Geoffrey Collins, the last case. ~

Geoffrey Collins, the last case ~ Chapter 5

                                                                             Chapter 5

                                                         35 hours 

 I once again called the captain over the phone and told him that I suspected Daffer as a suspect in the kidnapping case.  Clearly we were not on the same page as he told me: "No he has an alibi.  You're going to have to try again."  I responded by telling him the latest developments.  I asked him if he could simply check and see where exactly Daffer was.  Chief got back to me while I was waiting in the airport for my return flight.  "We got no idea where her boss is, you might be right.  You think he has partners?"  I confirmed what he had asked and was about to board my flight when a thought struck me.  Maybe they didn't move her far away!  I had simply assumed that they would.  Maybe they had counted on this assumption.  I decided that it was necessary for me to abandon my flight and re-check the house.  I arrived there after calling another taxi and riding to the house.  At this point I had only a few dollars left!  (Taxies are expensive)  Anyway, as I arrived at the house I saw a man entering the front door carrying a bag of something, presumably food.  I was right!  The kidnappers were here!  and most likely so was the girl.  I ran inside the house, opened the cabinets under the sink and pried open the tunnel to find ... nothing.  There was nothing inside of the tunnel at all, besides the desk and chair, what was already there when I was taken.  Without warning it hit me.  Houses on the underground railroad never had as few as one tunnel.  There could be a second tunnel I didn't even know about.  This might be a gigantic breakthrough in the case.

                                                                                          35 hours

  Where would that tunnel be?  That was the question.  I did not feel safe in this house, as I had already once been incapacitated, tied to a chair and left there.  It's amazing how many crimes had been committed by the culprit, Kidnapping, assaulting an officer, kidnapping (again), probably even more.  Come to think of it, I wonder if that was a fake taxi, or if they did something to the driver when they picked me up from the airport.  Let me get back to what happened in the house.  I looked all around the house to find another tunnel.  I could not find another tunnel to search.  I knew there was something here that I needed to find.  I decided that I needed help.  I called the police department there.  "I think that a kidnapping victim is being held in a house on coal street.  The address is 443 Coal Street It's on the left side of the road."  I told the man who picked up the phone.  He relied in his very nasally voice  "And uh ... you want me to send someone out?  Okay I'll send out a couple of cars." he responded.  We were going to search that house and find those kidnappers and the girl.  This might be the end of the case.  Would we catch the culprit now?  Would it be that easy?

                                                                                              34 hours

  The officers arrived, Joey, Marcus, Karen, Turell, Chan, Bill, and Ross.  I'll never forget those names until the day that I die.  We searched every inch of the house, top to bottom.  We started to search once more, the first tunnel that I had found.  (The only one we had found so far) We discovered that there was another tunnel inside of the first..  I saw that this second room was another place the girl was, but was not kept there for long.  This room had a passage that led outside to the back of the house, where I saw tire tracks in the mud.  "No wonder the neighbor never saw them leave!"  I thought to myself. I looked at the second room closer.  My guess was that this was a room that was used in between different places that they took Samantha.  So far, we had learned a fair amount about our culprits.  We knew that it was a team, we knew that Daffer was somehow involved, and we knew where they had hidden from us.  I ordered the men and women to search the area and make sure no one left the neighborhood without being searched.  "You have no authority over us.  We're not in your jurisdiction."  A boy on their team answered.  "Really?  Call your chief and ask him.  And I'll tell the parents that we might have had the girl by now, if a punk kid hadn't wanted to show off in front of his friends."  I said.   "Yes sir, we'll go now sir." The young man answered me.  We were going to catch these men!

                                                                                                    32 hours

The kidnappers were nowhere to be found - they must have left before we set up a perimeter.  I went to see their police chief.  I could tell from his voice that he was definitely who had answered the phone.  He was a very tall heavyset man whose voice did not match his body.  I asked him  if he could check who the house was registered to.  "Already done."  He said.  "I figured you might want to know so I asked Jones if he could do it."  "Thank you sir." I said.  It was actually being rented out to a man named Joe Smith.  I thought that they could have at least been a bit more  original when they came up with an alias.  "What else do you think I can do to assist here?"  I asked him.  He told me that there was not much they could do anymore.  "Besides, you're the one in charge of this case."  he said to me.  I was always a man who would seek leadership,  not a person without backbone, or a very trusting person, but a man who appreciated guidance.  At times this was a great strength, however at others it was a weakness.  I remembered that I had of course abandoned my flight.  I had to book another one and unfortunately that was going to take about two hours.  Would we ever be able to save her?  Would we have enough time?  Would we unravel the mystery?