City Girl

Last time...

 I stared down at it. The numbers and letters were jumbled, making no sense. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know. What should we do with it?”

“Probably take it to the police station. Hopefully they can identify it.” Jake replied.

“Yeah,” I nodded in agreement, then added “But we have to wash up first. I look a mess, no offense, but you do too.”

He laughed. “Yep, I know. How about we see if we can find a kind place that will let us shower up?”

“Sounds good.” I said. We started down the street again. 

We had found an old farmhouse that had let us stay there. We had washed up, stayed one night, and left. Now we were on our way to the police station. We had inquired the people at the farmhouse whereabouts the police station was, and they had told us.

 As we approached the building, my hands suddenly felt cold and clammy. My tongue felt like cotton.

“Uh, Jake?” I asked hesitantly.

“What?”

“Do you realize we’re going to a police station?”

He laughed. “Yes. Don’t worry! We’ve done nothing wrong.”

I agreed. But I still felt nervous. We went through the moulded door and stepped into air-conditioned room. It felt almost chilly, but I was glad for it. There was a desk at the far right at the room, where a stern looking officer sat, staring at us.  I nudged Jake and pointed my finger at the desk. Jake shot a mere glance at the officer before striding to him.

“Hullo, Sir.” Jake said in a casual tone. “We’re looking for a friend.”

I inhaled deeply, a friend? Was Martha Jake’s friend too? I asked myself slowly. I turned my attention back to Jake.

“You got a detective coverin’ you?” The officer asked with a Western drawl to his voice.

“No, Sir.” I spoke up suddenly. I had to do this for Martha.  “We’re looking for her on horseback. Hope you don’t mind. Also, we’re certain it was a kidnapping. We found a license number of the truck we think may have kidnapped her. Do you think you could see if they match up to anything?”

The officer was quiet for a while. Then finally he spoke. “Well, I’ll be here to help you if you need me. But for now, you’ll have to take that to the motor vehicle office.”

 Jake looked relieved and so did I.  We thanked the officer, who was Officer Timmins, and went to the motor vehicle office. The man standing behind the corner looked curious as he saw two teenagers spilling into his shop.

“Sir, we found this license number. We wondered if you could track it down for us.” I said in a rush.

 He glared at us. “Why should I help you?”

 Jake looked him in the eyes, “We’re backed up by the police. I’d advise you to just help us.”  

 “Oh, OK!” The man held up his hands in surrender. He took the paper and closely scrutinized it. “Hmmm, we probably can’t get it done here. This comes from somewhere else. I’m going to call the state headquarters, they can figure it out.”

“OK.” Me and Jake gave our consent. The man went to a back room to make the phone call. We waited in the main room and looked around. It was light and airy. Several chairs were lined up along the wall.

 Just then, the man burst through the door, gasping for breath. “Oh no! I need to call the sheriff.  You kids just may have stumbled onto something important.”

“What?” Jake asked eagerly.

 The man paused, and then said. “The state headquarters said this may lead to an important international conspiracy!”