Joy sat silently in the Interrogation Room. She pushed the plate of donuts away and sipped the rotten jail coffee. Although it felt like she had been there for hours, she didn’t let her impatience show. She sat with a blank stare.
Sargeant Batista walked in.
“Joy, we know you’re in on this with The XMAS Bandit. You’ve been spending his ill gotten gains on yourself. We plan on throwing the book at you, Joy. Do you have anything you want to tell us?”
Joy put her coffee down.
“I prefer to wait until my lawyer, Connie Firs, gets here. I presume you’ve called her already, Sergeant Batista?”
“She’s on her way, Joy. Would you like another donut while you wait? More coffee, maybe?”
“No, thank you.” Joy said flatly.
About half an hour later, Joy’s lawyer, Connie, arrived. She asked to speak to Joy alone. The p0lice complied. A few minutes later, Connie motioned to the c0ps – “We’re ready to talk.”
They went back to the Interrogation Room.
“We’d like to strike a deal. Joy knows where even more stolen property is located. And she will give you this information in exchange for a lesser charge. She is happy to cooperate with you. The stolen property she’s talking about is significant.”
“How significant?” Sergeant Batista asked.
“Very.” replied Connie. “We’re talking Transnational Crimes here – specifically Cultural Artifacts.”
“Will you take us to where the stolen property is?” asked Batista.
“Yes. She will ride along with you and direct you to the location.” Connie cooly answered.
“Done.” said Batista. “I’ll get my car now. I’ll get Constable Bailey to come along as well.”
Sargeant Batista, Connie and Joy drove along a road out to a remote area. Zuze and Rocky followed. There were no houses for miles and trees protected the view from the road.
“Turn here.” Joy directed.
Batista turned the car, looked up, “What the? What is this place?”
Joy explained, “He’s crazy. He’s obsessed with Ancient Egypt. He started stealing Egyptian artifacts and had accumulated so many, he built this pyramid to store it all in. He loves it in there. It’s his hideaway.”
Constable Bailey took the new pylons and new exclamation barrier out of the trunk of her cruiser and started blocking off the area.
Sergeant Batista shook his head. “I cannot believe this. Constable Bailey, you’d better call the local Egyptologists to help identify all these artifacts.”
Zuzu radioed the station, “Get the Egyptologists over here as soon as possible. We need their help!”
“Where did he get this all from?” asked Batista, “This pyramid is filled with gold and all kinds of treasures.”
“Some he stole right from Egypt, and some he stole from museums in Europe. He would break into the storage areas – you know, where they keep the good stuff, and take it. He’s very wily. Also, he just loved all the gold.”
“Constable Bailey, you stay here and wait for the Egyptologists. I’ll take Connie and Joy back to the station.”
Zuzu and Rocky guarded the old relics and didn’t have to wait long for the excited Egyptologists to arrive:
“Woohoo!” cheered the Egyptologists, “Christmas came early for us this year! We were just having our Christmas party when you called.”
“It’s come early for us, too.” Constable Bailey told them. “You can thank The XMAS Bandit for that. We’ve got him blubbering in custody right now.”
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Apparently the Christmas party was a costume party. That or they’re some very serious Egyptologists.
I’ve always wanted Canopic Jars.. call me odd but I always thought they looked cool (yes the contents on the other hands area a bit… grim :/
No. All Egyptologists dress like that all the time. I looked it up on the internets under “ask yahoo”.
Oof. I never even considered the contents. Blech. Just don’t open the lids. Yeuck.
I am very impressed by the full-immersion approach those Egyptologists take to their craft. I’m also impressed with how cool and remorseless Joy is. She’s the real superstar baddie of the XMAS Bandit tale, what with how the XMAS Bandit himself just broke down into a blubbering mess as soon as he saw Rocky. Sheesh.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! I mentioned to Boomer and Schnookie that I’d fallen behind on the XMAS Bandit. I said, “I’m only just at where Rocky finds the Bandit in the alley” and they both assured me I would be SHOCKED by the plot twists. And you know what? They were right! Even at “cultural artifacts” I did NOT see the Egypt stuff coming! Brava, Carol, brava.