Thousand Years

CHAPTER 12 - The Investigation

Present-day, Los Angeles

Adrian woke up early next day and went for a swim. The first thing that had entered his mind that day was Lora. He needed to distract himself so he had thought of making use of the hotel pool.

He saw several other people who were already by the pool side but did not give them a second thought. He swam a few laps and he still had energy left. Ms Kim was coming towards the pool, so he thought of getting out to talk to her.

As he stepped out of the pool ,he could sense all eyes on him. All men and women were equally intrigued probably for different reasons. Every woman wanted him, and probably every man wished they looked like him. He smirked at the ladies in bikinis who were now openly staring at him.

Ms Kim handed him a towel while still holding her tablet in one hand. 

"Good Morning Sir".

"Morning Ms Kim. Did you find out?" asked Adrian while he draped the towel around him.

"Yes, the driver's name is Jason Dane. He is fifty years old an is living with his wife in Long Beach. The accident was his first and last offense. He was sentenced for eight years but was released in six because of his exemplary behavior." Ms Kim went on. 

"Ask Dominic to get the car ready, we are going to Long Beach." 

"Yes Sir, we'll be ready in ten minutes. "

Exactly ten minutes later, Adrian stepped out of his hotel room, dressed in a dark blue suit. Everything about his screamed powerful. He seemed like he only meant business. This is the exact picture he wanted to give to Mr. Jason. 

Ms Kim opened the door for Adrian to get in and she got in from the other side. Dominic greeted Adrian and started driving. 

They drove for about twenty miles until they reached the destination. 

Dominic had stopped the car in front of a small single storied house which was painted in white.  It had a well kept small lawn.

Dominic went ahead and checked if it was the correct house. Meanwhile, Adrian had to come up with a story to get Mr. Jason to talk to him.

Adrian and Ms.Kim got out of the car as Dominic confirmed it was Mr.Jason's house.

Dominic waited in the car while Adrian and Ms. Kim went to the door and rang the bell. An elderly woman opened the door. Ms Kim quickly told her it was the lawyer that had called them yesterday. Adrian looked at Ms. Kim with a raised brow. 

He didn't even have to open his mouth, the woman let them in. Adrian wondered what Ms Kim had told her yesterday. What he knew was, he had to act like a lawyer which was not very difficult for him since he knew everything he had to know about the law by now.

The elderly woman asked, "Would you like to have some tea or some lemonade?". Adrian politely refused to have either. Ms. Kim said she would have some tea. 

As the woman left to get Ms. Kim a lemonade, a tall man came into the living room. Adrian knew this was Jason. He was tanned and well built and the expression he held in his face was unreadable. Adrian had a feeling he was walking in thin ice with this man.

As he reached them, both Ms Kim and Adrian stood up to shake hands with him. Ms Kim introduced Adrian as Mr. Black, who was working for a prestigious law firm in New York and herself as his secretary. She even had a visiting card ready.

"Mr.Jason, first we would like to apologize for barging in like this with such short notice. But your case is similar to one of my client's cases and we wanted to do some research on it. Hope you understand" Adrian stated professionally.

"Please, it was a long time ago. What do you want to know?" replied Jason. He probably wanted them out of his house as soon as possible.

"Just tell me what happened that night in Los Angeles, 1996. I will believe whatever you say, I can assure you that." said Adrian.

Jason let out a deep sigh and started, " It was just another ordinary day. I had the truck full of water cans that I was delivering here to Long beach. I knew it was a long drive. I drove in my usual route for about 10 minutes and then I vaguely remember something dark engulfing the entire truck. The next thing I saw was that there was a woman on the road bleeding. People we shouting curses at me and the truck was in an avenue that I didn't even turn into."

Jason was clearly flustered by the memories after all these years. He rubbed his hands together and ran both of his hands through his greying hair.

"Do you remember when you left the warehouse?" asked Adrian.

"I don't exactly remember the time I left, but I checked the time shortly before the darkness came. It was about 7.10pm. But the police said the time of the accident was 7.25pm. I have no idea what happened between those fifteen minutes."

"The police had checked nearby security cameras and around the time I said, there was no darkness around my truck. I had stopped in the intersection and waited for sometime and had driven to the avenue, right into that woman." Jason said with regret evident in his voice.

"Believe me, that was the first and the last time I was in an accident. I don't even remember it. It was like I was possessed. I don't recall falling asleep or anything. I wasn't even driving under influence, the blood work confirmed it."

Adrian knew what he had said was the truth but he had to go through he police report to see if he had missed anything. Getting the case file would not be easy. He hoped they had stored that data somewhere in a computer. If it was a physical document, chances of him getting it would be very low.

Adrian thanked Jason and promised to call him if there is an update to his case or to Jason's. Adrian was in deep thought throughout their drive to the hotel in Los Angeles. He felt like this was only what he was going to get from Los Angeles. He was going back home today. He hated this city.

Adrian informed his plans to Ms Kim and Dominic as they reached the hotel. Within another two hours they were back at the airport and his pilot was ready to fly him back to New York.

He already knew where he was going to go as soon as he landed.