He had during the day got a clearer picture of how Jessica Hall was. He also received a few old pictures where she looked considerably better than she had done dead in her apartment. She was hot, and with all the information Adam had on hand he would have a distinct advantage if he ever tried to woo her. This information was useless now, however, and all he found out was that she was an escort/gold digger/prostitute who had passed away far too young. Since this information was just a confirmation of what they already knew Adam felt that his visit to Tamworth seemed like a waste.
For a while, Adam Smith fantasised about if he should ask for a trip to Colombia to so he could investigate the life of Miranda DiMaestro in search for clues as well. This trip would be awesome; he would do shitloads of cocaine and hit on every hot South American woman passing by! The problem was that the high command would never approve of the time and travel expenses that such a venture would consume and besides Adam Smith could not speak Spanish. Samantha Robinson had made a few inquiries over the phone though so they probably had roughly as clear pictures of the lives of both the murder victims; with Jessica Hall, they merely had more sources telling the same things.
Adam Smith kept philosophising about life and different trades one could pick and how the occupation was perceived. Adam noticed that two different risky trades were viewed opposite in the ordinary perception; the trades of prostitutes and soldiers. Both of these occupations had increased risk of death and injury, when it came to prostitutes, the most significant threats were sexually transmitted diseases and serial killers while soldiers faced the danger of getting shot in battle. Adam Smith would enjoy both of these trades, and for him, prostitution would be pretty safe, as it was unheard of female serial killers who targeted male prostitutes and Adam would never have sex with a man. Sadly the market for male prostitutes targeting the female market was tiny, and he just did not have what it took. Being a soldier, on the other hand, seemed like a viable option but apart from the killing people aspect, he could get those kicks from being a police officer in Sydney. As a policeman, he could get laid more and did not need to stay in a barrack with 15 other sweaty guys most of the time. When it came to the perception of the trades Adam Smith could not understand why prostitutes had such a bad reputation. After all, they provided a service for a lot of lonely men who would not get laid otherwise, sure it was a dangerous job, and he would not want his offspring to pursue it, but it was still an essential part of society. Soldiers, on the other hand, were glorified with public holidays and stuff but all they did was to go third world hellholes bombing the shit out of the natives using superior weaponry. Adam Smith reckoned that would be a lot of fun to do this, but he could not see the glory in it, or why the government spent billions of dollars on this annually as it did nothing to improve the lives of its everyday citizens.
With 15 minutes left of the workday, Adam Smith saw Janelle Wynyard, the sister of James Locker, coming into the pub. He could feel the blood flowing to his lower regions as she was still really hot. The fact that she was the sister of James Locker made her even hotter as Adam had fantasised countless times of being getting to know a relative of James Locker on a deeper personal level. Adam Smith did not know what it was in the concept of banging the sister of a friend that was so hot, but he guessed it was the replay value. If Adam fucked Janelle Wynyard, he would be reminded of her every time he saw James Locker which was more or less every day. For the same reason, it would be a terrible idea to have sex with someone's ugly sister as he did not need those reminders. She walked towards him and started speaking to him.
Janelle Wynyard:
- Hi, Adam! Long-time no see. How are things with you and James these days?
Adam Smith:
- Well at the moment I am bored as hell, this place is a shithole! But in general, life is good.
- With James, things seem to be picking up. We finally got him laid, and he even landed a promotion.
Janelle Wynyard:
- Oh, that's great to hear. So he is a detective now then? Who is this woman anyway?
Adam Smith:
- Yes, Detective James Locker. It's a lot of women, not just one he has been ploughing like a king lately!
Janelle Wynyard:
- Okay, that seems unlike James, but I will keep my judgment to myself.
Adam Smith:
- Well, he finally learned from the Master. Speaking of which when are we banging? Still married to the farmer?
Janelle Wynyard:
- Well, there is a higher chance you will win the $50 million OZ Lotto jackpot than I will sleep with you...
Adam Smith:
- I see, well I will get back to you when I have done that. Would be so awesome to bang the sister of James'!
- But hey I need something to write in my transcript, so James knew we met today. What can you tell me about Jessica Hall?
Janelle Wynyard:
- Well, probably the same that everyone else. An incredible physical beauty but a very vain and shallow personality. Not a personal favourite, but I guess the world would be boring if everyone were down to earth.
Adam Smith:
- Okay, so nothing new then...
- But you know what. I have a perfect solution for you, me and James.
Janelle Wynyard:
- Okay, and what is that?
Adam Smith:
- Simple. You confess the killings of Miranda DiMaestro and Jessica Hall. You'll be imprisoned in Sydney so you'll finally get out of here. James will keep his promotion as he solved the case. I'll get the opportunity to come to the prison to have sex with you. We'll all win!
Janelle Wynyard:
- Oh my god, the same old bizarre Adam. So retarded so it's funny. Oh well, I will consider it, after all, who would not sacrifice a great marriage and a good life, for a life in prison and having sex with you?!
Adam Smith:
- Thanks! Always nice seeing you. I am leaving for Sydney now, but you should come by and party someday. We are stepping things up a level; last weekend was legendary!
Having said this Adam Smith left the bar and drove towards the airport for his flight to Sydney.
5.18 Thomas Anderson requests technical assistance
IT WAS THURSDAY THE 29th of August 2013, and Thomas Anderson entered the office of Barry Itch. He was going to require from Barry that they enlisted one of his former university friends as a resource for the case. The reason for this was that hacking of the CSMI computers that the killer performed the night before. While Thomas Anderson did not like to request help as Information Technology was his specialty in the team he still felt compelled to do so as it was better for him to acknowledge he could not match the skills of the killer now, than failing and letting his failure come at a steep price. Thomas Anderson had been speaking to the most skilled IT person he knew, Wayne Bruce, who recently had sold his social network company to Facebook for $1 billion. Having sold his company Wayne Bruce was not busy at the moment, and he had been intrigued when Thomas Anderson had described the case. Since money was not an issue for Wayne Bruce, Thomas Anderson had persuaded him to help out for free instead of the excessive consultancy fee a man in his position could otherwise require. Now all Thomas Anderson had to do was to sell this concept to Barry Itch.
Thomas Anderson:
- Hi, Barry. Thank you for seeing me. I have special request to make to you in regards to the hacking of our systems that we discovered earlier today.
Barry Itch:
- Hi, Thomas. I don't know if I should applaud your initiative or complain about the fact that you are not following the chain of command. As you know, James Locker is your supervisor, and I prefer if the detectives make the requests for their specific teams. Would be too many people running back and forth to my office if every employee went straight to me.
Thomas Anderson:
- I know that, but the reason I am going through you is that I don't want to use the official channels as whoever we are dealing with has access to e
verything we got.
- Whoever we are up against are very skilled with computers as he managed to outsmart the security systems at the crime scenes and also managed to hack into our systems. I honestly have to say that he is way better than I am and that's why I am suggesting a different solution.
- Have you ever heard about Wayne Bruce?
Barry Itch:
- Well, the name rings a bell. Is that the IT billionaire who was in the newspapers last month?
Thomas Anderson:
- Exactly. I described the case summarily without giving out any classified details. He was intrigued and is happy to help out for free as he does not need money but needs something to do for a while.
- But the thing is... since whoever we are up against will probably try wiping out his trace if he knows we are after him this has to be unofficial. So what I need is you to get approval by the head of police to do an undercover operation where Wayne Bruce is given access to our files and clearance to do whatever it takes to identify the killer.
Barry Itch:
- Well, Thomas, I don't like what you are proposing, but I can still see that you have a point. However, I don't trust people before I have met them. Can you ask your friend to come by my office later today? I will make my decision then.
Thomas Anderson:
- Thank you, sir. I'll give him your contact details and tell him to call you straight away.
Thomas Anderson left the room with a feeling of relief and frustration at the same time. It was indeed a great thing that Barry Itch was considering what he was proposing instead of just giving his usual rabble about official channels and line of command. These were exceptional circumstances, and particular circumstances required specialised solutions. But what worried Thomas Anderson was that the rumours would start spreading at the station when the chief of CSMI meets up with a famous IT billionaire the day after the police system was hacked. This meeting gave clear implications on what they would be discussing, and if the killer somehow got to know about this meeting, he would understand the purpose of it. Anyway, this was partly a victory for Thomas Anderson no matter what, and now all he could hope for was that the killer would not know about the meeting and that Barry Itch would be sensible enough to realise that Wayne Bruce was the real deal when it came to solving difficult IT problems.
5.19 James Locker facing insomnia
JAMES LOCKER WAS SITTING on his couch looking at a televised Rugby League game. He was not highly involved in this game as he was not a fan of either of the teams nor had he bet any money on the match. So instead his thoughts drifted away. They had been unable to figure out the identity of the drunken man due to a strange move by John Dean. For some reason he had password protected the video showing the corridor outside Jessica Hall's apartment with a biometric password. The biometric password would not have been any problem if John Dean was actually in the office to unlock the file but sadly his daughter had one of her epileptic seizures, so John Dean had been forced to take a carer's leave to be with her. James Locker was contemplating the situation: he was unsure whether it was possible to open a password with a biometric lock without the person being there. After all, a fingerprint would be difficult just to call and ask for. Maybe Thomas Anderson knew a way to bypass a biometric password, but that would only show everyone that he did not trust John Dean which would create tensions within the team. John Dean had promised to be back by Monday and considering James Locker was not planning to put in any work during the weekend. Leaving things unresolved and blaming John Dean for not progressing on the drunken man clue suited him pretty well actually. He decided to leave things at that.
When it came to his work, some other things bothered James Locker, for instance, the hacking of their network or the message that was left to them supposedly by the killer. What kind of a person would leave such a message and make that much effort just to mess with their minds? Most killers did everything they could to get as far away from the police as possible, but this one seemed to want their attention which was very strange considering how the killings took place. Killers who wished to get attention would usually kill their victims in a very conspicuous way to make the media take a keen interest in the case. For sure these cases had had some media attention but not at all as much as they could have if the killer murdered with the intention of getting media attention. Or was the message personal and aimed at someone of them? Whoever that person might be he or she had hidden it very well during the briefing today, and James Locker had not seen any sign of someone feeling connected to the message. On another topic who was the man who came by Barry Itch's office in the afternoon? He could be some computer consultant hired to investigate the intrusion into their systems but if that was the case why had not James Locker been involved in this process? Didn't Barry Itch trust him or what would the problem otherwise be in briefing him.
Knowing he could not resolve his work-based issues now, James Locker changed scope to his more personal problems namely his sleeping issues. He was considering his options when it came to his anti-depressant as he usually called them which was a positive paraphrasing to their real purpose as anti-psychotics. The problem for him was that either he took the pill slept like a rock and woke up around 3 AM in the night still tired although he had slept enough, or he did not take them and had insomnia all night. He was unsure which was to prefer but he reckoned there has to be a middle ground, and he would discuss it with his psychologist at his next planned meeting which was next week. James Locker had a pretty severe aversion towards these meetings as he thought it was only a lot of expensive talking that just made him feel bad about himself. Or like the analogy, Adam Smith had come up with "Going to a psychologist is like going on an expensive date, with an ugly woman, who does not want to fuck." The issue with the pills, however, was a real one and James Locker would take it up next week. James Locker took up one of the pills from the jar and studied it for a while. To him, it somehow seemed that the tablet looked different than before. He could not put the finger on what's the difference was, but his intuition told him that something was strange with the pill. For a second he considered bringing the medicines to work to ask someone, but it was a risky move as he partly did not want his colleagues to know he was taking antipsychotics and partly it seemed very delusional asking around if someone could see anything strange with his pills.
Knowing that he would not be able to sleep tonight, James Locker felt very restless and wanted to do something. The problem was Thomas Anderson had not picked up the phone, and James Locker did not fancy the concept of hanging out with Adam Smith only either. Since James Locker had lived in Sydney all of his life he had other friends in the vicinity as well, but since most people in his age had settled down and reproduced there was not anyone who he would imagine to be interested in going out a Thursday night. It did not matter that much though as James Locker realised that he could not drink every time he felt bored or lonely as that would be the end of him and that was not how he pictured how his future should be. Lacking better things to do, he decided to do something intuitive and new; he decided to visit the police station gym at 9 PM. His gym session with Thomas Anderson the other night had been inspiring, and maybe the solution to better mental health was better physical health? Happy with his decision James Locker left his house for a drive towards the police station.
5.20 Adam Smith stumbles across a clue
IT WAS FRIDAY THE 30th of August, and Adam Smith was watching sports at a bar in the Central Business District close to the police station. He was annoyed by the fact that neither Thomas Anderson nor James Locker wanted to join him. Tonight was a big game as it was the 23rd and final round of the AFL deciding whether Sydney Swans would reach the finals or not. Not that Adam Smith was a great fan of any team, but he was a great fan of drinking and tonight it was a 50/50 chance that it would be an awesome party and that was odds he liked.
Adam Smith was reflecting on the reasons the others had given not to join this party. Apparently, James
Locker had been at the gym four hours straight last night before he finally collapsed from exhaustion. A four-hour gym session seemed like a bizarre thing to do between 9 PM and 1 AM, but since James Locker had assured him of his presence in the Central Sydney Laser Tag championship the following day, Adam Smith did not worry too much about this. But when it came to Thomas Anderson who apparently was hanging out with his mysterious hookup, Adam Smith could not stop thinking about it, and it drove him crazy that he did not know who he/she/it was.
In Adam Smith’s world there could be three reasons why Thomas Anderson was refusing to tell with whom he was exchanging bodily fluids:
Thomas Anderson had finally converted to homosexuality. In many ways, this made sense as Thomas Anderson was a bit frail and feminine/ metrosexual. It was not a good scenario though because if Thomas Anderson converted to gayism, he would probably want to hang out at gay bars. This situation was terrible as gay bars were lame! Instead of promoting themselves with cheap drinks and big screen TV-s with a variety of sporting events they were promoting themselves with male strippers or trannies singing. The drinks were also costly. All in all, Adam Smith saw no reason why he would want to hang out in gay bars so in case of Thomas Anderson had converted he would have to find a replacement which was a bummer since Thomas Anderson was his best friend.
James Locker- The Duality of Fate Page 14