There were vehicles everywhere in and around the neighborhood. Players from either side of the issue. The cops on this side and the culprits, or suspects on that side, and somewhere caught up in the middle of it all, was Manley, along with his work truck, and at some other times, his car. Let’s delve into the story for more as things heat up here in chapter twenty.
This is the Manley storybook romance, as taken from the book, How to train a wild puppy dog named, Manley.
Here now is episode 20 in the series. And it is taken from Chapter twenty of the book.
Chapter Twenty
Get on the move, now
On the second evening of the stakeout, Saturday evening, the two officers were sitting in the lookout vehicle, a Ford club wagon at some time around 7:20 PM. When the darkness was beginning to settle in properly, they spotted a U-Haul moving truck rolled up and stopped in front of the Dahoust's family home. Kamal was the driver.
He got out of the vehicle, carrying a duffle bag which he swung over his shoulder and went inside.
The lights flash twice to indicate that the vehicle was securely locked up and probably, it did activate an alarm system. Immediately the constable dialed up the Sergeant's number.
"Action, action," he said, “we've got activities at the location, some sort of a moving truck has just pulled up and parked in front of the house.”
“Okay, got you, keep your ears and eyes peeled, we can't afford to miss anything. I'll be there soon.”
They were so very surprised to see the senior cop not more than five minutes later driving by, in a regular police car.
Normally he would have used an unmarked car for this type of fact-finding mission, but, maybe it wasn't so much a fact-finding mission which the Sergeant was on in his mind, not yet at least. He probably just wanted to reassure the guys that he was on the job and that he has got them all covered.
And he could have also wanted to make it appear as normal as possible, just a patrol car doing the rounds in a quiet, upscale neighborhood, nothing to be alarmed about in that, nothing at all.
For the rest of the night, everything remains quiet and calm, yes there was obvious activities inside of the house but nothing it would seem that was not consistent with the rhythm of life in a normal household.
Come the following morning, however, the activities revved up by several degrees. Of course, there was a move in the making, a big move.
They were loading up the truck with household items - everything from beds, table, and chairs, through to clothing and kitchen wares.
It was Kamal and another young man, whom the cops were not able to properly ID from where they were sitting in their lab-van.
Every now and again the elder Dahoust man would come outside bearing a small item or two, at other times it seemed like he would just bring instructions to the two workhorses and then leave.
At two separate points, the madam - Mrs. Luba Dahoust, came to the door and stuck her head outside to look at the happenings, but also on both occasion, before returning inside the safety of the house, she would make what had by then become a sort of defining signature-like: look up, look down the road ritual before pulling herself back behind the closing door.
As soon as the truck loading activities get started, the officer called back to the base and to the Sergeant. “Get ready for action,” said the officer, “real action. The truck is being loaded, as we speak.”
"Got you," the sergeant acknowledged the info. “You guys did very well,” he said, “be there in a flash...” “Stay calm and covered, no need for rushing it now.”
Understatement of the decades that was in the cop’s minds, as it turned out though, the Sergeant's decisions to take things slowly would lead to the further collection of ironclad evidence that would solidify their case and prove beyond all reasonable doubt what was taking place, or about to take place within the family and the household in general, and also help them in putting the guilty parties away for a long stretch.
Because these two officers have been working on the stakeout continuously for a couple of days on ends, the sergeant had was to arrange a change of shift. Five officers came riding in the blue Chevrolet express van all but one being armed and equipped for action. The one exception in the bunch was corporal weir. Other than for his service revolver which he was carrying concealed, he bears no other resemblance to being a cop on duty. He was there to drive back the other vehicle, the Ford club wagon with the other two overworked and tired officers. The other four who came with him in the newly deployed vehicle, was there to take up from where those two had left off, and to be alert and ready for action at any given moment. They had dropped him off, (corporal Weir that is,) on the corner of the streets, on the corner of St Charles and Brunswick boulevards, he would have walked in from there and approach the Ford van, shaking the bunch of keys in his right hand, he inserted the key into the lock and open up the door, or at least, he acted those parts as a disguise to the would be eyewitness, since the other two cop was already inside of the vehicle, all the while expecting him to show up, and laying themselves low in the vehicle in order to maintain their cover. He wasted no time, acting as normal as he could, he started the engine and then hesitated just long enough to make it appear to anyone who might be looking on that, this is someone who has just come back to pick up a vehicle which has been parked there on the corner for a while.
With the other two cops still laying low inside the vehicle, he drove away.
Meanwhile, one street away, but still in plain view of the front door of the house, and of the moving truck which was parked in front of that house, the blue Chevrolet express van was strategically parked, with the four freshly deployed cops sitting inside of it, alert and ready to pounce.
Other police vehicles were also strategically deployed and were circulating on nearby streets in the area, all the while being in continuous, up to the minute communication with those cops in the lookout van and with the Sergeant.
Nightfall and the activities step up a notch, the lawmen could feel it, something was about to go down and they did not want to blink a heavy eyelid, lest they should miss out on something important
1:20 AM and the activities became visible in the Dahousts household, the dim light, the moving around, and then, a car pulled up and stopped right behind the moving truck, a taxi it was, seemed like one from the same company where Mr. Dahoust works.
Although the cops were monitoring what was going on within the house, both visually and electronically, they did not pick up on a call for a taxi, did they mess up on that? How could they? How could they have missed that one?
The front door cracked open partially, Mr. Dahoust came to the door and look outside, apparently to verify that it was the cab which he had ordered.
Seemingly satisfied with what he had seen, he pushed back the door and left it somewhat ajar as he walked back inside and tarried for a while. The cabbie did not get out of the vehicle, not at once anyway. He remains seated until...
That’s it for today. See you again tomorrow.
Continue reading this chapter and much more if you like it. Go get the Manley book and read the whole story.
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Extra, extra. On this day in history.
Fri. Feb. 15th
1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.
1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.
1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.
1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.
1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.
1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.
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