Our Version Of Events

You want to know the thing I hate most about Mondays? Its the fact that the next day isn't Friday, neither is the day after that or the day after that. There was this party in my old neighbourhood, I had completely forgotten that the next day wasn't Friday and gotten so drunk and now I'm being driven to a crime scene by my partner while battling a hangover.

"I thought all they did was make drugs and vaccine or some s**t like that" I asked.

"Yeah, but from the reports they had a little gang war complete with guns, missing bodies, burnt building and some s**t like that " Gary replied.

Detective Gary Peterson was my partner, he had an extreme sense of humour which was the only blemish on his physical attributes. His Blonde hair and big blue eyes was something the ladies would kill for.

We arrived at the crime scene, officers were still taking statements from the workers. The fire department was about leaving as they had done all they could and the ambulance were about transporting the last batch of injured civilians.

"Detective Blair, thank God you're here, I don't know what to make of this." A young lady said as she quickly approached me. She was very slim, almost like if you gave the right amount of force you could break her in one hit. She wore a blue shirt with the sleeves folded up to her elbows along with a pair of black trousers.

"Officer Locke, what do you have for us?" I asked.

"So get this, 5 casualties according to eye witness report but only a total of 4 bodies have been found, 1 outside and 3 in the building. Eyewitness report also claims they drove in with a truck while others claim they parachuted to the rooftop"

"Parachuted down?" Gary asked.

"Yeah, like they came for fucking Osama bin Laden" she said with a sarcastic voice.

"Also there are reports of a gun fight"

"Gunfight? So the guards were armed" I asked

"Apparently, but they also claim never to have seen armed guards in the building"

"Alright, that's crazy" Gary said.

"That's not all" she said.

"Witness claim they were about 10 but only 4 came out the building" She said.

"Only 4? So there's still 6 bodies in there?" I asked

"No, the fire department are done searching every floor" She asked

"You're kidding right?" Gary asked.

"Well unless there's a secret underground floor none of the employees knew about then I'm sure of what I'm saying"

"Talk about case of the f**king week" Gary muttered.

"Were we able to recover anything useful?" I asked.

"Well we did find rooms filled with empty shells, so we can confirm that there was indeed a gunfight. We're still seeing if we can get anything from the security tapes" she said.

"What exactly did the invaders come for?" Gary asked.

"That's the fun part...." Officer Locke said

".....now no witness could say exactly, according to them the only thing they left with was the ammunitions they stole from the securities. But get this, they were looking for an entrance to a floor beneath"

"So there might be an underground floor?" Gary asked.

"Yeah, but since nobody knows how to access it we're stuck with what we can see" she said.

"Get a permit, tear down what's left of the building if you have to" I said and headed closer towards the burnt building.

"Yes sir" she replied.

I stood right at the main entrance looking up, the building eclipsed the sun. There was no other colours to be seen than shades of black, heck if the fire department had been a bit sloppy the building would have started collapsing.

"I heard it's safe to go in, you want to give it a good clean?" Gary asked. He was now standing beside me

"What do you think happened here, Gary? I'm opened to your most crazy theory" I said.

Gary was always imaginative, he was the kind of person who could read a situation make a few guesses about it and one always turns out to be true.

"I'll be honest with you. This case took the wind off my sail" he said.

"How so, I never thought that was possible" I said with a grin.

"Haven't you read the report yet?" He asked. I shook my head.

"Alright so first off, the gates were opened. In order words they were invited guest, secondly the description of the sort of weapons these people brought along with them matched revolvers and the shells found proves that"

"So they were not prepared for this?"

"Exactly, thirdly the bodies found were that of the securities, there was no other casualties." He said.

"This people, knew how to engage, they knew what they came for but somehow they burst in with no plan almost like they forgot what they came to get "

"Or they got a wrong info and hit the wrong location." I said.

"I'm guessing that means we're sticking with the 'drug deal gone wrong' theory" he said.

"How does that one sound?" I asked.

"Couple of guys decided to hit a spot, heard there was a shipment of coke or whatever the kids are into these days. So they gear up but ended up hitting the wrong joint, killed a few securities in the process and ended up burning the building as a desperate attempt to cover their a**" he said

"Naah, if it was worth getting parachutes, almost a dozen guys and stealing a truck. It definitely won't be drugs that could fit in such a truck. Speaking of the truck, any luck on finding it?" I asked.

"Well, we've successfully identified the truck from witness report. Word has been sent out, we'll hear it if anything comes up." Gary said.

"How about hard cash?" I asked.

"What?"

"I mean what if it weren't drugs, what if it was hard cash they were looking for."

"I thought they only did research here? " Gary asked.

"Well that's what we've been told so far but I'm pretty sure this guys are light years away from finding a drug that could cure cancer or anything like that"

"So cash then" Gary said, he paused for a while to think about it.

"Inside an inferno it doesn't fair better than a piece of paper" He said.

"They could have taken what they wanted and burnt the rest" I said.

"That's would make a bit of sense, maybe we need to look at the CEO's finances" Gary said.

"You honestly think we would find anything?" I asked.

"Well if its money laundering, something should show up" he said. I turned to look at the gate then back at the building.

"We need to re-interrogate those witnesses " I said.

"Right now?" Gary asked.

"No, let them go home, nothing like a good old sleep to clear your head of any misconceptions" I replied with a grin, Gary smirked back and left me to ponder on my thoughts. They were so many things we didn't know and I felt we weren't getting up to 50% of the full picture.

A few minutes later, myself and Gary left for the station, they were a few things I need sorted out. I had Gary made a list of the witnesses and where they lived, I had no plans of calling them in, instead I planned on paying them a visit.

The next day Gary picked me up, he was a bit too dressed if I may add; he was never known for owning a tie not to talk of wearing it. I on the other hand still looked like I was still recovering from the hangover a day ago.

"You ready?" Gary asked as I entered his car; he drove a black Honda civic.

"Yeah" I replied

"So where to first?" Gary asked as he gave me the list of the witnesses.

"William E. Smith, says here he lives with his family. Let's go say good morning " I replied a few seconds later.

His house was a 10 minutes drive from mine, he lived on a pretty fancy street. Most of the houses loooked identical

"Number 125 right? " Gary asked.

"Yeap, that's what it says" I replied. Gary found a parking spot and we came down from the car diligently searching for the right building.

"Over there" Gary said pointing to one of the buildings just opposite where we parked, the number 125 was engraved just by the side of the door

"Alright, let's go" I said. We got to the door and knocked, at first there was no answer so we knocked again

"Coming" A voice said.

A woman probably in her 40's opened the door, she wore an apron which cover up whatever she was wearing underneath; personally I didn't pay attention to what she was wearing.

"Is this the resident of a William Smith?" Gary asked.

"And who might you guys be?" The lady asked.

"I'm Detective Peterson, this is Detective Blair..." Gary said as we simultaneously showed her our ID's

"...is Mr. William around?"

"Y.. yes. Is there a problem officers?" she asked.

"No Ma'am, just following standard procedures, can we talk to Mr Smith? We need to ask him a few questions" I said. She released her grip on the door as she swung it open and motioned us in.

"Will?! Some officers are here to see you!" She yelled after we've entered the apartment.

"I'm coming!" a voice yelled back

"How are you guys related?" Gary asked.

"He's my husband" She replied.

"Husband? I would have definitely mistaken you for his older kid" Gary said, smiling mischievously.

I didn't pay attention to Gary's flirting, the moment I saw Mrs Smith I knew he was going to pull a stunt like that.

A middle aged man came out from one of the rooms and quickly closed the door behind him

"Mr Smith?" I asked.

"Yes, officers. Is there a problem?" He asked.

"Not yet, we just wanted to ask you some questions regarding the incident that occur at your workplace." Gary said, he had stopped flirting and now had his game face on.

"I already gave my statement"

"We know, but in light of the new evidence we've gotten we want to get a new perspective on what might have occurred" I said.

"But why me? There are other workers who were with them upstairs, I was on the ground floor when they came" Mr Smith said.

"We've been able to recover some security footage..." I said. I didn't finish the sentence I wanted him to get ahead of himself. Of course if he was smart he'd knew there was no way we could have recovered anything from that fire.

"And what does that have to do with me?" He asked.

"Look Sir, you're not in any trouble yet but if you continue hiding vital information about this investigation you could get into a whole lot of problem." Gary said

"What exactly did my husband do?" Mrs Smith who was still in the room with us asked.

"I believe he was about to share more light on it" I replied.

"W...wait, there's a mistake somewhere ok, I don't know what you people are talking about. What exactly did you see in the footage?" He asked.

His voice seemed a bit shaky but it wasn't the sort of fear of being caught. No, it felt more like shame, also there was the fact that he wasn't pushing to call for his lawyer.

I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder I turned and Gary stretch his phone in front of me, it was a text from Locke.

"Mr Smith do you know any person by the name Kevin?" I asked.

"Y...Yeah, from security. But he called sick the day of the attack" he replied.

"He was found dead in his apartment"

"W....wait, what does this has to do with my husband?" Mrs Smith jumped in.

"Ma'am can we talk to your husband in private please" Gary said, giving her a comforting smile.

She took a look at all our faces and slowly walked out.

"Kelvin worked as one of the security, so I don't believe you had the time to always chat with him" Gary said.

"He isn't really part of the security he is...or was just good with techs and we needed someone who could work the security tapes after the last guy quit" Smith said.

"Who was the last guy and why did he quit?" I asked.

"Walker was his last name I think, we never got a reason why he quit he just suddenly disappear. Look officers I have nothing new to say, I already gave my statement and..."

"Don't worry about it, we just wanted to make sure" I cut in before he could even finish and headed for the door.

I stopped right at the door, turned around

"One last thing" I said

"Do you live alone with your wife?" I asked.

"M...my kids are in boarding school so..." I didn't wait for him to finish, I pushed open the door and exited. I could hear Gary's footsteps behind me trying to catch up.

"Guess that was a waste of time huh?" Gary said as he unlock the car door.

"Not necessarily, call back Locke tell her to bring everything she can dig up on a Walker with any connections to J and J" I said as I tried to buckle my seat belt.

"What do you expect to find there?" Gary asked.

"Nothing really, I'm just a bit curious"

"Oh yeah? How come?"

"If you had a 9 to 5 job just simply archiving and monitoring video tapes. You don't really just disappear, not really" I said, after Mr Smith's house we attempted to go see another of the workers who lived close by but he wasn't home when we arrived.

On our way out Gary got a hold of Locke who was about a mile away and she decided it was best if we met her up

"Why would she want to meet up with us" I asked; we were now about 5 minutes away from the bar she wanted us to meet her in.

"I honestly don't know, I mean it was kind of weird that she texted me earlier rather than call wasn't it?" Gary asked.

We were both disturbed but since all we could see was just her text we had to go see for ourselves what was going on.

The bar's name was "the void" honestly not the name you would call a bar but it didn't seem to affect the business here. There were some few people singing karaoke while others cheered them on

"They've even got hot waiters in this place damn" Gary said.

"Over there" I said after spotting where Locke was seated. We strolled down and joined her at her table.

"Jen, what the hell?" Gary said.

"Sorry guys I cannot be seen discussing this with you guys" she said

"What do you mean you cannot be seen?" I asked.

"Some guys showed up this morning, they said it was a military investigation. Took every bit of report and evidence then just disappeared" She said

"Military? I'm guessing that would explain the parachutes and tactical combat" Gary said

"So you're telling me we've been ordered to drop the case then?" I asked.

"Yeah, but that isn't why I came here. You asked me about a guy named Walker. Well technically he was a she, Lucy Walker and she worked for J and J for a very long time, that was before she was declared missing by her boyfriend who died a week later, reports said he committed suicide." She said.

"So one disappeared, the other one dies. That an interesting story" Gary muttered.

"One what?" Locke asked.

"Walker and Kelvin, they both had the same job" I replied.

"Yeah? that's not all surprising. Wanna hear something crazy?" Locke said.

"What else can you say to make this more crazy?" Gary asked.

"Walker was ex military so when she disappeared the military also took over the investigation, of course that was after her boyfriend was discovered dead" Locke said.

There was a sort of disturbing presence at the table we sat, even with all the noise partying and karaoking going on, it felt quiet here.

"Hold on, how come we never heard about this case " I said

"She lived with her boyfriend who lived outside town." Locke said

"Kelvin wasn't ex military was he?" I asked.

"No, he wasn't" Locke replied.

"What if there was someone else who was?" I asked.

"I have checked the records of the staffs, nothing of such came up" Locke replied.

"Even the dead ones?" Gary asked.

"Well, there was the hostage the attackers took with them according to the reports we had. I never had the chance to go through her records."

"What was her name?"

"Ella I think" Locke said.

"No not Ella but Helen, remember I told you that was my grandmother's name" Gary said

"Yeah, but we are missing a surname and with the military taking over the case, it will be hard to simply find the last name" she said.

"No, it won't. We just need details about a missing person" I said

"Alright, I'll see what I can find" Locke replied. She stood up to take her leave.

"Locke? Be careful" I said as she took a step away from the table. She looked back at me, gave me a phony smile and continue heading for the exit.

I sat back on my chair and began pondering on how this day went, Gary ordered something but I didn't pay attention so I just sat there waiting for the waiter to come back while I kept pondering.