Mystery -Chapter 2

Detective Monroe gave the man a once over.

The station had gotten a call from a concerned citizen.
There had been a lot of noise coming from the house across the street. 
The partial  report stated  that  the neighbor had reported that there
was a scream.  And shortly after two girls were seen running from
the garage taking off on a red moped.

When the neighbor was interviewed later that evening.
It was a Mrs. Henry who had made the call.  She reportedly had told
the young assistant, "I heard a scream and had gone outside to investigate
and it was then I had seen the two girls. 

The older of the two had wheeled the red moped out of the garage and the smaller
one hopped on in back of her and then they had taken off. 

The front door was left wide open 

Upon interviewing her further the assistant had stated.  Mrs. Henry was just
a concerned neighbor  She had called earlier in the evening and left her name
with a nice young man. "

The commotion had happened at 4 o'clock.  But she hadn't called it in till 7.00. 
As she didn't think it was her business.

But now it was dark out and the lights in the house were on and the front door
was still wide open.   So Mrs. Henry thought that she had better call the police.


Detective Monroe gave the dad a once over.  The man seemed anxious.  He was a 
a bit dazed, but focused.
The wound to his forehead although it had bled a lot  the detective concluded it was
superficial in nature.

Mr. Dayton said he had come home from work at 4:00 and entered his house.
He was entering his kitchen when he saw a shadow from the corner of his eye
and then something hit him on the head.

The next thing he remembered a police nurse was hovering over him and
someone shoved smelling salts under his nose.

After he regained a sense of things he realized that his girls were missing and
he told the police he didn't know their whereabouts. 

Detective Monroe was a man with a wispy moustache, salt and pepper hair
and a stout figure.   He had been on the village force five years.  He was a
trarnsfer from a large metropolitan Chicago police force.  His application papers
were in the form of transfer papers.   They said he wanted a slower paced lifestyle for himself. 
He wasn't married.  He had been doing police work for 25 years.  It was his life. 
The village elders offered  him the job as chief of police and he accepted.  The townspeople came to
respect him.  Some thought him a bit odd, but the elder people sat on their rockingchairs
and accepted him and soon he was one of them.  It was a wedding between a town and a
man.

Finally Monroe spoke,  He addressed his question to Mr. Dayton.  "What makes you think they
are missing.  Did you call their friends?"

"No.  My girls always come home from school.  They are in the house by 4:00 every
day"

Monroe turned to the young policeman next to him.

"When I'm done here get a lis from Mr. Dayton of his daughter's  friends.""

"Right ,Chief," came the reply".

Monroe twisted his moustache.
He sort of talked to himself.  And it came out in a blurred mumble.

"There is something strange about this father's demeanor."

The young policeman read the Chief's mind.

"What?" he said.

"What are you thinking?"


Sometimes his young assistant got on his nerves.

He seemed at times to read his mind and Monroe didn't
want anyone reading his mind."

He had his secrets too.

"Look,Cameron, just get the list and we'll go over the facts of
the case later  Talk to the neighbors. and find out what you can
about the girls."

Cameron recognized the undertones in his boss' voice so he didn't ask
his next question.  He would wait.  .

A few of the neighbors had gathered around because of the commotion
and Cameron sauntered off to talk to them.   From everything he heard 
he was getting a gist of what the family was like.

Single dad, two girls, 14 and 11, quiet.

There didn't seemed to be a woman of the house and no lady friends were
seen visiting.

Later on Cameron would get most of the phone numbers of the two sisters' friends from his
interview with the dad.  There would just be three names on the list. The neighbors
didn't recall any young people coming to the house.  The dad was quiet.  The girls were quiet
and kept to themselves.

Cameron thought he had a pretty good feel for what was going on here.

Looked like a simple break in.  Maybe a burglar that Mr. Layton surprised.  That would
explain Mr. Laytong getting hit on the head.
But the girls not being home that was a disturbing bit of information.
There didn't seem to be any close relatives and none of the neighbors saw
any odd behaviour or noise coming from the house.  And then Cameron said, out loud,
"Well, there was no odd behaviour coming from the house until today that is.

And  In fact old Mrs. Henry the woman across the street who had made the
call said she never saw the girls go anywhere except with their dad.


When Cameron interviewed Mrs. Harris, her exact words were, ""Funny," she said, "
the exception to the girls going anywhere was the moped.   That was the thing that got
her attention about the girls."

"Sorry," but "why was that funny?"  Cameron asked.

"Well," Mrs. Cameron explained.  "It was an old beat up red moped that looked
like it had been around for years."

"I don't undersand," said Cameron.

Mrs. Henry pursed her lips.  "Well, you'd think a dad who was affluent and drove
a late model red sports car on occasion could afford a decent bike for his children,
whether it be a moped or a two wheeler."

Cameron didn't understand Mrs. Henry's logic but he shook his head up and down
which suggested that he was in agreement with her.

"Un hun,"  was all he said.

He scribbled a note of what she said in his notebook
If you read his notebook later it would read, "Mrs. Henry, red moped, funny."

Mrs. Henry nodded approvingly that Cameron was writing in his notebook.

When Cameron looked up from his notebook  Mrs. Henry smiled appreciatively
at the young assistant.

All she said out loud was, "it's nice to be listened to."

As Cameron nodded in assent Mrs. Henry continued, "when I was 11 my father
bought me a two wheeler red bike so she knew how important new bikes were
to children.

"Un hun," said Cameron.

Cameron took in a deep breath.   He raised his eyebrows, pressed his lips together
and then he tapped his notebook with his pencil.. 
"Thank you.  Thank you.  If we need anything further, Mrs. Harris,  I or the Chief will
get back to you."

Cameron started to walk to the front door.  His right hand was on the doorknob
when  Mrs. Henry cocked an eyebrow and said,"I'm not finished yet.
Don't you want to know about the postal package that was left here
because no one was home across the street between 1:00 and
2:00 when United Parcel makes deliveries."

The young policeman's eyes widened and his mouth dropped opened.

He was thoroughly caught off guard.

Mrs. Henry beamed in delight.  She had fully caught the young policeman's
attention again.

Cameron momentarily regained his composure and said  "What package?"

Mrs. Henry was enjoying herself.  She hadn't been paid this much attention
in years.  And hadn't been so entertained by a young man in god knows
how long.

She smiled broadly and all Cameron could think of  was
that she reminded him of that cat Garfield.  The fat cat with the crazy grin.

He shook the image from his mind.

Mrs. Henrys, leaned over and whispered, "thought you'd never ask."  

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