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Mystery

When I got to my investigation office, my receptionist shouted at me that Rufus I just took a call from the State of Florida, they need you to solve the cases of infants being kidnapped. 

The Attorney General of Florida said, he'd give you a blank check if you could stop whoever is doing it. 

I gave my overly excited girlfriend Gry a big hug and told her she's just a little emotional because she's pregnant. Don't play with me Rufus she screamed. 

I handed her one of those home pregnancies test I purchased at CVS Pharmacy. In an hour you'll be sharing a part of me for the rest of your foreign-born life. I was thinking of having our baby boy being born in your country Norway so that he can have dual citizenship. What if it’s a girl? I started laughing and had her connect me to the Attorney General in Florida. I didn't like the sound of a blank check.

I knew that I couldn't be the only one they looked for to assist in this case. When the Attorney General finally got on the phone we talked for about 18 minutes, while he tried to get me to get involved. He said, in good faith, the State of Florida would be willing to pay me $10,000 just to look over the information they collected.

I told Gry to pack, I had a feeling I just might need her assistance if I decided to take this case. Also, it would give me a legitimate excuse to spend quality time with her.

On the flight to Miami. I got to thinking about the Lindbergh Kidnapping. On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his home in the Highfields of East Amwell, New Jersey.

On May 12, his body was discovered nearby. Was the Lindbergh baby really kidnapped? Or was The Crime of the Century actually a desperate hoax by Charles Lindbergh to conceal a failed prank?

During the last half of the 1 hour and 44-minute plane ride Gry slept.

After we picked up our luggage, we were met by a limo driver who took us to the Edition (SMS) Miami Beach Hotel costing the State of Florida $959 per night. 

Gry was quite impressed as we unpacked our bags. She gave me this strange look as if she really didn't know me.

There was a light tap on the suite door it was the bell boy. He handed Gry a note. He kept standing there waiting on a tip when she suddenly realized what he wanted. She opened the door and guided him out. She said I'm not paying him for just doing his job. 

I couldn't do nothing but laugh. She handed me the envelope in which revealed very expensive stationary. We were invited to dine on the super yacht the Nouvoyage Limousine Tender 33. She asked how I should dress for boarding a yacht, when I pulled out a Valentino Black Silk Halter Neck Gown Evening Dress from my ZEGUR Suit Carry on Garment Bag. The tears started flowing as she ran into the bathroom to try it on. I hollered through the bathroom door that we had a few hours to kill before yacht time, so why don't we go see some of the pretty people? 

Every Cuban woman we seen looked like a potential fashion model. Gry held on to my hand tight as we walked and whispered in my ear that she knew why I brought her along. Too much temptation in this town she crooned. We both started laughing at the same time.

We headed back to our room because I knew it was going to take her a few hours to prepare for the yacht dinner party. I had one more surprise up my sleeve as I hired a Simonet Makeup Artists, Hair Stylists, and Eyebrow Services to our room. 

While she was being spoiled, I slipped out of the room to meet an old friend of mine on the other side of the complex of the hotel. I knew this was going to be a two-man job. Those Cuban defectors weren't the kind of people you wanted to tangle with mano on mano. 

His name was Luke Crayton. He serviced a while on the NYPD. He got terminated for having too many police brutality arrest complaints.

We both came to the conclusion that it had to be one of the many Miami Gardens Gangs who were stealing the infant’s right out of the hospital’s maternity wards. Those gangs had been irrelevant for years. Miami-Dade County has 230 documented gangs with 1,700 members and that number could be as high as 5,000.

In 2019, there were 215,194 babies born in Florida. That means that approximately 590 babies were born in Florida each day.

I believed that the gang would pay doctors, nurses, orderlies, candy stripe girls, x-ray technicians, research workers, lab rats and janitors to steal the newborn infants. They would pay up to $5,000 and resell the child for $25,000 if it was a boy and up towards $30,000 or more if it was a girl to anyone interested in obtaining an illegal child.

Walking back to my suite I got a distinct feeling I was being watched.

We arrived at the yacht site at around 8:24pm. What we seen firsthand left the two of us speechless. It was a limo that turns into a yacht. Or was it a yacht that turns into a limo? Either way the Limousine Tender 33 by Nouvoyage was arguably the first of its kind, the luxury yacht that can travel on land (or a limo that can swim).

The company said, it used state-of-the-art technologies culled from commercial, military and racing industries to make the amphibious limo a feasible mode of transportation.

Just when you think you seen it all, you ain't seen nothing. A huge car door opened from the starboard side of the limo and we were escorted into the fabulous yacht. The people were dress as elegantly as Gry. Then we were escorted by the host to the table were the Attorney General and his lovely wife sat. 

Gry whispered in my ear that she had a tingling feeling she was on the Love Boat, I whispered back you'll know when you see Isaacs the bar tender.

After the 5-course meal the Attorney Governor and I and his bodyguards excused ourselves and went into the yacht’s library. The bodyguards stood outside as we got down to business. He said, the reason why we chose you is because you were highly recommended for a job like this. 

The Governor of Florida is getting a lot of negative press on this delicate situation that needs to end sometime like yesterday, if you get my drift. I can get your drift sir for 2 million in cash with a half a million-up front. I was going to have to grease a lot of palms to find those who are responsible for kidnapping infants. Have the money delivered to my suite by noon, plus the $10,000. 

I shook his sweaty hand and went back to the dining area. I didn't like the way he was gawking at Gry. We danced all night and around 1 in the morning we returned to our suite, again I had the sense we were being watched.

In the morning I told Gry to pack. This job is too dangerous after the Attorney General stated the facts of this case. Don't argue with me. I won't big daddy and then I found myself in the stately bedroom constantly being called ooooh, Big Daddy.

The half a million arrived by Fed-ex around 11:58 am along with the 10 grand. I slipped the half a million dollars in Gry suitcase unbeknown to her. 

I had Luke steal a cab with the car keys in the ignition, so that we wouldn't be followed to the private jet I hired to safely transport Gry back to Biloxi.

After losing any tail that may have been following us. I handed Luke the $10,000 and watched him lead Gry and the money aboard the jet. 

He was to stay with her until I closed this dangerous case. 

With that being taken care of I drove the stolen cab back to the city and wiped it down for fingerprints and left the keys in the ignition and left the yellow cab in the middle of the projects. It would only be a matter of time before some hood rat would be asking for fares from driving around in a cab he don't own or even have a driver license.

I walked back to the hotel.

I still had a sense that someone was watching me. 

When I got back to the hotel, I was greeted by one of the General Attorneys flunkies. I invited him into my suite. He said he was assigned to me. I said, that's there's a crazy woman stocking me, and can you get rid of her so that I can find out who is stealing the infants out of the many hospitals in Florida? He said, he and his crew will get on it right away. 

Finally left alone I could now get some real detective work done. I opened up my CIA data base account and discovered that in Miami there are about 70 active gangs in the county. It was my job to narrow it down to the one who decided to take crime to another level.

There was a little-known gang called the Cuban Mosquitos. They operated out of the Bunche Park neighborhood in Miami Gardens. They say if you want to hide from the cops. Hide in plain sight. 

The unique part about the low-key gang is that they hid out in the ninth highest percentage of African American and black residents in the US, with 96.5% of the populace.

Their leader was an Agrarian University of Havana graduate who graduated with Magna Cum Laude. There was very little information on the exiled Cuban.

In the morning I got my rental car from in front of the hotel and traveled to the Bunche Park neighborhood. 

When I got there, there were more black people than at a Welfare sign up office. I was dressed in old jeans and a T-shirt that read on the front: Help the poor!!! And on the back, it read: Start with me!!! I blended in with ease. 

I entered Allen Morris Brickell Park carrying a brown bag of a six pack of Bud Ice. There were several black dudes playing dominos and horseshoes. When I popped one of the beers. Cool Willie the wino asked for one. He said, can I borrow a beer. I said sure when you gonna pay me back. He laughed with plenty of missing teeth. 

By the time he and I finished off that six pack I knew just were to find Bembé: His name meant prophet.

I gave Willie a $20 dollar bill to get us another six-pack knowing full well I'll never see him again.

I pretended to stagger over to where the Mosquitos gang hung out. I shouted to anyone who would listen, has anyone seen that drunken Willie. He ran off with my last $20. They all started laughing, all the while I was watching what was going on in the big yellow house they hung around. A black van pulled into the driveway and I thought I heard a baby cry while the van entered the garage. Someone shouted to me to get my black drunken bum self away from here. 

One of the gang members shouted didn’t anyone informed you that blacks ain’t welcomed in

this part of Bunche Park? 

I begged their pardon and still asked for a dollar. 

I called the Attorney General and within an hour the case was solve. The Attorney General got all the credit throughout the world. I received the other 1 and a half million in cash.

July 21, 2020 06:17

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5 comments

Peace Nakiyemba
18:48 Jul 23, 2020

I like how your story highlights the crime of child theft. And I think your MC's personality clearly shone through in your writing. I don't know if you preferred to remove the speech tags because if it was choice it works well for the story. But you have to at least signify a change from speech to narration so that the reader is not lost in transition. Then the use of the double negative 'couldn't do nothing' probably takes from the meaning and where you say Like serviced at the police. I think you mean to write 'served'. I also think ...

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Blane Britt
15:05 Jul 29, 2020

Thank you for comment. I intentionally try to have those who read what I write to never know where I'm going in thought through my written voice. Thank you again for at least reading my short story and I will always follow you on your journey of you short written stories to inspire all of us,

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Batool Hussain
06:28 Jul 21, 2020

This is so good. You manage to pull off any prompt so well! Mind checking out my new story and sharing your views on it? Thanks

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Blane Britt
11:56 Jul 21, 2020

Thanks>

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Keerththan 😀
14:43 Jul 31, 2020

Wonderful!!!!!! Loved it. Keep writing. Would you mind reading my story "The secret of power?"

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