Chapter 18 #3
Thaddeus chose that moment to pop out from her hair, crying out, “Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”
At that, several people cried out, “It’s Doreen.”
She looked over at them in surprise and shrugged, admitting, “Yeah.”
At that, everybody started to clap with huge energy, making the guy look around and mutter, “I don’t get it.”
Doreen shook her head. “Yeah, it doesn’t matter where you are concerned.”
He asked, “Are you some kind of celebrity or something?”
“No, I am absolutely not a celebrity,” she replied. “Just somebody who has decent luck when helping the local police solve crimes every once in a while.” He immediately shut down, and she nodded. “Maybe you’ve heard of me,” she added hopefully.
He snorted. “In your dreams.”
She laughed. “The likes of you are never in my dreams.”
He just glared at her, but the crowd was absolutely loving it. She looked over at Mack and his guys. “Well, here’s another one you’ll have to do a full work-up on. Sorry, Darren.”
He shrugged. “With you around, we’re kind of used to it. Our workload has quadrupled since you arrived.”
“I’m not trying to make more work for you.”
He rolled his eyes at that. “You don’t even have to try,” he muttered. “You just show up, and the workload rolls in.”
She smiled at him. “The good news is that, almost every time, it’s somebody really bad who needs to be off the streets. So, take this guy and pop him in a cell beside his cohort. Better make sure he doesn’t try to eliminate him.”
When Darren looked at her in surprise, she nodded. “They’re the same gang. This one is just older and wiser and has enough brilliance to realize, if the newbie rolls over on his team, he’s pretty well toast.”
Darren nodded. “We better talk to him first.”
“Yet, when you think about it, he’s toast anyway because we’ll let everybody know that he rolled on them.”
At that, their newest suspect stared at her in shock. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not? You already told me how you’re a main member of the team. So, obviously I won’t keep that kind of information to myself, will I?” She looked over at the crowd and asked them, “I mean, will I?”
“No, of course not,” they all yelled back, with grins and chuckles all around.
Someone called out from the crowd, “She’s got to help the police when she can.”
“Exactly,” she replied, with a nod. Chester was grinning madly at her. “Chester, you’ve got this one, right?”
“I got him,” he confirmed, as he quickly moved him to his cruiser.
She smiled at the crowd. “Now, in case anybody else has seen these two characters with anybody else,” she added, raising her hands, “contact the police. Also, if you have any information about the breaking-and-entering or the illegal drugs or anything else criminal going on in Kelowna, please contact the police,” she told everyone, with a bright smile.
“Let’s get real. If we don’t help each other to arrest these B&E guys, they’ll continue to break into our homes when we’re not there or, worse yet, sometimes when we are there. ”
“And that’s the worst,” one of the women stated. “I’ve heard of a lot of break-ins over the last few years, but to think that there’s actually an organized gang of them is awful.” She shuddered.
“There is a gang of them,” Doreen agreed, “but our police force can handle this.”
“What about you?” somebody asked, looking over at her. “Are you on this job too?”
“I don’t know that I’m on any job,” she clarified, with a shrug. “However, I do like to help out whenever I can.”
“Sounds to me like you’re helping out a whole lot.” And, with that, he yelled, “How about cheers for Doreen?”
And, with that, everybody started to clap and whoop and holler. When she looked over at Mack, her eyes wide, he shook his head. “No matter where you go, no matter what you’re doing”—he smiled at her—“you do cause more than your share of trouble.”
The cheers continued as they headed for Mack’s truck, climbed in, then pulled away. Mack pointed out, “I thought you were supposed to stay in the background.”
“Oh dear,” she muttered. “The captain told you about that too, huh?”
“Yeah, oh dear is right,” he noted in frustration.
“Well, it’s easier to ask the crowd one question than to interview them individually, right?” she asked.
Mack sighed.
Doreen added, “At least tell him that I didn’t have a whole lot of choice once they recognized me.” When Mack remained silent, she added, “I appreciate the offer of assistance.”
He snorted at that. “What offer of assistance?”
“I could have been in danger there.”
He rolled his eyes at that and then noted, “If you were in any danger, it’s because you put yourself in danger. You and those animals will be the death of me.”
“I hope not,” she stated, suddenly serious. “Please don’t ever die and definitely not because of us.”
He reached out a hand, and she placed hers in it, and he squeezed it gently. “I’m not planning on it, but you are definitely trouble, and it just comes to you naturally.”
Mack headed out to the main road and back to Devon’s house to see just what everybody was after.