Despite never playing together before, the eight of them sounded pretty well.
The Monkees kept looking around the audience, trying to see if there was anyone they knew in the crowd. No such luck, they were a day and a half's journey from their hometown; they knew no one and no one knew them. Mike guessed, judging by the direction of the sun as they were traveling, that they were someplace north of where they started out, but that did them little good.
Finally, there set was over and everybody took a bow. The Monkees didn't bow as deep as the gypsies since their backs were still sore from the hot poker and the whip. Tanya picked up the money thrown onto the stage and the nine of them ran off. In the performers' area, Marco looked with approval on the Monkees.
"Very good boys, very good!" He said. "Now, you and you." Marco said, pointing at Mike and Micky, "Will change clothes and...mingle among the people, eh?"
Mike and Micky looked at each other. Finally Mike spoke up.
"Please, don't make us do this." He said, looking at the ground. "We just can't…steal from people."
"You can and you will." Zeppo told him, "Remember what our Mama told you the first time; `we are all thieves at heart'. Besides, you don't want to know what we'd do to your friends, now would you?"
"And don't think by letting yourselves be caught will help." Rocco said, "You might get us sent back to jail, but they die." He pointed at Peter and Davy.
Kiko shoved Mike and Micky away. "GO!" He ordered, "Come back to our trailer in an hour, and you better have something for us!"
Mike and Micky walked away from the group and went back into the
trailer to change. They didn't want to be pickpockets, but with
Peter and Davy's lives on the line, they had no choice.
Early the next morning at police headquarters, Saturday walked over
to the office of his partner, detective Friday. Not surprisingly,
Friday was already in his office. Unlike Saturday, Friday was a
bachelor, so it seemed like the detective lived in his cramped
office. Friday was writing something down on a piece of paper as
Saturday knocked on the doorframe.
"C'mon in, Sam." Friday said, not looking up.
Saturday walked into the office and sat down on the chair in front of Friday's desk. After another minute, Friday looked up at his partner.
"I can tell by the look on your face the lab came up with nothing." He stated.
"Absolutely nothing." Saturday said with a sigh. "Nothing funny happened, at least at their home. Anything with Mrs. Dolenz?"
Now it was Friday's turn to sigh. "I just got off the phone with her. She told me her son would always tell her if he and his friends were going on a trip somewhere. But she did give me the numbers of Nesmith's Aunt Kate and Tork's parents."
Saturday nodded. "They might have a clue." He said, but down deep he doubted it highly. "But what's the next step?"
Friday looked thoughtful for a moment. He picked up the photo of
the missing men he took from their home. "I think we need to talk
with those two boys who found Nesmith's car. They might know more."
Ed and Frank Session sat nervously next to each other on the couch
of their parents' home. They had already been grounded for the next
three months with no TV for stealing the car, plus whatever
punishment the judge would give them later. So why was this
detective so interested in them?
Friday and Saturday sat on the couch across from the two boys, while the boys' mother and father hovered behind the detectives, a mixture of worry and anger on their faces. Friday opened up his notebook, and as usual, got to the point right away.
"The reason we're here is to ask you two some more questions about what went on the day you `borrowed' Mr. Nesmith's car." He said, looking them in the eye.
"We were gonna return it." Frank said quickly.
"That's not the point, son." Friday told him, "You'll talk to the judge about that. What we want to know is how you two found the car, what condition it was in and where did you find the keys?"
So Ed and Frank told the detective how they had come across the Monkeemobile sitting by itself in a secluded area of the parking lot of the old high school grounds.
"It was there, all by itself." Frank said, "But it was locked, so we kept looking around the area."
"Were you looking for anything in particular?" Saturday asked.
"No, not really." Ed replied, "Frank found a green wool hat, I found a couple of quarters…"
"Wait, you said Frank found a green wool hat?" Friday interrupted.
"Yeah, I did just before Ed found the car keys, why?" Frank asked, puzzled.
Friday pulled the photo of the Monkees out of his pocket and looked at it. Just as he thought; Nesmith was wearing a green wool hat. He looked at Frank.
"Do you still have that wool hat?"
"Yes sir." Frank said, "You wanna look at it?"
"Yes I would." Friday replied.
Frank got up and ran upstairs to his room. He returned a few seconds later with the hat and gave it to the detective. Friday compared the hat with the one in the photo. They matched perfectly.
"It's just a hat." Frank said, starting to get scared. "I found it on the ground, honest. A few feet away, I found the car keys."
"Who are those men in the photo, detective?" Mister Session asked Friday as he looked over his shoulder.
"This wool hat matches the wool hat this man is wearing in the photo." Friday replied. "This man is also the owner of the car your sons `borrowed'.
"Well, give it back to him." Frank replied.
"I'd like to, but he and his friends are missing." Friday answered.
Ed and Frank jumped up in shock.
"We had nothing to do with anybody being missin'!" Ed yelled, "We just found the car and wanted to see what it could do!"
"Settle down, boys." Saturday said quietly. "You two are not under suspicion about the owner and his friends disappearing."
"Is that really why you're here?" Mrs. Session asked, fear coming into her voice. "Because Ed and Frank stole the car of a man who is missing?"
"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Session." Friday told her. "No one has heard from them in days."
"We had nothing to do with that!" Frank said.
"We know boys." Friday told them, "But I'll tell you this; in a way it's good that you two found the car, not drive it down the freeway, but found it, because we would never had known these men were gone."
Ed and Frank looked just a little relieved at that. Friday put the hat in a bag.
"I'm going to have to keep this." He told the boys. "And give it back to its owner when we find him and his friends."
"I hope you do, detective." Ed said.
"Me too." His brother agreed. "Are you done now?"
"Yes, I think we've got all the answers we can from this angle." Friday said, getting up. "Thank you both for your co-operation."
"You two go up to your rooms now." Their dad said sternly.
Ed and Frank quickly went upstairs, glad to get away. Friday and Saturday looked at the Sessions.
"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Session for letting us talk to your sons." Saturday said.
"You're welcome, gentlemen." Mr. Session replied, "Let us know if you need anything else."
"I hope you find those men." His wife added, then said quietly, "I know our boys did wrong for taking that car, but they are not bad kids….and they did help bring a possible crime to light…"
"I can talk to the District Attorney about your son's case, Mrs. Session." Friday said, "If it's a first offense for them, I'm sure they won't be punished too hard."
"Thanks again, detective." Mr. Session replied.
Friday and Saturday got into their car and drove off. Saturday looked over at his partner.
"What now, Joe?" He asked.
Friday fingered the bag that held Mike's hat.
"Next we go visit Mrs. Dolenz."