Synopsis:

The police start hunting Bobby and her mother gets a hold of a tape of the shooting. Sandra and Becky along with their parents are placed in protective custody. Liz finally lerans some details about her son she didn't know.

Story:

Bobbi’s Run ch. 6

by

Paula Dillon

Liz cried as she read the letter. Then she made a decision. She flew out of her room into the living room. She grabbed Tara and pulled her into the kitchen.

“Tara, I don’t know where Bobby is, but I do know where there is some evidence. Come with me to my office, and don’t say anything to your Co-workers.”

“What evidence?”

“My son left a letter in my drawers that explained that he had a tape of the murder and it was messengered to my office.”

“Let me see the note Ms. McCrea.”

“I can’t, I flushed it down the toilet. There was some personal stuff I don’t want to get out.”

“I need to know and you should know that.”

“You cops always say you need to know things you don’t, you are voyeurs into everybody’s dirt, always wanting to know more and you can’t seem to get enough dirt. You need to get a killer and no, you don’t need to know what it said,” Liz said the lawyer in her rising to the top.

Tara’s face flushed as she tried to control her temper, if what Elisabeth said is true it could be the break they need on this case.

“Ok, but you better not be yanking my chain.”

They left the house. Tara had instructed the uniform unit to stay with the girls here at the house and not to let them go anywhere unless they hear from her.

Tara didn’t need directions to get to Elisabeth’s office; she knew her law firm well. The office was still open when they got there. The law firm’s personnel had been shocked that a continuance had been called on the case and nobody there knew what it was all about yet. When they saw their colleague and that detective enter without saying a word they began to speculate amongst themselves.

Elisabeth went to her secretary, “Monica, did I get anything delivered by messenger today?”

“Yes you did. A large envelope came for you marked ‘private for your eyes only.’ Very melodramatic if you ask me. It is on your desk.”

“Thank you.” Liz said as she headed into her office with Tara close on her heels closing the door behind her.

Liz grabbed the envelope and opened it. Inside was a VHS tape. Liz turned on her VCR and her TV and plugged the tape in hitting play. Sure enough it was Bobby’s tape.

Tara watched intently as the tape played, “Jesus Christ!” Tara said as she saw a man get out of a car. “I know that man.” She watched and saw the gunfight start the bag skewed left and then she saw the car leaving in a hurry.

“Your son may be in deep shit. It may be a good thing he is hiding.”

Tara pulled out her cell and called Brian. “Brian I need you to protect those girls and their families, don’t let anybody near them without my say and I mean anybody. I also need you to freeze all information on this case to anybody but me and you, do you understand. Nobody is to be given any information not even Sam.”

“What is going on Tara?”

“This is big; I don’t know how big but just take my word for it.”

“Ok I will trust you Tara. You can trust me too.” Brian said. Tara wasn’t one to exaggerate things. He knew her when he was a beat cop. “By the way that taxi that picked Bobby up went to the Am-Trak station.”

Tara then called Officer Watson, “Hey Timothy, get your butt over to Elisabeth McCrea’s house. I want you to sit on her kids there don’t let anybody near them, without my say so or Brian’s say.” Tara said as she gave him Elisabeth’s address. “There is another unit there but you have jurisdiction over those kids.”

“Which prosecutor do you trust the most Liz?”

“I don’t work criminal, but I hear that Bob Mason is pretty honest and is a real ball buster.”

Tara giggled she knew Bob very well and yes that description fit him well. He would have been one of her choices too. She dialed the DA’s office and got him on the line.

“Hey Bob, I got a break on that quad murder. I know who the shooter is, this is big and we need to keep it off the burners. Can you meet me at the Am-Trak station? Don’t say anything to anyone.”

“Sure Tara, on my way.” Bob could smell a big case coming.

“Let’s go Elisabeth.”

They grabbed the tape and went out the door. They didn’t stop to say anything. Elisabeth colleagues were dumbfounded, but many of them knew Detective Collins and they were worried.

Tara drove like a madwoman to the station. There they ran to the ticket booth. The ticket agents had a change of shift about an hour prior and none of the earlier agents were still around. They headed to the station’s security office and asked to see the tapes from earlier today. She was handed a huge stack of tapes from the twelve cameras they had. Bob came into the security office as she was handed the tapes. Tara took him into the office they used to question people at the station.

“Bob, I have bad news, the shooter for those murders was a cop.”

“Which one Tara?”

“Sam, and he might not be the only one dirty.”

“You sure about this?”

“Yep got it on tape. Very good video. You can even see the mole on his left cheek. Here watch the tape.” Tara said inserting the tape into a tape player in the interrogation room.

Bob watched the tape, “Shit. Who else knows?”

“Just me and you and right now.”

“Okay let’s get everyone tucked away safe for right now, do we need to protect anybody?”

“Do you know Elisabeth McCrea? It was her son, Bobby, who made the tape; she is in the other office right now. She needs to be protected along with her daughters. Bobby apparently went into hiding on his own. Also Brian is watching two other witnesses and their families at the station.”

“Well let’s get them all into a motel and put people we can trust on them.”

“With Bobby in hiding, we will need to keep Elisabeth and her daughters at their home in case Bobby calls, Bob.”

“Ok Tara, go ahead and get her home and then meet me at the State Police Barracks. We will work out what we will do after we talk to the OIC (officer in charge) there.”

****************************

Bobby was sick to her stomach. Her nerves were rattled and she was so unsure of herself and the course of action she had chosen. This was the first time she had been by herself away from home. She hadn’t been made as a boy yet and the chance of discovery just added to the pressure, but she also felt exhilaration at pulling this off so far.

She counted what money she had. She had started out with eight hundred and thirty five dollars. After taxis, train ticket, messenger and motel she had four hundred fifteen and some change left. Bobby knew she was ok money wise for right now, but for how long she didn’t know.

She put off contacting the Police today. She figured her mom would do that when she got the tape she had messengered to her. She sat in her room and watched TV. There was nothing new on the news. She was trying to act so grown up but inside she was still a little girl.

She did decide to call her Mom; she left the motel and walked to a nearby shopping center. Just getting out and doing something seemed to make her feel better. The Shopping Center wasn’t as big as the Mall but they did have a bank of pay phones. Bobby had been careful of surveillance cameras; she couldn’t miss them all, but she was able to reduce her exposure where she would stand out. She found a phone where she could make a call and dialed her Mom’s cell phone.

“Hello,” she heard Liz say.

Then in as feminine and as Scottish a voice she could muster she said, “Hello Agnes, This is Leslie Edmund, how ere ya today Lass.”

Liz didn’t need the hint Bobby gave her to know who it was. His voice sounded so sweet and feminine but there was no hiding it from a mother. “Oh hello Gran, I am sorry, but Bobby is missing right now. Please don’t tell Mom till I know more, she loves him so. I am sure everything will be alright, but I just can’t talk right now.”

“Oh I am so sorry ta hear that child, I know ya mus be verried so I will na keep ya. I will call ya later and me prayers er with ya.”

Liz was glad Bobby told her she was alright, and she knew that her son picked up that she was probably with the cops right now and couldn’t talk.

It was hard for Bobby to not run back and lock herself in her room. Bobby shook so hard she just had to stand there holding herself. Mom had to have been with the police or she wouldn’t have put her off like that. She had let her know that she knew who she was and she hadn’t asked her to come home. Bobby just walked normally and stopped at a restaurant and went in. She was hungry because of her nerves and she seemed to feel better after eating a small bite or two.

As she left the restaurant she walked by a juniors shop. She knew she needed to save her money, but she couldn’t resist going in and at least look around a little and maybe try a thing or two on.

**************************

Sandra, Becky and their families were very worried. The amount of activity around them shifted several times since they arrived. Det. Brian Williams became more protective of them after he received a phone call. They didn’t know what that was about.

Sandra and Becky filled in their parents about what they knew. It came as a shock to Becky’s parents; her mother and father almost went ballistic, they hadn’t known anything about the murders except what they had seen on the news. Sandra and Tracey got very worried when they heard that Bobby was missing.

**************************

Bobby wandered about the shop. She was in hog heaven and at the same time she was scared that she would be spotted as a fraud. She was overwhelmed by what she saw, all sorts of delightful dresses, skirts, blouses, lingerie and other women’s clothes. When the sales lady welcomed her, Bobby nearly jumped out of her skin but the lady was nice to her and helped her make some choices of clothes to try on. Bobby had a pretty good fashion sense from reading all his sisters’ magazines and just watching and observing the women around her. She knew what looked good on other girls and was able to pick out things that looked good on her.

Bobby must have spent two hours trying on various outfits. She did make a few purchases. She found a padded girdle her size, a bra and panty set and a blouse she just had to have. She saw a lot she wanted to buy, but she was pretty frugal with her money.

**************************

Bob and Tara met at the State Police Barracks and convinced the Lieutenant there to call the units Major and have him come in. When Major Crenshaw saw the tape they began making plans for a protective detail and for a raid.

Tara went over the tapes collected from the Am-Trak Station, she saw Bobby enter the station but lost track of him after he purchased a ticket.

Bob and Tara went to Judge Thompson’s Home after preparing affidavits for search warrants and warrants of arrest. The Judge sealed all the warrants till it was time to execute them.

**************************

Bobby left the shop and walked a little further and stopped outside a nail salon. They did wonders for her Mom’s nails so she decided to get hers done. Mary was her nail tech and she was absolutely delightful. Bobby had the best time talking to her as she worked on her nails. When Bobby left the Nail salon with ten shiny silk wrapped talons about three-eights of an inch long in a simply lovely shade of Coral Pink and she had a new friend in Mary. She almost felt like nothing was wrong.

As she reached her motel she saw Sandra, Becky, Tracey and two more adults being escorted to the motel. Sandra even looked right at Bobby as she walked by. Bobby went up to her room and went inside, but kept an eye on what was going on through her window. Bobby saw them being escorted to a couple of rooms on the second floor right near hers. She saw the police in the parking lot. There were two cars with at least four cops there. Somehow Bobby felt safer now and happy that the other girls were also safe.

**************************

Liz got Darla and Amy alone, both girls were visibly shaken by the day’s events, especially Amy, she knew the least.

“Girls I want you to listen to me and not say anything till I finish. I don’t know where your brother is but I think he is all right. He is hiding somewhere. The police tracked him to the Am-Trak station and he just disappeared. I will tell you what I know within certain limits, and then I want to talk to each one of you individually and alone. Ok?” Liz said.

Both girls nodded to their Mom.

“Ok, you remember those murders we saw on the news the other day by the mall?” she said. Both girls answered yes. “Well your brother and two girls from his high school, Sandra Jennings and Becky Samuels were pretty close to where it happened. In fact they were close enough to witness the events. From what I know Bobby and the girls were sitting on the bench at the bus stop waiting for the bus. When Bobby heard the shots he pushed the two girls off the bench onto the ground and covered them with his body. You got to admit that was a pretty brave and selfless thing he did. When things were safe he got the girls up and got them out of the area.

What nobody else knew was that somehow that video camera I got Bobby was running and captured the whole thing on tape. That is the only way the Police have for identifying the killers. Bobby probably didn’t know he had caught the whole thing on tape till sometime after he got home. Instead of doing the smart thing and telling me, he went into hiding. He must have had a bunch of money saved up and he hit our petty cash stash too, I have found. His reason for doing this is probably to protect us. I would rather he was with us but I can understand and respect his decision to hide.

I know something nobody else knows right now and I need to know from you two that it won’t go any farther than this room. Darla and Amy can both of you keep a secret and not tell anybody else and I mean anybody? Darla?” Darla shook her head. “Amy?” Amy shook her head.

“Ok… I have heard from your brother,” Liz said and waited a few seconds for that to sink in. “He called me on my cell phone while I was with the Police. In a few words he told me he was ok and safe right now. That is all I know for right now. Any question?” Both girls shook their heads no.

“Ok Amy let me talk to Darla for a few minutes alone and please don’t try to eavesdrop dear.”

“I promise Mom,” she said giving her Mom a big hug before heading to her room. Amy went to her room and began messing around on her computer.

“Darla, what do you know about what has gone on?”

“Well I know more than Amy for sure. You know he is hiding as a girl from my note.”

“Yes I know he left a note in my room too.”

“He took some of my clothes and stuff too.”

“Yes he told me that in my letter. What did he take?”

“As best as I can tell he took two dresses, a suit, three blouses, two skirts, three or four panties, four pair of pantyhose and two half slips. The twerp actually snicked my favorite blouse,” she said a tear forming in her eye. “Oh and I am missing quite a bit of makeup, but he didn’t take any bras from me. He must be going flat chested.”

“No he hit me for bras. He must have wanted to look older, you know bigger chested.” Liz said

Darla Blushed and looked at her mothers chest. Her Mom wore a 36C and Darla wore a 34B. While her Mom amply filled out her C cup bra quite nicely and maybe could wear a D cup in some bras, Darla didn’t actually fill her B cup very well. She wondered what Bobby would look like with breasts like Mom’s

“He also hit me for some camisoles, nighties, my waist cincher, a girdle, two of my slacks, some of my makeup, a purse, a wallet, two rolling suitcases and oh he took my shoes, the buzzard. He took at least three pair of my heels, two pair of flats, and my jogging shoes,” Liz said.

“Mom he has been dressing in my clothes for a while, and the other day he was on his way to the bath room to shower, I am sure he had on some mascara. He seems to take good care of my stuff. I don’t think he used my things to ah… you know ah…”

“Yes, I know what you mean. I know he has been borrowing some of my things too.”

“Is he going to be alright Mom? I don’t know what I would do if he got hurt or died or never came home again Mom?” Darla was visibly shaken and cried holding on to Liz tightly.

“I know Baby, I love him too and want him back. Go ahead and let it out dear, don’t keep it bottled up,” Liz said crying herself.

After Darla had cried herself out, Liz helped clean up her face and told her to smile to the world and keep a stiff upper lip.

“Darla, send your sister in please.”

‘Ok Mom.”

Amy came into Liz’s room. It was obvious that she had been crying too and she was acting a little scared.

“Amy don’t worry it will be alright dear. Now tell me what you know about what your brother has been up too?” Liz said hugging Amy.

“I don’t know much Mom but…”

“Now don’t be afraid dear, but I really need to know what he might be up too?”

“Well I know he has been dressing as a girl.”

Liz arched her eyebrow and looked at Amy with a touch of shock on her face.

“You see he has this video editing software on his computer, and one day I snuck into his room and started messing with his computer. He had the computer pass worded, but it only took me about fifteen minutes to break in. I now have administrative authority over his computer. I set his root directory to share, started a logging program that runs in the background and keeps track of what his computer is doing. I set it up to send what he does directly to my computer on our home network. Some friends taught me how to hack in you see. He has a whole bunch of .wmv files; those are video files, on his computer. Apparently he took a whole lot of videos of girls at the malls, nothing bad or anything, just girls talking, walking and doing things girls normally do at the mall. He would edit them and condense them to certain things. Then he would video tape himself, sometimes dressed up sometimes not, doing what the girls had done only in his room.”

Liz was flabbergasted at hearing what Amy had to say and actually shocked to hear what she had done.

“Amy I am ashamed of you hacking into your brother’s computer and you know you can get into real trouble hacking computers, but I am glad you told me of this. How was he, did he look good, did he do well?” Liz said, wondering where Amy learned so much about computers.

“Mom he did very good. You simply wouldn’t believe it. He could dress up and look as good as Darla or I could and he was pretty good with his makeup. I liked watching him on the computer. I even downloaded some of his files onto CD/RWs so I could replay it for myself,” Amy said, her face was flush with excitement as she told her Mom what she knew. “I have some files he recently worked with but I haven’t had time to look at them.”

“Get those CD’s Amy and have your sister and meet me in my office.”

“I don’t think your computer can handle them Mom. It’s not just the files you need, but you also need the programs, ram, video cards and other requirements. You have a great computer don’t get me wrong but it ain’t a gaming or video machine. We’ll need to use ours or Bobby’s.”

Liz shook her head in disbelief at her daughter Amy. What a little scamp she was turning out to be. Liz realized that she would need to harden her own computer’s security software. “Ok let’s go to your room.”

Amy sat at the computer she shared with Darla. She pulled out a notebook filled with CD’s and booted her computer. Her fingers flew over the keyboard without hesitation till she got what she wanted running. Liz and Darla both had gobsmacked expressions on their faces as Amy pulled up video after video of Bobby’s creation. They both gasped as they saw Bobby dressed in Darla clothes. Darla knew he was wearing her things, but she had never actually seen him dressed up

“Shit!!! She Looks good,” Darla let slip from her mouth.

Amy had multiple screens open showing one thing or another.

“This is my favorite of them all.”

Amy stopped all the video’s and opened one file making it full screen and started it. Bobby was alone in the living room dressed in Darla’s favorite blouse, a mini skirt, a bra could be seen through the blouse along with breasts somehow, pantyhose and Mom’s favorite heels. Bobby had a program on the TV with a bunch of teenage girls dancing and he was dancing with them. He wasn’t just good he was great. He was a better dancer than some of the girls dancing on TV. Bobby had good rhythm, style and grace. Amy giggled as Bobby swung his hips, swished this way and that, twirled and copied the moves of the girls on the TV. Liz and Darla’s mouths just hung open in disbelief. Lastly she pulled the video he had last made a few days ago, and it was of the crime scene. Both girls were shocked and started crying when they saw what went down.

“Oh Mom, they were right next to what happened weren’t they?” Darla asked. “Why did the camera move Mom?”

Liz thought she knew but went to her son’s room and found his camera and camera case. As she was returning to the girl’s room she notice three holes in the camera case a large one that Bobby apparently used to make the videos he had made and two smaller frayed holes. Also she noticed a long scratch or nick down the side of the camera. Her fears were confirmed by the evidence.

“Oh My God,” she almost screamed.

“What’s wrong Momma?” Amy asked.

Liz put her fingers through both of the smaller holes and pointed the scratch on the camera. “Guess what caused this girls.”

Amy turned back to her computer and replayed the video. Bobby had passed in front of the camera just about two seconds before the camera skewed to the left.

“Mom according to the time stamp he passed in front of the camera less than two seconds before it was apparently hit by a bullet.”

“Yep, he might have really saved his own life along with Sandra’s and Becky’s since they were with him.”

“Also Mom, I found that Bobby downloaded a program named ID Maker, and some Jpeg files.”

“Jpeg files?”

“Yes Mom those are a type of picture files,” Amy said as she opened several.

What they saw looked liked driver’s license pictures of Bobby with several different hairstyles and looks.

“Damn who taught him to do hair and makeup? He is good,” Liz said. “Was there something to show what ID, if any, he made Amy?”

“There might have been but he apparently deleted and wiped them.”

“Do what?”

“Well Mom, if you delete a file by putting it in the trash can it is still there. Even if you dumped the trash can, the files can still be recovered. Bobby used a mil spec program to wipe the program and files off his hard drive. The program overwrites the data hundreds and hundreds of times so that it could no longer be recovered.”

“Mil spec what?”

“That means Military Specification. It means it is a top grade program to delete files and clean the hard drive, one that the military would use to clean classified data off of their computers.”

“Where did you learn all this Amy?”

“From my friends,” Amy said smiling.

“Well Amy for hacking on your brother’s computer you are on computer restriction for three weeks. No using any computer except for what class work you just have to do at school or home unless a teacher, your sister or I am looking over your shoulder. If we catch you violating that it will be for three months Amy. Don’t get me wrong dear, it is good for us to know about this, but you violated your brother’s privacy.”

“Well he got into your things and Darla’s things.”

“Yes he did, and he will have to answer for that too, but that doesn’t make what you did right.”

(to be continued)

Notes:

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