DETOUR
by ardavenport
- - - part 5
Dinner was almost ready. Captain Stanley could smell it from his office. Macaroni and cheese with slices of hot dogs and onion in it. Something that Mike cooked up. Maybe string beans to go with it. It would be acceptable. Stanley tapped the end of his pencil on his pad of scribbled notes about their latest fire code inspections. They were behind on a few and he didn't like that; headquarters didn't like it. But he still had trouble concentrating on it.
The phone on his desk rang.
He grabbed it in the middle of the second ring.
"LA County Fire Department, Captain Stanley speaking."
"Captain Stanley, this is Officer Howard with the Sheriff's Department - - "
The pencil snapped.
" - - We found your men and they're alive and well."
Stanley sat straight up in his chair.
"Are they there with you?"
"Have a listen."
Stanley heard two other voices, not on the phone, but obviously in the same room.
" - - - You're not going to get that stuff out. Will you just let me cut it out."
"Don't come near me with those scissors - - -"
Howard's voice returned, drowning out the others. "Yeah, they're right here. Our fugitives roughed them up a bit and messed up their equipment, but they're fine."
Stanley laughed. "Well, put one of those twits on the phone, would you Vince?"
"Sure thing."
Vince's voice sounded further away as he called them to the phone.
"Uh, hello?" Roy's voice sounded uncertain.
"Hey pal, where you guys been? People've been looking all over for you two." Stanley grinned broadly.
"Oh, Captain! - - It's the Captain. - - We're fine here. We sort of got detoured by a call we didn't expect."
"I'll say." He leaned forward over his desk, phone to his ear. "So, when do you think you're going to make it back here?"
"Uh, I don't know - - " Vince's voice said something in the background, "Uh, we're going to have to stay here to talk to the detectives, and then we'll have to stop a Rampart for some supplies. I really don't know how long we'll be."
"Well take as much time as you need. And Roy . . . " Stanley rubbed his eyes, "it's really good to hear your voice, pal."
"Yeah, Cap, it's . . . . good to hear yours, too."
Stanley hung up the phone, sat back and let out a long sigh. A moment for him to enjoy the vanished tension.
"Mike!" He did not need to call out very loudly for the three firemen lurking just outside his office door to hear. He could see a bit of hair and the tips of someone's shoes. "You got dinner ready?"
"Almost there, Cap!"
The three eavesdroppers moved on. Stanley shook his head..
"Almost there."
%%##%%##%%
"Kel!"
Brackett looked up at McCall, then over to where she was looking.
"Hey!" Brackett smiled when he saw John Gage and Roy DeSoto coming to the Emergency Base Station desk. "It's good to see you two! We were pretty worried."
"We were too." Roy smiled back, but Johnny kept a long face. Dixie tilted her head at him.
"What's with the fire helmet?"
Gage made a face under the wide black brim, 'L.A. County 51' written large in white letters on the shield front over it.
"Well, are you going to tell her, or am I going to have to do it?" Gage just scowled back at his partner, so Roy continued. "The bank robbers tied him up with duct tape and they gagged him. Now he's got it stuck all over his head and he won't let me cut it off."
"Oh." Dixie glanced downward. "Is that why you have duct tape on your pants?"
Everyone looked down at the dull silvery strips under his knees.
"Oh great." Gage bent down and tugged off the duct tape. Roy helped.
They each came up with a sticky wad of tape. Roy gave his to Johnny who tried to hold them with as few of his fingers as possible. He looked imploringly at nurse and doctor.
"You've gotta have something to get this off with."
Brackett had to smile. Gage looked so desperate, as if a bit of tape stuck to him was the worst thing to happen. Dixie held her hand out.
"Here, I'll take that. I've got just the thing for it."
"You do?" Johnny leaned toward her, hope in his eyes. Dixie nodded calmly back to him.
"Mmm-hmm. Now give me that." She took the tape wads. "And stay right here." They watched as she walked down the hall.
"I still think you should cut it off."
Gage whirled around to his partner.
"You're pretty eager to cut off my hair."
"Well, you're always about an eight of an inch short of regulation anyway. A little haircut wouldn't hurt. I'm sure the Captain wouldn't mind." Roy put his hand on his hip pouch. Johnny hopped back a step.
"Oh no you don't. Don't come near me with those scissors."
"Hey, guys!" A beaming Doctor Early walked up to them, putting his hands on their shoulders. He looked happily from one to the other. "It's great to see you. We were pretty worried. What happened after you broke contact with us?"
DeSoto answered. "They were holding us hostage at the house of the brother of one of the convicts and his girlfriend."
Brackett gave him a puzzled look. "Convicts? I thought they were bank robbers."
"They were that, too." Gage nodded his affirmative. "Convicts who tried to rob a bank. Escaped convicts."
"Well, what happened to them?" Early looked from one fireman to the other again. Both briefly glanced down before DeSoto spoke.
"When they spotted the cops checking the place out following a lead on the brother, they decided to make a run for it."
"Yeah, and they bashed Roy over the head and left me tied up on their way out."
Roy continued with what Vince Howard had told them. "Well, the cops had to chase them down practically into the next county. They got Chuck and his girlfriend, but Larry and Jack. . . . they, uh, didn't want to go back to jail, and they've made sure of it now." He spoke quietly. Death, even for criminals, deserved a little respect.
Johnny was less sympathetic. "I don't know about Larry, but that guy Jack was determined to stay out of jail or die. And I'm not sorry he got what he wanted."
"Larry's the one who got shot. He wasn't as bad as the other one. When they were leaving he had a chance to shoot me - - both of us - - and he didn't."
"Yeah, but for a minute there it looked like he was. And you know that if Jack hadn't been busy with Chuck's girlfriend, he would've done it."
Doubt remained in Roy's blue eyes which only further animated Johnny.
"Oh, you know he would have, Roy. That guy was crazy. And mean."
"Yeah." He nodded reluctantly. "He probably would have."
Early tilted his head curiously. "What's with the fire helmet, Johnny?"
Before anyone could answer, everyone's attention turned to Dixie returning. She carried a big plastic bottle of clear liquid with a pink cap on top.
"Come on." She only paused briefly, confident that Roy and Johnny would follow. Two curious doctors trailed after them as well. She led them into an empty treatment room and lowered the height of the examination table.
"Have a seat."
Gage, eyes suspicious, sat on the table.
"Kel, could you get me those wipes, please."
Brackett said nothing about the role reversal of the nurse asking the doctor to assist. Dixie McCall always knew what she was doing. He got the wipes from the metal counter full of medical equipment. She put them on the table next to Gage.
"Now." She pulled off the chin strap and lifted the helmet from Johnny's head and handed it to Roy who stood next to her. The two doctors peered over her shoulders. The wide layers of tape went from the back of Gage's jaw, across the back of his head under his ears. She unscrewed the cap, tipped the bottle over a wipe and then reached up and began dabbing at the edge of the tape nearest to her.
Johnny wrinkled his nose and sniffed, but his expression changed to surprise when he felt the tape coming free where Dixie worked. Dixie tipped more onto the wipe and resumed dabbing. The tape fell back away from his now slippery hair.
"Hey what is that stuff?"
"Baby oil. Most oils will dissolve glue. And its good for removing make-up."
"Make-up?" Johnny drew back. Dixie could practically feel the other men around her recoiling. She gave the young fireman a stern look.
"Well, it's either this or Roy and the scissors."
Brows lowered, Johnny's eyes went to his partner. He didn't pull back again when she applied more to the tape. Then she stopped and held out the bottle and wipes to Roy. "Here take the other side."
Roy shrugged, took a wipe, put some baby oil on it and started dabbing at the other side of Johnny's head.
"I still think we should cut it."
Sniff-sniff-sniff-sniff. "Smells pretty good, Johnny." Dr. Early had a silly grin on his face. Dr. Brackett just smirked.
"Oh, don't pay any attention to them." Dixie held the end of a length of tape between thumb and forefinger, pulling it out as she freed the hair from it. She reached across Johnny's lap for the bottle and he handed it to her. She handed it back to him to hold in his lap after she'd poured more on her wipe.
"Yeah this works pretty well." Roy was impressed. The oiled hair came away easily from the tape, the stickiness completely neutralized.
"Yeah, well this will get the tape off, but what am I going to use to get this stuff off?" Johnny felt like his head had been dipped in women's perfume.
"Johnny." Dixie paused to pin him with her gaze. "Shampoo still takes out oil." She went back to work.
"Here, lean forward." Roy touched his shoulder and he obeyed, dropping his head so they could get at the tape on the back. Roy and Dixie kept working until they met in back. She took the long length of stiff, greasy tape and threw it away.
Sighing with relief, Johnny ran his fingers through his hair. And, immediately regretting it, he held his hands out before wiping his fingers on his pants.
Sniff-sniff. "I don't know if that's the right scent for you, Johnny. Perhaps something with a little more lemon in it." Dr. Early was still grinning. Dr. Brackett folded his arms before him, 'hmm'ing as if agreeing with a grave medical diagnosis.
"Stop it." Dixie lightly whacked Early on the arm.
Johnny frowned back. Then he picked up the fire helmet again and put it on, covering up his greasy hair. "I don't care about these two. This is nothing compared to what they're going to say back at the station."
"Come on." Roy patted him on the back. "Let's get it over with."
"What about the supplies?"
"Oh yeah." Roy turned to appeal to Dixie, but she spoke first.
"Come on, I'll fix you up." Then she pointed a stern finger at the doctors. "And you two clowns, get back to work."
Early and Brackett drew back and looked at each other with pretentious innocence. But Early still had his silly smile.
"Yes, Ma'am."
- - - End part 5