Page 31 of Stand By You
“She-e-t,” Slick replied, letting the word roll off his tongue. He pulled out a chair at one of the break tables, falling into it. Wizard did the same, sitting beside him.
Slick stared into space for the longest time until the Amber Alert came on the television again and Wizard nudged him as they watched in silence.
“Eight-year-old Travis McGinty was last seen in the non-custodial presence of these two leaving Zoo Miami two days ago. If you know the identity of these men please call the police hotline being flashed on your screen. They are men of interest in this case.”
For a long moment, Wizard and Slick could only stare at each other.
“What the hell are we going to do now?” Wizard finally asked.
“I don’t know, dude,” Slick said. “But we better think of something quick ‘cause it looks like we’re freaking kidnappers.”
“Sanders! Davenport!” Hugh Clemmons their supervisor bellowed. “Are you going to lollygag all day or are you going to get out and deliver your assignments?”
They both jumped up and turned to look at the man standing in the doorway of his office.
“We’re going,” Wizard assured him. “Just going to get our backpacks now.”
“Yeah, picking them up and heading out the door,” Slick mimicked grabbing the TV remote from a nearby table and turning it off so no one else would see what was being televised.
But instead of going to get their backpacks, the two high tailed it out of the building and grabbed their bikes out of the rack.
“Where do you think we should go? We can’t be seen by anyone. Someone might recognize us and report us to the police,” Slick said.
“I knew Carlton wasn’t on the up and up,” Wizard said, getting on his bike. “I kept trying to tell you something wasn’t right, but you wouldn’t listen. This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”
“It’s too late to be pointing fingers,” Slick said. “We’ve done the job and got paid. We have to live with the consequences.”
“But what are we going to do?” Wizard demanded, his voice rising. “Where are we going to go? We can’t go home; that’s the first place the cops will come calling if they find out who we are.”
“I know,” Slick said, fastening his bike helmet. “We’ll go to our favorite hangout and hide there until dusk when the food trucks come out. Then maybe we can get something to eat without being recognized. By then surely we’ll have a plan in place on what to do.”
“I can’t wait to get my hands on Carlton,” Wizard ground through gritted teeth, kicking off and peddling away from the building. “He didn’t pay us enough to get thrown in jail.”
“What the fluffare you clowns doing?” Hugh Clemmons watched Sanders and Davenport furiously pedaling away without their backpacks. He headed to the receptionist’s area to check in with Cynthia, who always knew what was going on. “Did you speak to Wizard or Slick this morning?”
“No sir,” she said, swiveling around in her chair to face him.
“They didn’t pick up their assignments before leaving?” he said.
“They didn’t,” she confirmed as her phone blasted with the Amber Alert signal.
“What’s going on?” Clemmons asked.
“It’s an Amber Alert notification,” she said. “Another one. I haven’t had a chance to check it out, but this is the third one this hour, which is odd. Normally you get one, but there’s either a glitch in the system, or they really are hard up to find this missing kid.”
“Take the time and let’s see what it’s about. You’ve got me curious now,” he said.
She clicked on the link in her message, and it took her over to the Amber Alert announcement where it flashed the photo of a little boy and then photos of the two men who were last seen with him as men of interest.
“Holy crap. It’s Wizard and Slick!.” She showed him her phone. “They’ve kidnapped a child?”
Clemmons grabbed her phone and replayed the alert. “Write down this number for me. I better call the hotline and report them.”
Cynthia did as he asked and handed him the piece of paper. “I’ve always thought there were kind of weird, but I’d never have suspected them of doing something like that.”
“Neither would I.” Clemmons returned her phone back. “But whatever it is, they’re into it up to their eyeballs.”
He went to his office and called the hotline. After it was clear he had legitimate information, he was immediately transferred to a detective.
