A little Crack

"So I've been thinking, what if this is like an area 51 sort of thing" Gary said. It was Wednesday already and we were driving to a private air strip out of town.

"Area 51?" I asked.

"Yeah, you know how people keep saying that humans' sudden technological advancements are a result of secret interactions with aliens?"

"Really? Aliens?" I asked, at this point I was starting to think Gary had gotten drunk before leaving his house this morning.

"I'm not saying aliens are involved but think about it J&J has always been a major company. They were responsible for the breakthrough that lead to ending the pandemic, I just feel like they were probably moving a bit too quick than every other person in the field of medicine"

"And you feel aliens has something to do with it?" I asked.

"Not no aliens........ok, what if those rumours about them running illegal experiments circulating throughout the internet are true"

"So how does that explain the fire?" I asked, I was getting curious about this hypothesis of his.

"Cover up" he said.

"Cover up for what?"

"Somebody had found some evidence against them and they couldn't get to that someone in time. That missing lady could have been that someone, they probably killed the surveillance guy thinking it was him"

"So they just what? Burnt a building to cover evidence, killed their own employees and told everyone else to make up a story?" I asked.

"No, no, no. You see for the story to sell they would have to make it legit. Someone would have hired the guys, given them the complete layout of the building and that someone would probably not have gone to work on the day of the incident."

"Because he told the people he hired to do whatever it takes" I said. For some reason this hypothesis seemed to fit

"Yes" Gary said

"That would also explain how they walked in rather than shoot their way in" I said.

"Exactly....this whole thing could probably be a cover up for a kidnapping. I mean out of everybody in the building they took with them 2 f**king security officers" he said. I could see him getting excited like a 5 year old on boxing day, he always acts this way whenever a hypothesis tends to fit.

"Aren't you going to park here?" I asked, we had gotten to the air strip and Gary had just driven his car into the runway.

"Nope" He replied.

He kept driving until an elderly man ran into the runway yelling at us to get off.

"Alright I think that's our guy" Gary said smiling.

The man ran towards us

"What in God's name are you sons of b**ches doing driving around on my runway"

"Are you Ray Palmerston?" I asked.

"Who's asking?" Was his reply.

"My name is detective Blair, that's my partner detective Peterson" we showed him our ID's as I spoke.

"We are here concerning your report about a missing helicopter" Gary jumped in.

"Yeah, I remember reporting it Monday morning. Some friends of yours already came to check out the place" he said.

"We know, we just wanted you to confirm something for us" I said. I reached into my pocket and brought out my phone, I showed him a picture Locke had forwarded to me.

"Is that your missing plane?" I asked. He took the phone from me and scrolled, checking out the different pictures of the plane Locke had took.

"Holy hell, I never thought I'd even see a picture of it ever again. Where did you guys find it?" He asked.

"The woods, somewhere in Michigan" I replied.

"Michigan? How in the devil's foot did it get there?" He asked

"We were hoping you'd shine a bit of light on that, you see your plane was used to commit arson and multiple murders. " Gary said, he had a way of making anything sound terrifying.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, already confused at this point.

"The people who stole the plane drove it to a pharmacy where they killed a bunch of people after which they set a building on fire" Gary said.

"I....I don't have anything to do with that. I already told your people"

"We know, we know...." Gary cut in

"....we just wanted to make sure you are not forgetting or keeping any information, because as of this moment its no longer a case of theft but of murder. " Gary said. The old man stood there speechless.

"The man you described to the police, how long has he been working with you?" I asked.

"For about a month" he replied.

"So you could say he has great knowledge of how you run things here?" Gary asked.

"He's a pretty smart guy, took him a week to understand the way everything works."

"Do you just go around giving the keys to all your workers?" Gary asked.

"Look, I was sick that day, he came over to my place. Said he had a rich friend flying in and he wanted to make a few minor repairs on his plane. I had no reason to doubt him, he always seemed like someone I could trust"

"Until he stole a helicopter. Is that right?" Gary asked.

"Ye......yeah" I heard Gary's phone ring. Me and the old man stared at him as he answered the call.

"What were you down with?" I asked.

"What?" He asked

"You said you were sick, what were you down with?" I asked again.

"I forgot what the doctor said was the cause but I got a bad case of diarrhoea" He replied.

"I see" I said.

"Alright we're on our way" Gary said before hanging up.

"We?" I asked, realising I was part of the conversation he was just having.

"It's Locke. They found that underground floor." Gary said.

"Alright, let's go" I said

"Wait, what about my helicopter?" The old man asked.

"Sir, your plane is part of an ongoing investigation. We will give it back to you as soon as we consider it no longer useful to the investigation." Gary said, by then I was half way to his car.

"So did we find out anything on who Helen was?" I asked. We had just left the airstrip and we were on the open road.

"Yeah, the military have been really cooperative." Gary said.

"And to think Locke said she heard the military was taking over the case" I said, chuckling.

"That's the sort of rumours you can get from a rookie" Gary said.

"But isn't it a bit weird?" I asked.

"Weird how?" Gary asked.

"First, they took all the evidence and report we had claiming it was part of an investigation they were running. Then, they bring it all back saying that nothing useful was found but tells Chief to keep them in the loop"

"Yeah so?" Gary asked.

"How sure are we that what they took is exactly what was brought back?"

Gary laughed

"You really need to start trusting a little" Gary said.

The rest of the drive was quiet, Gary had turned on the radio and we were listening to the daily news. I spent my time watching the road and just enjoying the scenery.

We arrived a few minutes later, turns out the building wasn't far off from the airstrip.

"Interesting" I muttered as soon as Gary parked

"What is?" Gary asked after overhearing me.

"The plane was a getaway, it wasn't meant for whatever they came for" I said.

"What makes you think that?"

"We just drove from the airstrip to the company in less than 20 minutes, why would I need a plane to cover that distance? Unless of course I came to pick something or someone with that plane and fly them off amidst the chaos." I said.

"So I'm guessing you're sticking with the robbery theory?" Gary asked.

"It seems logical" i replied.

"Detectives." Locke said. She had seen us coming and decided to approach us.

"Locke, how are you feeling?" Gary said, he had on a silly smile. Probably to mock her or something.

"Detective Peterson, look I thought...."

"No need to apologize, Officer. We all make mistakes" I said before she could finish.

There was an awkward moment of silence, Gary was the one who broke the silence.

"So you said we had to see something?" Gary said.

"Yeah, yeah......we ermm....we found multiple bodies including children"

"What was the room for?" I asked.

"We...... we're still speculating, there was a lot of burnt up documents, computers and equipments." Locke said.

"Burnt up s**t. Alright." Gary said.

"Where's the entrance?" I asked.

Locke led us to the elevator, there was a bunch of rope which the first team that went down used. The 3 of us used it to climb down.

"Detectives, glad you could join us" a slim tall man said; he was dark in complexion, had on rimless glasses and wore a brown suit.

"Chief, how's the family?" Gary said putting on one of his smiles.

"Better now that I've got that restraining order against you for my daughter" He said. They were a few officers in the room, they all burst into laughter, so did Locke and I.

You see the Chief has a daughter who had a crush on Gary and when the Chief found out, well let's just say it wasn't funny.

"Come on Chief, cut me some slack I'm a nice guy" Gary said still grinning.

"You're lucky I don't have my gun on me" the Chief said, he had a straight face; I've known him for 5 years and you could never tell when he was joking, sometimes we had to wait for ridiculous clues like a wink or an overdramatic sentence.

He looked over at me as if just taking note of me.

I was busy looking at the tapes on the floor.

"Blair! Please tell me you are on this s**tshow of a case" he said.

"All I'm on right now is Peterson's Alien hypothesis" I said.

"For f**k sakes, I didn't say it was alien...." Gary didn't have to finish the sentence, everyone started another round of laughter.

"Any report on the cause of death?" I asked, pointing to the tapes on the floor.

"Well you see those ones over there?" He said, pointing to the ends of the room.

"Now those one were shot dead but the ones closer to the centre literally forming the circle you see, now those ones we are still speculating on cause of death" he said.

"So we're awaiting the Coroner's report then?" Gary asked.

"Yeah, it seems so" Chief replied.

"But if you were to take a guess?" Gary asked.

"Taking a guess sounds like your field, does it not?" Chief retorted.

"Come on Chief, work with me here" Gary said.

"Well, my money is on broken neck, but again that's just speculation." He said.

"If their necks were broken individually then the only way this circle makes sense is that they were dragged or carried back here" I said.

"No, we looked for that. No drag marks, nothing" Locke said.

"How do you break multiple necks at the same time?" Gary asked.

"That's not a party trick that can be pulled off by an individual, you'd need one for each person." I said.

"That's of course if the coroner's report says broken neck" Chief jumped in

"What's over there?" I asked, pointing to what seems to be a hall way.

"Its a tunnel, probably leading back into the city, I already sent out a few men to map out what they can." The chief said.

"You didn't by any chance happen to find any prototype drugs or traces of stacks of cash, did you?" Gary asked.

"What in God's name are you talking about?" Chief asked.

"Never mind" Gary said.

"I think I'm done here. I'll go see what's happening down at the coroner's office." I said, as I made my way for the elevator.

"You coming?" I asked, addressing Gary.

"Yeah, right behind you." He replied.

I asked Gary to drive as quickly as he could to the coroner's, I wanted to be there when he started cracking open the bodies; I always enjoyed learning about the human anatomy, in fact I had actually studied to be a doctor but I just wasn't cut out for it.

A few minutes later we had arrived, we met the secretary at the front desk who directed us to where the bodies where.

Gary pushed open the door leading to the room, it had to be like 10 degrees in there.

"I honestly expected here to be a bit hotter" I said, I was staring right at the coroner; he was standing behind his operating table, wearing a lab coat, accompanied by a facemask and a pair of white gloves.

"I like the cold, it helps me think clearly." He replied.

"Oh yeah, you wanna be thinking as clearly as a dead man?" Gary asked.

"Wasn't funny last week Gary, won't be funny now" he replied. We all chuckled for a bit, I on the other hand was a bit disappointed because he had already opened up the bodies.

"So did you find anything?" I asked.

"Well I've confirmed that the cause of death was indeed a broken neck, well only confirmed from this two that is." He pointed to two bodies laying on the side.

"That's all?" Gary asked

"Well, yeah. But that's the thing. If a person breaks his neck, there's always some residue on the surface to show cause. For instance if you were hanged, the rope would leave visible marks on your neck. If someone broke your neck with his bare hands, marks would still appear. Breaking someone's neck isn't a soft process and......."

"Hold on, please just get to the point" Gary cut in, he hated long scientific explanations.

"The only thing I can conclude on right now is that either some unknown force snapped their neck or they did it to themselves."

"And which of those is more probably?" I asked.

"What do you think?" He said with a scoff.

"Alright Jerry, we will get out of your hair. If you come across anything different with the others, make sure you give us a call." I said.

"No problem" He replied.

I started heading to the door, Gary followed up behind me.

"So what do you think?" Gary asked, we were now standing by his car.

I took a deep breath in,

"Your alien theory....." I said.

"Yeah?" Gary asked

"...... let's hear it."