Jamie turned and walked over to Andrew, pen and paper now in his hands. “Now, where were we?” he asked with a cheesy smile.

            “There were a few more cars that you wanted to show me?” Jamie asked faux-inquisitively.

            “That’s it!” he said in a mock-congratulatory tone. “Follow me!”

            The tour continued around the lot, Andrew rattling off the details of other cars, all the while writing them down for Griswold, and Jamie keeping Andrew talking while nervously watching August out of the corner of her eye.

            “Just get back in the fucking car!” Jamie thought to herself.

            As if on cue, August then disappeared back into the vehicle. Jamie breathed a sigh of relief.

            Andrew, after frantically writing down a few last notes, finally tore two sheets from his pad and handed them to Jamie with a boastful flourish. “And that is all I have to show you,” he said with a sad attempt at panache. “See anything you like?”

            “Yeah,” said Jamie. “It’s gonna be hard to choose. You gave us some good options.”

            “I bet it will be,” he said in a suave, self-assured manner. “So, what’s it gonna be?”

            “Well, my friend and I will need to talk it over first....” Jamie said awkwardly.

            “Hey, man,” Andrew said, his voice unchanged, “that’s cool, too. Take your time. I mean I know you’ll be back anyway.”

            “You bet,” Jamie replied with a half-smile.

            “Speaking of which,” said Andrew, “where is your friend? She’s been gone for a while now.”

            “Yeah, we should probably check on her,” Jamie said.

            Andrew led Jamie past the central building to a wide-open space tucked into a corner on the opposite side of the lot. At the back of the area were a few porta-johns that had seen better days. Perpendicular to these, three garages of shoddy construction stood at the back of the fence. Inside were grease pits and various tools cluttered the work tables. What stood out the most, though, was the source of the loud, mechanical hum that permeated the locale. In the center of the area was a group of about fifteen air compressors, all old, dented, and rusty, many operating despite not being used by any employees. It was here that Jamie and Andrew saw Griswold laying down on her side, seemingly observing the base of the cluster.

            “You good?” Jamie asked.

            “What the…oh hello, my dear!” Griswold awkwardly said as she scrambled to her feet. “What uh…What are you doing here?”

            “We’re done looking at cars,” Jamie said. “What’re you doing?”

            “I uh…I dropped a quarter,” Griswold said, seemingly unconvinced by her own reply. “I was uh…trying to see if I could reach it. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so. Anyway, if you two are done browsing, then I think that we can get going. We have quite a lot to do today!”

            “Are you sure there isn’t anything else we can help you with?” someone asked.

            Everyone turned around and Jamie and Griswold saw a face they instantly recognized. Her black hair was cut into a shingle bob and the suit she wore couldn’t contain her muscular physique. She towered over everyone and her icy aura demanded that time freeze in her presence. It was Vivienne Andelay.

            “I – I – I –” Griswold stammered.

            “No, we’re good for now,” replied Jamie, seemingly unphased. “But, thanks for the offer. And, by the way Andrew, thanks for showing us around. It really helped us out.”

            “Don’t mention it,” he said, still flashing a goofy grin.

            “If it’s alright,” said Jamie, “we’re gonna head out now and think over our options. We’ll come back later when we’ve decided.”

            “Sounds good!” Andrew said. “I’ll see you then!”

              “Bye!” Jamie said. She then grabbed Griswold by the arm and began to lead her through the lot. Vivienne stared daggers at them as they passed and Jamie felt a chill run down her spine. They continued across the enclosure and eventually reached the exit. Jamie then let go of Griswold and the two returned to the car.

             “You could’ve gotten back in the car a bit faster,” Jamie said with irritation as she and Griswold entered the vehicle.

             “Sorry, man,” August said.

             “Wait,” Griswold said, “August left the car?”

             “Yeah, I had to pee,” August replied.

             Griswold blew heavily through her mouth. “Did anyone see you?” she asked anxiously.

             “I don’t think so,” said August.

             “Well, that’s something at least,” said Griswold as she took a bottle of hand sanitizer from her door. She then turned around and held it before August. “You want some?” she asked.

             “No, I’m good,” replied August.

             “Let me rephrase that,” said Griswold. “Please take some.”

             August then begrudgingly held out his hand as Griswold squirted a few shots of gel into it. “On a positive note,” Griswold said as she put the hand sanitizer back in the door, “I feel almost certain that I have located Charlotte.”

             August and Jamie stared at Griswold. “You what?” August asked in shock and disbelief.

             “You heard me,” Griswold said with a smile.

             August went silent for a moment. “Where is she?” he asked, his breath quickening.

             “I would be happy to explain it to you, my dear,” Griswold said, “as soon as Jamie starts driving us back to your house. For reasons that will soon become apparent, I’d prefer to spend as little time around this place as possible.”

             “On it,” Jamie replied. She started the car and drove back onto the main road. August went silent as Griswold began.

            “The thing that first struck me about this dealership,” said Griswold, “was its general layout. Most car dealerships have their inventory displayed at the front of the lot with the main building, garages, etc. at the back. Here, though, most of the vehicles and the garages were located around the perimeter of the lot with what appeared to be their main offices in the very center.”

            “Couldn’t it just be a weird set-up?” asked Jamie.

            “Normally, my dear, I would agree with you,” said Griswold. “However, something about the layout of this lot just didn’t sit well with me. So, I explored a bit more. As it turns out, the lot was absolutely filled with security cameras and powerful spotlights.”

            Jamie shot Griswold a confused look. “It was?” she said. “I didn’t see a thing.”

            “To be fair,” said Griswold, “they were fairly well-hidden and you were busy distracting Andrew while I walked around investigating. Anyway, the sheer amount of them intrigued me. I mean, all places need good security, but the number I found here just seemed excessive, especially given this lot’s rural location. That’s when it hit me. The lights, the cameras, and the strange layout come together to form not a dealership, but a sort of panopticon disguised as one.”

            “What the hell is that?” asked Jamie.

            “A panopticon,” said Griswold, “is a type of prison designed by Jeremy Bentham. The purpose was to create a structure with a layout that discouraged prisoners from escaping by making them think they were being watched constantly. Hence, all the cells were set up around a large, central watchtower with a spotlight that could be used to randomly illuminate the cells and floors to make sure that there weren’t any prisoners escaping.”

            Jamie went into quiet thought for a few seconds. “So the layout of the lot and the beefed-up security,” she replied, “are there because the dealership is a front for something else?”

            “Exactly, my dear” said Griswold with a satisfied grin. “What it is a front for, I do not know, but I can almost guarantee that Charlotte is there based on the other things that I saw.”

            “Such as?” asked Jamie.

            “Well, for starters,” said Griswold, “Ms. Andelay’s presence. Besides that, those air compressors being turned on even though no one was using them piqued my interest. Upon further inspection, I found that several hoses connected to the central air compressors were attached to holes in the ground by some sort of locking mechanism.”

            “Wait, what?” replied Jamie.

            Griswold nodded. “It appears that these air compressors are pumping air to somewhere below the lot. My hunch is that they’re being used as a cheap method of providing fresh air to someone being held captive below ground.”

            “What!?” said Jamie, her eyes scrunched in disbelief.

            “I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!” Griswold replied with a snicker.

            At last, they had reached August’s house and parked along the sidewalk. Before anyone got out of the car, though, Griswold turned to Jamie and said, “By the way, my dear, I believe that you still have the thing that would indubitably prove my hypothesis about this matter correct.”

            “What are you talking about?” Jamie asked.

            “Those slips of paper that Andrew wrote the names of the cars on,” Griswold replied.

            “Oh, yeah!” Jamie said as she dug them out of her pocket and handed them to Griswold. “But what do they prove?”

            Griswold looked over the papers for a few seconds, then began nodding her head in a self-satisfied manner and chuckling to herself. Grinning like a madman, she reached into the breast pocket on her suit jacket and pulled out another slip of paper. As she held it up next to the papers that Andrew had written on, Jamie recognized it as the threatening note they found in Charlotte’s room. She had to study it only for a second before she realized the truth of the matter. The handwriting on the note was identical to Andrew’s.

            Jamie sat there, mouth agape. Griswold handed the papers back to August who, after looking over them in silence for a few seconds, clapped his hand to his mouth and breathlessly muttered, “Oh my god.”

            Griswold reached back and took the papers and the note from August. “Looks like we’ve found our mastermind,” she said as she slid them back into her jacket pocket. She then got out of the car and walked jauntily towards the entrance of the house, all the while playfully twirling Tickler around. Jamie and August soon followed behind her, still dazed from the revelation.

            “Wow,” Jamie said in awe when they reached the living room. “You’ve done it again Griswold. Just…wow.”

            “You…you found my mom,” August said with a mixture of awe and relief. Slowly, as the true nature of the circumstances began to sink in, a smile crept across his face and a light came back to his eyes.       

            “You found my mom!” August said ecstatically. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

            “Don’t mention it, my dear,” said Griswold with a calm smile. “That being said though, we must now figure out how to rescue your mother, which will be no easy feat.”

            “Can’t you just call the cops and have them search the place for her?” asked August.

             “Unfortunately, no,” said Griswold. “They’d need a warrant and probable cause to search the grounds. As a result, we’d need to tell them what we found for them to be able to investigate, which would lead to me, and likely Jamie, getting arrested. Moreover, since Andrew’s henchmen have infiltrated the Youngstown police department, there’s always the possibility that they could tip him off before the cops get the search warrant and make all of our work for naught.”

             “Oh,” said August with disappointment. “So, what are we gonna do?”

             “Um…” said Griswold. “Let me get back to you on that.”

             After a brief lunch, August went up to his room while Jamie and Griswold hashed out the details of their rescue mission. After several hours at the kitchen table, they settled on a plan that involved breaking into the dealership to rescue Charlotte and then dropping her and August off with Dan for their protection. The one down side was that they would first need to visit the lot again to get a better lay of the land.

             Around 5:00 P.M., having sorted out the last few details of the plan, Griswold stretched out on the couch and closed her eyes while Jamie turned on the TV to catch the local news. Nothing of much interest was discussed for the first few minutes. Then, a news story broke that caught Jamie’s attention.

             “Hey, Griswold!” she said. “You might want to see this!”

             “Huh?” Griswold replied, opening her eyes. “Why? What’s the matter?”

             “We have a problem,” Jamie replied.

            Griswold sat upright and she and Jamie watched the TV intently. The anchor was reporting that August had apparently been kidnapped by two unidentified women earlier that day and that they were last seen at Andrew’s dealership.