The Truth Berries

XLIII

The search and rescue team led by Sergeant Alex Gonzalo himself has found the vehicle his rogue partner used in taking the missing woman last night. But the car was now reduced to mere scrap metals for a fierce fire was set upon it. Alex feared they were too late to save the woman. The information he received told something about the woman being locked up inside the car’s trunk. If that was the case, then things were looking really dark for them. He could only imagine the storm of criticism they would have to withstand if they happen to lose the woman. Alex immediately ordered his two men from the second escort vehicle to search and secure the whole area. Then he instructed the second team from the third car to find something that they could use to rip open the burned car’s compartment. Both teams wasted no time as they all ran to their respective assignments.

       Alex purposely kept himself distracted by looking at the endless road that lies ahead. The first team found something interesting on the ground near the burned vehicle. One of them brushed away all the leaves while the other took out his phone and opened its camera. He started taking several pictures of it and when he was done, they went to opposite directions to find more clues as to what really happened there. The second team was still on their grueling task of opening the car’s trunk. They managed to find a small but strong piece of iron that could fit between the tight space of the trunk and its door. Then they took a longer iron pipe that could be inserted to the small one for them to gain a better leverage. The two men took their turns in forcing the door wide open. After ten minutes of arduous work and a gallon of sweat spent, Alex heard his men call.

       He steeled himself for the worst as he ordered his men to lift the door now. The whole process of opening the broken door seemed to happen in a very slow motion. In his head, he saw himself at the center of another shameful failure of the police force. The Main Office wanted someone to take all the blame and all fingers were pointed at him. Then, a trial would take place where he was standing all alone against a nation holding him responsible for this poor woman’s death. Ultimately, he saw himself escorted by younger men in uniforms to a waiting car outside the court. He heard them laughing at him as he was being carried away to a place where no one would ever see him again. Little by little, his wife and his children drifted out of his reach until they finally vanished into the dark horizon, never to be seen again. But just when he thought every bit of it was a nightmare, a set of heavy iron bars fell before him to ensure his punishment until he has paid the price.

       But to all their surprise, the trunk contained no burned body, as they all expected it to be there. There were remnants of other things inside the trunk, but there was not a trace of a burned body anywhere. Alex did not know what to do with that new development they discovered. Of course, he was glad that the woman did not end up as a major barbecue screw-up. But that also left them at the end’s road. They have found the car Miguel allegedly used to escape with the woman, but the car provided little clues now that it was completely burned down.  As far as he knew, the woman never contacted anyone again since she last did. Alex was willing to grab on to any piece of information he could have. But he was out of thread to hold on to now. His utter disappointment made him kick the scorched vehicle’s bumper and it forced the car to a rocking motion.

        “f*****g f**k!”, he yelled, making all his men cowered in silence.

          One of them, however, went to a short distance from them and took his phone out. He started dialing someone’s number and then he asked something from the man on the other line. Alex saw him nod a few times before the call was ended. Alex watched as that man remained separated from the others. Sensing that he might have missed something, he walked towards him.

      “What was that all about?”, he asked him.

       “I just have a small hunch, Sir. So I called an old friend of mine to ask him if he could verify my theory.”

       “And?”

      “It’s just a shot in the dark and he’s still looking into it, Sir.”

       Alex patted his shoulders to commend his fast initiative. He looked back to the other guys and saw them getting busy with something. One was scouring the nearby bushes, hoping to find something that could be hidden from plain sight. Another one was taking pictures of the burned vehicle and its immediate surrounding while the other two busied themselves with something at the car’s trunk. Alex was feeling lost and hopeless when he heard the isolated guy’s triumphant cry. In just a minute, he came rushing towards him with his phone in his hand.

       “Sir, it seems like my intuition is correct.”

       “Yeah? Tell me about it.”

       “Well, when we came here, I immediately noticed another set of tire tracks near the burned car. So I thought that maybe there was another vehicle involved in this mess. That’s why I gave my old friend a call. I asked him if there was any incident of carnapping or carjacking around this town in the past twenty-four hours. Sure enough, a single incident of a stolen car was recorded earlier. It was a black Range Rover and its owner came to their station crying about it being stolen.”

       Alex freed a low whistle.

       “A Range Rover, huh? So our man started hitting it big now? Did you get its plate number?”

       “Yes Sir.”

       “Good. Call our own office and have them track down that plate number. They might not be far from here.”

       “As you wish, Sir.”

       The man was just starting to call their own office when Alex got a call from them. So he lifted a hand to stop his man before he answered the call.

       “Sergeant Gonzalo speaking.”

       “Sergeant, where are you?”

       “We are in the middle of nowhere right now. The only good thing about that is that we already found the car which Romero used in taking the woman. Bad news is the woman is nowhere to be seen and the car was burned down to its metal bones. The bastard even went as far as removing the car’s plate numbers, so we had no other way to quickly identify its origin until those damn plates are found. Why are you asking?”

       “The emergency hotline received a call from the same missing woman you’re pursuing at about 9:31 this morning. We traced the call to a private telephone just across the big gas station in Santo Toribio. We now have solid confirmation that the man behind her disappearance was Sergeant Miguel Romero himself. If you can wait for a couple of minutes, I will send to you all the information you need to find them quickly.”

        Alex wanted to tell them not to bother about it for one of his men has already got it, but the call was abruptly ended. Hell, he thought.

       “Okay, boys! I’m proud to tell you now that the chase is still on and we are still in the game. Ricky, here, found out something that most of us did not even notice. Our guy stole a new toy to continue his getaway dreams and this here is just one of his many elaborate tricks to throw us out of direction. All to make us all look like morons. But that is where he was wrong, and we’ll slap that truth over his face once we get that motherfucker.”

       His men felt an unexpected boost of morale after his delivered speech. Then, Alex faced the two men who were busy examining the burned car before.

       “Unfortunately, the two of you are not going with us anymore. You will be left securing this area here until back-up from the station comes to aid. But until they are here, you are not allowed to leave this place without anybody to stand guard. And find that f*****g plates, please.”

       The two men scratched their heads in dismay but no one dared to question his decision. Alex went back to his own car and signaled one of the cars to follow through. The two vehicles sped away, leaving a trail of dust behind for the two departed policemen to sniff. When the two cars were finally out of their sight, one of them ran a few steps after them while offering his middle finger. Then, he walked back towards their car while muttering his great disapproval of their fate.

      “Mister Sergeant here so proud to tell you boys to go f**k yourself until those assholes come to aid.”, he mimicked Alex.

       His buddy could not help himself from laughing despite of the situation they were thrown in. He’s partner was comically enraged now that their senior was gone. But he looked like an obedient mongrel when they were still standing in front of him. Still, he welcomed the unusual entertainment his partner provided during that time.

       “Secure the damn area, boys! Secure my ass, sergeant! Who the hell would want a burned-out car for themselves? Garbage collectors? Even mechanics wouldn’t touch that f*****g thing in the middle of this nowhere! And those f*****g plates! You might as well Google it than search this whole vastness. f*****g i***t!”, he fussed as he kept on kicking some invisible rocks.

       “Chill out, man. Don’t freaking stress yourself. That’s deadly s**t, if you don’t know.”

       The sight of his buddy laughing at him somehow brought him a little shame and so he calmed himself down eventually. Five minutes later, he asked his partner for a smoke.

       “This is the last that I got, partner.”

       “Well, I sure need that last one than you do. You know that, buddy. Come on.”

       The other guy shrugged his shoulders and threw him his last cigarette stick that he had. The man caught it perfectly. Then, he waited for him to throw a lighter next but his partner seemed to forget about it so he asked for one.

       “I don’t have a lighter with me. A matchbox with a single matchstick inside is what I have. Here, take this. But be sure to light your love with that last one because after that, I can’t help you no more.”

       He threw the matchbox to him and he caught it too with his left hand only. Then, he walked towards a secluded space near the burned car and he waited patiently for the air to stop for a split second so that he could strike the match without it dying out prematurely. It took a long two minutes before he got the perfect setting. So he put his cigarette between his lips, bowed down his head so the tip was even closer to the match and then he struck for fire. The tip of the matchstick instantly lit up with fire, releasing the strong scent of burnt sulfur dioxide. Then, as carefully as he could, he started bringing the fire to the tip of his cigarette. It was then that they heard it. From the far side of the road came a roaring, black, sleek BMW darting towards the direction of their two police cars. The car must have been travelling above a hundred kilometers an hour and its very high speed caused the air before them to split, hitting them both with such impact. The guy standing the police car clapped his hands in admiration but the other guy was boiling with anger. The sudden gust of air made by the swift car caused the fire to die before he could light his cigarette. Still, he desperately tried to light it up from the dying embers of the matchstick but it was all to no avail. Frustrated, he threw the burnt matchstick and chewed his cigarette. Then he faced to the direction where the car disappeared and screamed with all his voice.

       “f**k YOU, JAMES BOND!!”