Tip & Ty
by: E Walk

(Copyright 2007 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 35

 Busted

This is Mark.

I needed to regroup so I sat down at the table and was mentally planning my day.  I guess I was in a stupor when Billy came in and tapped me on the shoulder, “Nano Mark, aren’t you going to go with us?  You can’t go in your running clothes.  Nano Mark, you look as if you have been crying.  Please don’t be upset with us.”

I pulled Billy to me, “Billy, I am not upset with you.  I’m just trying to think how we can make sure that the teenagers behave themselves at The Children’s Museum.  I am going to need the four of you to help me.  Now if you will make sure everyone has what they need, I’ll go get dressed.”

I was just coming out of the shower when Zack came in to get ready for the day.  Zack pulled me close and whispered, “Mark, you can’t control everything the way you would like.  You have been working for Tip and Ty for two weeks.  You can’t expect everything to be perfect all the time.  Ty, especially, is thanking his lucky stars that he had the good fortune to find you.  Now chill out and just let things happen.  Children will be children, and it is no reflection on you if they occasionally do something that is not to your liking.”

Zack wasn’t finished, “Mark, the best we can do is to sit down and reason with them and help them make intelligent decisions.  Now kiss me you fool.   I am going to miss you while we are looking at boring offices.  I’ll try very hard to be a good boy today.  Now give me another kiss to hold me until tonight.”

I left our room and found that my troops were all assembled looking neat and tidy, ready to expand our minds.   Lane and Lance seemed like they were part of the family, and of course, I already considered Kevin and Ryan to be part of the family.  Even Kelley and Cori fit right in.  We decided to take two cars, I was going to drive the van with Kevin as my tour guide since I had no idea where The Children’s Museum was located.  Ryan was going to ride in the back with Ty’s four children.  Lane was driving his Uncle Neil’s car, so he and Lance took Cori and Kelley with them.  They were going to follow us.

We pulled away from the house at 10:30 with Lane following me.  We had only gone about four blocks when we heard sirens and saw flashing lights, so I pulled over to the side, thinking that the police cars were on their way to an accident.  Lane pulled off to the side behind me.  I was surprised when the police car parked in front me and two policemen jumped out and pulled their guns and walked toward the van.

I rolled the window down and asked, “Is there something wrong, Officer?”

The young man ignored my question and stared at me, “Please sir, get out of the van and keep your hands where I can see them.”

I did as he requested.  He ordered, “Place your hands on the side of the van and spread your legs.”

While this was happening, the other officer had opened the passenger door and was doing the same thing to Kevin.

Finally, I had the audacity to ask, “Officer, would you please tell us why you stopped us?  I have four young children in the van and this is probably very frightening to them.”

The officer wasn’t very friendly, “We have an all points bulletin out for this van.  Your license plates match what we received even though the description of the van doesn’t match.  We have been advised that the van was stolen and that you were transporting illegal drugs.”

Lane, Lance, Kelley and Cori had gotten out of the car and came to see what was going on.  A second police car had pulled in behind their car and made sure that they didn’t make contact with us.  A third police car pulled up and one of the offers looked into the van,  the young lady officer asked, “Why are these children in this van?  Have you kidnapped them?”

Bobby looked at the lady as if she was from outer space, “Nano Mark and the rest of us were going to The Children’s Museum.  This is our Dad’s van and I can tell you that it hasn’t been stolen.  Why don’t you call my Dad?  He should still be at home.  They were not to be leaving until 11:00 to go look at boring buildings.  I’ll call him if someone has a phone.”

Ryan pulled his phone out and handed it to Bobby.  Bobby made the call, “Hey Dad, come help us.  The police are going to arrest Nano Mark for stealing the van.  They say we have drugs in the van.  We are near Fort and 72^nd Street.  Please hurry.”

It was only a few minutes before our three other cars pulled up and Ty demanded, “Who is in charge here?  Why are my children and their caretaker being detained.  I own this vehicle and I can attest that it hasn't been out of our garage since yesterday.”

Judge Jenkins put his hand on Ty’s shoulder, “Ty, let me take care of this.  Officer, would you please contact your duty Sergeant and tell him that Judge Jenkins would like to speak to the Chief or one of his Deputies immediately.”

The duty Sergeant came on, “How do I know you are who you say you are and we don’t need to involve any of the other authorities.  This is a simple robbery and drug bust, so why don’t you stop meddling in police business?”

Judge Jenkins was livid, “Never mind, I’ll call the Chief and I hope he isn’t on the golf course.  He is probably going to have a stroke when I tell him about how his officers and his desk Sergeant have acted today.”

Everyone was watching what was transpiring by now.  Judge Jenkins called a number and finally the phone was answered.  Judge Jenkins was relentless, “Bob, this is Rich Jenkins.  I have just witnessed the most abrasive use of police power that should never have occurred.  I am going to advise the young people involved to file charges for police brutality, and I am sure it will be smeared all over the news, since the people involved are friends and children of Mr. Tyler Jefferson who was a football player for the Kansas City Chiefs.  Now I suggest that you get your sorry ass out of your golf cart and get to the bottom of this matter immediately.”

“In case you haven’t been reading the newspapers, Ty hasn’t lost a case yet, and he has made his adversaries look like nincompoops.  Your political career is dependent on what happens in the next ten minutes.  Talk to you later, Cousin.”

This is Ty.

I don’t think any of the people who were with us could believe what had just transpired.  Judge Jenkins wasn’t finished.  He walked to the far side of the van and pulled out the owner’s registration papers and handed them to the young man in charge.  “I suggest that you check these papers and do a search of the van.  Maybe you can sniff out anything illegal with your fat noses.”

Mark had been released from his search position and went to Judge Jenkins, “Uncle Richie, these officers were just trying to do their job. I agree that someone screwed up, but they were just following the information that they had been provided and trying to do what they had been told to do.”

The radios in the police cars started to squawk.   “All cars, there was a mistake on the all points bulletin this morning.  The license should have said PB1969 instead of PB1996.”

All six of the officers who had surrounded the vans and cars were embarrassed, to say the least.  The two officers from the lead car apologized to Mark as they handed him his wallet.

Mark was very non committal, “Officers, I appreciate that you thought you were doing your job, but when you saw that there were young children involved, you could have been more gentle.  Do you have any idea what your actions have imprinted on these young peoples’ minds?  I hope my employer takes all six of you to task, and makes sure that you attend classes in human relations, especially those concerning dealing with the handling of young people.”

Mark waved to his people to get back into their vehicle and the two vehicles pulled away.

Everyone in our group of cars was standing there laughing. Tip finally spoke, “If this is any indications of the kind of day that we are going to have, we had better get started.”

We climbed into our cars, Beau and Becca were riding with Tip and me and Beau started, “I’ll say this for you two, it has been like a three ring circus.  I can hardly wait to see what happens next.”

I guess the conversation in the other two vehicles was just about as funny.  Judge Jenkins was riding with Philip and Pam Burns.  Philip was driving but asked. “Judge Jenkins, is the Chief of Police really your cousin?”

Mr. Jenkins laughed, “Yes, he is my first cousin.  His Mother and my Mother were sisters.  When we are together, professionally, we pretend not to know each other.  He and I have been playing golf almost every Saturday for the past thirty years.  He had to find a substitute for me today, since we are doing this boring office search.”

In the third car, Zack was driving with Shawn and Colleen.  The three young people were laughing about what had transpired.  Zack started to laugh, “I can hardly wait to see what Mark does to get even for being embarrassed today.  The Kansas City Police Force will never know what hit them.  I’m betting that he will be presenting a mandatory course for them on how to handle cases involving young children.”

Any more banter was stopped because we pulled up to the real estate office where we were to meet the agent. 

This is Tip.

Ty went into the office, came back and said, “Mr. Lassiter hasn’t shown up yet.  We were supposed to meet him here 10 minutes ago.  The receptionist said she hadn’t heard from him this morning.  I guess he must not want our business.  Why don’t I call Neil and Randy and perhaps they can meet us and show the property that they were talking about last night.” 

We were climbing back into our cars when a Saab convertible pulled into the lot.  A disheveled gentleman exited and hurried to where we were parked.  He went to Judge Jenkins, “I’m sorry for being late, Mr. Jefferson,  I had some last minute things I had to take care of.”

Judge. Jenkins looked at the rather overweight man, “For your information, Mr. Lassiter, I am not Mr. Jefferson.  Tyler is getting ready to get into that car.”

Mr. Lassiter looked at Tyler and his face took on a different appearance.  It was as if he wasn’t interested in associating with an African American, even if he was obviously of mixed origins.”

Mr. Lassiter very stiffly said, “Let’s go to the first property, I have scheduled for us to look at.”

I looked around and I could see that Beau and Becca were seething, but they didn’t say anything.  The people in the other cars were feeling the tensions that were building also. 

When we walked into the first place, Mr. Lassiter didn’t make any effort to show us around but said, “I’m sure that this will meet you needs,”

Ty remained extremely calm even though he was about ready to blow, “Mr. Lassiter, I thought I told you that I was looking for a facility that could hold three businesses.  This place is even smaller than where my office is located now.  Now if the other sites that you have to show us are anything like this, then we would certainly be wasting our time to even look at them.  Tip, why don’t you call Neil and arrange to meet him and Randy at their building after we have a nice quiet lunch?”

Mr. Lassiter sucked in his breath, “Wait a minute, you can’t just tell me that I can get lost.  I spent too much time lining up these visits.”

Zack had all of this bigot that he could take, “Look, whatever your name is.  Just because my brother is an African American, doesn’t give you the right to tell him what to do?   In case you hadn’t realized it, he is THE Ty Jefferson, who just happens to have played for the Kansas City Chiefs.  If he was to continue to do business with you, I think I would throw up.  You probably don’t even own that fancy car you are driving.”

That sparked Beau.  Beau turned to Philip, “Phil, I think your first job for the Benson Consulting Agency will be for you and your associates to investigate Mr. Lassiter, here.  I have the sneaking suspicion that there is so much dirty linen in his closet that it smells to high heaven.  Judge Jenkins, perhaps you should call your cousin the Chief of Police, and ask for his help in this case.”

Mr. Lassiter made a quick exit.  We watched, as the Saab pulled away.

Shawn started to laugh, “I guess he didn’t like us very much.  He didn’t even say goodbye.”

We exited the facility and Ty made sure the door locked behind us.  I had made contact with Neil and they were going to meet us at some place called The Brown Cow for lunch.  It was a good thing that Judge Jenkins was with us, because we would never have found the place otherwise.  It was nothing more than a small delicatessen and we nearly took over the place when we arrived.

As we were eating the food, which was very good, Beau spoke. “Let’s see, so far today, Mark was almost arrested, and then some hood tried to pull a fast one on Ty; there has to be something else going to happen today, because they say things always happen in threes.  Maybe Becca and I should go back to the house and pack and go home.”

This is Zack.

“Hey bosses, you can’t go home until you find me a suitable office, so I can play tiddily winks with the help.”  I felt like I needed to brighten what had been a downer of a day so far.  Surely nothing else can happen.

After lunch, which was actually great, we followed Mr. Smithers, Mr. Trout, Mr. Lansing and Mr. Richards to a very nice looking high rise office building that had a sign announcing that it was the TROUT BUILDING.   We parked our cars and Randy and Neil led us into the facility.  The security person on duty stood and acknowledged Randy and Neil.  We were to find out later that all visitors had to sign in and out, but for today, we went to the office space that Neil and Randy had mentioned last night without signing in .

The space was an entire floor and was almost made to order for us.  There were three distinct areas, but they were all interconnected through a single entry.  We looked around and everyone was pleased with what they saw. 

Beau looked at Shawn, “Shawn, since you are going to be the receptionist/public relations person for the three businesses, I think that you are going to need a raise to make sure that you get the clients to the right area.”

Shawn caught everyone by surprise, “If they come for the Tiddily Winks tournament, I’ll direct them to Zack’s and your offices.  If they come for the Cloak and Dagger game, I’ll ship the clients to Mr. Burns, and if they come to play Show and Tell, I direct them to Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Jenkins and Ms. Burns.  Hey, that’s a piece of cake.  All I have to do is smile and point to where the clients are supposed to go and then listen to all of the bosses yelling a me.”

That had everyone laughing.

We were just leaving the building when I spotted a van.  “Everyone look over there.  Isn’t that the license plate that they officers had mentioned? It is PB1969.  Someone call the police, and alert them that a suspicious van is in the parking lot of the Trout Building.”

It took only a very short time before there were two police cruisers pulled up, one on either side, of the van that was reported stolen.  We watched as the officers climbed out of the cruisers with their guns pointed toward the van.  My first thought was that they were the same nitwits who had pulled Mark over, which, as it turned out, they were.  We found later that they had been just about ready to finish their rounds for the day when they were directed to the site.

We watched as they opened the van doors and two young teenagers climbed out of the van.  “Please officers, we only took the van so we could get away from home.  We don’t have any money and haven’t eaten for nearly two days and now we are out of gas.  Please don’t take us to jail.”

That was more than Beau could take.  He went to the officers and spoke firmly,  “Officers, I would like to hear what the young men have to say for themselves.  I think there might be more here than meets the eye.”

Beau turned to the two teenagers, “My name is Beau, and I would like for you to meet my friends.”  Beau skillfully introduced the rest of us without giving any indication who we were. 

Beau wasn’t finished, “Officers, I suggest that some of you examine this vehicle for any illegal paraphernalia, while the rest of us visit with the two young men.”

Beau turned his attention back to the two teens, “I don’t suppose that you have a name?”

The older of the two looked at Beau, “Mister, are you crazy or something?  Of course we have names.  I’m Tim Young and that is my brother is Tommy.  I’m 16 and Tommy is 15.”

Pam was looking concerned, “Tim and Tom, where are your parents?”

Tommy looked at Pam, “Ma’am, our mother died a year ago.  We were living with our stepfather, Adam Craig.  Even when mother was alive he would go out at night by himself.  After her death, he started to bring other guys home at night and they would disappear into his bedroom.  It was obvious what was happening from the sounds and smells coming from the room.”

Tim spoke up, “For the most part no one ever bothered us.  But on the evening we ran away, his visitor came into our room naked and very aroused and started to try to get us do things with him.  He was so stoned that we escaped and well here we are.”

Ty looked at the officers, “Officers, did you find anything out of the ordinary in the van?”

The two officers who had done the inspection shook their heads no.

Judge Jenkins asked, “Was there any report of the two young men being missing when the all points bulletin was put out for the van?”

The youngest of the officers answered. “Sir, I don’t recall any mention of two missing teenagers.  Let me call the station and see if Tom and Tim have been reported missing.”

The young officer returned, “There is no report on file saying that Tim and Tom Young have been reported missing.”

Neil spoke, “Officers, we’re going to take Tim and Tommy home with us.  We will give you our address and you can report to the powers that be that you found the abandoned van in the parking lot of the Trout Building.  Here is our address.  We own this building so it is only logical that we would be involved.”

Ty looked at the officer’s, “Now we are even.  Here is our new address and phone number if there any repercussions from what has happened today.  Thank you for your cooperation.”

The youngest officer, whose name was Mike Smith,  was laughing, “Heck, this was our first day on patrol.  If everyday is like today, then we can make a fortune writing shows for television,  Of course, no one believe the stories.”

Everyone laughed as the four policemen departed.

Neil turned to Philip, “Philip, why don’t you see what you can find out about Mr. Craig.  I don’t think I like the gentleman very much at all.”

To be continued... 
 

Feedback always welcome:     

Editor's Notes:

I suspected that there was going to be more things going on that day.  It seems that strange things are going to happen whenever E Walk starts writing.  The people in his stories all seem to have interesting things happening to them.  I am pretty sure of one thing, and that is, when Beau is involved, things are certainly going to improve for the people that are having problems. Of course Ty is no slouch either.  So even though this could be classified as a minor cliffhanger, I strongly suspect that things will be resolved to the youngsters' satisfaction shortly. At least that is my fervent hope. Can you tell that I am ready and eager for the next chapter. Well I am.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 03/21/08