Chapter 23
About thirty minutes later they both get to the football teams locker rooms and walk straight in. The very first thing they smell is the fowl odor. The smell of sweaty men and their socks fills the air. Clothes were everywhere! They must have caught the team at a really terrible time. The lockers were open and easily accessible. The football players were in normal clothing, which was strange to all of them. "Are you from the Safety Patrol?" A very tall man asks, walking up to them. He wore a shirt with the school colors and the school logo on it.
"Yes, we are," Anza says.
"I'm Coach Willis, and you are?" His voice trails off.
"We're officers Fillmore and Roberts! This is officer Tehama and Anza," everyone shook the coach's hand.
"Will you explain to us what occurred up until the football uniforms were stolen?" The coach nods. "We went out to practice and the teams left the uniforms in their lockers while we ran and did the normal routine. When we came back in to change into the uniforms they were gone!"
"Uh huh," Fillmore replies nodding his head.
"We tore up the locker room searching only to come up empty,"
"Okay let's start searching" Roberts said. Everyone split up and took a different section of the locker room. A few minutes later, something very interesting catches Fillmore's eye. He stares at one of the locks. "These lockers have been picked!" He calls.
"Either one person is really skilled at opening all of these locks, or it was more than one person. I'm betting it was more than one person," Fillmore tells them.
Abruptly a long, dark and eerie shadow appears on the wall, getting their attention. He turns just in time to see a figure racing out the door. Instinctively the four of them take chase! They push out the locker rooms backdoor to find showers here. Roberts signals for all of them to split up, so they do.
"Nothing!" Tehama calls when they had searched the entire place.
"I know we all saw a figure come in here," Roberts said. It's at that moment that Roberts notices that there's another door and points to it. Everyone goes for it. When they open it, they get there just in time to see the figure going off into the distance. Once again they take chase. "STOP! SAFETY PATROL!" Roberts screams. "Why do they never freeze?" Tehama asks, sounding very annoyed.
They turn a corner and come to two doors! The first one was marked Employees only, and the second one had no sign at all. Which way had the criminal gone? Would they catch the criminal? "Anza and I will go in the first door! You and Roberts go through the second!" Tehama says. Before Fillmore or Roberts could say anything, Tehama and Anza disappear through the first door. Fillmore and Roberts push open the door to find a very small, creepy little staircase which they hurry up then come to a room at the top and push open the door.
The first thing that Anza notices is the cabinets lines the walls. "What if they are hiding in there?" Anza asks Fillmore. Anza holds his breath as he walks up to one of the cabinets and begins opening every single one until he's come to the very last one. By this time his heart is absolutely pounding out of his chest. He takes another deep breath and opens the cabinet. Before he knows what's happening, something dashes out of the cabinets and heads straight for the door. However Fillmore gets to the door first and gets their hands behind their back. Fillmore unmasks the figure but doesn't recognize him. "Who are you?" "My name's Augie!" He says. Fillmore looks stunned. "Augie? You're the criminal?"
"Hello Fillmore, It's been years hasn't it?" He asks nervously. Roberts gets on the talky "Fillmore and I have the suspect in custody,"
To Be Continued