Mystery at the Pet Food Corp.

by Eleanor Kittering

  *****

  The guards got to the river. Rufus continued barking up a storm.

  “Hey, I thought you said the animals were going to be trapped by the river.”

  “They should have been. I can't understand where they could be. Somehow they made it across, but how?”

  “I don't know, you're the genius who said these animals were good as trapped by the river.”

  “But I've caught animals like this in the past. I don't know how they jumped over the river. Maybe there's a low spot.”

  The guards went looking downstream looking for a place where it would be easy to cross; meanwhile Rufus continued to go crazy barking, because he knew the animals were getting away.

  Finally, the older guard spoke.

  “Okay, this is my advice. Things are going to get very uncomfortable when the boss finds out all the animals escaped. Nothing pleasant is going to happen to you or to me. So, I say we drop off the rifles, lock up the place, get in our cars, and go far away for a while where they can't find us. This is not going to go well.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Yep, we better disappear for a while.”

  The guards ran back to the animal compound with their new plan of action, leaving it up to the management to decide how they were going to handle this situation.

  *****

  Meanwhile, Colin had led the animals to the highway and they were walking along the shoulder of the road. There he figured motorists could see this parade of animals and eventually somebody would call the authorities and they would come get all these animals. An old couple noticed the animals first.

  “Mabel, why is that lizard on that dog's back?”

  “That's not a lizard, Harry. That's an iguana.”

  “How do you know it's an iguana?”

  “Because I watch National Geographic and they had a show about them recently. If you watched something on television other than the game and the fights, you'd know that was an iguana, Harry.”

  “Mabel, those shows give me a headache. Plus they use all these big words, I'm lost after the first 5 minutes. That's why I fall asleep.”

  “Oh Harry, you're incorrigible.”

  “Yeah, whatever, but you still haven't answered my question.”

  “What's that, Harry?”

  “Why is there a li – I mean an iguana on the back of that dog?”

  “I don't know Harry, I'm not a swami, I don't know everything. If I knew everything, I'd try to focus on winning the lottery, not why some iguana is on the back of a dog. My guess is, he's taking it for a ride.”

  Meanwhile, other people driving by had noticed the animals as well. Some were taking videos, some were calling the police and some were calling the local animal housing groups. Many of the videos would show up on YouTube or Instagram. Others were uploaded to Facebook.

  Colin could see his plan had worked. People were noticing the animals and were commenting about them. Sooner or later somebody in authority would pick up these animals.

  “Come on, Roger, keep walking in this direction, I think you're going to get picked up soon.”

  They walked for about another half mile before Colin could see police in the distance. There were also humane animal control people.

  “Okay, my friends, listen to me. Very soon, some nice people are going to stop for you. These people are going to help you get back home. Cooperate with them. Don't be afraid, they will take you home eventually or your family will see you. They have a communications system where masses of people can see an event. It's called television and your family will see you on there.”

  Up ahead, Colin saw a police car and an animal control truck. The officers were wearing gloves and didn't know what to expect. Colin although invisible to the cops and the animal control people, was clearly visible to the animals. Colin opened the back door of the animal control truck and sent a mental command to the animals “Jump in!”

  They all followed in turn, Roger leading and all the animals right behind him. Soon they were all inside, quiet as church mice, although some of them panting from their recent exertions. The animal control people and the cop started to talk among themselves.

  “Did you see that?”

  “Sure did, the door opened up by itself.”

  “And the animals jumped in. When was the last time you saw that??”

  “Never.” The cop said “Maybe the door was open.”

  “Yeah, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but animals don't just jump into animal control trucks, they usually run away from us. That is strange.”

  “Well, let's count. I'm counting 15 animals including the iguana. That's another thing; you notice how the iguana is sitting on the Rottweiler's back and they're all just sitting there like it's as natural as breathing air.”

  “Yep, that's strange too.”

  Colin tired of all this back and forth. He put the suggestion into the mind of one of them to take a video of all the animals.

  “You know, we better take a video of these animals for identification purposes.”

  They put the lights on in the truck, got as much natural light as possible, and started taking videos of the animals.

  “Ok, let's take inventory. We have a large gray cat, a Rottweiler with an iguana, three poodles, a Chihuahua, four exotic cats, a Dalmatian, a greyhound and a mutt.”

  “Yeah, we can put this up on the internet and the owners can identify their pets. These animals all look very well taken care of, and some even have tags, so it's going to be easy for the owners to identify their pets.”

  As Colin rode in the back of the truck with the animals, he sent out mental commands to everyone who had taken videos of the animals to put them up on the internet. He used his power to influence people so all the animals could find their homes sooner. He petted Roger and said “Everything is going to be all right Roger, you're earning your wings.”

  Chapter Ten

  Mandy and Jill continued to follow Thomas Parks. So far he had taken them through Ohio, Indiana, and now Michigan. He still had a large lead on them, and they were purposely staying behind so he wouldn't know they were tailing him. However, by now they were concerned Canada was his destination, because of his involvement in something illegal and figured he'd have a harder time being extradited than, if he remained in the United States.

  “I don't know, Jill, I feel like we've been following this guy forever. Is he ever going to stop?”

  “It's strange he's going so far in a car, but it's probably because he doesn't want to be tracked. He doesn't want any airline tickets or bus tickets to show where he's going. I'll bet you he's paid for everything with cash, so there's no credit card trail either.”

  “But what could he be hiding? I still say it's possible he killed Carol as well, so she wouldn't take her share of the money, he wanted it all for himself. I really hope that's not true, for her sake, and her body is not in the trunk of the car.”

  “Mandy, I think you're getting a little melodramatic here. He's definitely up to something, but he's not going to kill somebody else right after he killed his wife. He made his wife's murder seem like natural death, if he even killed her.”

  “I know, I'm going a little off kilter here, but I have this feeling something is not right with this Thomas Parks and the whole Stacy Parks' death. Kind of like the same feeling I got about David. There's something off, but I didn't know until the end. I just hope it doesn't blow up in my face, like the last one did.” Mandy said nervously.

  “Well, in our last episode with criminals, we were ignorant of Bernard's violent anger. In this instance, we're not going to confront Thomas Parks or even let him know we're around. When we finally figure out what he's up to and what this is all about, we're going to let Fred handle it. Because, let's face it, I can definitely take pictures and videos of these people, and I'm sure we could both run away if something bad started to happen, but we have no idea how to subdue someone who wants to kill us. So, we're not going to engage or confront. We'll
let the cops handle him.” Jill said.

  “You bet we're not going to try to engage or confront,” Mandy agreed wholeheartedly.

  They kept watching Thomas' car on the tablet. He had reached upper Michigan. Mandy and Jill were still somewhere in the middle of Michigan, heading north. At one point, Thomas Parks' car suddenly stopped.

  “The tracker has stopped moving. We can safely assume he has arrived at his destination.”

  “Yeah, but we're still a good two to three hours away.”

  “Well, all we can do is to keep driving.”

  So, they continued to drive, while Parks registered at the local hotel for the next part of his plan. His partner had reservations at the same hotel, but they took separate rooms to avoid attracting attention. He went to his partner's room and knocked.

  “So, you got your room?” the partner asked.

  “Yep, it's right down the hall. How do you like your room?”

  “Well, it's two steps above a Motel 6, but it'll do; we're not staying here for the décor. We can go to the fancy places later. When do you suppose you'll get the payout?”

  “My guess is either this week or next week. You know how these insurance companies are when they have to actually pay a claim, all of a sudden there's all this red tape. But when they want something out of you, they're breathing down your neck asking for your payment.”

  “Yeah, knowing how they operate, I don't have any pity for them. The way I see it, if you want to rob someone and be guilt-free afterward, rob an insurance company. They're the biggest crooks in the world and have gotten away with murder for years. Serves them right, the way I see it.”

  “You're not going to see me cry any tears for these guys.”

  Meanwhile, Mandy and Jill were going very fast, trying to catch up to where Thomas Parks had stopped, hoping he reached his final destination. They wanted to get up there before nightfall so they could at least scout out the area. According to the map, this part of Michigan is called the Upper Peninsula, rural and sparsely populated, the kind of place where somebody could commit a crime and not get caught. Or bury a body, a possibility Mandy and Jill kept thinking about. Mandy still worried the trunk of Thomas' car held Roger. But she would remind herself it didn't make sense and to stop torturing herself.

  “According to my calculations, we should get there in about a half hour; we'll still have some daylight to check out the area.”

  “I'm so glad. I'm just tired of driving in a strange place and seeing nothing but highway and no place where we can finally make a pit stop.”

  “This is the last place I thought this guy would park, but it makes sense, it's out of the way and very few people know about it. If you're going to do something unlawful, there's less chance of getting caught here.”

  They were both nagged by the question of what the unlawful act was.

  “Well, I'll be glad to finally stop driving!” Mandy said. “We've been driving for about two days straight now. Originally, I thought this centered around Roger, but now this is something else completely. I'm also convinced Carol Stamis is not involved in any of this. She truly seemed concerned when Roger disappeared and I've heard her arguing with Thomas.”

  Jill said, “Stacy kept her company in the public eye, however since Stacy's death, I think the company is going to go downhill. This guy is obviously not interested and even though it seems like Carol Stamis wants it to succeed, maybe it's a family business and she's an outsider.”

  “Another thing is, Carol is a younger woman, whereas Thomas is definitely an older man. He may be tired of working in general, which even I can understand, but he's handling this whole thing in such a devious way, it makes it look suspicious.” Mandy thought out loud.

  “I know. Even though we still have no proof he took Roger, it sure is coincidental he didn't want to do a commercial and then Roger disappears.”

  “That's the first thing that crossed my mind and Carol found strange too. She wanted to make the commercial, and all of a sudden, Roger disappears. I'm sure her number one suspect is Thomas.” Mandy said, remembering her conversation with Carol.

  “Well, at least we know Roger isn't in the car.” Said Jill.

  Mandy and Jill finally reached the spot where Thomas had parked; a small town, and they could see Thomas' car parked in front of the only hotel.

  “Listen, Mandy, I would love to book a room here, but we're going to have to stake out this place and we can't let this guy see us, especially you, because he has already met you. It would be awfully suspicious if you ran into him here. We definitely don't want to engage.”

  “Oh, you're not getting any argument from me. But we have to get something to eat, find someplace where we can use the facilities, and then we're just going to have to hunker down for the night and see when he finally comes out of the hotel.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Mandy and Jill ate at a little diner down the block, used the bathroom, and bought some sandwiches and drinks for later. They stopped at the local pharmacy for necessary toiletries and went back to the car; now being about 9:00 p.m. and dark. They had been watching the hotel from the diner and nobody who looked like Thomas Parks had entered or left the hotel. Now they were settled back in the car.

  “Well, now we know what those detectives in the movies feel like when they're staking out a place.”

  “Yep, it's awfully boring work.”

  “It's hard being a private investigator.”

  “With any luck, this stake-out will be productive.”

  After an hour of watching nobody go in or come out of the hotel and seeing no one on the streets, they decided to quickly check their emails and distract themselves a little with their phones. After only a minute, Jill let out a yelp, scaring Mandy, causing her to jump and hit her head on the on the car roof.

  “What happened? You scared the life out of me!” Mandy said.

  “Look at this news video!” Jill said, very excited.

  It seemed like a Newsy-style video. “And now for the unusual and positive news. Last night, people caught on their phones a video of a parade of animals marching down the New Jersey Turnpike.”

  The commentator cut to a video and showed a cell phone video someone had taken of Roger leading all the other animals.

  “Hey, isn't that Roger, with a group of other animals!”

  “I'm pretty sure it is Roger. Listen to the rest of the story.”

  The commentator continued: “The animals were rounded up by Animal Services and all seemed to have been pets, some have been missing for as long as two years. Some of the animals have been claimed. If you believe one of these animals is your pet, please claim it at Animal Services.”

  “Well, at least that solves one problem. It doesn't solve the mystery of how these animals were abducted, but at least I know somehow Roger escaped and he's safe.” Mandy breathed a sigh of relief as she replayed the video of Roger leading the animals.

  “I don't know, maybe he's a natural-born leader. Let me see if I find more videos of this animal parade, because I find it hard to believe there's only one.” Jill said.

  Sure enough, there were about ten videos online, some very short, some longer, all showing the animals walking along the New Jersey Turnpike.

  “Well, seeing all these animals, My guess is whoever took them was a syndicated business abducting animals. How do you advertise these services? How do you let people know you're in the animal kidnapping business? 'We'll abduct the animal of your choice for a price.' Jill said in a funny voice.

  “Just the sort of thing Thomas Parks would go for.” Mandy said.

  “Well, I'm glad all those animals are safe. I just hope they catch the people behind this.” You can't have all those animals missing from wherever it was without it causing a big fiasco somewhere, because you know this has to be a high-end business.” Jill said.

  “Truly, I can't see anybody sticking their neck out, abducting animals for cheap. And they broke into my house. And yet, they
didn't steal anything. They were just after Roger.”

  “Well, something happened. Maybe a disgruntled employee let all the animals out. Maybe somebody felt sorry for the animals.” Jill said.

  “Well, whoever it freed those animals, I thank them for letting Roger out as well. Now I have a great reason to rush back to Jersey, to get Roger. Coming up here might turn into a big disappointment for us.” Mandy said.

  “That is a reality we may have to face. We came all this way, and we didn't get anything to criminally convict this guy or even get him a slap on the wrist.” Jill said earnestly.

  “I truly hope not. I mean, I'm glad Roger is safe, but I still have a bad feeling about this Thomas Parks guy.” Mandy continued.

  “Things don't always pan out, Mandy. However, I focused the dashcam on the hotel, I brought my DSLR camera and I have my cell phone, so we'll take all the photos we can of him the minute he comes out of the hotel.”

  Mandy and Jill took turns watching the hotel, but the late hour eventually forced both of them to sleep, even though they wanted somebody to be awake at all times. They woke up at around 8AM.

  “Oh, I hope we didn't sleep while this guy left the hotel.” Mandy said.

  “He doesn't strike me as an early riser.” Said Jill.

  “Well, now we're awake, and we have to keep our eyes peeled till we actually see him.” Mandy said hopefully.

  Two more hours passed and finally Thomas Parks left the hotel for a walk with his partner. . . Stacy Parks.

  “Are you seeing what I'm seeing?” Mandy asked.

  “I'm on it. I'll take pictures with my camera.”

  Jill took pictures with the DSLR and then used the zoom lens to take videos as they walked down the street. Mandy took a couple of good pictures showing them from the front. No question about it, it was Stacy Parks.

  “You know what this means, don't you?” she asked Jill.