Prologue

10 years ago

   Australian scientists in a lab test out the new ingredients to turn flamingos different colors by putting natural, safe food dye on shrimp. One lousy scientist tripps over the cord to a mini fridge, tipping over a tiny jar into the food bowl labeled “Fern”. No one realizes this happened. 18 hours later, Fern the flamingo calmly says "Hi!”

  The scientists are shocked and dial the Australian government immediately...

10 years later

President Hower and his family were traveling on a vacation to San Diego, California to welcome the arrival of the unique and special, talking flamingo, Fern. They had decorated the plane with a tropical theme and Mr. Hower’s children Emma(9) and Zoe(11) couldn’t wait to talk to Fern. The workers parted to let Emma and Zoe open the crate that was holding Fern. When they opened it, Fern was missing!            

Zoe spots a small envelope tucked in the crate bars and unfolded it, there is a note and a pink feather inside of it. The note reads... 

“Send $1 million to 1689 Red Den drive. Bad things will happen to your flamingo if you don’t within 3 days. The pink feather belongs to Fern.”

  The very concerned President calls 2 detectives and the case begins. When they arrive, the detectives James and Thomas investigate the crate and ransom note. They find a fingerprint imprinted on the paper. Carefully, Thomas places it in an evidence bag. When they get to their office, James pairs it with a computer and discovered that the burgular is a person called Warren. According to the computer, he is at the San Diego airport.

  James and Thomas rush to the scene and run through security when a Police officer called Tom stops them suddenly. He tells them their culprit just left the airport and is on their way to Mexico by taking a high-speed train. Thomas thinks this is strange about how he knows about Warren is but does not say anything. As they leave, they see him say something through a walkie-talkie.  

“Was that suspicious to you James?”Thomas asked.  

“No, the President probably told all the police.”James replied.  

They ran as fast as their legs could go and take the earliest plane to Mexico by going into the baggage hold area since it is a full flight. There is horrible turbulence on the plane, and the pilot has to land in Texas. Unfortunately, the detectives do not realize this until they see a “Welcome to Texas” sign outside the airplane.

  They are very confused but then rush back into the airport just in time to see the flight to Mexico leave. By now, they are exhausted and spend the night at the airport hotel.

  At 3am, they wake up to the pinging sound of a text message coming in from the President.  

The text message says...

“The Australian government is getting angry at us and threaten to take back all their koalas from our zoos. Please find Fern quickly. I will be releasing a $100,000 reward for anyone who can find her.”

 “Oh no!” James exclaimed. 

“We have to find Fern! And fast too!”  

They hurriedly crawled out of bed and checked out at record speed. “I have an idea!” says Thomas excitedly.  

“Text the President and see if we can borrow Air Force 1. We can take the jet and get to Mexico quickly,”

  James nodded, already typing out the message to the president.

10 seconds later, the President replied with a welcoming  

“Sure, It will arrive in Houston, Texas in 3 hours and 20 minutes and you can hop on immediately.” James and Thomas went on their way and stopped for breakfast at the airport.  

Suddenly, James was stricken with a new thought.  

“If the President didn’t inform people on the escape of Fern and the reward, how do you think Tom knew about it when we were at the airport?”

  “Good point! But Tom has the perfect alibi.”  

“How?”wondered James  

“All the airport Police Officers were supposed to report to training today in San Francisco at 5 am till 9am. He probably just got there when we arrived there.”  

“Maybe he didn’t go, let’s ask the head Police Officer when we get there.”

  “Ok then.”  

They took the flight and slept the entire duration of it. When they asked the Head Police Officer if a person called Tom had attended the training, he told them that he didn’t have a police officer called Tom. James and Thomas both instantly knew that Warren was working with Tom the entire time! They politely asked the Head Police Officer if he could call all police officer’s for duty, and if he could accommodate them on their mission.  

“Sure! By the way, my name is Sam, what are your names?”  

Thomas answered “I am Thomas and he is James, we are both detectives working for the President. Pleased to meet you Officer!”

All of them continued walking to the front of the airport where Sam announced over the loudspeaker that all the Police should report to the front. With the 3 of them working together, it didn’t take long for them to find Tom. James locked him up and they started questioning him through the one way glass, while Thomas toke notes.

  “Where is Warren?” James asked  

“Warren is in the lounge eating lunch at this airport.”  

“Ok then. Sam, can you please go find Warren while we continue the questioning?”

  “No problem James, I will be back in around 10 minutes,” Sam replied

  “Ok then, next question Where is Fern right now?”

  “I don’t know!”  

“What! How?”

  “We only sold the flamingo for money, it would be too complicated to take care of it and it would just tell the police everything that had happened!”

“Then how did you know where to send Fern to?”

“The person gave us an address to send her to and we gave the person an address to send $500,000 to!”

“Ok, did they give you anything else?”

“No, but I can take you to the place that they told me to leave Fern!”

“That’s a good idea. What is the address they gave you?”

“1689 Red Den Drive.”

“Hmmmm, that’s strange.”

At that moment, Sam walks in with a handcuffed Warren.

He exclaims “Let’s go get Fern back!”

James calmly tells him “They sold Fern to someone they have no clue who the person is, they only stole her for money, not because they wanted to keep her. The address that the flamingo buyer gave them to put Fern in, is the same address as the one on the ransom note inside of the envelope.

“Ok then, James and Thomas, let’s take my police car. We can turn on the sirens and move much faster than normal.

“What do we do with Warren and Thomas?”  

“We can take Tom since he opened up during his questioning, but Warren can stay locked up in this questioning room.”

“On it!”

Sam tells another Police officer to keep an eye on Warren and they hurried out the door. The drive there takes 45 minutes and Sam keeps them entertained by telling them funny stories as a police officer.

“One time, someone called me for duty and you’ll never believe what happened! The person had gotten his head stuck in the chair at Panera and I had to use a saw to cut the chair! The person was so thankful he gave me $1,000! To this day, that is the biggest tip I have ever gotten!”  

“Wow! You sure got lucky you were the one who was called for that mission!” Thomas commented.

"Yep, looks like we're here!"

“Finally! Tom, is this the place you delivered Fern to?" “Yes.”

“Great! James, can you please grab the investigation kit from the trunk?”

“No problem!” James saluted Thomas and everyone laughed.

At the address, there appeared to be an old house that was covered with cobwebs and dust on the wood of it, turning the color of the wood from yellow to a dark grayish color. By a large oak tree, there was a metal box that looked fairly new.

“That must be the box that the person wants us to put the money in!” Sam exclaimed  

“ I’ll dust it for fingerprints and hopefully something will turn up.” examined James carefully.