Seein' as we were no longer needed, Eddie and I left the police station and headed out to a diner for some breakfast. All he had on his mind was what those poor cops went through, still pretty shaken by it all. "Man, oh man, those are my brothers", he said. "Yeah, well," I said as I fastened my seat belt in the car, "you took care of them. They'll be all right, they're a tough bunch of guys". "I hope you're right." We pulled up to the diner and noticed it seemed empty. "All right", Eddie laughed, "no waiting list". Instead, as we were to discover to our horror, the whole place was under seige, more moaning, more hostages tied to the table legs with those damn plastic cuffs. We saw patrons cuffed to the so-called legs of the counter stools. Anything you can wrap your hands around to be cuffed to, they did it, even the coat racks. "Holy Jesus, it's gotta be a crime spree", shouted Eddie. "My God, what the hell is goin' on here?", I said. Again, Eddie took off and got the wire cutters. Thank God no one was injured this time, just held up and scared. Of course, all the money in the register was gone. As I went about askin' anyone anything, Eddie returned and was untying everyone. I looked around and saw that the security camera was still intact. "Hey, the camera, they do anything to it?" A waitress says to me, "no, I don't think they even noticed it." Pretty hard to - nuthin' but a little box protrudin' from the ceilin' - at first glance, it coulda been anything, but these are MY peepers we're talkin' about here, boys and girls. "Can I get the tapes?" Now we'll find out who the heck's been doing this - get 'em in the clink for this and really mow them sons-a-bitches down for the cop house.
One of the hostages, crying, thanking Eddie for setting her free, said, "oh, you're such a good boy", and he sheepishly blushed.
(I got a little jealous of that, I'm supposed to be sayin' that to him, but ya can't blame anyone for taking to him. A good-lookin' kid who does good.)
After his face returned to its normal color, Eddie remarked that we saw the exact same thing over at the police station down the road. "Just within the past half-hour". "Oh, did you set them free, too?" "Yeah, we sure did". The lady smiles, "oh, lucky them to have you as a savior". "Aw, it wasn't nothin' big - I'm just glad we were at the right place at the right time." She smiled at me and said, "you must be so proud of your son". "Oh, I am", I chuckle, "I am indeed".
After a bit of a wait, given time to undo all of them bonds, one of the waitresses gave me whatever tapes were recorded during the hold-up. The diner owner was so appreciative of our actions, he offered us each a meal on the house, but I thought we oughta take a rain check, seein' as there was a lot goin' on today - both here and the police station. As we took off, the patrons and the staff broke into applause. I just stood by and grinned while Eddie saluted them, and we were on our way.
Back in the car, we sped back to my office. It's usually a good place to think about what just happened, to put it all together. Besides, if we went back to our place, we wouldn't be able to concentrate, and I don't mean it's because of the t.v.
Anyways, we get back to the office and were talkin' about the morning and then it dawned on me that we hadn't even had the time to talk about this hit-man thing we were really getting paid for. "Boy, how was this for coincidence? Two things like this almost at the same time". Eddie seemed suspicious, "I don't know, Boss-Man, it seems awful fishy. Both of these hold-ups happened just before we got to where we were goin'. It seems kinda eerie", he chuckled nervously, "like these thugs know where we're gonna turn up all the time." He was sittin' on the desk, leanin' over in my direction. His hand held onto the edge to support his weight, so's he didn't fall right over. For some reason, he moved his hand just a little over to the side, and felt something funny. He looks down and notices some sort of thing under the desk. "What is it, a wad of gum or somethin'?" Eddie became agitated, "no way, Boss-man, it's a bug!" I leap outta my chair, "you're shittin' me!" "I wish I was, man!" Suddenly, I thought about the car, wonderin' what was out there. "Let's check it out" and went outside. We searched the vehicle high and low and didn't seem to find anything until Eddie noticed a wad of gum stuck to the tail pipe. "What kind of slob would put a wad of gum on someone else's car? I mean..." I cut him off, "that's not gum, boy". I pried it off and inspected it. I saw a condensor microphone inside. "It's another bug. Someone out there's been hearin' everything we say." Eddie shuddered at the thought. He crossed his arms and was holding them, like he caught a sudden chill. "those crimes were definitely no coincidence. Someone out there did hear our every move and set it up so we'd be stuck there undoing their traps, while they were out doing God knows what. It's gotta be someone connected with this contract case." "Good thinking, but who could've......." I stopped dead in my tracks. I also shuddered at this thought. "I'm wonderin' if this dame was a ruse." "What makes you say that?" She's the only one, other than you, that's been in my office in weeks. Maybe she's not in danger at all, maybe it's us she's putting in danger. For some reason, she's trying to lure us into a trap, but I can't think of why." "Maybe it's a vengeance thing, someone she hooked up with trying to get back at you or something." Then Eddie started to grit his teeth, holding one hand in a fist while he was pointing with the other, "this is a typical female trait - oldest one in the book." I concurred, "I 'm afraid you're right. She came into the office scared, cryin', tryin' to hold onto me to protect her. I do remember takin' my eyes off her for just a second or two. She must've slipped the bug under the desk when I wasn't lookin'." "Did she give you a number to call, in case you needed to contact her?" "Yeah, but there's no way I'm gonna call it directly. I'm gonna have this number checked out. Then run these bugs for fingerprints." "That slip of paper with her number on it" "Good thinking, I'll check that out too." In my excitement, I grabbed Eddie by the upper arms, he reciprocated by taking mine. "If this is all what we think it is, me and you are gonna bust this bimbo if it's the last thing we do." Eddie and I looked into each other's eyes and started makin' out like mad. We were mad, but determined. Adrenaline and testosterone overflowin' like a backed up john. We were on the case. No longer stymied. You can't keep good guys like us down. As long as we're with each other, we're always up.