Chapter Five

Homecoming

itsmeocean@hotmail.com

"So, what are we looking for? Why are you carrying so many things?" Tony gestured to the haversack where Frank kept the essential tools. He had splurged on those equipment and was very proud of them. However, he was in no mood to explain their individual usage.

"They may come in handy. I know what I'm doing."

"Of course. I didn't know being a PI can earn such big bucks in such a short time. If I did, I would have switch majors." Tony groused. "As it is, I'm stuck being the personal assistant to the freaking manager of this mall. He's earning big bucks, he's stealing my ideas and I'm not getting my share."

"Sounds like Callie's predicament to me. The two of you can trade sorry plights of the new proletariats with Marx." Frank mumbled. He switched on the lights to Toys'r'us and the magic of the wonderland of toys instantly revealed itself to him. It was a huge store, taking up the entire left wing of the mall at the top two levels. Aisles and aisles of toys and dolls- the stuff kids' dreams were made of-, beckoned him and if he was not on an urgent mission dear to his heart, he would have chase Tony away and bask in the company of all his favorite toys all alone- maybe do some role-playing with the figurines and not care if anyone laughed at his funny stories.

Was it only yesterday that they had been trapped in the mall while Philip Walker was running for mayor in the atrium? They were almost bombed to death but still, they survived. It was more than seven years ago but it felt like yesterday- the kick start to the brothers accepting their dangerous calling in life.

Frank made his way to the spacious event hall inside Toys'r'us itself. Hanging mobiles of various cartoon characters decorated the rounded compound. A small, revolving stage in the middle host the center of attention- Frank had brought Hallie once to Toys'r'us two years ago and she was enchanted by a talented storyteller who wove a spell over all the children who were unusually quiet with her low, velvety voice.

"The event was held here. Hallie ran off and vanished into the crowd but as we can see, the event hall is not so huge that she could not be found quickly. My guess is that she was absconded away from this giant store by someone who knows the mall quite well, or, has done studies to the mall, which is why Vanessa, trapped in the maze of aisles, could not find her."

"Don't look at me! Not me!" Tony raised his hands in surrender. "But I can show you around."

Frank smiled gratefully. I know you can. I got you to open up the mall for me, right?"

"Yah… I want to open up the mall in the middle of the night for Clarissa to shop in."

"And then dump her the day after." Frank joked. "Or be arrested by the police for burglary."

"Hey! I'll be paying for her merchandise and it's serious this time." Tony was indignant. "Never mind. You're right! I'll be a swinging bachelor until I'm forty."

"You can't swing if your arms are laden by babes hanging on to them."

"Right… well… maybe the bachelor part then."

Frank glanced around, stroking his chin. "Tony, Toys'r'us is where the old Lacey was right? At least the top two stories?"

"Yah…" Tony dragged. "What are you getting at? Just tell me what you need me to do, I'm not much stacked in the brains department right now… at… let's see. One in the morning."

"Don't belittle yourself, dear friend. When Lacey occupied the left wing of the mall previously, it was very cut off from the mall, except for that connecting passageway on the third sub-basement that is often utilized by you for your own undercover operations. But when it went bust and these parts of the mall opened up for other stores, many renovations were done, including the demolition of Lacey's exclusive escalators, right? But the separate service steps and exits of Lacey still existed and Toys'r'us should be making full use of them. They are a very direct way out of the mall, without having to leave Toys'r'us to use the main escalators of the mall or the shared service steps."

"Yes… but only Toys'r'us people have the keys to their own doors… not even we, the main management of the mall, have them. But anyway, I know they are rarely used since we blocked the access of the steps to the basement and thus, it only leads to a back alley on the ground level. "

"That narrows down our suspects right?" Frank remarked wryly. "Bring me to the service steps entrance."

Tony shrugged and led Frank through winding aisles of toys. Frank was surprised at the indirect route that Tony had taken. "Isn't there a shorter way?"

"There may be but I'm not  familiar with toy shops you know. Ask me about lingerie, women's clothings etc… I'm not a toys person."

Frank chuckled while he mapped in his mind a blueprint of the area. Very close to the service stairs entrance were a series of interlinked L-shaped shelves. Frank walked over and saw that the L-shaped shelves tucked in that obscure corner displayed toys that had long passed their popularity.

"The crowd's attention was hooked on what went on in the Event Hall. Hallie saw someone who looked like Joe beckoning her, leading her into this part. Then, making sure no one was around, he or she snuck into the safety behind the long side of this L-shaped shelf. Hallie ran passed and was grabbed. Quickly, all the kidnapper had to do was turn around, open up the service stairs entrance and make his escape. Easy as that."

"Sounds… ah… possible." Tony said. "So what do we do?"

"We see if my theory works out." Frank replied. From his bag, he took out a magnifying glass. Scrutinizing the entrance door knob with it, he did not see any faint scratched marks that could indicate the lock was picked. The kidnapper could either be an expert or had a set of keys to the service steps. Keeping the magnifying glass, he took out the fingerprint dusting kit and set to work.

"I don't think many people would have utilized this and in any case, we can always try our luck. The finger prints would have condensed away by now on the metallic surface of the lock but I can try the area on the door surrounding it." Frank was no longer speaking to Tony but to himself- a habit cultivated out of working on cases alone. He used to have Joe to thrash ideas with and when his brother was not present, he only had himself.

"Hmm… partial prints…" Frank commented after he was done. "Almost identical partial prints. Have the kidnapper disfigured his or her own fingers so we cannot identify it? Maybe I can get a full print in future for comparison."

"You're losing me…" Tony had the most uncomfortable look in his eyes. "I'm feeling like a mannequin or something. I'm anxious too for Joe but right now, I am totally redundant."

"Sorry…" Frank straightened himself up after collecting the prints by photographing it with his Nikon F70 fully automatic 35mm camera equipped with a 60mm lens which was able to capture the prints dusted onto photographs under the scale of 1:1. "Too engross in my work."

"You have to be… or you won't be in this sucky line."

"I thought you were envious of the high pay earlier on…"

"Yah. And then I thought of how you could easily lose your life too… running after that madman the way you did."

"It's my job." Frank kept the camera and was now studying the shelves. "My calling."

 "My calling is to be a Casanova. I love my calling although it doesn't pay well; in fact… plenty is spent on dating." Tony jested. Frank chuckled softly but stopped when his eyes caught a smear mark on the side of the L-Shaped shelf. He took a swab sample of it before putting on his gloves and set to work with his own set of lock picks on the service stairs entrance. When he heard the "snick" of success, he pulled his lips into a tight, serious line.

"Do you want to follow?"

"Why not?" Tony shrugged. "I have nothing to do anyway and I don't think you're going to climb back up to fetch me."

"Just don't touch anything." Frank grinned at his friend. "You're receiving lessons from one of the very best."

"Either you're lousy teacher or I'm a terrible student because I don't get what you're mumbling to yourself." Tony sighed in surrender. "I'm following you so you don't get into trouble. Joe will have my head if you're hurt and he finds out that I'm the last person you're near."

Frank thought of Joe's display of rage and wisely shut his mouth. "Here goes." He opened the door and stepped through into the stairs landing on that level. He reached over for the light switches which he saw the outline of beside the door but they were not working. Sighing, he knew he would have to operate in the dark and he was not a lover of the night. Tony slid past the door, keeping his hands close to his chest.

"Not touching anything."

"Good." Frank took out his torchlight to illuminate the darkened area. "The kidnapper cannot delay… he's rushing for time…" Frank shone the torchlight onto the floor and noticed a faint set of shoe prints.

"Hmm… right…" Tony mumbled, not really listening.

"This would almost ascertain that our kidnapper used the service steps. But look at the shoe prints- they are faded and their direction tells us that the man was climbing up towards the store when his shoes were still soiled." Frank passed the torchlight to Tony and motioned at the doorknob. "Shine there please, thanks."

"Ok."

With the orange light illuminating the doorknob, Frank used his magnifying glass again and spotted the faint scratched marks he was looking for on the other side. Satisfied, he kept the magnifying glass and dusted around the knob for prints. Once again, the partial prints showed up and his eyes narrowed at the thought of what they could imply if his deductions were right.

"He used the service steps to get into the store so as to reduce the number of people who would have seen him. Partial prints again, identical to the first set I have dusted for in my eyes. Strange."  He took some pictures of the prints and kept everything back into his bag.

"We shall make our way down."

"Whatever you say."

"You're getting very boring…" Frank drawled.

"So are you." Tony shot back.

"Shine the light on the ground. See how the foot prints are getting clearer and clearer as we go down?"

"So?"

"So we go right down to the exit and we'll find a very noticeable set of prints to take a picture of and identify."

The two friends made their way down in the dark and reached the bottom where the exit door was. Sure enough, near the door was a set of prominent footprints. If Frank had to venture a guess, he would say that the man had stepped into some mud before getting into his car. He didn't notice the mud on his shoes' soles of course or else he would have wiped it off. Because the lights in the service stairs area were out, he would not have noticed the marks he left behind.

Careless, Frank thought to himself. Even if the fingerprints were partial, a print of what looked like to be a strange design of footwear with the manufacturer's logo clearly shown as well could be his downfall. Frank took some pictures of it, noting the brand immediately. Lawry- it's an upscale male shoe brand that sold mainly custom-made dress shoes. He also lifted off the trace particles that made up the prints with a lifting tape.

On his way down, Frank noticed that the doors of other levels leading to the service steps were sealed off. "Say Tony, why are the doors leading to other levels of the malls beside the basement and Toy'r'us locked? No longer in use?"

"Yup. Smaller stores had taken over what's left of Lacey… we kinda… to save trouble and yadda yadda yadda… sealed off the doors to this service steps at the lower levels. Might want to reopen them as fire escape stairs but we already have enough."

"Hmm… good. Makes my job easier." Frank commented. "He must have been heading down to the exit."

"Now you're so sure it's a him."

"If the footprint belongs to the culprit. It's obviously from a man's shoes. The brand, from the print, is Lawry. Lawry makes leather shoes for males only."

"Oh…" Tony shrugged again, not knowing what else to say as if Frank had just sealed the argument with irrefutable proof. He passed the torchlight to Frank, obviously tired out from holding the heavy, handheld power light.

"Unless it's a woman with a penchant for wearing man's shoes." Frank countered himself back.

Tony snapped his fingers. "Of course! I was about to suggest that."

"But you didn't, so I win on all counts."

"Whatever…"

Frank could imagine Tony rolling his eyes and smiled wryly. He opened the exit's door and entered the alleyway behind the mall.

"I love alleyways where people don't really like to go into. He's in a hurry. He has his car parked here." Frank shone the powerful light source onto the ground. "Tread marks. Caused by soil too- the man must have been in a muddy field or even his own garden right before he came.  Hold the torch for me."

As he was kneeling down to take pictures of the tread marks, Tony started humming the song from the Musical Annie.

"The sun'll come out…Tomorrow….Bet your bottom dollar… That tomorrow… There'll be sun…"

Frank turned and gave his friend a weird look. Tony smiled sheepishly. "It's dark and we're in an isolated alleyway. I'm afraid of ghosts."

"So you have to sing about the sun coming out?"

"Yah… but don't tell anyone." Tony shone the light at Frank's face. "Or I'll torture you with this tonight. Are you done?"

Frank stood up and cracked his aching muscles. "More or less. Thanks Tony. It's been real fun. You're very helpful."

"Don't say things you don't mean, Hardy." Tony shone the light into Frank's eyes again. "Now, drive me home!"