"We have information that you let this man adopt these three girls." Tess said, handing a plain folder only containing pictures of Gru and his daughters to a large woman with over hairsprayed hair.
"If you cooperate, you will not be held liable for this incident." Fisher added.
Hattie Smith of Miss Hattie's Home for Girls sighed and looked at the file. Thankfully, no reading was involved. She hated that. "Yes, I allowed him to adopt those girls. He claimed he was a dentist who spoke Spanish and claimed I was beautiful." She muttered that last part under her breath.
"What was that?" Michael asked, recording her words on a notepad.
"So what do you need from me? My entire computer, blood sample, my first born son?" She asked sarcastically. She was missing her mani pedi for this?!
Tess took out a blank flash drive her coat pocket. "Just put his file on this. We'll be back if we need anything else."
Hattie huffed in annoyance, as though they were asking a great deed of her. Moments later, they had the flash drive with Gru's alias and information and left.
"Remind me to tell the chief that a social worker needs to make regular unannounced visits to that place. I highly doubt she is in compliance with several ethics laws…" Tess stated, getting back in the black sedan.
"He didn't even use an alias and used his real address. Either we're giving this guy too much credit or he's not worried about us." Chief Robert Daniels said looking over the information Tess and Michael procured.
"Well look at his car and house! He's obviously not concerned with hiding! The guy is a cocky jackass who thinks he can do what he wants! He's never even served time!" Michael exclaimed angrily.
"He's lawyer'd up. He has mob lawyers, so don't give him any credit for not serving time." Tess replied evenly. Tess wondered why Michael was so involved and emotionally invested in this case. She just chalked it up to him being a rookie and probably had people he wanted to impress.
"Keep your emotions in check, Fisher. This guy, or any other perp you'll see in this job, isn't worth a busted vein in your neck." The chief reprimanded. He turned to Tess, "Have you figured out his routine yet?"
"No sir. He knew we were watching him and he made it clear he'd put up a fight if we tried to take the girls way."
Daniels clicked and typed at his computer for several moments, "It says here those girls are enrolled in the Coalwood Private Schools system. He's listed as their father. Apparently it's the school system he attended too."
"My nephew goes to those schools. They're very expensive. Why would he waste his money sending them each to a private school, or on sending them to school period?" Tess thought aloud.
"Probably keep them from driving him crazy during the day." Michael said in a disgusted tone of voice.
"You say he's already aware you were watching him?" Daniels asked, thinking.
"Yes sir." They confirmed.
Daniels was silent, in thought, for a few moments. "Lay off him for a few days. Lull him into a false sense of security, and then resume your surveillance."
The meeting with her superior reminded Tess that she had to pick up her nephew at his school. Her brother and sister-in-law would be working late and thus were unable to pick him up themselves. Her nephew was a nine year old named Percy and was in the highest grade at the school. He was a shy boy, favoring books to playing with other kids his age. A few years prior, he was pulled out of public school because he was mercilessly teased due to his tall stature and glasses. Thankfully, changing schools seemed to do the trick, but poor Percy still had few friends. Tuition was expensive however and many times, Tess and her parents contributed their own money when her brothers and sister in laws had come up short. It didn't bother any of them at all, so long as Percy was happy.
As Tess waited for him, leaning against her car with her sunglasses on, she saw a very familiar face. Gru was there in his tank of a vehicle a few cars over. All the other cars surrounding him had been crushed. Tess made a mental note to add another count of destruction of private property to his file.
"Nice to see you again, stranger." Tess called sarcastically, grinning.
"Following me to my daughter's school is a gross misuse of your authority, Ms. Sutterfield." Gru replied warningly.
"Don't flatter yourself. I'm just here to pick up my nephew." She replied, crossing her arms.
The school bell rang, ceasing any more conversation. Kids immediately flooded out of the doors as though they had been in tiny cages all day. Percy, his face buried in a book that his peers wouldn't read until college, wasn't paying attention to where he was going and accidentally knocked a bigger kid off balance. The bigger kid yelled at Percy and held up his fist.
"Don't you dare you little punk." Tess said under her breath, starting to run for her nephew. Before she got there, a little blonde haired girl, dressed entirely in shades of pink with a matching beanie stood up to the bigger kid. Tess quickly realized that she was one of the orphans Gru adopted named Edith Smith.
Tess grabbed Percy away just as Edith and the bigger kid started fighting. By then, Gru was there before Edith could do much damage to the bigger kid. Edith, still wanting to fight, was thrown over Gru's shoulder.
For a split second, Tess and Gru caught each other's eye contact, before they ushered their kids away. The eye contact caused a flutter in Tess' heart and something told her that something significant just happened. Tess shook her head, derailing that train of thought.
At the end of the week, Tess was recruited by her brother to take his place at Percy's field trip as a chaperon to the natural history museum. She was thankful for her small reprieve from work; the day after the mishap at Percy' school, she was handed a case that made Jeffrey Dahmer look innocuous. One would think there was only so much one could do with a severed human head…
She should have known Gru would be there. Tess couldn't tell if he had no choice to be the second chaperon or volunteered to keep an eye on Edith out of protectiveness. That man was a total mystery.
"I'm getting very sick of seeing you," Gru said coldly as she and Percy arrived in the school gym where everyone who was going on the field trip was instructed to wait for the bus.
"It's not any better for me. A big nose only looks good on Alan Rickman." Tess retorted. Percy had run off and was talking to Edith. "Looks like we have a blossoming romance." She added smartly.
She wasn't concerned with Percy being friends with Edith. Gru, however, she could tell was less than thrilled.
"The bus is here!" A young teacher called, getting everyone's attention, standing in front of the open gym doors. "Line up in front of me if you are taking the bus! Line up in front of Mrs. Murphy," She gestured to a woman on the opposite end of the gym, in front of another set of open doors, "if you plan on driving your student yourself."
Tess took Percy's hand and moved to the line for the buses.
"Dad! Can we ride the bus!? Percy wasn't done telling me about this super awesome comic book!" Edith asked eagerly, pulling on the hem of his coat.
Edith called him dad. He called her his daughter. It was beginning to click in Tess' mind. Maybe he wasn't using them and truly saw the girls as his own. That didn't get him off the hook. She suppressed the feeling of guilt, knowing she would one of the reasons those girls wound up at Miss Hattie's. That being said, she had been surprised before in her career. For all she knew, the little girl could have Stockholm Syndrome and he was just playing daddy in public.
"No." Gru replied, snapping Tess out of her thoughts.
"Aww c'mon!" Edith exclaimed dramatically.
"C'mon Dad. Don't be stingy." Tess added condescendingly, wanting nothing more than seeing a man like Felonious Gru out of his element, on a three hour bus ride with thirty yelling kids.
With a great huff, Gru moved into the line with Tess. "You're going to bed early tonight." He grumbled to his daughter.
The entire ride, Tess resisted the urge to take full advantage of the fact that she was sitting behind Gru and the urge to revert back to a child and be that kid everyone hates sitting in front of. She almost wished she had spit wad tube to spit at the back of his giant head. Alas, she did have dignity and self-control and reframed from such behavior.
Percy and Edith chatted most of the way while Gru shut down, closing his eyes, crossing his arms and not moving. Tess didn't blame him, the kids where more rowdy than usual.
Just as a decent migraine was setting in for Tess, they arrived at the museum. Everyone filled in and the tour started. Thankfully, not very many people were there.
"Hello everyone!" An older woman with the museum called out happily. "My name is Margaret Anderson and I'm a docent with the Fort Collins Museum of Natural History. First, before we get started, I want to introduce you to our live mascot, Loki." The docent lead the group down a hall away just off the museum entrance.
Loki was an old Russell's Viper snake that was used in many of the museums advertisements. He was animated wore clothes and a single, fluffy slipper, like an old grandfather. Many of those advertisements were aimed at children to get them interested in the museum. While his cartoon self was lively and happy, the real Loki just sat there, asleep. Tess didn't know much about snakes, but she knew a snake like Loki was one of the most poisonous kinds. It made her wonder just why the museum would take such a risk having the creature.
After the docent finished talking about how they acquired Loki and facts about his species, the children were allowed to take a closer look at the old snake.
All the boys rushed up the terrarium and Edith was the only girl amongst them. The rest of the little girls in the group were too frightened of the snake.
"Dad! Can we get a snake like this?!" Edith asked eagerly.
"No. Kyle is enough trouble as it is." Gru replied, then he quieted, in thought, "Maybe for your birthday." He repealed.
"Yes!" Edith shouted in victory.
Suddenly, Edith was the center of attention amongst her classmates, knowing that one day she'd have a pet snake like Loki. Edith drank in the praise. She was a girl and was not afraid of snakes! Tess took this as a time to yell at Gru without upsetting Edith.
"You? Adopt a viper? With the record you have? Ha! You couldn't even buy a water pistol without alarms going off." Tess said, skeptically and sarcastically.
"Which is precisely why I manufacture my own weapons." He replied, evenly. Tess hated the way he spoke to her, always evenly with no other emotion. She knew he thought that her and everyone else were below him. All she wanted to do was kick him. Or slap him. Or punch him. Really, any act of maiming would suffice.
"You're really not concerned with going to prison, are you?" She asked, disgust lacing her voice.
"Not in the least bit." He replied.
"Come along, children! It's time to move on!" The docent said as everyone followed her.
Everything went smoothly until Tess noticed Percy was being awfully quiet. He would usually buzz with excitement at being in a museum and point out to his aunt facts and information the docent missed. She looked down at her side to make she he was feeling ok, but she quickly realized he wasn't there.
In alarm, she whipped around, thinking that maybe he wasn't done looking at the last exhibit, but he wasn't there either. Then she noticed Edith was gone too.
"Where are Percy and Edith?" Tess asked worriedly, looking around for her nephew and his friend.
"The location of the first one is none of my concern. Edith is right h-here…" Gru's voice dropped off when he looked down at his side and saw that the little girl was not there.
He said something in Russian which Tess knew was swearing. "They're probably still at the stupid snake." He said, grabbing Tess by the arm and hauling her off down the winding hallways.
They both took off running and skidded to a halt when they saw the scene in front of them. The giant snake was free of its terrarium and slithering up to the two kids, huddled in a corner. A decent sized hole was cracked into the glass, which allowed the old snake to get free.
Gru never hesitated. He took a decent sized gun out of a holster under his jacket. He took a split second at line it up and aimed it at the snake. If Tess could have thought straight at the moment, she would be slightly worried about how adept he was with a weapon. He shot and the snake froze.
"What did you do?!" Tess exclaimed, thinking he killed the snake.
"It is merely paralyzed." He replied, walking up to the terrarium and took an ordinary looking pen and clicked it. From the pen, laser shot out of the tip and he cut away more of the glass. Taking the old snake, he placed it back in its terrarium.
"The effects will last long enough for someone with the museum to notice the damage." Gru explained. "Now," He said sternly, turning to his daughter. "How did this happen?"
"I tried to wake up the snake, but it wouldn't. So I tried to kick the glass so he could hear us. Then the glass broke." Edith answered, avoiding eye contact with her father.
"How on earth could a little girl break through that glass?" Tess asked aloud.
"Hey! Are you calling me weak?!" Edith asked indignantly.
Gru bent down and examined the shards of glass, "It's obviously an inferior composite. This type of glass was never meant to hold such a volatile creature."
Tess' eyes strayed up to the ceiling and saw a security camera was trained on them. "They'll know it was our kids who did it!" Tess exclaimed in frustration, thinking about how she would pay for this. She knew Gru wouldn't pony up his half for the repairs!
Gru took the laser pen and pointed it at the camera and instantly melted it, reducing it to drip trails on the wall. "Not anymore." He replied.
Percy ran up to his aunt, throwing his arms around her, burrowing his face in her side.
"You saved my nephew," She said in awe and disbelief, looking to Gru.
"He was in the way," Gru said offhandedly as though he didn't want to admit he saved Percy as well. He scooped up Edith and started to leave the museum.
"That makes no sense!" Tess yelled.
Author's note: Please take a moment to review!