Last of old post:

******

"We all make mistakes."

"Okay, I can understand that," Cadence said, "I've made a couple I'm not proud of myself, but I thought NIck said he didn't know you."

"It's a very big Order," C-Daddy explained. "Now, if you are through asking questions, where are your keys? We've got places to go."

"Like the Police Station?" Cadence asked hopefully.

"Nope, they've already been notified, and have surveillance video to evaluate. They will need to talk to you later, but for now, we are going to the shelter."

"What's there?"

"Hope."

"Who is she, and is she well-armed?" Cadence asked with the first hint of a smile.

"Welcome back." C-Daddy smiled in return.

He put the little yellow car in gear and headed for his home at American Rescue Workers

*****

New Post:

******

"Do you think the police will find the twins?" Cadence asked.

She leaned back in the chair C-Daddy had provided adjacent to a small bedside table.

"I doubt it. You can be sure they've covered their tracks."

"But you know who they are," Cadence pressed. "You can tell the police when we go there later so they can find them and rescue Sarah."

"I wish it was that easy, Cadence," C-Daddy said, "but these guys know how to remain hidden. They've had a lot of practice."

"But you have a plan. I can see it in your eyes."

"Don't be silly," C-Daddy said, looking away. "My only plan is to hope and have faith. The details we will make up as we go along."

"That's comforting," Cadence said, a side wise glance betraying her distrust.

"Comfort is something you may have to set aside for a while," C-Daddy said, "and in the meantime, we will do what we can to fight the battle that has been forced upon us."

"I don't care about fighting someone else's war," Cadence said. "I just want things to be normal again. You know, peaceful."

"Peaceful?" C-Daddy said. "I've never heard teaching characterized that way before."
"I think you know what I mean."

"I do," C-Daddy nodded, "and I promise, once we get through this mess, you will find peace again."

"That's a nice sentiment, but I can't possibly imagine how this can end up good."

"You lack imagination, my dove," C-Daddy said, patting her arm. "That's why you need creative people like me on your side."

"Right," Cadence said, "and to use an old adage, 'with you on my side, who needs enemies?'"

"That's not entirely fair, I'm a victim here, too," C-Daddy said. "Which one of us has bruises all over his face?"

"That would be you," Cadence said, "and there are more than a few on your hands as well."

"You didn't expect me to not fight back did you?"

"Of course not, but when do you plan to tell me why we've come here?" Cadence asked. "I'm pretty sure those ladies outside in the lobby aren't going to take too kindly to you having a woman in your room."

"The door is open, and they trust me completely."

"They haven't seen you drive have they?"

"Nope, and I hope you don't share any stories with them."

"Not I," Cadence smiled. "I'll let them find that one out for themselves. But, seriously, why are we here? You said there was hope."

"Yes, yes," C-Daddy said, his voice growing quiet. "This place gives many people hope; that's one of the things I like about it, but that's not the hope I spoke of. Sit here a second. I will be right back."

Cadence waited quietly while C-Daddy rummaged around inside his closet. She could hear the shuffling of boxes, the clanging of belt buckles, and the scraping of clothes hangers across a pole. Just as she was beginning to give up on the man ever finding what he sought, she heard him let out a whoop.

"Here it is," he cried, stepping out of the closet and holding a leather bag triumphantly in the air.

"What is in it?" Cadence asked.

"My treasures," he explained.

Carefully C-Daddy poured out the contents on his white bedspread. Cadence noticed at once that the bag had been filled with a few trinkets, a broken necklace and a great deal of pictures. Some of the photograph were new and bright, others old and fragile. She pulled her chair closer to the bed.

"These are lovely," she said, expressing appropriate interest, "but what hope do they give us?"

"Pictures are some of the most important assets you can have," he explained, "and these I've kept throughout the years, no matter what direction my life headed."

"Good for you," Cadence said. "Pictures have always been important to me, too, but what makes this particular collection so exceptional?"

Cadence scanned the images on the bed. They were all so personal and sweet, and it was obvious that he loved the people in them very much.

She had her own special picture that she carried in her purse, but hadn't the strength to look at it often. The thought of it now brought tears to her eyes. Even with it tucked safely away, it invoked some powerful images; the feel of her son's soft dark hair, the warmth of his tiny smile and the look of wonder in his young curious eyes. Would she ever stop missing him?

"Are you okay?" C-Daddy asked.

"Yeah," she answered, clearing the lump in her throat with a cough.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I sort of have," she said, "but this isn't about me. What do you have in your treasures that can help us find Sarah?"

"There's a particular picture I wanted to show you..."

C-Daddy's voice trailed off as he spread the pictures out across the bedspread.

"You've got a lot of children, haven't you?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah, I do," C-Daddy chuckled, "but these aren't all mine, some are nephews and nieces, even a few grand-kids."

"Well, they are beautiful," Cadence said, "but if you have so many family members, what are you doing here in this shelter? Shouldn't they be helping to take care of you?"

"They are way too busy with their own lives to bother with an old man," C-Daddy explained.

"I don't believe that," Cadence said. "There are a lot of people in this pile of pictures. Someone in here would step in if you called on them. What are you not telling me? Who are you really?"

C-Daddy hesitated a moment, and then turned to look at Cadence with a silent upturned brow, his gray eyes passive.

"You can't always put people in categories, Miss Teacher Lady," he said. "Keep an open mind. Deep people are made of many layers."

C-Daddy finally stopped shuffling around the pictures and pulled out a black and white photo that was yellowing around the edges. In it there were three young men leaning against a hay wagon, their arms draped across shoulders in comfortable camaraderie.

"Who are these guys?" Cadence asked, taking the picture, "and is this handsome guy in the middle, you?"
"In all my youthful glory," C-Daddy said with a wink.

"You've got to be kidding. You were so clean cut and, well, hot."

"Thanks. I'm so glad I used to be attractive to you."

"I didn't mean it like that," Cadence said. "Of course you're still a nice looking man, or would be if you tried a bit."

"I know what you mean," C-Daddy said, "but the point of showing you this picture is not so you can see what I used to look like, but because of who else is in the shot."

Cadence squinted her eyes in concentration as she looked over the two other young men leaning on the hay wagon. They looked strikingly alike, differing only in their coloring. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

"It's the twins," she said. "I mean they look younger here, and their eyes are kinder, but it's them, I know it is, but why do you three look so cozy? Aren't they the bad guys in this story?"

"They weren't always," C-Daddy said. "We used to be on the same team, in the old days, but when their older sister, Eris, got involved, off they took for darker pastures."

"Bad influence?"

"The worst. At one time she was okay, I mean we all hung around together, but she just couldn't get past the lure of power, and it twisted her heart like a serpent."

"And thus the group's symbol?"

"Yes." C-Daddy nodded, placing the picture back on the bed. "And now the whole miserable family is involved."

"There's more of them?"

"Yeah, several more sisters, cousins, friends and other denizens of the night. I would go so far as to say they are the biggest force of evil in the world."

"You've mentioned that before," Cadence said, "and I'm inclined to believe you, but, how did they get involved with the package you were delivering and with my student?"

"If I were to guess," he replied, "I would say that the mugging was just a seasonal crime of convenience, and they didn't know who I was at the time of it. When the bosses figured it out and discovered who I was carrying the package to, then the rest just unfolded."

"And the kids and I just happened to be..."

"In the wrong place at the wrong time," they said together.

Cadence shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head to one side, allowing long blonde curls to cascade down her shoulder and onto the pictures on the bed. She reached a hand up to brush them back, thinking, as she often did, that she was too old for girlish curls.

C-Daddy caught her hand gently and gave it a squeeze.

"Your hair is beautiful," he said. "Please don't restrain it."

Cadence complied, laying her hand back on the bed and smiling shyly. Why did she suddenly care what C-Daddy thought about her hair?