Jan walked briskly through the park, the day being cold and sunny. She would have liked to pause and take a look at the trees and flowers coming into bloom but it was too cold a day for that and she was determined to get home to a lovely hot mug of soup. Walking past a bench she noticed an expensive looking bag. It was the type that hikers used when they went back-packing. No-one was sitting there and on looking round she could see no-one to whom it seemed to belong.

I guess it must have been left here accidentally, she thought to herself, going over to it. Perhaps I should take it home and have a look to see if there is any identity of the owner inside, she mused and making sure no-one was taking notice of her actions, she picked it up and continued on her way.

In a plain van, not far away, some undercover police had taken notice of her actions however. Sgt. Warder said into his headpiece,

"Heads up people! We have a bite. A young woman wearing a grey overcoat with a brightly coloured scarf just picked up the bag. She is heading towards the North entrance to the park so anyone in that area keep an eye open and follow her. We'll track her as best we can from here. Let us know when you have a sighting." He switched of the headset, not expecting anyone to acknowledge his orders but hoping someone would soon come through on the van's communication system to say they had a sighting. He turned to the driver and told the man to get underway and head North.

The driver knew better than to be slow on the uptake under the circumstances and soon they were in the heavy traffic heading in a Northward direction. Sgt. Warder knew the bag had a bug in it but he was not leaving anything to chance, a million pounds would be a lot to lose and he would have to account to his superiors for its loss which he did not relish at all.

He stared out the side windows hoping he would soon pick up the trail of the woman. He did not have long to wait and recognized the woman he had seen through his binoculars, who had stealthily picked up the bag in the park.

She led them through the city to a tenement of dirty, dilapidated council flats. It did not surprise him. They held back until they could see which flat she was going to, then the Sgt. gave the go-ahead for all to move in.

The uniformed officers banged loudly on the door and shouted,

"Police! Open up!" Jan jumped out of her skin and shook with fright, motionless. They banged the door again and called out once more. This time Jan gathered her wits about her and rushed to open the door. She was pushed unceremoniously against a wall and one officer grabbed her hands behind her back to handcuff, all the while reading her her rights. The others rushed in and looked in all the rooms to see who else might be in the flat.

Sgt. Warder arrived on the scene then and without asking, was informed there was no-one else in the flat.

"O.K. Take your men and gear out of here and I will just sit and have a chat with the young lady here." He motioned for the officer who held her to let her into the living room and then shut the door.

"Sit down!" he ordered. "Who were you going to take the bag to? Who are your colleagues? Not good friends I would say if they are willing to leave you holding the bag," he paused then, grinning at what he had just said then turned to pick up the backpack. "Literally, I would say." There was silence as I tried to understand what he was saying. "Well? Cat got your tongue?"

"I...I er don't know what you mean. What is all this anyway? What right have you cops got coming into peoples' homes the way you did mine?"

He picked up the bag again and said,

"This gives us probable cause or haven't you heard of that before?" He indicated the bag.

"You don't have to worry about that I wasn't going to keep it you know! I had every intention of looking inside to see if there was some form of the owner's identity in it and call him or her to come and pick it up if they wanted it back because I can't afford to go gadding about all over the place in taxis, I'm not made of money!" He gave an ironic laugh at her last words.

"You are trying to tell me you did not once look in the bag before you got it back to the flat!"

"No of course I didn't. I just wanted to get back in and make myself a hot mug of soup, then I would have looked but you caught me just as the kettle was about to boil. Now are you going to explain what is so all fired important about that bag that your people had to come busting in the way you did? Also these handcuffs are cutting into me."

The Sgt. did not answer her but went to the door, opening it he called to the uniformed officer waiting outside.

"Take the cuffs off the lady, she is just an innocent dupe in this." The officer came in and obeyed then standing back, waited until he was needed again. Jan rubbed her wrists to get the circulation going in them again.

"Thank you," she said. "You haven't answered my question, what is all this about?"

"I can not go into details miss...?"

She looked up at his pause and realised he wanted to know her name.

"It's Joyce, Jan Joyce."

"How unusual. As I was saying Miss Joyce, I can not tell you but we will need a statement from you about the incident I am afraid, for police records you understand. I am afraid you walked right into a stake-out that is all I can say miss. Now if you will be kind enough to go with the officer to the station he will drive you and take that statement. Don't worry about the flat, I will post a man here for security purposes and any damage to your front door will be seen to as well, at our expense of course. I am sorry for the inconvenience but we could take no chances with that bag in plain view."

"Oh yeh? Full of cash is it then?" she asked sneeringly as she walked out ahead of the officer who was to be her escort.

Her back was already turned or she would have caught the startled look that passed between the two men right then. Was it that obvious? the Sgt. asked himself. They would have to be more careful the next time, that's if the kidnappers would let them have another chance.

He need not have worried though. One of the kidnappers must have seen what took place because when he got back to his office, there was a call from them giving further details of another drop and where to find the woman kidnappee.