03 - Death by Chocolate

Death by Chocolate

Chapter 01

         The morning TV weather forecaster predicted rain for San Francisco and the surrounding area. It would be heavy enough for classification as a gully washer, if there were such a thing in that part of California. Up in Petaluma, people were lining up for the first tour of the morning through the local chocolate factory. It was a favorite tourist destination for those who were not in San Francisco strictly for the shopping and seafood.

         At exactly 8:30, the doors to the factory opened, and the small crowd of patiently waiting men, women, but mostly children entered to walk down the long hallway into the factory area. Busy workers created delicious confections in rooms branching off the hallway. One large room contained the large vats where chocolate swirled endlessly. The tourists viewed these rooms through large glass windows. The tantalizing smell of chocolate drifted out to the hallway making some of the children overly excited as they waited for their “sugar fix”. Parents looked at each other in dismay. They suddenly realized what they were getting themselves into with their hyperactive and noisy offspring. However, it was too late trying to convince the children that a trip to Alcatraz would be more fun.

         Employees went about the various tasks needed to create the chocolates favored through the United States. Halfway down the hallway, the tourists stopped by one window opposite a particularly large vat. Suddenly, a skinny woman wearing a gaudy flowered sundress with a matching sun hat screamed and pointed through the window. On top of the thick dark chocolate pushed round and round by turning paddles floated a human hand.

         As her husband pounded on the window to get the attention of the employees inside, the woman fainted. Meanwhile, the children looked eagerly at this unexpected treat, not bothered at all since most of them played more gory video games. A human hand floating in chocolate just was a bonus to what had so far been a boring morning. As one 10-year-old boy said, in response to seeing the hand, “Kewl!”

         A male employee covered in a white uniform and obligatory white hat to cover his nonexistent head of hair came over to see what the ruckus was about. He spotted the hand, pointed out by the man who didn’t know whether to continue gesturing toward it or pick his wife up off the floor. The severed hand won.

Chapter 02

         The shocked tourists left the factory and went on their way with large free boxes of chocolates. The factory’s manager hoped these bribes would keep them from talking with the press. Another group of people soon invaded the factory. It consisted of the Petaluma police and three forensic scientists, today on loan from the SFPD. Jeff Randall, the handsome middle-aged shift supervisor, and two of his staff, Anthony Greene and Angela Starkey, walked through the factory room. It was now empty of employees except for an older man. The man, Mr. Pitts of Security, was pale and trying hard not to look at the vat, now surrounded by a yellow police tape. Two police officers stood just at the door to the room, staying out of the way but ready to help if needed.

         After thoroughly checking the room for anything that looked out of place, Angela returned to the vat. While Anthony took photographs, she carefully removed the dripping hand. “Male,” she said this quietly, examining it by turning it around to view it from both sides, “and married.” This statement came from the sight of the simple band on a finger, color at this point unknown.

         “Probably Asian!” offered Anthony, although how he could tell through the thick coating of chocolate had Angela squinting at the hand to see what he had seen. At her unasked question, he grinned at her and pointed, “Size. Small married male, probably Asian, though we won’t know until Burke cleans this up.”

          Randall, who had been quietly talking with the factory employee away from the vat, returned to confer with his two people. “Anything to report?”

          “Well, chocolate-covered hands will not be a big seller here!” Angela couldn’t resist this quip. She instantly regretted it as Randall didn’t crack a smile but just stared silently back at her. Angela winced, remembering too late that he lost his sense of humor at crime scenes.

          “What have you found so far?” he continued as if Angela had not spoken. Anthony rushed in to save her from a further faux pas with the information the hand might belong to a married Asian male. “Angela, be sure to get it to Dr. Burke right away. Anthony, come with me. We can check outside since there’s nothing else here for us.”

         As Angela bagged the hand and left for the morgue in San Francisco, Mr. Pitts guided the two men outside to check out the factory’s grounds.

Chapter 03

         The three men left the factory through the candy store’s shop that led outside to a beautiful flower garden. This was a large area to check for signs of a crime, over two acres, but Randall quickly made a decision. He told Anthony only to check for footprints just along the perimeter leading into the garden. They left Mr. Pitts sitting nervously in the latticed-covered patio, wishing this terrible day would end.

         Three hours went by as the two men took off in opposite directions. They slowly examined the gravel and soil but came up empty. When they met back at the patio, it surprised but pleased them to find the security man had brought out tall cold glasses of iced coffee for the now-overheated men.

         The air over the morning had become muggy, a precursor to the expected storm later that day, and their shirts were sticking to their bodies with sweat. Randall, wearing his normal black work outfit, was suffering the most. The only sign of his discomfort, however, was a thin sheen of perspiration on his forehead and upper lip. The curls in his dark brown hair did appear tighter than usual, as always happened in moist heat, making him look even younger. Anthony immediately sat down at the table inside the patio, practically gulping down the iced coffee. He was grateful for it and the shade the patio’s wooden roof provided from the hot sun.

          As Randall sat down to join the two men, his cell phone went off. Taking a long sip of the refreshing coffee before answering the cell, he heard Angela’s voice on the other end. He listened to what she had to report, closed up the phone, and looked at Anthony with a grim expression on his tired face.

          “You were wrong, but then so was Angela. You know, you two shouldn’t jump to conclusions before all the evidence is in.” He said this in a mock scolding tone and waited patiently for Anthony to press him for what he was talking about.

Chapter 04

          Earlier, back in the autopsy room and watching the rotund Dr. Burke washing the severed hand, Angela stood quietly next to the table. She wondered what else, if anything, the two men had found back at the chocolate factory. However, she was glad she had received the assignment of bringing back the hand to this air-conditioned room rather than being outside in the hot weather as they were.

          “Angela, did you say you and Anthony thought this probably was a married Asian male?” Dr. Burke’s question pulled her out of her daydreaming. As she walked over to the autopsy table, she nodded. This made her blonde hair dance around her shoulders. The good doctor smiled at her. He rarely got to see such a beautiful woman here in his room of death, such a beautiful live woman. Angela was a favorite of his, and he always enjoyed her way of innocently flirting with him.

          “Yes, because of the size of the hand and ring, and it’s definitely from a man, isn’t it?” As she questioned the good doctor, she realized that just perhaps they might have jumped the gun and decided facts before all the evidence was in. Although she enjoyed Randall’s company, she was glad he was miles away right now. He had often stated his mantra of “Don’t get ahead of the evidence!” Once again, she and Anthony might have rushed to judgment before having all the evidence.

         Angela pitied poor Anthony, having to be there with Randall when told of this new evidence. On thinking that, she just realized something. She had to call their supervisor about this and possibly hear the implied “I told you so” in his voice.

         ”Okay, where did we go wrong?” Angela wanted to get the news from Dr. Burke quickly. No, what she wanted was to get that phone call to Randall behind her. Like the rest of those who worked for him, she hated to have him disappointed in her even in such a small way as this was.

          “You were right in the sex of the hand; it does belong to a male. However, the size is that of a child, a teenager maybe between 15 and 18.” Angela grimaced at this news, as all of them hated dealing with a crime case where the victim was a child. Randall especially always seemed the most affected, so now she really dreaded making that call.

         “What about the wedding ring on his finger then?” She suddenly remembered this and hoped Doctor Burke had made a mistake about the man’s age.

         “Friendship ring, Angela, not wedding.”

         So much for a reprieve from making that call to Randall, she thought. Dr. Burke held out the ring to show the inscription inside that read “To Bobby with love from Alice.” Now all they had to do is find out whom this Bobby was, if he was still alive and only missing a hand, or if there was more of him to recover and return to his family for a funeral. Determined not to run before the evidence again, she refused to consider this a murder yet. It could have been an accident, though how it could be with a hand in a vat and a missing body, alive or dead, she didn't know.

          “Thanks, Doc. I’d better let Jeff know what you’ve found.” With that, Angela walked out of the morgue and used her cell phone to call the rest of her team at the chocolate factory. She had been right, it turned out, in figuring that Randall would be upset, although only someone who knew him as long as she did would have detected the change in his voice. In a polite but rather stilted voice, Randall asked her to stay back at the labs while they continued to search as long as it would take for more Bobby bits.

Chapter 05

          Randall quickly filled Anthony in on what Angela had told him about the hand belonging to a young male named Bobby. He tried to keep his feelings out of his voice, but Anthony had worked with this sensitive man on cases where children or even babies had been the victims and knew how Randall was always deeply hurt by their deaths. He had often thought that Randall would make a wonderful father if only he could find a woman who could hold his interest long enough to get him away from his microscope and test tubes.

         “Well, we better finish checking out this place for him then,” said Randall standing up and wearily heading for their last destination at the chocolate factory. Found next to the flower garden was a water recycling plant for private use here since water was like liquid gold in this country prone to droughts. The plant consisted of many small and large open containers with pathways between them stretching for some distance.

          Splitting up to make the examinations go faster, Anthony started towards the back of the plant while Randall went to the nearest container and peered over its side. Inside was clear water with no human remains, so he walked to the next one then the next one, all free of Bobby or any part of him. Anthony did the same without finding anything pertinent to the case either.

          At the end of two more long hours, the two men exhausted from being out so long in the hot muggy San Francisco weather, walked to the waiting SUV after thanking Mr. Pitts for all the help he had given them.

         Randall made a quick cell call to Angela to let her know they were on their way back. His thoughts then went to the child whose hand they had found. Where is young Bobby, and is he still alive somewhere or simply waiting for their delayed discovery of dismemberment?

Chapter 06

         With Anthony behind the wheel, as Randall sat next to him working on updating his notes, they sped from Petaluma towards the Golden Gate Bridge leading into San Francisco. Because of an eight-car pileup on the freeway near the county line, Anthony decided to take the back roads between Sonoma and Marin counties. The sky, minutes before filled with bright sunshine, started darkening from the advancing storm, and the first drops of rain began falling. Sheets of driving rain, making driving difficult, soon followed these. However, Anthony didn’t slow down as he was in a rush to get back to work before the roads became impassable.

         As the SUV slid around a sharp corner, Randall fell against the passenger side’s door breaking his concentration and making him finally aware of the weather and the dangerous condition of the road. “Slow down, Anthony; let’s get back there in one piece.”

         With those words no sooner out of his mouth, there appeared a flooded area only yards ahead. Run-off muddy water gushing down the hillside on their left poured over both lanes, getting deeper by the second. Before Anthony could stop the fast moving vehicle, the SUV hydroplaned, causing it to lose traction on the wet road. Fighting the suddenly unresponsive steering wheel, Anthony yelled, “I’ve lost control. Tighten your seat belt, Randall, and hold on.”

         The rushing water pushed the vehicle to the right side of the road, smashing it repeatedly against an old guardrail. Weakened by many years of neglect, the guardrail finally gave way under the relentless pressure of the water. The SUV rolled over it and headed down the steep hill, followed by the fast-moving stream of dirty rainwater. Both men inside watched in silent horror as the SUV seemed, with a mind of its own, to aim for a large rock halfway down the hill.

         The rock stopped their downward motion for only a split second. As the vehicle slid around it on the slippery grass, the SUV flipped over on its roof, back on its side, and again upright. The men inside the tumbling vehicle, held in place only by seat belts, instinctively covered their faces. After rolling over twice more, the SUV came to rest against a large tree near the bottom. It ended on its roof, deep in a ditch. No sound came from inside the SUV after the earsplitting noise of the metal against wood ended.

         Up on the road, more traffic eventually passed by, but as everyone was trying to watch the road through the almost blinding downpour, no one noticed the damaged railing or muddy tire tracks disappearing on the other side. The quiet at the bottom of the hill continued with only the sound of rain dripping from tree limbs onto the bottom of the SUV. This water then slowly began leaking into the cabin of the vehicle onto the two unconscious and bleeding men hanging upside down, their buckled seat belts holding them in place. Only these pieces of strong material had saved them from crushing to death on their roll down the hill.

Chapter 07

          Angela paced back and forth in Randall’s office waiting impatiently for the two men to return. Unable just to do nothing, she turned on the computer at his desk and pulled up the local web site for missing children. During the next few hours she slowly thumbed through the long list, looking for a teenage boy named Bobby. It saddened this mother to see how many lost children there were just around San Francisco and surrounding counties. She promised herself to try to spend more time with her son Billy once this case was over.

         Finally, reaching a dead end, Angela concluded that either their Bobby wasn’t missing or no one cared enough about him to report him to the police. About to widen the scope of the web search, she looked down at her wristwatch and realized that almost four hours had passed since her last phone call from Randall. Surely, it didn’t take that long to drive from Petaluma to San Francisco. Having been inside the full time, Angela was unaware of how drastically the weather had changed in the last few hours.

         Feeling the need to stretch her legs after sitting at the computer for those long hours, she decided to go outside and wait for Randall and Anthony there. As she reached the front glass door, it shocked her to see the sunny hot day had turned as dark as night with rain already flooding the parking lot. A small trashcan floated by to end trapped next to one of the SUVs used by the Crime Scene Unit. Trees on the edge of the large lot were whipping about in the furious wind, and two small uprooted trees were lying on top of cars near the rim of the lot.

         The glass door and front wall of the building that was mainly of glass shook and threatened to break with each powerful gust of storm force wind. Angela ducked back in reflex as the wind picked up a limb from one of the downed trees nearby and smashed against the door not inches from where she had been standing. Luckily, the glass didn’t break, but spider cracks spiraled out from where the limb had hit. Angela, very wisely, decided to wait inside.

         However, her worry about the two men out somewhere in this storm increased with every passing minute. Where were they? Were they still out on the roads trying to get back to the labs, or had they decided to hunker down somewhere and wait out the storm in safety?

Chapter 08

         Back at the turtled SUV, neither man had regained consciousness. As the rain continued its steady pelting of the vehicle, it seeped into the cabin and slowly started to rise. Soon it reached the top of the heads of the two men hanging face downward. The shorter of the two, Anthony Greene, had his face protected by the inflated air bag on the driver’s side; the passenger’s side air bag, however, had inflated then deflated quickly when broken glass from the side window pierced it. This left Randall’s face almost submerged in the water getting ever closer to him. Had he survived the crash and multiple rolls down the hill to land in the ditch only to drown?

          When the water, filthy now from filtering in through the undercarriage of the SUV reached his mouth, Randall started sputtering and quickly regained consciousness. He lifted his head out of the water and quickly saw the danger both of them were in. First task would be to get out of the safety harness holding him in place, and reaching around he found the lock to undo the belt. As he slipped free, he guided himself down to crouch on the ceiling of the SUV now completely covered with rainwater. After feeling for Anthony’s pulse to check for life and finding it, Randall unhooked his still unconscious friend, being sure to keep his head above water, too.

         With the water coming in from above rapidly filling the vehicle, he pushed at the driver’s side door against the pressure of the outside water. The door on his side appeared mangled with no hope of getting out that way. Outside the ditch, only recently dry as a bone, had filled up to above the level of the window. This caused that water to pour in faster and faster through the inch or so Anthony had left the window open while driving making opening the door almost impossible. The electrical system had already shorted out, so using the power window switch was also useless.

          Having no other alternative, Randall held Anthony’s body out of the way and began smashing at the window with swift kicks from his right foot. It took half a dozen times, but finally the glass shattered. Randall quickly removed the remainder of the glass, cutting his hands severely. There was simply no time left to be careful as the water now was almost filling the cabin. Randall pushed Anthony out of the window, following him out and up to the surface before they both drowned.

Chapter 09

          Feeling more frustrated and worried at each tick of the clock, Angela finally decided to call Captain Steele and ask for his help in finding her coworkers. Calls from citizens finding themselves in danger from the storm swamped the regular lines to the police station. However, she was able to get through to him on his private cell phone. After she explained the situation including the finding of the severed child’s hand, she felt relief when Steele agreed to have his units out on patrol look for the CSU vehicle and report if or when they found it.

          No sooner had she hung up then her cell rang showing Dr. Burke was calling. “Angela,” she heard his excited voice say when she answered, “I think you’d better get back here. I found something on the hand that might interest you.” Hanging up and now with a definite purpose, she strode down the corridors to reach the morgue, slamming open the door to surprise Dr. Burke with the speed at which she had responded and the noise of her arrival.

          “I’m here!” Her unnecessary comment made him smile as he motioned her over to the autopsy table where the severed hand was on display. As she looked down at it, she could now see a small tattoo that had previously been almost invisible because of the wrinkled liquid-soaked condition of the hand. It was on the inside wrist on the folds between the hand and where the arm would have ended and disappeared when Dr. Burke moved the hand.

          “Too bad Anthony isn’t here yet.” Angela was referring to his vast knowledge of tats and the various people who performed this body art throughout the area. “He’d know just by looking at it where we should go to find out who did it, and possibly they could even give us the boy’s name.” Dr. Burke nodded in agreement.

          “Have you heard from them yet?” He understood and shared Angela’s worry as, even though he liked Anthony, he considered himself a good friend of the supervisor who shared his fascination with the intricacies of deciphering how people had died not to mention their taste for good coffee.

         She shook her head no, after thanking the doctor for this new information, took a photograph of it, and left to search the web once again for this particular design. It was a strange looking tattoo and unfamiliar to anything she had seen in past cases.

Chapter 10

         As he reached the surface of the muddy water, Randall hooked his right arm under Anthony’s chin to keep his head above it and looked around for a safer place to go. Both sides of the now-widened ditch were a distance away with debris pulled along in the water’s strong flow. Staying where they were was too dangerous as he saw a small tree yanked from the bottom of the ditch coming his way. Holding on tightly to Anthony, Randall struck out with powerful strokes of his long legs towards the left side of the ditch. He had quickly ascertained which side the road was on and headed towards it in the hopes that someone would notice the crashed SUV and rescue them.

         The rain was still coming down so heavily that Randall soon found it almost impossible to see the side of the ditch where he was aiming. The weight of Anthony’s still unconscious body was pulling him relentlessly into the fast flow of the water, but he refused to let go. To compound the problem, the howling wind blew water into his face and then lungs making it even more difficult to breathe. Randall was in excellent physical shape, something required of everyone in the SFPD, but he quickly became exhausted from the fierce struggle against nature.

          As he tried with one last effort to make some headway to the ditch’s bank, his grasp on Anthony began to loosen. With his final ounce of strength, he tried to get out of the swift current while holding on to the man who had worked beside him all these years. As if to add one final straw for the weakly struggling man, coming down towards him were the remains of an old wooden shack built near the ditch a mile away. Caught up in the sudden rush of water, the debris contained rusting canisters of pesticide and other elements used in farm country such as sharp and dangerous picks and shovels.

          All of this was heading at breakneck speed towards the two men, giving Randall mere minutes to get out of the middle of the deadly ditch and to the safety of its banks.

         As he looked back and saw what was coming towards them, he made one last super human effort to save both of them from a painful death.

Chapter 11

         Steele called Angela as soon as he heard from an officer patrolling on a back road between the counties of Marin and Sonoma. The policewoman had found the damaged guardrail by accident as she drove slowly in the still heavy rain. By now, there was no other traffic on the road, and she was able to take her eyes off the road to check for the missing SUV.

         “Well?” Angela asked frantically when Steele momentarily paused. “Where are Jeff and Anthony? Are they okay?” The silence on the other end of the line continued until she wanted to scream.

         “Angela, the officer found the SUV at the bottom of the hill; it had flipped over in a ditch that’s now a raging river.” Steele continued with sadness in his gruff voice. “The vehicle was completely flooded inside and about to float away from the strength of the water passing through it, but there was no sign of Jeff or Anthony.”

          “What are you doing to find them?” Angela almost screamed into the phone. “They’re probably hurt or dying out there.” At the thought of her two friends dying, this normally cool and collected woman started crying. This brought Dr. Burke out from the morgue nearby.

          He took the cell phone from her hands to question the captain further on the progress at finding Randall and Anthony. Finishing the conversation in just a few words, he hung up the phone. With a sad look on his normally jovial face, he turned to the waiting woman.

         Dr. Burke walked Angela back to Randall’s office and told her exactly what Steele had passed on to him. “Until the storm ended,” he repeated word for word, “it was too dangerous for the officers to go down to the ditch, now full-fledged river, to find their bodies.”

          “I won’t accept that! I won’t!” With that, Angela pushed past Dr. Burke and headed to the front door. There was no way she was staying inside when she could be out looking for the two missing men. On reaching the door, though, she stopped. The water from outside, now slowly seeping in underneath the door, started to cross the floor. So far, it was only a minor amount. Soon, though, it would spread all the way to the corridor leading down to all the labs.

          Turning around and heading back, she passed Dr. Burke coming after her. Angela started calling out for Jake and Mary, two of the other scientists. She knew they were in the evidence room working on another case. With Dr. Burke in tow, she quickly found Jake and Mary. After telling them she needed their help, without giving them an explanation, she raced back to the front area. The three people following her had no idea what she was talking about or what was wrong. As their feet suddenly sloshed through the now ankle-deep water, the problem quickly became apparent to them, but not the solution.

          With the water slowly seeping under the door, Angela ran back and hunted down some dirty lab coats from the autopsy room. As she and the others were shoving them around the doorjamb, Jake pointed out the rain outside had slowed down while the wind no longer was shaking the front windows. Thankfully, the storm was winding down before the incoming water flooded the labs. They could all rest easy and now concentrate on the more important task of finding their two missing friends.

          Angela immediately got on the phone to Steele and practically threatened him with bodily harm if he didn’t send out some officers to find Anthony and Randall since the storm was over. “I’m not meaning in a couple hours, Bob, I mean right NOW!”

          “Yes, Ma’am. Right away, Ma’am,” laughed Steele, delighted to finally get off his butt and do something to find them. He immediately notified his officers, including the woman who had discovered the SUV, and had them start searching up and down the banks of the ditch where she found it. With luck and before dark, they would find the two men alive and well. However, Steele wasn’t holding out much hope of that after hearing how trashed their SUV had been.

Chapter 12

          Randall was still holding on as tightly as he could with a now numb hand under Anthony’s chin. He managed to loop his other arm around one of the waterlogged pieces of wood from the dismantled shed as it swiftly crashed into him.

         Battered all over his body by the material from this shed, he did his best to prevent injury to Anthony who still had not regained consciousness. With no strength left, the exhausted man swept further down with the flash flood, never letting go his death grip around his friend’s neck.

         About seven miles from the SUV’s crash site, the water containing the two men raced around a bend in the newly created river. A long low branch of a tree hung out over the area, partially submerged in the water. Randall crashed stomach first into it, knocking what remained of his breath out of his body.

         When this happened, he lost his grip on Anthony. The second man slid under the branch, surfacing on the other side to lodge in some of its smaller limbs. Thankfully, his head was above water, but the same could not be said for Randall.

         Randall hung over the branch into the water with his face fully submerged. Too exhausted to move and aching in every bone and muscle, he almost welcomed death to end this torture. However, deep inside dwelled a little kernel of self-preservation. This gave him just enough strength, from some hidden well of energy, to bring his head out of the water and rest it on the branch.

         By now, Randall’s clothes were in tatters and hanging from his bruised and bloodied body. His hands, severely cut in the attempt to get out of the flooded SUV, no longer pained him. They had long since lost any sensation whatsoever. For long minutes, Randall just hung over the branch. Blinded by the driving rain and dazed, he failed to realize that, only inches away on the other side, Anthony was slowly becoming conscious.

          Anthony was groggy but alive and mostly uninjured; more so than Randall was at this point. Throughout their wild ride in the violently thrashing water, Randall tried to protect his friend’s body as much as possible. This was while he took the full brunt of the debris smashing against his own defenseless body.

          When fully awake, Anthony suddenly discovered himself snuggled tightly between two small tree limbs with no idea how he had landed there. He wiggled his body out of the limbs deeper into the water and reach out to grab the larger branch in front of him. His hand touched something that felt like flesh, causing him to shudder, knowing he was more than likely touching a dead body.

          However, the scientist in him made him overcome his instinctive revulsion and look over the branch. What shocked him was to see the body of his supervisor, who only recently had been warm when he had last seen him . Randall now was apparently cold and dead, draped half on and half off the branch, and not moving.

         Randall’s eyes were closed while his body, especially his hands, was covered with cuts still seeping blood. This gave Anthony hope that he was still alive.

          By now, the water had calmed down enough for him to duck under the branch. He felt for a pulse, found one, and started yelling from pure relief at finding his boss still alive, even though just barely breathing. Grabbing Randall around his waist, Anthony pulled him toward the bank of the ditch. At this point, the river or ditch slowed the racing current. It was down enough to allow him to drag the limp body up onto the bank, out of the water to safety.

          Now came the hard part, keeping Randall alive until help came.

Chapter 13

         The various officers conducting this life-or-death search slowly started reporting in to Steele about their success, or lack of it, at finding the two missing men. They had started at the point where the totaled SUV was and fanned out on both sides of the ditch. As was usual in this terrain, once the rain had stopped, the water inside the ditch started sinking into the parched ground. This left a thick layer of mud in its wake. What shortly before had been a wild and dangerous flash flood settled down to a trickle in the middle of the ditch, and then nothing.

          The hot sun that had disappeared for a few hours now came out in full force to finish drying out the area. It beat down relentlessly on both searchers and victims alike. Within an hour, the temperature at the waning hours of that long day shot up to an almost unbearable 100 degree. Only the quickly coming nightfall promised respite from the heat.

          As the afternoon progressed without any sign of the men, Steele authorized scent dogs. Two cinnamon-colored bloodhounds soon were investigating the SUV. They headed off down the ditch towards the city of San Francisco with their female handlers holding on tightly to their leads. The dogs continued with heads close to the ground and ears scooping up any scent that might be helpful. Mile after mile, humans and canines searched the banks of the ditch, looking for some sign of the missing men, hope fading with each mile.

          With the darkness of night being only about half an hour away, Steele considered calling off the search until the next morning. His optimism had eroded with each passing negative report. He knew it was no longer a search and rescue operation. He also realized he had to consider the safety of his officers out there in such a dangerous terrain. Sadly, tomorrow would have to be soon enough for what now would be a search and recovery for the bodies.

          After quickly telling the people waiting back at the labs of his decision, he checked in with the woman heading the search out in the field. Hating himself for doing it, Steele ordered her to notify the others to return to the department for debriefing. She agreed reluctantly and started making the cell phone calls to the men and women up and down the long twisted ditch. One by one, she reached them, and they started back to the central meeting place near the SUV.

          The last called were the two young women, Rachel and Amy, from the K9 unit. They managed to get ahead of all the other police officers with the two dogs and refused to give up even with the call to return. Their excuse for not returning immediately was "last in, last out".

Chapter 14

          With the sun now dipping below the horizon, the cold desert night settled in. Shivering and knowing that a drop in temperature might be fatal to the barely alive Randall, Anthony wrapped his arms around the other man’s chest. This was in the hopes he could share some of his body heat. He also knew he needed to stay awake in case help was close and decided singing might do the trick.

          Since Jake constantly was teasing him about trying to be another Neil Diamond, he started out with his “Solitary Man” then switched over to another song, “I Am…I Said”. Singing this at the top of his lungs, he hoped someone would find these solitary men.

          Randall, sliding into delirium from weakness and shock, started to struggle. He mumbled about wanting some of Dr. Burke’s coffee and complained about being so cold. Anthony silently agreed that hot coffee would be perfect, but just seeing a friendly face would satisfy him. Even the acid-tongued supervisor on the other shift, George Dennison, suddenly showing up would be okay. Damn it, he thought, feeling sorry for himself. I’m alone with Randall who’s dying in front of me. I’m freezing and hungry. Never in his life had his spirits been so low. Even returning to singing did not help.

Chapter 15

         Shining her flashlight over towards the other K9 handler, Rachel stopped suddenly to listen. “Amy, do you hear that?”

          “What?” The taller woman also stopped and reined in her dog sharply. She knew from working with her longtime coworker that Rachel had excellent hearing. The other woman often could hear sounds that she could not. Her own better vision balanced this out and made them a perfect team.

          The redhead started laughing and aimed the flashlight ahead of them. It shone into some trees next to the ditch they had been following for hours. “It sounds like one of those songs you’re always playing, something about a frog and a chair.”

          “Could that be them? Still alive?” The two women started running. The bloodhounds, finally catching the scent of the stranded men, pulled them along even faster.

Chapter 16

          Randall was slowly slipping into his final sleep. Unaware of this, Anthony still held him tightly. The young man was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, still singing, but now more softly from exhaustion. With a yell of surprise, as a wet nose nuzzled his face, he jumped to his feet. When doing this, he dropped Randall back on the ground.

          It had been one of the dogs, of course. However, Anthony could only see the two women, angels from Heaven with dirty but happily smiling faces. The dogs jumped up on him. They then decided the man lying on the ground was more interesting. As Randall opened his eyes, a slimy tongue greeted him by licking his face. The other dog was busy sniffing all the delicious smells covering his torn clothes and bruised body.

          Gently pushing the dog away from his now wet cheek, Randall again closed his eyes. He became aware of the excited voice of Anthony talking with two women. A big smile crossed his handsome face, believing he was dreaming of a welcome into Valhalla by the Valkyries. The presence of Anthony in Valhalla confused him for a moment. That was until he remembered his young friend was a warrior at heart. He was unaware one of the women was making a hasty cell phone call to her commander at the staging area near the SUV. Randall stretched out on the ground searching for the warmth, suddenly taken away from him.

          Seeing him shivering with his mostly exposed body covered with cuts and bruises, Rachel took off her K9 unit jacket. She placed it over Randall’s long, bloody, and nearly naked legs. Amy looked over and saw the condition the man on the ground was in, She handed her own jacket to the other woman to use as a cover over his chest. They tucked the two heavy jackets in tightly around him to hold in whatever heat his body was still generating. At that point, the three other adults sat down around him to wait for the promised help to come from upstream.

Chapter 17

          Angela led the charge over to Memorial Hospital where Steele said the paramedics took Randall and Anthony after finding them. The message he received from the commander of the search unit matched the happiness generated by his phone call to waiting scientists. After he had confirmed that both men were alive, if not in perfect health, Steele had taken time to go into his office. The tired man felt his body slump in relief as the good news settled in.

          No one would ever know from this gruff and often grumpy man how he had been dreading seeing the dead bodies of the two men. One was a friend whose intelligence often mystified him. He had watched the other man grow from a nervous academy graduate into a man he trusted. Knowing that Randall still was in danger did worry him, but he refused to believe he would lose this old friend after all the man went through.

          Leaving the department in the care of the remaining officers, Steele quickly drove his Taurus the short distance to the hospital to join the others in waiting to hear about the condition of the two men. Angela came over to him as he walked into the ER waiting room. The lovely blonde surprised him by putting her arms around him to give him a big kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Bob, for not giving up!” she whispered. “They owe you their lives.”

         Steele felt guilty but did not tell her that he had called off the search. He did this before two stubborn K9 unit women, who refused to obey their commander, found the men. He made a mental note to thank these women personally first chance he got.

Chapter 18

          An hour later, Anthony walked out of the ER, slightly the worse for wear, but walking under his own steam. His head wore a white bandage around it. A spot of blood showed from the newly stitched wound caused in the initial car crash. On seeing their condition, the nurses threw away his torn and bloody clothing. In exchange, they gave him an ill-fitting pair of jeans and plaid shirt from Memorial’s Lost and Found Department. He was barefoot since he had lost his shoes in the river with no pair found to fit him. Despite that, he failed to even notice the cold industrial-strength linoleum under his feet. The love coming to him from his friends gathering around him warmed his body as no shoes or even that longed for hot cup of coffee could.

          Still rather weak, he sat down and slowly told his audience what had happened between Randall’s phone call to Angela and the K9 unit and their wonderful dogs finding them. Looks of disbelief and horror alternately crossed their faces as they realized the danger these two men had been in for hours.

          Anthony did not know all the details of the wild trip down the flooded ditch to their final resting place. However, he figured out part of them from seeing Randall’s bruised and bleeding body. The fact that he was in much better shape helped fill in some of that missing time while he had been unconscious. He knew that Randall saved his life, just not how many times that day.

          Even while telling his story, Anthony and the others constantly looked to the doors leading to the ER, anxiously waiting for news about Randall. They did not even know if he was still alive or if they had lost their favorite boss man. Time dragged on. Now and then, one of them would remember something about him they wanted to share with the others. Only Angela kept her memories to herself, knowing there would be a large hole in her life and in her heart if Randall died.

Chapter 19

          When everyone had settled down, quietly waiting for word from the doctors, Anthony suddenly thought of something. “Angela, did you find out anything more about the boy with the chocolate hand?” She glanced over at him, looking for his second head. He surely had grown another one to be thinking about work at a time like this. Deciding to humor him, though, she did describe the tattoo Dr. Burke had found. Anthony surprised her with a big smile suddenly crossing his face.

          “Yeah, that’s a gang tattoo, the SF Brothers.” Anthony stopped smiling when he realized what this meant. “They are a vicious group of youngsters who hate any adult. At the age of 18, the member is either just kicked out of the gang if a high-up member who’s earned his stripes or killed in a bizarre ritual if not.” Knowing where they found the hand, Anthony went on to tell the others that part of the ritual was to place body parts of their murdered comrade in public places as a way of shaming the member for becoming an adult. There were few places more public than a tourist trap like the chocolate factory.

          “Where is the rest of him then if he’s dead?” Jake asked this out of curiosity, morbidly fascinated by the different ways people attain death. “I mean, you and Randall didn’t find the rest of him there, did you?” Anthony shook his head, wondering the same thing. However, he knew that they might never find the body. The SF Brothers had years of practice disposing of bodies in all the hiding places San Francisco and the surrounding mountains had to offer them. All that remained was to identify Bobby, and that they would leave in the capable hands of others. Their job of processing evidence was done in this case as far as he was concerned.

Chapter 20

          The night hours dragged by slowly. More and more people, including George Dennison and police he had worked with over the years, came to join Randall’s immediate circle of friends. Doctors and nurses came in and out of the ER doors. People waiting for other patients either walked out with them or left to be with them on another floor. Some of the anxiously waiting group did manage to snatch some sleep. Most, though, just sat there numb with worry or silently praying for the life of the man who was the father and protector of his shift.

         Just before dawn, a doctor came out of the ER to join them. He looked tired but pleased with having some good news to report for a change. So many times, his words to those waiting contained the death of a loved one. This time, he was glad he did not have to do this. He knew, from having seen many news reports about him, that Randall was a special human being to many people, whether they knew him personally or not. Over the years, Jeff Randall helped bring countless criminals to justice and closure to the families of innocent victims.

          “He’s alive, still seriously ill, but out of danger.” These few words settled over Randall’s friends like a comfortable blanket, wrapping them in the joy of knowing they would not lose him. “He has fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and so many cuts all over his body we lost count stitching him up,” he continued. “We want to keep him in the hospital at least a week for observation. When he goes home, though, someone should live with him for a few days. He’s going to be weak and will need help with basic activities of daily living.”

         Dr. Martin started laughing as everyone in the room volunteered at once to stay with Randall as long as needed. Yes, he thought happily, it was a pleasure to have a happy ending like this, wasn’t it?