Found Missing: Day 16

 Word Count: 96,046

Summary of Events:

The hostage negotiator tried to negotiate with Talbert Brauer, but because Dallas only knew the words in German that sounded like their English equivalents, for the most part, and no one else knew German better, the effort foundered owing to Mr. Brauer's not only using German terms, but speaking some sentences entirely in German. After spending the night at the local motel while some officers called in from nearby detachments kept a night guard to keep Mr. Brauer from escaping or harming Mrs. Hardwick, they returned to the house only for Mr. Brauer to refuse to speak in English at all, leading to a bit of a committee meeting about what to do next . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Bluff?” an officer asked. “Find the closest match we can, and offer it to him, even if it’s not gold?”

“But still gold-coloured?” the negotiator asked.

“Yeah,” the officer replied.

“Unless we can find the actual chain, yeah,” the negotiator said.

“But, this guy was a Nazi, and still identifies as one,” Dallas said. “He still has the uniform in his closet.” Several eyes went wide around the table. “Who says the chain is actually his, or was actually his brother’s? Hordes of valuables in Europe disappeared during the war, and there’s rumours the Nazis pitched a bunch of it into lakes to hide it when it became clear they were going to lose the war. Who says this chain doesn’t actually belong to someone else? We can’t actually mean to permanently give it back to him, can we?”

“And you’re only a constable?” the officer immediately beside him asked.

Dallas nodded.

“Don’t stoke his ego,” Det. Sgt. Nash complained.

“Well, considering that the chain wasn’t stolen from him personally, as the documents attest,” Cpl. Hurnanen said, gesturing toward Det. Sgt. Nash. “And he’s been trying to steal it back, I don’t think he has a legitimate claim on it, if anything it’s just bait, so we couldn’t permanently give it to him, but, at the same time, Klybanowski is right that it’s not even necessarily Mrs. Hardwick’s rightful property, so, once we find the chain, we have to find a way to trace its history and determine where it came from so that we can determine who it’s actual rightful owner is and restore it to them, or, more likely, their descendants.”

“Yeah, basically we want to put the best worm on the end of the line in order to get our fish,” the negotiator said. “So we need to find either the right chain or the best imitation before we have any hope of getting him out at this point and getting Mrs. Hardwick to safety.”

“It is impressive she’s still alive, though,” Man said.

“And then we need to focus on his accomplice,” Dallas said.

“Accomplice?” an officer asked.

“We don’t think he drove out to Saskatchewan and kidnapped her,” Det. Sgt. Nash replied. “We’ve discovered that both his vehicle registration and his driver’s license are two years or more past their expiries, so unless he has another vehicle and has been driving with an expired license, someone else kidnapped her on his behalf.”

“Maybe we can get some guys on that even now,” Cpl. Hurnanen said. “Ask neighbours about activity and stuff like that. I mean, that’s probably important anyways, but with that specific goal in mind.”

“We have more than enough guys here and not enough to keep them busy,” Det. Sgt. Cooke said. “I don’t see why we can’t.”

Everyone nodded.

“So just to review,” the negotiator said. “Sgt. Nash is getting the people back in North Battleford to do another search for the chain, we need to get someone working on finding a replica just in case, and any spare people are going around interviewing neighbours about an accomplice.”