Authors: Thomas Fincham
“Well, I was hoping you would,” he replied. “Your dad could be cryptic when he wanted to be and I have no clue what they are.”
She went back to the list. “What if they are
clues
… about something that happened?”
“Like what?”
“For instance,
XLX Ltd
could be a company.
JVL
could be working for them. There is also a
whistleblower
who was
murdered
because he needed
money
… or something.” She shrugged.
Hyder thought about it. “What if
XLX Ltd
was involved in
bribes
and
JVL
is the
whistleblower
? He was killed because he wanted
money
.”
“What if
JVL
doesn’t mean a person?”
“Okay, what else could it mean?”
Jessica wasn’t sure. “We’ll consider
JVL
is a person then. But what about
Catch Them in the Red
,
Student
,
Auditor
,
Don’t Trust
,
Pandora Box
, and
Hold Them
? What do they mean?”
Hyder wasn’t sure, but he enjoyed brainstorming with Jessica. It gave him an excuse to be with her.
“What if… and I’m going to make this up, so go along with me,
JVL
was a
student
or former student of your dad’s. They were now or had been working at
XLX Ltd
. When they stumbled upon the
bribes
, because they were an
auditor
there, they blew
the whistle
. They were
killed
because there was a lot of
money
involved. So your dad wants us to
catch them red handed
—and I think he meant the ones responsible, and
hold them
to their crimes. Also, he doesn’t want us to
trust
anyone because our findings could be a
Pandora’s Box
filled with severe consequences for those involved.”
Hyder waited for her response.
“Wow, I am impressed,” she said with a smile. “You actually made it sound plausible.”
He smiled back. “Hey, I’m a reporter, aren’t I? If there isn’t a story out there, I’ll make one up.”
“What now?” she said. “What do we do with his information, if it is what we think it is?”
“I don’t know. We can’t go back to the police. They wouldn’t believe us.”
“We have to start somewhere.”
Hyder nodded. “Your dad sent this to me at the
Daily Times
because he knew I was a reporter. He wanted me to take this information and search for the truth and that is what we’ll do. If our story is correct, then JVL was a student of your dad’s. We have to get access to the school’s records.”
“I don’t think my dad kept any university stuff at his home. He was paranoid that a student might break in and steal the information.”
“Then we’ll have to go to his office at Franklin University.”
TWENTY-SIX
Mariam Stenfield was in her mid-twenties. She wore big, round glasses, and had dark hair which fell to her shoulders.
Mariam was still shaken up about the death of Professor Freeland.
“I’m so sorry about your father,” Mariam said, wiping her eyes with tissues.
“Thank you,” Jessica replied.
Jessica had called her dad’s assistant at the university. She had told her that she wanted to grab some personal items from her father’s office.
Mariam was more than happy to oblige.
Jessica introduced Hyder. “He’s helping me through this tough period.”
“That’s so nice of you,” Mariam said.
Hyder nodded.
Marian took them down the hall. “Your father’s death came as a quite a shock, so we didn’t have time to clear anything out of his office yet. You’ll find everything as he had left it.”
There were a few bouquets of flowers outside the door. Mariam quickly picked them up. “You should have seen it right after we found out what happened. The pile was so high that it made it difficult to even get in. Your father meant a lot to his students.”
“I know,” Jessica said as a sad look creased her face.
Mariam unlocked the door and opened it for them.
“Do you mind if we had some private time in here?” Jessica asked.
“Sure, of course. Take your time.”
Mariam left.
The office was small and cluttered.
Being inside the space suddenly overwhelmed Jessica. The thought and even the smell of her father sent a surge of emotions through her.
Hyder put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.
She bit her lip and nodded.
“I can do this myself. You don’t have to be here.”
“No, I want to help,” she said as she suddenly straightened up. “We have to find his student list.”
During the next twenty minutes they went through everything. It wasn’t easy, as Freeland wasn’t known for being clean and organized. They went through his desk, his shelves, the boxes stacked by the wall, the piles of paper, and even an old briefcase he used to carry until the handle broke.
The list was nowhere to be found.
Jessica looked at Hyder. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know, but grab a box,” Hyder replied.
“Why?”
“We told the assistant we came to pick up some items. It would look suspicious if we left with nothing.”
On the way out they dropped by Mariam’s desk.
“Did you find what you needed?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you.” Suddenly Jessica had an idea. “Would you have a list of my father’s students?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Can we have a look?”
Mariam looked uneasy. “I’m not sure if we are allowed to show that to non-faculty members.”
“Well, you see, there were so many students at my dad’s funeral. I just wanted to thank them for coming.”
“Oh that’s so sweet of you…” she said. “But I’m sorry. We have strict guidelines about that stuff.”
“I understand,” Jessica said, sounding disappointed.
“You know what? You can go to the Registrar’s Office and speak to them. Maybe they can help you.”
“What time do they close?”
“Around five.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
He was snoring loudly.
Nolan was slumped over with his face planted on the table. Drool was flowing from the side of his mouth.
Captain Ross stood behind the two-way mirror with his hand on his forehead.
Next to him was Sergeant Halton, who was fuming. “See? This is what I have to deal with.”
Nolan had found an empty interview room and was now taking a nap.
“He is using one of the department’s facilities for his personal use,” Halton continued. “That is grounds for dismissal.”
“Sergeant,” the Captain said. “While this looks very bad, I think we need to cut him some slack.”
“Slack?” Halton looked like his eyeballs would pop out. “He is sleeping on the job!”
“I can see that.”
“And still you are defending him?”
“I am. He has been through a lot and if we abandon him, then we are failing to do our duty to an officer.”
“What about
his
duties? He is failing to do them entirely. On top of that, he is disrespectful, belligerent, and has no respect for authority.”
“He seems to respect me,” the Captain said. “I asked him to come back and he did.”
“What choice did he have?” The Sergeant was beside himself. “If he didn’t, then we would have had to dismiss him.”
“And that is something
I
will not do.” The Captain’s voice turned hard. “I will not turn my back on him. Detective Nolan was an exemplary member of the force. If tragedy hadn’t struck him, I can guarantee you he would have not stayed on as a detective. He would have moved up, perhaps, even taken your position. So I think we will show some compassion in this matter.”
The Sergeant looked at the Captain. He then blinked and nodded. “As you wish, sir.”
Halton left.
Ross stared at Nolan sleeping peacefully in the room. He wasn’t sure when the last time Nolan had gotten a good night’s sleep. A part of him wanted to let him be, but he was still the Captain of this department. He was taking a lot of heat for bringing Nolan back, and if he continued to show favoritism, he wouldn’t be able to protect him for long.
Ross sighed and went into the room.
He sat across from Nolan and rapped his knuckles on the table.
Nolan kept sleeping.
Ross tapped on the table again. Still no response.
He then slammed his fist on the table.
Nolan jumped up. “Where’s the fire? Someone call 9-1-1.”
“Hello, Tom,” the Captain said calmly.
“Sir?” Nolan looked at him blurry-eyed. “What’re you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I… I…” Nolan looked around the room. “I was interviewing a suspect.”
“Were you?” the Captain raised an eyebrow. “Where is this suspect now?”
Nolan looked around once again. “He’s not here.”
“You are right, he’s not.”
“Then, sir,” Nolan said seriously. “We need to let everyone know that a dangerous criminal is running around the building.”
“Tom, sit down.”
Nolan did.
“What’s going on?” the Captain said.
Nolan realized he couldn’t bullshit Ross any longer. “It’s been a trying day, sir, so I thought I’d shut my eyes for a bit.”
“That’s understandable. When was the last time you had a drink?”
Nolan made a face. “I’m not sure, what time is it?”
“I’ll assume it’s been many hours, at least.”
Nolan thought about it and nodded.
“So, I’ll gather that your preoccupation with the job has so far had some positive effect on you?”
Nolan shrugged.
The Captain leaned forward. “Then my advice to you, Tom, is to keep doing your job.”
“I’ll try.”
“You will do more than that. I stuck my neck out for you. There are those who want nothing better than to see you never work in the department again.”
“That comes as a shock to me. I thought everybody loved me.”
The Captain didn’t laugh. “Over the years, you’ve managed to piss off a lot of folks here with your smart mouth. You can’t blame them for not wanting some form of revenge on you. Remember Fogel?”
Nolan nodded.
Eli Fogel was an up and coming recruit. He was moving his way up the ranks so fast that people thought he’d be chief in no time. But during his brief stint in the detective division Fogel had a disagreement with Nolan. One day, Nolan found out that Fogel had an assault charge on his record when he was a teenager. Fogel was never convicted, though, as the girl, whom he had been dating at the time, retracted her statements. Jumping on the opportunity, Nolan began joking around the office that Fogel was a ‘wife beater.’ This affected Fogel so much that one night he went on a bender. On his way back from a bar, he crashed his vehicle into a pole.
Eli Fogel was now confined to a wheelchair, his career as a police officer over.
Naturally, Nolan had not forced Fogel to drink that night, but there were those in the division who still blamed him for Fogel’s current state.
What many of them didn’t realize was Nolan also blamed himself for what happened to Fogel that night. It was why now he was forcing himself to drink as much as he did, perhaps, to end up with a fate far worse than Fogel’s.
Ross stood up. “Get back to work, Tom.”
“Yes, sir.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Hyder and Jessica were able to find out that the Registrar’s Office did indeed keep lists of all the students in the university, past or present. But that list was stored on a network. Breaking into the office, then somehow finding the passwords required, and then locating the list from the university’s database would be nearly impossible.
They were, however, able to chat up a student employee in the office who explained that hard copies of all the documents were stored securely in the basement of one of the faculty buildings. This was done as a back-up in the event something happened to the digital records.