by Bob Blanton
“I know, but if you want to lift a burden from me, the money should go to paying off our house and paying off our bills. Then we could all have more time to spend as a family, instead of Mom having to work extra hours at the university.”
“I think there’s enough to do both. I’ve been looking over the finances with your mother, and if we spread the reward between this year and next year, and put the rest in trust for your education, your family should be financially set.”
“We owe more money than that.” Matthew was thinking of all the unpaid medical bills.
“No we don’t, Matty. Mr. Maier called today and said the insurance company agreed to settle. They’ve agreed to pay all of the contested claims.”
“Why?”
“He said they decided they couldn’t afford to be his pet project. He threatened to take your story to the press, ‘Boy Hero Fights Insurance Company.’ They couldn’t afford all the adverse publicity they would get.”
“That’s generous of them,” Matthew said, sarcastically.
“I know, but that clears all the debts we have with the hospital and gives us back all the extra money we had to pay in. We’ll get back all of your father’s retirement money and life insurance.”
“Really?”
“Yes, and with the money from Mr. Stevenson, we’ll finally be in the financial position your father intended us to be in the event he should die.”
“That’s great!” Matthew’s body shuddered as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Finally, he was able to let go of the enormous responsibility he had taken on since his father’s death. “Whatever you say, you’re in charge.” Relief poured out in his voice.
His mother gathered him into her arms and hugged him. For the first time since his father’s death, he didn’t have to worry about whether she was okay. He could totally relax in her arms.
Mr. Stevenson picked up his briefcase and moved toward the door. He quietly let himself out. Matthew and his mother just hugged each other and cried.
. . .
Wednesday evening, before the Winthrops’ party, the Sheriff came by the Brandt house. Matthew was wearing his Captain Hook costume. His mother was getting Jessica dressed for the party.
“Hello, Matt,” he said when Matthew opened the door. “You should be going as Superman.”
Matthew laughed, “Sure.”
“Matt, who’s at the door?” his mother hollered from the top of the stairs.
“It’s the Sheriff.”
“See what he wants. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“I thought I’d come by and give you an update on the case,” the Sheriff continued. “Just the basics here, but the big guy’s name is George Krugel. He’s been convicted twice for armed robbery. This will be his third strike so he’s going away for life.”
“Life isn’t long enough for him.”
“I agree. Once we told him all the information you gave us, he decided to cooperate.”
“Did he give up his partner?”
“Not at first. We used his phone to call his partner the next morning,” the Sheriff said. “We had someone impersonate George’s voice saying, ‘I’m on my way.’”
“Cool.”
“It worked like a charm; we were able to pick up his partner and the buyer at the Hemet airstrip. The buyer is some sick millionaire who’s into little girls. The DA is hoping we have enough info on him to put him away for good.”
“I hope so.”
“Once we had his partner, George started spilling his guts,” the Sheriff continued. “He admitted responsibility for the abduction of those two girls up in Los Angeles last month.”
“Why would he admit to that?”
“The prisoner’s dilemma; if neither talks, they win, but if one talks, then the first one to talk gets the best deal. They never trust each other enough to risk it, so George wanted to get his story in before his partner. He’s telling everything to the DA hoping to avoid the death penalty.”
“I didn’t know you could get the death penalty for kidnapping.”
“You can’t, but one of the girls he grabbed last month died. His partner buried her out in the desert someplace. George is afraid the partner will try to pin it on him.”
“Honor among thieves?”
“Yeah, makes your heart soar, doesn’t it? George also admitted to a few other kidnappings across the state.”
“Oh my gosh, how many have they kidnapped?”
“We don’t know yet, but as we dig into their records we’re finding out.”
“What about the children?”
“We’ve got the location of a couple of them already. We’re continuing to search their records to try and locate the rest.”
“Will you be able to find them?”
“Hopefully we’ll find a few. But I’m afraid that it’s going to be hard for them to recover from the abuse.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I think you’ve done enough. Mr. Stevenson has offered to pay medical bills and counseling for all of the children we recover.”
“That’s generous of him. His family’s already been through a lot.”
“Generous is the word for it. I’ve heard estimates of $200,000 per child with long-term counseling.”
“Why does he think he has to do so much?”
“I think he had nightmares about what would have happened to his girl. He really feels for these families.”
“Well I hope it works out. Let me know what I need to do.”
“Hopefully with George rolling over on everyone, we shouldn’t need any testimony from you or Emily. But the DA will need to take depositions from you anyway.”
“I’m glad to do whatever.”
“We’re lucky you two helped catch them; they were set up to do business big time,” the Sheriff said. “George had a job with the park service, so he was able to get around totally unnoticed.”
“That’s scary.”
“Yes, there’s no telling how many children they would have stolen before we caught them.”
“One last thing before I go. The DA gave a statement to the press at 5:00. I wanted you to know what had happened before the reporters descend on you.”
“Oh great,” Matthew said.
“There’s no way we could keep your name out of it. You and Miss Stevenson are going to get hounded for a few days. I’d suggest you stick with ‘No Comment’ or you’ll never get rid of them.”
“Yeah, I learned that the last time a reporter tried to interview me.”
“That’s right! You’re the kid who saved that child from those two pit bulls. We’re going to have to put you on the payroll if you keep this up.” The Sheriff patted Matthew on the back. “But seriously, you need to be careful; my deputies and I carry guns and have backup, and with all that sometimes we still get hurt. You need to call for help the next time.”
“Don’t worry,” Matthew sighed. “I’ll leave the crazies to you.”
Matthew’s mother came downstairs carrying Jessica in her Peter Pan outfit. “Hello, Sheriff, is everything okay?”
“Things are just great. This is quite a son you have here. I was just filling him in on the case. The DA made a statement about thirty minutes ago, and I wanted you folks to know before the press showed up.”
“It didn’t take them long. I saw the Channel 7 van pull up as we were coming down the stairs.”
“That was fast! Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve got to drop these two off at a party and then fight my way back in here, I guess.”
“Well, if you’d like, I could drop them off at the party for you. That way you could hole up here ‘til they get tired and go home for the night.”
Jessica picked up on the chance to ride in the Sheriff’s patrol car and jumped right in. “Oh boy, can we Mommy, please?” she asked.
“What do you think, Matt?”
“Whatever, but we need to get going, the
party starts at 6:00. We don’t want Jessica missing out on any of the fun.”
“Well let’s go then,” the Sheriff said as the doorbell rang.
The same reporter who did the story about the dogs was at the door. When the Sheriff opened it to escort Matthew and Jessica to his car, she shoved the microphone in his face asking, “Sheriff, is there any more news on the case? Are you here to question Matt?”
“I’m just giving the kids a ride to a party. Other than that, there will be no comment.” The Sheriff moved between the reporter and the house, making room for Matthew and Jessica to slip out behind him.
“Matthew, any comment for your fans, after another heroic feat?” the reporter asked, pushing her microphone around the Sheriff.
“No comment.” Matthew covered Jessica’s mouth so she couldn’t say anything, just to be safe.
Without saying anything else, Matthew, Jessica and the Sheriff went to his car and got in. Mrs. Brandt shut the front door and locked it immediately. A few minutes later the Sheriff dropped the two off at the Winthrops’ house. Jessica spent the whole ride trying to get the Sheriff to run his siren. He resisted until they arrived at the Brand’s house, then he gave the siren a short burst as they pulled into the driveway.
“Neato!” squealed Jessica.
The siren burst brought Jason and a couple of the guests to the door, “Hey, pretty cool showing up in the Sheriff’s car. Emily came with Sonja; they’re in the game room with the other little kids.” Jason squatted down on his heels so he was Jessica’s height, “Hi Jessie, how was the ride with the Sheriff?”
“He ran his siren for me!” She was bursting with elation.
“That’s pretty special, he must like you. Now let’s get you up to the party. You don’t want to miss out on anything, do you?” Jason was whispering to make it sound exciting.
“No!” Jessica said hopping up and down. “Let’s go.”
Jason escorted them to the huge game room. It was made up like a mild haunted house. Mrs. Winthrop was dressed up like the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. There were several other adults riding herd on the fourteen little kids. There was a scarecrow doing magic tricks and there were games set up around the room for the kids to play.
“Hi, Matt,” Mrs. Winthrop shouted over the noise as they entered the room.
“Hi, Cara,” Matthew shouted back. “This is really nice of you to set this up for the kids.” Jessica raced over to see the scarecrow.
“No problem, it’s been fun. Hanna is having a great time playing hostess.” She shouted, pointing to Hanna dressed up as a munchkin from Oz. She was wearing red and green striped tights and a purple frock. She had a big purple hat with a feather on her tiny head.
“She looks adorable.”
“You should hear her. She’s talking in a squeaky voice just like a munchkin. Emily and Brianna decided to take a break; they’re on the balcony talking.” She pointed to the French doors leading to the balcony. “Make sure the door locks behind you if you go out,” she cautioned.
“Thanks,” Matthew headed for the doors.
Jason shouted, “Catch you later?” then he headed down the stairs.
As Matthew closed the door behind him, Brianna called out from the corner of the balcony. “Over here, Matt.”
“Hi,” Matthew said as he walked over. Brianna was dressed like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She had on the checkered dress like in the movie, with pigtails, and of course she wore ruby slippers. Emily was dressed up as a witch. She was wearing a long black dress with sheer sleeves and a black pointed hat. She had black streaks in her long blond hair.
“Hey, I thought witches were supposed to have warts and black teeth.”
“Yeah right,” Emily said. “Well this witch has been taking care of her face and teeth.”
“You should do a toothpaste commercial.”
“Guess who she’s going to the Winter Ball with, you’d never guess in a million years,” Brianna blurted out. “She’s going with Tyler.”
Emily looked at Matthew, wondering what he would say. “He asked me last week.”
“Well I think you’ll make a nice couple, too. He’s really an okay guy once you get to know him a little.”
Emily let out the breath she’d been holding. “I thought you might be mad. I know he used to pick on you, but he’s matured. And he really is a nice guy.”
“I know,” Matthew said.
“You know he had to go on that French trip to pull his GPA up to a 3.5,” Emily said. “He promised his dad that he’d maintain a B+ average, or he can’t play football.”
“Well there go my stupid jock jokes.”
“He wants to go to Boston College, so he’s got to have good grades.”
“I always wondered why he didn’t go to San Dieguito High. He’d get a lot more visibility there.”
“Oh, his dad decided that he’d be better off playing at PCA, less likely to get injured. He doesn’t need a scholarship, so he can kind of shop himself around to different colleges.”
“Must be nice to be able to plan it all out.”
“They’re going to start talking to the BC coach right away. See if he’s agreeable to giving Tyler a shot. His dad is a BC alumnus and played on the football team, too.”
“Enough about Tyler, let’s go downstairs and join the party for the big kids,” Brianna said. “We’ve got a DJ set up on the pool deck,” Brianna walked over to a staircase leading down to the patio. Looking back at Matthew and Emily, Brianna could tell they still had some things to say to each other. “I’ll see you downstairs,” she said as she went down the steps.
“We’ll be right there,” Matthew said.
Emily walked over to Matthew and gave him a hug, “Thanks for understanding about Tyler.”
“No problem, I hope you’re happy.”
“Did you see Sonja?”
“No, how did she dress?” Matthew said looking back into the room through the window.
“Just like me. Everything had to be identical, she really looks cute.”
“Is that a cheap way of complimenting yourself?”
“You’re such a smarty britches.” Emily poked Matthew in the ribs.
“Oh, there she is,” Matthew pointed to Sonja and Hanna pulling on the scarecrow’s arm. “She’s as cute as you.”
“Thanks. I don’t know how to thank you for what you did for us.”
“You’ve got to quit trying to thank me. I did it because it was the right thing to do. Besides, your father gave me that huge reward.”
“He told me about that. I hope it means you can quit working, you’re always so busy.”
“I gave WebMasters my notice yesterday. I’m just going to do my PC fix-it stuff on the side.”
“That’s good. By the way we never did clear up that peeking into my bedroom thing.”
“It only happened that once.” Matthew tried to look apologetic. “It was before I knew what was going on. I thought it was a daydream until we saw you at the movie theater.”
“What do you mean movie theater? You told me you saw Sonja and me doing a duet.”
Matthew winced, “Okay, there was this one time before when we went to the movies, that’s what made me realize there was something else going on.”
“So why did you need to peek in on me again?”
“I was trying to characterize it, see if I could control who I saw. Like I said, I don’t know where the person is until I see them, so it was totally innocent like.”
“Did you ever see me ...”
“No! I just saw you the two times and you were mostly dressed.” Matthew wondered if he should mention the two times on the tennis court, but decided that ‘don’t tell and hope they don’t ask’ was the best policy.
“Okay, but I expect you to respect my privacy or else. Have you tried it again? Does it still work?”
“Yeah, it still works; I don’t really understand it yet. It must be some kind of ESP.”
“Whatever it is, it�
�s a wonderful gift, as long as you don’t abuse it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve had my lesson on not abusing it. I’m only going to use it to help others, although it seems unlikely that anything will happen that will require it.”
“You never know. We’d better catch up with Brianna, or we’ll both get into trouble.”
“Good idea.”
They both headed downstairs to join the party. The sound of ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ was blaring over the speaker.
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