POV: Raphael
“So what’s next, Mr. Hawkins? Do you have a lead from the information you just got from Austin Kendall?” The inspector asked me, sounding so concerned and worried about our progress in the case.
His name is Alex, and he has been on this case from the beginning; I mean, he’s the same cop that handled the kidnapping case when the girls were first taken, and he has been unable to find them for twenty-four years, which is why I’m worried about him being overly concerned this time.
If he truly cares about the girls and really wants to find them, then what the hell has he been doing all these years? Why didn’t he find them?
Austin said that Eloise is ahead of everyone all the time. I’m beginning to feel that she has someone in the police department because it’s funny how none of her crimes has been exposed by the cops all these years. I refuse to believe that she is too smart and careful and that is why she has not been caught.
If you ask me, I think it’s just her money that is doing the work for her. She is paying someone to cover her tracks and get rid of all the evidence before it gets to the locker room. That way there is no record of any evidence that could point in her direction as the prime suspect in the case.
Until I find the person who is helping her get away with all these crimes, I will not trust anyone with any information I find, not even the police. It’s only Carl and Miguel that I can trust in this case because it seems like Miguel and I are both on the same side, and Carl and I have been together for so long that I completely trust him.
“No, Alex, we have no leads for now; it’s as if Eloise and the girls simply fell off the surface of the Earth. Austin has nothing else to say, he was just rambling like a fucking lunatic. I guess I’ll have to get more guys on this case because it’s getting more complicated every day.” I lied.
“Sure, I can help. That won’t be a problem, Mr Hawkins. The force can assist you if you would accept our help. We could give you a few guys from our team to assist in your investigation.” He offered.
“No, Alex, I don’t want to impose. We’ll hire more guys from the private sector. I’ll let you know as we progress,” I informed him with a smile and walked away, leaving him staring after me.
“You didn’t have to lie to him, did you?” Miguel asked me as we got into the car. He had been standing by the car waiting for me. But he heard my conversation with Alex through our comms.
“We need all the help we can get, especially from people who have been on this case longer than us ” he admonished.
“And what advice would we be getting from someone who never got a lead on this case for the past twenty-four years? What exactly do you want him to do for us that we cannot do for ourselves?” I retorted angrily as I started the car and drove out of the parking lot, heading for the busy streets.
“What are you saying, Raphael?
Are you trying to call him a sloppy cop?” he asked back, his face looking so confused that I wondered what he was thinking about right now. With the look on his face turning from anger to disgust, I knew I had to explain myself before he thought that I was trying to get rid of the cops because I was working with Eloise. He can be a bit paranoid sometimes; I can’t deal with him like that.
“Look man, I have been thinking about it, and I came to a conclusion that there is something fishy is going on in the police department. They never caught her for the past twenty-four years, and that is enough reason for me to lose faith in them. Besides, I think we have a mole in our midst.
In case you haven’t noticed, Eloise seems to be ahead of us always. She knows where we will be and when we arrive there. I think we have a mole in our midst, and that mole has been in this case for a very long time and that is why she keeps escaping the law every damn time. We need to be more careful from now on, Miguel.
“Apart from Carl and I, please do not share the information we find with anyone. Let’s beat her at her own game this time.” I told him sternly, making sure he understood what I was saying. He looked thoughtful for a few minutes, and then he nodded in understanding and turned back to me with an expression I didn’t fully understand.
“I didn’t go to him first, he came to me, he found me. Do you think he found me on purpose, do you think she asked him to find me?” he asked me, getting me confused with his questions. I squinted my eyes in thought, trying to understand what he was talking about but failing miserably.
“I don’t follow, man, what the fuck are you talking about?” I asked him.
“When I called Vera to find out the everything Austin Kendall is hiding. I dragged her to the precinct to make a formal report about this case. But I couldn’t speak to anyone else about it because he was already in charge of the case, and he had already left instructions with the other sergeants on duty to bring me into his office anytime I arrived.
It’s as if he knew I was coming, and he had made arrangements for me to speak to no one else but him. Could it be that he didn’t want me to share my findings with others, was he informed by someone that I know the truth and that I was coming to make a report?” he asked in amazement, his eyes going wide in shock.
“Jesus fucking Christ!
Why didn’t you tell me that you suspect that the inspector is a mole? If you had told me that, I would have made sure that we hid every vital information from him all this while. For all I know he could have planted some listening device to monitor everything we do. How could you be so clueless and stupid!” I scolded him angrily.
To be sure that our conversation was safe, I clicked on a button on my dashboard and activated my AI security detector to check if my car had been bugged. I did the same thing to our phone, and I felt satisfied when it all came out clean. That means our mole is not as smart as I imagined, or maybe Eloise is not paying him enough to contact a tech genius to install listening devices in our cars and phones.
“Starting from this moment, our conversation must be a secret, even from the boys. We can only give instructions to them after we conclude our land. Understand?” I asked Carl when we got to him. He nodded in understanding, and I made him check his phone and every other person around us in case I missed something.
“Do you want me to check him out, should I order a background check on him and place someone to monitor his movements to see if he will lead us to her?” he asks me.
“No, man, there is no need to waste our resources on him. Eloise is too smart to tell him her location. Besides, I don’t want him to know that we consider him a mole in our investigation. He could warn her that we are getting closer to finding her and she could hurt the girls. So let’s keep it between us,” I instructed him.
He nodded in understanding and pulled out his notes, telling us everything he got. He was lucky this time and he found some evidence in the trash in front of Allen’s last known location, the same place we went to that was blown away.