Chapter 29

It was the first time that Tony could ever remember busting in the door of a room that he actually had a key for. This was Tammy Patrelli’s hotel room and Danni still had her pass card but, Tony decided that he did not want to take the chance.

Tony also hurt his shoulder in the process and, if somebody had really been in the hotel room, he might have been dead. His entry was less than spectacular. It was a good thing that Garcia had come in right after him and took up the slack. Danni walked in after the ‘all clear’ since she was still without a weapon.

That little problem was solved rather quickly as they began to search the room. Danni found an auto loading pistol in a drawer of the vanity, “this can’t be Mom’s.” She had started looking through those particular set of drawers because of what was sitting on top of the vanity. There were all kinds of little wires, cut down almost to barely stubs, plastic tabs and a few tools that Danni figured to be of the jeweler variety.

When Tony saw them he said, “looks like somebody was doing a little electronics work.”

“Guys,” Danni protested, “my mother can’t even program her own phone.” She got frustrated and said, “this wasn’t here when we left this morning.”

Garcia came strolling back from the closet with a stack of papers in his hands. He told them, “if you like that then you guys are going to just love this shit.” Danni snatched a small color pamphlet out of Garcia’s hands and began to read. Garcia just thumbed back at the closet, “whole big box of this stuff in there.”

Tony now took one and read the title of a single leaf pamphlet, “what the hell is an ALF?”

Danni was now further into her pamphlet, skimming along and catching the highlights, “the Archipelago Liberation Front, apparently. Says here they support the removal of all foreigners from the planet and seek the independence of the colony from it’s,” she dramatized the next two words, “Terrestrial Oppressors.”

Garcia only shrugged and tossed the rest of the literature on the bed before saying, “sounds like that dude with that computer network site, you know, www.earthsucks.col.”

Danni got a strange look on her face and said, “that’s just Gordon Peavey. I went to high school with him. He’s a goof ball. He didn’t write this stuff.”

“You guys are loosing the picture here,” Tony told them seriously. “We know somebody put this stuff in here since you left this morning, Danni. We also know whoever did it is the same people that snatched your mom.”

Danni winced, “how can we be sure. I mean it doesn’t even make any sense. Why would somebody break in a place and leave stuff? Especially this stuff?”

“Cause they want it to be found later, “ Tony told her. He broke the news like he had just delivered a death notification and he was not so sure he had not.

Danni got the picture quickly enough after that and her shoulders slumped. She dropped her head and then mumbled, “oh god I think I’m going to be sick. They’re going to kill her.”

“We know it’s the same people,” Tony reiterated, “no signs of forced entry. They had her key.”

Garcia pointed to the door that Tony had broken and said, “Yeah until we got here and, oh, by the way, I ain’t paying for that.”

Danni felt a tear forming in her eye, “it doesn’t matter guys. It’s a dead end. It’s all just a fucking dead end! I can’t…”

Tony reached down and put his hand on her shoulder, “don’t give up yet kiddo. We still got one card left to play here.”

Garcia put his hands on hips and asked, “and that would be?” A few minutes later when he was standing behind the print shot, across the street from the motel, Garcia still had his hands on his hips and was now saying, “I just had to open my big fucking mouth.”

Tony broke in the glass on the back door and then reached in and unlocked it from the inside. He smiled at his two companions and said, “never fails. They put all this security on their front entrance and they never, ever, cover the back.”

As Garcia followed his companions in, being careful not to step on the glass, he noted, “hey Tony. What is it with you and doors today, man?” Then Garcia saw the little light blinking on the box next to the back door, “oh and by the way Fast Fingers, you set off the silent alarm.”

Tony looked back and huffed with a worried look, “we still got time.”

Garcia pointed to the box, “dude, this is a Hassasni Security box. That means private monitored. They’ll be here in five minutes flat.”

“Then we don’t waste time,” Tony replied. He then told Garcia, “keep your eye out for them.”

Tony quickly found the back shipping room. It was pretty much as Garcia had guessed. The print shop did not do any actual heavy orders here but, Tony hoped, their customers did pick them up at the front desk.

Danni followed him in the room and said, “you can’t break into their computer in five minutes, Tony. You probably can’t even get in without the password anyway. Let’s just go.”

“No,” Tony said as he looked around the room and found exactly what he was hoping too. He figured it had to be here as soon as he saw the scanners on the back, roll up, shipping door. He sat down at a counter that had a small work pad sitting on it. It was plugged into the wall recharging but, still on. Tony explained, “I used to work at a small shipping company before I went in the army.”

Danni watched him touch the screen of the pad and, to her surprise, Tony actually got the main menu. He opened up one particular icon and started scrolling through invoices, “one thing I learned was the dock guys were usually pretty lazy.”

Danni put her hands on her hips and said, “let me guess, you were one of them?”

“Um,” Tony skipped a beat and then said, “anyway, they almost never turn these things off and,” he nodded to the door, “see those scanners. They invoice everything that’s tagged and goes through that door.” He stopped and put his finger on the screen, “and here’s the order. They bought magnets and must have picked them up here yesterday because it doesn’t show they went back out.”

Danni looked at him funny, “magnets?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I’m guessing signs for car doors. You know, you see a lot of small businesses use them all the time. These were marked for,” Tony looked down but there was only an abbreviation, “something called Cat Dung.”

That sent Danni to thinking about it. She was not even sure she wanted to think about a business called that. Then it struck her, “Catering Dungeness.” She got excited, “they’re a high ticket, fancy, catering service, that specializes in all that weird, fake, Scottish, crap. You know that kind of stuff Kent‘s always ravin… oh my god.”

Tony stood up, “we got to get to the palace.”

Garcia interrupted the party by calling out, “we got company, dudes, and they got weapons hot.”

Danni grunted in frustration, “can’t any break in ever be easy!?” She snatched out her newly recovered weapon and said, “well at least I’m ready this time.”

Tony looked at her with a strange look that she could not quite place. Then he broke into a smile, snatched the gun out of her hand, and told her, “turn around and do exactly what I say.”

Garcia had his weapon and was watching the inevitable approach of three heavily armed security guards. Then he heard Tony and Danni approaching from inside the print shop. He waved for them to get down but, they walked right on past him. Garcia had to do a double take when he realized that Danni was actually handcuffed. He barely had to time to ask why.

Tony was dragging the girl along by one arm. She was trying to kick at his feet and cursing him for everything she was worth, constantly telling the world, “I’m just trying to feed my baby!” Garcia’s face warped, like he ate bad food, when he heard that line. He then realized that Danni was never going to be an actress. Tony was doing a little better waving his badge around and telling the story of how he caught the burglar. Garcia began to get nervous for a moment because it did not seem the guards were buying it.

Then Danni kicked Tony in the shin and followed that move by spitting in his face. At that point, Garcia rushed out to help with the, ‘suspect’ and the security team let them travel on their merry way. When they reached the car, Tony was still complaining as he took the handcuffs off Danni, “I should leave these on.”

“Oh grow up,” Danni told him. “They weren’t buying it. I had to do something.” When Tony slipped his cuffs back into his pocket Danni wasted no time spinning around and sliding her arms around his neck. That stopped all movement and not just Tony’s. Then she kissed him on the lips and told him, “pretty smart for a dumb guy.” Danni slid on in the car and demanded, “let’s get going. Now! Come on!”

Tony and Garcia remained outside the car, exchanging astonished stares. Finally Tony asked, “our job doesn‘t work, huh?”

Garcia shrugged, “guess I was wrong bro.”