chapter 199

word count: 1456

much to his dismay,,  algie once again found himself in need of help that could only be provided by the local law enforcement agency.. betwixt and between chatting young enos up on every subject from the young man’s missionary assignment to why mormon's don’t drink coffee,, (and all the while careful not to give away his tie in with the new albany police depart and/or the diana diamond itself)  algie dialed detectives miller, bowers,, and bettancourt’s cell phones numerous times over the course of the afternoon,, each time under the guise of having to contact his wife and let her know why he hadn’t returned home at the prearranged time..

as each call was met with a recorded voicemail message,, algie easily put two and two together and knew there must be something big going on to deserve the attention of all three of his local contacts.. however,, at the same time,, he also knew that time was of the essence,, the longer it took him to get information concerning where the taxi driver had dropped jacob off,, the farther away from intercepting the diana diamond he was.

nearly at whit’s end and ever conscious of the fact that enos was quickly growing tired of his putting off any further action until he contacted his wife,, algie was relieved when his phone rang,, and he saw that it was winnie ringing him up..

“winnie!! i have been trying to call you all afternoon!! pray tell what have you been up to old girl??” algie spoke into the phone, making sure enos overheard him talking to ‘his wife’ before he stepped away from the table to complete the call..

“for heaven’s sake, algie, whatever do you mean?? the phone has only rung once,, and that was when detective bowers rung me up to inform me that detective miller had been injured in the line of duty.” winifred started,, clearly intending to get on a roll and filling him in on all the day’s events..

“it seems as though mrs. hunt got herself into a little skirmish at the airport,, and no sooner had detective miller come to her aide,, he was called away on urgent business,, which caused him to drop a very irritated mrs. hunt off in the drive,, and then i was left to spend the entire aftern……”

“excuse the interruption,,” algie cut her off midstream.. “what was that you said about mrs. hunt and a skirmish at the airport?”

“well it seems as if mrs. hunt took it upon herself to employ some of the karate moves that you saw fit to instruct her on,, which as you well know aligie, i still cannot fathom why you would do such a thing knowing how unstable….” 

“again i must interrupt.” algie interjected, a tone of authority in his voice this time. “i am here now with a young man that was witness to what i would stake my very career on, was the very event involving mrs. hunt at the airport.. not only that,, but amidst the chaos he and his travel mate, fatefully came into possession of what i believe to be our diamond!! however through a strange turn of events,, his fellow has now, for whatever reason,  absconded with the gem!!”

algie quickly caught his breath and continued, “so you see i need one of the detectives to get me an in with the taxi company and verify where they left off the young man who is now believed to be in possession of the diamond,, as it is indeed possible that should we be able to intercept the him, i could gain possession of the diamond this very afternoon..”

“oh my!!” exclaimed winifred. “that is wonderful news indeed!! i want every detail algie,, every detail!!!”

“time is swiftly getting away from me winnie, i need to follow this up,, and when it is concluded i will fill you in.. but as for now,, i need one of the detectives to contact the taxi service,, in order to pin down where he let the young man in question off..”

“ring up detective bowers,, after all he found his way clear to call and inform me of detective millers injuries…” winnie suggested..

“brilliant!!” algie exclaimed excitedly.. “must go winnie!! every moment counts!!”

within a half an hour of having contacted detective bowers,, algie had the information he needed..  it seems that the driver in question had since gone off shift,, but had reiterated the absurdity of that particular fare to his dispatcher before he left for the day,, thus making the information algie needed to follow up on the lad easily accessible..

as soon as hank gave him the approximate address,,algie recognized the street location where the driver indicated jacob had exited the cab as a rather seedy part of town.. a part of him thought it might be safer for both he and enos to enlist the help of the new albany police department,, but he also recognized that showing up with an entourage of law enforcement,, would most probably elicit panic on the part of young jacob,, and therefore,, to do so would put the whole mission in danger..

as soon as detective bowers had rang back with the information he sought,, algie collected young enos from the booth in which they had spent the better part of the afternoon,, and together they took off to follow,, what algie described to enos only as ‘a gut feeling’..

for the moment at least,, he held off informing young enos as to degree of danger involved in their mission.. he decided he would assess the situation when they got there,, and proceed accordingly from there…

***

remorse had enveloped jacob like a dense fog.. he stood for hours in the roach infested motel room playing through every possible scenario until he came to the conclusion,, that no matter what the outcome,, he had to turn the diamond over to the police..

oh how he wished he had not allowed worldly greed,, and the desires of the flesh to overcome him.. he spent much of the afternoon in repentant conversation with his god,, begging him for his forgiveness,, and secretly hoping that if his god was willing to forgive him this epic wrong doing,, that the police would be equally as amicable..

once he had come to the decision to dutifully face whatever consequences might befall him,, he rang up the taxi company,, took a deep empowering breath,, and made his way through the rubbish strewn parking lot to the motel lobby where he dropped off  the key,, and headed into the decaying street to wait for his cab..

the minutes quickly became what seemed like hours,, as jacob stood on the sidewalk, alone and scared,, all the while knowing that if the street people who were descending on him like prey soliciting him to purchase everything from sex to drugs,, ever found out that he was in possession of the now loathsome,, but none the less extremely valuable diamond,, they would waste no time beating him,, probably to the death to take it from him..

he checked his watch.. thirty minutes had passed and still no taxi had come to his rescue.. it occurred to him that it was indeed possible that taxi drivers were not given to frequenting this area,, due to the fact that the general populace was made up of less than desirable fares,, thus increasing the chances that they would be beaten and or robbed..

he pondered whether or not asking the proprietor of the motel to phone the cab company for him would be to any avail,, and had just about come to the conclusion that it was the soundest thing to do given the circumstances,, when he spied the sunny yellow glow of a taxi fast approaching from the left..

jacob leapt into the street,, flailing his arms feverishly above his head in order to make sure there was no way the driver would pass him by.. when the taxi finally came to a stop,, he breathed a huge sigh of relief,, and slipped into the rear seat of the cab- just as algie’s pink edsel rounded the corner..

“there he is!!” yelled out enos, as he caught a fleeting glimpse of what could only have been jacob given the all too familiar attire,, loading into the cab..

algie sped up to the rear of the cab,, wildly blowing his horn,, which only served to strike panic into the heart of the cab driver fearing a carjacking was set to play out with him as the intended victim,, and therefore causing him to stand on the gas before jacob had even closed the door..