©GeraldineBanksFebruary2025
“Hello Letitia, it’s Cross” Cross sounded grumpy and gruff.
Lettie held the phone to her ear; she had tried to get Cross to be a bit more relaxed and cheerful and recently she thought she’d cracked it , but he was back to his old ways. Then, she thought, something was wrong as she listened to the tone of his voice.
” You OK what’s the matter?”. Lettie asked.
” Tedi’s been kidnapped”.
” What?” Lettie nearly dropped the phone.
” Yes, this afternoon, he’s been taken, I haven’t heard anything yet, but I know they took him about 11am today and I know the car registration. I was wondering if you had any idea what I should do ?”.
” Good Grief, have you contacted the Police?”
” I wanted to run that by you, do you think I should? Suppose the kidnappers do something , you know if the police turned up at their door ,they might hurt him, it might make things worse. I don’t know.”
“It’s difficult , there’s bound to be a ransom demand, you’re right I don’t think they’ll harm him as long as they think they’ll get some money out of it. You say you’ve got the registration number of the car he was taken in. Here give it to me , I’ll make a few discrete phone calls and I’ll ring you back.”
Cross gave Lettie the Registration Number .
” Leave it with me I won’t be long , I’ll ring you back, for the moment we’ll keep this quiet, let me know if you hear anything.” Lettie said and hung up.
Once Cross came off the phone , a message came through from downstairs that a Parcel had been delivered and it was marked urgent. Cross ran downstairs, James had the parcel in his hand.
” Did you see who brought it ?”
” Yes it was the normal DPD Driver, is everything OK?” James asked.
” Unfortunately not, Tedi was taken at about 11am today from the village, we think he’s been kidnapped. I think this parcel might be to do with it.”
Cross and James opened the Parcel, it was just a normal sized box, all that was in it was Tedi’s collar.
” Damn, nothing else, no demand , no ransom.” Cross looked hopelessly at James.
” I’ve asked Lettie to find out what she can, I want to keep this quiet until she let’s me know what to do, we’ve got the reg number of the car he was taken in. James I need you to continue as if nothing is wrong, radio silence for the moment, try and keep everyone sweet, not asking too many questions. Do your best . I’ll keep you up to date, but for the moment if you see anything suspicious let me know.”
James nodded.
Later that evening , Lettie rang Cross.
” Police are involved but only low profile.” She said” Watts has got a friend whose high up and he’s in the process of following up on what we know so far. They reckon you’ll get a ransom demand soon. Have you heard anything?”
” We had a parcel delivered about an hour ago, DPD, a box , it had Tedi’s collar in it, no message just his collar.” Cross spoke softly.
” Right, well that’s a start, look I’ll let Watts know, I’m sure the Police will be able to track that parcel, but for the moment I don’t want the kidnappers to know we know anything about them.”
” OK, that makes sense. We’ve done what we can for the moment.”
” Yes, I’ll be over tomorrow morning, try and get some sleep. Night. ” Lettie pressed the call finished button.
Cross, put his phone down in silence and looked at Tedi’s collar and just hoped that everything would be OK.
The next day , Lettie and Watts arrived and Cross was downstairs having breakfast, the post had arrived and indeed there was a ransom letter among the post.
“If you want your little dog back send us a £1million”
“Details to follow.”
It was printed on plain printer paper with no signature, the envelope it came in was plain brown and it had some stains on it. Cross had put everything in a plastic bag , just in case there were any clues that the Police might be able to follow up on. Lettie poured herself a cup of tea and sat down at the table with Cross and Watts.
“You know, I think I’m going to find Arthur and have a word with him, I’m pretty certain this is his doing.” She placed her tea cup on the table quite forcefully, she was annoyed.
Cross looked at her. ” As long as you stay safe, if it is his doing he’s going to be mixed up with some pretty bad people. Anyway do you know where he’s living now?”
” No, but I’ve got a fair idea where I can find him this afternoon, he’ll be drinking in his local”
” Do you want me to come?” Cross said.
” Probably best not to, I think he’ll only talk to me . I won’t want to give anything away, I might have to make up a story about not been able to find some pictures I need from back in the day, I mean he probably needs money, I’ll sweet talk him, to see if he knows anything.”
” OK” Cross thought it was worth following up on and the cover story seemed credible.
“I’m going to drive over to Police HQ with the ransom letter and the collar” Watts interjected ” It’s just another part of the jigsaw. You want to come with me?”
” Yes, that ‘d be good”. Cross finished his cup of tea, he was relieved to be able to do something other than wait.
While Watts and Cross were on their way to Police HQ . The Detectives had been busy discussing their progress in one of the meeting rooms with their Chief Superintendent. The registration plate number was false, but the Police were able to trace the garage that had made the fake number plates. All number plates have a digital code on them and it was picked up by the digital camera used to take a picture of the car when it was leaving the village.
The garage that had supplied the stolen black car that the kidnappers had used had also printed the fake number plates. The black car was a very distinctive model, and with a bit of detective work , there was enough to interview under caution the owner of the garage, and he sang like a canary. Within minutes the Police had a name and an address of who had paid for the car and the number plates. They had it from on high to tread carefully so they hadn’t followed up on that yet.
When Watts and Cross arrived at Police HQ , they handed over the ransom note and the box with the collar in it to the front desk .These would be checked for DNA and any other samples that might indicate the origin. Watts and Cross were in the Chief Superintendent’s Office when he came in after his meeting with his detectives.
Chief Superintendent Napper was a good friend of Watts, they had been at school together and had kept in touch. Watts introduced Cross to Napper and the Chief Superintendent gave them an update.
“Well, that number plate has been significant. I don’t think we’re dealing with anyone very sophisticated here, my only problem is the little dog’s safety, it’ll take minutes to get in a building but seconds to dispose of the evidence. So although, we have enough information to do a raid or at least arrest someone, who to be truthful has form and has done similar things in the past. In order to achieve what we all want I’m going to tread carefully. I don’t think we’re dealing with the brightest of sparks, but I want a successful conclusion for everyone involved.”
The Chief continued. “The ransom note still doesn’t detail where the ransom is to be sent, so you’re going to hear from them again. Perhaps the next communication will tell us what our next step will be. In the meantime we’ve got a few properties in the London area that we will be watching. We know who our man is. I just need you , Mr Cross, to be calm and collected and I assure you we will get that little dog back safely.”
The Chief Superintendent opened a drawer on his desk and handed Cross a mobile phone.
” Here let me know personally anything that you hear, it’ll speed everything up.” Cross took the phone and put it in his pocket.
thenotsomightyom 