For the photographs in this part of the story, I used the setting of “night-time along the street” to work together with the yellow lighting I was stuck working with.

Hearing sounds, Clara told Jennifer to follow her through the dark of night. The two went into an alley, only to find themselves cornered. Their pursuer made himself known: their distant uncle who runs the sweatshop they hoped to flee.

“You two have been naughty,” the short man said, illuminated by yellow street lights. “You know you’re not allowed to leave the shop.”

“Jen, stand behind me,” Clara said, holding an arm out in front of her older sister.

Clara looked back for a moment to ensure Jennifer would be safe. At this time, the man grabbed Clara by the leg, swinging her around, and throwing her to the ground.

As Jennifer watched helplessly, another man set a hat on her head. He asked her to “please model as a coat rack for a moment”, and handed her his coat and jacket. “The first piece of information to reveal is that this man is no distant uncle of yours.” The man rolled up his sleeves. “His real name is Wally Michaels, and he runs a company in the States called ‘Clown Noses International’, which acts as one part of an international operation for finding orphans to take in and put to work.”

Clara sat up a little. “That explains the big, pink nose he always wears.” Jennifer added, “With a fake mustache, too!”

“It’s all lies!” the short man, Michaels, shouted out.

“A piece of hair found its way into the envelope with the letter sent to me. It’s made with a unique synthesis method, a method patented by the Clown Noses International company for use in clown wigs. I’ve been in contact with a few of Noses’s recent customers–not an easy task with as closed as the company keeps information–and learned the wigs are used to give a uniform look to all of Michaels’s workers, as if they’re all distant relatives of his.”

“Lies!” Michaels repeated.

“I’ve had Interpol collect a few of your friends, Michaels. I sparked up a conversion with with your pal Velmont. I talked a bit about raising children in a work environment with your good friend Baby Face.”

“I don’t know anybody by those names!” Michaels said, continuing to shout.

“Does the name Jonsylinskivenchykz mean nothing to you? He’s good at dodging the heat after kidnapping a victim, and even gave Interpol a hard time chasing him down. I wouldn’t even have suspected him if it wasn’t for your company hosting his 52nd birthday party. Yes, Michaels, Interpol even has photographs from that affair in its GUGL suspected-criminal database. After Interpol takes you in, ask ‘em to GUGL ‘Jonsylinskivenchykz’ for you.”

“That’s illegal!” The short Michaels gritted his teeth as the detective stepped up to him, towering overhead.

“No one will care.”

“Why are you saying this?” Michaels asked, his breathing heavy, and sweat forming along his brow.

“I mimed a nice conversation with Porter, your silent man working in both government and media. I’ve dined with McKinney, and learned about his company providing all the green outfits your ‘young relatives’ wear to help give the look of relation.”

The short man stepped back.

“If you expect Sven to get you out of here, and Tee to get you into the States, you’re gravely mistaken, Mr. Michaels.”

Michaels tried to run, but the detective grabbed him by the overalls.

“Who are you?” Michaels asked.

“How rude of me,” the detective responded. “My name is Daniel MacGuinness, and I am a detective.”

“Oh!” Jennifer cried out with excitement. “That’s the letter you meant! It’s the one I sent to you!”

A group of Interpol agents appeared in the alley, took Michaels into custody, and vanished into an armored van. The van disappeared into the night.

Daniel kneeled beside Clara. “Forgive me, lass, for taking so long to arrive.” He reached out a hand to her. Her placed her hand in his. “Had I been her sooner, you would not have suffered like this.”

“Are you really detective Daniel MacGuinness?” Jennifer asked him as he helped her sister to her feet.

“The one and only,” Daniel replied. “Room has been made for the two of you and any other US-born citizens to be placed in an orphanage near where I work. Others will be sent to their home countries, and placed in proper homes there.”

“If you had all that planned,” Clara asked, “Then why did you invite the two of us out here?”

“Simple,” Daniel said. “We needed a way to lure Michaels out of the shop, so Interpol and I could go in and investigate.”

“You mean you were taking your time looking around the shop while that man was attacking us?” Clara demanded.

“I assure you, no physical harm was meant to come of this.”

“Well, that makes it all better,” Clara responded, her words twisted with sarcasm.

“Further,” Daniel added, “you two alone are granted a special transportation to America in a friend’s personal plane. Counting the pilot and the co-pilot–myself–the plane seats four. If the two of you are ready, we shall leave at once.”

~fin~

A bit of commentary…

When I first planned out this chapter, I had Daniel arrive to take Jennifer and Clara back to America with him. Here is how some of the original dialogue went:

Clara: “What about everyone else in the shop? Are you just going to leave them?”

Daniel: “I can’t save everyone, Miss Clara.”

Clara: “You didn’t even try!”

Daniel: “There are shops like that all over Asia, and in other countries, too. What would you have me do? Shut them all down?”

Clara: “I don’t see why not.”

Daniel: “I am only one person. I do what I can do, but there is no way I can save everybody. I don’t have any super-human powers to be a world hero.”

Clara: “Well, maybe you should! Have you even tried saving more than one or two people?”

Daniel (looking away): “Not everyone can be saved. I look for those asking for my help. This is all I can do. I can’t be everywhere and do everything.”

Upon realizing I had already hinted at “Uncle” following the sisters, I realized he’d have to be taken in by the law, and the above idea came crashing down.

Without Clara getting mad at Daniel for not “saving the world”, I needed something in its place, and decided to go local. It’s because of Jennifer’s trust in Daniel that the girls were in danger in the first place. If it wasn’t Clara who was attacked, it would have been Jennifer, and if Daniel didn’t show up when he did, it would have been both of the two. This also fits in better with ideas I have for future stories with these two.

This chapter of the story opens with Daniel receiving a letter in the mail. He reads it right away.

“Dear Mr. Dan,

“Related. Close in age. Not brothers. Seeing with the same difference. Our parents, always good and holy. Japanese plastic enters. Chinese plastic leaves. Buying new clothes on the hottest summer day. Postman knows nothing, tells all.”

Daniel looked at the letter a second time, then a third. “Close in age, but not brothers. A close relationship, but not boys. Sisters, no doubt. The sight part remains a mystery. Their parents have certainly passed on, for those in Heaven do no wrong. Goods from Japan are imported, and bootleg items go out. A shop to buy clothes while sweating from the heat of the sun? Referencing a sweatshop, no doubt. The postman would know nothing about this, but the address on envelope he delivered should give me all I need to know to begin my search.

“The country isn’t listed on the envelope, but a riddle instead. ‘Three outcomes, and nobody lost.’ Three outcomes, and one possible outcome is a loss? That would be a win, a loss, and a draw. Win, draw… Draw, win… A draw is a tie. Win tie, tie win, tie won…… That’s it! They are in a bootleg sweatshop in Taiwan!”

Daniel hurried to a friend who owned a plane and owed more than a few favors to an intrepid detective who’d helped him times innumerable. Within an hour, Daniel’s air travels to a location halfway across the globe took off. He arrived by morning, ready to sleep by his own timezone. The following days consisted of gathering information with the help of a trilingual Korean glad to finally repay the good detective for services rendered a year prior.

Sisters Jennifer and Clara Sheridan finished another day working at their step uncle’s plastic toy manufacturing shop. After 14 hours without meals or breaks, the two looked forward to finishing their day.

Returning to their small room, the sisters found two suitcases. Inside they found clothes, and a small two-way radio.

“You are no doubt wondering what two suitcases of clothes are doing in your room,” a voice spoke from the radio. “I have received your letter. Your uncle had done a lot of work to hide smuggling you two into the country, but he followed the same methods and cover ups as many others have before him. There are no new crimes, only history repeated time and again.”

“Is that really you, Detective Daniel?” the girl in the green dress asked.

“Aye, lass, and I’ll take you to the States, be it your desire. Wear outfits from those suit cases, so that I may recognize the two of you.”

“Wear these clothes?” the other girl asked. “Nothing in here looks like anything I’d want to wear, even if my life depended on it.”

“I’m a detective, not a fashion guru, and your very freedom is depending on it. Still, I anticipated this might happen. Look in the bottom of the suitcase. You’ll find a pink shirt and denim shorts. There were on display on one of the mannequins in the store I bought from. Surely it’s at least wearable.”

The younger sister took the outfit and changed. The older Sheridan looked longer, finding an outfit she liked, before changing as well.

Ready to go, the girls closed the suitcases, then followed Daniel’s instructions on where to go to meet with him. They hurried into the dark of the night, unaware the of the silhouette trailing after.

The two waited patiently for their hero to arrive.

Recently, my TaeYang doll, Daniel MacGuinness, has found his detective work centering more and more around missing jewels, often involving counterfeit jewels. In “The Case of the Glowing Lockbox” and “The Case of the Missing Jewels”, Detective Daniel was able to rescue an orphanage from being closed down against a recently deceased philanthropist’s wishes by recovering missing jewels intended to fund both the orphanage, and the operation of young orphan Tiny Tim.

The finding of the jewels is shown in photographs:

What Detective Daniel didn’t expect was for Tiny Tim’s operation to make it in the newspaper press. Stories of the operation captured the attention of people all across town. Reporters looked into the operation, into the saving of the orphanage, and from there into how Daniel’s detective work made it all possible. Daniel’s name appeared in every home across town.

That’s when Daniel met…her.

There are times when a detective is proud of the work he does. There are also times when a case leaves him feeling empty. To him, she should have been nothing more than a client. Daniel let his guard down, and opened his heart to her. Still, his detective side couldn’t resist, and he used their closeness to investigate her ties to the missing Ruby Heart thoroughly. Rather than a client, she herself became a suspect.

She found out.

It wouldn’t have worked out. Her involvement in the crime ran too deep. In the end, she went to the police, revealing the location of the Ruby Heart. All investigations ended promptly, and the case closed.

No one knows the reason behind her actions. Daniel knew her position to be only a pawn in a massive jewel counterfeiting operation. Her employer would continue to operate without fear of oversight by the police.

“What’s this? Something in my pocket?” Daniel reached in, sliding his fingers around the cold, hard object.

He slid the item out of the pocket, and into the afternoon sun shining through his small, stuffy office.

“The missing counterfeit. This is it.”

With one of the counterfeit jewels in his possession, Daniel could convince the police to reopen their investigation. He had many contacts, from lowly officers, to police chiefs. He would need only hand over the fake jewel to the department.

… … …

Daniel could not part with this item she left with him. The counterfeiting operation would continue. Daniel had not yet had his last encounter with the most heinous, massive crime the police repeatedly failed to notice.

“I’m going to the orphanage.” Usually not one to look on his past accomplishments, Daniel felt the need to be surrounded by others who will find delight in his presence.