The Hydra with Many Faces

I am holding a hostage

Aster City, in one of the top luxury residential areas in America, lives forty-two year old Toffee Jones, president of food company Jones' Candy Company, maker of the widely popular treat Pocky.

The Jones residence, lit by the light of a mercury lamp, it is surrounded on all four sides by an eleven foot high brick wall with iron doors. The property includes the home of Toffee's seventy year old mother and his own two-story western-style mansion which he shares with his wife Candy, thirty-five years old, and their three young children.

Following completion of their newly built house just over a year prior, the construction supervisor gave two keys to the Jones family. Toffee kept one key in his own home, used only by himself, Candy, and a maid. Installed in his home was a high-tech SECOM security system monitoring all windows and doors. The second key to Toffee Jones' residence went to his mother, next door. This home had no alarm system installed.

Rain fell on two masked men as they scale the brick house with the use of a ladder. In the road to the north, a third masked man drives slowly in a red two-door car, awaiting the return of his partners in crime. Through the garden, the men, who are carrying a rifle and handgun, approach the front of the home of the elderly mother who is located in her living room in the rear of the home, watching television. The phone line was cut with a knife, having tied up the elderly mother with the phone's cord, and silencing her with a piece of tape over her mouth as well as her eyes. The two masked men located the key to her son's house in the living room cupboard. Leaving behind only the shoe prints of cheap jogging shoes.

Toffee Jones bathed on the second floor with his youngest daughter, four years old, and his only son, eleven years old. Also on the second floor, in the master bedroom, wife Candy Jones and the seven year old daughter were also watching television together.

Using the stolen key, the armed and masked men enter the home undetected through the front door. Quickly making their way to the second floor, they confronted Candy Jones and her oldest daughter who screamed out in surprise. The masked man with the handgun responded, "Be quiet." The man with the rifle said in a low voice, "Be quiet, money is irrelevant."

The mother and daughter then had their eyes and mouths covered, and hands restrained behind them with red tape. They were left in the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. The men blocked the door with a metal shelf and a garbage can. The bedroom phone cord was then cut with a knife.

Across the second floor, in another bathroom, the masked men found their target. "Be quiet, do not make a noise," the man with the rifle said in his low voice as he stuck the barrel of the rifle into Toffee's chest. The son and youngest daughter screamed in fear and the masked man said, "Quiet, or I will shoot." As their father was escorted from the bathroom, the children were left with a warning, "Do not get out of the bath."

Toffee was taken to his children's bedroom where he was allowed to wrap himself with a towel before being handcuffed.

At this time, the SECOM alarm system began alerting, having detected the cut phone line. "Hurry, do it quickly," one criminal said to the other. Putting up a struggle and losing his towel in the process, Toffee was taken from his home, out to the street, where he watched a red car pull up to him. Toffee Jones was placed in the back seat and driven away. At approximately 9:36PM, six minutes from her husband's abduction, Candy Jones breaks free from her tape bindings by rubbing her wrists against a bathroom wall corner. After escaping the bathroom, Candy retrieved a pair of scissors from a bedroom table to free her daughter. She then attempted to use the bedroom phone, finding no dial tone, only silence. She cautiously descended to the first floor and called police using the dining room telephone which was still operational.