En route to a crime scene
Thursday. July 1, 1982
After 5:00 PM
At the end of Shelley’s work shift at Speedy’s, she wanted to check in at the newspaper office to see if they had anything for her. She went to the dressing room and changed out of her carhop uniform into her “normal clothes”. Today her “normal clothes” meant the dress she’d been wearing when she’d fled Pittsburgh and arrived in Teal Cove. It was one of only two outfits she had here in Teal Cove that she considered appropriate for the office. She really needed to expand her wardrobe, but she couldn’t do that without money, and at the moment she was penniless, since the car thieves had stolen all the money out of her purse along with her car keys. Fortunately tomorrow was payday, so she wouldn’t be completely broke for long.
The lack of keys was a problem too; without them, she didn’t have the use of her Trans Am. But hopefully that problem would be resolved tomorrow as well, if her mother had sent the spare keys as she’d promised. Until then, she had to depend on Gary to drive her around. But the newspaper office wasn’t all that far from Speedy’s, and rather than call Gary for a ride, she decided she could just skate over there herself. So as she was changing, she left her skates on, and when she was done she put her uniform in her gym bag along with her sandals.
She took her purse out of her locker, and her camera bag as well, which she’d brought along this morning for the after-work trip to the newspaper. It was a lot of stuff to take with her, and she wondered if she’d be overburdened while trying to skate to the newspaper. Gary and his D&D players might say she was “encumbered”, she thought with a smile. Should she reconsider her skating trip and call Gary? No, she decided she could handle it, and she didn’t want to bother Gary needlessly. She put her head and right arm through the camera bag strap so that the bag hung on her right side from her left shoulder, and then put her head and left arm through her purse strap so it hung on her left side from her right shoulder. That seemed pretty secure and not too uncomfortable. Taking the gym bag in her left hand, she opened the dressing room door with her right hand and set out on her trip to the newspaper, going a little slower than she would otherwise to keep all her baggage in balance.
A few minutes later, Shelley rolled up to the door of the newspaper office and went inside. Felicia was there, and Shelley noticed her glance down at her skates with a look on her face that Shelley assumed was probably disapproval. Rather than defending herself or offering an explanation, Shelley ignored the look and just said “Hi Felicia” as she laid her baggage down in one lobby seat and took a seat in the next one. She quickly retrieved her high heels from her gym bag and began unlacing her skates to change into them.
<tag Felicia>
Just a minute or two later, Mike emerged from his office holding a note, which he was staring at intently. “Hey Felicia, I just got some informa…oh, hi Shelley, I’m glad you’re here,” he said as he looked up from the note and noticed her presence. He then started directing his words to both of them. “So, I just got word from my contacts in the police department that there’s some kind of hostage situation going on right now, at…” He looked down at the note again and read off the address. “I was about to send Felicia to the crime scene, but since you’re here too, Shelley, I’d kind of like the two of you to go as a team to report on the situation.” He handed the note with the address on it to Felicia and then turned to Shelley. “What do you say, Shelley? Are you up for that?”
Shelley stopped in the middle of buckling an ankle strap when she realized she’d just been asked to report on an active crime scene. Forgetting the sandal for the moment, she sat up straight in the chair and focused on Mike. “Uh, yeah, I’m up for it,” she said with a little excitement and a little fear in her voice. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might be sent to a crime scene when she came here, and so was completely blindsided by the idea. She paused a second as the implications sunk in, and then said, “Um, Felicia will have to drive us; I don’t have access to my car at the moment.”
<tags>
A little later, Shelley was in the passenger seat of Felicia’s car as Felicia drove them to the scene of the crime. She had her camera bag open in her lap as she checked the camera, making sure it had a fresh roll of film and that the batteries were good. She also had her purse with her, but she’d stashed her gym bag and skates behind the front counter back in the lobby at the newspaper. Satisfied that the camera was ready, she put it back in the bag and started paying more attention to the route Felicia was taking. She still wasn’t all that familiar with a lot of the layout of Teal Cove were, aside from the main streets in the downtown area and the side roads in Gary’s immediate neighborhood.
As Felicia drove them to the site, Shelley kept wanting to ask her if she knew anything about what was going on. But Shelley knew that she and Felicia had received the exact same information from Mike, limited as it was, and so Felicia didn’t have any additional information. Shelley understood that this was just her curiosity and excitement getting to her, but that knowledge didn’t do anything satisfy her anxiety. Instead, she settled on a different question to ask Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
<tags>
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
<tags>
Thursday. July 1, 1982
After 5:00 PM
At the end of Shelley’s work shift at Speedy’s, she wanted to check in at the newspaper office to see if they had anything for her. She went to the dressing room and changed out of her carhop uniform into her “normal clothes”. Today her “normal clothes” meant the dress she’d been wearing when she’d fled Pittsburgh and arrived in Teal Cove. It was one of only two outfits she had here in Teal Cove that she considered appropriate for the office. She really needed to expand her wardrobe, but she couldn’t do that without money, and at the moment she was penniless, since the car thieves had stolen all the money out of her purse along with her car keys. Fortunately tomorrow was payday, so she wouldn’t be completely broke for long.
The lack of keys was a problem too; without them, she didn’t have the use of her Trans Am. But hopefully that problem would be resolved tomorrow as well, if her mother had sent the spare keys as she’d promised. Until then, she had to depend on Gary to drive her around. But the newspaper office wasn’t all that far from Speedy’s, and rather than call Gary for a ride, she decided she could just skate over there herself. So as she was changing, she left her skates on, and when she was done she put her uniform in her gym bag along with her sandals.
She took her purse out of her locker, and her camera bag as well, which she’d brought along this morning for the after-work trip to the newspaper. It was a lot of stuff to take with her, and she wondered if she’d be overburdened while trying to skate to the newspaper. Gary and his D&D players might say she was “encumbered”, she thought with a smile. Should she reconsider her skating trip and call Gary? No, she decided she could handle it, and she didn’t want to bother Gary needlessly. She put her head and right arm through the camera bag strap so that the bag hung on her right side from her left shoulder, and then put her head and left arm through her purse strap so it hung on her left side from her right shoulder. That seemed pretty secure and not too uncomfortable. Taking the gym bag in her left hand, she opened the dressing room door with her right hand and set out on her trip to the newspaper, going a little slower than she would otherwise to keep all her baggage in balance.
A few minutes later, Shelley rolled up to the door of the newspaper office and went inside. Felicia was there, and Shelley noticed her glance down at her skates with a look on her face that Shelley assumed was probably disapproval. Rather than defending herself or offering an explanation, Shelley ignored the look and just said “Hi Felicia” as she laid her baggage down in one lobby seat and took a seat in the next one. She quickly retrieved her high heels from her gym bag and began unlacing her skates to change into them.
<tag Felicia>
Just a minute or two later, Mike emerged from his office holding a note, which he was staring at intently. “Hey Felicia, I just got some informa…oh, hi Shelley, I’m glad you’re here,” he said as he looked up from the note and noticed her presence. He then started directing his words to both of them. “So, I just got word from my contacts in the police department that there’s some kind of hostage situation going on right now, at…” He looked down at the note again and read off the address. “I was about to send Felicia to the crime scene, but since you’re here too, Shelley, I’d kind of like the two of you to go as a team to report on the situation.” He handed the note with the address on it to Felicia and then turned to Shelley. “What do you say, Shelley? Are you up for that?”
Shelley stopped in the middle of buckling an ankle strap when she realized she’d just been asked to report on an active crime scene. Forgetting the sandal for the moment, she sat up straight in the chair and focused on Mike. “Uh, yeah, I’m up for it,” she said with a little excitement and a little fear in her voice. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might be sent to a crime scene when she came here, and so was completely blindsided by the idea. She paused a second as the implications sunk in, and then said, “Um, Felicia will have to drive us; I don’t have access to my car at the moment.”
<tags>
A little later, Shelley was in the passenger seat of Felicia’s car as Felicia drove them to the scene of the crime. She had her camera bag open in her lap as she checked the camera, making sure it had a fresh roll of film and that the batteries were good. She also had her purse with her, but she’d stashed her gym bag and skates behind the front counter back in the lobby at the newspaper. Satisfied that the camera was ready, she put it back in the bag and started paying more attention to the route Felicia was taking. She still wasn’t all that familiar with a lot of the layout of Teal Cove were, aside from the main streets in the downtown area and the side roads in Gary’s immediate neighborhood.
As Felicia drove them to the site, Shelley kept wanting to ask her if she knew anything about what was going on. But Shelley knew that she and Felicia had received the exact same information from Mike, limited as it was, and so Felicia didn’t have any additional information. Shelley understood that this was just her curiosity and excitement getting to her, but that knowledge didn’t do anything satisfy her anxiety. Instead, she settled on a different question to ask Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
<tags>
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
<tags>
Felicia had come into the office when it opened. She'd spent most of the morning filing papers and taking phone calls about advertising or calling people back about the paper's rates. It wasn't until the door opened that Felicia looked up. She noticed the black Trans-Am was not parked in front of the office nor, was the blue and white van driving away.
Felicia was momentarily puzzled as to how Miss Shelley Higgins had seemingly appeared out of thin air until she glanced down at her feet and saw the skates. Had the girl actually skated from her burger slinging job to get here?
Felicia was about to make a snide remark about Miss Higgins magically appearing but Shelley spoke first.
“Hi Felicia” as she laid her baggage down in one lobby seat and took a seat in the next one. She quickly retrieved her high heels from her gym bag and began unlacing her skates to change into them.
Felicia paused. Her intended jab was to allude to the fact that the paper's overnight star reporter always seemed to appear out of nowhere to get the story, but when Shelley said hi to her, she paused. "Hey," she finally managed. It was hard to read if the greeting was sincere or not. Felicia wasn't sure herself had she been pressed. Before she could say more, there was another interruption.
Just a minute or two later, Mike emerged from his office holding a note, which he was staring at intently. “Hey Felicia, I just got some informa…oh, hi Shelley, I’m glad you’re here,” he said as he looked up from the note and noticed her presence. He then started directing his words to both of them. “So, I just got word from my contacts in the police department that there’s some kind of hostage situation going on right now, at…” He looked down at the note again and read off the address. “I was about to send Felicia to the crime scene, but since you’re here too, Shelley, I’d kind of like the two of you to go as a team to report on the situation.” He handed the note with the address on it to Felicia and then turned to Shelley. “What do you say, Shelley? Are you up for that?”
Shelley stopped in the middle of buckling an ankle strap when she realized she’d just been asked to report on an active crime scene. Forgetting the sandal for the moment, she sat up straight in the chair and focused on Mike. “Uh, yeah, I’m up for it,” she said with a little excitement and a little fear in her voice. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might be sent to a crime scene when she came here, and so was completely blindsided by the idea. She paused a second as the implications sunk in, and then said, “Um, Felicia will have to drive us; I don’t have access to my car at the moment.”
Felicia cut her eyes between the two. "Did you really skate over here," she finally asked.
(tag Shelley)
"Since I didn't bring my roller skates to work, I guess I'll have to," Felicia replied getting up from behind the desk. She took the paper from Mike even though he read it aloud. "I know where this is! Southside of town over near Reiner high school."
"A stand off, huh? Like SWAT? Sounds like something out of Dragnet. How did this town get so exciting suddenly," Felicia asked, focusing her eyes on Miss Higgins. She still wasn't convinced that the girl from Pittsburgh wasn't somehow behind all of this. After all, there had been an auto theft ring, cars at the bottom of the lake, a girl tied up in a dumpster and then Miss Higgins herself and her friends had been allegedly tied up and held hostage just like in a television show. Now, in she skates and right on cue, Mike has info about a live hostage situation they needed to go investigate? It was too weird... and maybe a bit too convenient. Had her boss somehow hired this girl? She shook her head. That was crazy talk.
(Tag Shelley)
A little later, Shelley was in the passenger seat of Felicia’s car as Felicia drove them to the scene of the crime. She had her camera bag open in her lap as she checked the camera, making sure it had a fresh roll of film and that the batteries were good. She also had her purse with her, but she’d stashed her gym bag and skates behind the front counter back in the lobby at the newspaper. Satisfied that the camera was ready, she put it back in the bag and started paying more attention to the route Felicia was taking. She still wasn’t all that familiar with a lot of the layout of Teal Cove were, aside from the main streets in the downtown area and the side roads in Gary’s immediate neighborhood.
Felicia didn't say anything although she had plenty of questions for Miss Higgins. Not wanting to start anything, she stared ahead and focused on the road. Shelley was fiddling with her camera. The silence between them felt awkward.
As Felicia drove them to the site, Shelley kept wanting to ask her if she knew anything about what was going on. But Shelley knew that she and Felicia had received the exact same information from Mike, limited as it was, and so Felicia didn’t have any additional information. Shelley understood that this was just her curiosity and excitement getting to her, but that knowledge didn’t do anything satisfy her anxiety. Instead, she settled on a different question to ask Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
(Tag Shelley)
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
If examined closely, the cassette's label read "For Demonstration Purposes Only" and had the Radio Shack logo on it. Further examination, particularly the top of the cassette would reveal that the recording tabs had been covered with scotch tape. The tape had come with the recorder and it was Dixieland jazz music. Some of the music hadn't been recorded over yet.
Felicia rewound the tape. The batteries seemed to be good. She had no idea how much power they had and there was no time to check. She hadn't used the device much but it had been sitting back there for a week or two. Hopefully, the recording wouldn't sound draggy because they needed to be changed. There seemed to be enough juice to get a statement anyway.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
(Tag Shelley)
Felicia was momentarily puzzled as to how Miss Shelley Higgins had seemingly appeared out of thin air until she glanced down at her feet and saw the skates. Had the girl actually skated from her burger slinging job to get here?
Felicia was about to make a snide remark about Miss Higgins magically appearing but Shelley spoke first.
“Hi Felicia” as she laid her baggage down in one lobby seat and took a seat in the next one. She quickly retrieved her high heels from her gym bag and began unlacing her skates to change into them.
Felicia paused. Her intended jab was to allude to the fact that the paper's overnight star reporter always seemed to appear out of nowhere to get the story, but when Shelley said hi to her, she paused. "Hey," she finally managed. It was hard to read if the greeting was sincere or not. Felicia wasn't sure herself had she been pressed. Before she could say more, there was another interruption.
Just a minute or two later, Mike emerged from his office holding a note, which he was staring at intently. “Hey Felicia, I just got some informa…oh, hi Shelley, I’m glad you’re here,” he said as he looked up from the note and noticed her presence. He then started directing his words to both of them. “So, I just got word from my contacts in the police department that there’s some kind of hostage situation going on right now, at…” He looked down at the note again and read off the address. “I was about to send Felicia to the crime scene, but since you’re here too, Shelley, I’d kind of like the two of you to go as a team to report on the situation.” He handed the note with the address on it to Felicia and then turned to Shelley. “What do you say, Shelley? Are you up for that?”
Shelley stopped in the middle of buckling an ankle strap when she realized she’d just been asked to report on an active crime scene. Forgetting the sandal for the moment, she sat up straight in the chair and focused on Mike. “Uh, yeah, I’m up for it,” she said with a little excitement and a little fear in her voice. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might be sent to a crime scene when she came here, and so was completely blindsided by the idea. She paused a second as the implications sunk in, and then said, “Um, Felicia will have to drive us; I don’t have access to my car at the moment.”
Felicia cut her eyes between the two. "Did you really skate over here," she finally asked.
(tag Shelley)
"Since I didn't bring my roller skates to work, I guess I'll have to," Felicia replied getting up from behind the desk. She took the paper from Mike even though he read it aloud. "I know where this is! Southside of town over near Reiner high school."
"A stand off, huh? Like SWAT? Sounds like something out of Dragnet. How did this town get so exciting suddenly," Felicia asked, focusing her eyes on Miss Higgins. She still wasn't convinced that the girl from Pittsburgh wasn't somehow behind all of this. After all, there had been an auto theft ring, cars at the bottom of the lake, a girl tied up in a dumpster and then Miss Higgins herself and her friends had been allegedly tied up and held hostage just like in a television show. Now, in she skates and right on cue, Mike has info about a live hostage situation they needed to go investigate? It was too weird... and maybe a bit too convenient. Had her boss somehow hired this girl? She shook her head. That was crazy talk.
(Tag Shelley)
A little later, Shelley was in the passenger seat of Felicia’s car as Felicia drove them to the scene of the crime. She had her camera bag open in her lap as she checked the camera, making sure it had a fresh roll of film and that the batteries were good. She also had her purse with her, but she’d stashed her gym bag and skates behind the front counter back in the lobby at the newspaper. Satisfied that the camera was ready, she put it back in the bag and started paying more attention to the route Felicia was taking. She still wasn’t all that familiar with a lot of the layout of Teal Cove were, aside from the main streets in the downtown area and the side roads in Gary’s immediate neighborhood.
Felicia didn't say anything although she had plenty of questions for Miss Higgins. Not wanting to start anything, she stared ahead and focused on the road. Shelley was fiddling with her camera. The silence between them felt awkward.
As Felicia drove them to the site, Shelley kept wanting to ask her if she knew anything about what was going on. But Shelley knew that she and Felicia had received the exact same information from Mike, limited as it was, and so Felicia didn’t have any additional information. Shelley understood that this was just her curiosity and excitement getting to her, but that knowledge didn’t do anything satisfy her anxiety. Instead, she settled on a different question to ask Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
(Tag Shelley)
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
If examined closely, the cassette's label read "For Demonstration Purposes Only" and had the Radio Shack logo on it. Further examination, particularly the top of the cassette would reveal that the recording tabs had been covered with scotch tape. The tape had come with the recorder and it was Dixieland jazz music. Some of the music hadn't been recorded over yet.
Felicia rewound the tape. The batteries seemed to be good. She had no idea how much power they had and there was no time to check. She hadn't used the device much but it had been sitting back there for a week or two. Hopefully, the recording wouldn't sound draggy because they needed to be changed. There seemed to be enough juice to get a statement anyway.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
(Tag Shelley)
Felicia cut her eyes between the two. "Did you really skate over here," she finally asked.
“Yeah, well, I figured why bother my ride if I don’t have to? Speedy’s isn’t all that far from here, and besides, I thought it wouldn’t take me much longer to skate here than it would to call him, wait for him to drive to Speedy’s and pick me up, and then drive me here. I wouldn’t want to do it every day, though,” said Shelley.
"Since I didn't bring my roller skates to work, I guess I'll have to," Felicia replied getting up from behind the desk. She took the paper from Mike even though he read it aloud. "I know where this is! Southside of town over near Renier high school."
"A stand off, huh? Like SWAT? Sounds like something out of Dragnet. How did this town get so exciting suddenly," Felicia asked, focusing her eyes on Miss Higgins.
Felicia’s look almost felt like an accusation to Shelley. Could this girl actually think she was somehow involved in the crimes that had been going on in Teal Cove, other than as a victim? To Shelley, the idea seemed ludicrous, and for a second she considered saying something in her own defense. But she decided not to, because doing so might imply that she actually had something to defend herself against, and Shelley wanted to avoid anything that might seem to give legitimacy to the idea. Besides, there hadn’t actually been an accusation, only a look that she might have misinterpreted. Shelley just shrugged and continued the conversation. “Oh yeah, I remember those shows. I think I was a little too young to appreciate the storylines on Dragnet; I mostly remember it for the theme song, and for that introduction where they talk about changing the names to protect the innocent. I remember SWAT a little better; when was it on? About five or six years ago, I think? I wasn’t really into it, though.”
A little later, while Felicia was driving them to the crime scene, Shelley asked Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
“A little like Lois Lane, but I don’t have Superman to save me,” Shelley responded. She could tell Felicia was prodding her again. “I’d rather report the news, not be the news.”
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
Shelley got out of Felicia’s car as Felicia was moving to open her trunk. Shelley thought about leaving her purse in the car so that she wouldn’t be burdened with both the purse and the camera bag, but she decided not to. It wasn’t like Shelley thought Felicia might hop back in the car and drive off with her purse, but…it just seemed like a bad idea. Maybe she was being paranoid, but with all that had happened recently, she felt she had a right to be a little paranoid. She closed the passenger door and moved to join Felicia at the trunk. “Ooh, a tape recorder…that’s a good idea,” said Shelley as she watched Felicia prepare the device for a recording session. She didn’t pay much attention to the tape or to what Felicia was doing to get it ready, figuring Felicia knew what she was doing. If Shelley was going to continue doing reporting and not just photojournalism, it might be a good idea to get a tape recorder of her own. Of course, she couldn’t afford one at the moment.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
Sgt. Montgomery saw them coming as they approached, and Shelley didn’t think he was all that happy to see them, based on his facial expression. He crouched behind one of the police cars furthest away from the house and motioned for them to come to him, and also made a gesture that Shelley interpreted to mean that they should crouch down as they approached. Shelley did so, took a squatting position when they arrived at Montgomery’s location.
“Miss Higgins, I assume you and your friend are here to cover the story for the newspaper,” he said.
“That’s right. This is Felicia Jackson, a reporter for the Chronicle,” Shelley responded. “And Felicia, this is Sgt. Montgomery,” she said, even though she’d already told her who the policeman was. It didn’t seem right to make one introduction without making both.
<tag Felicia>
“Okay, I need you to understand that this is a dangerous situation. I need you all to stay back here, and don’t try to cross the police line or approach the house. You can take pictures, but stay behind cover as much as possible; we don’t want y’all catching a stray bullet. The front of the car provides the best cover, because the engine block is the hardest part of the car for a bullet to penetrate. And please don’t try to interview any of the officers until the situation is resolved; we don’t want them distracted until this is over.
<tags>
“Yeah, well, I figured why bother my ride if I don’t have to? Speedy’s isn’t all that far from here, and besides, I thought it wouldn’t take me much longer to skate here than it would to call him, wait for him to drive to Speedy’s and pick me up, and then drive me here. I wouldn’t want to do it every day, though,” said Shelley.
"Since I didn't bring my roller skates to work, I guess I'll have to," Felicia replied getting up from behind the desk. She took the paper from Mike even though he read it aloud. "I know where this is! Southside of town over near Renier high school."
"A stand off, huh? Like SWAT? Sounds like something out of Dragnet. How did this town get so exciting suddenly," Felicia asked, focusing her eyes on Miss Higgins.
Felicia’s look almost felt like an accusation to Shelley. Could this girl actually think she was somehow involved in the crimes that had been going on in Teal Cove, other than as a victim? To Shelley, the idea seemed ludicrous, and for a second she considered saying something in her own defense. But she decided not to, because doing so might imply that she actually had something to defend herself against, and Shelley wanted to avoid anything that might seem to give legitimacy to the idea. Besides, there hadn’t actually been an accusation, only a look that she might have misinterpreted. Shelley just shrugged and continued the conversation. “Oh yeah, I remember those shows. I think I was a little too young to appreciate the storylines on Dragnet; I mostly remember it for the theme song, and for that introduction where they talk about changing the names to protect the innocent. I remember SWAT a little better; when was it on? About five or six years ago, I think? I wasn’t really into it, though.”
A little later, while Felicia was driving them to the crime scene, Shelley asked Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
“A little like Lois Lane, but I don’t have Superman to save me,” Shelley responded. She could tell Felicia was prodding her again. “I’d rather report the news, not be the news.”
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
Shelley got out of Felicia’s car as Felicia was moving to open her trunk. Shelley thought about leaving her purse in the car so that she wouldn’t be burdened with both the purse and the camera bag, but she decided not to. It wasn’t like Shelley thought Felicia might hop back in the car and drive off with her purse, but…it just seemed like a bad idea. Maybe she was being paranoid, but with all that had happened recently, she felt she had a right to be a little paranoid. She closed the passenger door and moved to join Felicia at the trunk. “Ooh, a tape recorder…that’s a good idea,” said Shelley as she watched Felicia prepare the device for a recording session. She didn’t pay much attention to the tape or to what Felicia was doing to get it ready, figuring Felicia knew what she was doing. If Shelley was going to continue doing reporting and not just photojournalism, it might be a good idea to get a tape recorder of her own. Of course, she couldn’t afford one at the moment.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
Sgt. Montgomery saw them coming as they approached, and Shelley didn’t think he was all that happy to see them, based on his facial expression. He crouched behind one of the police cars furthest away from the house and motioned for them to come to him, and also made a gesture that Shelley interpreted to mean that they should crouch down as they approached. Shelley did so, took a squatting position when they arrived at Montgomery’s location.
“Miss Higgins, I assume you and your friend are here to cover the story for the newspaper,” he said.
“That’s right. This is Felicia Jackson, a reporter for the Chronicle,” Shelley responded. “And Felicia, this is Sgt. Montgomery,” she said, even though she’d already told her who the policeman was. It didn’t seem right to make one introduction without making both.
<tag Felicia>
“Okay, I need you to understand that this is a dangerous situation. I need you all to stay back here, and don’t try to cross the police line or approach the house. You can take pictures, but stay behind cover as much as possible; we don’t want y’all catching a stray bullet. The front of the car provides the best cover, because the engine block is the hardest part of the car for a bullet to penetrate. And please don’t try to interview any of the officers until the situation is resolved; we don’t want them distracted until this is over.
<tags>
A little later, while Felicia was driving them to the crime scene, Shelley asked Felicia. “So, have you ever been sent to cover anything like this before? A live crime-in-progress, I mean?”
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
“A little like Lois Lane, but I don’t have Superman to save me,” Shelley responded. She could tell Felicia was prodding her again. “I’d rather report the news, not be the news.”
Felicia nodded. She'd give Miss Higgins one thing, she certainly could keep her cool and her poker face up. If it were not for the fact that so many over the top and improbable things were going on out of the blue, she'd almost believe her. Felicia thought about taking another jab in response to Shelley's Superman reference, but decided not to. Whether this was indeed a coincidence or not, Felicia thought it was best to stand down and let Miss Higgins wonder how sincere she was in her small talk. If nothing else, they had to work together, at least for the time being.
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
Shelley got out of Felicia’s car as Felicia was moving to open her trunk. Shelley thought about leaving her purse in the car so that she wouldn’t be burdened with both the purse and the camera bag, but she decided not to. It wasn’t like Shelley thought Felicia might hop back in the car and drive off with her purse, but…it just seemed like a bad idea. Maybe she was being paranoid, but with all that had happened recently, she felt she had a right to be a little paranoid. She closed the passenger door and moved to join Felicia at the trunk. “Ooh, a tape recorder…that’s a good idea,” said Shelley as she watched Felicia prepare the device for a recording session. She didn’t pay much attention to the tape or to what Felicia was doing to get it ready, figuring Felicia knew what she was doing. If Shelley was going to continue doing reporting and not just photojournalism, it might be a good idea to get a tape recorder of her own. Of course, she couldn’t afford one at the moment.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
Sgt. Montgomery saw them coming as they approached, and Shelley didn’t think he was all that happy to see them, based on his facial expression. He crouched behind one of the police cars furthest away from the house and motioned for them to come to him, and also made a gesture that Shelley interpreted to mean that they should crouch down as they approached. Shelley did so, took a squatting position when they arrived at Montgomery’s location.
“Miss Higgins, I assume you and your friend are here to cover the story for the newspaper,” he said.
“That’s right. This is Felicia Jackson, a reporter for the Chronicle,” Shelley responded. “And Felicia, this is Sgt. Montgomery,” she said, even though she’d already told her who the policeman was. It didn’t seem right to make one introduction without making both.
Felicia started to take issue with being identified as a 'friend' but Shelley quickly identified her as a fellow reporter. She didn't offer a correction or say anything else. In her mind, she was the reporter, Shelley was the photographer, but there was no need for the cop to know that or for them to argue over their roles. That could be decided back in the office.
“Okay, I need you to understand that this is a dangerous situation. I need you all to stay back here, and don’t try to cross the police line or approach the house. You can take pictures, but stay behind cover as much as possible; we don’t want y’all catching a stray bullet. The front of the car provides the best cover, because the engine block is the hardest part of the car for a bullet to penetrate. And please don’t try to interview any of the officers until the situation is resolved; we don’t want them distracted until this is over.
Stray bullet? Felicia was just an intern. She wasn't sure she was ready to or okay with taking a bullet for the paper. She nodded again and crouched down. "Why don't you get some pictures of the scene? This may not be the best time to get statements," Felicia suggested after the cop told them to wait until things were resolved.
There were cops everywhere and even if there was one that seemed to just be standing around, it was hardly the appropriate time to converse. Felicia looked around. Despite the danger, she had to admit, this was a bit exciting. She wondered who was in the house and what was going on in there.
Since they had been instructed not to interview any of the officers until the situation was resolved, Felicia took that to mean once the guy or guys inside were handcuffed and in custody or dead. She wished she could at least get some basic details like if the cops knew who it was, how many people were inside or how long they'd been in there.
She began to list out those questions and any others she could think of. Both of them were on the ground behind a police car in case shots were fired. Felicia set her tape recorder down on the ground. It was in easy reach. She used the door panel as a makeshift desk.
As the minutes dragged on into an hour with no sign of any action, Felicia noticed other reporters including a news crew were now on the scene. Montgomery gave all of the rest of the press the same instructions and warnings. Several of them barked questions at him, regardless. Montgomery waved them off.
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the the word "PRESS." The Times Harold was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
*Tag Shelley*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
"Nope. You're getting to be a real veteran, though," Felicia remarked, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. "You've even been the victim yourself. The kidnapped reporter, just like in those detective shows."
“A little like Lois Lane, but I don’t have Superman to save me,” Shelley responded. She could tell Felicia was prodding her again. “I’d rather report the news, not be the news.”
Felicia nodded. She'd give Miss Higgins one thing, she certainly could keep her cool and her poker face up. If it were not for the fact that so many over the top and improbable things were going on out of the blue, she'd almost believe her. Felicia thought about taking another jab in response to Shelley's Superman reference, but decided not to. Whether this was indeed a coincidence or not, Felicia thought it was best to stand down and let Miss Higgins wonder how sincere she was in her small talk. If nothing else, they had to work together, at least for the time being.
Soon Felicia was turning down a street toward the flashing lights of police cars. They could only get so close, as the police had closed the street to through traffic as they barricaded the house at the address on the note. Felicia pulled the car to the side of the road a couple of houses down the street from where the police line was set up. Shelley recognized one of the policemen on the scene, and pointed him out to Felicia. “See that cop there? That’s Sgt. Montgomery; I met him at the lake when the cops were pulling those stolen cars out of the water. Maybe he can fill us in on the situation.”
Felicia just nodded. She had her notepad and a blue pen in hand. Covering a stand off was not something she had anticipated, but she figured she should have some basic supplies in her car for interviews in general. After getting out, Felicia moved around to the trunk and popped it open and pulled out a red RadioShack cassette player. It was not quite the size of a high school text book. She grabbed a tape with a yellow label on it from a shoebox and popped it in.
Shelley got out of Felicia’s car as Felicia was moving to open her trunk. Shelley thought about leaving her purse in the car so that she wouldn’t be burdened with both the purse and the camera bag, but she decided not to. It wasn’t like Shelley thought Felicia might hop back in the car and drive off with her purse, but…it just seemed like a bad idea. Maybe she was being paranoid, but with all that had happened recently, she felt she had a right to be a little paranoid. She closed the passenger door and moved to join Felicia at the trunk. “Ooh, a tape recorder…that’s a good idea,” said Shelley as she watched Felicia prepare the device for a recording session. She didn’t pay much attention to the tape or to what Felicia was doing to get it ready, figuring Felicia knew what she was doing. If Shelley was going to continue doing reporting and not just photojournalism, it might be a good idea to get a tape recorder of her own. Of course, she couldn’t afford one at the moment.
"Let's go talk to Sgt. Montgomery. Hopefully, he remembers you," Felicia commented. She followed Shelley, letting her take the lead. Hopefully, even if Miss Higgins dominated the interview, the fact Felicia got it on tape would get her a bi-line. After Shelley got the conversation going, Felicia also hoped that she would switch to the role of photographer so Felicia could ask some questions.
Sgt. Montgomery saw them coming as they approached, and Shelley didn’t think he was all that happy to see them, based on his facial expression. He crouched behind one of the police cars furthest away from the house and motioned for them to come to him, and also made a gesture that Shelley interpreted to mean that they should crouch down as they approached. Shelley did so, took a squatting position when they arrived at Montgomery’s location.
“Miss Higgins, I assume you and your friend are here to cover the story for the newspaper,” he said.
“That’s right. This is Felicia Jackson, a reporter for the Chronicle,” Shelley responded. “And Felicia, this is Sgt. Montgomery,” she said, even though she’d already told her who the policeman was. It didn’t seem right to make one introduction without making both.
Felicia started to take issue with being identified as a 'friend' but Shelley quickly identified her as a fellow reporter. She didn't offer a correction or say anything else. In her mind, she was the reporter, Shelley was the photographer, but there was no need for the cop to know that or for them to argue over their roles. That could be decided back in the office.
“Okay, I need you to understand that this is a dangerous situation. I need you all to stay back here, and don’t try to cross the police line or approach the house. You can take pictures, but stay behind cover as much as possible; we don’t want y’all catching a stray bullet. The front of the car provides the best cover, because the engine block is the hardest part of the car for a bullet to penetrate. And please don’t try to interview any of the officers until the situation is resolved; we don’t want them distracted until this is over.
Stray bullet? Felicia was just an intern. She wasn't sure she was ready to or okay with taking a bullet for the paper. She nodded again and crouched down. "Why don't you get some pictures of the scene? This may not be the best time to get statements," Felicia suggested after the cop told them to wait until things were resolved.
There were cops everywhere and even if there was one that seemed to just be standing around, it was hardly the appropriate time to converse. Felicia looked around. Despite the danger, she had to admit, this was a bit exciting. She wondered who was in the house and what was going on in there.
Since they had been instructed not to interview any of the officers until the situation was resolved, Felicia took that to mean once the guy or guys inside were handcuffed and in custody or dead. She wished she could at least get some basic details like if the cops knew who it was, how many people were inside or how long they'd been in there.
She began to list out those questions and any others she could think of. Both of them were on the ground behind a police car in case shots were fired. Felicia set her tape recorder down on the ground. It was in easy reach. She used the door panel as a makeshift desk.
As the minutes dragged on into an hour with no sign of any action, Felicia noticed other reporters including a news crew were now on the scene. Montgomery gave all of the rest of the press the same instructions and warnings. Several of them barked questions at him, regardless. Montgomery waved them off.
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the the word "PRESS." The Times Harold was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
*Tag Shelley*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
Shelley thought she saw Felicia raise an eyebrow at the mention of “a stray bullet”. Surely she must realize there was a potential for violence and danger at a live crime scene, right? It really was obvious, but maybe it just hadn’t occurred to Felicia until now. At any rate, it seemed there hadn’t been any gunfire so far. She hoped it remained that way, even though getting pictures of a gunfight could be a huge boost for her career. Getting shot could end it.
Shelley couldn’t help but wonder if her getting shot was what Felicia was hoping for when she said, "Why don't you get some pictures of the scene? This may not be the best time to get statements." Shelley glanced at Felicia for a second or two, and then nodded. She tried to push that idea out of her mind; for her and Felicia to work together successfully, she needed to not read the worst intentions into everything Felicia said, even if sometimes it was true. She felt like that was what Felicia had been doing to her: assuming the worst of her actions.
She put her hands on the hood of the car they were ducking behind and pulled herself up enough to see over the top of the hood to get a look around. Things didn’t look particularly dangerous at the moment, so she raised herself up high enough to prop her elbows on the hood to steady herself while she took pictures. Her view of the house where the perpetrator was holed up was mostly obscured from this position by other police cars, officers, and a few trees, bushes, and other obstacles, but she took a few anyway. She also panned the camera around to get shots of the various police officers besieging the house.
Since they had been instructed not to interview any of the officers until the situation was resolved, Felicia took that to mean once the guy or guys inside were handcuffed and in custody or dead. She wished she could at least get some basic details like if the cops knew who it was, how many people were inside or how long they'd been in there.
She began to list out those questions and any others she could think of. Both of them were on the ground behind a police car in case shots were fired. Felicia set her tape recorder down on the ground. It was in easy reach. She used the door panel as a makeshift desk.
As the minutes dragged on into an hour with no sign of any action, Felicia noticed other reporters including a news crew were now on the scene. Montgomery gave all of the rest of the press the same instructions and warnings. Several of them barked questions at him, regardless. Montgomery waved them off. Back when he had been talking to them, Shelley had been tempted to ask him if he could at least tell them who the suspect was and who was being held, but not that she saw that he was not answering questions like that from the other news crews, she was glad that she hadn’t.
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the word "PRESS." The Times Herald was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
Shelley had been so focused on watching the crime scene and waiting for something to happen that she hadn’t noticed the other reporter approaching until he spoke to them. When he did, she glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “Oh, um, we’re with the Teal Cove Chronicle.” She noticed his press badge and became uncomfortably aware that she didn’t have one, something she hadn’t really thought about it until now. She hadn’t been given one, probably because she technically wasn’t a newspaper employee; although she’d been doing some work for them, she was doing it on a freelance basis. She wondered if Felicia had one; she thought she remembered seeing her wearing a press badge while taking pictures of the beauty pageant at the festival at the lake, so she probably did.
*tags*
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
*tags*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
“You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
*tags*
Shelley couldn’t help but wonder if her getting shot was what Felicia was hoping for when she said, "Why don't you get some pictures of the scene? This may not be the best time to get statements." Shelley glanced at Felicia for a second or two, and then nodded. She tried to push that idea out of her mind; for her and Felicia to work together successfully, she needed to not read the worst intentions into everything Felicia said, even if sometimes it was true. She felt like that was what Felicia had been doing to her: assuming the worst of her actions.
She put her hands on the hood of the car they were ducking behind and pulled herself up enough to see over the top of the hood to get a look around. Things didn’t look particularly dangerous at the moment, so she raised herself up high enough to prop her elbows on the hood to steady herself while she took pictures. Her view of the house where the perpetrator was holed up was mostly obscured from this position by other police cars, officers, and a few trees, bushes, and other obstacles, but she took a few anyway. She also panned the camera around to get shots of the various police officers besieging the house.
Since they had been instructed not to interview any of the officers until the situation was resolved, Felicia took that to mean once the guy or guys inside were handcuffed and in custody or dead. She wished she could at least get some basic details like if the cops knew who it was, how many people were inside or how long they'd been in there.
She began to list out those questions and any others she could think of. Both of them were on the ground behind a police car in case shots were fired. Felicia set her tape recorder down on the ground. It was in easy reach. She used the door panel as a makeshift desk.
As the minutes dragged on into an hour with no sign of any action, Felicia noticed other reporters including a news crew were now on the scene. Montgomery gave all of the rest of the press the same instructions and warnings. Several of them barked questions at him, regardless. Montgomery waved them off. Back when he had been talking to them, Shelley had been tempted to ask him if he could at least tell them who the suspect was and who was being held, but not that she saw that he was not answering questions like that from the other news crews, she was glad that she hadn’t.
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the word "PRESS." The Times Herald was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
Shelley had been so focused on watching the crime scene and waiting for something to happen that she hadn’t noticed the other reporter approaching until he spoke to them. When he did, she glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “Oh, um, we’re with the Teal Cove Chronicle.” She noticed his press badge and became uncomfortably aware that she didn’t have one, something she hadn’t really thought about it until now. She hadn’t been given one, probably because she technically wasn’t a newspaper employee; although she’d been doing some work for them, she was doing it on a freelance basis. She wondered if Felicia had one; she thought she remembered seeing her wearing a press badge while taking pictures of the beauty pageant at the festival at the lake, so she probably did.
*tags*
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
*tags*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
“You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
*tags*
As the minutes dragged on into an hour with no sign of any action, Felicia noticed other reporters including a news crew were now on the scene. Montgomery gave all of the rest of the press the same instructions and warnings. Several of them barked questions at him, regardless. Montgomery waved them off. Back when he had been talking to them, Shelley had been tempted to ask him if he could at least tell them who the suspect was and who was being held, but not that she saw that he was not answering questions like that from the other news crews, she was glad that she hadn’t.
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the word "PRESS." The Times Herald was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
Shelley had been so focused on watching the crime scene and waiting for something to happen that she hadn’t noticed the other reporter approaching until he spoke to them. When he did, she glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “Oh, um, we’re with the Teal Cove Chronicle.” She noticed his press badge and became uncomfortably aware that she didn’t have one, something she hadn’t really thought about it until now. She hadn’t been given one, probably because she technically wasn’t a newspaper employee; although she’d been doing some work for them, she was doing it on a freelance basis. She wondered if Felicia had one; she thought she remembered seeing her wearing a press badge while taking pictures of the beauty pageant at the festival at the lake, so she probably did.
The man nodded in response, not questioning her explanation. "Ah, the local paper," He said. "I guess you were probably first on scene being closest. I had to drive out from the Dallas office."
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
Felicia was surprised at the comment about "those teens" implying she wasn't there. "Any of those teens? You were there," Felicia blurted out without thinking. She wasn't attempting to throw Shelley under the bus here. She was legitimately surprised that Shelley had side stepped being one of the captives herself.
The reporter started to ask about Jerry but raised both eyebrows in response to Felicia's comment. "You were there? As in one of the victims? Wait, I saw that story the other night. Are you the reporter that was kidnapped with those kids? The rock band? She wasn't with them during the interview."
*Tag Shelley*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
“You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "So, am I correct? Looks like it may be awhile before we have any updates on this story. Mind if I get some more information on what happened?"
*Tag Shelley*
"Who are you with," a man asked with a notepad. He wasn't challenging the pair's right to be there. It seemed to be a legit question since everyone was standing around. He had a plastic press badge around his neck. His name was obscured, but the Dallas Times Herald was clearly visible above the word "PRESS." The Times Herald was one of two major newspapers out of Dallas.
Shelley had been so focused on watching the crime scene and waiting for something to happen that she hadn’t noticed the other reporter approaching until he spoke to them. When he did, she glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “Oh, um, we’re with the Teal Cove Chronicle.” She noticed his press badge and became uncomfortably aware that she didn’t have one, something she hadn’t really thought about it until now. She hadn’t been given one, probably because she technically wasn’t a newspaper employee; although she’d been doing some work for them, she was doing it on a freelance basis. She wondered if Felicia had one; she thought she remembered seeing her wearing a press badge while taking pictures of the beauty pageant at the festival at the lake, so she probably did.
The man nodded in response, not questioning her explanation. "Ah, the local paper," He said. "I guess you were probably first on scene being closest. I had to drive out from the Dallas office."
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
Felicia was surprised at the comment about "those teens" implying she wasn't there. "Any of those teens? You were there," Felicia blurted out without thinking. She wasn't attempting to throw Shelley under the bus here. She was legitimately surprised that Shelley had side stepped being one of the captives herself.
The reporter started to ask about Jerry but raised both eyebrows in response to Felicia's comment. "You were there? As in one of the victims? Wait, I saw that story the other night. Are you the reporter that was kidnapped with those kids? The rock band? She wasn't with them during the interview."
*Tag Shelley*
There was not much going on right now. The police continued to hold their position. A cop with a bullhorn had been trying to convince the perpetrator or perpetrators to come out or at least make contact. A police helicopter was circling overhead and a second copter, probably a news television crew, had now joined it. Several neighbors peered out their windows. A few that were inside the perimeter or a bit too close for their own safety were directed to go back inside.
“You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "So, am I correct? Looks like it may be awhile before we have any updates on this story. Mind if I get some more information on what happened?"
*Tag Shelley*
The newcomer had gotten closer to the action and was standing near Felicia and Shelley. "I wonder if this has anything to do with those teens that were abducted in this area," he mused aloud. "All of the people involved are still at large. Could they be holed up here?"
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
Felicia was surprised at the comment about "those teens" implying she wasn't there. "Any of those teens? You were there," Felicia blurted out without thinking. She wasn't attempting to throw Shelley under the bus here. She was legitimately surprised that Shelley had side-stepped being one of the captives herself.
The reporter started to ask about Jerry but raised both eyebrows in response to Felicia's comment. "You were there? As in one of the victims? Wait, I saw that story the other night. Are you the reporter that was kidnapped with those kids? The rock band? She wasn't with them during the interview."
Shelley hadn’t planned on telling this reporter that she had been one of the kidnapping victims, but she wasn’t actively trying to hide it either. It all went back to that comment she’d made to Felicia on their way here in Felicia’s car about preferring to report the news than to be the news. But now that it was out, Shelley was just going to roll with it, which probably meant spending some time answering the reporter’s questions rather than taking pictures. She arose from her position squatting behind the police car’s engine and released her camera to hang by its strap at her side. “Yeah, that was me,” she said.
After noticing the police directing some of the neighbors to go back inside, it occurred to Shelley that those neighbors might be a good source of information. She decided to point this out to Felicia, especially since she herself was likely to be occupied with the reporter for a while. Felicia could interview some of the neighbors while she was answering the reporter’s questions, since Felicia wouldn’t need her help with that. “You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "So, am I correct? Looks like it may be awhile before we have any updates on this story. Mind if I get some more information on what happened?"
Shelley shook Mr. Crenshaw’s hand and introduced herself. “Shelley Higgins,” she said. “I’m not a part of their band, but I’m a friend of theirs and I was with them that night. The car thieves kidnapped us, and I spent most of the night tied to a chair in the trailer they were running their operation out of. I think I’d be willing to answer your questions. In return, would you agree to swap contact information with me? I’d kind of like to have you as potential source of information in the future, journalist-to-journalist.”
The reporter’s words caused Shelley to go pale, and she might have visibly shuddered. Although it was an obvious possibility, it just hadn’t really occurred to her until now, much like Felicia hadn’t seemed to consider the possibility of danger at the crime scene until Sgt. Montgomery had pointed it out. It was a terrifying idea, that one of her captors might be behind this. She’d just kind of assumed that they’d all fled town. “Uh…I don’t know…maybe?” Shelley uttered as she tried to regain her composure. “Well, I know this isn’t the house of any of those teens, but I don’t know if one of their kidnappers might be behind this. I mean, they are all still on the loose, at least all but the one that got arrested…but he’s out of jail now too, I believe, so I guess it could even be him.” She had a hard time believing Jerry would be doing this, but then, she hadn’t expected him to try to break into Doreen’s house either.
Felicia was surprised at the comment about "those teens" implying she wasn't there. "Any of those teens? You were there," Felicia blurted out without thinking. She wasn't attempting to throw Shelley under the bus here. She was legitimately surprised that Shelley had side-stepped being one of the captives herself.
The reporter started to ask about Jerry but raised both eyebrows in response to Felicia's comment. "You were there? As in one of the victims? Wait, I saw that story the other night. Are you the reporter that was kidnapped with those kids? The rock band? She wasn't with them during the interview."
Shelley hadn’t planned on telling this reporter that she had been one of the kidnapping victims, but she wasn’t actively trying to hide it either. It all went back to that comment she’d made to Felicia on their way here in Felicia’s car about preferring to report the news than to be the news. But now that it was out, Shelley was just going to roll with it, which probably meant spending some time answering the reporter’s questions rather than taking pictures. She arose from her position squatting behind the police car’s engine and released her camera to hang by its strap at her side. “Yeah, that was me,” she said.
After noticing the police directing some of the neighbors to go back inside, it occurred to Shelley that those neighbors might be a good source of information. She decided to point this out to Felicia, especially since she herself was likely to be occupied with the reporter for a while. Felicia could interview some of the neighbors while she was answering the reporter’s questions, since Felicia wouldn’t need her help with that. “You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "So, am I correct? Looks like it may be awhile before we have any updates on this story. Mind if I get some more information on what happened?"
Shelley shook Mr. Crenshaw’s hand and introduced herself. “Shelley Higgins,” she said. “I’m not a part of their band, but I’m a friend of theirs and I was with them that night. The car thieves kidnapped us, and I spent most of the night tied to a chair in the trailer they were running their operation out of. I think I’d be willing to answer your questions. In return, would you agree to swap contact information with me? I’d kind of like to have you as potential source of information in the future, journalist-to-journalist.”
Shelley hadn’t planned on telling this reporter that she had been one of the kidnapping victims, but she wasn’t actively trying to hide it either. It all went back to that comment she’d made to Felicia on their way here in Felicia’s car about preferring to report the news than to be the news. But now that it was out, Shelley was just going to roll with it, which probably meant spending some time answering the reporter’s questions rather than taking pictures. She arose from her position squatting behind the police car’s engine and released her camera to hang by its strap at her side. “Yeah, that was me,” she said.
"Mind if we chat about it? As a fellow reporter, I'm sure you can understand needing the follow up," he pointed out. "I don't know if you take our paper, but you are probably aware we ran a story on this. We spoke to the police but didn't interview any of the victims."
After noticing the police directing some of the neighbors to go back inside, it occurred to Shelley that those neighbors might be a good source of information. She decided to point this out to Felicia, especially since she herself was likely to be occupied with the reporter for a while. Felicia could interview some of the neighbors while she was answering the reporter’s questions, since Felicia wouldn’t need her help with that. “You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "Looks like we have some time to kill on this story. Would you recount your experience for me? We don't have to mention this interview took place while we were both covering this one."
Shelley shook Mr. Crenshaw’s hand and introduced herself. “Shelley Higgins,” she said. “I’m not a part of their band, but I’m a friend of theirs and I was with them that night. The car thieves kidnapped us, and I spent most of the night tied to a chair in the trailer they were running their operation out of. I think I’d be willing to answer your questions. In return, would you agree to swap contact information with me? I’d kind of like to have you as potential source of information in the future, journalist-to-journalist.”
"Absolutely! Even though we work for different outlets, you'd be surprised how often we work together. Often it's all about getting the scoop first, but once the cat is out of the bag, it's not uncommon to share information. Sometimes, like in the case of covering a major trial, there is only a single camera or a limited number of reporters allowed in the courtroom. Anyway, you said you were with the Teal Cove paper. Are you part-time? Freelance?"
*Tag Shelley*
"Can you walk me through what happened starting with how you came to be involved in the situation," he began.
*Tag Shelley*
Meanwhile, Felicia was talking to the neighbor that had answered the door. The home in question belonged to Dr. Harold Falwell who worked at the Medical City Hospital just outside of Dallas. He had a teenage daughter Lana Falwell, a sophomore at Reiner high school and his wife Sandra who was a Yorkshire terrier breeder. They seemed like very nice people but she didn't really know them very well. The interviewee had no idea anything was wrong over there until she saw police cars a little while ago. Shortly after that, several more police vehicles showed up and an officer going door to door told them to stay inside but wouldn't elaborate on what the issue was.
OOC: I edited this a bit since we tend to anticipate each other and some of the reporter's flow didn't make sense. Feel free to summarize and use the reporter to ask more questions. You can also have other reporters join in or I can add them next turn.
There is no need to do a literal retelling of what happened. Keep in mind, this is set up so Tony's gang has an excuse to find out about everything through the paper and the local television news who will probably also overhear things and want to get in on this- especially when they learn a little later on that the fugitive inside is tied into the other story.
"Mind if we chat about it? As a fellow reporter, I'm sure you can understand needing the follow up," he pointed out. "I don't know if you take our paper, but you are probably aware we ran a story on this. We spoke to the police but didn't interview any of the victims."
After noticing the police directing some of the neighbors to go back inside, it occurred to Shelley that those neighbors might be a good source of information. She decided to point this out to Felicia, especially since she herself was likely to be occupied with the reporter for a while. Felicia could interview some of the neighbors while she was answering the reporter’s questions, since Felicia wouldn’t need her help with that. “You know, Felicia, Sgt. Montgomery told us not to bother them with questions during the standoff, but he didn’t say anything about interviewing the neighbors. Maybe you could talk to some of them and find out who it is that’s being held hostage,” suggested Shelley.
Felicia sensed that she'd just created a mess for Shelley by bringing up the fact she'd been part of the car thief hostage story. She was probably pissed about that. Felicia had a range of feelings about what she'd just done. It wasn't intentional, but at the same time if she thought it through better, that may not have stopped her from calling Shelley out.
"Right," she simply said. Bending down, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder on the ground and set her note pad on top of it. After sticking her pen behind her ear, she saw some neighbors looking out a nearby window just outside the perimeter the police had set up. Felicia made her way toward the front door of their house and rang the doorbell.
Once she was out of ear shot the reporter turned to her. "Dennis Crenshaw," he offered his hand. "Looks like we have some time to kill on this story. Would you recount your experience for me? We don't have to mention this interview took place while we were both covering this one."
Shelley shook Mr. Crenshaw’s hand and introduced herself. “Shelley Higgins,” she said. “I’m not a part of their band, but I’m a friend of theirs and I was with them that night. The car thieves kidnapped us, and I spent most of the night tied to a chair in the trailer they were running their operation out of. I think I’d be willing to answer your questions. In return, would you agree to swap contact information with me? I’d kind of like to have you as potential source of information in the future, journalist-to-journalist.”
"Absolutely! Even though we work for different outlets, you'd be surprised how often we work together. Often it's all about getting the scoop first, but once the cat is out of the bag, it's not uncommon to share information. Sometimes, like in the case of covering a major trial, there is only a single camera or a limited number of reporters allowed in the courtroom. Anyway, you said you were with the Teal Cove paper. Are you part-time? Freelance?"
*Tag Shelley*
"Can you walk me through what happened starting with how you came to be involved in the situation," he began.
*Tag Shelley*
Meanwhile, Felicia was talking to the neighbor that had answered the door. The home in question belonged to Dr. Harold Falwell who worked at the Medical City Hospital just outside of Dallas. He had a teenage daughter Lana Falwell, a sophomore at Reiner high school and his wife Sandra who was a Yorkshire terrier breeder. They seemed like very nice people but she didn't really know them very well. The interviewee had no idea anything was wrong over there until she saw police cars a little while ago. Shortly after that, several more police vehicles showed up and an officer going door to door told them to stay inside but wouldn't elaborate on what the issue was.
OOC: I edited this a bit since we tend to anticipate each other and some of the reporter's flow didn't make sense. Feel free to summarize and use the reporter to ask more questions. You can also have other reporters join in or I can add them next turn.
There is no need to do a literal retelling of what happened. Keep in mind, this is set up so Tony's gang has an excuse to find out about everything through the paper and the local television news who will probably also overhear things and want to get in on this- especially when they learn a little later on that the fugitive inside is tied into the other story.
“I think I’d be willing to answer your questions. In return, would you agree to swap contact information with me? I’d kind of like to have you as potential source of information in the future, journalist-to-journalist,” said Shelley in response to Mr. Crenshaw’s request to ask her a few questions about her experience as a kidnapping victim.
"Absolutely! Even though we work for different outlets, you'd be surprised how often we work together. Often it's all about getting the scoop first, but once the cat is out of the bag, it's not uncommon to share information. Sometimes, like in the case of covering a major trial, there is only a single camera or a limited number of reporters allowed in the courtroom. Anyway, you said you were with the Teal Cove paper. Are you part-time? Freelance?"
“I’m freelance. I’m not officially an employee of the paper, at least not yet, but I’ve sold them a few pictures and I’ve done some reporting for them. I just recently moved to this area, and I approached the Chronicle with some pictures I took at the Summer Fest that Teal Cove had a couple of weeks ago. That’s where I met the members of the band, by the way; they were performing at the festival when I was there.”
"Can you walk me through what happened starting with how you came to be involved in the situation," he began.
“Well, as I mentioned before, I’m new to the area, and me and my friends in the band planned to get together Tuesday night and drive around, to help me familiarize myself with the area,” said Shelley. “It turned out not to be a good night for it with all the rainy weather that came in, and of course the van we were in decided that would be a good time to break down. So there we were, broke down on the side of the road, and unbeknownst to us, we were just down the road from this farm where a gang of car thieves were running their operation…”
She went on to tell them about their encounter with the trucker, how he told them he had called for “help” for them on his CB, and how the police car showed up shortly after the trucker left them. “The policeman was officer Bob Thompson…I’d actually met him before. He was helping run the charity jail at the Summer Fest. Anyway, we thought he was there to help us, but it turned out he was part of the car thief ring, and that farm was actually his property. The trucker was part of it too.” She told Mr. Crenshaw about her and Trevor being taken to Thompson’s house, and them being ambushed and tied up there. She talked about being taken to the trailer while Thompson went back to the broken-down van for the others. During her narration, she omitted any mention of Starla’s and Tabby’s trip into the woods, partially because she hadn’t experienced any of that herself and partially because she didn’t want to take a chance of getting Starla and Tabby in trouble for trespassing. She didn’t know if those woods they went into were part of the farm she had been taken to, or someone else’s property.
During the interview, a van painted with the emblem of KXAS-TV arrived on the scene. A tall blond woman, probably in her mid-forties and standing about 5’10”, emerged from the van accompanied by her news crew. After a short exchange with a police officer, who probably warned them not to distract any of the officers until after the standoff was resolved, the woman noticed the interview being conducted by Mr. Crenshaw, who said to Shelley, “I think we’re about to have company.”
The TV reporter and her crew approached Shelley and Mr. Crenshaw, and she identified herself as Christie Callahan, a reporter for KXAS. Looking at Shelley, she said, “I saw Mr. Crenshaw interviewing you, so naturally I wondered if you have some information about this standoff. Can you shed some light on it for us?”
“Miss Higgins here was the reporter who was held hostage by the car thief ring a couple on nights ago,” said Mr. Crenshaw to the newcomer. “She was just giving me her account of what happened to her that night.” Turning back to Shelley, Mr. Crenshaw said, “Go on, Shelley, tell us what happened next.”
Shelley hesitated a second, not sure whether she should be looking at Mr. Crenshaw, or at Ms. Callahan, or at the KXAS camera. She decided to keep her focus on Mr. Crenshaw; the camera could still film her without her looking directly at it. “So, they tied my hands behind my back and gagged me with a bandanna, and they tied a rope around my neck like a leash and used it to lead me from the house to a trailer they had out back. They brought Trevor out there too, and tied both us to wooden kitchen chairs…” Shelley continued her story from there, telling them about the car thieves dumping the contents of her purse and taking her keys, and their plan to steal her Firebird.
A couple of minutes later the group surrounding Shelley grew larger when another TV reporter and his crew arrived and started filming the interview as well. “Brandon Jeffers, from KDFW Channel 4,” he said when Shelley glanced at him. “This is my cameraman, Larry Kunkle.” He didn’t ask any questions yet, content to let Shelley continue her narration. Shelley figured he and Ms. Callahan would both have questions for her to fill in the details they’d missed from the earlier part of the interview.
Shelley continued her story, telling them about how the trucker and the Indian had taken the money from her purse and split it up, and how the they’d learned from the HAM radio that the ones who’d gone to steal her car had tried to break into someone’s house and that one of them had been identified. At that point Ms. Callahan broke into the conversation. “Speaking of which, can you give us the identities of the ones who did this to you?” she asked.
“I only know who two of them were,” Shelley replied. “The police officer was named Bob Thompson; I’d met him before when he was working at the charity fundraising jail they were running at the Summer Fest a couple of weeks ago. The other one was Jerry Hardy; he was the one who got arresting for trying to break into that house. I don’t know the names of the rest; they were all using some kind of code names or handles or something. Like, they called Officer Thompson ‘Buford’, I assume after Buford Pusser, and they called Jerry Hardy ‘Farm Boy’. They called the one who tied me up in the trailer ‘Cowboy’, and the one who tied Trevor up was called ‘Chief’. There was also one called ‘Cooter’, like the character from The Dukes of Hazard, and one called ‘Pumpkin’, I think. They stayed in the house when Trevor and I were taken out to the trailer, so I didn’t see them very much. And there was one called ‘Mouse’; he was the one who went with Jerry Hardy to steal my car. That guy was scary. Oh yeah, and they called the trucker ‘Speedy Chicken’; he wore a baseball cap with a picture of a running rooster on it. He was scary too.”
Getting back to her story, Shelley told them about the members of the car theft ring worrying about being identified by Jerry, and deciding to abandon the farm as a result. She told them about Chief holding a knife to Trevor’s throat and about the trucker hitting her hard enough to knock her chair over while she was still tied to it. She told them about the thieves abandoning the farm, about Trevor breaking free from his chair, about Matt showing up at the trailer door, and about Matt and Trevor untying her. She finished the story by talking about the arrival of the police. By that time the crowd had grown larger, with several more reporters and cameramen having joined the group while Shelley was talking. “So, uh, I guess that’s pretty much it. Any questions?”
*Tags*
"Absolutely! Even though we work for different outlets, you'd be surprised how often we work together. Often it's all about getting the scoop first, but once the cat is out of the bag, it's not uncommon to share information. Sometimes, like in the case of covering a major trial, there is only a single camera or a limited number of reporters allowed in the courtroom. Anyway, you said you were with the Teal Cove paper. Are you part-time? Freelance?"
“I’m freelance. I’m not officially an employee of the paper, at least not yet, but I’ve sold them a few pictures and I’ve done some reporting for them. I just recently moved to this area, and I approached the Chronicle with some pictures I took at the Summer Fest that Teal Cove had a couple of weeks ago. That’s where I met the members of the band, by the way; they were performing at the festival when I was there.”
"Can you walk me through what happened starting with how you came to be involved in the situation," he began.
“Well, as I mentioned before, I’m new to the area, and me and my friends in the band planned to get together Tuesday night and drive around, to help me familiarize myself with the area,” said Shelley. “It turned out not to be a good night for it with all the rainy weather that came in, and of course the van we were in decided that would be a good time to break down. So there we were, broke down on the side of the road, and unbeknownst to us, we were just down the road from this farm where a gang of car thieves were running their operation…”
She went on to tell them about their encounter with the trucker, how he told them he had called for “help” for them on his CB, and how the police car showed up shortly after the trucker left them. “The policeman was officer Bob Thompson…I’d actually met him before. He was helping run the charity jail at the Summer Fest. Anyway, we thought he was there to help us, but it turned out he was part of the car thief ring, and that farm was actually his property. The trucker was part of it too.” She told Mr. Crenshaw about her and Trevor being taken to Thompson’s house, and them being ambushed and tied up there. She talked about being taken to the trailer while Thompson went back to the broken-down van for the others. During her narration, she omitted any mention of Starla’s and Tabby’s trip into the woods, partially because she hadn’t experienced any of that herself and partially because she didn’t want to take a chance of getting Starla and Tabby in trouble for trespassing. She didn’t know if those woods they went into were part of the farm she had been taken to, or someone else’s property.
During the interview, a van painted with the emblem of KXAS-TV arrived on the scene. A tall blond woman, probably in her mid-forties and standing about 5’10”, emerged from the van accompanied by her news crew. After a short exchange with a police officer, who probably warned them not to distract any of the officers until after the standoff was resolved, the woman noticed the interview being conducted by Mr. Crenshaw, who said to Shelley, “I think we’re about to have company.”
The TV reporter and her crew approached Shelley and Mr. Crenshaw, and she identified herself as Christie Callahan, a reporter for KXAS. Looking at Shelley, she said, “I saw Mr. Crenshaw interviewing you, so naturally I wondered if you have some information about this standoff. Can you shed some light on it for us?”
“Miss Higgins here was the reporter who was held hostage by the car thief ring a couple on nights ago,” said Mr. Crenshaw to the newcomer. “She was just giving me her account of what happened to her that night.” Turning back to Shelley, Mr. Crenshaw said, “Go on, Shelley, tell us what happened next.”
Shelley hesitated a second, not sure whether she should be looking at Mr. Crenshaw, or at Ms. Callahan, or at the KXAS camera. She decided to keep her focus on Mr. Crenshaw; the camera could still film her without her looking directly at it. “So, they tied my hands behind my back and gagged me with a bandanna, and they tied a rope around my neck like a leash and used it to lead me from the house to a trailer they had out back. They brought Trevor out there too, and tied both us to wooden kitchen chairs…” Shelley continued her story from there, telling them about the car thieves dumping the contents of her purse and taking her keys, and their plan to steal her Firebird.
A couple of minutes later the group surrounding Shelley grew larger when another TV reporter and his crew arrived and started filming the interview as well. “Brandon Jeffers, from KDFW Channel 4,” he said when Shelley glanced at him. “This is my cameraman, Larry Kunkle.” He didn’t ask any questions yet, content to let Shelley continue her narration. Shelley figured he and Ms. Callahan would both have questions for her to fill in the details they’d missed from the earlier part of the interview.
Shelley continued her story, telling them about how the trucker and the Indian had taken the money from her purse and split it up, and how the they’d learned from the HAM radio that the ones who’d gone to steal her car had tried to break into someone’s house and that one of them had been identified. At that point Ms. Callahan broke into the conversation. “Speaking of which, can you give us the identities of the ones who did this to you?” she asked.
“I only know who two of them were,” Shelley replied. “The police officer was named Bob Thompson; I’d met him before when he was working at the charity fundraising jail they were running at the Summer Fest a couple of weeks ago. The other one was Jerry Hardy; he was the one who got arresting for trying to break into that house. I don’t know the names of the rest; they were all using some kind of code names or handles or something. Like, they called Officer Thompson ‘Buford’, I assume after Buford Pusser, and they called Jerry Hardy ‘Farm Boy’. They called the one who tied me up in the trailer ‘Cowboy’, and the one who tied Trevor up was called ‘Chief’. There was also one called ‘Cooter’, like the character from The Dukes of Hazard, and one called ‘Pumpkin’, I think. They stayed in the house when Trevor and I were taken out to the trailer, so I didn’t see them very much. And there was one called ‘Mouse’; he was the one who went with Jerry Hardy to steal my car. That guy was scary. Oh yeah, and they called the trucker ‘Speedy Chicken’; he wore a baseball cap with a picture of a running rooster on it. He was scary too.”
Getting back to her story, Shelley told them about the members of the car theft ring worrying about being identified by Jerry, and deciding to abandon the farm as a result. She told them about Chief holding a knife to Trevor’s throat and about the trucker hitting her hard enough to knock her chair over while she was still tied to it. She told them about the thieves abandoning the farm, about Trevor breaking free from his chair, about Matt showing up at the trailer door, and about Matt and Trevor untying her. She finished the story by talking about the arrival of the police. By that time the crowd had grown larger, with several more reporters and cameramen having joined the group while Shelley was talking. “So, uh, I guess that’s pretty much it. Any questions?”
*Tags*
Shelley had a small crowd of reporters talking to her about her ordeal when Felicia rejoined them. They included several local radio stations, television stations and both major newspapers out of Dallas. It was hard for Felicia to get to Shelley with all of them surrounding her without elbowing her way through the crowd. She decided she could catch her up on her interview with the neighbor once her impromptu interview cleared.
It didn't take long for that happen, however. Sgt. Montgomery motioned for the reporters to follow him. "All, we have some updates on the situation and I'll be holding a press conference in about 5 minutes," he announced.
He began making preparations for an impromptu press area and directed the reporters where they could set up their cameras. It was outside of the perimeter of the stand off a safe distance from the action, but the house in question was still visible in the background. Not wanting to impede on anyone's yard, he stood in the street which had already been closed off for almost 2 hours by that point.
Once everyone was in position, Sgt. Montgomery introduced himself and began with an overview of the situation, giving time for the reporters with the radio station and television stations to give their station IDs and cut into their normal programming.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he began. "Sometime in the early morning hours, some residents in this neighborhood were the victims of a home invasion by a fugitive. I'm not giving their names at this time."
Felicia was next to Shelley. She leaned in "I got their names. Teen daughter and two parents. Last name Farwell. He's a doctor at Medical City Hospital," She whispered.
"We have a lone individual, Nigel Gatts, aged 36 who is well known to law enforcement with a lengthy criminal history. Mr. Gatts was part of a criminal car theft ring working outside of the area. This incident is connected. Late last night, Mr. Gatts and another perpetrator, Jerry Hardy, who is is a local resident in Teal Cove attempted to break into another residence in the area."
Sgt. Montgomery then summarized Jerry's failed attempt to gain entry into Doreen's house through the garage. Felicia raised an eyebrow and turned to Shelley. "Sounds like one of your kidnappers is in there," She commented.
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot we believe to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
*tags*
Note: I outlined the events on the plots section of the OOC board with how the events unfolded and the details of the family's current predicament that can be used for moving the press conference forward.
It didn't take long for that happen, however. Sgt. Montgomery motioned for the reporters to follow him. "All, we have some updates on the situation and I'll be holding a press conference in about 5 minutes," he announced.
He began making preparations for an impromptu press area and directed the reporters where they could set up their cameras. It was outside of the perimeter of the stand off a safe distance from the action, but the house in question was still visible in the background. Not wanting to impede on anyone's yard, he stood in the street which had already been closed off for almost 2 hours by that point.
Once everyone was in position, Sgt. Montgomery introduced himself and began with an overview of the situation, giving time for the reporters with the radio station and television stations to give their station IDs and cut into their normal programming.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he began. "Sometime in the early morning hours, some residents in this neighborhood were the victims of a home invasion by a fugitive. I'm not giving their names at this time."
Felicia was next to Shelley. She leaned in "I got their names. Teen daughter and two parents. Last name Farwell. He's a doctor at Medical City Hospital," She whispered.
"We have a lone individual, Nigel Gatts, aged 36 who is well known to law enforcement with a lengthy criminal history. Mr. Gatts was part of a criminal car theft ring working outside of the area. This incident is connected. Late last night, Mr. Gatts and another perpetrator, Jerry Hardy, who is is a local resident in Teal Cove attempted to break into another residence in the area."
Sgt. Montgomery then summarized Jerry's failed attempt to gain entry into Doreen's house through the garage. Felicia raised an eyebrow and turned to Shelley. "Sounds like one of your kidnappers is in there," She commented.
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot we believe to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
*tags*
Note: I outlined the events on the plots section of the OOC board with how the events unfolded and the details of the family's current predicament that can be used for moving the press conference forward.
Shelley gave her interview, telling her story and patiently answering the reporters’ questions. It was a little uncomfortable to be the center of so much attention, and she had a hard time shaking the feeling that she ought to be taking pictures instead of having her picture taken. But if she were to make a career as a journalist, maybe this experience would be of benefit, helping her to understand what it was like to be on the other side of the camera. Besides, there wasn’t much else she or the reporters interviewing her could do until there was some progress in the standoff.
It didn't take long for that happen, however. Sgt. Montgomery motioned for the reporters to follow him. "All, we have some updates on the situation and I'll be holding a press conference in about 5 minutes," he announced. As the tightly-packed group surrounding her began to break up, Shelley began making her way toward Felicia, whom she’d recently spotted at back of the crowd. Hopefully she’d made some progress on gathering information about the standoff.
Sgt. Montgomery began making preparations for an impromptu press area and directed the reporters where they could set up their cameras. It was outside of the perimeter of the stand off a safe distance from the action, but the house in question was still visible in the background. Shelley found a spot in the press area where she could get a few good shots of the house before the press conference started. She also took a couple of shot of Sgt. Montgomery preparing to give the update, and the other reporters and cameramen in attendance.
Once everyone was in position, Sgt. Montgomery introduced himself and began with an overview of the situation, giving time for the reporters with the radio station and television stations to give their station IDs and cut into their normal programming.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he began. "Sometime in the early morning hours, some residents in this neighborhood were the victims of a home invasion by a fugitive. I'm not giving their names at this time."
Felicia was next to Shelley. She leaned in "I got their names. Teen daughter and two parents. Last name Farwell. He's a doctor at Medical City Hospital," She whispered.
“Good work!” Shelley said to Felicia in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. She wondered to herself why the police weren’t giving the names of the victims. She didn’t think doing so would hinder them in resolving the standoff, but they probably wanted to wait until the victims were safe, or at least until the standoff was over so they could get a good assessment of the victims’ condition and what had happened to them. And the fact that one of the victims was a minor might be part of it.
"We have a lone individual, Nigel Gatts, aged 36 who is well known to law enforcement with a lengthy criminal history. Mr. Gatts was part of a criminal car theft ring working outside of the area. This incident is connected. Late last night, Mr. Gatts and another perpetrator, Jerry Hardy, who is is a local resident in Teal Cove attempted to break into another residence in the area."
Shelley let out a gasp and her knees nearly buckled when she heard the culprit holed up in the house was one of the same men who had held her captive.
Sgt. Montgomery then summarized Jerry's failed attempt to gain entry into Doreen's house through the garage. Felicia raised an eyebrow and turned to Shelley. "Sounds like one of your kidnappers is in there," She commented.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot we believe to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
*tag Felicia*
“The police department became aware of the situation when a neighbor reported a stranger emerging from the house and trying unsuccessfully to start one of the victims’ cars. When the culprit fled back into the house, the neighbor, whose name we are not releasing at this time, contacted police,” said Sgt. Montgomery.
More so than the secrecy of the victims’ identities, Shelley could understand why they were keeping the identity of the neighbor who had reported the incident secret. It would help keep the neighbor safe from any attempts by the villains to take revenge. The identities of the victims, though, would be public knowledge sooner or later. “I don’t suppose you found out who reported this to the police, did you?” Shelley whispered to Felicia.
*tag Felicia*
“An officer was sent to check on the residents of the house, but no one answered the door. Later the reporting neighbor called back and informed us that Mr. Gatts was in the house and was armed with a gun. Multiple units responded, and Mr. Gatts has been barricaded inside since, with the three family members as hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery continued.
“Can you tell us what his demands are?” someone in the group of reporters called out.
“Right now his primary goals are the acquisition of a vehicle, and safe passage to Mexico,” Sgt. Montgomery responded.
“Is he asking for a specific vehicle? It was previously reported that the culprit had gone to steal a car belonging to a woman who was held captive by the car theft ring. Is he asking for that car?” asked another reporter. That had been Christie Callahan, unless Shelley was mistaken. Ms. Callahan’s question unnerved Shelley a little.
“No, he just wants a vehicle in good running condition; it doesn’t need to be a specific one,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Ms. Callahan followed up with, “Are you going to give it to him?”
“No comment on that at this time,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
*Tags*
It didn't take long for that happen, however. Sgt. Montgomery motioned for the reporters to follow him. "All, we have some updates on the situation and I'll be holding a press conference in about 5 minutes," he announced. As the tightly-packed group surrounding her began to break up, Shelley began making her way toward Felicia, whom she’d recently spotted at back of the crowd. Hopefully she’d made some progress on gathering information about the standoff.
Sgt. Montgomery began making preparations for an impromptu press area and directed the reporters where they could set up their cameras. It was outside of the perimeter of the stand off a safe distance from the action, but the house in question was still visible in the background. Shelley found a spot in the press area where she could get a few good shots of the house before the press conference started. She also took a couple of shot of Sgt. Montgomery preparing to give the update, and the other reporters and cameramen in attendance.
Once everyone was in position, Sgt. Montgomery introduced himself and began with an overview of the situation, giving time for the reporters with the radio station and television stations to give their station IDs and cut into their normal programming.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he began. "Sometime in the early morning hours, some residents in this neighborhood were the victims of a home invasion by a fugitive. I'm not giving their names at this time."
Felicia was next to Shelley. She leaned in "I got their names. Teen daughter and two parents. Last name Farwell. He's a doctor at Medical City Hospital," She whispered.
“Good work!” Shelley said to Felicia in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. She wondered to herself why the police weren’t giving the names of the victims. She didn’t think doing so would hinder them in resolving the standoff, but they probably wanted to wait until the victims were safe, or at least until the standoff was over so they could get a good assessment of the victims’ condition and what had happened to them. And the fact that one of the victims was a minor might be part of it.
"We have a lone individual, Nigel Gatts, aged 36 who is well known to law enforcement with a lengthy criminal history. Mr. Gatts was part of a criminal car theft ring working outside of the area. This incident is connected. Late last night, Mr. Gatts and another perpetrator, Jerry Hardy, who is is a local resident in Teal Cove attempted to break into another residence in the area."
Shelley let out a gasp and her knees nearly buckled when she heard the culprit holed up in the house was one of the same men who had held her captive.
Sgt. Montgomery then summarized Jerry's failed attempt to gain entry into Doreen's house through the garage. Felicia raised an eyebrow and turned to Shelley. "Sounds like one of your kidnappers is in there," She commented.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot we believe to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
*tag Felicia*
“The police department became aware of the situation when a neighbor reported a stranger emerging from the house and trying unsuccessfully to start one of the victims’ cars. When the culprit fled back into the house, the neighbor, whose name we are not releasing at this time, contacted police,” said Sgt. Montgomery.
More so than the secrecy of the victims’ identities, Shelley could understand why they were keeping the identity of the neighbor who had reported the incident secret. It would help keep the neighbor safe from any attempts by the villains to take revenge. The identities of the victims, though, would be public knowledge sooner or later. “I don’t suppose you found out who reported this to the police, did you?” Shelley whispered to Felicia.
*tag Felicia*
“An officer was sent to check on the residents of the house, but no one answered the door. Later the reporting neighbor called back and informed us that Mr. Gatts was in the house and was armed with a gun. Multiple units responded, and Mr. Gatts has been barricaded inside since, with the three family members as hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery continued.
“Can you tell us what his demands are?” someone in the group of reporters called out.
“Right now his primary goals are the acquisition of a vehicle, and safe passage to Mexico,” Sgt. Montgomery responded.
“Is he asking for a specific vehicle? It was previously reported that the culprit had gone to steal a car belonging to a woman who was held captive by the car theft ring. Is he asking for that car?” asked another reporter. That had been Christie Callahan, unless Shelley was mistaken. Ms. Callahan’s question unnerved Shelley a little.
“No, he just wants a vehicle in good running condition; it doesn’t need to be a specific one,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Ms. Callahan followed up with, “Are you going to give it to him?”
“No comment on that at this time,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
*Tags*
Sgt. Montgomery then summarized Jerry's failed attempt to gain entry into Doreen's house through the garage. Felicia raised an eyebrow and turned to Shelley. "Sounds like one of your kidnappers is in there," She commented.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
*Tag Shelley*
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
Felicia hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” She finally confirmed after a pause. “She’s a cheerleader. Was on the squad with me. Junior last year. She’s Marie Evans’ best friend.”
“The police department became aware of the situation when a neighbor reported a stranger emerging from the house and trying unsuccessfully to start one of the victims’ cars. When the culprit fled back into the house, the neighbor, whose name we are not releasing at this time, contacted police,” said Sgt. Montgomery.
More so than the secrecy of the victims’ identities, Shelley could understand why they were keeping the identity of the neighbor who had reported the incident secret. It would help keep the neighbor safe from any attempts by the villains to take revenge. The identities of the victims, though, would be public knowledge sooner or later. “I don’t suppose you found out who reported this to the police, did you?” Shelley whispered to Felicia.
“No,” Felicia replied. She pointed at the house she’d been at. “That neighbor knew the family, but not real well. She said they were nice people but had no idea anything was wrong until she saw the cops show up. The only information I got was their names, the father was a doctor, the mom breeds dogs and the daughter goes to Renier...”
Felicia realized that Montgomery was still giving details and answering questions and they might miss something. She didn’t have much to add beyond that anyway. Felicia had probably as many questions for Miss Higgins and she did for her at this point after she’d mentioned Doreen.
“An officer was sent to check on the residents of the house, but no one answered the door. Later the reporting neighbor called back and informed us that Mr. Gatts was in the house and was armed with a gun. Multiple units responded, and Mr. Gatts has been barricaded inside since, with the three family members as hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery continued.
“Can you tell us what his demands are?” someone in the group of reporters called out.
“Right now his primary goals are the acquisition of a vehicle, and safe passage to Mexico,” Sgt. Montgomery responded.
“Is he asking for a specific vehicle? It was previously reported that the culprit had gone to steal a car belonging to a woman who was held captive by the car theft ring. Is he asking for that car?” asked another reporter. That had been Christie Callahan, unless Shelley was mistaken. Ms. Callahan’s question unnerved Shelley a little.
“No, he just wants a vehicle in good running condition; it doesn’t need to be a specific one,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Ms. Callahan followed up with, “Are you going to give it to him?”
“No comment on that at this time,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
*Tag Shelley*
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the stand off came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
*Tag Shelley*
Somehow, the fact that they had confirmed that one of Miss Higgins’ kidnappers was inside that house suddenly gave her a bit more credibility. There was no way Shelley could be involved at this level. It seemed slightly less plausible that the newcomer was behind any of this, but the timing still seemed a bit suspicious.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police. Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen.
Roll 1d6:
1. Mouse comes out with the daughter. Her hands are bound behind her back and she is gagged and has a gun to her head. Her blindfold has been removed, but she has tape in her hair still and her feet are untied so she can walk, however. Mouse demands they let him leave with the girl or he will kill her.
2. A single shot is fired inside the house. Mouse has taken his own life. The family are alive and unharmed, but still bound, blindfolded and gagged. One family member is ungagged because they were talking to the police via phone.
3. Same as above, but one of the parents somehow got free and got hold of a gun and shot Mouse. He is dead.
4. Same as 3. However, Mouse is only badly wounded but alive and gets taken into custody.
5. The 3 family members suddenly run through the front door with hands raised. Mouse has released them and plans to shoot himself once they are out of the house. All restraints have been removed.
6. Although the power is cut, the phone line still works. Mouse is on the phone with one of the other family members He's pointing a gun on them while they talk to police. The other two family members are unguarded in the other room (although in view). One has gotten free and manages to make a run for the front door. Mouse is distracted and unaware that one of them has escaped and made a run for it.
OOC: I’ll let you make the roll or choose if you prefer to pick which of these happens and advance what happens next. You can supply the additional details.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
*Tag Shelley*
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
Felicia hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” She finally confirmed after a pause. “She’s a cheerleader. Was on the squad with me. Junior last year. She’s Marie Evans’ best friend.”
“The police department became aware of the situation when a neighbor reported a stranger emerging from the house and trying unsuccessfully to start one of the victims’ cars. When the culprit fled back into the house, the neighbor, whose name we are not releasing at this time, contacted police,” said Sgt. Montgomery.
More so than the secrecy of the victims’ identities, Shelley could understand why they were keeping the identity of the neighbor who had reported the incident secret. It would help keep the neighbor safe from any attempts by the villains to take revenge. The identities of the victims, though, would be public knowledge sooner or later. “I don’t suppose you found out who reported this to the police, did you?” Shelley whispered to Felicia.
“No,” Felicia replied. She pointed at the house she’d been at. “That neighbor knew the family, but not real well. She said they were nice people but had no idea anything was wrong until she saw the cops show up. The only information I got was their names, the father was a doctor, the mom breeds dogs and the daughter goes to Renier...”
Felicia realized that Montgomery was still giving details and answering questions and they might miss something. She didn’t have much to add beyond that anyway. Felicia had probably as many questions for Miss Higgins and she did for her at this point after she’d mentioned Doreen.
“An officer was sent to check on the residents of the house, but no one answered the door. Later the reporting neighbor called back and informed us that Mr. Gatts was in the house and was armed with a gun. Multiple units responded, and Mr. Gatts has been barricaded inside since, with the three family members as hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery continued.
“Can you tell us what his demands are?” someone in the group of reporters called out.
“Right now his primary goals are the acquisition of a vehicle, and safe passage to Mexico,” Sgt. Montgomery responded.
“Is he asking for a specific vehicle? It was previously reported that the culprit had gone to steal a car belonging to a woman who was held captive by the car theft ring. Is he asking for that car?” asked another reporter. That had been Christie Callahan, unless Shelley was mistaken. Ms. Callahan’s question unnerved Shelley a little.
“No, he just wants a vehicle in good running condition; it doesn’t need to be a specific one,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Ms. Callahan followed up with, “Are you going to give it to him?”
“No comment on that at this time,” Sgt. Montgomery replied.
Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
*Tag Shelley*
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the stand off came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
*Tag Shelley*
Somehow, the fact that they had confirmed that one of Miss Higgins’ kidnappers was inside that house suddenly gave her a bit more credibility. There was no way Shelley could be involved at this level. It seemed slightly less plausible that the newcomer was behind any of this, but the timing still seemed a bit suspicious.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police. Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen.
Roll 1d6:
1. Mouse comes out with the daughter. Her hands are bound behind her back and she is gagged and has a gun to her head. Her blindfold has been removed, but she has tape in her hair still and her feet are untied so she can walk, however. Mouse demands they let him leave with the girl or he will kill her.
2. A single shot is fired inside the house. Mouse has taken his own life. The family are alive and unharmed, but still bound, blindfolded and gagged. One family member is ungagged because they were talking to the police via phone.
3. Same as above, but one of the parents somehow got free and got hold of a gun and shot Mouse. He is dead.
4. Same as 3. However, Mouse is only badly wounded but alive and gets taken into custody.
5. The 3 family members suddenly run through the front door with hands raised. Mouse has released them and plans to shoot himself once they are out of the house. All restraints have been removed.
6. Although the power is cut, the phone line still works. Mouse is on the phone with one of the other family members He's pointing a gun on them while they talk to police. The other two family members are unguarded in the other room (although in view). One has gotten free and manages to make a run for the front door. Mouse is distracted and unaware that one of them has escaped and made a run for it.
OOC: I’ll let you make the roll or choose if you prefer to pick which of these happens and advance what happens next. You can supply the additional details.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
*tag Felicia*
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
Felicia hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” She finally confirmed after a pause. “She’s a cheerleader. Was on the squad with me. Junior last year. She’s Marie Evans’ best friend.”
So Felicia had been a cheerleader at Teal Cove High. Shelley may have heard that before, but she committed it to memory now. If she and Felicia were going to be working together, it made sense to know as much about her partner as possible.
Felicia realized that Montgomery was still giving details and answering questions and they might miss something. She didn’t have much to add beyond that anyway. Felicia had probably as many questions for Miss Higgins and she did for her at this point after she’d mentioned Doreen.
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the stand off came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her. It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
*tag Felicia*
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear. Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
*tags*
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
*tag Felicia*
"Mr. Gatts made his way on foot to the residence where the standoff is currently in progress," Sgt. Montgomery continued. "He gained entry through the open garage door and took a teen in the home hostage. We are currently in contact and have confirmed the family of 3 which in addition to the daughter, is made up of her parents are alright at this moment. We are currently in communication with the perpetrator and attempting to negotiate his surrender by telephone. Our goal is to take him into custody unharmed and for the safe release of the family inside."
“That sounds like what he and Jerry Hardy tried to do at the other house, breaking in through the garage n’at. They have a teenage daughter too…” At that moment a memory popped into Shelley’s brain: Felicia had asked Doreen to take pictures of her at the beauty pageant. She didn’t know a lot about Felicia’s background, but she seemed to be associated with the Teal Cove cheerleaders somehow. She still suspected Felicia was responsible for Marie confronting her in the parking lot after her first class at the Fitness Factory. ”Oh, you know her, don’t you? Doreen Rogers?”
Felicia hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” She finally confirmed after a pause. “She’s a cheerleader. Was on the squad with me. Junior last year. She’s Marie Evans’ best friend.”
So Felicia had been a cheerleader at Teal Cove High. Shelley may have heard that before, but she committed it to memory now. If she and Felicia were going to be working together, it made sense to know as much about her partner as possible.
Felicia realized that Montgomery was still giving details and answering questions and they might miss something. She didn’t have much to add beyond that anyway. Felicia had probably as many questions for Miss Higgins and she did for her at this point after she’d mentioned Doreen.
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the stand off came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her. It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
*tag Felicia*
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear. Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
*tags*
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
“Makes sense,” Felicia whispered in response, nodding. “My other guess was he didn’t say much. You know? Quiet as a mouse…”
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Felicia nodded in agreement. “I’m just thinking of the family in there sweating it out with him,” she commented.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the standoff came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her.
Felicia raised an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Miss Higgins took offense at the ‘your gang’ comment. Perhaps, she took that to mean that Felicia still believed she was in on the whole thing or it was staged. Then it looked like Shelley had more to say, but wasn’t sure if she should.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
When Miss Higgins decided to walk around, Felicia went back to her car to sit in the AC. She was going to offer to let her sit in there, too, but she had opted to sit on the curb. The pavement must have been too hot, however, because Shelley sat in the grass next to it, rather than on the edge of the curb.
Felicia relistened to the tape recorder. She wished now that they had both kept their mouths shut as their banter was now on the recording during the press conference. Still, she hadn’t missed anything vital. Felicia passed the time by transcribing the notes to her notepad. After a little while, she shut the engine off and went back to the car they had been hiding behind. A large, mature cottonwood tree’s branches extended over the street and provided shade over the car. Felicia crouched down, back to the scene for a bit to work on the story. She could type it out on a typewriter once she was back in the office.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
“Makes sense,” Felicia whispered in response, nodding. “My other guess was he didn’t say much. You know? Quiet as a mouse…”
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Felicia nodded in agreement. “I’m just thinking of the family in there sweating it out with him,” she commented.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the standoff came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her.
Felicia raised an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Miss Higgins took offense at the ‘your gang’ comment. Perhaps, she took that to mean that Felicia still believed she was in on the whole thing or it was staged. Then it looked like Shelley had more to say, but wasn’t sure if she should.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
When Miss Higgins decided to walk around, Felicia went back to her car to sit in the AC. She was going to offer to let her sit in there, too, but she had opted to sit on the curb. The pavement must have been too hot, however, because Shelley sat in the grass next to it, rather than on the edge of the curb.
Felicia relistened to the tape recorder. She wished now that they had both kept their mouths shut as their banter was now on the recording during the press conference. Still, she hadn’t missed anything vital. Felicia passed the time by transcribing the notes to her notepad. After a little while, she shut the engine off and went back to the car they had been hiding behind. A large, mature cottonwood tree’s branches extended over the street and provided shade over the car. Felicia crouched down, back to the scene for a bit to work on the story. She could type it out on a typewriter once she was back in the office.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
“It must be the one they called ‘Mouse’,” Shelley replied. “Scary guy. He’s the one who left with Jerry Hardy to try to steal my car while they had me tied up. I have no idea why they tried to break into that other house.”
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
“Makes sense,” Felicia whispered in response, nodding. “My other guess was he didn’t say much. You know? Quiet as a mouse…”
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Felicia nodded in agreement. “I’m just thinking of the family in there sweating it out with him,” she commented.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the standoff came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her.
Felicia raised an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Miss Higgins took offense at the ‘your gang’ comment. Perhaps, she took that to mean that Felicia still believed she was in on the whole thing or it was staged. Then it looked like Shelley had more to say, but wasn’t sure if she should.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
When Miss Higgins decided to walk around, Felicia went back to her car to sit in the AC. She was going to offer to let her sit in there, too, but she had opted to sit on the curb. The pavement must have been too hot, however, because Shelley sat in the grass next to it, rather than on the edge of the curb.
Felicia relistened to the tape recorder. She wished now that they had both kept their mouths shut as their banter was now on the recording during the press conference. Still, she hadn’t missed anything vital. Felicia passed the time by transcribing the notes to her notepad. After a little while, she shut the engine off and went back to the car they had been hiding behind. A large, mature cottonwood tree’s branches extended over the street and provided shade over the car. Felicia crouched down, back to the scene for a bit to work on the story. She could type it out on a typewriter once she was back in the office.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
“Well, if so, he succeeded,” replied Shelley.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
A couple of minutes after she sat down, Felicia glanced at her, looking like she was about to say something, but then walked away in the direction of her car. Shelley assumed Felicia had also had enough of the heat, and had decided to seek the comfort of her car’s air conditioning. Shelley might have joined her if Felicia had asked, but she didn’t. Besides, Felicia’s car was parked a ways down the street, so if something happened with the hostage situation, it would take Felicia a little longer than Shelley to get back to area where the press was congregated. As it turned out, though, Felicia returned to the press area before anything happened.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
Shelley glanced over at Felicia, who was taking cover behind the trunk. She’d be safer if she were next to her up here behind the hood, thought Shelley, with the car’s engine block in front of them to stop any stray bullets. Shelley considered suggesting that to Felicia, but Felicia had already heard Montgomery make that same point, and Felicia would probably take the suggestion the wrong way. Besides, the chances of a stray bullet coming Felicia’s way, making its way all the way through the back of the car, and actually hitting Felicia were probably pretty slim. And things were happening at the house, distracting Shelley from further thoughts about Felicia’s safety.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from where Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
With so many things happening at once, Shelley had to make some split-second decisions about where to point her camera. She got some shots of the dogpile where Mouse and his teenage hostage had fallen. But when she saw an officer rushing the teen to safety, she momentarily followed them with the camera and got a couple of shots before they disappeared from view behind some emergency vehicles. Then she quickly swung the camera back around to the dogpile, where the struggle between Mouse and the police was still going on. To conserve film, she took the camera off the automatic rapid-shot mode, and took a few individual shots now and then as the struggle proceeded. Once the police had Mouse handcuffed, Shelley followed Mouse with the camera as a pair of officers frog-marched him to one of their squad cars and forced him into the back seat, and she managed to get several photos of the culprit. Once he was in the back seat and no longer in view of the camera, Shelley pointed the camera back at the house, and saw other officers peering into the open front door.
Shelley took a couple of photos of the police officers at the door, but then waited to see if anything interesting was going to happen. After waiting for about a minute, she decided to use the lull in the action to change the roll of film in her camera. She waited some more, and took a single shot when another officer appeared at the door and gave his signal. Some more cops moved into the house, and there was more waiting. The officers seemed more relaxed now, and Shelley got the impression that there were no more perps inside the house. It seemed that the action might be over, but there was still no word on the status of the family, and Shelley could see that none of the members of the press seemed to be leaving. As Shelley watched the house, she began to see cops moving in and out of the house. A small group of them, including Sgt. Montgomery, were gathering on the lawn near the house’s front door and appeared to be conversing, but Shelley couldn’t hear anything they were saying.
Shelley heard a car engine start and looked around in time to see one of the police cars start moving. It and two other police cars, including the one carrying Mouse, began to pull away from the crime scene. Shelley noticed that one of the ambulances that had been there earlier was gone; she hadn’t seen it go, so it must have left while she was distracted by some of the other action. She assumed it had taken the girl to the hospital.
A few minutes later Sgt. Montgomery approached the members of the press and began summoning them back to the area where he had addressed them earlier. “Maybe we’ll finally get some more information,” Shelley said to Felicia as they walked back to the impromptu press conference area. “I hope none of the family members were hurt.”
*tag Felicia*
Sgt. Montgomery began addressing the crowd of reporters. “As I’m sure you all already know, the perpetrator has been arrested, and he was acting alone. The family members are safe…”
“Will we be able to interview them?” one of the reporters in the crowd called out, interrupting Montgomery.
“Not tonight. They may talk to you eventually, but they need tonight to recover, and they’ll have police protection until we can get things sorted out…” Montgomery replied.
“What about the daughter?” another reporter asked.
“She’s safe, but she’s been taken to a hospital for further evaluation.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“For her privacy and safety, we are not disclosing that information at this time.”
“Does that mean you feel the family is still in danger?”
“I’m not prepared to comment on that at this time,” said Montgomery. “Really, there’s not much more I can tell you tonight, but we will have a press conference tomorrow at noon at the police station, and hopefully we will have some additional information for you then. For now, I ask that you all go home so the neighbors can get some peace and quiet, and we’ll reconvene tomorrow at the press conference.”
*tags*
“Small guy with a Napoleonic complex or is that one those ‘ironic-nicknames’ because he’s huge,” Felicia asked.
“Um, he seemed pretty big to me, so probably the latter. Well, ‘big’ as in ‘tall’. He was kind of skinny, but he was quite a bit taller than me, even though I was wearing these heels,” Shelley replied, lifting a foot to show Felicia one of her sandals, which added about four inches to her height. She paused a moment, as if considering a thought that had just occurred to her, and then continued, “You know, his ears were pretty big; maybe that’s how he got the name.”
“Makes sense,” Felicia whispered in response, nodding. “My other guess was he didn’t say much. You know? Quiet as a mouse…”
Montgomery gave some more information about the police response, with the gathered reporters occasionally shouting questions at him, including one from Ms. Callahan about whether the hostage-taker had demanded Shelley’s car. Dennis Crenshaw glanced at Shelley briefly after Ms. Callahan’s question, probably to see her reaction, but then returned his attention to Sgt. Montgomery. “You said negotiations are ongoing; what steps are being taken to try to bring resolution to this situation?” he asked.
“We’ve established a perimeter around the house, and all possible exits are being watched. We’ve also cut the power and water to the house, but we’re negotiating to supply food and water in exchange for at least one of the hostages,” Sgt. Montgomery said.
“Oh, girl! Can you imagine being in there without the AC in this heat,” Felicia asked Shelley. It was in the upper 90s and wasn’t supposed to cool down much after dark.
“Yeah, it must be terrible,” Shelley responded. She was feeling uncomfortably hot herself, but she’d been so focused on answering the reporters’ questions and paying attention to Sgt. Montgomery that she hadn’t really noticed it all that much. Felicia’s comment suddenly made her much more aware of her own discomfort, and she noticed that much of her clothing was damp with sweat. Still, out here there was fresh air and an occasional breeze to cool things a little; it must be a lot worse being shut up in the house with no air conditioning and not even an electric fan. “I imagine that’s one of the reasons they cut the power; maybe they think if the culprit is uncomfortable enough, it will motivate him to end the crisis sooner. Or maybe they think they can use the restoration of power as a bargaining chip.” Shelley didn’t really know what the standard operating procedures were for police handling a hostage crisis or the logic behind them. Maybe she could learn more about that by following up later with Montgomery or one of the other officers. That kind of information might make an interesting addendum to the news coverage of this event.
Felicia nodded in agreement. “I’m just thinking of the family in there sweating it out with him,” she commented.
Most of the rest of the questions were speculation type things. Montgomery refused to say much more and continually told the press he didn’t want to assume anything or discuss what-ifs. After a few more questions along that line, he ended the press conference and thanked the reporters but promised another one when the standoff came to an end or they had more information they could share.
“So, I wonder if your gang are all heading to Mexico then,” Felicia mused. “I’m guessing when they left you behind they didn’t share any of that.”
Shelley glanced at Felicia; the way she had worded that almost sounded like she thought Shelley was a one of the car thieves. “‘My’ gang? I wouldn’t call them that, just because they kidnapped me. And they didn’t tell us where they were going, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mexico. You know, that old ‘escape prosecution by going across the border’ thing. Also…” Shelley paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to tell Felicia the thought that had just occurred to her.
Felicia raised an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Miss Higgins took offense at the ‘your gang’ comment. Perhaps, she took that to mean that Felicia still believed she was in on the whole thing or it was staged. Then it looked like Shelley had more to say, but wasn’t sure if she should.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
When Miss Higgins decided to walk around, Felicia went back to her car to sit in the AC. She was going to offer to let her sit in there, too, but she had opted to sit on the curb. The pavement must have been too hot, however, because Shelley sat in the grass next to it, rather than on the edge of the curb.
Felicia relistened to the tape recorder. She wished now that they had both kept their mouths shut as their banter was now on the recording during the press conference. Still, she hadn’t missed anything vital. Felicia passed the time by transcribing the notes to her notepad. After a little while, she shut the engine off and went back to the car they had been hiding behind. A large, mature cottonwood tree’s branches extended over the street and provided shade over the car. Felicia crouched down, back to the scene for a bit to work on the story. She could type it out on a typewriter once she was back in the office.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but after a couple of seconds of consideration, she decided to go ahead with it. “Well, the trucker, the one they called Speedy Chicken, suggested taking me to Mexico and selling me. He said he knew people who’d pay a good price for me. But the cop, the one they called Buford, overruled that idea. Maybe he thought it would be hard to get across the border with a captive.”
Felicia’s eyes went wide. Human slavery? In the 1980s. She’d heard of it, sure. But Felicia had always assumed that it was all rumors. “Maybe he was just tryin’ to scare you,” she suggested.
“Well, if so, he succeeded,” replied Shelley.
Several more hours passed uneventfully and there were no further press briefings. Everyone more or less waited around. The person negotiating by phone was not visible and there was no way to listen into the conversation between Mouse and the police, so there really wasn’t anything Shelley could do other than wait. All in all, Shelley thought it was a miserable time. She may have been too distracted to notice the heat earlier, but she definitely noticed it now, and was feeling hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. She was quickly learning that Dallas averaged higher temperatures in summer than Pittsburgh did, although the humidity here didn’t seem quite as bad. Shelley’s feet were hurting too, having been on them pretty much the whole day first at Speedy’s and now at this crime scene. To get some relief, she walked over to the property nearest the car she and Felicia and been told to use for cover and took a seat in the grass at the edge of the lawn. That meant she was probably getting grass stains on her dress, but it needed to be washed anyway, and there didn’t seem to be a better place to sit while waiting for something to happen. She wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could call Gary and let him know what was going on, but there wasn’t, and Shelley didn’t want to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to use their phone.
A couple of minutes after she sat down, Felicia glanced at her, looking like she was about to say something, but then walked away in the direction of her car. Shelley assumed Felicia had also had enough of the heat, and had decided to seek the comfort of her car’s air conditioning. Shelley might have joined her if Felicia had asked, but she didn’t. Besides, Felicia’s car was parked a ways down the street, so if something happened with the hostage situation, it would take Felicia a little longer than Shelley to get back to area where the press was congregated. As it turned out, though, Felicia returned to the press area before anything happened.
Then, finally as the sun began to set, something appeared to happen. Shelley noticed a flurry of activity at the perimeter the police had established, and she realized the officers were taking cover and drawing their guns. Oh crap, something’s going down, she thought to herself. She clambered to her feet as quickly as she could and hurried in a crouching walk back to the car Montgomery had told her and Felicia to use for cover. She squatted behind the front of the car and hastily set her camera to automatically take multiple shots as long as she held the button down. You used up a lot of film quickly in that mode, but you were less likely to miss a good shot because your timing was a little off. She looked over the hood toward the house where the culprit had been holed up, using her camera’s viewfinder to take advantage of the magnification provided by her telephoto lens.
As Miss Higgins moved back to the front of the car and quickly got her camera ready, Felicia grabbed the tape recorder sitting on the ground next to the car’s front tire. She had already flipped the cassette, cleared the leader tape and pressed the record and play buttons along with the pause button so she’d be ready. She hit the pause button and the tape was rolling. She placed the device in the center of the hood, hoping it would pick up the action, being careful not to bump Shelley and moved to the rear of the car, peering over the edge of the vehicle’s trunk so she could witness the event unfold.
Shelley glanced over at Felicia, who was taking cover behind the trunk. She’d be safer if she were next to her up here behind the hood, thought Shelley, with the car’s engine block in front of them to stop any stray bullets. Shelley considered suggesting that to Felicia, but Felicia had already heard Montgomery make that same point, and Felicia would probably take the suggestion the wrong way. Besides, the chances of a stray bullet coming Felicia’s way, making its way all the way through the back of the car, and actually hitting Felicia were probably pretty slim. And things were happening at the house, distracting Shelley from further thoughts about Felicia’s safety.
The hostage-taker had emerged from the house with one of his hostages, and he had a familiar face. “Yeah, that’s Mouse alright,” Shelley said in a voice a little louder than a whisper so Felicia could hear.
Felicia nodded absently, eyes glued to the man with the gun and the bound teen he had by the hair.
Mouse looked pretty much the way he had when Shelley had last seen him, if a little more haggard. He stood behind his hostage, apparently intending to use her as a shield, and appeared to have a firm grip on the girl’s long black hair while holding a gun to her head. The girl was wearing a dark blue oversized football jersey that hung almost to her knees, adorned with light gray numbers on the chest and shoulders and a couple of matching gray stripes on each sleeve; Shelley assumed it was a Cowboys jersey, which the girl probably used as a sleep shirt. Her feet and her legs below the jersey were bare, as they would be if the girl had been aroused from her sleep. Shelley couldn’t see the girl’s hands because they were behind her back, but figured her hands were almost certainly bound, especially considering that she was gagged and still had some tape in her hair that looked like it had been used to blindfold her. “And the hostage looks like a teenage girl, so I assume that’s the daughter,” Shelley said, continuing her commentary to Felicia.
Felicia cut her eyes to Miss Higgins, slightly annoyed. She could see all of it and didn’t need her to state the obvious. Her commentary was being recorded on the tape, although there was not anything really useful being said at the moment.
Initially, there was a lot of shouting from police officers demanding that Mouse release the girl, put down the gun, and surrender. With so many officers yelling all at once, it was a little hard to tell what any of them were saying, but within seconds someone who Shelley assumed was the lead negotiator issued the same demands using a megaphone. Mouse replied by demanding that they let him leave or he would kill the girl. The negotiator tried some delaying tactics, insisting that Mouse needed to give them time to get him a vehicle and trying to persuade him to release the girl. Shelley moved the camera away from Mouse long enough to get a few photos of the police officers pointing their guns at him. No one was backing down, and the situation seemed balanced on the edge of a knife. To Shelley, the tension in the air felt almost palpable as she quickly refocused her camera on Mouse. Mouse began to look around, perhaps trying to find a way out of the situation, when his eyes landed on her. The instant Shelley realized Mouse was looking right at her, she quickly pressed the button on her camera and held it down. While the camera took photo after photo, Shelley saw a frown of recognition form on Mouse’s face, which was soon replaced by a smirk, and then she saw Mouse’s head jerk back as the roar of a gunshot reached her ears. Screams filled the air as two figures tumbled to the ground in front of the house. Shelley prayed that the hostage was still alive, and wondered if Mouse’s smirk had led the cops to think he was about to shoot his hostage.
Within seconds, cops swarmed where the two downed people were. There was a tense moment and utter chaos. It was hard to tell what was going on. The seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later, the teen was pulled to her feet with tape still over her mouth and her hands still tied behind her. She was rushed by an officer who had her by the shoulders and ushered behind several emergency vehicles out of sight. The way he gripped her intentionally forced her to bend at the waist to keep her head down for safety.
It took a bit longer to resolve the dogpile on top of Mouse. Several minutes passed before he was allowed to stand. He was dragged to his feet with his hands cuffed behind him. Shelley was able to get some good shots, but the man kept his head down intentionally. After a moment, he was lead by two officers to a squad car. A third officer had already opened the door for him and the fugitive was placed in the backseat.
As that was happening, a group of officers, guns drawn cautiously moved to the open front door and peered into the house. The front door remained open, but there was no further action for several minutes. If they called into the house, it was not audible from where Shelley and Felicia were standing.
About 3 minutes later, a cop appeared in the door and gave a signal, but it was unclear to the press and other bystanders as to exactly what was going on inside the home or the fate of the girl’s parents.
With so many things happening at once, Shelley had to make some split-second decisions about where to point her camera. She got some shots of the dogpile where Mouse and his teenage hostage had fallen. But when she saw an officer rushing the teen to safety, she momentarily followed them with the camera and got a couple of shots before they disappeared from view behind some emergency vehicles. Then she quickly swung the camera back around to the dogpile, where the struggle between Mouse and the police was still going on. To conserve film, she took the camera off the automatic rapid-shot mode, and took a few individual shots now and then as the struggle proceeded. Once the police had Mouse handcuffed, Shelley followed Mouse with the camera as a pair of officers frog-marched him to one of their squad cars and forced him into the back seat, and she managed to get several photos of the culprit. Once he was in the back seat and no longer in view of the camera, Shelley pointed the camera back at the house, and saw other officers peering into the open front door.
Shelley took a couple of photos of the police officers at the door, but then waited to see if anything interesting was going to happen. After waiting for about a minute, she decided to use the lull in the action to change the roll of film in her camera. She waited some more, and took a single shot when another officer appeared at the door and gave his signal. Some more cops moved into the house, and there was more waiting. The officers seemed more relaxed now, and Shelley got the impression that there were no more perps inside the house. It seemed that the action might be over, but there was still no word on the status of the family, and Shelley could see that none of the members of the press seemed to be leaving. As Shelley watched the house, she began to see cops moving in and out of the house. A small group of them, including Sgt. Montgomery, were gathering on the lawn near the house’s front door and appeared to be conversing, but Shelley couldn’t hear anything they were saying.
Shelley heard a car engine start and looked around in time to see one of the police cars start moving. It and two other police cars, including the one carrying Mouse, began to pull away from the crime scene. Shelley noticed that one of the ambulances that had been there earlier was gone; she hadn’t seen it go, so it must have left while she was distracted by some of the other action. She assumed it had taken the girl to the hospital.
A few minutes later Sgt. Montgomery approached the members of the press and began summoning them back to the area where he had addressed them earlier. “Maybe we’ll finally get some more information,” Shelley said to Felicia as they walked back to the impromptu press conference area. “I hope none of the family members were hurt.”
*tag Felicia*
Sgt. Montgomery began addressing the crowd of reporters. “As I’m sure you all already know, the perpetrator has been arrested, and he was acting alone. The family members are safe…”
“Will we be able to interview them?” one of the reporters in the crowd called out, interrupting Montgomery.
“Not tonight. They may talk to you eventually, but they need tonight to recover, and they’ll have police protection until we can get things sorted out…” Montgomery replied.
“What about the daughter?” another reporter asked.
“She’s safe, but she’s been taken to a hospital for further evaluation.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“For her privacy and safety, we are not disclosing that information at this time.”
“Does that mean you feel the family is still in danger?”
“I’m not prepared to comment on that at this time,” said Montgomery. “Really, there’s not much more I can tell you tonight, but we will have a press conference tomorrow at noon at the police station, and hopefully we will have some additional information for you then. For now, I ask that you all go home so the neighbors can get some peace and quiet, and we’ll reconvene tomorrow at the press conference.”
*tags*
A few minutes later Sgt. Montgomery approached the members of the press and began summoning them back to the area where he had addressed them earlier. “Maybe we’ll finally get some more information,” Shelley said to Felicia as they walked back to the impromptu press conference area. “I hope none of the family members were hurt.”
Felicia nodded. “The parents still haven’t come out, yet,” she noted aloud. “I think he is hoping to shoo the press away before they come out.”
Sgt. Montgomery began addressing the crowd of reporters. “As I’m sure you all already know, the perpetrator has been arrested, and he was acting alone. The family members are safe…”
“Will we be able to interview them?” one of the reporters in the crowd called out, interrupting Montgomery.
“Not tonight. They may talk to you eventually, but they need tonight to recover, and they’ll have police protection until we can get things sorted out…” Montgomery replied.
“What about the daughter?” another reporter asked.
“She’s safe, but she’s been taken to a hospital for further evaluation.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“For her privacy and safety, we are not disclosing that information at this time.”
“Does that mean you feel the family is still in danger?”
“I’m not prepared to comment on that at this time,” said Montgomery. “Really, there’s not much more I can tell you tonight, but we will have a press conference tomorrow at noon at the police station, and hopefully we will have some additional information for you then. For now, I ask that you all go home so the neighbors can get some peace and quiet, and we’ll reconvene tomorrow at the press conference.”
As the press began to disperse, Felicia slowly led the way back to her car. She didn’t start the engine right away. Momentarily forgetting that she saw Shelley as ‘Miss Higgins, the suspicious girl from up north who conveniently arrived just before the trouble started’, she turned to her. “Some night, huh? Who knew working for a small paper could be this exciting,” she mused.
Felicia was about to follow up about all of the crazy things that had been going on lately when it all came back to her. She was still sitting next to Miss Shelley Higgins, although it was hard at this point to continue to believe Shelley had staged any of this or was somehow involved. Still, she backed off her friendly banter.
Felicia sat there in the darkness for a few more minutes. As most of the news vans began to pull away after recording their final segments wrapping the coverage and the newspaper people got into their private cars and drove away, Dr. and Mrs. Farwell emerged from the house. It looked like they had cleaned up and put on fresh clothes although it was hard to tell in the dark.
“There they go,” Felicia remarked. They got into one of their private cars and were escorted by squad cars. “Probably going to see their daughter at the ER. I don’t feel right about following them. We best get home. It’s late. I can drop you off at your place. We have a whole week to work on this thing. The next issue won’t be out for seven days. Maybe, we can go by the police station and interview this Mouse guy tomorrow…”
With that, she started the car, turned on her headlights and headed back toward their side of town.
Felicia nodded. “The parents still haven’t come out, yet,” she noted aloud. “I think he is hoping to shoo the press away before they come out.”
Sgt. Montgomery began addressing the crowd of reporters. “As I’m sure you all already know, the perpetrator has been arrested, and he was acting alone. The family members are safe…”
“Will we be able to interview them?” one of the reporters in the crowd called out, interrupting Montgomery.
“Not tonight. They may talk to you eventually, but they need tonight to recover, and they’ll have police protection until we can get things sorted out…” Montgomery replied.
“What about the daughter?” another reporter asked.
“She’s safe, but she’s been taken to a hospital for further evaluation.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“For her privacy and safety, we are not disclosing that information at this time.”
“Does that mean you feel the family is still in danger?”
“I’m not prepared to comment on that at this time,” said Montgomery. “Really, there’s not much more I can tell you tonight, but we will have a press conference tomorrow at noon at the police station, and hopefully we will have some additional information for you then. For now, I ask that you all go home so the neighbors can get some peace and quiet, and we’ll reconvene tomorrow at the press conference.”
As the press began to disperse, Felicia slowly led the way back to her car. She didn’t start the engine right away. Momentarily forgetting that she saw Shelley as ‘Miss Higgins, the suspicious girl from up north who conveniently arrived just before the trouble started’, she turned to her. “Some night, huh? Who knew working for a small paper could be this exciting,” she mused.
Felicia was about to follow up about all of the crazy things that had been going on lately when it all came back to her. She was still sitting next to Miss Shelley Higgins, although it was hard at this point to continue to believe Shelley had staged any of this or was somehow involved. Still, she backed off her friendly banter.
Felicia sat there in the darkness for a few more minutes. As most of the news vans began to pull away after recording their final segments wrapping the coverage and the newspaper people got into their private cars and drove away, Dr. and Mrs. Farwell emerged from the house. It looked like they had cleaned up and put on fresh clothes although it was hard to tell in the dark.
“There they go,” Felicia remarked. They got into one of their private cars and were escorted by squad cars. “Probably going to see their daughter at the ER. I don’t feel right about following them. We best get home. It’s late. I can drop you off at your place. We have a whole week to work on this thing. The next issue won’t be out for seven days. Maybe, we can go by the police station and interview this Mouse guy tomorrow…”
With that, she started the car, turned on her headlights and headed back toward their side of town.
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