Chapter 55: Sting Like a Bee Pt. 1

Mick grins at Beth as they sit in the Benz in a parking lot several miles from Anthony's home. Pulling out his phone he dialed Anthony and set things rolling. They had spent the last few hours getting everything set up and finalized. David was playing a key part and given everything on his mind he was keeping his thoughts on the plan at hand.

"Have you found them?" Anthony asked as he answered recognizing Mick's number.

"We have new information. Some leads have turned up she has been spotted in your area." Mick pauses to let it sink in. "One of our contacts was approached by her. She is asking people to check out the area and look for homes that have exterior security cameras. She seems to be looking for something."

The line is dead for a beat longer than natural and Mick knows he has him. "Our contact overheard a teenager telling her that one house on your street one she was extremely interested in with planters did have cameras. We just got this information but so did Robin. Beth and I are going to head that way to see what footage she could possibly be looking for and to keep an eye out for her in case she shows up in person."

"That's…she's here?"

Mick winks at Beth as he continues, "She hasn't gone into the area herself. Our contact stated she has been using other people, paying youths cash to check things out for her. She seems to be smart enough to keep herself hidden."

Anthony is silent yet again. Mick can hear him suck in a breath before asking, "What about Caden?"

Beth raised her brow giving the man credit for at least seeming concerned for his boy now. In the previous conversations his concern was always about Robin and not his sons safety. "From what our sources have not seen him with her but we believe she would want to keep him away from this search she is conducting. Do you have any idea what she could be looking for?"

"No." He answered to quickly. "I have no idea but this means you can find her right?"

"We believe so. We have a plan in place and hope to have everything resolved quickly."

"Good. Let me know when you have more," he quickly finished and rushed off the phone.

"Sounds like he wants to rush over and find out what footage she's looking for." Beth smirked.

Mick clicked on his ear piece and spoke for David, "We just made the call. He should be by there soon."

David chuckled, "I'll let the Ankins know. They seem excited for this."

Mick couldn't help but grin at that. He and Beth had spoken to the elderly couple the previous day. They had been away on vacation visiting the kids and grandkids for the last month and had just gotten back in town. After further talks they had been on a cruise during at the time the planter would have been hit and replaced. They had no security cameras at their home but they did have a security service and were more than happy to take part in their plan.

Beth had said they were young at heart and wanted the excitement. That and once they explained the situation Mrs. Ankins was more than happy to help having seen Robin and Caden around the neighborhood before. They seemed more than happy to let them use their home and play along and that was more than they could ask for. Though Mick couldn't help but think that David was probably having his ear talked off by the couple while they waited.

With his phone he dialed the detail with Robin to ensure they were in place and ready for his mark. Robin was nervous and a slight wild card in the plan but they had to trust she could pull this off. Knowing everyone was in place he leaned a bit closer to Beth to check out her tablet she had up streaming the real cameras they had set up to pick up the scene they were about to initiate as well as the fake ones. After only a few minutes their client came walking up the sidewalk with determination and purpose.

"He's coming up the driveway now," Mick tapped his ear piece again. Beth unmuted the volume of the interior camera where David was sitting with the Ankins.

"Okay that was them. He should be at the door…"Someone started to knock. "That would be him. Are you both ready for this?"

"Son we may be old but we are capable of following directions."

David grinned and slipped out of the room and went into the kitchen to wait and be called in. Mrs. Ankins answered the door with a smile, "Hello, how can I help you young man?"

"Hi ma'am. My name is Anthony Singleton. I live up the road a ways. I don't mean to intrude but I was hopping I could come in and ask you a few questions about your security cameras."

She didn't budge from the door as Mr. Ankins called out to her, "Dori who's at the door?"

"Some man says he lives down the street has questions about our cameras," she called back.

Mr. Ankins joined his wife at the door. "What do you want with our cameras?"

"My ex-wife took our son and disappeared. I am working with the police and private investigators to locate them and bring my boy home safely."

"Oh no that's awful," Dori played. "Of course you can come in. How can we help?"

She opened the door for him to enter and they moved to a new camera view in the living room. "My P.I.'s mentioned checking the area to see if anyone has cameras outside and seeing if there may be a lead somewhere in the footage. It's a reach but I wanted to help and said I would check my street. Is there any chance I could look at your footage?"

"I don't know the first thing about the cameras. Our son helps with all of that. You came at a good time he's here visiting now. I think he went to make a snack," Mr. Ankins added.

"David, sweetheart, could you come here please?" Dori called after him.

After a moment David came around the corner and looked at Anthony. "Hey mom, do you need anything?"

"He always takes such good care of us," she beamed. "David this man needs our help. It's very important. He needs to look at the cameras can you show him how?"

"If I knew how I would." David replied. "The playback feature seems to be messed up. I'm trying to fix that now but I'm not having much luck."

Anthony looks at Mr. and Mrs. Ankins again, "We are so long without any leads I was hoping this could be it."

Dori looked over at David with sad eyes, "Please David. Is there anything you can do for this poor man?"

"What date are you looking for? I'm able to look at stuff if I burn the files to a disk and play them on a different computer but I lost some of the older stuff trying to fix this problem."

Anthony looks much happier. He gives the dates for when the accident occurred adding another day, probably to cover the repair work. "Give me a few minutes to see if I have those dates."

David disappeared back down the hall and left Anthony with the older couple to talk with him. They started on him talking about where they had been bantering back and forth playing up their age and memory problems as if they didn't remember when they took which trip. Beth, Mick, and even David who could hear down the hall were rather entertained. "They are a hoot," David relayed to Mick and Beth who agreed.

"Is Robin ready?" He checked before moving forward.

Mick checked in on his phone. "She's in place."

"Then here I come." After enough time had passed to have pulled up the file and made a fake CD David returned with the CD in a clear disk.

"You're lucky that footage is set to erase in just a few days. I burned it on here," he held up the CD. "My laptop is in the kitchen let me just grab it and we can watch it."

"That's okay I'd rather just have the disk." David looked him over.

Anthony looked deflated. "I don't know if I'm ready to look at it myself in case I see something. Or worse, I don't. I'd rather just take it to the authorities. That way they can have experts go through it."

David nodded and handed over the CD. "I hope this helps."

"Thank you again." He turned to the home owners, "Thank you for your help. I'll get this to them ASAP."

"Of course dear. Please if you need anything else just let us know. We'll be praying for you." She looked to David, "Be a dear and show him out please."

David guided Anthony towards the door. Good luck. I'm glad you came by when you did. That section of video files is close to being erased and if I keep playing with it then it might be by accident. Maybe I should make another copy in case."

"I'm glad I caught you but I don't think another copy will be necessary if the authorities need another one they have this to make copies from."

"That's true," David conceded seeming pacified. "Good luck man, I should get back to it."

Anthony walked out the open door and waved looking over his shoulder. He begins to walk down the driveway looking at the CD in his hands when a startled gasp draws his attention upwards. He freezes in place when he sees Robin standing between the planters at the base of the driveway her hand on the one he replaced.

"Robin," he starts locking eyes with her.

To Be Continued…

Evilous

Thank you all so much for sticking with me. It truly means the world that you are still with me even through my less than regular posting schedule. I went to UtopYA mid June and had such an amazing time but the whole before was crazy and after trying to readjust to life/work kind of sucked and then just the day before yesterday a very dear friend of the family passed away after a week in the ICU so there has been a lot going on. Not that this is an excuse being as I was already way behind in updating as is. All I can say is again thank you so much and no matter what please know I am NOT giving up my story or my Moonlight family!

I learned some things at my Con and recent events and that is that I need to become better organized in time management if I wish to accomplish half the things I wish to do. That includes time to write both my original short stories, my current book I'm working on and want to actually finish, and of course my fanfic! Thank you again and I hope you enjoyed.