Kendra's Knees Buckle

The next night Jo said to Kendra, "Mom I'm telling you this but it's very, very confidential. Mac and I tomorrow evening begin a 6 pm to 6 am stakeout from two positions for possibly two weeks and I'll arrive home before 7:00 and will sleep most of the day. You know what a stakeout is don't you?"

"Special surveillance."

"Yes, good girl. And you are mature enough to know that Jack and I will be watching separate entry-exit gates and will be too preoccupied to have sex don't you?"

Kendra appeared undecided.

"Mom!"

"Yes of course. I am that trusting."

"Thank you. Now that's all I can say."

"Come on darling, just a clue."

"Mom shut up."

Mac extended the stakeout for a third week and on the 27th night, bingo. Two men pulled up in a black pickup just down from Jo and the passenger jumped out and unlocked the gates and rolled both open and his mater drove into the yard.

Jo called Mac on her mobile phone.

"It's begun at my end. Alert the police to be on standby. Two guys have entered driving a black pickup and they were both dressed in black and wore hoods."

"Jesus, this is it."

"That's what I said. What's more both gates were rolled back and remain open."

"Good girl. I'm calling. No wait, two guys have arrived at my gate. Jesus both are carrying shotguns. My pick is a lorry will enter one gate, be loaded and exit from the other ate, but which one? We'll need that information for the cops for when they swoop."

A truck approached slowly without lights and turned into the gate Mac was watching. He called the Flying Squad, reporting at least some of the men were armed. The vehicle being used was a white DAF closed box truck and he gave the registration number he'd picked up using night binoculars.

After a 30-second delay Mac was informed the truck had been reported stolen yesterday. "We have three cars on the way in minutes," said the night commander.

Mac called Jo and told her to sit tight. She had the fishmonger's van, much to her disgust.

Three minutes later she called Mac. "Jesus the truck is coming out already. They must have had the loot already loaded in containers. Stored out in the open...Jesus that's how they get away with loot without having to deactivate alarms and thereby alert security. Brilliant!"

"Shit," yelled Mac. "I'll give the cops the hurry up."

Jo jumped out with a torch and raced over to the gates. She stood in the middle between the gateposts waving her torch and as the truck gathered speed she pulled off the hood of her parka and put the torch under her chin so that the driver could see she was female, thinking the hoodlum driving might have a daughter or a young sister.

The truck gathering speed ground up the small hill towards her and she prepared to jump but then heard the squeal of brakes and the driver changing down gears. The driver braked to a stop, jumped out and ran off to permanently elude capture.

The pickup was held up behind the truck trapped and at least two people in the truck box were yelling what was the hold-up.

Jo called Mac and told him the pickup would be heading toward his gate.

Mac hurriedly drove his van to block that exit. The pickup arrived before Mac had quite stopped and two guys jumped out without attempting to ram his vehicle and ran down the street, stupidly still wearing their hoods.

They were easily identifiable even in the dark and were picked up by guys in the first squad car that came screaming around the corner of the near-deserted industrial street. Two other police cars roared up and stopped at either gate and cops from those vehicles apprehended Mac and Jo.

Mac and Jo produced their IDs and officer in charge checked details on his information sheet and ordered the release of Jo and Mac.

Jo pointed where the driver had fled and two constables ran in that direction but returned empty handed and called for a dog tracker unit.

The metal roller door at back of the truck was opened and the two guys inside climbed down and were arrested. A cop climbed up and found another guy wearing a suit and glasses hiding and he too was arrested and was believed to be the person in charge of the hoist.

At the media conference at 8:00 that morning the police assistant commissioner announced a crime gang of Government employees had been broken with the arrest of five men including the ringleader. The gang had made eight successful raids over the past year stealing £4 million of computers and other electronic equipment from supposedly secure Government bulk storage depots around London. The ill-gotten gains were sold on the black market. He said the latest department to be targeted had engaged a Sapphire Private Investigations to monitor the premises at night after management had decided they could be hit next.

Mac and Jo were then introduced to the media and a female TV journalist called out, "On no not you two again."

Headlines and comments on the theme 'Oh not your two again' appeared in the news media over the next twenty hours.

Jo appeared on late morning TV that day being interview about the place of women in crime fighting and crime prevention and both she and Mac were interviewed on national TV news that evening. Next day Mac received an invitation from top brass to reapply for membership of the exclusive Officers Club, the army hierarchy apparently having forgiven his indelicate indiscretion when he was serving in Afghanistan.

When Jo had left for the 11 an interview Mac called the headmistress at Kendra's school. Miss Ascot-Sutton vaguely remembered Mac as 'the big gentleman' she'd met at a recent school staff social evening and Mac told her what had happened overnight and that Kendra's 19-year old daughter would be interviewed on TV about crime prevention in forty-five minutes.

"So you're asking me to release Kendra from class so she can watch TV."

"Yes please."

"I'll consider the request."

But Miss Ascot-Sutton did better than that. She ordered the entire senior school to assemble in the school hall by 10:55.

"Girls," rumbled Miss Ascot-Sutton.

More than 800 senior girls in that huge hall fell silent.

"In a few minutes you will be watching a live TV interview of an 19-year girl. Too often today we hear about girls that age running wild and indulging excessively in liquor, sex, drugs and clubbing. Well here we have an example of youth that is rising as the cream and Mrs Hart you will be particularly interested in this because the person being interviewed live is your daughter Josephine almost straight from her big crime fighting adventure over night."

"Omigod," cried Kendra.

"Tut-tut Miss Hart," said the headmistress. "That is rather strong language to be used in front of my girls."

It was a brilliant interview and clearly struggling with fatigue Jo performed very well. When it ended the senior school stood and applauded.

"Thank you girls," that is enough celebration," said Miss Ascot-Sutton. "I have no wish to see you girls become over stimulated."

"Mrs Hart you have the floor."

"Girls thank you for acknowledging my daughter Jo, my only child. What you have just seen is inspirational and Jo's commitment to her job and to try to do it well warms my heart. But please don't picture her as some kind of avenging angel. At home Jo spends half her time teasing and arguing with me. Although she's almost twenty I like to know where she is but does she tell me where she'd going? Oh no I have to lever it out of her and endure the plaintive rebuke of 'Oh mom'. She cusses occasionally, wears outrageous clothes and sometimes I see more skin than clothing but lo, on the rare times when I don't feel well my exasperating daughter turns peculiar, completely unrecognizable. Jo converts into becoming a near-angel and she'll even cancel a hot date to look after me despite my protests. And the mess she makes of my tidy house. Oh dear. But I tell you this, my woefully disappointing daughter had brought a lovely man into my life, the guy she now works with and you'll doubtless see them pictured in newspapers today and in the morning and being interviewed together on TV tonight. She even told me, 'I've found the right man for your mom'. Of course I didn't believe her and you girls will know the feeling when you know you're so right and yet your mom or guardian won't accept that, at least not initially. Oh god I'm so proud of my daughter," Kendra said, bursting into tears.

The girls rose and delivered sustained applause and Miss Ascot-Sutton who was hugging Kendra and softly smiling back at her girls, made no effort to end their remarkable outburst, with some of the girls now dabbing at their eyes.

When it ended Miss Ascot-Sutton said, "Well I believe in this hall this morning we have all been involved in one of those magic moments in education. Back to your classrooms girls and please behave like young ladies."

"Take the remainder of the day off Kendra."

"Thank you but no. I can't wait to get back to my classrooms and enjoy the aroused emotions of my students."

"Oh god," Miss Ascot-Sutton faltered.

"It's how it's meant to be Amy. And you're just enjoyed feeling it."

Kendra raced home during the lunch break and tiptoed into Jo's bedroom only to find she was asleep. She was halfway down the passage when Jo called, "Is that you mom?"

"Yes darling," Kendra yelled and raced back to her daughter.

"Jesus someone's told you. Fucking Mac I bet."

"No I haven't heard from you but he called Miss Ascot-Sutton and asked that I be allowed to watch your TV interview and explained what it was about. Amy ordered the entire senior school and their teachers into the hall and we all watched together and they all stood and clapped at the end. It was wonderful."

"Well I hope that lot of misbehaving brats took good notice of the bad scum that permeates our city and at least some of them will consider joining the police or work in the security industry."

Kendra gaped at her daughter. Was this her misbehaving brat growing up?

During the afternoon break between change of classes, Kendra called Mac.

"Hi I hope I haven't woken you?"

"Nah I became over-stimulated because of we had a bit of success with out sit-out last night so I have been back of work all day."

"A bit of success? But you'll be exhausted."

Mac sounded pained and pointed out he was army-trained, that he could still operate reasonably effectively after three days and nights without anything more than catnaps. He asked rudely, "What do you want that's this urgent?"

She flared, "I have to get back to class but I called to ask will you marry me?"

"What? Oh it's okay I heard you. I've been waiting for you to ask."

"Damn you," Kendra flared and cut the call and sat tapping her fingers, waiting for him to call back. But there was no return call. She called back and when he answered she snorted, "Well?"

"My apologies for not calling back. I was testing your commitment. Yes you can marry me or is the correct form to say yes I'll marry you?"

"It doesn't matter to me. You have given me a positive enough reply. I'll go round to your place when I'm finished here and prepare a beautiful dinner. Phone me when you are on your way home and I'll run a bath. After dinner you can go to bed and sleep and I'll watch over you."

"What about sex."

"You'll be too tired."

"Says who?"

She giggled and told him Jo had said she'd been persuaded by a senior recruitment officer to join the police. "She'll be joining the next intake at training school in five weeks."

"That means she'll be moving out?"

"Yes but will store her possession at home."

"And that means you want the wedding on the eve of her going off?"

"God you can read my mind."

"Bullshit. It's just logical and the typical tactical thinking of a woman."

"Oh."

Mac laughed and said he'd be home early.

"Oh yes for sex."

Surprised he said, "God you can read my mind."

"Bullshit. It's just logical and the typical tactical thinking of a man."

They laughed and Kendra almost wet herself when he said, "I do love you."

THE END