Chasing the Elusive 'H'

Chapter 10

Day Sixteen Continued.

After an hour of waiting for the lab results, I finally received them. Holding the piece of paper that was still warm from the fax machine, I started to rattle them off as I read.

Amphetamine? Negative…MDMA? Negative…Acetylmorphine? Negative… My eyes skimmed over all the verified results. They were all negatives. My eyes caught an odd handwritten comment in the lab results ‘notes’ section, curious I started to read that.

‘Mason, please don’t waste the lab technician's time and taxpayer’s money on your wild goose chases, which have nothing to do with your case.’

“It must have gone to my base station first.” I cringed thinking about it.

Out of frustration of everything I was about to crunch the piece of paper in my hand but I saw a further comment that caught my attention. ‘Analysis: Tide-Laundry Powder. R.Willow ID-432832’

No words could express my frustration, I could feel my eyes burning as I came to the realisation that ‘H’ had set me up. And worse of all she used Robin to get to me. The truck was probably long gone by now. She set this up so that she could disappear again? I don’t get it, why didn’t she just…

…You know, I don’t know what her situation was. Maybe there were other things in play, like why pick I.T.G? Surely it wasn’t only the location she was interested in. And where did her equipment go during the truck’s stay at I.T.G? Cause nothing was in that truck when I checked it out, despite what the woman in the suspicious vehicle report claims. Somehow I.T.G was involved in this case… But that is the least of my concerns right now.

I’m sure that she knows that I found her through the suspicious vehicle report and then tracked her through the traffic cameras, she would have made it her business to mask her movements and make herself invisible. If so, it really wasn’t worth checking the traffic cameras. But luckily I had an ace up my sleeve. As I was dusting for prints…I planted a little something of my own.

A tracking device.

I couldn’t trust Robin’s source saying that the truck was going to be ‘impounded due to a complaint’, which clearly was ‘H’s’ doing now that I think about it…I had to listen to my gut feeling and it told me to bug the truck, to be sure.

Just out of curiosity's sake I grabbed my tracking device out. After looking at it a while and comparing it to the city’s map, I could clearly see that the truck did indeed move it’s location from I.T.G’s service road.

My thought process was that in a worse case scenario ‘if’ the truck was actually going to the impound, I come back to continue my research of Ms. Emilia Huesten. But the best case scenario is that if Emilia moved the truck, that I would follow her signal now and stay hot on her trail. The possibility of catching her in the act and getting my decisive proof that she indeed is ‘H’, was too big of an opportunity to miss.

I wasted no time. I made sure that I had all of my items with me. But as I was about to lift my handbag up, Robin’s dark hoodie caught my attention. “Maybe it’s better to go incognito,” I thought to myself. I fished through the contents of my purse, only grabbing out the essentials for my case. The essentials were, my mobile phone but I made sure to turn it off, my tracker, handcuffs, ID badge, camera and a fistful of cash to pay the cabbie. I then shoved all of the contents into his hoodie’s large side pockets, and left my purse behind in one of the station’s lockers. It was a good call to bring Robin’s dark hoodie as it was still brisk outside, I wouldn’t want my teeth chattering whilst trying to be stealthy.

As I looked out the window, I saw that it was starting to get dark outside. I knew that I should try and get to wherever ‘H’ has nicked off too before I lose my chance to catch her. Making my way outside to catch yet another taxi, I couldn’t help but think. “Maybe I should get my licence. This whole back and forth is starting to hurt my income.” In no time I was able to hail a taxi and be off towards my next stop, showing the taxi driver my tracking device he was able to recognise the area that I needed to go to.

Within half an hour I arrived at my location. I knew for a fact now that this had to be one of ‘H’s’ plans, cause if that truck was really being ‘impounded’, no one in their right mind would've travelled this distance to do the deed. There were a number of registered impound lots between I.T.G and my current location, and that’s why I knew that this had to be ‘H’s’ doing.

The tracker was reacting to the signal, I opened the door to my cab to get out and have a quick look at my surroundings. It was another industrial area, one which I wasn’t familiar with. Paying my fare, I dismissed the cabbie and continued towards the tracker’s signal on foot.

It was dark at this point in time. The street lights illuminated the street before me, but I knew I had to stick to shadows to help prevent me from being spotted. My eyes constantly searching in the distance whilst momentarily looking at the tracker to see if I was going in the right direction. The street was deserted making my advancement easier, but I remained cautious.

Eventually I met a high chain-link fence which was padlocked. I glanced down at my device which seemed to tell me that the truck was very close by, like literally over the fence close by. I then peered into the barely visible lot that I was unable to simply walk into.

I could see large objects, but it was too dark to make out what they are. Listening out into the distance, I could hear no talking, shuffling or footsteps. Knowing that the lot was unoccupied at this time, I began to observe the fence which was barring my entrance. I realised quickly that if I tried to climb it that I would make noise enough to alert anyone nearby.

Desperately I looked around my immediate area, which was only dimly lit from the street lights and noticed a wooden pallet. Quietly I manoeuvred the pallet towards the fence, propping it up against the building that it was attached to. Using the pallet as a sort of step ladder I began to climb up, after reaching the top of the pallet I then tried to jump the fence. There was minimal noise created, but still enough to put me on edge. The height of that jump and landing on my feet, sent a wave of discomfort through my shins and I instantly regretted my decision. Sitting on the ground I began to rub my lower legs, I knew it was a good way to regain proper feeling to them quickly.

After recovering from the shock to my legs from my descent, I stood back up and continued to walk into the darkness using my tracker as my guiding source.

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(John’s Point Of View)

Voices broke my concentration from watching the monitors and listening to police scanners. It was clear that they were Robin’s and Emilia’s voices, as they were clear enough to hear without eavesdropping.

“Hello Emilia, I trust no one followed you to this location.” Robin greeted her.

“Don’t worry…we weren’t followed, I was watching the side mirrors the whole journey.” She reported proudly. “Were you able to mask our presence on the traffic cameras?” She asked further.

“Yes, I was able to infiltrate the system and ‘skip’ a second or two whilst you went by in the truck. The hardest parts were those traffic lights.” Robin boasted. “Couldn’t have driven more like a grandpa eh, John?” He asked mockingly and loud enough for me to hear.

“Sure!…Trying to not break the rules of the road so then we don’t get caught or pulled over, doesn’t seem like a priority anyway.” I rebutted sarcastically. I didn’t need to turn around to know that I was right, as I could hear a small scoff coming from him.

“Didn’t you leave here with a hoodie, Robin? You must be freezing…its an oddly cool evening for May.” I heard Emilia ask the boss, I think she was trying to defuse whatever tension we had between us.

“…It’s gone astray” He replied.

“Oh well that’s unfortunate. Let’s hope it comes back again…”

“N-no it’s okay. Listen…I’ve had a rough day, I’m gonna take a shower…” He sounded off, I don’t know how to put it but it seemed best to give him his space right now. I don’t know much about my boss Robin, but I do know that he was very attached to that jumper of his. It apparently had the symbols of his late father’s old band on it, according to Emilia. Frankly it’s the only thing that he has of his father’s. No wonder he’s acting like this.

“Of course dear, we’ll catch up about details tomorrow then.”

Shortly after Robin left for his quarters and Emilia got back to her duties, my workspace became quiet enough that I was able to focus on the monitors and police scanner. That was when I heard something irregular. It sounded like a jingle.

The fence.

My eyes looked towards the security monitors, but no movement was spotted. “Maybe it was just a cat jumping the fence.” I shrugged and continued to tune through the police scanner.

Two of the monitors suddenly became illuminated not a few minutes later due to the flood lights being triggered. My attention was now drawn towards those two monitors.

After watching for some time, the lights then went off, they were on a timer after all. But before my attention was drawn back to my other duties, I saw a faint light in the distance. Curious, I kept watching. Both monitors caught different view points of this mysterious light, one could see the brightness intensity, the other illuminated an unknown face.

It was apparent that we had a trespasser.

Collecting my keys and flashlight in one swift movement, I was about to make my way to Robin’s quarters to inform him of the intrusion but remembered that he was having a shower at this time. I could even hear his water running from this distance. It wasn’t a good call to interrupt him, as it would take him some time to get ready and in the end, slowing down the pursuit.

I instead went back to the monitor to observe further, to get a bearing on where this person is on our lot. The floodlight went on again in another area. Just one monitor went off this time. The intruder was caught red handed in the light this time and tried to run out of the floodlight’s illumination as quickly as they could.

In any case, this person was trespassing on our property, I had to do something and fast. The need to detain the trespasser and question them later became a clear task to me, but I had to get close enough before I could capture them and I had to do that without alerting them of my position.

I knew the roundabout location that this person was now, behind one of the yards shipping containers close to Robin’s vehicle. Acting now was the best course of action to prevent any unnecessary measures. The idea of masking my presence was easy enough to do. Before I left out the back door leading me onto the scene at hand I turned off the floodlights from the control panel, now I was able to hide myself under the veil of darkness. I then proceeded to quietly close the door behind myself and turned my gaze into the darkness.

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(Robin’s Point Of View)

As the water streamed over my body, my mind began to wonder. I started to think about the events of the past days without reason. Why did I give her that damn jacket?…Well I need her to think that I’m a nice guy...But hey, she does look good in it…But if I was planning on never seeing her again, why did I do it?

Am I ‘that’ attracted to her?…Maybe, it’s not often someone keeps my attention like this…She’s lucky that she was born pretty, just like she’s lucky to find the truck in the first place.

But finding ‘anything’ has been proved quite difficult for everyone else in her field…I only helped her out because she caught me off guard…Yes but, if she arrived any other day that you weren’t working, she would’ve never known that the truck was there.

I grabbed the shampoo and gave my hand a generous amount. Harshly scrubbing my scalp, I tried to rid myself of the conflicting thoughts in my head. She was just history now.

Now was the time to start planning for the next big hit.

As I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, I was thinking of the ways I was going to grab the details from my next target. His name is Jim Gideon, he’s one of the leading oil distributors in the region. He’s got a whole team dedicated to making sure that his funds stay within his pockets, but I’ve always liked a challenge. Emilia tells me that Jim is planning on running for office, against our current Mayor Mason this election. What I think I’ll do, is I’ll get Abigai…

I groaned. It looks like she just keeps popping up in my head.

The buzz from the two-way went off, I listened out for the transmission. What I heard next astounded me…“Boss…there’s an intruder.” I reconsidered the voice to be John’s.

“What the f**k?!” Quickly I turned off the tap and started to get myself dressed…

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(Abigail’s Point Of View)

“That was too close…” I peeked around the structure that was blocking the floodlight’s view of me. I could now spot the position of a few other spotlights along the building’s wall. There were too many floodlights to watch out for. “I should have walked along the base of the building, but I’m already too close to turn back now.” I observed a little closer, and I saw some were positioned to watch the walls too. I frowned. ‘H’ was definitely being over precautious.

No one seemed to have notice my arrival, as none came out to check up on the floodlights going off. This eased my anxiety, but I tried my best to remember the locations of the other floodlights in order to not get caught again. When the light finally timed out I began walking in the signal’s direction, careful to stay behind structures that I now know are shipping containers and other trucks parked inside the lot. Its too bad I didn’t bring a flashlight with me, other wise I would have spotted them earlier hence avoiding them in the first place.

After a few minutes, I was quite surprised that I was able to bypass the majority of the other security lights. I was sure that I was going to get spotted again, but I somehow wasn’t. Using the light from the tracker I flashed the tracker’s beam to search a little further into my surroundings, much like a flashlight but the light isn’t as strong. Tripping or bumping into unnecessary objects wasn’t an option in my book. But in using the tracker’s faint light, I could now finally see ‘H’s’ truck in sight.

Now that ‘H’s’ truck was now within reach. I needed to think of a plan of attack. Only a simple one seem to grab my attention. Bust in, take a photo of the contents inside with the flash on, close the door, take a photo of the licence plate and then get the hell out of dodge before someone finds out I’m here. Seems good enough of a plan to me as I didn’t want to be here longer than I had to. Getting caught was not ideal. I then thought to look for my escape route. The way I came, even though I knew where it was, was too loud and would alert them of my presence. But since I didn’t really have the luxury of time or space to move around freely to look for another option, the place where I entered seemed like the best option.

“Lucky enough I’m a fast runner.” I whispered, confident in my ability.

Stretching up my muscles behind what I assume another shipping container, I was prepping myself for a mad dash. In and out. I would get the proof that I needed to put Emilia on the stand. Now that I think about it, taking a small item from the back with me, so then the boys back at the station can analyse it, would be great too.

I began my mad dash for the truck and reached the back within seconds. I was surprised that my sudden movement didn’t trigger the floodlights, but I was too engrossed in my mission to care about them. My hands reached for the back compartment handles to open them, but they were locked. Instead I took a flash photo of the back of the truck with my camera and ran around to try to open the driver’s door, to which I was successful. I opened the driver’s door quickly but as silently as I could and hopped inside.

When I was finally inside the truck’s back compartment, I could see dark outlines of objects inside.

I pushed my way past some objects using the tracking device as a poor light source. It wasn’t ideal but it was good enough to know what I was looking at.

Computer systems. A lot of them. High end stuff too.

Positioning myself to take a photo of the whole compartment, I wiggled my way through the systems to find an optimal spot. I then grabbed my camera out again and took a photo of the computer items with the flash on. Satisfied with my shot, I then began to search for a small enough item to take back with me to the station. All of the systems were far too large for me to carry, especially over the fence. Instead I found a task sheet connected to a clipboard, on top of one of the many set ups. I didn’t think to observe it before I took off, It was evidence and that was all that mattered. Time was getting on and I didn’t want to be there any longer, so I started to climb out of the driver’s seat door.

But then suddenly it all went black. All I could sense was my body hitting the cement as I slipped into unconsciousness.

‘That’ and the following phrase…

“Boss…there’s an intruder.”

                                                                                  …* End of Part 1*…

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