Chapter 6
Garrett pulled up outside city hall, and he, Daphne and Fred climbed out of the car. Garrett gave the keys to a valet and said, 'Look after her now, she's new.' The valet took the keys as Garrett patted his arm, and he climbed into the car and took it to park.
There were a few photographers outside city hall, not many but enough to cover the story of Captain Williams' retirement party.
They snapped a few photographs of Daphne, Fred, and Garrett before the three went into the building.
There was a woman on the other side of the door with a clipboard and she ticked their names off when they came in. They also saw a few security guards through the building.
They walked through to the main hall, picturing it filled with people, but there weren't that many there.
Sure, everyone from the station was there and a few people who worked for the mayor and the mayor himself, but Fred and Daphne expected there to be more people at the party. Maybe they were early, and more were due to arrive.
After about 30 minutes of them being there, a few more people arrived, but not many.
Daphne recognised a couple of people; some were attorneys who had known the Captain for years and some were former colleagues of theirs.
But two people stood out.
'Look.' Fred said, nodding to a small group of people, Garrett looked over to where he was looking and saw the faces of Bradley and May Townsend, the parents of missing 8-year-old Dylan Townsend.
'Bradley Townsend works for the mayor; I think he's worked here for years.' Garrett explained.
'I'm surprised they came tonight.' Daphne spoke.
Garrett hummed in agreement, 'They probably came for the captain, show their support y'know, I mean he has been working to find their son.'
Fred shrugged, 'Maybe.'
'Blake, Jones, Garrett.'
They turned around and saw the Captain walking towards them with his wife attached to his arm, 'You three look good.'
Garrett smiled and smoothed his tie, 'Thank you, Captain, you're not looking too bad yourself. Mrs Williams, a pleasure as always.' He took the hand of the giggling Mrs Williams and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
'Oh, Steven, you always say the right thing!' Mrs Williams smiled, 'And please, call me Susan.'
'Susan.' Garrett replied, bowing his head.
'Susan my darling, this is Detective Blake and Detective Jones.' Captain Williams introduced them to his wife, 'This is my wife, Susan.'
'Hello, dears.' She smiled.
Daphne and Fred smiled back at her, 'Hello.'
'Gee captain, I'm surprised there aren't more people here.' Garrett spoke.
'Well, I didn't want it to be a big thing, so I only invited a select few people.' Captain Williams explained.
'He doesn't really like all the attention.' Susan Williams smiled.
Fred and Daphne both wondered why the captain agreed to a party if he didn't want the attention, maybe it was the Mayor's idea, and he convinced the captain to go along with it.
'So, is there gonna be dancing later? I'm wearing my dancing shoes.' Garrett said with excitement, Susan Williams laughed but the captain replied with, 'No I don't think so, I hope not anyway. The mayor has the evening planned.'
Daphne only hoped there would be no dancing, she hated dancing; she couldn't dance. She hoped Fred had no intention of dancing tonight either.
'Ahh, that's a shame.' Garrett replied.
There was a sound, they looked around to see a man standing on a platform. He tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention.
'Could every please take your seats, we will be beginning shortly.' He said and climbed down from the platform.
Daphne and Fred were seated with Garrett and three other officers.
Captain Williams and his wife sat at the table at the front with the mayor, his wife and the Williams' predecessor, along with his wife. They were an older couple in their 80's and the former captain had retired over 20-years-ago, and Williams took over the role.
Neither one of the officers at the table had worked with the former captain, but they had heard that he was just as hard-working and committed to a case as Williams.
Once everyone was seated, the mayor climbed onto the platform.
'Good evening everyone and thank you for coming tonight to celebrate the retirement of Captain Harvey Williams.'
Everyone clapped. When the applause settled, the mayor continued his speech.
'I came into office about 10 years ago, by then Harvey Williams had been captain for nearly 20 years and he was doing such a damn good job at keeping the city safe!' The mayor said, there was applause and a few murmurs of agreement.
The mayor continued, 'Tonight we have with us former captain Charles Daniels and his lovely wife Matilda who is looking stunning tonight!'
Another applause.
'Captain Williams didn't want a big party tonight, so unfortunately for those party people, there will be no dancing.'
'Oh, thank god.' Daphne whispered, Fred chuckled, and he put his hand on her thigh. But Garrett looked disappointed.
Some people murmured with disagreement, but the mayor continued, 'That doesn't mean we're not going to have a good time!'
People cheered and applauded.
'Instead of music and dancing, we have a few acts lined up, let's begin with the first act of the evening, comedian Thomas Howard!'
Obviously, some people knew who he was by the volume of the applause and the cheers, but neither Daphne nor Fred had heard of him.
'Who?' Garrett asked, and a couple of the others around the table shrugged, but one of the officers – officer Jacobs – said, 'He's that comedian who makes jokes about stuff in the news.'
He was a scrawny looking man; he wore a blue flowery dress shirt and navy-blue jeans. He looked comfortable as he told his jokes on the platform, but one of the officers around the table commented that they weren't that funny. In fact, it was Garrett who was the only one around the table to find some of the jokes funny. And everyone else at the party.
God knows what Captain Williams and those around his table must have been thinking.
He was only on stage for about 10 minutes, which was more than enough time Daphne thought, and then the mayor introduced the next act, 'Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Magic Man!'
As the mayor stepped down from the platform, a magician climbed up.
Daphne straightened up in her chair and looked at Fred and Garrett. Their faces dropped; this surely could not be a coincidence.
The Magic Man had with him a black duffle bag with purple and orange stars stuck around it. He put it onto the platform and opened it up, pulling out a black hoop with fabric around it. He showed the hoop to his audience before he put it onto the floor.
He picked it up and it was no longer just a black hoop. The audience oohed as a black curtain appeared under the hoop and it was like one of the portable changing rooms people sometimes took to the beach.
'How did he do that?' Garrett whispered to one of the officers.
'Magic.' The officer replied.
'Ah, thanks for that I would never have guessed.' Garrett replied sarcastically.
They continued to watch The Magic Man.
He pulled something else out of his duffle bag; a wand. It was black with white ends. He pointed it at the strange hoop curtain thing but it drooped. People laughed, even some of the officers did too, but Fred, Daphne, and Garrett remained silent as they watched the magician.
He straightened the wand and pointed it again, and it drooped again.
He straightened it for a second time and pointed it again, this time it remained straight. There was some movement of the curtain and a smaller person stepped out from behind it.
Daphne narrowed her eyes as she looked at the person, and she realised it was a child with white powder over his face to give him a mysterious look, and a curly black moustache was drawn above his upper lip.
'Dylan!' A woman screamed. It was a blood-curling scream, like she was in a horror movie or she had just witnessed something awful, 'Dylan!' She screamed again.
It was May Townsend.
She stood up from her table and began to weave through the tables, followed by her husband.
Everyone was gasping and murmuring as they watched the events unfold.
The boy on the platform stood still as he watched the two people rushing towards him, but the Magic Man grabbed him, and he jumped off the platform with his duffle bag slung over his shoulder.
'Dylan!' May Townsend screamed as she watched her son being taken away.
Daphne stood up from the table and began in pursuit of The Magic Man.
'Shit.' Fred exclaimed and he followed her, along with Garrett.
They ran out the doors of the main hall, but The Magic Man didn't turn to the entrance, instead, he ran down the corridor.
'You've gotta be fucking kidding!' Daphne exclaimed as she kicked off her shoes and ran barefoot after The Magic Man and the kidnapped boy.
Fred, Garrett, and now Captain Williams and two other officers behind her.
The little boy didn't scream or cry as he was carried through the halls, he didn't look startled by the events either.
Daphne felt that she might trip over her feet or slip but she didn't and she felt that the ground wasn't slippery so she carried on running after him.
She remembered that neither she nor Fred had brought their guns with them, why would they have needed to? And it was unlikely that the other officers had brought theirs.
What were they going to do? Tackle the man and hope that he just surrenders?
She chased him up a flight of stairs, and another and another, until she was sure that they would soon be reaching the roof of city hall, as they carried on running up the stairs. It looked like that was where he was running to.
The boy still made no sound, but Daphne was close enough to hear him cry out, she could hear the man's footsteps and the footsteps of those behind her, so why wasn't the boy crying.
She was starting to run out of breath and didn't know how much longer she could continue to pursue him; her heart was burning in her chest and she knew she would have to stop soon.
The last flight of stairs brought them to a long, narrow corridor, but he didn't run along the corridor like she expected he would. Instead, he took a sharp left.
Daphne followed and she saw another flight of stairs and thought her legs would give out if she followed him up. But there was no way she was going to stop now, she was so close she almost had him.
A door opened ahead of her and the magician disappeared behind it and it swung shut.
Daphne – when she reached the top of the stairs – pushed open the door and she was on the roof of the building.
He has nowhere to go, she thought.
But as Fred and the others burst through the doorway and out onto the roof, she saw the magician was nowhere to be seen.
'Daphne?' Fred panted.
She looked around the roof for him, but the only people who were there was herself and her colleagues.
They all looked over the sides of the building, but there was no sign that he jumped off. And there was nothing on the roof that he could hide in or behind.
'Where did he go?' Garrett panted, leaning against the wall to catch his breath, Captain Williams beside him.
'I followed him up here.' Daphne replied, her heart was racing, and her hands shook, 'He came up here, I know he did!' She exclaimed angrily.
'Well, where could he gave gone?' Officer Henderson asked, looking around the roof.
'D'ya think he vanished, like a magic trick?' Officer Jacobs asked.
Daphne's legs shook and she sat on the ground to catch her breath, 'You almost had him Daph.' Fred said as he put his hand on her shoulder, kneeling at her side.
Daphne looked up at Officer Jacobs and thought about what he just said. Could have really disappeared just like that?