23 September 2012
Chapter 5
The person who took the files must have know where they are. That's the only possible explanation for this, right? It has to be. We decide to contact the source again and see who knew about the files. To our surprise, what we wanted to know was put in a new file on the laptop. No.108. Now we have to interrogate everyone one the list. There are only about six people but tracking them is going to be nigh on impossible. Almost all of them are FBI. Damn it. We try for about 2 hours to locate the first guy on the list, Mr James Laner, but with no luck. So we try the second person, Mrs Diana Seronda, we get her area but not her house, so we jot it down. Our luck finally changes when we locate the third guy, Mr Tom Daneek. Finally. We arrive at 73 Lakefield road, where we have to persuade our way into the house. We interrogate him for the best part of an hour and come to the conclusion that he just saw the files vaguely heading in that direction. No threat here, but being a PI, I know that humans have this remarkable ability called lying. Why we need it, I don't know. Why we use it, for protection, for help, for selfishness. This guy is on our 'no real threat' list. That one always fills up first. The fourth person is the new intern, Carl Vandeter, who apparently knew where they were as he saw them be placed into the vault and saw the lock combination. We find his address, but there are two 12 Deersmith roads so we decide to check the first one out. The wrong address. We then head to the second one.
'I don't know anything about any files!' he protests, 'What the bloody hell do you think your doing here anyway!' 'We've been hired by one if your colleagues Mr Vandeter,' I reply, as calmly as possible, 'we simply want to ask you a few questions,' this carries in for about 15 minutes before we decide to give up. 'Why do some people have to be so annoying?' Ed asks as we walk down his drive to the car. 'Those people are generally hiding something. Your going to find out what he's hiding,' 'Whaa!!' Ed protests. 'Your good at being sneaky and getting into places. I'll give you a tape recorder and you just record everything.' 'Okay...but isn't this against the law or something?' 'Why do you think I'm sending you?' I joke, 'you'll be fine, don't worry,'
Now it's a waiting game. 5 minutes in I get a call from Ed. 'I've ran out of supplies!!!' he screams. 'God damn it Ed!' I shout, 'how the hell did you eat 6 chocolate bars, 12 bags of crisps and 7 rashers of bacon in 5 minutes!!!' 'Dunno. Practice?' 'Just record everything and tell me what you see when you get back.' 2 hours pass and its now about 7pm. Ed calls. This time he's got something. I tell him to go outside without being caught and to get into the car. We'll listen to the stuff back at HQ, but for now, we should probably check out the laptop and some other things I noticed from the photos of the vault. Tomorrow we'll check out the other names.
Tomorrow comes fast and we have a lot of stuff to do. The photos we checked out last night revealed that the guy who got in did know where the files were so my hunch was correct. At the moment I'm listening to the recording. He was definitely talking to someone about something. What he was talking about is another matter, it seemed to be of a group meeting or club or something. Then we hear it. 'I think that we've come to an agreement, Mr Laner...' The reason we couldn't find James Laner was because he is Carl Vandeter. Why? What does he have to gain? Then Ed runs in. 'There's been a murder at the guy from last nights house. He was the victim. FBI are trying to blow it over though so we can't go there to investigate.' 'That's 2 suspects gone then,' I say. Why does this have to be so difficult. 'Lets review the recording again,' I say so we have something to do. While we listen to it for another half hour, I make notes and Ed makes an origami unicorn. 'Damn it Ed you're wasting paper!' 'Sorry Pete,' he mumbles. The tape seems to go on forever but I recognise the voice. But where from? I've got no idea at the moment but I'll find out soon.
We decide to look at the next person. Number five is Mr Stephen Karotte. He must have been bullied a lot at school. We track his area, then his road, but we can't seem to locate his house. Luckily there are only 4 houses along his lane so we just need to talk to people.
We arrive at Churchlake close and go to the first house. 'Hello madam,' I say, 'We're looking for a friend of ours Mr Karotte? We're not sure of his address though, he only told us his road.' She believes us. 'Oh he lives down the end at number 5.' she says smiling. 'Aren't there only 4 houses though?' I wonder. Ed and I travel down the end and there is a fifth house. We knock on the door and a man in his 40's answers the door. 'Hello Mr Karotte, I presume?' 'Yes,' he says sceptically, 'And who might you be?' 'We're detectives Ed and Pete!' Ed blurts out without warning. I give him an evil glare and he realises he said the wrong thing. 'We just want to ask you a few questions,' I say calmly. 'Come on in,' he beckons.
As we sit in his small, yet cozy living room, we query him on the files. He seems confused at first them calmly says that he had no idea what the files were or that they were even in the top security vault. There is something about him that made me feel that I can trust him, I don't know what but I think it was the calm attitude to the situation. Anyway, we leave with the information that he wasn't the culprit but could have helped in the theft. We leave the house but I still believe that there's something else going on.
It hits me. We didn't mention the vault was top security. Or that the files were even in a vault. He must have known somehow.
The Case Of The Missing Case • Opuss № I