Chapter 61

“As a rule,” said Holmes, “the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is

the most difficult to identify.”

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League

We threaded our way into the center of the melee. The noise level dropped. Karl is a formidable presence, and he was definitely on his game. Casual, friendly and eloquent, he argued that this unfortunate incident was merely a case of some civic-minded elderly people working with the CrimeStoppers program to catch criminals. Perhaps there was a mistaken identity, he admitted, but no harm was done.

When he finished, the on-looking cops in the precinct were nodding, seemingly in agreement with Karl’s presentation. My mother, I saw, was talking to Auntie Dragon, keeping her busy so she didn’t chime in and start it all over again.

Captain Baynes cleared his throat. He said he begged to differ. He referred to the police report and argued that this was a very serious incident with consequences not mentioned by Mr. Patrick. He waved the report around. “These four individuals, senior citizens though they may be, are accused of roughing up an innocent by-stander whom they mistakenly identified as a wanted criminal. That is not acceptable.”

Karl smiled a friendly smile at Captain Baynes and the surrounding crowd. He asked Baynes for the police report. He waved it at the crowd. “I don’t want to disagree with Captain Baynes, but I must,” Karl began. “The fact is that no complaint has actually been filed. In fact the individual in question fled the scene, even though this report says he was given every opportunity to file a complaint. Isn’t that true, Captain?”

The crowd waited for an answer. It was almost like a tennis match, with the crowd swaying one way and then the other.

“Yes, that’s true,” Baynes admitted softly after a long pause.

Karl pressed on. “Based on there being no complaint, I demand you release these individuals immediately. Keeping them here any longer could be considered elder abuse. I myself will file a complaint so alleging.”

During this heated debate, Auntie Dragon and the twins, despite my mother’s best efforts, repeatedly tried to interrupt. Karl silenced them with a look and a wave of his hand. I wondered whether Karl could bottle that. La Dragon was rarely silenced.

After a short conference with some of the uniformed officers, Captain Baynes reluctantly agreed to let everybody go home.

“Get the paperwork ready at once,” he ordered the Desk Sergeant. “I want them out of here yesterday.” He looked relieved as he fled back to the peace of his office.

Karl leaned toward me and whispered in my ear, “He’s not very good at knock-em-down free-for-alls, like your Auntie.”

I smiled and gave a big sigh of relief. Karl had earned his fee today.