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Chapter 3: A Lull In Operations
"Well, I’m most impressed, Jungle Jane." The Commissioner was being fulsome in his praise and Jane certainly wasn’t objecting even if he always managed a sleazy leer on his lips whenever she was around. "Apart from that one incident on the day you arrived we haven’t had any more of these mysterious robberies. Your presence is obviously having the desired effect."
That wasn’t how some of the local papers saw it, though. Some had remarked that it was odd that the robberies had stopped once she’d been employed. They’d suggested that she’d carried out the robberies to create an opportunity for herself and that she was taking the Commissioner for a sucker. Commissioner Brown’s tributes didn’t make it any easier for Jane. She knew that Chief O’Mara wasn’t keen on her being around and in reality she hadn’t made any progress on identifying just who was responsible, much less succeeding in trapping them.
"That’s all very well, Commissioner, but I want results. I want this criminal caught, behind bars and I want his ill gotten gains recovered." The group was in the Mayor’s office and the Mayor was making her views very clear. "And," she turned to the Commissioner, "so do you if you want to avoid any more of this..." She tossed a newspaper onto the table in front of Commissioner Brown. A cartoon showed a caricature of a pneumatic Jungle Jane swinging through the trees, clutching a chimpanzee with the Commissioner’s face under her arm, pursuing a stripe-jerseyed criminal. Jane could hardly stop herself laughing, it was a very good likeness of the Commissioner.
"And I wouldn’t be smirking either, if I were you," Mayor Dorothea Reynolds snapped at Jane. "I thought you super heroes were supposed to have all the answers. Why haven’t we got any closer to nailing this perp yet? Or does your contribution amount to swanning around in that outfit looking decorative?"
"Hey!" Jane started. She was about to ask whose side the Mayor was on but then realised that she had a point. She took a deep breath before putting forward her plan. "Not at all, Mayor Reynolds," Jane said standing up and squaring up to the other three. "I have been working on a plan to trap whoever it is that is responsible for these crimes by luring them into a trap. Something that this thief cannot resist."
"Good," said Dorothea. "So, some action at least." Commissioner Brown and Chief O’Mara looked puzzled as well they might. Jane had been thinking about her plan for a whole ten seconds.
It was obvious that the Mayor was hoping to hear more than Jane’s ambitions for her plan. Jane improvised. "You’ll remember the thief’s last victim, Victoria Leon?" The assembled group nodded. "Well, I believe she might be persuaded to act as a decoy, make some statement about not being deterred from wearing her jewels by a common thief, goad our criminals into acting when we can be ready for them."
Dorothea looked doubtful. "I’m not sure it’s wise to put a member of the public in danger. Besides a girl like that who spends all her time in clubs and at parties isn’t likely to be very public spirited, is she? What makes you think you can persuade her?"
"I’m with you, Mayor," Brown nodded sycophantically.
Jane could see she could expect no support from the Commissioner and Chief O’Mara wasn’t rushing forward either, but she pressed on. "I think you’re being a bit hard on Ms Leon. She was pretty angry about the robbery and she wants to get her own back."
"More vigilantes!" O’Mara exploded.
"No, Chief. This would be a police action, your men would be in control. Ms Leon and I would just have to drive the thief into the net."
"Is this some ‘white hunter’ strategy?"
"Absolutely, Commissioner, just leave it to me."
Gregg Gillstrom was getting used to the dreams. It was Mandrake again, this time, goading him on from the top of a flight of curving stairs that seemed to lead from nowhere to nowhere. When he woke he was covered in sweat and laying half out of the bed. Maxine was standing in the doorway. "Are you getting up today? Or are you staying there."
Gregg grunted and staggered off towards the bathroom, scratching himself as he went.
Maxine called after him. "You don’t seem to have discouraged that last one you robbed."
"Whungh?" Gregg grunted, sticking his head around the bathroom door, his face wreathed in shaving cream.
"Your ‘date’ after the charity dance. She’s in the morning paper saying criminals can’t be allowed to terrorise upright citizens."
"That’ll be the mayor, trying to reassure the public." Gregg emerged from the bathroom and took the paper from Maxine. He looked at the picture over the article. "Victoria Leon. So that’s who she is."
"Daughter of an explorer apparently. He made his money prospecting for diamonds in Africa. She’s working her way through it."
"Perhaps we should help her?"
"Oh, I’m sure you’d like to get to grips with her again after what you said about your last encounter."
"That’s not the point." Maxine raised an eyebrow but Gregg pressed on. "It’s not. Look, we’ll turn her over properly. You can come along and make sure I behave. It’ll set the police and mayor at one another and discredit this Jungle Girl."
"Jungle Jane."
"Jungle Jane, whatever. Anyway, it can only be to the good. Divide and conquer, eh?"
"You think there are more goodies to be had from Miss Leon, then?"
"I’m sure. You’re not telling me that she only had those few pieces in the safe in her room? That will have just been the stuff she was thinking of wearing that night. There will be plenty more."
"And she’ll be wearing it tomorrow." Maxine drew a ring around an article in the paper and tossed it to Gregg. "Gala Dinner on behalf of the Mayor’s Police Defence Fund."
Gregg looked at the article. "How come I’m not performing at this one? I thought you were determined that I’d do every society gig going."
"Don’t be difficult, Gregg. It just means we’ve got time to plan things out properly."
+++++++ +++++++ +++++++
Jungle Jane was holding forth for the Commissioner’s benefit. "Here’s the plan," she said. "This mysterious criminal will be unable to resist the lure of Ms Leon’s jewellery. She has agreed to make it pretty clear to the press that the jewels she’s wearing to the dinner are worth over a million dollars. The idea is that your officers will provide an escort to and from the dinner but we will leave the thief one window of opportunity."
Commissioner Brown nodded sagaciously. "I see." Chief O’Mara looked more sceptical. "And then...?"
"The thief’s only chance will be to stage another robbery in the hotel. Your men will have it surrounded. As soon as he makes his move, he’ll be unable to escape."
Brown turned to his chief. "What do you think, Chief?"
"It just might work," O’Mara said, scratching his head as he stared down at a map of the city on his desk. "The hotel is on a block of its own. We can certainly have it surrounded. Our criminal is a devious one though; we can’t offer Ms Leon any guarantees for her safety."
"That’s all right, Chief," Jungle Jane responded. "When she comes back to the hotel, I’ll take her place. The thieves will have to deal with me, not her. After all that’s what I’m here for." The Commissioner looked sceptical and so did Chief O’Mara but their uncertainty only served to encourage Jane. "You organise your escort and the cordon, Chief, and I’ll see to our mysterious thief."
+++++++ +++++++ +++++++
"You know of course that this could be a trap?" Maxine was looking at the location of the Excelsior. "The police could easily have this place surrounded." Gregg nodded. He had a beatific smile on his face, the result of finishing a substantial spliff. "Do you have to smoke that while we’re trying to plan this?"
Gregg nodded again. "It helps me to focus my powers," he said, sitting himself down in a lotus position in the middle of the room. "Ommm," he began to chant as Maxine looked on in irritation. "Ommmm."
"I think I prefer the lust crazed, kleptomaniac to the eastern mystic," Maxine commented, acidly.
They are the same thing, Gregg thought to himself as he relaxed under the influence of the spliff. His friends Dr Strange and Mandrake were here again, locked in some curious battle, hurling spells against an unseen adversary, the air charged with glowing balls of light and spinning vortexes of smoke. Across the floor slithered the snakes with which he was now so familiar. He smiled again. He knew exactly how he would part Ms Leon from her jewels.
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© Freddie Clegg 2010
All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or reposted without permission.
All characters fictitious
Email: freddie_clegg@yahoo.com
Web group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freddies_tales/
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