The Day I Became A Stalker (part II)

Don't get me wrong: I know I mentioned getting an audience with the Dragon requires a lot of mutual trust and that I had never even spoken to him in person before today, so it's not like I've suddenly become friends with him and he lets me go and leave his house anytime like Craig. When I say hideout, is it because the Dragon has some hideouts he leaves for us: me, Craig and Sub Snow (or was it Sub something else?) to get together and do things that involves the group's activities. Usually they serve to keep packages of Deluxes or hostages that appear depending on the situation. To shorten, it wasn't not the same hiding place as before.

And in one of these additional hideouts there are computers connected to these devices that he leaves with us, so I can follow the location of her car through the screen there, that is... If the sticker didn't fall in the middle of the street along the way...

To prevent the sticker from falling off making me lose the location of the desk, I tried to get to the hideout asap. It consisted of a small house with three rooms, which had no window, in an isolated area of Little Quarry

When I got there, I checked the location of the patch by accessing the computer satellite.

To my happiness, the sticker had indeed been well sticked until the car stopped, which revealed the address of the secretary: it was in Cheawuld Garden. It was almost getting dark, so I took the opportunity to go there. What I was going to have to do was watch and wait until I met my target: Richard Galloway.

You may be wondering why I didn't go*gle his name and check if he left the address on some electronic form or something. I might, but the main reason Galloway is the stooge suspect of working for Verde is that he's the secretary's boyfriend, so the fun is to understand the relationship between him and the secretary, and not just analyze his side. So it would be nice to see the interaction between the two in some way.

Of course, I don't mean this in the way you just thought...

The secretary's home was kind of depressed and claustrophobic. Cold... Moldy... Hidden... Poorly cared for... What is she? A sixty year old? I almost thought Greta lived there.

That day was a Saturday, the last workday of the SAD, so if she had a normal life she would meet her boyfriend either today or in the next day. Even if I wasn't to meet Galloway there that day even so it would be a good idea to find out what her everyday life is like.

She was already inside, and I felt her uctu. I knew it was hers because I had become familiar with the intensity when she passed me in the parking lot. But it turns out that besides hers I sensed someone else's, which was a bad sign. Was it Galloway's? Was he also paranormal?

I climbed up the tree full of leaves that there was the side of her house, so that I could observe without being noticed. At this point you think, 'ah, but every tree is full of leaves' No... That one was especially full. You could hide in there. Her house was low, it had a little concrete staircase that went down and into the house and another sidewalk that went into a yard or something. Her backyard was empty, but next door there was that big tree. I hid and took my binoculars pointing them toward the side window.

I could tell who was in the house besides the secretary was a redhead girl. I recognized her as the same redhead I had seen before at the crime scene at the house of the old men who died for no reason. Remember I said I saw a redhead girl and a burly man smoking a cigarette? She was the same one.

They were talking in the living room and after they sat on the couch, which was had the back to my vision. I saw with my binoculars a wet spot in the bathroom mirror, which was facing the window (the door was open; if the person using the bathroom closed the door, obviously nothing could be seen) and the light reflected in this drop gave me a partial view of the room, if I combined the power of the device with my finesse. But the sofa still had its back to my partial view.

I had to be more daring, I jumped into the residence area of the secretary and opened the window a little bit more than it was, and after jumped to the original location. The proposal was to make room for my blower bubbles to enter the house. The wind didn't help much, as it kind of blew in the opposite direction, but it was just a matter of using the indarra at blow time to force the direction.

So I got a better view of what the two women were doing. The secretary laid under the other one's shoulders. Was she crying for some reason? Depression maybe? Or hadn't she overcome the trauma of the attack? It must have been depression or something, because to have her house messed up like that...

A shame I couldn't hear anything...

I watched a little more and when I went out I felt even more ductu. It was two people. They almost sensed me, I used the secrecy at the same second and went back to my tree.

I blew the bubbles towards the gate to see who was coming. Now there were two men. They worked at the SAD too, because I recognized the tall man who smoked cigarettes who was with the redhead the other day. And he was smoking a cigarette this time too.

The kid who was with him was the handsome type. Not that I have a thing for humans – good grief - but it's the word that best describes his way: neat, with a flawless haircut, baby face, and all those things that human society cares so much about.

It seemed like she was going to take a while now that new friends had arrived, and as the voices were all starting to get mixed up and I wasn't being able to understand anything I thought it was best to take a break and come back later. The way it was going now, she wasn't even going to meet her boyfriend at all therefore I couldn't even get anything important in the middle of that commotion.

I would have come back the next day, but since I was supposed to be a stalker I decided to get back there at dawn. I wanted to test something.

She locked the whole house from the inside, it was hard to get in. That side window had those wooden guillotines that closed behind the glass, and the front door was made of glass and grids, with a hinge that you could see it was creaking from afar, so it was going to be very difficult to get in without her noticing.

But I wasn't there to steal or anything, I just wanted to confirm one thing. So I went to the backyard, to the part behind her room, and triggered my ductu, directing it at the room. I did, and then I used the secrecy right after in about half a second. I wanted to see if she sensed it. If she did, either I would feel her ductu or I would hear some manifestation from her, whether it was shaking in her bed or something like that.

I waited in silence...

There was nothing.

Funny. Not even a SAD agent can notice my rapid transition from ductu to secrecy, which makes sense considering how much I've trained. And to think I was fooled by a similar maneuver in that trinket building. I wonder who that one I sensed could be.

How was I supposed to know?

It would be hard to get that out of my head now...

I set a little wire outside the window, which was inside a beetle chassis, almost like a real beetle, and left it in the last volume. Then, instead of going back home, I decided to pay a hotel near Cheawuld Garden, in case she decided to go somewhere so I could follow her better on Sunday.

The next day I woke up early and kept playing Cinder Clash until it was about ten in the morning when I heard something from that beetle. It was hard to listen precisely because the beetle was outside the window, but you could tell it was her talking to her boyfriend on the phone, which was good. If I had to wait more days in that situation for her to talk to Galloway I would go crazy.

They exchanged their pleasant greetings and began to arrange a meeting. It's a good thing that in the end she repeated the schedule as a confirmation:

"Okay, so in front of the Chef, at half past noon."

After a while, long enough for the person on the other end of the line to answer something, she said:

"By-ye!"

Now I knew where they would lunch.

See? That's why I only speak via message...

There were two places with 'Chef' in the name in Sproustown; fast food places, open at lunchtime at least. One was an expensive restaurant near downtown and the other was Thai Chef, which was nearby and next to the mall. Obviously it was their choice. There was no reason to wait for her to leave.

The less it looked like I was following, the better. At least it's a public place and it wouldn't be weird if I was already there at lunchtime.

Before I went there I stopped by her house again and picked up the beetle, so she wouldn't find it and stay alert. The beetle can be controlled from the cellphone if I'm thirty meters away, so I could just go to the neighbor's house - which is much safer since the neighbor doesn't know anything about ductu - and pick it up from there. That was about eleven and a half.

Then I went straight to the mall and waited. I sent a message inviting Craig to see if he wanted to eat something precisely at Thai Chef, but he realized that it was part of my service and started to want to charge for it, so I didn't answer him anymore.

Galloway didn't taket long to come. In fact, he arrived almost an hour before the appointment and sat at a mall table in front of the coffee shop. He didn't ask for anything and kept looking down the whole time. I found it all very strange. Why would he arrive early like that?

After the appointed time, the girl arrived. I figured they'd do like boyfriends do: 'helooO!' 'how are yoou <3?' 'blah blah blah' It would be better to get there after about twenty minutes or so. I wandered around the mall for a short time like a lost child (Oh, wait... I was a lost child) and then I went back there.

Once there, I took the table that was facing them and asked for a cookie shake, one of those really big and full, so that I could take as much time as I wanted without looking like I was there staring them doing nothing.

"Yeah... I was feeling a little sick those days, but I'm better now." The girl was talking when I stopped to pay attention.

"It's hard, I know. You'd just gotten out of the hospital and on top of that you have your job. Did you ever ask about the holidays?"

"There's a lot of bad stuff going on at the same time, Richard. Now is the worst time to think about a vacation."

"It's just that..."

Galloway looked like one of those holiday-afficcionado braggarts. I understand he must've been worried about the secretary's health, her being hospitalized and all. He probably doesn't know what kind of thing she's dealing with in her work, and he probably doesn't even know that she has the sane to heal her wounds on her own.

On the outside he was also as Greta described him: handsome, but simple, with traces of a less fortunate financial life. You wouldn't expect someone as educated as the secretary to be attracted to that guy. His clothes made it clear that he wasn't at his financial peak.

That watch he was wearing said otherwise, though...

I made those remarks as I took that sweet shake too much. I got sick of it after two or three sips. How can humans take one of those in one piece?

"You see, this menu is kind of limited... On the one hand it's right near the mall, we can do something later... You want to see a movie?"

"Uhum..."

(I had come back to pay attention in their conversation.)

"You see, I told you about that restaurant that opened near the house? Sweet Oaks? He's very good and cheap! They have portions, you know... It's got seafood and various other things..."

"Uham..."

"What's it? You are too quiet today..."

(Hmm... That looks like the sign of a relationship is about to end, nothing that concerns me, though...)

In the next few minutes Galloway kepts trying to pull out a subject that pleased his princess and I had to get out of there or I was going to get diabetes or something. I know I had come there just to find out what the relationship was about, but now that I'd seen... I'd lost interest. Galloway and the secretary were just an ordinary couple at a bad time.

What caught my attention was the fact that he had come there an hour before and stood staring at the coffee table... As if he had something very important he couldn't get out of his mind. I wonder what it was.

How was I supposed to know...?

It's amazing how after so many years of playing a private detective in hours like this your brain starts working differently.

It was when I was heading towards the mall's arcade that the idea came to mind: click!

Galloway liked a restaurant that opened nearby and besides good was cheap? Was he all excited? He of all people...? That as far as I know, he's unemployed and he can't seem to afford anything? Could be, either Galloway's not as broke as he looks or that restaurant might be a little... 'Too cheap?' Well, Cheap and interesting to a crook sounds like money laundering.

Hmm.

Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to take a look. If it was near where he lived, it must have been at Helmsley... The one next to the Filliard Summit. I remember Greta said Galloway used to go to pubs around there.

I searched 'Sweet Oaks Sproustown' on my phone and it was indeed on Helmsley, it had opened two months ago. It didn't hurt to stop by.

Before leaving I thought I'd come back and leave my beetle in the secretary's purse or something, even though it was very indiscreet. It wouldn't hurt to try. I tried to... I went back to the Chef's on the pretext of going to the toilet, and I stopped by their table to try it out.

They were still talking small:

"...But now it looks like it's gonna work out for me..." More Galloway than the secretary was talking at that table. And judging by the tone of the topic, it looked like he hadn't found a job yet.

She seemed very alert and the purse was in her lap, Galloway, on the other hand, wasn't carrying anything. I couldn't get a chance to leave the beetle.

So giving up, I took the bus one more time - what was that? The fifth time in two days? - this time for Helmsley, and I went to that Sweet Oaks.

On the outside the place looked pretty big and frequented. All decorated with lights, with a successful franchise face. Very out of touch with the rest of the neighborhood, which being aside the Filliard Summit was an extension of it.

Ever heard of the Filliard Summit? It's a deserted place like Wyoming at night when it snows. I wonder why they built that restaurant there of all places.

I planned to go in and get the menu to see how good that place was and why Galloway was talking so much about it, but as soon as I got in I felt a strong ductu.

It seems my instincts hadn't let me down. It did have something in there...

The feeling did not seem to come from the attendants or waiters who looked at me more than strangely because of my apparent age, it seemed to come from somewhere else. A place nearby. The kitchen? The bathroom?

I entered the restaurant and headed to the toilet, which was on the left side, almost in the middle of the labyrinth of tables, in an entrance next to the cashier's counter. Once there in the bathroom I opened the tap and stopped to pay attention. The place was just an ordinary restaurant. In the entrance there was a small reception room, with some sofas, so the customers could wait in case it got too crowded, there was the rectangular room with the tables, and the bathrooms on the side of the counter...

It was in stark contrast to the outside, which seemed to hide more. Inside it was very rectangular and outside it was very square. I thought I should go back outside and check which part looked spare.

The waiters stared at me sulkingly as I went in and out of the establishment.

As soon as I left I realized there was a whole side of the restaurant that I couldn't access from the inside. I figured it must have something to do with the reception room. How many restaurants even have one of those? And even more at the Filliard Summit? It remains to be seen where the entrance was. Maybe through the fireplace I could manage to see something.

I went back to the fireplace in the lobby and put my head in. The ductu was coming from there.

"Hey!" I caught the eye of a waiter.

I took my head out and looked back, there were two waiters with faces they didn't like something, they were staring at me. Was that any way to treat a lost child?

"Hi." I started... "Can you guys tell me where the entrance is?"

"Huh?" One of them got confused, he didn't know if he asked what the heck a child was doing there, if he said that the entrance was the entrance to the hall or if he lied and said there was no way to enter the secret part.

"Whatever. I'll just build an entrance."

I used the indarra on the bricks in the fireplace and now I could pass. It collapsed.

As for the waiters, they were lying on the floor about three seconds later.

As soon as I took care of them, I went through the restaurant's secret opening.

The corridor was all dusty and dark, with a few boxes stacked, with suspicious contents. Deluxes, maybe? That place looked like a money-laundering trade or something. Whatever the function of that restaurant, keeping the boxes there wasn't the best idea, what if a cop had the same idea I had?

I continued walking down the corridor, being guided by the ductu, until its owner felt mine and activated secrecy. When this happened, I stood in front of a door which led to a small room with a dim yellow light on. As it was a dead-end I already knew that the owner of the ductu was inside. He had used the secrecy too late. The door was closed so I couldn't see what was going on inside, but it looked like there were two or three men talking. They had turned on the light because the place was terribly pitch black. Good choice.

My ears could tell that their voices were excited, only when I got to the side of the door I realized that they sensed me... I could hear a few sentences, but after that they stopped the topic. The last sentence I heard was:

"Now Spikey, they are coming."

Now I couldn't earsdrop anymmore. Not that I had any hope at all... Using secrecy to hide the presence less than five meters away is useless.

For lack of choice, I opened the door.

I opened and saw the three men sitting across the room. Actually only two of them were sitting... One on a chair, the other on the floor, near a cell phone, and the other one was standing behind the iron shelves leaning against the wall.

We stared at each other in silence as the wind itself closed the door behind me and locked me with those three men inside the room.

"Oh, so this is where the corridor leads?" I tried breaking the ice.

"You... Who are you?" The fatter man, who was on the floor, started getting up.

"I was... Wandering around. My bad. I had to take your waiters down..."

"Who do you work for?" The man leaning against the wall pulled a gun and pointed at me. His hand was shaking miserably. He looked in the corner of his eye at the other guy, who hadn't said anything until then, and they nodded at each other.

"I don't think we're gonna get any information out of each other until something happens, hmm?" I said. "How about, uh... We get started with this?"