It didn't take long for Baltimore city cops to find little Clarence. But what they had discovered would be an eyesore for the entire community.
Two Baltimore cops stood behind the doorway of Tony's bedroom of his apartment on the fifth floor of the building complex gaping like orphans at Disney world. This was not good at all and more than likely some law enforcement personnel would lose their job over this if they made the wrong move. 6 month old Clarence was squirming around in a wooden crib adjacent to a window that was just partially opened maybe just a few inches.
While it was hunky-dory that the baby appeared to be alive and okay there was a catch. The whole outside of the crib was wired with enough explosives to blow up the entire room and then some. A big LED display almost the size of a score board at a basketball game was counting down each second showing them that the place was going to blow in about 70 hours and 11 minutes. Unfortunately the clincher was Tony's entire bedroom had motion sensors positioned in every corner of the room. According to the typed note they found taped to the outside trim of the doorway if anyone entered the room the motion sensors would detect it and the whole room including the baby would be blown to smithereens.
Officer Brown's hand shook as he continued reading the neatly typed note. He was a bear of a man and a fine cop. One of the most well respected African American cops on the force. He had never encountered anything as strange as this in his entire 15 years in law enforcement.
The note said, "If I can't have my child then nobody gets my child. In 72 hours Clarence will die. The entire bedroom is rigged with motion sensors so if anyone or anything enters the room the bomb will detonate early. There's enough explosives strapped to the crib to take out the bedroom and then some. Sorry it had to be like this but that's how we do in the hood."
The lights were out in Tony's bedroom and Officer Brown was afraid even to shine his mag light inside of the room for fear that it could trigger the motion sensors. Brown's subordinate, Officer Lance,stood next to him a full foot shorter and tried to peer over Brown's shoulder at the note.
"What are we gonna do about this one?" Lance finally asked breaking the silence.
Brown lifted the note towards his nose and sniffed it hoping to find a clue.
"I don't know. I've never saw such a pusillanimous action like this in my life. I guess the bomb squad is gonna have their hands full."
"Where do you think Tony ran off to?" Asked Lance.
Brown grunted and nearly choked on his own saliva. "I don't know. His vehicle is not here so we sent out an APB as soon as we found out. I know the kid from the trouble he's been in before. This guy is dumber than a box of rocks. He couldn't have done this alone. He definitely had some help." He said passing the note.
The inside of Tony's room looked spacious compared to the rest of his apartment. The bedroom door was open halfway just enough to see little Clarence safe and sound in the crib. Well, obviously not safe at any rate. A poster of Michael Jordan in mid air ready to slam dunk from the foul line was tacked to the door. Tony's bed wasn't made and there were a lot of clothes lying on the carpeted floor. The entire place looked very poorly kept.
Officer Lance was feeling a little uneasy just being within the proximity of the bomb but he didn't want to show weakness. He had to keep talking to get through it.
"So what do we do now?" He said staring up at the big man.
Officer Brown scratched his Brillo pad goatee and mulled for a while before he spoke.
"We're gonna play this one by the book. We have to. There's going to be a lot of media exposure on this." He said while opening up a clear plastic ziplock bag and depositing the typed written note. "We don't know for sure what we're up against so what we're going to do right now is seal off this entire building." Said Brown tugging on his partner's shoulder. "Let's get out of here. This whole building has to be evacuated."