Sarge
Chapter 35

Copyright© 2018 by MysteryWriter

Addie was waiting for us when we arrived back at the office. Bitsy asked about taking the morning off, and working during the evening. Addie shook her head then walked away.

“Do you reckon that was a yes or no?” Bitsy asked me.

“Hell I don’t have a clue,” I admitted. “I’m going to make plans for Tiger for tomorrow night. So get that list of cab companies for me.” I said.

Next thing I knew I saw Addie approach my desk. She lowered her voice even though the door to Mason’s office was closed.

“I want to make this thing work. To give it an honest shot, you should spent a couple of nights at my place. Of course that goes for Tiger without question. So one day this week bring a bag of clothes for you and toys for Tiger. Tiger and I can spend some quality time together while you interview cab drivers, for instance,” Addie suggested.

“Okay, but you might not like him, if he messes up you carpet,” I suggested.

‘You will just have to clean up after him. I assume you can clean anything,” Addie commented. “Besides I need new carpet anyway.”

“Okay, we will plan to stay one night this week,” I agreed.

As soon as Addie left my office, I dialed Lillian at her office. I caught her before she left. I asked if she thought there might be CCTV at the elementary school where Laura’s car got dumped.

“I will check when I get home. Would you and Tiger like to come over. We could all watch TV.” she suggested.

“I’m sorry tomorrow night is going to be a long one. Bitsy and I are going to interview cab drivers. So I have to get home to rest tonight. One day soon we will do that I promise.

I walked out the door and found Bitsy on the phone. She made a motion to me, the sign asked if I wanted anything important. I gave her the universal sign for no. I had planned to ask her to befriend Lillian, but I chose to change my mind. Bitsy eventually got around to making it with all her so called friends. I didn’t think that she would be a good influence on Lillian after all. I couldn’t protect Lillian, but I didn’t want to be the one to lead her, like the proverbial lamb, to the Bitsy. her. Bitsy finally finished holding for her call. “Bitsy I’m going to take Tiger and blow this joint. I’ll meet you here tomorrow.” I said it while walking out the door with Tiger in tow.

We arrived at the lock shop at five thirty. I left Tiger with a pan of water and a promise to return soon. He and I had both been eating too much lately, so I didn’t think another hour or even two without food would rise to the level of puppy abuse.

I took off on a little bit faster pace than usual. I had eaten too much lately myself, so it was work a little harder for me. I rode a half hour out into the country, then reversed my course and returned home. I did swing through the neighborhood even though it was almost dead dark. The nights brought out the thugs and the thug wannabes. I gave them a wide birth and moved quickly, so I was gone before they even realized that I had been there.

When I got home, I scrambled some eggs with cheese and made an English muffins as toast. Tiger and I ate the eggs and cheese, then he began to prowl for more food. Even though I knew it was a risk, I allowed him to go walk about.

While I was alone, I packed a knapsack with some underwear and a shirt, just to have it ready```````````````’. I tossed in a clean sweat shirt vest, since they tended to get smelly after a day or so. As I did that the phone rang.

“Hello Lillian what did you find out?” I asked.

“I found some really crappy video. I love that word crappy,” she said.

“Yes it can describe most anything,” I said.

“Yes it can,” she said.

“So what did the video show about the car being dumped?” I asked.

“I could see the car and a figure getting out of it. I think it was a man, but I’m not a 100% sure. I worked on the video, but it just wasn’t good enough,” she explained.

Did you at least see what direction he took when he left?” I asked.

“I couldn’t tell much, but I could tell that it probably a man who got out of the car. He walked out the way he came in. It’s a half mile back to the road,” she said.

“Was there a time stamp?” I asked.

“Yes 4:18AM,” she informed me. “I tried to follow him on the CCTV, but it didn’t cover the road.”

“Think, I’ll have Bitsy check to see if there is a traffic cam near there. Maybe one of them caught a cab going by,” I suggested.

“I can get the police traffic cams. I will get back to you later,” she promised.

It was after midnight when she called next. “Don’t you ever sleep?” I asked laughing.

“I don’t sleep much. I’m afraid I’ll forget something, if I don’t stay at it,” she said.

“So did you find a cab?” I asked.

“The police must use the same cams as the school. They are very low resolution. But yes I found one cab who entered the area at about the right time. I’m going to send you a photo,” she said.

“Good on you,” I replied.

“Do you have an Australian friend?” She asked.

“No, what makes you ask that?” I answered her question with one of my own.

“You use a lot of their slang. Things like ‘good on ya’,” she said.

“I watch a lot of Austrian TV on the computer lately,” I admitted.

“I see. I hope the picture helps,” she said.

“I’m sure it will,” I replied.

When it came in I recognized the cab as a Yellow Cab Company vehicle. I recognized it even on the black and white image. I wasn’t sure what the first clue was, but I did recognize something about it. A second image was even more conclusive. It was an enlarged version of just the cab alone. It even showed the passenger in the back seat. Presumably it would be easy enough to track down the driver.

There likely had been several more passengers leaving their prints and DNA in the cab. If the driver would cooperate, and he could identify the passenger, then and only then, Bitsy could pick the cop who would get the driver’s information.

We were damn close to the end of the case. It was never about an arrest for me. It was about what happened to Laura and why. I pulled up an Australian TV show on Tubi.com. It was something called city homicide. I had been watching it off and on all week. Since there were four seasons, I could always watch half and hour before doing something around the house, then come back to it later.

I watched about half an hour and the thing that pulled me away was sleep. I kind of wanted Bitsy and Lillian involved when we turned it over to the police. Because of that I shut it all down, then crawled into the slightly too narrow bed.

The alarm was reset to 7:00 exactly. It rang at 7:08 AM exactly. I put Tiger out and we both did out morning pee at the same time. While he toured his patch, I dressed in my thermal outfit. I fed Tiger, then took off on my ride leaving him outside. I expected to find him asleep in his house when I returned.

After the hour and fifteen minute of the fat buster run, I did a twenty minute ride through the neighborhood. This time there were no kids and no thugs. It was a good time to get the lay of the land. I noted what houses were for sale, or in the process of becoming empty for one reason or another.

Like I predicted Tiger was asleep when I returned, but he was on the deck in the sunshine. I went inside and fixed my own breakfast. Since we had eggs the night before, I fixed a can of five refrigerated cinnamon rolls. I didn’t open the can of sugar icing. I preferred peanut butter. It allowed me to pretend that the breakfast was healthy as well as filling.

I got Tiger ready for the ride to the RTP metro area. I was headed to Raleigh first that morning. When I arrived at the office, Bitsy, who was suppose to be off all day, was waiting for me.

“What the fuck are you doing here,” I asked.

“Addie vetoed your idea,” she answered.

“Someone could have told me,” I stated in a loud voice.

“Well we are both here now,” Bitsy said.

“It’s just as well. Lil got us a positive ID on the cab company and a time. We should be golden,” I said.

“So let’s go,” she suggested as she took a new red dog leash from her drawer.

“What is that for,” I asked.

“Now that you have an office, we are all going to take Tiger out for a walk,” she said.

“Bitsy, that is not part of your job description,” I said.

“Screw you, if I want to walk him, I will. Unless Addie tells me not to do it. Trust me she won’t. I have it on good authority that while we were out yesterday, she and Betty Boobs were talking on the phone. Addie would love to get on TV again.”

“Well I wouldn’t. Why don’t you drive one of the company cars today,” I suggested.

“Sure,” Bitsy agreed.

The yellow cab office was even smaller than the lock shop. I let Tiger out to walk and pee on their parking lot. There was a guy sitting behind a cheapo desk, with a two line phone, and a very old desk type computer on it.

“What do you want?” he asked in a gravelly smoker’s voice.

“I think I left something in one of your cabs a few nights ago at about 4AM,” I suggested.

“Sure you did. Why don’t you just flash your badges at me. Then tell me what you really want, so that I can tell you to come back with a court order,” he said.

“We aren’t cops. We are trying to tell our client whether, or not her fiancée is screwing around on her. So what will it take to make you want to tell me the name of the driver at 4AM two weeks ago,” I said.

“The price is a hundred buck for the name, then you have to negotiate with him,” the man said.

“Fifty bucks and you throw in the address, or I go back to the office and make a call to the police and ICE. We can also have our attorney get the court order. You need to sign a receipt for the money. It’s an expense. I have to bill it back to the client.” I explained.

“Okay, but give me the money first,” he said pulling the driver up on his ancient computer.

I made a big production of counting out two twenties, and two five dollar bills. When I handed them to him, he copied the name off his computer screen.

The names was Mahmod his second name was something which I could not determine from his scribbling. The address was understandable though, but only to Bitsy. It took us twenty minutes to find the address. Only then did we find that it was an apartment with the remnants of three families living there. One of the women managed to explain to Bitsy that Mahmod was working on his real job at the moment. He clerked in a convenience store during the days.

When Bitsy explained it all to me, my reaction was to say, “Of course he does. let’s get over there before he gets on his suicide vest.”

“You are such a distrustful bastard,” she said. “All that just because you got blown up last year.”

“It goes back farther than that. Anyway let’s go question him, and then we can go to lunch,” I suggested.

The convenience store was old, rundown, and dirty inside. Mahmod looked to be about thirty something, He was pretty well dressed for an Iraqi refugee. No I didn’t want to know where he got his money.

I introduced myself to him. “So you picked up a man near the elementary school two weeks ago. I need you to take a look at some photos to see if you can identify him.”

“That was a long time ago,” he said.

“A fare at 4AM is something you would remember. Especially since it was at an elementary school. So first of all, was it a man or woman?”

“He was a man. He spoke English with some kind of accent. I really don’t remember his face,” Mahmod replied.

Only after I placed a twenty on the counter did he point out Chef Jorge. The only questions left were why he killed her, and was he working alone. Later I sat in the open area in the corner of the strip mall. Tiger was my only companion. I just sat there thinking most of the afternoon.

I decided that I had a lot of information to provide to the police, but I wanted something for it. The odds of the local police allowing me to sit in on the interview of Chef Jorge were extremely long. What would happen, if I confronted him myself, I wondered.

Most likely he would tell me to fuck off. I couldn’t blame him. What if I scared he shit out of him, then asked him why he killed her. It would likely get tossed, and he would walk. Most likely I would go to jail. My guess was that I needed to come up with a better plan. My thinking at that moment was go to the cops then try to get them to keep me posted. I would have to give Sylvia what I had, and suggest that she stay after Jorge through the court system. Not a very satisfying option, I knew. I wanted to give Silvia some closure, and the guy just being in jail wouldn’t do that. Silvia needed a body to bury. As far as that goes, so did Laura’s family, even if they were crazy, and had mentally abused her.

I began running multiple ‘what if’ scenarios through my feeble brain. I spent the rest of the day doing that and ducking Bitsy who wanted to contact the cops. I finally had to explain it to her. I wanted over night to try thinking of something.

I was on the way out the door when Addie called me into her office. “How are you doing with the missing bartender case?” she asked.

“It’s progressing. Something should move on it tomorrow, I admitted.

“Good, I wanted to talk to you about something else. I want this merger between our interest to work,” she said. I just nodded my head. “You might remember I offered you the use of a bedroom. Well, I think you need to use it at least tomorrow night.”

“What about Tiger?” I asked.

“We will work something out. So tomorrow bring a change of clothes and a chew toy,” she demanded.

I just shook my head because it was the easiest thing to do. Arguing with a woman was almost always a waste of time.

 
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