The Runaway Reporter (A Police Procedural Mystery Series of Crime and Suspense, Hyder Ali #3) (22 page)

Something looked familiar about the label on the cover.  “Can I see it?” Hyder asked.

SEVENTY-EIGHT

Lopez was at the courier company.  She had already informed the person behind the counter that she was a detective.  Lopez wanted to know who had tampered with the seal.  The person looked baffled and denied any wrongdoing by the company.  He scanned the package and gave the name of the driver to her.  Maybe Lopez could ask him instead, the person insisted.

Lopez waited for the driver to return from a delivery.

She wasn’t sure what she would find, but it was worth a try.  She was now certain there was a link between Rudy Jr. and Nolan.  Both had received packages that were tampered with and both had attacked others with a knife. It was too much to be a coincidence.

After she was done here, she would go and confirm something else.

An hour later, a man walked through the door.  He was medium height, medium built, with curly hair that stuck out from a cap that had the company’s logo on it. He was also wearing the company’s uniform.

He spoke to the person behind the counter and came over.

“You wanted to speak to me?” he asked.

“My name is Detective Marina Lopez,” she said.  “Do you mind if I asked you a few questions?”

“No, go ahead,” Francisco Luiz said.

“How long have you been working at the company, Mr. Luiz?”

He looked up as if counting the days.  “About two and a half years.”

“Did you deliver these packages?” Lopez held them up for him.

He looked at them and shrugged.  “Probably. I deliver a
lot
of packages each day.  In fact, I’m already late by talking to you now.”

“Who else would have access to the packages before they come to you?” she asked.

“If it’s individual customers, then they would take it to one of our drop-off locations, and from there it goes to a distribution center, which sends it to us to deliver to the designated address.”

“So, what you are saying is that a lot of people would have touched it before you?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What about businesses, do they drop it off at your locations too?”

“No, if it’s a big client then we’ll pick it up out of courtesy.”

“Did you pick up these packages from Devon Pharma?”

“Sometimes, but not always,” he said.  “We have many drivers here, you know.”

She knew she was fishing for information.  Right now, she didn’t have any proof that he was guilty of anything.

She couldn’t keep him away from his job for too long.

“Alright, you can go,” she said.  “Thanks for your time.”

SEVENTY-NINE

He watched her leave, snarled. 
That was too close
, Francisco Luiz thought.  How did she detect he was involved?  It was impossible.

He’d been careful.  He had not veered off the plan one bit.  When the instructions were given to him, he always stuck to them.

He never asked any questions. He wouldn’t get any answers even if he did.

It was better to complete the tasks and keep his mouth shut.

The only thing that mattered was that they achieved their goals.

If everything went according to plan, he would be a very rich man.  He would then quit this shitty job and move to Brazil or Argentina.  The girls were beautiful there, and with the money in his pocket, he wouldn’t have any trouble getting them.

But he still had to be careful.  He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.  He knew no one would pick up on the other end, but he would be able to leave a message.

EIGHTY

When Lopez reached the hospital, she found two people in Nolan’s room.

“We were just leaving,” the woman said.  She was short with gray, cropped hair.  Next to her was a man, with full gray hair and a trimmed beard.

“Please, don’t leave,” Lopez said.  “I’ll come back.”

“You must be, Marina,” the woman said with a smile.  “Tom talks a lot about you.”

“I’m sorry, but have we met?” Lopez was confused.

“I’m Ethel and this is George.  We’re Simone’s mother and father.”

Lopez realized they were Nolan’s wife’s parents.

“I’m sorry about your daughter,” she said.

“Thank you,” Ethel said.  “I’m not sure how any parent can get over the loss of a child, but we’re doing our best.”

Lopez nodded.

Ethel said, “George and I are very grateful that Tom’s found someone.  After what happened to Simone, we wanted him to move on with his life, but instead he fell apart.  Now, he seems genuinely happy.  So, I guess we should be thanking
you
.”

George nodded in agreement.

“Tom was lucky to have Simone.” Lopez replied.  “He still speaks highly of her.”

The parents looked over at Nolan, who was sleeping silently.

Ethel said, “Take good care of him.”

“I will,” Lopez replied.

“Come George, we should go.”

“Thank you for coming,” Lopez said.

When they had left, Lopez went over to Nolan.  She whispered, “For a hard ass, you seem to have quite a few people that care about you.” She kissed his forehead.

She then went out and asked to speak to his doctor.

It took some time, but the nurses were able to locate him.

“What can I do for you, Detective Lopez?” he said, coming into the room.

“Doctor, when he was brought in, did you find anything on his body?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“I mean something that looked like a patch.”

He thought about it, nodded. “I wasn’t the emergency doctor when he was brought in, but I did remember reading something in his reports.  It stated that there was something on his skin, specifically on his upper shoulder.  They thought it was a nicotine patch. What about it?”

“Do you still have it?”

He shook his head.  “We normally don’t keep anything like that, why? Was it important?”

“It was,” she wanted to say, but instead, said, “No, that’s fine.  Thank you.”

When the doctor had left, she went through Nolan’s closet and pulled out a white plastic bag.  It had Nolan’s personal effects from the time he was brought in.  She rummaged through the bag and found his pants.  There was still blood on them.  She shoved her hand in the pockets and retrieved his cell phone.

She checked it, made a face.

The last caller’s number was blocked.

EIGHTY-ONE

Hyder sat on a stool as Dante hooked up the DVD player to a television.

“What’re you looking for?” DeShawn asked.

“I can’t say,” Hyder replied.  “But the name on the cover sounds familiar.  It’s for a high-end European clothing store.  I know it was a big deal when they opened their first store in the city.”

“Okay, so?”

“Well, something happened right across from it.”

“Like what?”

“A friend was killed in an accident not far from there.”

“Whoa, that sucks,” DeShawn said.

“Yeah, it does.”

Hyder wasn’t sure what he would find in the security footage, but something inside told him to check it out.  It was a gut feeling, one that had served him well over the years.

When Dante played it, Hyder’s heart sank.  There were hundreds of hours of footage.

“We don’t got the time to watch all that,” DeShawn said.

Hyder knew he was right.  He shut his eyes and tried to think of the exact date.  He wished he had the newspaper clipping on him, but that was not possible anymore. 
Think
, he said to himself. 
You should know this…

“
I got it!
” He finally exclaimed.

He told them the day of the accident.

The camera was facing the entrance of the store, but through the store’s front windows, they could see what was happening outside.

Dante fast forwarded the footage.  People and cars moved in and out of view at a rapid pace.  It was like watching a silent movie at high-speed.

Several long minutes later, Dante said, “I think we are there.”

“I hope so,” Tiny said.  “My eyes hurt from watching that in fast-forward.”

Hyder had to agree.  He blinked and focused.

“Stop right there,” he said.

On the screen, they saw pedestrians walking down the sidewalk.  Several people parked in front of the store and drove away.  A few even came inside and then left a little later on.

Hyder wasn’t sure how long it would be, or even if the camera caught anything, but he was willing to wait.

And then he saw something, or more specifically, he saw a man.  He couldn’t tell what he looked like because the man had his back to the camera, but there was something oddly familiar about him.

The man stood on the sidewalk as if he was waiting for something.  On several occasions he even glanced at his watch.

The man was wearing a baseball cap. Hyder wanted him to take it off, but he never did.

A good twenty minutes later, Hyder spotted someone on a bicycle in the distance. Hyder had a strong feeling it was Francine Robeault.

He couldn’t see her too clearly, but he had ridden his bicycle next to her enough times to know it was her.

She slowly came toward the camera. Suddenly, the man with the baseball cap ran over and pushed her toward a parked van.  She disappeared behind the van, but they saw the front wheel was still spinning on the ground.  Then an arm appeared from behind the van. 
She was still alive
. Hyder’s heart was beating so fast that he thought it would burst out of his chest.  But then something horrible happened.  The van reversed and stopped abruptly, as if it had hit something.

“Did that guy just run her over?” Tiny asked, shocked.

He had, but Hyder could not find his voice to confirm it.

The van suddenly drove away, exposing what was behind it.

On the ground was Francine’s body.  It was terribly twisted and distorted.  There was black liquid pouring out of her head.

The man in the baseball cap reappeared.  He looked down at her body and then walked away.

“I don’t think your friend had an accident.” DeShawn said.  “I think she was murdered.”

“That’s some scary shit there,” Dante added.

Hyder was in total shock.  What else was he expecting anyway? Right from the beginning he had never believed that Francine had had an accident.  He had smelled something foul. This was the proof.

Regardless, it didn’t make the footage any easier to watch.

“Can you rewind that?” Hyder said.

“You wanna watch that again?” Dante was surprised.

“You’re a sick man,” Tiny said.

“No, I want to get the license plate number of the van,” Hyder said.

“Right,” Dante grinned.  “Good thinking.”

The footage went back to the incident.  The camera clearly caught the plate number, but not the face of the driver.  It looked like he had the visor down.  Then, as the footage moved further, Hyder couldn’t help but feel like he knew the person in the baseball cap.

When the man went over to examine Francine’s body, Hyder knew who he was staring at.

It was Felix Dent, the new intern at the
Daily Times
.

Before the accident, Felix never once pulled out his right hand from his pocket. He only did it when he went over to check on Francine. When he did, Hyder could see it was limp.

A million thoughts flooded Hyder’s mind.  He felt a headache coming on.

But he had to control his emotions.  He had just witnessed a murder and he had to think rationally in order to do something about it.

But what could he do in his current situation?  Normally he would have gone to Nolan with the evidence, but that wasn’t possible right now.

There was still Lopez, he thought.  He had already listened to her message several times now, the one where she said she believed him.  Plus, after replaying what had happened in the Square, he was certain she was as surprised as he was about the ambush.

He needed someone on the other side.  He needed someone who could tell him who that license plate belonged to.

She was now the only chance he had.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number.

EIGHTY-TWO

Lopez was at the hospital when she received a call.

“Detective Lopez speaking,” she said.

“It’s Hyder.”

Lopez’s heart skipped a beat.  “Hyder, I’m sorry about what happened…”