Return to the King

Chapter 25

Anotnio's POV

Getting closer to Amelia is going to be a challenge. We have known that for a while now. However, now we needed to watch our backs because the chief was trying to figure out what we knew. It was clear that Lori was on our side and that she had to play it close to the vest because she didn't know who to fully trust. It was clear that she did want to help with the missing women's case, but we needed to understand what the issue was between her and the chief, along with the police station.

We were sitting in the apartment we rented. Lori was sitting on one couch while Maurice, Alex and I were sitting on the three-seater couch. Nia headed back to the hospital to make sure that everything over there was taken care of as she had stated to the detective. Lori was fidgeting and Maurice and I looked over to Alex. He was studying her agitated behavior and then looked over at us and nodded his head.

"So, Lori... you said you wanted to speak with us about this case. You said something wasn't sitting right with you."

She looked up at Alex who was conversing with her, then she cut her eyes at the rest of us. She sighed and went into her bra, and we all covered our eyes.

"Woah!"

"Married!"

"I see nothing. I am not getting killed by this man's sister!"

"Guys.... I am not showing you my breasts. My breast does contain something that should be looked upon though."

We peaked through our fingers and saw she was holding a thumb drive. She went to give us the thumb drive, and we all shook our heads. She looked at us with a puzzled look and then sighed.

"Guys, I know you are married, but seriously?"

"No, it's not that. Anything like that, we take it to our companion. Fred," Maurice said while taking the thumb drive.

"Fred?"

"Don't worry. He is safe and kept in a location that is practically secret to everyone except us. Maybe one day you will meet him."

"Alright, well how do we get this to him now?"

"Unfortunately... we can't get it to him now. It would take some days." Alex stated while looking at us.

"We don't have days. Is there a computer or something we could get to?"

"I got a computer and a projector downstairs in the basement."

Everyone turned and looked at me with a questionable expression. I shrugged my arms and stood up.

"What? I thought we would need it one day and turns out I was right, so the joke is on y'all!" I stuck out my tongue and turned while heading down to the basement. I guess the others were following because I started to hear patterns of feet following behind me seconds after I left.

We reached the basement and I set the stuff up and pointed over to Lori. She placed the thumb drive into the computer and clicked on everything. Images left and right appeared on the screen. It was the Chief with mysterious people.

"Were you stalking him?"

"Yes. He was acting weird. So I followed my gut like I always do and when I saw these-"

She went to a picture where he was looking around but in the photo, he was exchanging money with someone. Someone who was wearing a black hoodie on their head, so their face was covered. Lori continued to show the pictures and I jumped up.

"Wait! Go back to the other one." She looked at me confused but didn't argue and went back to the previous photo. I studied the photo and even got up from my seat and went closer to the projector. The fast was familiar. I just had to remember where did... I-

"Wait a minute! That's the guy! That's the guy from the hospital. The one who came to see the... the other one. Who Amelia stabbed!"

"Who, Samuels?" Alex asked while getting up from his seat.

"No, no. Well, yes, but the other dude. What was the guy's name who came in asking questions and insulting us because we were wearing all black?"

"Think his name is Jack or something like that."

"Maurice, you are awesome. I think that is his name," Alex said as he pointed to the guy.

"So the question is now, why would the Chief be handing money to a shady guy?" I asked while tapping my chin.

"He was or is not doing any undercover work, so he is doing something shady,"Lori said, while placing her hands on her hips.

"How would you know though?" Alex questioned.

"Well.... I hacked... into his computer and saw all the files he had on it and, well... made an identical copy to myself that is on my side of the police information."

"Could you get into it?" I asked while looking over at her.

"I would need to go home and log in from my laptop. It would send a signal that I am trying to log in from another location and might tip someone off that I am trying to get to those files from somewhere else. He is already trying to get me to flip and give information on you guys, but I just don't think that would be the right idea right now."

"Do you think we can head over to your house and figure it out from there? I think the best person to check and get into those files would be Fred."

"I mean we can head over there and check it out, but he won't do anything to my laptop, right?"

"No. Fred is someone who is good with computers, and he won't do any harm to it."

"Well... let's get to it. We need to figure this out as soon as possible."

We all headed out of the basement and Lori snatched her thumb drive from the computer and followed along. When we got to the streets, I looked around to see if anything suspicious was happening but nothing was happening. We got into the car and the driver immediately started driving.

"So let me get this straight, how long has this incident been happening? Like how long haven't you trusted the chief?"

"I have been separated from the entire department because I cracked an important case and one of the officers was involved, and he was dirty. Funny thing is, the department knew about it because everyone was involved in the incident and so... since I got the department shut down, I was transferred here and everyone looked at me like... a snitch."

"Wait.... wait, wait!" Maurice said while waving his hands about.

"You... busted an entire department?" Alex questioned.

Lori nodded her head and sighed heavily.

"Alright... so... what had happened was... I was sent to a department right... and I was the rookie, so everyone was just acting weird around me. I thought it was because I was a rookie. I was a female rookie at that one. So I didn't pay too much attention to it and did the work that I needed to complete. However, it was this one case that I was assigned to and something about it was not making sense to me."

"What was the case?" I questioned.

"An eyewitness case that was also connected to a bombing case that was happening."

"So what happened?" Maurice asked.

"Alright, so I was assigned to watch over a family... A mother and her children witnessed a person putting a bomb on a white van that exploded and harmed about 20 people."

"Damn..."

"Exactly. So I was outside their house and the parents were arguing because the father thought that she shouldn't have been involved in the mess that was happening and made them a target for whoever was doing the bombing. So, she felt like she was in the right because it was a mad man, you know... killing innocent people. She and her children could have been in the incident if one of them hadn't run off in another direction, which was away from the bombing that happened."

"Alright so-"

"So, I was on a stake out, outside their house listening with a partner of mine. Well, I wouldn't say partner. More like a babysitter, so I wouldn't screw things up as the people were talking. However, I thought that the guys at the station were saying I needed a babysitter, so I wouldn't screw things up, but it wasn't me they were really paying attention to. They were trying to make sure that I didn't find out what I had found in the first place. So as we were doing the stake out, I was going over footage and pictures and all the evidence while he was trying to go over the bombing case as well. That's when a bomb went off and everything fell together. We rushed out to check on the family. I saw someone running away from the scene and chased them down. I caught them, and it was one of the officers from the station. A car happened to drive past, and I got a look at a license plate on a nearby car, and it looked familiar to me. So the officer I caught was arrested and when I got back to the station, I searched for the car's plate and came to find out that it was an undercover cop car, and it was parked in the garage of the police station. I reported it to the chief and, well, he didn't act on it and thought I was seeing things. I continued to gather evidence against the station. Finding out the bombings that were happening were to kill the people who were witnesses to anything dealing with the police station. It was a bad cover-up job they were trying to do. So I reported it to the higher ups, and they took the case into their hands and came to find out that the station was doing much more than I thought. Stealing from witnesses, banding with the enemy to make more money. Fraud, scheming, you name it... apparently they were into it. I was awarded for my bravery and blah blah, but I was transferred and once again had to go through the same thing I went through last time. People looked at me weird and now I had another name. Snitch."

"Woah... that is heavy," Alex stated.

"But then that would make sense as to why this police chief is on your ass right now. He is into something that he shouldn't be into, and he is trying to make sure that you don't completely do your job and make sure that you don't connect the dots," I said while looking out the window and noticed the car was coming to a stop.

"Then it is suspected to know that he is involved in something," Lori said while nodding her head.

"Question is... how deep is he?"

We got out of the car and headed up to her house. It was nice. Two story house. She opened the door and placed her keys on a table and walked down a small hall that led to her living room. We followed behind, then froze in our tracks. There was a little boy sitting on the couch. We all froze in our tracks and looked at Lori. She didn't notice we came to a stop. She was still walking to what seemed like another small hall. We all stood looking at the little boy sitting on the couch with the television playing the cartoon of Spider-Man. He was sitting there playing with some action figures. It was easy to tell that he was related to her.

"Lori! Oh, you have come back. How is work working out for you?" A woman's voice came out from upstairs, and she came towards us while wiping her hands with a towel. She noticed us and smiled.

"Well... we have guests."

"Eva! Hi love." Lori came back towards us, and she motioned her hand at us.

"Sorry... my manners are not with me, currently. Eva these are... my new associates from work. They are helping with the case that I am currently on."

"Well... they certainly are handsome. Hello boys. How are you?"

We all chuckled and each of us held out our hands to give her a firm shake and introduced ourselves. She was very happy and even said we could stay for dinner. After the introductions were made, we followed Lori to her office and she closed the door behind her.

"Well.. I know you are interested in what is going on, so I shall explain. The little boy's name is Mason. He is my 5-year-old son. The woman, Eva, is like a mother to me. She helps me when I need it and looks after Mason while I am at work."

"Lori... a mother. Wouldn't have guessed that."

"But it does fit the character."

"Her very... persistent character.

We all laughed and got settled to get into work. Lori logged into her computer and searched for the files we needed to see. She was right though. Chief was not on any assignments."

"What's this folder that you got?" Maurice asked, as he pointed to the screen.

"Well, it's encrypted, so I couldn't access it. It got copied but when I tried to open it from my side... it didn't let me."

Before anyone could say anything, someone's phone started to ring. We all searched and noticed it was Maurice's phone ringing. He nodded his head and showed that it was Fred and picked it up and put the phone on speaker.

"Hey, you got us all."

"Hey guys! So, Maurice, the recording you sent me and the computer information I was able to get into the Chief's computer. He is shady. He is dealing with someone who keeps their side of communication very interesting to track, hidden. Like this person he is communicating with does not want us to find him. So I am trying now. However, I did get the information you need about this man and, of course, there is something fishy. So the chief's name is Henry. Henry Phillips. He was a squeaky clean, up until two years ago."

"Can you tell us why?"

"Well, according to his phone records, he has been receiving calls from a burner phone. I can't trace it. Those phone calls also started about two years ago. I can't get anything because the phone he got was gotten two years ago. If he had anything on another phone, I cannot get to it because, according to his files, the current phone he has is the only phone he had. Someone must have wiped his information clean."

"Who would have the power to do that?" Alex asked while looking at the rest of us.

"Well, for us, it would be the chief himself or someone in a facility that is trying to hide one's identity for their safety," Lori said.

"Think someone in that office might have done it?"

"Fred?" I asked while looking at the phone.

"I double-checked and there were no indications that he made a new identity to hide from someone."

"Alright, so whoever is behind the schemes of this operation is behind the missing girls. We need to get to the chief then and get to the bottom of this."

"It would be nice to torture him for a bit. He was getting on my nerves for a bit." Maurice stated, with a devilish smirk on his face.

"Alright, muscle. Fred, we also need you to get into a computer. Don't damage the computer, just get into the encrypted files on it."

"Can do. Do you have the information on the computer?"

Lori turned and yelled out her information. Fred said his final goodbye and hung up the phone. It was kind of late and the guys and I needed to get something to eat. As we were heading out, Eva stopped us by the door. She offered us food and even though we kindly declined her offer, she wouldn't let us leave with no being the answer and on an empty stomach.

So we had food. It was delicious. Some rice, smothered turkey wings, corn bread, and for dessert, some cake she baked. Lori was a bit jealous that all of this stuff was cooked for the company that she had, but hey, it was better that Eva cooked all of this and fed us than to go home on an empty stomach.