Invasion

Jesse made himself a simple dinner. After a few hours passed he began to entertain the idea of going back to the station, but he knew it would raise a few eyebrows since it was not usual for him to be there unless something out of the ordinary was going on. While he was trying to think up some sort of an explanation, he wondered if Cassy and Pitt had already gotten one of the discs. If they had, there was no need for him to make the effort.

Looking through the scraps of paper in his pocket, he located the kid's telephone number. He placed the call. Pitt answered.

"We bombed," Pitt said. "The guy who had the discs is sick. We asked at other stalls and were told the market had become so flooded, they couldn't sell them. So no one is carrying them anymore."

"Damn," Jesse said.

"You weren't able to get one either?" Pitt asked.

"I haven't tried yet," Jesse admitted. Suddenly an idea occurred to him. ''Hey, would there be any chance of you two coming with me to the station? Maybe it sounds funny but if I walk in there by myself, everybody's going to be wondering what I'm doing. If I come in acting like I'm in the process of investigating something, there won't be a problem."

"It's okay by me," Pitt said. "Hang on, let me ask Cassy."

Jesse toyed with the phone cord. Pitt came right back on the line. "She's ready to do anything that might help," Pitt said. ''Where should we meet?''

"I'll come and pick you up," Jesse said. "But it will be after midnight. I want the evening gang to have gone home. It will be easier during the graveyard shift. There's a lot less personnel involved." The more Jesse thought about the idea the better it sounded.

It was quarter past one when Jesse pulled into the police headquarters' parking lot and came to a stop in his reserved spot. He killed the engine.

"Okay, guys," Jesse said. "Here's how this is going to play. We're going to walk in the front door. You'll have to go through the metal detector. Then we'll head directly for my desk. If anybody asks you what you're doing, just say you are with me. Okay?"

"Should I be scared about going in there?" Cassy asked. She never thought she'd be concerned about going to police headquarters.

"Nah, not in the slightest," Jesse assured her.

They climbed from the car and entered the station. While Pitt and Cassy were going through the metal detector they overheard the uniformed policeman at the front desk: "Yes, ma'am. We'll be there as soon as we can. We understand that raccoons can be unsettling. Unfortunately we're understaffed with the flu that's going around ... "

A few minutes later they were sitting around Jesse's desk. The squad room was deserted. "This is better than I thought," Jesse said. "There's hardly anybody here."

"This would be the time to rob the bank," Pitt said.

"That's not funny," Cassy chastised.

"Okay, let's get up and go back to property booking," Jesse said. "Here's my Cross pen. If need be we'll pretend we're booking it in as if it belonged to you."

Pitt took the pen. All three got to their feet.

The property booking cage was locked up tight. Only the light from the hall shone through the wire mesh to illuminate the interior.

"All right, you guys wait here," Jesse said. He used his key to open the door. A quick glance around the floor told him that someone had picked up the discs and the other objects that he'd knocked off the counter when he'd vaulted over to help Alfred. "Damn," he voiced.

"Is there a problem?" Pitt asked.

"Somebody's picked up in here," Jesse said. "The discs must have been placed in envelopes, and there's a whole dad-blasted stack of them in here."

"What are you going to do?"

"Open them up," Jesse said. "There's no shortcut."

Jesse started. It took longer than he expected. He had to twist the clasps, open the envelope, and look inside.

"Can we help?" Pitt offered.

"Yeah, why not," Jesse said. "We'll be here all night."

The kids entered the cage and, following Jesse's lead, began opening envelopes.

"They got to be here someplace," Jesse said irritably.

They worked in silence. After about five minutes Jesse reached out and whispered, "Hold up!"

Slowly Jesse raised himself so he could see over the top of the counter. He'd heard what he thought were footsteps. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. He had to blink to make sure it wasn't an apparition. It wasn't. It was the captain and he was coming in their direction.

Jesse ducked back down. "Jesus," he whispered. "The captain is coming. Move back under the counter and don't move."

As soon as the kids were in position, Jesse stood up. Since there was still time he exited the property booking cage. Walking quickly, he intercepted the captain in the hall.

"The duty officer said you were here, Kemper," the captain said. "What the hell are you doing? It's almost two o'clock in the morning."