by Alec Peche
“Okay. On to more practical stuff. What are we doing here? Are we knocking on the door and arresting whomever opens it if they match our picture?”
“We’ve been asked to observe as the California cops believe they’ll have a warrant issued for the suspect by the end of the day tomorrow,” Dave said.
“Why the delay? Either there are twins inside the apartment or they’re not.”
“Those California judges are harder to please so they asked for more information from the San Jose Police which they’re providing tomorrow. So they believe the warrant will be issued in the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours and in the interim they want to make sure they don’t lose sight of someone they’ve been chasing for nearly ten years. Really quite exciting to be in the middle of potentially bringing down two infamous bank robbers!”
“Sounds like it going to be a long boring night. Is there another exit to the apartment other than the one we’re looking at?” Leon asked.
“I don’t think so, but let’s take a look around.”
The two officers paced around the apartment building and determined a second exit on the side. There were cars in the parking area but they would have to individually check each plate to find the cars that might be owned by the women. After using their cell phones to take pictures of all the cars’ license plate numbers, they went back to their patrol car to position it to see both exits of the apartment building. They went to work on the cars checking out the registrations to find the owners.
“The brown car belongs to one Bob Clark who has ten outstanding parking tickets. How do you get parking tickets in this region?” Leon asked.
“What county were they issued in?” Dave asked.
“Kent County. The idiot likes to park in handicapped spaces without a placard or license plate. Nearly $400 a pop for each violation. We could arrest him for outstanding tickets.”
“No, we’re here for the one to two women. Let’s keep going and find their car.”
“I think it’s the blue one as it’s registered to a Michelle Carrington. Wasn’t that the name we were looking for?”
“That’s the name. Let’s go take a look through the windows,” Dave said as the two got out of their vehicle again. They walked around the car, placing a hand on the hood. “Car’s been driven recently, but I don’t see any more than the usual car junk; a Kleenex box, tubes of mascara and lipstick, discarded drink bottles. Let’s go.”
The night proved to be long and boring and the two were glad to be relieved by the day crew at seven.
Laurie Mueller and Brad Brown took over and caught action within their first hour on duty. They followed Ashley to a diner where it appeared she worked. Their day became long and boring as they strictly waited for her to get off of work. She finished her shift about an hour into the officers’ overtime hours. California had offered to pay some of the surveillance cost as the department was short on officers.
They watched Michelle go out to her car and instead of driving back toward her apartment, she appeared to be heading north. Soon they were passing surveillance over to another district for them to continue with the surveillance.
Michelle had been exhausted from work and the emotion of telling her boss that she wasn’t serving out her notice due to sick aunt story. She then understood Ashley’s feelings as she began experiencing an unease in the afternoon. She couldn’t understand where it was coming from as she recognized the vast majority of her clients and didn’t observe any suspicious strangers. She worried that someone was following her as she thought she was catching glimpses of a car in her rear view mirror that was on her tail. She was pretty familiar with this area as she had made many trips across the border. She also knew a couple places that she might exit the highway and see if she was followed.
Dusk was setting in which would both help and hinder her. She’d have a harder time seeing a potential tail and they would have a harder time finding her. She decided to exit and gas up the car and see if anyone followed her.
Five minutes later while pumping gas, she had her answer when a state trooper car exited the Interstate and continued past where she was tightening the cap on her tank. She made up her mind that she would try a few maneuvers to see if she could lose the trooper. She felt she had a chance since they hadn’t driven over to arrest her on the spot. Either her paranoid mind was at work or they lacked grounds to detain her.
Another thirty minutes up the road well beyond the Mackinaw Bridge, she accelerated and got ahead of the trooper car significantly. They probably were hanging back thinking they knew where she was going, she took an exit immediately extinguishing her lights. Using the flashlight on her cell phone, she steered the car into a tree area and was soon out of the car gathering her gear while covering the car with a black plastic tarp. Michelle didn’t know where she was going to live, but she’d always had a good escape plan. Besides the necessities of a laptop and identification, she had a foldable electric bike in the trunk. She pulled it out planning to ride to the Sault Saint Marie locks and hop aboard a ship sailing out of there and hopefully on its way to Thunder Bay, Canada. It was a cold and slow ride but better to still have her freedom. She would use the bike to get to the airport, then take a flight first to Winnipeg, then Calgary, and then on to London. She tried crossing the border in this manner on one of her previous trips just to see if it was possible to evade customs guards and she’d been successful reaching the port of Thunder Bay and exiting into the main city. Once she arrived in the UK, she planned to take the Eurostar over to the European Continent where she wanted to find a small city to stop at and do some thinking and she would leave a remark on Twitter letting her sister know she was okay and that her paranoia had been a correct read of their situation.
Chapter 38
“What do you mean the judge wants more information before he’ll issue a warrant!” Natalie nearly screeched the question at Detective Shimoda over the phone.
“I think it’s mixture of your unusual sources and the thought that a set of unknown female twins could have orchestrated the robbery of the century. It is what it is.”
“One of the twins is thought to be missing and the other is on the move toward the Canadian border. We’re running out of time.”
“Canada is cooperative with U.S. law enforcement if we have a duly authorized arrest warrant. If we don’t, they may still be willing to provide surveillance. So if the one twin crosses into Canada it’s not the end of the case as the Mounties are pretty good at getting their man.”
“Okay what more do we need to get this warrant?”
“Actually, the judge wants to talk to you and assess if your sources are legitimate. If you can produce your professor even better. I think he’s worried that we’ve crossed the privacy line in looking for this information and wants a deeper conversation about it.”
“Will he see us tonight? If I can get my professor to come, it’s still a two hour drive from Berkeley at this time of day.”
“Let me talk to his clerk since we know the suspect is one the move towards Canada. I’ll call you back in ten, will you have an answer from your professor as to whether he or she can make it tonight by that time?”
Natalie sighed and said, “Yes.”
As soon as she ended the call, she called Damian.
“Can you drive down to the Santa Clara Municipal Courts right now?”
“Why do I need to drive to a courthouse at three in the afternoon. I won’t get there until at least five, a time by which I would guess the courts are closed.”
“The judge that we’re trying to get to issue an arrest warrant for the twins is hesitant to do so. He wants to speak to the professor that assisted us in getting data.”
“Are you kidding. You want me to lie to a judge?”
“Aren’t you a lecturer or some such title at Berkeley?”
“Yes, but that’s not a professor.”
“You’re splitting hairs, close enough. Do you have a card that says you’re a lecturer with the University
’s logo on it?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s all I need.”
“I can’t produce the students that supposedly ran the data though.”
“No but the judge wouldn’t expect that. He’s just wanting to have a conversation with you on your information sources.”
Damian debated what to do. Could he have a conversation with a judge and not violate his personal code of honesty and integrity?
“Neither twin is at home in their Michigan apartment at the moment. One is missing in action and the other appears to be on the move towards the Canadian Border.”
Nothing like putting the pressure on him with that additional comment. They might be losing the chance to capture the girl. “I’ll do it. If you’ll pick me up at the dock in redwood City, I’ll arrive sooner at this hour.”
“Thanks Damian. Don’t do anything yet, I’m waiting to hear back from the Detective as to whether the judge will stay late. He said he’d call me back in another seven minutes.”
Ten minutes later Damian was in his speed boat heading for the marina closest to San Jose which would greatly reduce his commute time at this hour. He had a box of flash drives and some paper but figured he run through his laptop and do a demo for the judge on where his imaginary students got their data from. He hoped that would end the judges’ concerns and he’d be on his way back in another hour. He had work to do on Hermione’s case.
An hour later he was returning to his island. The judge had questioned him on his data and in the end thanked him for teaching those skills to the next generation of computer scientists. He also complemented him for assisting the SJPD and they were out of his chambers in under twenty minutes.
Natalie had her search warrant and was transmitting it to the Michigan State Troopers. It was then she ran into another snag.
“What do you mean you lost her? How could she lose you on a fairly deserted straight highway?” Natalie knew what the area looked like as she studied it some of Google to familiarize herself with the geography.
“She must be familiar with the area as she accelerated on a curve, and exited the highway once she got beyond our sight. It’s dark now so she only had to turn her car lights off and duck inside one of the many tree lined areas for us to lose a visual on her. In the daylight we’ll be able to see tire impressions, but in the dark we’re searching with a spotlight hoping to pick up the shine of metal,” the trooper said.
“Okay. How far are you from the Canadian border at the moment?”
“About ten to fifteen miles. If she’s walking it will take her all night to reach it.”
“Good luck with your search and keep me posted. Can you notify the border to stop her if she tries to exit?”
“Yes ma’am. It’s already been done.”
“Okay, keep me posted,” Natalie repeated before ending the call.
She dropped a note to the detective and to Damian on the Michigan search for the Carrington twins.
Chapter 39
Damian got back to his island and went to work on his containment weapon for Hermione’s kidnapper. While he’d been at the judge’s chambers his friend had delivered to the harbormaster’s office where he’d stopped to pay his dock fee. Now he had the air gun that the Warriors used to send t-shirts into the stands and Damian had a variety of nets he was trying to figure out how to fold into the gun. In no time he had the technology figured out and the weapon ready to use against their man. Now he just needed a location for Ariana and himself to catch their suspect.
He briefly thought about the twins on the run and realized he was partially cheering them on to escape detection. He supposed that it was because it felt like they hadn’t harmed anyone and he liked their meticulous plan for staying hidden. He’d gotten Natalie’s email about them eluding capture and decided he wouldn’t offer to help. He assisted in solving the cold case and that would be enough. If the twins were brilliant enough to allude capture and leave the United States, than bravo to them. They hadn’t physically harmed anyone and the actual robbery had been covered by insurance so he was satisfied at having solved the heist of the century with the two bank robbers still on the lam.
After a good night’s sleep Damian headed over to his warehouse to welcome Lily on her first day. She arrived shortly after him and he went through the routine of giving her new employee stuff and setting up her computer station with her. Then he had each of his other employees explain what they were working on so she would understand more about the company. Haley proudly demonstrated her drone which was ready for both patent processing and commercial production. Damian was of a mind to offer two models priced with his two target markets. One would be for people that needed help carrying stuff. A second model was for use by industry and could be programmed to run without an operator on repetitive tasks. Ariana would take the product forward to launch now that it was technically complete.
As it was the first product to be completed under the new business, Damian ordered in a celebratory lunch. He then had Lily begin work on his field DNA machine and the two women also had the side assignment of developing the self-defense vests. Damian checked in with Lily at the end of the day to find her intellectually challenged but excited about her future role. That was all he could ask of a new employee.
He transmitted that opinion in an email to Ariana and asked her if she and Hermione and found a location that could be used to capture their suspect and shortly received her response.
We both studied our usual route to school and back as well as the downtown area that H hangs out with her friends. We concluded that close to home is the only place we could shoot and cover a guy with a net and have the privacy to get away with it.
Okay, Damian thought he had another twenty-four hours before their man would be on the hunt for Hermione again given the time it would take to scrub off the dye and get his vision back in the eye struck by pepper juice. He decided to go back home and spend some time detecting where the guy hid when he wasn’t stalking Hermione; that would be another option to go after him at a hotel depending on the circumstances.
Damian began looking for public cameras around the area that they had last seen their man. He was so lost in finding information about Hermione’s kidnapper that it was nearly nine at night before his cats meowing alerted him it was time to take a break and feed them and himself. Sometimes he could depend on them to be an alarm clock for him reminding him of meal times. He sighed and went upstairs to find them and himself something to eat. He was making progress but his eyes and brain would probably benefit from stepping away from the computer for a while.
Twenty minutes later, with the cats purring in their sleep from full bellies, he planted himself back in front of his computer screen with a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough. He was too embarrassed to lower himself to eating a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich and thought that at least a three cheese grilled sandwich better reflected the sophisticated adult that he was. He was beginning to think that he found the guy at an economy hotel in Mill Valley. While the hotel was off of a busy street, he thought that he and Ariana could attack the guy at the entrance to his hotel room and haul him off in the middle of the night for questioning. It would be much easier on Hermione if he could arrange this event.
He look at the time and thought, well there was no time like the present to do this. It was half past ten, which would give him and Ariana some practice time with net launching guns before they swarmed the guy’s hotel room at say one in the morning. He texted Ariana to find out if she was awake. He knew she had to give up early most mornings to get Hermione to water polo practice.
Yes.
Great, I’m going to call you.
“How would you like to be involved in some late night breaking and entering at a hotel in Mill Valley?”
“And why would I want to do that? I really don’t want to have a criminal record,” Ariana said amusement in her voice.
“I am about ninety-eight percent sure I found Hermi
one’s kidnapper at that hotel. I thought we might go break into his room and shoot him with the net gun there in about three hours.”
“Oh!” Ariana said while she adjusted her brain to carrying out a serious criminal activity in a few hours. Then she sighed and said, “You better come over here and I’ll see if Hermione’s awake and she’ll need to know about our plans.”
“Okay. Let me gather up my stuff and I’ll be over in about thirty minutes.”
Damian looked around his lab for stuff to take with him then went upstairs to change into all-black clothing. He then looked around his house for an area to secure his prisoner. He’d have to use Hermione’s room as that would likely do the least damage to his house. He briefly debated holding the guy in his garden shed outside, but it could get cold at night and he had no way to watch it or heat it. He put a remote camera in Hermione’s room and a new lock on her door. He then packed his supplies into the speed boat and headed across the bay to Ariana’s house.
As he slowed the boat in approach to her dock, he saw the house ablaze with lights. She must have watched for his boat and both she and Hermione came outside to help him tie down the boat and carry supplies to her house. In short order they had everything inside and he had the chance to look at the teenager and the woman’s faces. He saw what he expected to see; part excitement, part apprehension on the face of the women and mostly apprehension on the face of the teenager.
After setting the last of his supplies on the kitchen counter, he opened his laptop and showed them the hotel that he thought Hermione’s kidnapped was in. After showing his process and the car in the lot, he then went back over several days of footage to show Hermione views of the man. Given his research and the camera angles, she agreed that was guy.
“So ladies our plan for the night. We can see that this guy is staying in a bottom room, room twelve to be specific. So I thought we’d break into his room, shoot with the cargo net, duct tape his hands, feet, and mouth and lift him into the back of your car, return here and take the pontoon boat out to my island where I’ll lock him into your bedroom, Hermione. That’s an overview of what I plan. Thoughts?”
