Chapter Nine of A Reporters Nightmare

Aragon helped the officer open the doors, one of the bicycles fell over and a table leg broke. The officer cast an inquisitive glance Aragon’s way.

     Aragon grabbed one of the shovels that had been left and moved a table and bike out of the way and dug some dirt away. In the dark it was hard to make much out but Aragon soon found a crate and pulled it out.

     The officer came over and tugged his flashlight free. Aragon pried the top free and both of the men stared. At least a hundred packets of hundred dollar bills carefully wrapped in plastic stared back at them.

     The officer pulled a radio out of his pouch and rattled off the discovery to whomever he was calling.

     When he was done he sat back. “I can’t believe it, after all this time of searching and we couldn’t find a thing an actor finds everything.”

     “I’m not an actor.” Aragon said. “I’m a reporter from Salina.”

     The officer extended his hand. “I’m sure glad to meet you. I’m Officer Hardly.”

     Aragon shook his hand. “Aragon Gates.”

     Officer Hardly scratched his head. “I’ve got a question.” He said. “If you’re from Salina, how did you find those men and all these crates?”

     Aragon told Officer Hardly everything since he had been looking for a story. “I needed a story.” He said. “I followed everyone of interest, even two girls arguing over what they were going to buy at the mall, but until I saw Smoky and Baxter I didn’t have a story.”

     Officer Hardly shook his head in wonder. “I couldn’t have done a half of what you did.” He said and pulled a notebook out. “But I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you, I don’t think you’ll ever get a chance to write a real story on this, I think everyone will be to busy writing a story about you.”

     A thought occurred to Aragon. “But what about the man that’s behind it all?”

     “The three men that are headed to jail seem very talkative, they really don’t want to go to jail, I’m sure they’ll tell us everything we want to know.”

     Aragon nodded, relieved. “How did you know to come here?” He asked.

     “The man that’s behind it all happens to own these storage units, we found out that he started the fire to hold us off. It took us a little bit but we figured out what was going on.” Officer Hardly stretched one arm from his side. “We got over here as fast as we could to find you surrounded by those three men.”

     Aragon wanted to ask more but just then several more police cruisers pulled in and six officers came into the unit, armed with shovels. Without saying anything they began to dig at where the crates had been buried.