Haha, I love the subtle title of this chapter, just Amanda feeling the time ticking away as her job sucks away her time. I can't wait to see a spring wedding! Oh, and a first arrest? Awesome! Hopefully Blair knows what she's doing!
Haha yup, I felt like the title applied equally well to Amanda, who feels time ticking away from her, and to Toni, who feels her "biological clock" ticking hard!
Part 9: Perfect Mind, Perfect Body
And, the first of this generation achieves their lifetime wish! With a final hour of chess practice, Rooney made level 10 of the logic skill and attained the
Perfect Mind, Perfect Body.
He proudly displays his certificates on the wall, and having achieved his goal, can now settle in much more seriously as a writer. He doesn't know it yet, but everyone is eyeing him as a potential babysitter for the children that are inevitably on their way.
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Amanda went down to the theater and began her stakeout. Kaylynn had allowed her to pose as a theater intern for the day, assigning her to the supervision of Mr. Bakshi in the crew department. This allowed her to keep an eye on Glenn Levine's movements throughout the day. For the first half of the day, he was generally doing his work, but at one point he stopped next to the schedule for the day, which listed where different people would be assigned during the show. He swiped the piece of paper and Amanda, ready for something like that, recorded him taking the schedule on her phone.
Other than that, he did nothing out of the ordinary until the show began. There was one stage door that opened out onto a dark and little used alleyway between the theater and the grocery store. Amanda set herself up nearby, but not in a very visible location. She had a pile of random costumes and a sewing kit and she set herself up to look as if she were mending the costumes. When the show was in full swing, Glenn came back to the door and opened it, letting in a group of men from off the alleyway. They made their way through the backstage area and Amanda gave them a small lead, then shadowed them carefully through the dark hallways.
They slipped into an empty dressing room and shut the door. Amanda slipped into another empty dressing room nearby and called Blair. "They're inside," she said.
"Got it," said Blair. "I'm on standby, just give me the go sign when you need me."
"Okay," said Amanda. She hung up and called her lieutenant.
"Here's our current dilemma," he said. "We can't arrest them if they're not committing any crimes. At worst what you've seen is trespassing and I don't think we could even hold them to that. I'm sure inviting outside parties into the theater during a show is a firable offense for the young man, but that doesn't help US any. We have to catch them actually doing something illegal."
"All right, sir," she said. "I'll see what I can do."
She had spent the previous days studying the layout of the theater. She tried hard to remember if there was anything in this area that could help her. She scanned her eyes around the room she was in, assuming that the layout would be similar to the layout in the room the men were using. Her eyes landed on an air vent in the ceiling for the air conditioning. That was it.
She scurried back to the crew area and located a screw driver, then back to the dressing room, where she carefully unscrewed the air vent. She stacked a big box full of small prop items onto a chair and used that as a precarious sort of ladder. From the top of the box, she eased herself carefully into the air vent and crawled painfully, slowly on her belly towards the other dressing room.
Bingo. There was another air vent looking right down into the room. She settled carefully into place, using her camera to take whatever pictures she could of the men in the room. It was almost impossible to get any clear shots from inside the air vent, but she tried her best to get some identifying features. She turned her recorder on and held it over the vent. Luckily everything being said below was clearly audible from where she was.
"So you're saying the consignment store?"
"Yes. My guy there told me that they just got a large drop-off of expensive relics from Al Simhara. The relics are currently still boxed up in their storage room, awaiting appraisal. My guy will "accidentally" leave a door open in exchange for a 10% cut."
"Relics, I dunno. We would have to move those, and that's hard to do in a town like this. A bunch of relics go missing, then a bunch of relics suddenly turn up for sale? We might as well shine a huge spotlight on ourselves."
"That's why we're not gonna unload 'em here. We've already got distribution all set up. Some of 'em are headed for Monte Vista, some for Isla Paradiso and the others to Champs le Sims. The network is airtight, it won't be traceable."
"How do you know it's so airtight?"
"Because the Red Raven set up this distribution line and the Red Raven's deals have never gone sour yet."
"The Red Raven? You mean M-"
"No names! Geez, how dumb are you?"
"Sorry, sorry man. It's just us in here."
"That's what everyone thinks, right before the law comes busting in."
Amanda was hoping for more, but the talk moved on to some sporting event that was on TV that night. She stopped the recording and dialed Blair's number. Blair answered, "Time?"
"It's a go," Amanda whispered.
"10-4. I'll meet you at the door."
Amanda slowly began to back down the air vent, but her nerves were catching up with her. She was shaking a tiny bit and her hands were slick with sweat. So slick that her phone slid from her hand and dropped to the floor of the vent with a clatter. She froze, eyes closed.
Faintly, from the room she had been listening in on, she heard: "What was that?" Then a clatter of feet.
Abandoning her caution, she grabbed her phone and slid back as fast as she could. When she came out of the ceiling she had entered, Glenn was already in the room. He had knocked the box off the chair and was grabbing for her. He caught her by one ankle, but with her other foot she stomped him in the face. He stumbled back, cursing and losing his grip on her. She leaped down, only to see the doorway blocked by three goons.
"Crap, crap, crap," she thought. Blair would be waiting for her at the door, but the stage door didn't open from the outside unless you had a key. Amanda slowly edged towards the door, one hand on her taser.
"I don't want any trouble guys. You're under arrest. We can do this now, or we can do it the hard way. The end result will be the same, but it will be much worse for you if it has to be the hard way."
The goons all smirked simultaneously and three guns came out, pointed straight at her.
Amanda gulped. "Are you seriously thinking of hurting a cop? You know that never ends well."
They didn't move.
Then came the sweetest sound Amanda had ever heard. Blair's voice, "You're all under arrest. And I've got backup with me, so don't even think of any funny business." The men sagged at those words and allowed themselves to be cuffed. The officers marched them outside and Blair shoved Glenn towards Amanda.
"Would you like to do the honors?"
"I sure would," Amanda grinned. "You have the right to remain silent ..."
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That night, Amanda came home full of excitement.
The successful resolution of Amanda's case had led to the arrest not only of Glenn Levine, but of three goons from the Oustanding Citizens Corp. who were heavily involved in their smuggling operations. The department had high hopes that they could use these goons to get to some guys even higher up on the chain. She had been promoted on the spot to lieutenant, which meant she would be in charge of her own squad. She was going to be put on the unit that was responsible for policing the Outstanding Citizens Corp. so that she could work further on what she had started.
Her new job was much more of a desk job and she would be doing most of her work from the station from now on, which meant she was ready to get married and start her family. Being off the streets had been pretty much what she had been waiting for.
She was rushing to go tell Curtis the news when her phone rang. It was Blair.
"Did you get promoted?"
"I sure did."
"Eek! Me too!"
"Looks like we won't be picking up everyone's litter anymore."
"Totally, did you get put on the OCC unit as well?"
"I did."
"Yay! We can still be partners! Man, how exciting will it be that we're working on something so huge?"
"I know! How amazing would it be if we are the ones to bring the biggest criminal gang in Sunset Valley to justice?"
"Yeah ..." said Blair, "I doubt anyone will ever do that, but if we can manage to get some of their best guys, it will really hurt them."
"Yeah, I should probably be realistic. Hey, I have something I meant to ask you. How did you get into the theater today?"
"When you didn't come open the door for us, we started pounding. Some poor crew kid heard it and opened the door for us. He was terrified, but I put his name in for an award for his timely help. That should make up for it."
"Awww, that's nice of you. Anyway, I should go. I haven't even told Curt yet!"
"Ahhhh okay, go go go. I'll see you tomorrow, partner."
"See ya tomorrow, Blair."
Sorry for this extremely text-heavy update! Nothing much was going on in the house during the time, because it was mostly just waiting to have weddings and make babies, but I did want to finish up Amanda's case and also post about Rooney getting his lifetime wish.
