Chapter 9: The Search Begins
The Chan Clan arrived inside of a park in Independence within a half an hour later. With it still being dark, the children decided to camp out inside of the van and wait until morning to begin the search for their father.
Hours soon passed, daylight hit their faces, and everyone awakened. After stopping at a Waffle House for breakfast, they decided to plan their next move.
"Well, we're at the bridge," Alan stated. "Time to start burning."
"Well," Henry suggested, "I guess our first step would be to find the hotel Pop was staying in before he disappeared."
"Why don't we go to a police station and ask if they know where Pop was staying? They did make the reservations for him," Nancy proposed.
"Nah, no good," Flip shook his head. "Odds are they won't tell us."
"Then I guess the best we can do is split up, check out every hotel we can find, and hope we get lucky," Anne implied.
"An excellent suggestion," Tom approved. He then pulled out three long sheets of paper. "Fortunately, I took the liberty of producing several diagrammatic representations of the area to make things more accessible."
"It would just kill you to speak English, wouldn't it?" fumed Anne.
"He said he made maps of the city to make things easier," Alan translated.
"Correct," Tom continued. "I've also circled all of the hotels for us to examine."
Henry and Flip each took a map while Tom held onto his.
"Alright," Henry instructed, "we'll split up and cover different parts of the city. Stanley and I will search east and west. Anne, your group will search south while Flip's group will search north. If anyone finds out something, contact the rest of us. We'll all meet up back here in an hour if we don't."
"Right!" his nine younger brothers and sisters nodded and headed off in their directions.
Before getting ready to leave, Stanley noticed an uncertain look on his brother's face. "Hey, what's up, Henry?" he asked.
Henry sighed heavily, "I just can't help but wonder what kind of big brother am I."
"Oh, come on, Henry," Stanley assured, "you're a great big brother."
"Am I?" his elder sibling doubted. "I'm supposed to be responsible for everyone. Keep everybody safe. Not only do I disobey Pop and come out here, but I let the rest of the Clan get involved and risk their necks looking for him."
"Henry, you didn't make them come," Stanley, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder, reassured, "They chose to come. Heh. You got Pop's cautious side, but the rest of us got Mom's stubborn streak."
Henry was able to put on a smile upon hearing this. "That's for sure," he chortled. "Well, let's get started. We…" Henry's smile immediately faded the moment he turned and saw his younger brother dressed as a police officer. "What's up with the cop costume?"
"Come on," said Stanley, "this is our first real case, remember? I gotta dress for the occasion."
"Ugh! Take that stupid disguise off and let's get going," Henry commanded. "You search east while I'll search west."
Stanley removed his costume and walked off. "Grouchbag," he murmured.
Elsewhere, the four middle children had located two different hotels further south of their starting point.
"Which one do we search first?" Suzie asked.
"We'll split up and search'em both at the same time," directed Anne. "Suzie, you and Alan search the Sunflower Hotel here. Tom and I'll go across the street and check out that Richard Nixon Hotel."
Before anyone could move, Tom happily pointed, "Hey, look!"
"What?" Anne looked left and right. "You see Pop?"
"No," Tom gazed at a truck. "I just saw someone with a caged Callipepla californica."
"A caged what?" puzzled Suzie.
"A California quail, the state bird," Alan replied.
"Look, genius," a miffed Anne rebuked, "we're here for Pop, not a sightseeing trip. Now let's start looking!"
The four kids split into pairs and parted ways.
After entering the Richard Nixon Hotel, Tom noticed a bellhop around Henry's age. "Perhaps, he could be of some assistance to us. You talk to the hotel waitress, Anne, while I have a man-to-man chat with that fine fellow."
While Anne went over to the waitress, Tom approached the bellhop. "Excuse me, kind sir," the well-mannered Chan son requested, "but I was hoping perhaps if you have seen my father. We, uh, got separated earlier today, and I was curious if he entered this premise."
"I don't know, kid," the young bellhop shrugged. "Who is your dad?"
"Oh, his name is Charlie Chan," Tom informed. "He's a famous detective."
"Detective?!" The bellhop was suddenly filled with rage. "My dad was a jewel thief," he exploded, "and was sentenced to life, so I hate policemen…and detectives!"
Tom backed away nervously as the furious bellhop walked towards him. "Uh, wait," he gulped, "I-I'm wearing glasses. You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would you?"
The violent bellhop snatched off Tom's glasses. "Nice try," he scowled. However, before he could put any hurt on the young Chan, someone tapped on his shoulder.
The bellboy turned and found Anne standing next to him. "Alright, buster," the young tomboy growled, "did you, by any chance, take my brother's glasses?"
"Oh, another detective's kid, huh?" the bellhop retorted. "And what if I did?"
The defensive Anne stomped on the thuggish hotel porter's foot. As he hopped around in pain, he dropped Tom's glasses, which Anne swiftly caught. The bellhop soon ceased his jumping and lunged for Anne. "Why, you little…"
To his surprise, Anne quickly grabbed his arm and flipped him to the floor. "Girly," the bellboy quavered, "you've been taking karate lessons!"
"Black belt, creep!" Anne snarled. "Now beat it!"
The cowering hotel worker instantly got up and fled.
"Okay, I lied," Anne snickered, "I'm really a blue belt, but he didn't need to know that."
Right away, Anne gave Tom his glasses back. "We better not say a word about this to Henry, by the way," she recommended. "Anyway, I talked to the waitress and the guys at the front desk. Pop was never here. Let's try someplace else."
"Agreed," Tom said as he put his glasses back on. "And…uh…uh…"
Anne knew what her embarrassed younger brother was trying to say and merely walked off. "You're welcome," she said.
Meanwhile, further north, Flip, Nancy, Mimi, and Scooter had just exited a hotel.
"Boy," Flip groused, "that's the third hotel we've checked and still nothing. And according to the map, we just left the last hotel in this area."
While dining on a bag of peanuts she received from the recent hotel, Nancy said, "We might as well head back and hope the others had better luck."
"Yeah," Mimi sighed. The youngest Chan daughter looked around and noticed something missing. "Hey, where's Chu-Chu? I told him to wait here for us since the hotel doesn't allow pets."
"There he is!" Scooter exclaimed as he pointed across the street.
The kids saw their family pet staring at a costume shop. He seemed intrigued by the small Chinese dragon mask displayed in the window.
"Aw, Chu-Chu looks like he really likes that mask," Mimi gushed.
"Yeah, well, we'll probably buy him one when we get back home," an impatient Flip said before calling over to their dog. "Chu-Chu! Chu-Chu, get over here! We going now!"
Upon hearing his young owner, Chu-Chu barked gleefully and rushed over.
The four preteens started their journey back to the Chan Van. As they walked, Nancy noticed something behind the group.
"Uh, Flip," she nervously notified her brother, "I think someone's following us."
Flip, Mimi, Scooter, and Chu-Chu turned around and saw the mustached man trailing them.
"Hey," Nancy realized, "I've seen him before, back home."
"You have?" asked Mimi.
"Yeah," her older sister informed. "I've been seeing that guy watching our house a lot ever since Pop left. He sometimes follows me when I step out for ice cream."
"Hey, yeah! I've seen him before, too," Scooter added. "He was watching us last night and followed us in a car all the way here."
"Is that so?" Hearing this, Flip stopped his group and turned to face the suspicious figure.
The mustached man came up to the four. "I've finally caught up with you," he said.
"Who are you, mister?" Flip interrogated. "And why have you been following us?"
"Now, look, kid, I don't want any trouble," the man declared. "The name's Barnwell, Sergeant Barnwell of the Independence Police Department."
"Barnwell? Haven't I heard…?" Flip instantly remembered hearing this name and became greatly alarmed. "Yikes! Run for it!"
The children all ran for their lives. "Hey, hold it!" the man shouted. "Get back here!"
The mustached Barnwell chased after the four kids and their dog. After turning around a corner, he quickly lost sight of them. He continued his search by running straight ahead. Once he was long gone, the young Chans and Chu-Chu came out from hiding under a pickup truck.
"Who was that guy, Flip?" Scooter asked his leader. "Why did we run?"
"That guy was Sergeant Barnwell," Flip explained. "He was the dirtbag cop who was helping the scum who took out our mom."
"But that was back in New York," Nancy shuddered. "What's he doing here?"
"Don't know," Flip considered, "but I bet you anything he has something to do with Pop being missing. We better head back and tell the others."