Taken 11

There was a lack of words to convey Derek’s expression; he was shocked to the core.

There was nothing orthodox about this case at all – he’d been working his ass of trying to find a lead for the case while trying to save is skin from several assassins after his life, and here came a clue literally on a platter of gold. He had every reason to be suspicious.

The man was short, but appeared quite fit and muscular. He could have passed for a bodyguard or bouncer.

“First of all, Lucio who?”

“Lucio Alvarez. Sorry for coming in unannounced…”

“Unannounced is the least of adjectives that can be used to qualify this visit. How about creepy, suspicious and downright shocking? I barely even know if you’re not a wanted criminal, or the very kidnapper trying to throw me off the scent.” Derek asked, raising an eyebrow.

The man gave a little smile.

“I understand your suspicions, but I’m here for a genuine reason…”

“That being?”

“I have to do something to help that child” the man said “I don’t mean to offend you, but from what I can infer you’re no closer to solving this case, and I’ve got the most important clue in my possession.”

He easily shook off your attempts to berate him, Derek’s inner detective mused.

“Well, aren’t you the Dr Watson of our time? So what’ve you got?”

“Marco gave my wife the child about three days ago…”

“Marco?! Derek said, surprised. He wasn’t buying the stranger’s story yet, but by mentioning Marco, he knew the man might know some tiny details about the case.

“Yes, Marco. My wife called him Sidney back when they were dating…”

Sidney. Another one of the words the dying man mentioned. But this couldn’t have been correct: why would the man mention a name that was his own? The confusion of death?

“How do you know this? Did your wife talk to him in your presence?”

“No, but they exchanged texts once in a while. I found them while I was going through her phone, because…” The man paused, seemingly fighting an internal battle.

Derek knew the woman was obviously cheating on this Lucio from the way he reacted, but he didn’t care about that. However, in order to continue getting his ‘information’, he had to show empathy.

“I understand. Please continue.” He said in a voice he managed to make soothing… to an extent.

“I have some of the texts here. I took a screenshot and printed the pictures” The man said. “They were in a cryptic text I could not understand, so I brought them here.” the man said, producing a large manila envelope.

Derek had a feeling they were the same characters as the strange clue the lady had given him. He took a quick glance to confirm his suspicions and then put the envelope in his inner jacket pocket. The high tower of unsolved clues seemed to be crumbling.

He admonished himself for the abrasive tone he used on the man initially. Sidney. He would look into that later.

“Where’s the girl now?” he said.

“She is at my home. My wife shouldn’t be back from work yet, so we can go and get her. She was supposed to deliver the girl to the Black Lotus.” Noticing the detective’s confusion, he added “It is a syndicate that illegally transports people overseas for slavery and the likes.”

That was another clue taken off the list. Things were beginning to fall into place.

“Then let us get there quickly” Derek said, grabbing his pad as they went.

*******************

As they continued the road, it seemed devoid of vehicles, so they were easily doing 80. The man lived in the suburbs, so it was understandable why there were few cars on the road.

Suddenly, two armoured trucks came from the opposite direction, charging towards them.

Unsure of what was going on, Derek stepped on the brakes as he swerved off the road, entering a shallow ditch. He watched as Lucio’s car swerved from left to right as it crashed into a tree with a loud bang.

Why didn’t he use the brakes?

As Derek slowly opened the passenger side door, he was in the mood to arrest the two idiots in that car. Suddenly the cars came to a screeching, stop. Two figures leaped out of each car and rushed towards Lucio’s wreckage site, about a hundred metres from Derek’s car.

The detective watched as they fired three bullets into the driver’s seat of the car and began marching towards his.

PROMPTS: berate, offend, admonish, abrasive, tiny, tower, bodyguard, battle

RANDOM DIALOGUE: “I have to do something to help that child.”