As Karen completed her entrance into were society and the Moon Lake Police and FBI completed their sting operation and successfully capturing Vito and Marcus Gamboni, things seemed to settle into what would be a normal night for the small town outside of Seattle. Further up the mountain in the cabin that her parents owned, Tara Strange slowly stretched and gave a small yawn as her alarm went off. The cabin wasn't big, and she could remember her younger sister, born sometime after her parents became werebears, grumbling that things were "cramped." That in turn lead to the quip, "you can always go OUTSIDE." It was something Tara actually fondly remembered and was part of what kept her close to her family, even though in the immediate family, she was the Strange family's only normal human.
The room hadn't changed too much, and her parents often used both hers and her sister's former rooms as a potential guest room for when extended family came to visit or the werebears from Moon Lake's southwest quadrant decided to have a big meeting at the cabin. Tara appreciated that, but did her best to keep the room clean. She quietly went about dressing herself in her uniform coming out into the hallway, running into her father as he came out his bedroom. It made for an interesting clash of uniforms given hers for the Moon Lake Police Department had more blue to it than the County Sheriff and Highway Patrol uniform that her father wore.
"Morning, dad," Tara said to him, "have a good night?"
"I did," her father answered with a small smile, "I hope you weren't too disturbed by anything..."
"No... no disturbance... at least none that I'm not used to," Tara said slowly.
The two made their way out into a mixing living room, kitchen, dining room area where a coffee maker was already brewing a fresh pot. Even Tara's normal human ears could hear it gurgle and sputter as they walked across the hardwood floor. Her father moved to check it and then turned to the fridge and began pulling out some egg cartons.
"Go on and sit down, dear," her father said to her, "I can handle breakfast."
"You sure you wouldn't want any help?" Tara offered.
"I can handle breakfast," her father repeated with a great deal of certainty and finality in his voice. Tara nodded and accepted that and moved to sit down. She'd also long learned that werebears tended to be pretty firm with their opinions and stances and that it took a lot to get one to change its mind, and breakfast wasn't one of the things that was worth fighting over. So while her father set about collecting things to start breakfast, Tara sat down at the table. As she did so, her own phone rang and shook a little on the table near her place at it. She quickly answered it, noting the number was from the department.
"Officer Strange, is anything wrong with the system?" Tara answered the phone, figuring it'd likely be something with the computer system, which with her role as the departments technical officer, dealing with small issues that might bug the computers, phones, or the cruisers was something that occasionally came up from time to time.
"Nothing with the system so far as I know," came a tired voice on the other end, which she quickly recognized as Chief O'Hara's, "Just some good news that you can pass on to the Charlestons on your way in..."
"Good news?" Tara sat up straighter in the chair.
"Yeah, we got them last night, Officer Brooks and one of the FBI agents caught Marcus and Vito pretty much ran into the backup that had been tailing the two when they made their move," Chief O'Hara answered, "it meant we were on duty for a bit longer than normal last night... but everyone seems quite pleased."
"The Charlestons will be pleased to hear that," Tara commented.
"Yes," Chief O'Hara answered, "though we'll need to report a few things to them. So... while they are free to return home, I'd ask if you bring them in so that we can fully inform them on the arrest and what happened with it. If it means you're a little late coming in today... that's fine, as I'd suspect a few people will be a bit tired today after all of this."
"Okay, will that be all, sir?" Tara asked.
"Yes, and thank you for your assistance in all of this," Chief O'Hara answered before hanging up and leaving Tara to set the phone down.
As she set it down, she looked up to see her father approaching with a plate with some scrambled eggs, ham slices, and toast in one hand and a fresh cup of coffee in the other. He placed it down before her with a small smile.
"There you go, dad's special, just the way you like it," her father told her as he turned back to get his own breakfast. He heard a soft "thank you" before he came to his own question, "So... they got the guys chasing after this family... the Gambonis, was it?"
"Yes," Tara nodded, "Which means I'm to bring them into the station to finish up the last elements of the present operation for the department. I'm going to guess that there might have been some damage to the house in the course of the sting and that's what Chief O'Hara wants to talk to them on. But the two Gambonis are caught and the FBI will probably set about arranging transport to Seattle and the holding cells there while waiting for trial... assuming they don't make bail or something like that."
"Given what the news has said, I'd find it doubtful that those two would get an easy bail," her father grunted, "and if the court is smart they won't get it regardless... Though... you will need to make sure they clean up after themselves before they leave YOUR home."
"I'm sure things are fine, dad," Tara assured him, though privately, that might not be too off the mark. As she knew that Karen had gotten into some mischief that resulted in her getting a very low concentration of weretiger that was enough turn her but not fast enough for the transformation to be immediate. By now, Karen Charleston had to have become a were and that could come with some its own issues, particularly with new weres.
"You can never know with teenagers," her father answered, "and there are some times with even adults... Moon Lake just seems to have an effect on people. You remember the Grovers, right?"
"They became werebears last year, right?" Tara asked thinking on a family that had moved to Moon Lake the previous year. So far as she knew, they lived in an apartment building that was near where the Moon Lake Police Department was.
"Yeah... and happily," her father answered, "but from what gossip your mother heard from around town or from them, themselves, they seemed to be quite active even before becoming weres, and they were older than you are now."
"Aren't you a bit old to listen to gossip, dad?" Tara teased.
All she got in response was a bit of a grunt and a wave of her father's hand. She ignored that as she had only been teasing and she knew her father knew that. Her mother ultimately came out from the master bedroom just as Tara was getting ready to head out. Tara gave her mother a quick hug and a "good morning" and was quickly on her way. From there the ride down from her parent's cabin to her own was calm and quiet and the sun was just starting to come over the eastern horizon by the time she pulled up onto the small driveway to her cabin. The lights were out at the moment, but with things as they were, she figured the Charlestons would be happy to be able to go home, even if the visit would be a wake up call.
She approached the door, and despite having keys and the legal right to enter her own home unannounced, Tara gave a hard knock on the door and waited quietly. For a moment there was no response, which she half expected, and so after a moment or two, she knocked again, this time with three knocks. That cycle of knock, wait, knock again repeated a few times before the door opened to reveal a semi-groggy looking Moe who was dressed in a pair of pants and a shirt, but no socks or shoes.
"Oh... Officer Strange... it's you," Moe said softly and stifled a yawn, "is this another check up?"
"More letting you get some good news," Tara answered, "it is now safe for you and your family to return home."
"It is?!" Moe practically sprung to life at that.
"Yes, Marcus and Vito made their move last night and triggered the sting operation that had been put in place," Tara answered, "and the chief called me to let you know that they are presently in custody."
"So what will happen with them?" Moe asked.
"Right now, they'll be moved to a holding facility in Seattle and I assume the FBI will also call in a tow truck for the vehicle they came in," Tara answered, "they may have some jurisdictional issues and procedure issues to work through, but I can't really say on that. My guess is that Chief O'Hara and/or Agent Baoman would be able to answer those questions... Though what may help you with those questions is that I am under instruction to bring your family into the station. My guess is that something happened in the arrest that might have done damage to your home... but that's at best only a guess. Outside of that, I'd probably have instructions to take you home."
Moe couldn't help but smile, as in the course of the chase, no one had been able to catch the Gambonis in the act of doing anything or prevent them from causing trouble. But the move to Moon Lake had changed that. Moe credited a lot of that to Daniel, but Moon Lake had seemingly done more and arranged more for their protection than anyone else had and now it had lead to the arrest of Marcus and Vito, which he hoped would be the end of it all. That made him smile and he was eager to head home and get back to work on getting Moe's Pizza up and running. Though after a moment, a line that Karen had said the previous night came back to him that they'd need to clean up, and that made sense. After all... he and Nichole had been rather frisky in someone else's home, they couldn't just leave things to Tara to fix afterward.
"Do you have any time table for this?" Moe asked, "as we could probably stand to clean a few things... launder the bed-linin you let us use and so on."
"You don't have to..." Tara said slowly, though a part of her thought over the issue and it did remind her of what her father had said before she left her parent's cabin.
"You've all done so much for my family," Moe spoke firmly, "You included, Officer Strange, it's the least we could do."
"Okay then... I can let the station know I'll be a bit late while you pack and run a load of laundry," Tara answered and privately also noticed a firm tone of voice that wasn't too different from her father's when it came to discipline and the house rules.