The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3302 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I was in my study re-reading The Emerald Planet by David Beerling, which is about the ways in which plants have influenced this planet, such as atmospherics and climate and as we all know now, global heating, which is getting worse since we chopped down so many of our forests. Without green plants and photosynthesis we wouldn't be here because as medium sized mammals we need lots of oxygen to keep our metabolisms going and oxygen is only here because green plants produce it as a waste product of photosynthesis. It's approximately 20 or 21% of the air we breathe but it once went as high as 30%, which was when we had giant dragonflies and other huge insects. It would have been wonderful to see them but I suspect we'd have died from oxygen poisoning as we evolved to breathe at the current level. So too much of anything isn't generally good for us, but I'm not including chocolate in that evaluation, so help yourself.

"Mummy, the superintendent is leaving," said Trish followed closely by the aforementioned plod. Simon also was visible behind them.

"Is there anything we have to do?" I asked our senior policeman.

"Bring the three of them down the central police headquarters to look at some photos. Your girls have all given descriptions of the abductors so we have something to go on, but first thing tomorrow at the latest if you could."

"We will indeed."

"I am really impressed with your children, they really are like natural siblings yet you say they're all adopted?"

"They decided while we were fostering them that they would become each other's sisters and they've made it work, they are special, even though I say so myself, and I love them as much as I could any natural children."

"I'm sure, but apart from their intelligence, they seem unaffected by the wealth you have, or your family has, Trish even insisted on showing me the picture of your castle. I didn't believe her at first so she called it up her phone."

I smiled, he was getting the real treatment from her today.

"She also explained about proton tunnelling, which I must admit I didn't get with the Jim bloke on the telly."

I blushed a little at this, she was showing off, but then he had said he didn't believe she was clever enough to frighten off the kidnappers. "Good job you didn't mention orbital resonance, you'd have got a longer lecture on that," I warned him, I saw Trish's eyes flash and I hoped my glower stopped it in its tracks.

"Orbital resonance?" he said.

"It's astronomy."

"Is that what you teach at the university?"

"No, I'm a biologist."

"So none of these want to follow in your footsteps?"

"Not really, possibly one of the older girls, Danielle, she's quite interested in the biosciences but she's not here today, she's playing football at Reading."

"Oh, for who?"

"She plays for Reading Ladies."

"What as in Women's Premiere League?"

"Yes, she's also an England international."

"Wow, so is she much older than these three?"

"She's sixteen."

"Jeezuz, Mary and Joseph," he exclaimed adding, "sixteen and she's an international."

"She is as talented with a football as Trish is at Physics and Maths."

"Are all your kids superheroes?"

"Super heroines, pullease," quipped Trish from behind.

"I stand corrected," said the copper blushing and smiling, showing he could multitask.

"That's a high risk occurrence in this house, I'm afraid and can happen to anyone who says something that's not one hundred per cent correct."

"Okay, perhaps I'd better go before I say anything else that isn't exactly right. We'll expect you with your three daughters tomorrow morning."

We shook hands and on the whole he seemed a nice enough man but then things turned out to be better than we at first expected and I still wasn't sure he entirely believed Trish. The fact that she was very clever may have increased the risk he thought it was a hoax perpetrated by three bored little rich kids. Part of me wasn't entirely sure it wasn't as well. I hope he frightened the bejabers out of them if it was one, because I'm not sure I could and we couldn't let them get away with it because of the precedent it would set. Once things settled down, I would have a quiet word with all three of them and at length with Trish.

It was after dinner, Danielle had come home and Simon was on about finding someone to drive her who was trained to drive defensively and who also would be able to fight people off, if they were attacked. Danielle couldn't take what the girls said happened seriously, she thought it was a gag and at the same time knew it wasn't a funny one.

"You know if they spot you're lying, you could end up in an institution, I'd talk to Jacquie about those if you want to know how bad they are, they'd make the home seem like a piece of cake."

"It happened, we were walking to the bus stop and this man asked what the time was and the next minute this van pulls up and he grabbed Livvie and Han and threw them into the van and the other man grabbed me to stop me running away and I got thrown into the van as well."

"So where are the bruises?"

"What bruises?"

"If some bloke grabbed me, I'd fight like hell so he'd either have to hit me or grab me hard and I'd have bruises. If I got thrown in a van, I'd have bruises from where I hit the deck of the van. Where are yours?"

"So, he threw me gently into the van."

"What about you two?" Danni asked Livvie and Hannah.

"You'd better tell her, Trish," said Hannah.

"Tell me it was a big con - yeah?"

"Mummy wasn't supposed to tell the police."

"So you frightened her half to death instead - what are you a bloody idiot?"

Trish started to cry and looked down at her feet.

"You'd better tell her and hope if she doesn't kill you on the spot, and that she talks the police out of putting you away, that was some stupid prank and I tell you what, if you ever do anything like this again, if she doesn't kill you, I will.

They were all unaware that I'd heard the whole thing through the crack in the door. I hadn't asked Danni to do anything but she had confirmed my worst fears, three clever and bored little rich kids had decided to play games with us.

How I didn't explode all over them, I'll never know, I was so angry but instead of shouting and ranting I kept incredibly calm and told them we were going straight to the police headquarters and they were going to confess for wasting police time.

"But you weren't supposed to call the police."

"Are you stupid? Some strange voice tells me they've kidnapped my children and not to call the police, of course I'm going to call the police, they may be the only hope I have of getting you back. You wasted hours of several officers time and made me look a fool. If they send you down, it will serve you right, you stupid little girls. Once they let you go and send you back here, I am going to confiscate everything that that gives you pleasure, for what you put everyone through here. What you did was unforgiveable."

I called the police and spoke to the senior officer in charge and a little while later I received a call from the superintendent. Half an hour later, three very frightened teens were trembling in an interview room and sniffing back the tears. They had been fingerprinted and photographed like criminals.

After that, the interview was recorded as the three of them spoke in wavering voices punctuated with sniffs and sobs as the very large police superintendent wiped the floor with them. I was all for locking them up overnight in one of the cells but he told me to take them home however, he would have to make a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions to see what happened next and to be prepared to attend a magistrates court early the next day, which was a Sunday.

I took them home and sent them to bed, they had their ipads, ipods and iphones confiscated and the computers were locked, I'd called Sammi and she told me how to lock the computers so even Trish couldn't get in, but that I could unlock them for any schoolwork. That wouldn't be for two more weeks. I know they spent a very uncomfortable night but they had to be punished. I knew it wouldn't go any further but they would get another roasting tomorrow from the police and then be released providing they didn't do so much as step on the crack in a pavement. It may seem cruel, but they had to learn that actions have consequences. Had we all not made such a good impression on the superintendent, he could have really referred them to a juvenile court and they could have ended up with blemishes on their records.

I spoke to Toby, later that night and he said he'd have words with the powers that be and point out that Trish had helped solve a number of crimes or assisted in doing so and that she had never done any such things before and wouldn't do so again. I thanked him and invited him to dinner the next week. He had to decline because he was going on holiday in a couple of days, ten days in North Wales hill walking. Sounded good except with so many people staying in this country for a holiday to avoid needing Covid tests and so on, it was going to be very difficult to get away from crowds. It was shown after a recent surfing festival in Cornwall that Covid cases rose fivefold in the Newquay area and the experts are predicting a surge when the schools go back. A couple more weeks and we have to decide at the university if we open or keep to Zoom lectures. Bloody Covid, bloody Chinese, why do I feel like I'm the only adult in a world full of children. Then I think about what is happening in Afghanistan and remember how fortunate I am. It wasn't only the girls who slept fitfully that night.

On the Sunday morning I made them all shower and Simon and I took them as if to go to the magistrates court but we ended up back at the police station. A different officer pointed out all the things her officers could have been doing but didn't because they thought they were dealing with a multiple kidnap. She told them people may have died because police officers were taken off what they were doing to start looking for the girls.

Si and I endured an hour of purgatory while this woman chief inspector very calmly and coldly peeled the girls egos apart and showed them how stupid they were, their bags were certainly packed for a guilt trip and she took them on one. In the end, the superintendent came back flourishing a file full of papers and said it was the case he'd had to argue against the DPP to stop them being prosecuted. They all thanked him and he told them to leave and said loudly, "If any of you three ever end up back in here on a possible charge, all this will be raised again and you'll be doubly prosecuted, got it?"

They all said they did and almost ran out of the building. I thanked him for frightening them enough to stop them even thinking about such a stupid prank again. He told me if that was the result it was worth it. Simon offered him a case of his favourite tipple but he declined as it could appear he'd favoured us and he hadn't; well he had, but only because he was impressed with our family and even with the naughty girls. He'd added that he'd looked up orbital resonance and was none the wiser. I smiled and we left after shaking hands.