Time: 7:00 (Pacific Time)
Place: Police Station
(With apologies to Chris Carter)
Sergeant Joe Waters was filling out some routine paperwork on his last case (something involving a strange siting of a vicious animal) when the phone on his desk rang. He ignored it the first few rings, expecting his partner to answer it.
Ring.
"You gonna get that?" he asked. But his partner was nowhere to be seen.
Ring.
Waters sighed and picked up the phone. Probably a cat stuck up a tree, he thought to himself. Or one of his superiors calling him down for one reason or another.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Hello, Police?" the voice asked. It was whispered, and Waters sensed worry. Immediately he was alert. Maybe this was a good case after all.
"Yes," he replied, eagerly. "Sergeant Waters here."
"Ok. Um, I'm calling to report a, um, a hostage situation."
That perked up Waters' interest. "A hostage situation?" he asked, trying to stay calm.
"Um, yeah."
"Ok, where are you?"
"Corner of Maple and Vine."
"Maple and Vine?" Waters scribbled on his pad. "That's a burger joint, ain't it?"
"Um, yeah, Burger Heaven," the voice replied.
"Ok, sir, what's your name?"
"Peter Tork."
"Ok, and the hostage situation is inside the Burger Heaven?"
"Yes, that's right. I was across the parking lot with my son and I heard a gun go off. So I got as close as I could without letting him see me and called you. My- my wife's in there. With my daughter. "
"Ok, sir, I'm sending some people over there right away. Can you stay on the line a minute more?"
"Um, yeah, I think."
"Ok, just hold on one second." Waters put the guy on hold and shouted for his partner. Then he dialed his superior, Lieutenant Pierce.
Time: 7:20 p.m. (PT)
Place: Burger Heaven (corner of Maple and Vine)
Waters pulled his squad car up to the parking lot of the Burger Heaven. Five or six other cars with flashing blue and red lights already filled the parking lot, and a cluster of younger cops was standing around.
"Joe! What took you so long to get here?"
Waters turned to see his partner, Lucy Nelson, calling to him. She was standing next to an unidentified civilian whom he assumed was the caller.
"Sorry," he said. "Got caught up in traffic."
"Well, no matter." She turned to the man on her left. "Joe, this is Peter Tork, the guy who called this in."
Joe nodded to him. "Do we know what's going on in there?"
Peter spoke up. "As far as I could see there was a young guy; about seventeen or so, and he had a gun. I was over there," he pointed to the other side of the lot, "getting my wallet out of the car with Thomas and we heard a gun go off."
Joe nodded again. Lucy was taking diligent notes in her pad. "Who's Thomas?" he asked.
"My son. He's around here somewhere," Peter answered. "Tom?" he called.
A dark haired boy of about eight appeared next to Peter. "Yeah?"
"Nothing. Just wondering where you were. Don't get lost, ok?"
Thomas grinned. "I wouldn't do that," he said, laughing it off. "I was looking."
Joe looked down at the boy. "Hi Tom," he said. "I'm Joe. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Thomas," he replied.
"Huh?"
"He hates when anyone calls him Tom," his father explained.
"Oh. Sorry. Thomas. Do you mind?"
Thomas looked at him for a moment, as if he were considering something. He looked up at his father and then back at Joe and shrugged.
"His name's Dave," Thomas replied simply.
Waters was visibly confused for a moment. "Who?" he asked. "The guy," Thomas said, impatiently. "With the gun. I suppose you want to know about the hostages, too. " In response to Water's strange looks, he merely replied. "I watch a lot of cop shows."
Waters looked at his partner for a moment, and saw that the bewildered expression on her face equaled his. But before he could say anything, Thomas continued.
"Well, there's my mom, of course," he began. "And my little sister, Joanne. And two old people. They're with their granddaughter. She's about seven, I think. And then there's Bill. He's about 40 or something like that, and he's a truck driver. And those two weird guys from the mini bus. And three other employees. But the important one is the fat guy."
Waters managed to regain his voice for a moment. "Who are all those people?" he asked.
Thomas rolled his eyes and sighed. "The hostages. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"
Waters sneaked a glance at Thomas's father. The expression on that man's face was pure amusement.
"Where'd you find out all that stuff?" Thomas shrugged.
"I just know. Ask Davy."
"Who's Davy?" Thomas just shrugged.
"Can I go now?" he asked. "I wasn't done looking."
"Sure," his father interrupted. Thomas ran off. Waters looked at Peter for a few moments.
"Mind telling me what that was all about?" he asked.
Peter smiled. "I guess I should have warned you. Or him."
"Yeah, you should have."
"What was he talking about?" Lucy interrupted.
"Just what he said he was. The hostages in the building."
"But...how?"
He chuckled. "Thomas is a whole different story. He gets that from...well, I'm not sure where, but some where back on his dad's side of the family. Or his mom's . Who knows. But he got it, and he's pretty darn good at it."
"Whoa," Waters interrupted. "Slow down and start at the beginning."
"Oh, didn't you guess? He's telepathic."
Waters looked at his partner and one thought flashed through both their minds. 'Oh boy.'
7:50 PM
(still at the parking lot of the Burger Heaven)
It was a half an hour later, and Waters had finally managed to piece together the Torks' story. It seemed semi-believable, but there was no way to prove it one way or another for a while. He decided to concentrate on the matter at hand for the moment.
They'd managed to locate the number of the Burger Heaven, but so far their calls had gone unanswered. They'd called a total of about four or five times, and finally decided to just go with the old fashioned approach.
Lucy came running up to him. "Here you go, Joe," she said, handing him the megaphone. He took the megaphone and nodded.
"What'd he say the kid's name was?" he asked.
"Dave," Lucy said. "But Joe, we can't be sure the kid was right."
"We can't be sure he's wrong, either," Joe pointed out.
"True," she admitted. Joe took the megaphone and held it up to his mouth.
"OK DAVE, WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE. THIS IS THE POLICE," he shouted. "Man, I feel like I'm in a bad cop movie," he commented to his partner.
"GO AWAY!" a voice yelled from the inside.
"SORRY DAVE, BUT WE CAN'T. WE KNOW YOU'VE GOT HOSTAGES. WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, AND WE'LL TALK? THEY DON'T NEED TO GET HURT."
"NO!" the voice yelled again.
"HEY JOE!" someone across the lot yelled. "WE GOT 'EM ON THE LINE!" Joe ran across the lot to answer it.
"THANKS!" he yelled. "I mean thanks. Sorry, Bill," he added. He picked up the phone.
"Hello?" he asked. Lucy stood next to him, watching.
"How'd you know my name?" a shaky, young voice asked on the other end.
"You mean we were right?" he asked. He looked at Lucy and raised his eyebrows. "Lucky guess," he added, shrugging.
"Listen Dave, what's goin' on in there?" he asked, getting down to business. "I know you've got hostages. Now what's the matter? What on earth possessed you to do something like this?"
"I ain't in the mood for a lecture," Dave snapped.
"And I'm not lecturing," Joe said. He shifted the phone so that it rested on his shoulder, leaving his hands free to take the papers his partner was giving him. "I just want to know what's going on here."
"I'll tell you what's going on here," Dave replied. "I've got twelve hostages in here; two of 'em are kids; and I guarantee at least one of them will get hurt if you don't get me a safe way out of here in an hour." He slammed down the phone.
Joe sighed and hung up the phone.
"Well, what does he want?" Lucy asked.
"A safe way out," Joe said. "Can't figure out what on earth possessed him to take hostages though. "
"Thomas?"
He could see them all, sitting there. They were scared. And tired. And a little hungry. But he wasn't really focusing on the people.
"Thomas?"
There was just one. The guy with the gun. His name was Dave; he'd figured that out. And he was pretty sure the way to get his mother home safe was through him.
"Thomas, where are you?"
Dave. The name reminded Thomas of someone else. Davy, who'd taught him how to do this. But Davy would never do something like Dave was doing. Amazing, Thomas thought, how two people with the same name could be so different. But then, he remembered, his father was quite different from his own double who had looked exactly alike.
"Thomas?" Peter called again. "I hope you're not too close to the burger place." He walked through the crowds of people, searching for some sign of the boy. It shouldn't have been too difficult to spot a kid among all of these policemen, but so far he didn't see Thomas anywhere.
"Here I am, Dad." Peter turned around and looked down to see Thomas standing there.
"Where were you?" Peter asked. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, disappearing on me and then popping up again like that."
"Sorry," Thomas apologized. "I was searching. "
"I know, I figured. Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I know what I'm doing, Dad," Thomas said, rolling his eyes. Peter sighed.
"Yeah, I know. But I'm worried about your mom and your sister already. I don't need to worry about you, too."
"There's nothing to worry about. Mom and Joanne are fine, and so am I. " Peter sighed again.
"C'mon, we have to get back," he said.
"Back where?"
"I don't know, to where all the police are."
"Dad, there's police all over the place."
"Good point." Peter pondered this for a moment. "Well, let's go sit somewhere."
"Ok, whatever."
