Chapter 25

Once they were back in the car Sarah said, “I am not sure I liked the way she phrased the comment about the house and car being total losses.”

“I agree,” replied Sally.

“Well I didn’t sense anything negative, just a big city attitude,” added Rusty.

“I just thought it was poorly worded statement to make to someone who lost everything, well most everything. I have a few precious keepsakes in the safe deposit box. So, what do you think, police department first or township office?”

“Police department,” replied Sally. “You will need to know whether it is okay to clean up the site. Actually, the township may already have fenced off the site and put a lean on the property for the cost.”

“In that case, let’s drive by to see what’s left of my house.”

Sarah gasped when she saw what little remained of her house. It turned out Sally was right. A fence had been placed around the property and posted with a condemned notice. The siding on the houses next to hers had partially melted. Rusty didn’t stop.

At the police department the receptionist contacted the detectives handling with the case. When they came through the door to the offices, they walked toward them and one said, “Sarah Kelly?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Detective Lam and this is my partner Detective White. We are glad you stopped by.”

“Why is that?”

“We need a statement from you regarding your activities before and after the fire.”

“I gave a statement over the phone the night of the fire.”

“We have that.”

“Then let’s look it over.”

“Okay. We can use the conference room.

“I trust you don’t mind if my colleagues sit in with us to observe.”

“It’s unusual,” said Detective White. “But, I see no problem with that.”

“Coffee?” asked Detective Lam.

“Sure.”

“Do you need a hand getting it?” asked Rusty.

“Come with me. Meet you in the conference room.”

Once they were in the conference room, Detective White said, “We’ll record this and have it transcribed when we’re done.”

“Mind if I read through the statement you have.”

“No. Here it is.”

Sarah read through it and had just finished when Rusty and Detective Lam entered with five coffees. Detective Lam said, “Rusty assured me that both of you drink it black.”

“Yes, thank you,” replied Sarah and Sally taking a cup.

“Sarah, is the statement correct?” asked Detective White.

“Yes. Although there are some bits I could add to make it more complete and fix the grammar.”

“That’s fine, before we do that tell us of your activities before and after the fire?”

Sarah began with arriving at her house the day of the fire. She included the driver’s name and the friends who met her there. She described what they found inside that caused her to decide to stay with her friends. She noted that it puzzled her as to how her house could be entered without tripping the alarm.

“The neighbors said that there was a man living there.”

Sarah frowned as she said, “Up until about eight months ago there was. He lived there for about four months before that. Eight months ago I literally tossed him out because he became an arrogant, overbearing, mean, demanding ass. When he left he threatened to get even with me for tossing him. He then claimed no woman has ever gotten the best of him even though some had tried and regretted it. The alarm system was upgraded about nine months ago which was about a month before I kicked him out. I don’t know the exact date of the install but they would.”

“Why the time between changing the alarm and kicking him out?”

“He was traveling. Just before he left on the trip, he did some things I wouldn’t put up with. So I changed the alarm then packed all his personal things and had them waiting in the garage for him.”

“Gary Bigelow was the office manager where you worked.”

“Yes.”

“Were you ever propositioned by him?”

“Explicitly, almost. By graphic innuendo, yes, many times. Groping was always a problem when there was just the two of in the office. At those times he often suggested that I should spend a weekend at his farm. He guaranteed that I would like it so much I wouldn’t want to leave. If I visited his farm, then he would reciprocate with improved benefits at the office. Although not explicitly stated, it was clear that he wanted me to be his sex toy. He is the reason, I took self-defense training and suggested it to others in the office.”

“Where do you live now?”

“On the estate of the business where we work.”

“Ms Wood said you work for her.”

“I do and start back next Monday. I also work for N&R Security part-time.”

Detective White said, “Sarah, based on what they’ve found investigating the fire that destroyed most of Gary’s farm house, you were very wise in not going there.”

“I’ll get someone to type this up,” said Detective Lam as he turned off the recorder.

“Detectives, every time he touched me I felt like I had been slime’d and wanted to take a shower.”

“We can understand that feeling but in a different context.”

When Detective Lam came back, he said, “It will be about 20 minutes before we have a hard copy for you to review and sign.”

“Let me mark up this statement I gave over the phone so we can make those corrections as well.”

“So what business does this firm you work for do?”

“Either Sally or Rusty can answer that better than I can.”

Sally said, “We offer three services: Personal protection. Network and facility security. Secure document storage. The last two sort of go hand in hand. As to personal protection, we act as the booking agent and credential verification for the field teams.”

“So how would someone fool an alarm like the one in Sarah’s house?”

“First you want to check to see if there is a backdoor to the system. Next would be the alarm company, but it can go back further than that. If it has remote access then you have another vulnerability.”

The Detectives had a good grasp of the diverse capabilities of programmable devices so the discussion continued along these lines while waiting for the transcripts to be typed. During this time, Sarah finished marking up her first statement and gave it to the detectives. Detective Lam looked it over then took it out to be retyped.

A woman tapped on the door then opened it and handed a sheaf of papers to Detective White. “Good it’s all here. Please read it over then sign it.”

As Sarah read through the documents, Sally and Rusty read them over her shoulders. She only found three small corrections in the transcription of her responses to today’s questions. Detective Lam quickly brought back corrected copies which Sarah signed with the others signing off as witnesses. Once that was done Detective White said, “We really appreciate you coming by. With the information you gave us today, this case should now be closed as you confirmed many of the loose ends.”

“A primary reason we came by was to find out if the site can be demolished,” said Sarah.

“Yes. The township office should know that.”

“Okay, that is our next stop.”

“Have them call me if you run into problems?”

While they were talking, Rusty stepped outside and came right back in frowning. “Detectives would you be kind enough to accompany us out to our car.”

“We can,” replied Detective White, “but why?”

“There are indications that someone tampered with it while we were in here.”

“Let us get our jackets first. Where did you park?”

“Second visitors space from the entrance. Dark blue sedan.”

Detective White was back in moments. “We are presuming whoever did it is still around so Detective Lam went out the back door. An unmarked patrol car is coming down the street as we speak. Are you carrying?”

“We thought it was wiser to leave them in the car. The culprits have probably gone back into the woodwork, but let’s do it.”

When they got out to the car, there was no one in sight. Rusty carefully checked the car over before opening a door then Sally opened the trunk. They found a bug on each window and a remote controlled single shot device stuck to the top of each wheel well. A small limited range GPS transmitter was attached to the frame under the license plate.

Sally got their weapons out of the glove compartment with their holsters. Sarah put hers on as did Sally while waiting for Rusty to unload the single shot devices.

Detective Lam asked, “Rusty, what is that?”

“It’s essentially a remote controlled pistol. Very short range. The intention here is to cause a blowout at a convenient location. These are not very common here but show up in other countries at times. A tire blowout can provide an opportunity for a kidnapping or a planned fatal accident. It would appear that someone is unhappy with us.”

“Wouldn’t those be found during the investigation?” said Detective Lam.

“The tire would probably knock them off when it came apart. So they could be, but you would almost have to be looking for them and soon after the incident.”

The patrolman from the unmarked car said, “So how do we know you didn’t plant them before going inside?”

“For what reason? Besides, you could check your surveillance tapes of the lot.”

“Good point. How do you know so much about these?”

“We work for a firm that specializes in handling security issues relating to personal and facility security.”

“There were two older teens about 3 blocks away headed away from here when I came down the street.”

“If it’s all right to leave,” said Sarah, “we need to go to the township office.”

“Fine with us,” said Detective Lam. “Rusty what are you going to do with those?”

“Give them to you,” replied Rusty as he handed them to the detective. “I wouldn’t take them into the building until the receiver is disabled. All I did was, disable the mechanism.”

“So this is like a loaded weapon.”

“Pretty much. The receiver can still respond to a signal but the mechanism won’t move to fire the bullet. It could be accidentally fired. What would happen now on receiving a signal, I don’t know. You might want to have an ordnance specialist look at them.”

“We’ll take it from here,” said Detective White. “Thanks for your assistance.”

“Nice meeting all of you. Have a good day,” said Sarah with Rusty and Sally nodding.

“So we’ve added another piece to the puzzle,” said Sally as they left the police station.

“Well staking out the police station,” said Rusty, “is a wise choice when you know the person you’re seeking has to go there.”

“So I’ve made us all targets again.”

“Not for long,” replied Rusty as he pulled into the township office parking lot.

“Let’s take our weapons,” said Rusty as they started to get out. “I’ll turn on the silent alarm. An unmarked car just pulled into the parking lot as well.”

“I take it they are pissed,” said Sarah.

“Most likely. Tampering with our car on their lot was a ballsy move.”

They went inside to the Building Commissioner’s office. The clerk said, “Can I help you?”

“I hope so,” replied Sarah. “My house burnt down last Tuesday while I was away. I need to know what I have to do here before I have a contractor demolish the remains.”

“Usually the contractor handles all of that,” replied the clerk. “Let me check with my supervisor to make sure I’m correct.” A few moments later she came back accompanied by a man. Looking at Sarah he said, “Was it your house that burnt?”

“Yes.”

“For safety reasons and because it appeared to be a crime scene, we had a fence put around the property. The fence company needs to know where to send the bill.”

“The bill can be sent to me at this address,” replied Sarah handing him a card.

“Who were you going to have handle demolishing the remains?”

“My insurance agent gave me the names of three companies but I haven’t called them yet.”

“Would you mind telling me who?”

“Here is the list she gave me.” She watched him as he looked over the list then looked up at her.

With a puzzled look, he asked, “Have you been in here before?”

“A few times when I worked as a real estate agent out of the office in Crossroads Plaza.”

“Perhaps that’s why you looked familiar. If it was me, I would pick the second one on the list. All three do good work and I’m sure you won’t have any problems. The second guy is a relative and needs the work.”

“I’ll consider him very carefully,” replied Sarah with a smile. “Why are you concerned?”

“I don’t understand why he is not busier than he is. There is plenty of work out there but he just goes from one job to the next.”

“Perhaps he is comfortable with that approach. But I tell you what I think after I meet him.”

“Fair enough.

“Have the police lifted their hold on demolition?”

“As of this afternoon. Detective White indicated they had sent over the paperwork but said to call him if you had questions.”

“Okay. Sorry about your house. Are you going to rebuild?”

“Perhaps. More likely I’ll just sell the lot and let the next owners take care of that aspect. Thanks for your help.”

“You are welcome. Have a good day.”

When they reached their car, the patrol car rolled over behind them with his window down. “Hope you don’t mind me following you over here?”

“Considering what happened there, not at all.”

“A patrolman went back to talk to those two kids. He found them lying on the ground not too far from where he saw them. They are in the emergency room but the word is that they will recover.”

“Good.”

“I suspect you are headed home.”

“Yes.”

“If you are followed would you bring them back through here, we’d like to have the opportunity to meet them. Now if the ‘red baron’ called this number then gave his location and direction, I am sure assistance would be close by.”