Chapter 7: The Idea

A cold front arrived in Blackwell the next day, bringing with it a steady drizzle that doused the whole town.  It was one of those days where the sun seemed to have given up on rising all the way; thick clouds made it abnormally dark outside.  All over town, folks left their radios and TVs on in case of tornado warnings.

It was the perfect weather for brooding, and in the little house on 8^th Street, that was exactly what Auburn Reynolds was doing.  She’d tossed and turned all night, battling her imagination when she was awake and her nightmares when she wasn’t.  That morning, she’d feigned slumber until her parents left for work, just so she wouldn’t have to talk to them.  Auburn didn’t much feel like talking to anybody, after what she’d found out the night before.

She stared out at the droplets, forming little rivers in ditches on both sides of the road.  For whatever reason, she suddenly felt thirsty, but this didn’t prompt her to do anything, other than sigh.  I really don’t want to see Brittany today, she thought to herself.

Why would she?  The first time she’d met Brittany, she’d been curious about this club that no one liked but everyone (except her) was in.  The second time she’d met Brittany, she’d figured out that Brittany was in the club against her will, and that the club’s mission wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  At that time, Auburn had entertained visions of being able to get Brittany out of the club, to tell the whole town exactly what Richards was up to, to put an end to the fear that gripped everyone from the ages of ten through eighteen.

Now, though, she knew the reason for the hold.

It’s terrible, she brooded to herself.  The police aren’t going to break up the club; they’ve got no idea that kids are committing these crimes.  The kids don’t want to do them, but they can’t stop because Richards’ll kill someone special to them.  Richards knows…ha!  He won’t do anything about it.

Glumly, Auburn stood up and wandered over to her computer, deciding that maybe a radio show would get her mind off last night.  She mentally mulled over her list of favorites, then settled on The Green Hornet…which, as she soon remembered, was not the best choice for forgetting a problem like this.

“The Green Hornet!” an announcer declared.  Buzzing followed, then the theme came on—Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” aptly chosen for a show such as this one.

Nothing incensed Auburn nearly so much as when she mentioned the show to somebody, and they said, “Oh, the superhero?”  “No!  The Green HORNET, not the Green LANTERN!”  Though the name had that superhero ring to it, it actually referred to a master criminal that terrorized—whatever city the show was set in.  The metropolis may have been based off New York, though it was never named.

The criminal, however, was none other than Britt Reid, editor of The Daily Sentinel, one of the city’s largest newspapers.  He’d assumed the secret Green Hornet identity to stop crime, not to commit it.  In fact, if you listened to a lot of the episodes (which Auburn did), you’d notice that the only illegal things he ever did were knocking people out with a gas gun, breaking and entering buildings, and occasionally accepting money from crooks for crimes he never went on to commit (these funds always wound up anonymously in some charity).  The Hornet, as he was called, was never recognized because he always wore a mask (presumably green, though this was radio, so that was just speculation), yet his trademark seals always showed when he was “involved” in some crime.  His “Black Beauty,” a specially engineered automobile that could travel over two hundred miles an hour, helped get him from Point A to Point B in a flash.  Of course, this car was only used while Reid was the Hornet.  To get to work, he used more standard equipment (never named).

Though the Sentinel often got the scoop on the Hornet’s latest caper, few suspected Reid’s role in the adventures.  This was partly because Reid was very good at covering his tracks.  Only one man knew he was the Hornet; this was his “faithful valet Kato,” whose life Reid had once saved, as the story goes.  Unlike some sidekicks, Kato was quite capable, and no one was going to find out who the Hornet was from him.  Reid had also spurred the Sentinel to issue a reward for the Hornet’s capture, a move of sheer genius.  What criminal would offer a reward for his own capture?  Reid’s standing in the city helped keep him out of suspicion too; everyone knew Britt Reid was a hundred percent against rackets of any sort, and he’d do anything in his power to stop them.  They just didn’t realize that anything included taking on a criminal identity in order to smash the Underworld from the inside-out.

“He hunts the biggest of all game—public enemies that even the G-men cannot reach!”  That line always brought back good memories for Auburn.  Back when she lived in Kansas City, she and her dad had been driving back from a baseball game.  It was ten o’clock at night, and the team wasn’t that close to the town they lived in, so Mr. Reynolds and his daughter weren’t likely to get home until eleven.  To help pass the time, Mr. Reynolds shoved a cassette (the library system at the time still had them) of an early Green Hornet episode into the tape deck of his 2001 Chevy Silverado.  The tape hadn’t been playing for more than fifteen seconds when Auburn said, “Daddy?  What does that line mean?”

Mr. Reynolds, who also enjoyed the show, hit pause before responding.  “It’s like this, kiddo.  A lot of the ‘criminals’ in this show couldn’t just be arrested.  Some of them did bad stuff without violating a specific law, and you’ve got to break a law to go to jail.  Others made threats to the only people that could tell the police about them.  By pretending to be a criminal, the Hornet could trick other crooks into actually doing something illegal, or he could threaten people that weren’t talking and get information from him that way.  That’s what made him so effective.”

“Oh,” was all Auburn had had to say at the time, but she’d never forgotten that moment.  Usually, hearing that line made her happy, as she thought of the home run ball her dad had run down and given her at the game.  Right now, it made her think of Richards.

Just like a Green Hornet criminal, she thought to herself.  He hasn’t actually broken the law…the kids are the ones doing all the work, and he hasn’t acted on any of his threats.  Plus, the police aren’t going to investigate him…they’d probably get fired if they did.  He’s done the opposite of the Hornet…he’s built up a good reputation to get away with evil!  Oh, if only the Green Hornet were real!

Auburn listened glumly to the start of the show, in which the Hornet had to rescue the daughter of a man who was investigating a graft ring.  (Graft, for those of you who don’t know, is just a good, old-fashioned word for corruption.)  The story was exciting, but it did nothing to cheer up Auburn…until, ten minutes in, a thought popped into her mind.

Why don’t you pretend to be the Green Hornet?

That’s ridiculous, Auburn told herself.  I’m the last person in the world who could take on Richards and his club…

Then, she realized with a start that she was the only person.  Richards’s kids weren’t going to turn him in.  The police weren’t going to investigate him.  Richards wasn’t going to incriminate himself.  Auburn was the only person that could actually go after him without putting her loved ones at risk.

But what could I do? Auburn thought to herself.  Threaten the club members?  If Richards were threatening their lives, I could get them to talk, but they’re not going to breathe a word as long as their loved ones are in danger…

The solution hit Auburn like a Freightliner going sixty-five miles an hour down I-35.  It was one of the most absurd ideas she’d ever had, yet at the same time, one of the simplest and most brilliant.  The more Auburn thought about it, the more she realized how brilliant it was.

Richards can’t get at the relatives if someone else gets them first.

Initially, Auburn shuddered.  That wouldn’t help anything, if they’re all dead…but it would help a lot if they all disappeared.  If Richards didn’t know where they were, he’d have no way of getting at them.  But the club members can’t just send them away…Richards will suspect them if something happens.  The only way the relatives can safely disappear is if someone kidnaps them…

Auburn shook her head.  No.  There’s too many things that can go wrong.  For one thing, where would I hide a bunch of kids?  Not here, that’s for sure.  They’d take up too much space.

Immediately, she thought of the article about the abandoned hotel in downtown Blackwell.  That place should have more than enough space for “guests,” and no one would be probing around to discover them.

But if all Richards’s holds are younger siblings, thought Auburn, then they’ll all be nine years old or younger.  I won’t be there all the time to keep them entertained, and they’ll probably wander outside once they get bored…

Then, Auburn remembered what else she’d read in the article.  The building had once served as a toy warehouse, and much of the inventory was rumored to still be there…

That would make it easy, if it’s true, thought Auburn.  But I’m no criminal!  How am I going to make a ton of kids disappear and get away with it?

The same way Richards gets away with all his crimes, another thought answered.  The police will be looking for a seasoned criminal, not a girl that spends most of her time indoors.  You’d be their last suspect.

Maybe it CAN work, Auburn told herself, but I don’t have a chance unless I know who’s on Richards’s list AND unless I know a little more about the hotel.  If that place isn’t a toy warehouse, and if I can’t get a hold of the list, my plans are sunk.

Well, why don’t you go find out?

Auburn didn’t have a good answer to that one, so she paused the episode, went to the coat closet, grabbed an umbrella, and headed out…on a mission to become the most effective kidnapper in the state of Oklahoma.