The Perfect Witness, Part 2 of 3

Guest (Male): Open the cash register. I'll get the you-know-what in the back.
Whit: What's going on?
Guest (Male): Go on, open the cash register and no one will get hurt.
Jenny: What's happening?
Guest (Male): I think we're being robbed.
Jenny: What?
Whit: You are robbing my store?
Guest (Male): Yeah, and now quit stalling and open the register. I don't like having this kid around.
Guest (Male): What? You're afraid she'll give the police our description? Like I said, she's the perfect hostage.
Whit: Jenny, you're blind in sight only. But you have other senses that you use to compensate for that loss. What I want to do is help use your other senses with your memory to construct a, well, let's call it a sound picture of what you know.
Eugene: I'm the victim of a robbery as well.
Officer: Brace yourself, Eugene. Your car was the getaway car.
Eugene: What?
Officer: Eugene, you said some things were stolen from your dorm room?
Eugene: Oh, yes sir, my laptop.
Officer: Anything else?
Eugene: Not that I was aware of.
Officer: I think you'd better go back and look again.
Eugene: Oh, no.
Officer: What's wrong?
Eugene: The hard drive on my computer where all the files were kept, it's been reformatted. Gone. Everything is gone.
Whit: What's going on, Eugene?
Eugene: My files, everything. They've been completely erased.
Guest (Male): Okay, Abraham Lincoln, you sit right there and be a good girl.
Guest (Male): Maybe we should tie her up.
Guest (Male): Nah, she wouldn't be dumb enough to try to run away. It's not like she can see where she's going. You're not going to try and run away, are you, Abe? We're three flights up and I wouldn't want anything to happen to you.
Ethan: So, the room, if it was a room, was three flights up and sounded how?
Jenny: Empty, definitely empty. They sat me in an old wooden chair. It creaked, and I felt the leg of an old wooden table with my foot. But it had that echoey sound, like there wasn't any other furniture. Oh, and the doors creaked. And our feet swished on the floor like it was covered with dirt. No carpet.
Ethan: You're getting into the swing of this now, aren't you, Jenny?
Jenny: I think so, Dad.
Ethan: You're doing wonderfully. Now what else happened?
Guest (Male): Okay, let's get changed. Ouch! That hurts.
Guest (Male): You need to use the remover. You'll tear off a layer of skin doing it like that.
Guest (Male): I just want to get on with it. I don't like having this kid around.
Ethan: I suppose we can forget Mr. Holstein's and Katrina's descriptions of the culprits.
Jenny: Why?
Ethan: They were obviously wearing disguises.
Jenny: How do you know?
Ethan: Did you smell anything, Jenny?
Jenny: Yeah, something that smelled kind of like paint or glue. And something like nail polish or nail remover, that kind of thing.
Ethan: You see, Mr. Roberts, they used spirit and remover for their makeup, false mustaches, wigs. I must tell Captain Quinn that they're looking for men based on the wrong descriptions. You heard them changing clothes, correct?
Jenny: Yeah.
Ethan: To be expected. One of them got shy and went into the next room.
Jenny: Their hideout had a second room. Now that's good to know. What then, Jenny?
Guest (Male): All right, so the plan is what?
Guest (Male): I'll get rid of the car while you take the kid back to Odyssey in the pickup truck.
Guest (Male): What, are you nuts?
Ethan: Ah, now there's a missing piece.
Jenny: What?
Ethan: The one said he'd get rid of the car, Mr. Meltzner's car, the one found in Odenton. But once he got rid of it, how did he return to his partner?
Jenny: Maybe his partner picked him up.
Ethan: Maybe so. It's worth noting for Captain Quinn. Mr. Meltzner's car was found in Odenton near a gas station. An employee of the gas station may have seen something. How are you doing, Jenny? You must be getting tired.
Jenny: Yeah, I am, but I don't want to stop. I don't want the trail to get cold.
Ethan: I appreciate that. But you won't be helpful if your mind isn't sharp and focused. Let's take a break. Rest for tonight, and we'll start again first thing in the morning.
Jenny: Okay.
Ethan: In the meantime, I'll see what's keeping our good friend Mr. Holstein and find out what he can tell me about this rare book of his.
Holstein: And then what? So I said to the scoundrels, "You must not lay a glove or any other foreign or domestic object upon this fair maiden." And they were so intimidated by my presence that they hit me, again and again, until I had no choice but to fall on the ground. But they were not without their bruises, let me tell you that for nothing.
Ethan: Mr. Holstein.
Holstein: Excuse me while I assist this person that I have never seen before.
Guest (Male): But Fred, if you've never seen her before, how do you know it's her?
Holstein: Oh, my, that is an excellent question. I'll get back to you on that. Yes, how may I be of your help?
Ethan: I'm Detective Ethan from the County Sheriff's Office. I've been assigned to this case.
Holstein: Detective, I am so sorry I could not come to you right away, but I could not close my shop.
Ethan: That's all right. May I ask you a few questions?
Holstein: Yeah, yeah, but I have already had a lengthy convulsion with Captain Quinn.
Ethan: I'm sure you have. But I want to know about this rare book they stole.
Holstein: Oh, yeah, the first edition Haggard book. So tragic to have it only a few hours and then poof, it is in villainous fingers.
Ethan: Who did you order it for?
Holstein: I found it for Dr. Marcus at the college. And you can be sure for certain, he was very disappointed not to have the book that he so wanted to have.
Ethan: Well, I'm not a book collector, so you'll have to help me. Was the Haggard book rare enough for someone to want to steal?
Holstein: It is of course funny that you mention that because I have been thinking all day about it. It has been niggling at the back of my neck, as you say, it is on the tip of my toes. They stole that book, but they left other more precious first edition books that were sitting nearby.
Ethan: Meaning?
Holstein: Exactly, yeah. I can only suspect that they were not knowledgeable thieves with knowingness. Maybe they overheard my talk with Katrina about the book.
Ethan: So, as a theory, you're saying that they thought it would be a quick and easy theft.
Holstein: That is not what I said, but it sounds pretty good to me.
Ethan: You know, that doesn't quite line up. This whole robbery seemed awfully planned for the culprits to simply decide to take the book on the spur of the moment. I'm going to have to think about this.
Holstein: And I will too. I love solving mysteries. I have an entire book section devoted to them.
Ethan: Oh, one other thing. Was the book in an envelope of some sort?
Holstein: Oh, no, slap your tongue. A book like that would never be put in an envelope. You put such books in sturdy boxes. In fact, I remember seeing the book sticking out of the knapsack when the one crook emerged from the back room. Naturally, I was cross that he would treat such a fine edition so poorly. Why do you ask?
Ethan: Just more to think about. Well, I'll let you get back to your story.
Holstein: Thank you, detective. Come again in a short time. Now, where was I?
Guest (Male): You were sprawled on the floor.
Holstein: No, I wasn't, not yet. Oh, yeah, yeah, as I was saying, I wrestled them both to the floor. And only after one hit me with a large reference dictionary did I succumb.
Guest (Male): The old hit him with a large reference dictionary trick. Know it well.
Ethan: Detective Ethan.
Captain Quinn: Captain Quinn. Burke said I'd find you here. Nice night, isn't it?
Ethan: No time to notice. How's it going with Jenny?
Captain Quinn: Oh, she's a tough kid. She's helping out a lot, but unfortunately, the more I learn, the less some of this makes sense.
Ethan: You're telling me. You want to compare notes?
Captain Quinn: Yeah. Did you send someone over to talk to the employees of the gas station?
Ethan: In Odenton? Yeah, yeah, but nobody noticed anything unusual, at least nothing we can use.
Captain Quinn: How did you find the car?
Ethan: Oh, one of the kids at the gas station has a police monitor. He heard the description of the car and noticed it sitting there. We estimate the suspects dropped it off around five.
Captain Quinn: Around the same time Jenny was dropped off at the police station. So, it's safe to say the one suspect then drove over in the pickup truck and got his partner.
Ethan: Yeah, and that's a reasonable guess. But there's another angle to this whole thing.
Captain Quinn: Oh?
Ethan: Eugene Meltzner's dorm room was broken into, and whoever did it stole his laptop computer and his computer disks and then erased everything on his large desktop computer. It's fair to assume that this same person or persons then stole Eugene's car.
Captain Quinn: The getaway car.
Ethan: Right. I asked him to compile a list of everything he had on that computer.
Captain Quinn: You think it's all connected?
Ethan: I don't know. What do you think?
Captain Quinn: I don't have enough information to think yet. Right now, it's just a lot of scattered pieces. My mind's too fogged to put them together. You book me a room at the Odyssey Hotel?
Ethan: Yep.
Captain Quinn: Good. I think I'll go get some sleep.
Ethan: Wait a minute. You didn't tell me what you've learned. We're supposed to compare notes, remember?
Captain Quinn: Tomorrow, when the fog is cleared, Captain Quinn. Tomorrow.
Ethan: All right, Jenny, we've had a good night's sleep, a delicious breakfast, compliments of your parents. And now I need you to think about that hideout again. Forget the room, forget what they said. Think about the sounds outside, okay? Sounds outside. Then see if you can describe them.
Jenny: I'll do my best.
Guest (Male): Okay, Abraham Lincoln, you sit right there and be a good girl.
Guest (Male): Maybe we should tie her up.
Ethan: Jenny, what do you hear?
Jenny: A horn or something. I could hear it in the distance, like the kind on a big truck. And trucks driving back and forth. You know how they have that low rumble and the sound of gear shifting? And that beeping they make when they back up? Maybe bulldozers.
Ethan: Go on.
Jenny: Hammering. Definitely hammering.
Ethan: What kind of hammering? Tack hammers, nails, jackhammering?
Jenny: Pounding, like chiseling, but maybe some jackhammering, too.
Ethan: A construction site. Is that what it sounded like?
Jenny: Maybe. And there's one sound I can't figure out. Kind of like a woodpecker. No, a machine gun.
Ethan: A machine gun? You mean like on TV?
Jenny: Sort of, but more like the machine guns in those old gangster movies.
Ethan: But no other gun sounds.
Jenny: No, just that one.
Ethan: A firing range, maybe?
Jenny: I don't know.
Ethan: Describe it for me.
Jenny: I can't. I mean, it sounds like a machine gun. That's the only way to describe it.
Ethan: Okay. So we have what sounds like a construction site, except for the weird machine gun noise. If you heard it again, could you identify it?
Jenny: Sure.
Ethan: Officer Specter.
Guest (Female): Yes, Detective.
Ethan: I want you to get ahold of some sound effect discs.
Guest (Female): You're kidding. Where would I find something like that?
Ethan: Try the local radio stations or a recording studio. They must have some on hand.
Guest (Female): Yes, ma'am, if you say so.
Ethan: I say so. And you'd better find Captain Quinn. We need to talk.
Guest (Female): No, that's not it.
Guest (Female): Okay, well let's try the next track. How about this?
Guest (Female): Nope.
Guest (Female): Okay, and the next one.
Captain Quinn: What's going on here?
Ethan: Sound effect discs from a local recording studio. We're trying to identify some of the sounds Jenny heard outside of our suspect's hideout.
Captain Quinn: Like looking through mugshots of sound, huh? That's a new twist. Any luck?
Guest (Female): Not yet. How about you? Detective Ethan.
Ethan: Yes, did you find something?
Captain Quinn: No, I think we may need a break though.
Jenny: It's all starting to sound the same. I'm getting the sound effects confused with what I remember.
Ethan: Okay, Jenny, just take a break.
Captain Quinn: What kind of sound effects are you listening to?
Ethan: Construction sites. At least that's what it sounded like to her.
Captain Quinn: Aha. Well, then we're on the same track.
Ethan: Are we?
Captain Quinn: Yeah. We did an analysis of the dirt and dust covering Eugene Meltzner's car, and it's pretty normal for Odyssey and the surrounding area. But curiously, there was a layer of concrete dust, and the wheel wells had a kind of clay a car might get at a construction site where the ground is torn up by heavy machinery.
Ethan: Yes, but Jenny remembers an odd sound, something like the sound of an old machine gun in gangster movies. Wait a minute. Did you say concrete dust?
Captain Quinn: The car was covered with it.
Ethan: But what construction site would... maybe we have this the wrong way around. Officer, let me see that sound effects catalog.
Guest (Female): Sure.
Ethan: Construction, trucks, bulldozers. Oh, there we go. Punch in track 47.
Jenny: What'd you find?
Ethan: We've been listening to construction site sound effects. But would a construction site cover a car in concrete dust? Maybe, but not as much as a demolition site would.
Captain Quinn: Demolition?
Ethan: Listen for a moment. That's the sound of an industrial pneumatic chisel, the kind used at demolition sites.
Jenny: That's it! That's the sound! Hear it, like a machine gun?
Captain Quinn: Sounds like a woodpecker to me.
Jenny: That's what I said, too.
Ethan: Captain Quinn, I suggest we contact every zoning office within 20 miles of Odyssey to find out what's being demolished.
Captain Quinn: Okay, got you.
Ethan: Good job, Jenny. You've given this case a new lease on life.
Eugene: Please enter.
Katrina: Hello, Eugene.
Eugene: Katrina, greetings. Oh, please sit down. How are you faring this first day after your traumatic experience?
Katrina: I'm all right. Still a little anxious.
Eugene: Anxious?
Katrina: As long as those crooks are on the loose, I don't feel safe.
Eugene: I understand. Though my guess based on everything I've heard is that the villains were after particular items, not people.
Katrina: Yes, but still I can't help but feel uneasy. I've been praying about it, desiring God's peace in the midst of this turmoil, but I don't seem to have the inner resources to, well, to grab hold of it.
Eugene: Katrina, knowing your heart and the sincerity of your prayers, I am most certain peace will come. And if there's any way I can be of service...
Katrina: Thank you, Eugene. It means a lot to me to know that you're nearby.
Eugene: I must confess this mystery certainly has invigorated me.
Katrina: Invigorated you?
Eugene: Oh, yes. I'm determined to play my part in solving this case. For the moment, I'm trying to reconstruct the contents of the files on my computer hard drive. I'll ask, Katrina, you had stored some of your work on my computer as well. It's all lost.
Katrina: Well, I have hard copies of some of it. Unfortunately, some of them were in my knapsack.
Eugene: Yes, I had forgotten they took that as well.
Katrina: It's thrown my class assignment schedule to the wind. All of my most recent work was in there.
Eugene: The same is true of my computer, the laptop, and the disks, my technological knapsack, as it were. So it would seem we are in the same proverbial boat.
Katrina: Indeed. It is maddening. What was on this computer? Why would the culprits bother to steal my laptop and disks and then erase everything on my main computer? And what does it all have to do with the robbery at Holstein's bookshop? Those are the nagging questions.
Captain Quinn: Well, here's a map of a 20-mile circle around Odyssey. We've marked all the railroad crossings.
Ethan: Good.
Captain Quinn: We contacted all the zoning offices in the surrounding towns and they faxed us lists of areas where any sort of demolition is being carried out. Fortunately, there are only three.
Ethan: Well, this shouldn't take long then. Strike this one, smack in the middle of Connelsville. Jenny would have heard the city noises. We have to look at more remote sites.
Captain Quinn: Yeah, and this second one, Zone 12, this doesn't work.
Ethan: Why not?
Captain Quinn: It's inside the railroad lines, you see. They wouldn't have crossed any tracks to get to it, unless maybe they crossed just to throw us off.
Ethan: I doubt it. Jenny said they crossed railroad tracks returning to Odyssey as well. Why would they go to all that trouble when they were out of their disguises in another vehicle and obviously felt secure?
Captain Quinn: Well, that's a good point. It doesn't matter. According to this list, the demolition was completed three weeks ago.
Ethan: Well, then it has to be this one over in Zone 9.
Captain Quinn: Could be. No, wait, it can't be.
Ethan: Oh, it has to be. That's all there is.
Captain Quinn: Yeah, but it isn't, see? It's nestled in a factory area. There's a steel mill and a computer manufacturing center. They would have had to drive past them to get to the demolition site and Jenny didn't hear anything that sounded like one or the other.
Ethan: Well, maybe she didn't notice.
Captain Quinn: Maybe she didn't. But there's another problem. This site has only one building being demolished.
Ethan: So?
Captain Quinn: So, Jenny was in the hideout on the third floor of one building when she heard the sounds of another building being demolished. That means we need a demolition site with more than one structure.
Ethan: But that's all there is.
Captain Quinn: That can't be. Look at the map. We're missing something or forgetting.
Ethan: Like what? Jenny must have been wrong in what she heard. This is a dead end.
Captain Quinn: No, she was too sure.
Ethan: But this is it. Back to square one. We'd have to go... wait, what does this legend mean over here near Mitchell Point?
Captain Quinn: Let me see. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. That's where they're putting in the new interstate highway. And this area here, what is it? An old iron work factory?
Ethan: It's right in the path of the proposed highway being constructed now. I see. What happens to those one, two, three buildings?
Captain Quinn: Demolished, I guess.
Ethan: But they're not on the list. Why not?
Captain Quinn: Good question. Would their demolition be handled out of the state office instead of one of the local zoning boards?
Ethan: That's possible. Not just possible, likely. Let's get on the phone to the capital and find out. Right, I don't care how you do it, you have to stop them. I'm going out there with my men right now. Jurisdiction? Forget it. Just stop those workers until we get there. Bureaucrats! Well, come on. That has got to be the place. Three buildings, the old factory, an office building, and an apartment building used for the immigrant workers from the factory, all built around the turn of the century. They knocked down the office building last week. They finished the factory off last night.
Ethan: Last night?
Captain Quinn: The apartment building is coming down today.
Ethan: Their hideout is in the apartment building. Our boys were real smart. They figured the building with any evidence would come down before we'd find it. Paula!
Guest (Female): Yes, sir!
Captain Quinn: I want every available officer at Route 32 and Columbia Road right now.
Guest (Female): Right away, sir.
Frank Fallon: Ah, you must be Captain Quinn from Odyssey.
Captain Quinn: Yeah, who are you?
Frank Fallon: I'm Frank Fallon, the foreman of this site. State called and said to wait on blowing this place up. What's the problem?
Captain Quinn: We're looking for a couple of suspects in a robbery.
Frank Fallon: You won't find them here. We checked the building for people, it's empty.
Captain Quinn: The suspects may be gone, but the clues may still be around.
Frank Fallon: Well, good luck searching through all the junk for clues. Joe, you take Bill and Ed through the front. Burke, you and Max start from the back and check every nook and cranny. And be careful.
Captain Quinn: This is the room, Captain.
Ethan: You didn't touch anything, did you?
Captain Quinn: No, sir. Who'd want to touch anything in a dump like this?
Ethan: Well, get the lab boys up here to check for fingerprints.
Captain Quinn: I'll be surprised if you find any.
Ethan: Me too. But if our boys thought the building was being demolished, they might have been careless. Look at this.
Captain Quinn: Aha. We can assume that's Katrina's knapsack.
Ethan: Has to be.
Captain Quinn: See anything else?
Ethan: Not yet. I want to look inside without touching anything. Got a pen?
Captain Quinn: Oh, yeah, sure. Here.
Ethan: Well, now that's interesting.
Captain Quinn: What?
Ethan: The money is still stuffed in the front pouch.
Captain Quinn: Oh, so they weren't after the money.
Ethan: No. Oh, no. Well, our lives just became more complicated.
Captain Quinn: How?
Ethan: Inside this main section of the knapsack. Look. They left the Haggard book.
Chris: Now wait a minute. If the book was the reason Holstein's bookstore got held up, then why did the thieves leave it behind? And we still don't know how Eugene's computer fits into this case. Well, you know what you have to do. Keep listening. Meanwhile, don't forget to drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. Simply send your letter to Adventures in Odyssey, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80995. Or in Canada write to Box 9800, Vancouver, BC, V6B 4G3. And remember to ask how you can get your own copy of today's episode. It's called "The Perfect Witness." That address again is Adventures in Odyssey, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80995. Adventures in Odyssey is a presentation of Focus on the Family. "The Perfect Witness" was written and directed by Paul McCusker. Our production engineer was Dave Arnold and our executive producers Chuck Bolte. And I'm Chris, hoping you'll join us again next time for more Adventures in Odyssey.