Columbo

Chapter 8

It was 12:01 P.M., Columbo was at the police station, he was sitting at a table smoking his cigar. Sargent Johnson saw Columbo, who looked depressed. Johnson walked over and put his hand on his shoulder and said, "How are you?"
"I just hope we find her, before it's too late."
"Columbo, we're doing everything we can. Don't worry."
"That's all I can do." he moaned
"We'll find her, it's a promise." He patted his right shoulder and said, "Why don't you take a walk in one of our parks, that's what I'd do."
Columbo smiled, "Is that what you do to take the stress off?"
"It helps, I'm sure if you just took a walk, there, listen to the birds and the leaves of the trees move, it will relax you."
Columbo chucked, "Sounds great, anything to get my mind relaxed. Uh, know any nearby parks?"
The sargent gave smiled, giving a chuckle.

It was 12:14 P.M., Columbo was taking a walk, at a park, as the sargent suggested, he listened to the birds sing and watched and listened to the trees waved back and forth, with the wind. It was a beautiful day, and Columbo started to whistle This Old Man, as he kept walking.
He stopped whistling when he heard a couple of people yelling at each other. It sounded like a man and a woman having an argument. He followed the sound, as he got closer, he recognized who it was, it was Mike and Laura arguing.
"I can't believe I ran into you!"
"Sweetie-"
"Don't you sweetie me, I never wanted to see you, after you left me. You took advantage of me and I will not tolerate it, again!"
"Oh, come on, you never told me you had a daughter, who's the father?"
"Who's the father? You were always so closed minded, Mike."
"You're not saying-"
"Yes, you're the father, after you took advantage of me, taking me to your apartment, it was you, Mike, after our little intimacy, it was you who gave me Jane. You did this, Mike, you did."
There was a silence, between the two for a few seconds, when Columbo walked over, saying, "Hey, uh, I see you two met, once again, how's the reunion going?"
"If this is a reunion, then, this is a horrible reunion." said Laura
"I over heard you two talking, it makes sense now, that's how you had Jane, after you two met, he took advantage and, well, you didn't like-"
"Columbo, have you been eavesdropping on us?" asked Laura
"Well, I over heard you two arguing, so, I had to check it out, to see if everything was O.K."
"Everything's fine, Columbo," said Mike, "Now, if could you just leave us alone-"
"Oh, so, what? So you can take advantage of me, again?"
Mike just stared at her.
"No," she started, "No, no, no, I will not tolerate this, no."
She started to walk away, when Mike turned to look at Laura and said, "Laura, wait!"
She kept walking.
"Laura, I'm sorry!"
She stopped, turned around, she looked annoyed, "You're not."
He looked at Columbo, then, back, as she started to away.
"Laura!"
"Go after her." said Columbo
"What?"
"Go on, she seems like a fine girl."
Columbo gave him a little push, to where she was walking.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'd do it, you know, when I met my wife, it didn't take too long to realize she was the one, now, go."
He nodded, then ran after her, yelling, "Laura! Laura, wait! Laura!"
"Columbo!" said a voice, behind him.
Columbo turned around to see an officer, who was running towards him. "Columbo!"
"Yeah?"
The officer caught up to him, he was out of breath. "We have a lead on your wife."
"What?"
"I said, we have a lead on your wife."
"Do you know where she is?"
"No, but, we have an idea, of where to look."

It was 12:19 P.M., Harrison was on the couch watching T.V., while Hoffman he was watching the news, when all of a sudden they started to talk about them.
"The missing case of Kate Columbo has started to become a little more clear. Kate Columbo has been missing for a while now and officers believe to have found an area to look. The area seems to be in the south side of Florida, but, it seems to be a large area to look." A picture, of Florida, appeared on the corner of the screen, as Hoffman walked in. It had a large circle covering the southern half of Florida. "As you can see this is where they believe Kate Columbo is being held hostage. It's a large area, but, police officers believe they might be able to find her. We'll give you more on the story, later. I'm Jim Roberts, reporting live, at the Miami Police Department."
"We need to go." Said Harrison, turning the T.V. off.
"Where? We've got nowhere to go."
The phone rang.
"I've got an idea." Harrison said, getting up, to answer the phone. "How about we stay at Mike's?"
"No, he lives in the city, we can't go. We'll get caught."
"You may be right. We may have to figure something else out." He answers the phone.
"Hello? Yeah, we saw. Don't worry, we'll figure something out. Yeah, we'll be fine. O.K., yeah, good bye."
"Who was that?"
"Mike."

It was 12:31 A.M., Columbo drove up to a house. It was a two story, beige limestone, home, the door was dark and wooden, with a small, glass window, that was hard to see through, the roof had black shingles.
Columbo walked up to the door and knocked. As soon as the door opened, Mike was standing there with Laura.