Chapter 9


Barbara listened to the girl’s story very closely. The biggest question she had about it was, “and how did you get away?”

April stumbled over her words as she looked for an answer. Then she just shrugged, “I didn’t… I mean… she just didn’t shoot me. I closed my eyes and, when I opened them again she was gone and the cops were standing right there. After that, well, they took me to the hospital and that’s where Patsy suggested I call Mister Scoggins.”

That also caught Barbara’s attention. She gave Norm a questioning look. He rolled off as if it did not matter, “Miss May’s mother, and Patsy, are old friends.”

“The cops,” April added, “they just told me it was a robbery and..”

“They’re not going to do anything, Barbara” Norm followed with. He then explained further, “they’re going to pick the explanation that least bother’s them. Patsy was probably right by giving her my number.”
Barbara sat back in her chair and, still being thoughtful, she asked Norm “so you don’t believe it was a robbery?”

“Not really,” Norm answered simply enough.

“Why not?” Barbara asked him again.

Norm rattled it off like it was gospel, “a robber is a thief. Usually, thieves are cowards. Nine times out of ten you won’t find a one of them, even those that use guns, that’ll pull the trigger.”

“Yeah but,” Barbara came back with, “isn’t that what happened here?”

“To a point,” Norm replied. “Only problem is they didn’t take anything and, based on Miss May’s story, they didn’t seem very interested in it either. Seems to me that they went to an awful lot of trouble just to snatch a purse.”
Barbara’s eyes narrowed and she looked to April, “why would anyone want to kill you Miss May?”
The girl was almost at the point of tears, “I don’t know. I’m just a real estate agent and, I’m not even a very good one. I haven’t even sold my first house yet.”

Barbara looked to Norm and told him, “I think we need to look in to this. That is, if you’re confident that the city isn’t going to do anything.”

“Oh trust me,” Norm told her, “they won’t. I’m just not sure what we can do.”
April was crying now, “please help me. I’m afraid to go home or back to work. I don’t know what else to do and, I don’t have any place safe.”

Barbara was very serious when she told the young girl, “you’re going to stay here for the time being. Don’t worry Miss May, we’re going to find out what’s going on.” Before the girl could start blubbering out “thank you” Barbara took her too the door and told her, “go down the hall to the big room. Mister Brandt is there and he’ll see if we can get you something to eat. Don’t worry Miss May, you’ll be safe here.”
When the door shut it was Norm who beat her to the punch, “Barbara, I don’t know what the hell you think we can do.”
Sitting back down in her desk chair, Barbara stated, “we are public safety Norm. It’s our sworn duty to help people like this. That girl needs our help. Her mother is the friend of a friend. If we can’t help somebody like this then we might as well shut this place down.”
Norm came back with, “and suppose we catch our two alleged hit men, Barbara. What are we going to do with them? Have you thought that far ahead?”

“We’ll take them to city book in, Norm,” Barbara replied without a blink, “and then we’ll file formal charges. That’s what the manual says we do.”

“Ok,” Norm nodded and then asked the next logical question, “and suppose the city jail won’t take them? They got no obligation to hold our prisoners. Does the manual say anything about that?”

Barbara backed off a little. She really had no answer for that so she replied with the only thing that she could, “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Silence followed. Norm studied Barbara and vice versa. Finally Barbara asked, “do you not believe Miss May? Is that it?”

“No,” Norm told her. “That girl ain’t got the balls to make up something like that. It’s just when you got a crime that doesn’t make any sense, it’s because you don’t know everything there is to know. In this case, I’d say we know even less than that. It’s not an ideal situation to walk in to.”

Barbara grunted in frustration and then said, “that’s what we get paid to do.”

That caused Norm to laugh, “now you’re starting to sound just like Jake.”

Barbara’s eyes narrowed and her face turned red. Then she reversed herself and burst out laughing. In a half joking manner she shook a finger at Norm and said, “that’s an insult. You do realize that, don‘t you?”

“Yeah? Well here’s a hint Barbara,” Norm replied, “stop sounding like him then.”

She waived it off, “go round up everybody.”