get caught up in a fight with the two guys and the woman decides to take things into her own hands and grabs the baby herself?”