The next morning, the camp was visited by the police. And Beth had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Wrapped in nothing but a black silk robe, she exited her trailer and went to see what the fuss was about. She had seen the cops approach Elsa with a warrant with them. They them asked for Dell's camper and the police searched it.
While cops were searching Dell's trailer, the man in question and Jimmy were getting into a heated argument. Back and forth it went. Jimmy claiming that Dell looked guilty if something and Dell asking why jimmy would think that.
Shortly after, they came out empty-handed. They then began to search the rest of the camp. They search and they searched until one came out of Meep's camper with the missing detective's badge. "Found it, sir." Another dragged a scared Meep out with him.
"Meep!" Beth screeched as she ran up to him. Another officer aggressively shoved her away so hard that she fell to the ground.
Peter came out from his car when he saw this. "Hey!" He shouted. Both he and Paul ran up to Beth. Paul helped her up and Peter stood toe-to-toe with the officer. "Sir, I suggest you keep your hands to yourself and pray that you can find an attorney better than I."
Beth wasn't listening to anything else. All she could hear were her own wails and Meep's whimpering. "Peter!" She sobbed. "We have to go with them!" Her voice was broken. "We have to keep them from hurting Meep!"
"Alright then" Peter sighed. "Get dressed, I'm driving." Beth sobbed as she watched Meep looking out the back window of the police car he was thrown in. Running back to the trailer, she quickly dressed and got in the car with Peter.
It had only taken about ten minutes to get to the police station. But it was the longest ride in Beth's life. Once they parked, she jumped out of the car and stormed inside. "Where is he?!" She yelled. She looked over and saw the very same police officers who arrested Meep sitting behind the front desk and eating some donuts. They looked like the cat that caught the canary.
"Well, if it isn't the Inked Woman." One of them laughed.
"That's Tattooed Lady! And I want Meep out of his cell right now!" Beth demanded.
"He's not in his own cell, sweetheart." Another cop said. "But I can take you back there to see him if you show me a good time with those legs."
"Now I know you, an officer of the law, were not just harassing my client." Peter said as he walked in.
"And so what if we are, stumpy? Who asked for your input?" The snarky cop asked.
"Well, it should concern you. Because I am Peter Jameson." At hearing that, most of the cops froze. "And if you don't release my other client, I will charge every officer involved with the incident with arrest under false pretenses. And if you don't stop harassing the young lady, son, I'll sue you for everything you own, both now and in the future." Some of the cops knew better than to test an attorney as powerful as Peter Jameson. So one finally went to the back and retrieved Meep.
When he was brought to the front office, Beth gasped. Meep was bloodied and had bruises all over his body. She quickly ran up to him and hugged him. "Oh, Meep! What did they do to you?" Poor Meep was trembling and hugging himself. The other men, who were bigger and stronger than him, had beaten and tortured the poor creature. "Why does he look like this?" Beth asked the officer who brought him out.
"The arresting officers put him in a holding cell with other people." He answered.
Beth was furious at these cops. Meep didn't belong here and they threw him the worst part of it. Soon, a man in a suit walked in. Beth didn't care what his name was. She didn't care who he worked for. Before he could even open his mouth, Beth said, "He is not a killer! He can only pick up object as heavy as twenty-pounds. And the heaviest thing I've seen him carry alive was a rooster. So he could never kidnap those kids. All he does is bite off chicken heads."
"Then how do you explain the badge we found under his bed?" He asked.
"Meep likes shiny things. I've seen him pick up shiny candy wrappers and get excited. Whose to say he didn't find it while on one of his walks? All I know is it isn't possible for Meep to kill or kidnap anyone. He's too kind to hurt anyone. Unless they have a beak and feathers." She explained.
After many long and grueling hours of going back and forth, the cops finally realized that they had no evidence against Meep and knew that they had to let him go. Beth gently led her geek out of the police department and helped him into the back seat of Peter's car. "You'll be fine, Meep. We're going home." She said softly.
Peter was kind enough was kind enough to stop at a gas station and offer to buy his two passengers some Dr. Peppers. Beth gladly accepted on behalf of both of them. About five minutes later, Peter came out with three ice-cold bottles of pop being carried by the store clerk. He opened the first two for the people in the back seat and finally opened the last one for Peter. He then pulled out a striped straw from his apron and put it in the bottle. As the young clerk went back to get Peter his change, the lawyer said, "Keep the change, son."
"But, sir. That's a three dollar tip." The boy said.
"And you earned it. You respectfully agreed to help me and didn't complain about anything. You didn't give any rude comments about any of us who would be labeled by normal society as 'freaks'. You, young man, are a prime example of what today's youth needs to be: respectful. So, as a reward, you can keep the change." Peter explained
The young man smiled and went back in with a huge smile on his face. When Peter got back in his car, he started engine and used his right foot to press the pedals and his left knee to steer the wheel. Beth leaned over from the back with a smirk and said, "You really made that kid's day."
"Yes, well, I've learned that positive reinforcement can benefit more than discipline." Peter said with a smile. "He then looked at Meep through the rearview mirror. "How's our guest?"
Beth looked at Meep, who was slowly sipping his soda pop with a smile on his face. "Pretty good since he's got that Dr. Pepper to nurse off of."
The rest of the ride was silent. Beth started to think about the way Jimmy and Dell argued with each other. Something happened that involved a dead detective. She felt like Meep had been framed. One thing was certain with Beth: she was going to get to the bottom of this when they got back to the camp.
By the time they made it back to camp, Meep had finally finished his soda. He then let out a small burp to which Beth giggled upon hearing. Peter had opted to pull up at the front entrance, but Beth decided to have him let them out in the parking lot so they could get some exorcise. Peter agreed only because he told her he would watch with the head lights on so they could see where they were going.
Beth and Meep made it safely to the front, but once they got there, they saw Jimmy stumbling out in a drunk stupor with his mother following with a worried look on her face. Jimmy fell to his knees in front of them letting out a scream of anguish. He couldn't protect Meep, making him feel weak and useless. But these strangers, different just like his own mismashed family, seemed to come to their friend's rescue. His scream attracted the attention of the other freaks.
"Ethel, can you take Meep and get him cleaned up? I wanna talk to Jimmy about something." Beth said. Ethel did as was request and took the little guy to her trailer to get his wounds cleaned up.
Beth grabbed Lobster Boy's arm and dragged him into the big top. With the curtain closed, she turned to Jimmy and smacked him across the face as hard as she could. "What did you do?!" She demanded. "Those cops didn't get an anonymous tip from just anyone. And what happened between you and Dell this morning? You seemed very sure of yourself when the cops searched his trailer."
"I killed him." Jimmy grumbled.
Beth paused at that news. "Who did you kill?"
"That detective. The one who that badge belonged to. The one that tried to arrest the twins." Jimmy explained.
It all suddenly made sense. "You hid the badge in Dell's trailer." She sighed. "And he hid it in Meep's." She added. "I will deal with him and you later." She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You're not mad?" Jimmy asked.
"Oh, I am plenty mad. But I'm also tired, I feel like I'm out of breath from all the stress I went through, and I just want to lay down and sleep with my man. Bright and early, while you're still nursing the hangover you'll definitely have in the morning, I'll torture you then. But, for now, Meep is getting medical attention, I'm finally home and all I want is to wrap my arms around Paul and lay on our bed." And with that, she left Jimmy to his own thoughts.
Beth went in search of her man and found him among the rest of the camp crowded around Ethel's caravan to see Meep being cleaned up. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. Paul laid his head on top of hers and could feel her let out a breath. "Well, you've had an eventful day, haven't you?"
She let out a tired laugh. "Yeah. But right now, I just wanna curl up in bed with you nestled next to me." Paul chuckled, liking the idea lying down next to his woman.
A/N: $3 in today's time would have been almost $23 back in '53. If only the value of a dollar was that much now, huh?