How He Was Finally Caught Red Handed

I was doing time when I heard that he had been arrested, convicted and sent to the same facility where I was 'enjoying' the State's hospitality.

I couldn't believe in it, he was quite a legend in our business.

Thirty two years on the job, hundreds of successfully made heists (just a few failures since he's not foolproof) and only two convictions, both for offenses unrelated to his line of work (he got drunk three days after his mother died and 'drove' back home and a Nazi dude called his girlfriend names that I won't repeat, and learned a lesson), but now...

I asked the other inmates more information about how it had happened. He had been arrested after invading a sorority house? He had tied up and gagged a bunch of co-eds?

I remembered the job he did in a New Jersey strip joint, some guy had hidden there something that someone paid him to retrieve but, surprise, it wasn't in the manager's office as his client told him it was. It was in a box in the strippers changing room.

He should have waited for the girls to leave, but he had a timetable and had to get out of the place in less than thirty minutes. Twenty nine minutes later he left with the box under his arm and six naked or half naked bound and gagged girls rolling on the floor, tied back-to-back or to their chairs and locked in the changing room.

And there were many other stories about how he, a red blooded man, never ever let the beauty of his female victims distract him. So how it had happened?

It took me three days to finally meet him and ask him...

*****

'You know Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and all those teenage amateur sleuths? Add a new name to the list: Lara Nashworth. Nineteen years old, redhead with freckles and a cute nose and long legs. She was definitely the wrong person to accidentally get in possession of the proofs that could send... my client... to jail.'

'How?'

'Stupid stuff. She arrived in town to visit her sister who lived in a sorority by train, and at the station an idiot who was a former 'intimate friend' of my client (and had actually stole the info with the intention of blackmailing him) run into her, they crashed like in the movies, their belongings got splattered all over the floor and, like in the movies, when they realized it, she had got the idiot's camera instead of her own for they had the very same model. The info was encrypted in the camera's memory card, you know... Easter Eggs...'

'Data hidden in pictures?'

'Exactly. Anyway, my client's ‘assistants’ were right after the... they found her in a fleabag motel in Miami. They stormed into her room when she was having a bath, tied her up with torn strips of the towel she tried to use to cover her modesty... I believe that she used her charms (she's a Latina with really big breasts and large hips and pouty lips) to get in the possession of the data... and found that it was Lara's camera.'

'And then?'

'They cocked their guns warning her not to scream and she told the what happened. Luckily some of the pictures in the camera identified Lara's sister, Sharon, very easily (or perhaps one of them recognized her) and her college as well. So they were em route to deliver the Latina to a 'friend' of my client... I see that you heard about it.'

'Yeah... the blockade in the interstate that was supposed to get an escaped convict 9or something like that) and ended up nabbing two dudes with a comatose drug induced and naked tied up Latina chick in the trunk of their car...'

'Correct. So my client found himself without his 'assistants', needed to relax... and luckily for him... that was the night I was relieving another of his 'friends' of her jewelry...'

'He caught you?'

'Not really. He had phoned the brunette before I entered her apartment. She was supposed to meet him at the door when he arrived at 11 p.m. sharp wearing only her white silk robe and a pair of plumps. She would kiss him and from them on... so he was expecting a kiss the moment he opened the door, and found instead himself staring at the bikini and lingerie model writhing on the floor, I had her hogtied in the buff. I was expecting that he run to her and, after he crouched on the floor to free her, I would make my presence known, bind him and finish the job. Instead he hired me...'

'What???!!!'

'Yes, that's what happened. He looked around and say out loud 'is the man responsible for this situation still here?', I made myself known already pointing the gun at him. He was absurdly calm. I quickly bound him but before I could gag him he gave me the pin numbers of his cards. Puzzled with his cooperation I gave him an opening, and he used it, he's very good at it, that's how he made a living for all his life. Twenty minutes later we were in the kitchen, he still tied up while I sat across of him trying to find out if he was not playing me. The model was now completely forgotten and I had gagged her very well so we didn’t heard her very muffled angry protests. He wasn't playing me. I was his guardian angel, his divine providence gift, and in exchange to find out where that camera was and return it to him, he would pay me half million. Of course, I knew that he was lying to me...'

'He was...?'

'He was almost perfect I must admit. But when he started to tell me that he wanted the 'intimate register' of one night with the Latina chick, I knew that he was lying, whatever it was it was motre than just some very compromising (he’s married) pictures with a younger woman. He gave me a number to call if I accepted the job, all the numbers of his cards, his 10K watch and didn't complied when I gagged him. I redid a few knots on the brunette (that I moved to a sofa in the living room), patted her round buttocks and left the place. No word about the heist in the papers or to the police, I cashed everything I could with the cards that very same night. Then I decided to check on the info he had told me. What the heck... half a million American dollars! I am not that young anymore, I’m starting to need a daily dose of medications... I could retire with that last job, supposing that he was telling the truth.'

'And you found out that...?'

'Well, a certain D. Nashworth had put an announce in the campus papers saying that she was in the possession of the camera of Juanita Dalejandro. Please get in touch... blah blah blah... I checked the name and found out about the exploits of Ms. Nashworth when she was even younger than she is... She sent about a dozen people to prison by helping her mother, the sheriff of a small town in western Texas, to solve small cases...'

'Like in the books of Nancy Drew? Really?'

'Yes. It didn't lasted long though. A shoplifter here, an insurance fraud there, a racist wacko around the corner, and when she (and her friends) got themselves in a really deal murder case... which she solved by the way... her mother and her friends' mothers ended up her sleuth activities. There was an interview of her in her town's newspaper page on the Web. She was in the same town that I was because she wanted to check on the local colleges. She might have been the sleuth of the family, but her sister Sharon was the financial brain AND the athlete. She had a full scholarship due to her ability with a...'

'Sharon N. O’Hara? The women's college basketball superstar? The ‘Larry Bird in skirts’?'

'You heard about her?'

'Sure... I like basketball, and this lady is good enough to be on WNBA anytime she wants!'

'Well, she will be there next year trust me on that one. Part of her pre-deal with a major sports drinks company is that her two sisters, Lara and a nine years old little girl called Patty, would go to the college they wanted at the company's full expenses. Even with this crisis and all, the company was true to their word.'

'So?'

'In the interview, she stated that she missed the days when she was the town's snoop. That she had always be very curious, a bit careless, too much inquisitive...'

'And when you found out that THIS girl was with something that your client wanted...'

'I did a research on him too. Word on the streets was that the DA office wanted him and so some Federal agencies. And it wasn't the first time that I was hired to retrieve incriminating evidence, he made sure of that, he had made a research of his own about me...'

'He saw your face?'

'No, 'never leave clues behind' is my mantra, remember? He got in touch with his arrested 'assistants', who gave him a few names, he paid those guys who asked around and found out whom had had robbed him. So when I called him to say that I was in he called me by my name. I told him what I knew and that I wasn't buying his 'porn mementos' story. He told me about the Easter Eggs and offered one million if I got the camera that very same day. The law enforcers were right onto him, he needed that data!'

'And then you raided the sorority... on your own?'

'No. A friend of mine who happens to be very good with computers checked the campus police, she said that the web security of the guys was 'riiiiiiidiiiiculous'...'

'You know Tinker Bell?'

'Do you?'

'Yeah, is she's still...'

'...using those white rabbit fluffy slippers all the time? She'll probably be buried with them. Anyway. She got in, checked on who would be on duty that very night and, for a small bonus that I paid up front, she agreed to take care of someone for me... the 33 years old pregnant wife of one of the campus guards, yes, yes I know. NOT my usual procedure...'

''...but you was going to retire and it was one million tax free dollars...' I understand.'

'Tinker Bell quickly found out which one, of the guards on duty that night, lived the farthest away of the college and the town nearby, and had the minimum number of relatives (only one) living with him and in whose uniform I could fit. The fact that the wife in question was six months pregnant was a surprise. I didn't dared to use any chloroform or the likes on her. Two strips of electrician tape (without packing) for a gag, another strips over a scarf to blindfold her, ear plugs on both ears and a handcuff (that was on top of the nightstand when I grabbed her in her own bedroom) and she was ready to be moved to TB's place.'

'And her reaction to a pregnant captive?'

'From what I know, the woman just hated be treated as if she was made of porcelain by a 'sweet yet overzealous lady'. Since she was blindfolded all the time, and T used a voice synthesizer to talk to her, she has no idea about who was her captoress and how she can ever identify her. The moment Tinker Bell realized that I was in custody she simply put the wife on her SUV, drove her to a spot a hundred yards away from a station and let her go.'

'And the husband, he was... cooperative?'

'Completely. I had a talk with him before he went to the campus. He has two jobs and I grabbed his wife when he was in the middle of one of them. Fortunately, for me, he loves his wife and was very thrilled with the idea of being a father. So he agreed to obey every order of mine. Simple stuff, at nine p.m. he would go to a isolated spot on the campus area, undress, allow himself to be tied up and he'll be reunited with his wife the next morning. They don't have that many guards there and... someone... broke into a lab of the campus (on the opposite site of the sorority house), without stealing or damaging anything, but forcing half of them to assist the pair of cops sent there.'

'Wasn't it a bit... bold?'

'The plan was get inside the sorority, find the Nashworth room, bind and gag them if necessary, retrieve the camera or at the very least the memory chip, and get out of the whole section of the town in half an hour at most. But... that wasn't what happened.'

He stood silent for a moment. He didn't really seemed defeated. Resigned, not defeated.

'The house's mother answered my knocks on the door. The house was almost desert, there was a big game going on at the field, and most of the girls were there. It was a warm night, and all girls were wearing jeans shorts or trousers and T-shirts when I got there. There was a young lady with her and both swore to me that 'That wasn't going to happen again', 'That 'she' would be out of there first thing in the morning'. I told the house's mother to calm down, that whatever she and her friend were talking about I wasn't there for it. Both girls relaxed and then the 'mother' looked at me and asked me who I was. I told that my name was Frank and that I was a retired cop (I am obviously old enough to pass for one) who was in his first night on his new job. Tinker Bell's hacking had provided me with a ID card that was very convincing, and I already knew that besides the two co-eds in front of me there were at least three other girls in the house that night. They were the Nashwood sisters and a girl called Zoe. We went inside and said Zoe was in the kitchen, drinking some tea, when me and the other two entered the room...'

'How do she looked like? How do they all looked?'

'You want to fantasize about it so much?'

'Hell, yes! Look, I can't believe that you got caught! I really wanna know how it happened. But if you can provide something for me with your story, then...'

'Zoe was... is... a sophomore of twenty years of age. The tallest girl of the sorority, she stands at least at 6'4”, she's taller than me! She's not anorexic or very thin, but she's 'not fat' if you know what I mean. Black hair and eyes, and a calm demeanor. The moment I pulled my gun and pointed at the girls, Danika (the house's mother) and Rae (her roommate) almost shrieked. But Zoe told them to calm down and they obeyed her. Then she looked at me and asked if it was a robbery. I just smiled, looked around (it was an old three story house and from where I stood I had a great view of the stairs that led to the rooms upstairs) and threw a roll of tape to Danika and ordered her to tape Zoe to her chair. It was one of those wooden chairs that you see everyday. Not really sturdy but... reliable. And you know the rule. Deal with the biggest treat first. Danika and Rae weren't definitely treats to me or nearly everyone else. Neither were the Nashwoods (I had seen pictures of them), but Zoe was taller than me. With the calmest and sweetest tone of voice I told the girls that I wasn't there to hurt them, nor kill them nor anything else. They were jus in the wrong place at the wrong time. Danika calmed a bit but that wasn't enough for Rae who was already sobbing. Meanwhile Danika was doing a good job on Zoe. First she had asked Zoe to stand up, then she taped her arms as close as possible, then she had helped her to sit back with Zoe's arms and back sandwiching the back of the chair, after that she wrapped the tape a few turns around to trap the torso on the chair, then she wrapped more tape to tape the legs together and then them to the seat of the chair and to the front right leg of the chair. All in all a very good job, and definitely not a first timer’s. And you know what she told when she realized that I was interested in how she had gotten such... proficiency in restrain someone else?'

'...?'

''Hey... we DO have some non-violent pranks in the college OK?'

'No way!'

'It's true...'

'And what's next?'

'Normally I would tell Rae to tape Danika up, but Rae was a wreck, crying and sobbing with no end in sight for her tears. So Danika held the girl in her arms for a few moments and then repeated the process. When Rae's arms got trapped behind her back I, and the others, understood why she was so scared of me. Zoe was wearing a navy blue T-shirt, Danika's was a black with the college's name on it while Rae's was white, and a bit thick, but not enough to prevent us to see that, unlike the other two. She wasn't wearing a bra...'

'No!'

'...and did I mention that she was the... most well 'endowed' of all girls of that sorority?'

'NO!!!!'

He nodded and I laughed, the other inmates around us thought that he had just told a joke. After a while I looked at him and my mute question was way too obvious...

'38D, at the very least...'

'No!!! And what happened next??'

'Well, you know how the breasts are enhanced when you tie the arms tight behind the woman's back and..., they were already huge! Really really big and firm! And she was looking at me with such teary 'PLEASE don't hurt me' eyes that I said the only thing that came into my mind without thinking much about it...'

'...????'

''Honey, you're hot. Deliciously hot... for those men who appreciate women that is...''

I nearly rolled on the floor so strong was my laughter! Then the guards interfered and they forced me to get away from him. Before he was too far away he said something to a guy next to him, a guy who's in my block. 'Blue eyes and blonde with a big ponytail'. I had a few dreams with Rae, and a lot of laughter imagining him saying that...

The next day we met again. He gave me a better idea of Rae (5'6” and a cheerleader -who got suspended from the squad hence the fact that she was there and not at the field-) and Danika (also blonde, 36C, 5'7” and long and lean legs) and how Rae calmed down when she heard him saying it, didn't she ever saw 'What Women Want' with Mel Gibson?

Anyway she calmed down, was reprimanded by Danika for not be using a bra and...

'After she finished with Rae I told her to lie on her belly on the floor. Ankles, above the knees, crossed wrists, elbows (as much as she could take) and a few tape to hogtie her. I had just slapped a few strips of tape over each girls' lips and that's when Sharon Nashwood entered the kitchen saying 'Girls! You won't believe in what...' then she saw her friends taped up and gagged, and me. The look in her face was priceless...'

'...?'

'She looked at the girls, then at me, then she asks me 'This isn't a robbery, is it?'. I shook my head very slowly. 'You're here for the memory chip, right?'. Hey, by now it was obvious that she had seen the data, but I let her go on, and nodded. 'For the data hidden in those pictures of that topless busty Latina lady, right?'. I told her to not say anything else, I wasn't there to hurt no one, that I would tie her and her sister up and leave, to never ever bother her again. Of course, I was wearing a disguise. I had changed the color of my hair and the fake beard was very convincing, plus I now had brown eyes, so they would have some trouble to recognize me. I told to follow my orders and that if she did so in ten minutes I would be long gone. You've seen pictures of her, didn't you?'

'Yeah, redhead with very short hair, almost military cut, freckles, blue eyes, 6'0”, more lean than strong and with a captivating smile...'

'Well she was wearing beige pajamas and flip-flops. I told her to turn around, taped her wrists and gagged her. I took one last look to the other girls and grabbed her by the arm...’

‘...?’

‘That moment...'

He cursed himself almost inaudibly.

'...I should have had realized that something was wrong. I should! I felt someone watching me. The lights were on and it was a very greatly illuminated place. Some furniture for me to check around if there was anyone hiding! But I was in a hurry... and I didn't checked...'

'Who?'

He just smiled. It was the mystery itself, and he was going to leave it for last...

'Lara was copying the data she had just found in the Easter Egg, always the snoopy girl, she had not found out what exactly it was. A financial record of sorts but what exactly it was was a mystery to her. So she would copy it in her pen-drive and show to her sheriff mother when she returned to her hometown. She obviously was expecting her sister and the others when I entered dragging Sharon by the left arm. She raised her hands and stood up, then she looked at the screen of her laptop and I nodded. 'What now?' she asked me. Unlike her sister, Lara is a very voluptuous girl. Nowhere near as Rae, but more than her sister. And she was wearing just a white lacy bikini cut panties and a black T-shirt. I told her to lie on her bed and quickly had her tape-hogtied and gagged and to be on the safe side I tied a medium sized length of rope from her legs to one of the front legs of the bed, then another length of rope under both of her armpits and to the diagonally opposite leg of the first leg, then I repeated everything with her sister. Both were obviously scared but were managing to hold on very well. And I sat on the bed where Lara was laying and worked on her laptop. I erased the copy she made of the data with a program Tinker Bell gave me. 'T' used her skills to invade Lara's laptop and get the pictures of the Latina (with the eggs) and then she threw me the bomb. The cops had been alerted of my presence on the house. I had kept the radio of the campus police on just in case, and there was nothing about me. But she told me that they were closing on the house. I took a quick pick through the window...'

It was his show. Fine, I was the only attendance that he had, but he was determined to give me a good performance. So I asked the obvious question: 'And then?'...

'They were there. Just a few of them and definitely not even one was good at hiding his/her presence. I looked at Sharon..., then at Lara..., I had already taken a hostage, from her home, for the first time earlier that day. I was going down. I had been finally beaten. But by whom? Then I saw it, and I understood...'

'What? What did you saw?'

'The room had a private bathroom and toilet. From the point where I now stood, right between the beds with the two sisters captive, I could see the washbasin and the tooth glass with three toothbrushes. Two of the same size for the sisters, the third much smaller, for the youngest of the Nashwood... Patty...'

'So she was...'

'She was the one Danika and Rae were telling me that would be leaving the sorority 'first thing in the morning'. The fraternities, sororities and dorms have give to the campus police a complete and daily uploaded list of who lives where and who is staying temporarily, as long as he or she fits the rules of course, and for how long. Patty Nashwood convinced her mother to convince Lara to take her along in what became Patty's first trip outside Texas. But none of them told Sharon about it, who obviously didn't warned Danika who didn't warned the campus police so Tinker Bell couldn't warn me about her presence. They had hid her luggage in the closet and just by luck Danika and Rae had found out about her, and to be fair due to the exceptionality of the circumstance, and that Sharon gave two trophies to the college almost all by herself, a simple conversation with the Dean would set things right the next morning. And that smirking little freckled... BRAT!!!'

But it was obvious that he wasn't really mad at the girl. He was smiling when he resumed.

'I picked the radio and asked to talk with the officer in charge. Five minutes later I was in the back of a patrol car, the girls were all untied and being cared for and..., it was over. I had surrendered peacefully and hadn't really hurt anyone. But I will not leave this place walking on my feet... Too many offenses for one single act for that.'

'And where did the little...?'

'Self-control seems to run in the veins of the Nashwood. And besides, Lara played a ruse on Patty and scared her into believing that Sharon could be expelled from the college for 'hiding' her (Patty). Not that Patty is that naive, given her age, but Lara is that... sadistic?'

'Nah, my big sister always played pranks on me and especially on our younger sister...'

'Perhaps. Anyway, Lara is also very convincing. So when young Patty heard my voice she decided to talk to me and try to convince to not expell Sharon (much to her big sisters' silent delight)... and saw me drawing a gun on the others. She realized that she was in plain sight and hid behind the sofa. She only raised (quickly) her head to see what was that ripping sound she was hearing. When Sharon went downstairs Patty couldn't warn her without giving herself away. So she waited and prayed for me not to hurt anyone. Then I took Sharon upstairs and she run into the kitchen. Smart kid, very smart one. She didn't even bothered to try to free the captive girls, she actually made the 'silence' signal with her index finger as she was entering the room. I had taken the two cellphones, from Danika and Rae, that I had found with them and had removed the batteries. She found them in the trash bin, put them back in place and called the cops. Luckily for them by that time the guard I was impersonating, and whom I had chloroformed for good measure, had been already found and when she told them that the 'burglar' was wearing a campus guard uniform...'

'So... what now...?'

'Lara now knows about what was the data she saw, but Tinker Bell's mastery makes t impossible for her or the good guys to prove it. So my client is safe. He and myself had a hard time with the pressure the feds gave us, but I plead guilty to all charges and cleared him of any wrongdoing. He paid TB the million he promised and I told her to keep it. She's sending me every monthly issue of 'Playboy' and 'Penthouse' and other magazines like those. As for the Nashwoods, well they have a problem now... Big time trouble...'

'What?'

'Little Patty reactivated the sleuths gang Lara was forced to shut down years ago...’