A/N: I just want to apologize for taking so long to post this story. I've been extremely busy now that schools started. I will continue to write these stories, it will just take me longer to get them up. Please don't get agitated with me and bare with me here please. Vicki and Teazer I just wanted to say that I'm having a TON of trouble with my e-mail and it's going to be awhile before I can e-mail you. Anyway, I hope that chapter 16 does not bore everyone to death. Here we go.....
Chapter 16
Fillmore and Roberts stood over Tony questioning him. The three of them had been in here nearly four hours and they hadn't gotten anywhere. It seemed Clementina wasn't going to confess to the crime, although they'd caught him red handed.
The microphone sat on the table in front of him and had been recording for the past four hours. Yeah, that tape was going to be interesting, not.
"Clementina just admit to the crime because we know you did it," Roberts said. Now Fillmore and Roberts were positive he'd done the crime.
They were very tried after running around school looking for this criminal all day. Roberts and Fillmore really wanted to go home. It was getting late and the last bell had run nearly two hours ago. The sun was setting and it was getting darker.
If they didn't get out of here and get home soon, their parents might start to worry. Although the cases at school were very important, family always came first.
Clementina growls again and mutters something under his breath.
"Come on man, quit stalling," Fillmore said sounding very annoyed.
Tony was the only thing keeping them from going home. "All you need to say is that you did it. Then we all can get out of here," Roberts said.
"I didn't do it," He bellowed. He was sick and tired of all the questioning. He wasn't getting blamed for a crime he had absolutely no part in.
"We caught you red handed!?" Fillmore said.
"Those cheerleader uniforms are from X middle school, not from our school. I swear it!" He blurted out.
This made Fillmore and Roberts exchange glances. "So X middle school and our school have the same school colors all of a sudden?" Fillmore sarcastically asked. He'd gone to X and he knew what the school colors were. This story couldn't be true!
Clementina nodded.
Fillmore rolled his eyes. Tony must think they were stupid. "Hey Fillmore! Roberts! I found something interesting," Tehama said entering with a file in her hand. She walked up to the table and threw the file down in front of Clementina.
"What is it?" Roberts asked.
"Tony's telling the truth! We have the proof! The uniforms are from X middle School," She said.
A smile spread across Clementina's face when Tehama said that. Now who was jumping to conclusions? This case seemed to remind him of the last time he was blamed for something. The first thing that came to his mind was the time when all the books in the library were stolen and he was blamed for it.
He was glad that this time there was evidence earlier in the case. It would make this whole thing a lot easier on all of them.
"Hmm" Roberts asked when he and Fillmore heard the news. That meant they'd been wrong about Tony.
"Principal Folsom explained that X's school colors were changed. However she wasn't the one that changed them, the school board did," Tehama replied.
She paused just long enough to get a glance at their expressions and then continued on. "She also said that his sister is a cheerleader. This file is Clementina's little sister's," Tehama continues but pauses once again.
Fillmore and Roberts skim through the paper Tehama hands them. They find that the paper explained Tony's sister.
"Anything else," Fillmore asked curiously.
Tehama nodded, their was still a lot of other things she thought they needed to know however. "I brought his sister in, just to make sure," Tehama said turning towards the door.
Tony's sister walked in the door, a frown across her face and had her arms crossed. She didn't look very delighted to be here right now.
"Why was I called here," She asked. She stared at her older brother. She really didn't enjoy being here, especially since she had absolutely no idea what was going on. She had a feeling that the reason she was here, had something to do with her older brother.
"Tina! Tell them what I was doing with your uniforms," Tony begged.
She sighs and walks over to her brother's side. It looked like she would have to defend her older brother again. This wasn't the first time she had come to her brother's rescue. Four months ago she saved him from the principal.
He'd been blamed for the graffiti all over the school. Everyone thought he did it because he was the last one seen in the area. The Safety Patrol gathered evidence and investigated Tony about the crime. Afterwards they believed he did it.
Then she was called in and proved that her brother was innocent. Everyone found out in the end that Tony was framed for the crime.
"Look those are my cheerleading squads uniforms and my brother, Tony, was only washing them for us. So quit harassing my brother already," she yelled. There was a very long silence. It seemed like no one had anything to say at the moment.
"Why do you Safety Patrollers always suspect my brother when any crimes happen at school? I mean I know he has committed crimes in the past, but now that he's in High School he's clean! I swear he is! He's changed I tell you," Tina said.
All the Safety Patrol could say was they hadn't found Tony dirty in the last year. Did that mean that he'd turned over a new leaf? Although they never found anything on Clementina, It didn't mean he was off the hook.
Fillmore, Roberts and everyone else on the Safety Patrol would still be watching his ever move. In fact, they checked up on him often, just to see what he was doing and if he was doing anything illegal.
"Look, those crimes that have been occurring, just sound like something Tony would do. That's the reason we've been investigating your brother first," Roberts replied.
Tina glared at Fillmore. She didn't see why they didn't just leave Tony alone. He had changed and he was nothing like he was in middle school.
"Why can't you just give him a chance to prove himself?" Tiny asked. She'd been hearing from Tony about how paranoid the Safety Patrol had gotten with him. I mean none of them seemed to trust Tony at all and it really wasn't fair of them to judge him that way.
"Look, can we go now?" Tina asked as Tony stood up and stared at them.
Everyone nodded. Then watched as Tony and Tina disappeared out the door.
After they were gone, Fillmore sighs loudly. "Another lead just came up dry," he said shaking his head. He'd been so sure that Clementina was the criminal.
"What now?" Roberts asked.
They all headed out the door of the interrogation room and back into the main office. "We let the case be tonight and go home. Tomorrow we'll figure out where to go from here," Fillmore replied.
THE NEXT DAY:
The whole office was buzzing with excitement about the news of Fillmore's upcoming birthday. Everyone was chipping in to get that special present for Fillmore.
"How's his present going? Is it almost ready," Vallejo asked.
Tehama and Anza nod. "It's nearly ready," Tehama said.
Vallejo leaned closer. "And he still doesn't have a clue," Vallejo asked.
"nope, not a clue," Anza replied.
A smile spread across Vallejo's face. "Terrific. This presents gonna really cheer Fillmore up," Vallejo said nearly jumping for joy.
At least everyone else hoped it would. He seemed so downhearted about his partner leaving. The present they all chipped in to get would surely delight him.
"Wait! We're still about another $500 short." Another Safety Patroller said.
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to the conversation. They only had another week until Fillmore's birthday. Could they have enough money by then for the present? If they didn't, then they had a backup gift.
However all of them knew that it wasn't as great as the first gift. Fillmore wouldn't enjoy the back up gift as much as he would the first one they'd planned for him.
"We need some kind of fun raiser but we have to be creative about it," Vallejo said still smiling.
By the smile on Vallejo's face, Anza and Tehama guessed that Vallejo had devised some kind of plan.
"Yes. Fillmore must not find out," The guy with blond hair and the big black sunglasses replied as he walked up to them.
Vallejo shakes his head. "That would be way too difficult," he said.
Tehama nods. "There's no way we could secretly get the money without Fillmore getting suspicious," She said. "Right Anza" She asked turning in his direction.
She found that Anza was staring off into space. He hadn't even been paying attention to the conversation. This made her furious! There was nothing worse!
"ANZA!" She yelled.
Anza immediately snapped out of it. "Huh? What?" He asked.
"Anza! Pay attention. We're going to need your help and we can't have you slacking off," Tehama said.
"Look, to keep Fillmore busy, you two could assist Fillmore and Roberts in solving this case. Now go, Vallejo said.
Anza started sweating again the moment Tehama grabbed his arm. She touched me!!! I'll never wash this arm ever again, he thinks as he pulls her out into the hall.
As they vanish out the door, Vallejo shakes his head knowing that Anza was lovesick. It was all over him with the way he talked and treated her when she was around. He acted totally different when she was around him.
However Tehama hadn't seemed to notice his love quite yet. Which Vallejo found humorous. He wondered how she would react when she finally realized that Anza was falling head over heals for her. The big question was would she reject him?
If she did, it would surely break Anza's heart. All Anza needed to do was to gain enough confidence to ask Tehama. He had a good feeling that it would help him in winning her over.
Meanwhile:
Tehama and Anza make it over to the gym. They both look around for Fillmore and Roberts. They find the cheerleaders still practicing for the upcoming game. They are absolutely screaming out their cheers.
The cheerleaders were so loud they could be hear about ten or twenty blocks away. It was a really good thing they were so loud. At football games everyone in the crowd could hear them. These girls were always way louder than the opponent's team too.
What was fun was the loud cheering of our cheerleaders really annoyed their opponents. They used it to their advantage. It was probably why their high school won so many games. Their high school had a ton of spirit during their football games.
Tehama and Anza walked over to the cheerleading squad. Whatever the cheerleaders were, Fillmore and Roberts could probably be found easily.
They walked in front of the cheerleaders but Fillmore and Roberts couldn't be found. Where on earth could they be? They were on duty and couldn't be messing around.
"More of you belties?" Stacey yelled when they were done. She was sick and tired of all these interruptions. Wouldn't the Safety Patrol ever quit bothering them?
"Where are Fillmore and his partner? Could you tell us?" Anza asked.
Stacey sighs, rolls her eyes and replies "They questioned us and then left to investigate some girl by the name of Penny," she says.
Penny went to this school? Since when did she do that? "Do you know where they went?" Tehama asked. There was a chance they could catch 'em before Fillmore and Roberts left.
"I think they went to the news room," the second cheerleader said.
The news room? Was she with the paper or something? They'd find out when they arrived there, they guessed.
"Thanks," Anza said as they rushed out of the gym and down the hall.
"Tehama wait up. I can't keep up with you," Anza said out of breath.
"Hurry up Anza, They already could be gone by now," Tehama replied.
After running a few minutes and turning down a few twisting halls, they finally arrived at the newsroom. Anza was huffing and puffing when he reached the door. Tehama opened the door to find that it was extremely busy.
Everyone was rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off. This place was way busier than the Safety Patrol HQ. They walked through trying to stay out of people's way. They searched for Fillmore and Roberts frantically.
They had to be here somewhere. While they were searching they discovered how enormous the newsroom really was. This place was three times bigger than the Safety Patrol HQ was.
"Penny, why were you in the gym so early in the morning? What were you doing there?" They heard Fillmore's voice nearby and started running towards it. They could just follow his voice right to where they were.
Penny pushed herself away from her keyboard and the computer. "I was questioning the football coaches about the game this weekend," She replied shrugging.
Now the questioning was going to get interesting because they were going to go into detail.
"Where were you when you interviewed the coach and where did you two go," Fillmore asked.
"We met in the football players locker room," she answered sounding cool and calm about all of this.
"How long were you in there, Penny," Fillmore asked walking around the desk and standing right in front of her. He stared deep into her eyes, looking for any sign that she was nervous. However Penny didn't show any of those signs. She didn't seem to care much about this questioning.
Fillmore had known her since back when he was a delinquent and they were partners. Penny and he himself had changed dramatically since that time. He was proud to hold his head up high because of how he'd changed.
They may have gone their separate ways in how they turned their lives around. They two of them had actually done pretty good for themselves. They'd grown up, changed their looks a little and their personalities too, but after all these years they were still best friends.
Fillmore was actually hoping that Penny wasn't the criminal behind this crime. He didn't want to have to bust a good friend like her for this crime. It would hurt him a lot if he had to take her back to Safety Patrol HQ.
To Be Continued