“I am just saying Buc-ees has a limited selection.”

“Limited, what do you want both a Subway and a Burger King along with suspect potato salad in those weird open refrigerator displays like at a Love’s Truck Stop.”  Daniel said, making a disgusting face.

“Hey, I love Buc-ees as much as the next guy, but what if someone in your traveling party is a vegetarian or god forbid a vegan.”  I said, trying to wind up my friend.

“Hey, they can eat Buc-ee Chips or roasted nuts.”  Daniel countered. “I think this is the place.”

I turned into the motel parking lot, that Daniel and the GPS was indicating. My first assessment of the place was a dive. Trash in the parking lot, older cars in need of paint or wash were in the majority, and I counted not two, not three but four broken security camera housings. “Why this place?”  I said maneuvering Daniel’s new Toyota Highlander towards the back of the motel. When I saw the overflowing dumpster I reclassified the place, from dive to pit.

I worried about parking Daniel’s car here. If I had known I was going to such an iffy motel I might have suggested driving my car, his new car with all the bells and whistles stood out in this neighborhood like Mickey Mouse ears at Universal.  Sure, we had fun driving up here, playing with the 360 cameras and the Wi-Fi but we were now a very tempting target for every kid looking to make a little scratch either by selling off the tires or simply smashing and grabbing anything inside the car, including Daniel’s laptop.

“Keach, the seller, said it was halfway between Orlando and where he lives.” Daniel answered. “There it is Building Six, Room six two four should be.”  He looked at the numbers on the doors. “On the far side of the building.”

I nodded. “Deeper into the lion’s den.”

Daniel blew out a raspberry and waved his hand.

“Hey, you may be an expert on identifying Disney Animation cells, but I know disreputable and shady motels and this is making my spider sense go off.”  I had slowly driven the SUV around the back of the building and cruised through past door numbers noting that 624 should be directly over top 614. “Great at the end of the building.”
Daniel saw its location as well. “Hey, look it’s right near the stairs through.”
Daniel was looking on the bright side, I saw that there was no rear exit to this place just a chain link fence topped with barbed wire keeping the motel people from wandering into a warehouse and industrial area behind the motel. “Good place for an ambush Kemo Sabe.” I said doing my best imitation of Jay Silverheels.

Daniel waved me off as backed the new SUV into a spot near the stairs.

What was I doing in a run-down motel, three counties deep into rural Alabama with my head on a swivel wondering if I was going to wake up in bathtub full of ice in one of these rooms with a note thanking me for donating a kidney. The answer was one simple word, with a lot of weight, friendship.

I owed so many favors to Daniel over the years and when asked me to come along so I did. He had been looking for a perfect anniversary present for his soon-to-be In-Laws when he found it, there was nothing that was going to stop him from obtaining, thus our road trip.
Daniel had gotten a line on an orginal animation cell with background painting from the tragically under remembered The Rescuers. (Even after being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.)  After much on-line negotiations with the mysterious and secretive ‘Mr. Keach’ Daniel had been given this address and told to bring cash for the transaction.  Daphne, his fiancé, had been worried about him meeting a person with so much cash so she had asked me to tag along to keep him safe.
Like I said, friendship.

I stopped Daniel from opening the door by putting my hand on his shoulder. “Wait, where is the money?”

Daniel tapped the left side of his ridiculous khaki photographers vest he wore on road trips. “Inside pocket.”

I nodded. “Don’t be touching it until after we see the animation cell.”  He nodded. “Don’t even run your hand over that part of the vest to check it, it will clue them in on where it is.”

“Paranoid much?”

“The question is am a paranoid enough, for both of us?” I said, then got out of the vehicle. The temperature was just a little bit below Orlando normal for December, making it just a little chilly for my tastes. I followed Daniel up the stairs to the second floor of the seedy cinder block structure that probably avoided any travel guides for obvious reasons.

Daniel squared up with the door, I stood off to the side where I could look into the room and back over Daniels shoulder at the same time.  Daniel rapped on the blue metal door, numerous chips showing the white paint underneath.  No answer after the first knock so Daniel knocked again.

“Just a minute.” Came a muffled voice from inside the room.

Daniel shrugged and took a step back leaning against the railing and then immediately regretting as there was some sort of wet substance on the bare metal.  I simply said. “Morning dew.”

There was rustling from the door and the sound of not one chain being moved but three. Then the door was opened slowly and a gaunt white face peered out from inside the dark room. The intense blue eyes peered at me and then at Daniel, then he turned back to me. “Are you Dewey?”
I shook my head. “I am Miles, that is Dewey.”

The very thin man turned back to Daniel and said suspiciously. “You did not say anything about anyone else coming.”

“We did not really discuss it; my friend came along to help with the driving.”  Daniel said bored.

I could see my friend was in negotiation mode.  I sure hope this animation cell was up to Daniel’s standards. I would have hated to drive all this way for nothing.  But if Daniel was not pleased with the art, he would definitely talk this guy down a bit with his bored attitude.

The skinny Mr. Keach looked me over again and said.  “Come in.”

Daniel went into the dark room first.  I followed but stayed in the doorway keeping myself in the door frame to keep the door open for two reasons to let light in and to keep an eye on the car and parking lot.

I looked into the room and saw there were no beds in the room, just a few folding tables, along the wall where the headboards were still mounted on the wall. On the same wall was a door that undoubtedly connected to the next room. Terrific now I had another avenue of approach to watch.
Mr. Keach motioned for me to come into the room.  I simply shook my head ‘no’. Keach then turned his attention to Daniel who was standing in the middle of the room looking at different items on the table, rectangles draped in what looked like pillowcases.

“Now you came for The Rescuer’s piece.” Keach stated quizzically.

“Yes.”  Daniel answered simply.

Keach moved to the tables and carefully pulled the old pillowcase off the framed picture on the table in the far corner of the cramped room.  “Here it is, with both Bianca and Benard as they board the leaf boat powered by Evinrude the dragonfly.”

Daniel went into his examination mode and turned to Keach.  “Can I get some more lights on, to look at it more closely.

Keach looked surprised by his request but after a fee seconds of thought he walked around the room turning on the few light fixtures still in place around the room, the one that was most helpful to Daniel he turned on last.

Daniel turned over the framed print and looked at Keach.  “Can you take off this backing so I can look at the cells individually.

Keach answered without thinking.  “No, the frame stays intact.”

“Okay.” Daniel nodded. Then he pulled out a magnifying glass from one of his many pockets on his vest and a small penlight flashlight.  “This may take a few minutes, do you have a chair I could sit on, while I examine this through the glass.”

Keach glared at him, but then moved the sole chair in the room, a straight backed, poorly cushioned rickety thing over to the folding table.

I glanced back outside and saw a large, unmarked cargo van pull into the parking lot and back into a space a few seconds later a country sheriff’s car pulled in front of the van.  The driver of the van and large beefy fellow in blue jeans and flannel shirt got out of the driver’s side as did the driver of the Sheriff’s vehicle.  That is when I noticed this was not just any patrol car, it was the actual County Sheriff’s car from its markings.

I checked back on Daniel who was still examining the art and Keach was leaning on the dresser where the TV used to sit staring at Daniel’s back with an annoyed look on his face.

Back in the parking lot the two men had met up near the driver’s side door of the cop car. “Any problems?”

“No Sheriff, it went just as we planned, no fuss, no muss.”

The Sheriff answered.  “Okay, you got the envelop Keach gave you.”
Hearing the name of the Keach spoken in the parking lot by other people secured my interest.

The driver of the van pulled a white envelope out of his pocket and handed it to the County Sheriff.  The Sheriff checked the seal on the envelop and without opening it put it in his back pocket.

“Yes sir.”

“Alright you have a nice day and tell Keach I will see him a poker tonight.” The Sheriff got into his car and before he did, he scanned the area and saw me standing in the doorway, he gave me a slight examination and I tried to radiate indifference and uncaring so he would not think I had seen the whole exchange a minute ago and if I did, I did not know what I had seen.  He got into his car and drove away obviously unconcerned with my presence.

So, Mr. Keach is friends with the County Sheriff, the room setup was already a dead give way that Mr. Keach did not meet us halfway as he told Daniel, and not only was he local, but he was also a well-connected local.

I turned back to check on Daniel who had now pulled out a  jewelers loupe.  You know one of those things that they used to look at diamond rings in movies and then the guy declares the diamond ring is a fake and a fight ensues, either emotional or physical depending on the genre.  I knew Daniel was looking for flaws in the animation cell so he could lower the price, because if it was a fake, he would have declared it a phony right away.

I checked on Keach who was looking annoyed but he was not ticked off yet, if I saw him getting to that point, I would give Daniel a warning.  I kept up my bored façade and looked outside again.  The stooge driving the truck had moved to the back of the truck and opened it.  I could not see what was in the truck initially but the second he dragged a large rolling suitcase out of the back I knew immediately we were in a load of trouble.

I have been on a lot of backstage tours at Disney World. Well over fifty, never on my own dime, always on a clients bill.  Subsequently I have time to observe things that are not highlighted on a tour.  I was really curious the first time I saw various people running around in black shorts, and grey t-shirts with a bar code right on the front, and these people all seemed to be wheeling around identical large unmarked rectangular suitcases.  I finally figured out what or more importantly who they were.  They were ‘friends’ with characters.  These gray t-shirted people had costumes in those large, unmarked suitcases.
Disney tries very hard to keep magic alive for everyone. A Cast Member who is in entertainment, will never claim to be Mickey Mouse, they will simply say they are friends with Mickey.

After all there is only one Mickey Mouse and he is as real as you or me, and while I am not a Cast Member and have never worked for Disney in any way shape or form or fashion I agree with the policy and practice of keeping Mickey’s magic alive.

I watched this flannel clad mook wheel the bag into the room directly below where I was standing. Then he went back into the truck and got another.  I was absolutely certain now that these were Disney character costumes and this guy was not affiliated with the Disney company or any of its subsidiaries, division, or branches.  Therefore, I was watching stolen goods being stashed away in a disreputable motel.

Six bags in total were moved into the motel room.  Then the guy got in the truck, leaving the roll up door open he moved it across the parking lot to the chain link fence.

I had lost track of what was going on in the room and I heard Daniel say. “Well, I am satisfied, this is an orginal set of cells, from the orginal production.”

Keach answered.  “Just like I said.”

Daniel nodded.  “Any story with how you got this.”

Keach replied with a slight pause.  “I got it at an estate sale,”  He shrugged, “you never know what you are going to find sometimes, and the people selling it had no idea what it’s true value was.”

I knew Keach was no dummy, someone who wanted to prove how smart he was would tell how much he got the animation cell for.  But he kept his mouth shut on that little detail. But seeing what I had just seen I wanted to get away from this place and make a phone call sooner rather than later.

“Hey Daniel, can we wrap this up, I am kind of hungry.” I turned towards Keach. “Any good local place to get some real barbeque?”

Daniel gave me a quick look, as we had already decided we were going to eat at the world famous ‘Reds’ in the next town over.  Daniel realized I wanted to wrap this up. “Well, the price is fair, even though there is no letter or authenticity, I will have to get it certified and graded.”

Keach looked at him shrewdly. “I can knock a hundred dollars off the price.”

Daniel could not help himself. “How about two hundred off the price.”

Keach met him in the middle. “One fifty off the orginal price.”

Daniel stuck out his hand. “Deal.”

The two shook hands and Daniel reached into his pocket, pulled out his  fancy leather wallet, counted out the required bills and handed them over.
Since there was no crashing of doors and men in black body armor appearing from the bathroom, I knew this was not a set up by an alphabet agency to bust buyers of stolen merchandise.  I was kind of disappointed. I kind of wish it had been a sting, then I could not worry about the six large ‘magical’ suitcases downstairs.  As it was, I had a dilemma in front of me.

“Do you need a receipt?” Keach asked.

Daniel nodded and Keach pulled out a small old fashioned small tablet with carbon papers, filled it out, showed it to Daniel before he ripped it out and handed it to my friend.  Stuffing it into a pocket Daniel turned around and picked up the framed artwork and we made our way down to the car where Daniel secured his new purchase in the back seat with numerous seatbelts and a towel to keep it from rattling around.  Keach stood a few paces away muttered ‘enjoy the artwork’ half-heartedly as we climbed into the car.  I had the keys and I drove out of the parking lot as quickly as possible.

“What was that all about?”

I waved him off and tossed him my cell phone.  “Find Investigator Mike on my phone and call him.

“Who is investigator Mike, and is this about my purchase?”

“No, it’s not about your purchase, just call Mike and put it on speaker.”

Daniel was satisfied for the moment and I was busy looking for a turn when the phone rang.  On the fourth ring, it went to voice mail and I growled in frustration, but I found a promising turn a few seconds later.  When the beep sounded, I spoke. “Mike its Miles, call me back right away, I think your company is missing somethings that I know you do not want to be out in the wild, call me back ASAP.”  I motioned for Daniel to hang up the phone once the computer voice accepted my message. Then I found another promising turn and took it.

“What did you see that has set you off?  And why are you calling Disney Investigations?”

“I will explain everything in a minute, just let me get us parked.

Daniel nodded; it is good to have a friend that trusts you when you are acting crazy.  I found what I was looking for two minutes later. We were now on the far side of the chain link fence of the run-down warehouse/industrial park with an unobstructed view of the parking lot and motel rooms we had just left.  It took me a few minutes to find a spot to park that allowed me a good view and at the same time offered some concealment.  Very little concealment, but hopefully no one was too paranoid about being observed.

Once I had parked the Toyota, I let out a sigh of relief, the truck was in the same spot and all the doors to the motel rooms where closed.

I shifted the SUV into park and Daniel simply asked. “Well?”
I explained what I had seen and what I knew the six rolling cases contained.  “Are you sure?”  Daniel asked after I explained everything.  I simply nodded.

Daniel and I both made our livings off the bemouth of Disney, me I had just sort of fallen into that role, but Daniel had made a concerted effort with his service as a ‘clearing house’ of Mouse associated information.  And while we  both had ambivalent feelings about the actual Fortune 100 company, we both admired their product ‘attempting to create happiness’ for millions of people around the world.

We sat there in Daniel’s SUV, I was kind of mad at myself for not at least bringing my messenger bag with me, because I habitually kept a pair of decent small binoculars in it.  Daniel had broken his laptop and was doing some sort of search and I let him do his thing.

The phone rang after twenty minutes of sitting.

“Mike, I think you guys are missing six of those large rolling bags that hold character costumes.”

“What makes you say that?” Mike responded sounding suspicious.

“I saw them rolled into a seedy motel room in Alabama about forty minutes ago.”

“Are you sure, there was nothing at the beginning of my shift, no alert or anything.”

“It might have just happened, I heard a driver talking about it going according to plan, you guys might not even know it happened yet, heck the driver might not even know it happened yet if they were slick enough.”

“That is crazy Miles, but I will look into it, do you have anything else for me?”

“Yeah, I got something.” Daniel said waving and then turning his laptop towards me.

“Who is that with you Miles?”

“Daniel Dewey, my friend.”  I paused while I looked over the screen.
“I think those costumes might have been enroute to a big Disney press conference in Chicago next week for that Immersive Disney Animation Experience opening there next week.”

“Well, that matches up with things, let me look into this.”  He paused while I heard typing in the background.  “Where are you at?”

I told him the name of the city and the county and I also shared with him that I thought the Sheriff might be involved in the theft, giving him all the details, I had just shared with Daniel.

“Okay can you keep eyes on the rolling suitcases until I talk to some people?”

“Okay but you owe me a big one for this.”

“If this is for real, the Company is going to owe you big time. I will call you right back.” The phone call ended and Daniel looked at me.

“Now what?”

“We sit and watch at least until Mike gets back to us.”  I said and squirmed into the seat a little bit and then titled the steering wheel up giving me a little bit more room to stretch out.  Daniel did a few things with his laptop on the and then went back to typing.

I was just settling for a long wait, when I heard Daniel say, ‘uh oh’.  I was about to ask him what was wrong when I saw the problem.  Approaching from both sides of us was two deputy sheriff cars, with their lights on and heading straight towards us.

“Oh crap.”  I said.

Ten minutes later Daniel and I were in handcuffs.

Fifteen minutes later we were sitting in the back seat of a deputies car and back in the motel’s parking lot.  The deputies had taken our cell phones, and my pocketknife and made Daniel leave his photographers vest in the car. Daniel was looking worried; I was trying to act nonplussed but I was a bit concerned as well. It had been a while since I was in hand cuffs and I was pretty certain this sheriff’s department was corrupt, at least from the top down, although I could not say for certain it was the whole department, for all I knew the janitor might have been a stand-up guy.

The Sheriff pulled up again, but this time he was dressed casually in blue jeans and a Juggalo T-shirt, like he got called from home.  There was a discussion with the Deputies and the Sheriff looked through our wallets, when he came upon my Florida Class C License he paused and looked through the window at me. I smiled and gave an exaggerated wink.  He scowled at me and turned away.  Then he began a quite but angry chewing out of the two deputies, he even smacked one on the backside of his head.  Then he gestured to them and one of them went and knocked on one of the hotel room doors.  Keach answered the door and looked around when he saw us in the back of the car he stomped over to the Sheriff.

Keach yelled at the Sheriff, and then the Sheriff yelled back at him. It was very  heated which I took as a good sign. Indecision and hesitancy was a good thing, it gave us more time. And time alive and breathing was a good thing in my book.  The argument between the two of them cooled down and they had a discussion and a few minutes later a decision was reached.

The Sheriff took over and Keach went over to another hotel room, unlocked it, and stood in the doorway. I noted it was the one next to the room that the six large rolling suitcases were in.

“Daniel, let me do all the talking.” I said quietly to my friend.

Daniel gave an exasperated sigh. “We are treading water in a cesspool, I will let you do all the talking, whoever opens their mouth is liable to drown in what we are treading in.”

“That about sums it up partner.”

Daniel rolled his eyes trying to be stoic.

With minimal talking we were escorted into a motel room, this one was stripped bare, with a bunch of photography lights as if to take pictures of products. We were placed in identical straight-backed chairs the Sheriff appeared with manacles and looped them around the chair leg then placed them around our ankles ensuring we would not be wandering around the sparse dingy room. “Who are you working for Mitchell?”  He did not wait for an answer, but assumed he already knew.  “Are you working for the Sampsons in Jacksonville?”

I thought about it for a full second before I answered. Did he think I was working for a rival criminal outfit? Would this help us or hurt us.  I took a chance. “Hey, I was just told to escort this guy” I said tossing my head towards Daniel. “up here and see what the set up was like, nothing more.”

The Sheriff nodded; I could see he was proud of himself for figuring out what was going on so quickly. Even if I knew he was one hundred percent wrong.  I tried not to show relief that he believed my vague and nebulous answer.  “Okay, you two sit tight, I have to call someone up in Biloxi and clear this up the chain and down to those bastards in Jacksonville.

I decided to mix things up a bit and took a chance. “Hey, the instructions I got came from a number in Tallahassee if that helps, a guy claiming to be Tony, but I don’t think that was his real name, and I got paid in cash via UPS.”

The Sheriff looked at me suspiciously then smiled. “Yeah, it does help, I bet I know just who was pulling the strings.  Biloxi told them to stay out of Alabama but they just couldn’t help themselves. “Okay you sit tight and you might be going home before midnight if this all checks out.”  He paused. “No harm, no foul on your part, its those damn Sampsons that are the greedy clowns.”

I firgured I had pushed my luck far enough, “Thanks Sheriff, we really do not want to get involved in anyone else’s feud.” The Sheriff nodded and his deputies left the room with us chained to the chairs.

I looked over at Daniel and smiled. He still looked frightened.

“What was all that about Biloxi, and who are the Sampsons? He stammered.

“The Sheriff thinks I am working for another branch of the Dixie Mafia, they have different territories, I assume the Sampsons are the branch down in Jacksonville.”  I said while twisting in the chair and scooting closer to Daniel.

“And what happens when he can’t confirm that you are not working for the Sampsons in Jacksonville?”  He asked.

“Well by then I hope you and I will be long gone from here.”  I said having closed the distance between us till our chairs were touching. “Can you reach into my coat pocket and get my keys out; I have a handcuff key on my keychain.”

“Why do you have a handcuff key on your keychain.”  I was about to answer when he stopped me. “Never mind forget I asked.” Still bewildered,  Daniel with some encouragement and wiggling around and getting a lot closer to Daniel than I ever had before we got out of the handcuffs and the manacles.

Daniel immediately went and used the bathroom, while I locked the door, luckily when they had stripped this room down, they had not taken away interior locking mechanism from the door. I then moved to the joint door leading into the room where I had seen the six bags placed and listened, Daniel came out after washing his hand and fortunately stayed quiet. I listened at the door for several minutes and hearing nothing I took a chance and peaked into the other room.

Empty.  At least empty of people.  The six rolling bags were there along with a folding table with a laptop. I quickly moved into that room and locked the door as well.  Daniel followed me cautiously and I went back to the room of our previous occupation and placed our chairs in front of the door.  I had a flash of inspiration and used the handcuffs to secure the chairs to the door handle. I then used the manacles to secure the doors to the new room. Finally, was able to confirm what I already knew, the rolling suitcases, I only opened one and saw a very recognizable red and white polka dot pattern and part of a very large black velvet circle. When I finished Daniel was sitting at a table with the laptop.

“You might want to stay away from that.”  I said quietly.

Daniel looked over at me. “Why?”

I answered. “Because it is none of our business, we do not want to get these guys any more motivation to kill us, and learning about their nasty dealings would probably be a big motivator for these guys to find us a nice but premature shallow grave.”

Daniel looked at me wide eyed. “Oh.” He sat there for a few seconds, well I am simply going to check on something and then figure out a way to call for help.”

“To whom, 911?” I said shaking my head. “And are they going to send the Sheriff around to help us?”

“Oh yeah.”  Daniel answered, but still stayed at the computer against my advice.

I went to the bathroom area looking around for something, anything to help us.  It was one of those two area setups with a mirror and sink, and a toilet and shower with a door separating them.  I looked at the mirror, it was old and mounted on the wall with screws and clips, running from the sink top to the ceiling.  I looked at it and wondered. I played around with the clips and was able to slide the mirror a few inches to the side. Yep, just as I suspected someone in building this place had cut some corners.  Instead of putting a sheet of drywall here they had simply placed the mirror right on the studs of the wet wall.

Not placing drywall between two rooms was a big no no.  Drywall slowed fire down, typically at least an hour.  With no drywall between this room and its mirror image on the other side this place would be a death trap in a fire.  But there was no drywall between these two room on the wet wall.

A wet wall is basically where all the plumbing runs, and in a motel as cheaply built as this one I could see the back of the mirror on the other side of the wet wall.  Thank god for consistently not up to code, dangerously unsafe construction as this was our escape route. They had even skimped on the studs instead of the standard building code of a two by four every sixteen inches, this appeared to be at least twenty-four, maybe more inches apart.

“Daniel come here and help me.” A few minutes later we had the mirror off the wall and now I needed to figure out how to get the mirror off the other wall without causing too much noise, knowing at any second our corrupt cop hosts might come back and check on us.

Daniel asked. “What am I looking at?”

“Our escape route. Through the looking glass.” Daniel nodded and left me to listen at the mirror and heard no noise in the opposite motel room and started wiggling the opposite mirror, I must have wiggled it too much, or the old screws that had held up the mirror since the Eisenhower administration just decided it was time to retire and the mirror fell.

Someone upstairs must really like me because the mirror did not shatter into a million pieces in a resounding clash.  Instead, it simply slid off the wall onto the opposite countertop, breaking into four or five large, jagged pieces.

“Okay buddy time to make like a tree.”  I said, putting a foot through the wall and slowly moving the broken mirror around. I looked back and saw him sitting at the computer again. I climbed down from the sink and tapped him on the shoulder.

“We have got to take the bags with us.”  He said his eyes never leaving the screen.

“Are you crazy, we are going to be extremely lucky if we get out of here with our lives, and now you want to bring Walt Disney’s luggage with us?”

“Look at this.”  He pointed to the screen. I did not want to look, if I looked, I was going to become responsible.  I at this very moment all I wanted to be responsible for was my life and Daniels, I did not want to complicate things with more knowledge.

“No.”  I said. “Let’s get out of here, we can tell someone when we get out of here, if, and I emphasis the if, we get out here in one piece.”

Daniel turned to me a bit angry. “Look at the screen.”

“No.”  And I childishly placed my hands over the screen so he could not see it either.

Daniel grabbed my hands and we had a bit of an extremely stupid hand slap thing going on for a few seconds. I stopped first and looked away from the screen. “I do not want to be responsible for whatever you found out.”

My lifetime friend looked at me, I mean he really looked at me, right into my eyes and said. “But I know now, and I now I am responsible for what I know.” He said. “And now I need your help.”

Damn. Friendship.

Daniel proceeded to show me what he had found, the buyer was going to come and pick up the bags in a couple of hours, and the buyer had both lewd and lascivious intent for the costumes.  Daniel had learned this by looking over the e-mails between the buyer and Keach.

A few minutes later we had three of the six bags through the hole in the wall and I was wrestling the fourth bag through to Daniel when I heard voices outside of the room.

I stopped and told Daniel to stop pulling the bag.  He did immediately. Then I heard a shout and pounding on the door to the room we had vacated. “The jig is up.” I said loudly, and I stopped trying to be quiet and put my whole shoulder behind the bag and it might have ripped a bit going through the hole in the wall.

There was a pounding on the next door over and when I heard the hinges start to break as the sixth and final bag popped out of the hole. I heard some very confused voices when they saw the empty room.  These guys were not very bright and it took them a full minute to start pounding on the connecting door.  By that time, I was climbing through the door and down off the sink.

Daniel had lined up the suitcases so they were ready to roll out the door. I am not sure where he thought we were going but I appreciated his optimism.  I thought about our next move and I was out of ideas. But I looked back at the hole in the wall and then at the two queen beds in the room.  Well, I reasoned they were probably going to catch us eventually, no reason to make it easy on them.

A few minutes later with Daniels help I had jammed the mattress from one of beds on top of the sink and effectively sealed up our escape route.  Of course, with that there I could no longer hear them pounding on the door.

Daniel looked at me. “Now what?”

I smiled and quoted one of our favorite movies. “I don’t know I am making this up as I go.”

I climbed on a chair and slowly moved the curtains aside to get a view of the parking lot, no one around. I looked down at Daniel. “You think you can handle three of those suitcases.”

Daniel appraised the luggage. “I guess I could stack one on top of another and move it that way.”

I nodded.  “Let’s see how far we can get just acting casually.  But the second we start getting chased we have got to abandon these anchors and take off. Agreed?”

Daniel looked at the suitcase again. “Okay.”  He really did not want to leave these costumes to these corrupt and immoral bastards but he also wanted to live to see another day as well.

I forced a smile and gave him our route. “Okay head towards that corner,” I said pointing to the left. “where the ice machine is, that will give us a couple of choices to go. Ready?” I said my hand on the doorknob. “Nice and easy.”

“Okay, try and walk casually, but don’t look like you are trying to walk casually.”  Daniel said paraphrasing the same actor but in a different franchise.

The first few steps went well.  Then a car came around from the front of the motel, I did not want to look at it directly but I caught the fact that it was one of the three sheriff’s cars. We were steps from the cut through hallway when the lights and sirens on the police car went off.  I simultaneously dropped the bags and yelled. “Cheese it Dan.”

Unfortunately, he was slow on the uptake and did not realize what was happening till he saw a me-shaped blur zipped by him into the dark hallway.  I slid into the hallway and luckily, he was not too far behind me.  This is where our luck ran out.  As he caught up with me and we started our run down the short hallway a figure stood in the opening.  It was one of the other deputies who had cut us off at the pass as it were.

In another second we were surrounded, this time at gunpoint, we were standing back in the orginal parking lot with our hands on our heads being marched back towards the room of our previous imprisonment.

Keach was standing there and the Sheriff as well. The Sheriff handcuffed us to each other, my left hand connected with a silver bracelet to Daniel’s right. Once that was done Keach approached us.

“Why are you taking those bags?

Daniel and I looked at each other quickly, then I unleased my smart mouth on the guy. “We needed some luggage for a trip.”

“A long trip, around the world.” Daniel added

“They were the perfect sizes.”  I replied.

Keach walked up and punched me in the stomach. And then he turned towards Daniel. “And you shut up boy.” He backhanded Daniel. Luckily the guy was not adept at physical violence and I had been doing my sit-ups regularly.  Daniel was not so lucky as the guys ring caught Daniels cheek and cut him.

I recovered quickly and looked over Daniel and got mad.
I looked at Daniel. “I think that was racist.”

“It sure felt racist.” Daniel said, his eyes watering from the strike.

I looked at my African American brother from another mother and the red blood now trickling down his brown cheek.  Friendship. I was going to get a beating for what I was about to do. Keach had not moved so I did a snap kick connecting nicely with his wedding tackle, he went down like sack of potatoes.  I kind of lost track after that as someone hit me in the back of the legs with something long and cylindrical and very hard.  The next thing I know is Daniel and I am crumpled up in the parking lot.

The Sheriff helped Keach get up.  He was not so obliging to me and Daniel. We got on our knees first, the Sheriff took over the interrogation in the middle of the parking lot. “So, I am guessing the Sampsons in Jacksonville did not send you.”  He paused and folded his arms. “You obviously knew what was in those bags and how valuable they are.”

I decided not to answer. Someone jabbed something into my kidneys, a nightstick probably.  “Answer the Sheriff.” The voice of one of the deputies commanded.

I gritted through the pain. “He did not ask a question, he merely made two statements.”

Another poke but this time in my kidney region.

Daniel replied this time wanting to be included. “You see a question begins with how, what, why, when or where.”

For his helpful instruction Daniel received a similar strike to his kidneys.  And the Deputy said in a menacing tone. “You were told to keep quiet boy.”

“That was definitely racist.” I said, which got me another poke in the kidneys.  I wondered who was going to be pissing blood longer if we made it out of this in one piece.

“Okay smart guys,”  The sheriff said holding up his hand to his two deputies behind us. “Why did you attempt to steal those bags and how did you know what was in them.”

I looked at Daniel and he looked back at me, I answered. “I work around Disney World a lot, that is the only place I have ever seen those bags and I knew immediately what they contained.”  I paused.  “Right before your deputies arrested us, I called a friend at Disney Security, they know where the bags are, and I named names.”

The Sheriff was clearly not ready for the truth but he was bright enough to know it when he heard it.  The Sheriff looked at Keach who was now standing up without assistance and Keach looked at the Sheriff.  I could see both of them were looking unsure.  That is when Daniel spoke.

“Do you guys see my brand-new car over there.”  He said pointing towards his Toyota on the other side of the chain link fence.

“You offering us your car, smart guy?” The Sheriff pulled Daniel’s keys from his pocket. “We already have your car.”

“Nope,” Daniel said. “It has got all kinds of features, I can connect my laptop to it via wi-fi and with that laptop you can do all types of things,” He took a breath. “like stream the view from your front facing cameras over a link, and when you send that link to Mile’s buddy, at Disney Security, well the whole world can watch whatever goes on in this parking lot.”

I realized now what Daniel had been doing typing away on his computer right before we got arrested.  “You dirty dog.”  I said, smiling, the biggest smile I could manage.

“You are lying.” The sheriff said.

“Nope.”  Daniel said, turning towards me and ignoring our captors entirely. “Sorry buddy I was not sure it was working until I checked that other computer in the room, and then there was getting the bags through the wall and such that I did not have time to tell you.”

I laughed. “All is forgiven.”

Keach was about to say something, when the distant sounds of sirens were heard in the distance.

Daniel spoke up again. “Oh, I might have shared the link with the F.B.I. and the Alabama Highway Patrol as well.”

“Those sirens are probably not the F.B.I.” I said smiling. “They will probably not be here till seven.”  I said checking my Donald Duck watch accidentally pulling Daniels arm in the process.

A few hours later, after giving our statements to both the Alabama Highway Patrol and two slightly confused F.B.I. agents from the Dothan office.  (They did not get there until seven thirty, by the way.)  We climbed gingerly back into Daniel’s Toyota that had been brought over to the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office had been taken over by The Alabama Highway Patrol seeing as the Sheriff and half of his deputies seemed more fraudulent than a ‘slightly used’ Walt Disney ticket.  We had been offered to be put up in a room, but we had both declined, we wanted to get out of this state.  While Florida had its flaws it was home and we did not want to press our luck in this town any more than we had.

We were back on the interstate before we spoke a word. I looked over at Daniel and he looked back at me.  “So that just happened.”

Daniel nodded and we drove another mile in silence. “Yep.”  He spoke again after a couple of minutes. “You know I was kind of hoping we could make it through one trip without experiencing any overt racism.”

I nodded. “Yeah, me too bud. America has come a long way, but we still are not past all that crap yet.”

“Yes but it is better than it was.”  Daniel said thoughtfully.”

This was getting too deep for us at the end of a long day, so I changed the subject. “Quick thinking with the laptop and the cameras.”

“Thanks.” He responded. Another mile passed. “Sorry I insisted on taking the bags with us.”

I waved him off. “No biggie, what they had planned for those costumes was just wrong.”

Daniel nodded.

I spoke after a couple of minutes. “So why the Rescuers cell for your future in-laws?”

Daniel answered immediately.  “Well just between me and you, my future father-in-law goes by Ben, but his god given name is Bainard.” He paused. “And his wife is named.”

“Breana.” I said recalling their names.

“Yes, but one of the first movies they saw together was The Rescuers.”

“So, Brianca and Benard.”  I said smiling and drawing out my next word. “Nice.”

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If you want to read the orginal collection of Miles Mitchell Mysteries you can buy it at Dorrance Publishing.  (Physical Copy or e-book format)   Also there are various places to purchase the Miles Mitchell Mysteries in audio format. 

Volume 2 of the Miles Mitchell Mysteries can be found at Smashwords.com.  (e-book format only)

Categories: A Miles Mitchell Story, Mostly Untrue Stories of Walt Disney World

Tags: Disney Animation Cells, Disney triva, Dixies Mafia, Miles Mitchell, MMM, mysteries, Private Eye Story, The Miles Mitchell Mysteries, The Rescuers