by Sijal Aziz
Then they looked at each other and Derek said, “I can bet that my news is better than yours, but you go first”
Kate ran over to her computer and signaled Derek to follow her with her hand.
Derek followed her with a smile on his face. Her excitement was intoxicating.
Here, I found your motive detective. Cooper was married to Jasmine Abdali and she was killed by an American drone that was targeting terrorists.
Derek looked at Kate and then at the file in his hand, “That is great Kate. I just found out something more. Besides being married to Jasmine, Cooper was about to become a father. Jasmine was pregnant with his child”
“That is sad. But you have your motive detective. Now you can search his laptop”
“Before I do that. I wanted to tell you something. I need to bring captain up to speed on the case now. Without him, I cannot get a warrant for Cooper”
“What if the captain doesn’t want to investigate Cooper”, Kate asked worried.
Derek put his hand on her arm and said, “He will investigate Cooper. Because this case is bigger than anything any department has ever handled, and the captain wants to become the next chief of police. So, there is nothing to worry about”
“So, I am free now”
“No. There are a number of things in the case that we still cannot explain like when and where Cooper wants to use the backdoor or who killed Ian Richards or Matthew Raymond”, Derek couldn’t bring himself up to say your boyfriend.
“But don’t you have enough evidence to get me off the hook, on Matt’s murder?”
“Kate, please hold on for just a little longer. We will do this together”
“Ok. I have waited for so long. I can wait more. Thank you for everything”, Kate said putting her hand on Derek’s hand that was on her arm.
“I could not have done this without your help”, Derek said looking deeper into Kate’s eyes and moving closer to her.
Derek then took both of Kate’s hands in his and continued, “In all my years as a detective, I have never come across someone who is brave enough to do what you have done and I have never come across anyone who is as beautiful as you are”
Kate looked up at Derek’s face and for a moment both of them were swept away in the moment. Derek leaned forward and they were about to kiss when Derek’s phone rang. The spell was broken. Derek let go off Kate’s hands and Kate stepped back.
Derek looked at his phone. It was the station.
“I guess I have to go back to the station”
“Thank you for everything Derek”
Derek looked deep into Kate’s eyes and said, “Always!”
Then he turned around and headed to the door and said without turning around, “Now for the hard part. I need to bring captain up to speed on this! Let’s see how that goes”
He opened the door and made his way down the stairs. Simon was waiting at the platform between the first and second flight of stairs.
As soon as he heard footsteps, he started climbing the stairs. He deliberately bumped into detective Derek and then apologized with an “excuse me”.
He knew that if he bumped into the detective, he wouldn’t give him a second thought. As no one suspects someone who bumps into them. People suspect those who are trying to hide from them.
CHAPTER 27
Since Simon didn’t hear detective Markus coming from the third floor, therefore he knew that the detective was at the second floor. Simon made his way to the second floor. There were 15 rooms on the second floor.
He guessed that many of the rooms would be rented by the hour. So, he needed to tick them off the list and focus on the rooms that were not rented by the hour.
After staying there and walking around the hallway and stairs for four hours, Simon worked out that 12 rooms were pay by the hour rooms, used by prostitutes and the remaining three had permanent guests in them.
He was standing near the stairs when he saw a woman coming out of room 202, one of the rooms with permanent guests. She did not see him.
She was normal looking with sloppy hair but something about her caught his eye. She was carrying a laptop bag. Of all the people he had seen in the dump in the past four hours, none of them had any laptops.
Simon went down the stairs immediately making sure that Kate had not seen him. Then he went to his van and sat down in it. Kate came outside, looked around and then headed straight for the diner. Simon kept an eye on her until she had entered the diner and then got out of the car and went to the diner.
He opened the door and saw Kate sitting at one of the tables. He went behind Kate and sat with his back to her back.
A waitress appeared at his side as he was about to turn his phone camera on, “What can I get for you honey?” Simon did not like being called a honey by a middle-aged fat waitress, but this was no place to make a scene.
He smiled politely and said, “Can you please bring me a hamburger and some coffee?”
“Sure, anything else?”
“No, that’s it”
When the waitress left, Simon turned on the front camera of his phone and put it in front of him. He could see Kate’s back but that was not enough he needed to see what she was doing. He had to think of something quick. Kate was working on her laptop.
He called out to the waitress, “Hey miss, my girlfriend wants me to send her a selfie. Is there a rule against taking selfies in the diner?”
Kate turned to look at the waitress too. She did not look at Simon though.
The waitress replied, “No honey you can do whatever you want here. There are no rules here as long as you pay”, she winked at Simon. Simon cringed at the thought of paying the waitress for sex.
Kate smiled and went back to work.
She liked the waitress. Her name was Betty and they said hello to each other whenever Kate visited the diner. Betty was making a little money on the side by sleeping with customers. Kate had seen her a couple of times in her motel with men half her age.
Simon picked up his cellphone, turned the video on and started recording what Kate was doing on her laptop. He made a video for one minute and headed to the diner counter, “I don’t want to eat here. Can I have the hamburger and coffee to go please?”
“Sure”, said the manager and shouted, “Betty, the customer doesn’t want to eat here. Make his hamburger and coffee to go”
“Ok”, Betty shouted from the kitchen.
After a couple of minutes Betty brought out Simon’s order, he paid and left. He headed straight for his van at the motel. He connected his phone to his laptop and played the video he had just recorded.
He zoomed in on Kate’s laptop screen. It looked like she was searching for Alexander Cooper on her laptop.
So, it was Katherine Hawkins after all. But she looked completely different. It was no wonder the police couldn’t find her. Then another question entered his mind, if the police were trying to catch her, what the fuck was detective Markus doing with her?
It was 10 o Clock. He dialed Alexander Cooper’s number, but he did not pick up the phone. He decided to call him in the morning.
Simon then went around the motel with his camera and waited for Kate to come back to the diner. He took her pictures and then went inside his van again. He had had a long day and he was tired. But it was nothing $3 million dollars won’t fix. If Cooper had not told him that he would kill Hawkins himself, Simon would have been done with the assignment already.
He would have to work an extra day because of Cooper, but he didn’t mind since he was paying him a lot. While driving home, he started making plans of how he would spend his $3 million. He would definitely upgrade his truck and then take a long holiday with prostitutes in Bangkok. Nobody asked any questions if anyone of them turned up dead there. It was his favorite holiday spot. Simon was still in his white van and he hoped that he would not be pulled over by the traffic police.
Detective Derek started working on the report, to present to Captain Todd in the morning. H
e knew captain Todd will be angry at him for keeping the facts from him, but once Derek will tell him about Kate, he would be relieved that Derek had located her.
Also, Derek knew that captain Todd would be intrigued by the idea of launching an investigation into Alexander Cooper. Because if Alexander Cooper was the culprit it would mean a good deal of publicity for the captain and maybe a promotion. Derek just hoped that Kate would not be put in jail in the process.
Kate’s last thoughts were of Derek when she went to sleep.
Simon tried calling Alexander Cooper at 7 in the morning, but he still didn’t pick up the phone. Simon sent an empty email to Alexander Cooper’s personal email account with only the word “Urgent” in the subject line.
Detective Derek worked on the report all night long. He was on his 6th cup of coffee when captain Todd walked into the station. Derek went straight to the captain’s room.
“Captain, I have located Katherine Hawkins but there is something else you should know”
Captain Todd didn’t trust detective Markus. He knew the detective had something up his sleeve. He did not want to lose his job over the detective.
“If you have located Hawkins, why aren’t you gathering a team to arrest her?”
“Captain she has decided that she will voluntarily come to the station today”
Captain Todd was not having any of it. He did not want Katherine Hawkins to come to the station willingly.
He wanted to stand in front of the TV crews and tell them that they had caught her, “Not on my watch, I want you to get a team together and arrest her”
“Captain there is something else you should know before we can do that”
“Out detective”, boomed captain Todd with the angry face of a guy who wanted to kill someone but couldn’t.
“Captain if you can just listen to me, you could be the most decorated captain in Washington Police Department, responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Americans”
The anger on captain Todd’s face gave way to interest. Saving thousands of Americans would mean he could become the chief of police, hell no, he could become the mayor, even the president of United States.
“Sit down detective. Now explain in detail what you have just said”
It took detective Derek an hour to explain everything to the Captain as he kept on interrupting him with questions.
At the end of the hour captain Todd was quiet for about five minutes, “Ok. This is what I want you to do. I want you to get a team together and …”
“I told you already captain, Kate, I mean Katherine Hawkins is handing herself in willingly”
“Don’t interrupt detective”
“Yes, sir”
“As I was saying, I want you to get a team together and give a safe escort to Katherine Hawkins into the police station.
After you have read her, her Miranda rights, and formally arrested her. Take her to the investigation room and take down her statement. Then I will place a call to the DA and bring him into the loop on this…”
“Captain, I would never have been able to come this close to solving this mystery if it wasn’t for Katherine Hawkins. Can you please make sure that the DA doesn’t send her to jail?”
“I will see what can be done. Now we need to trade carefully on this as we have no direct evidence linking Cooper to any of this. Having said that, since the murders were committed and there is a strong possibility that someone out there wants to use the drone policing program as a tool to carryout terrorist activities, we need to look deeper into it as lives of people depend upon this”
“Yes, captain”
“Ok, now go get Katherine Hawkins”
Detective Derek left the captain’s office. He called Kate on her cellphone.
“Hello”
“This is Derek”
“I know. You are the only one who has this number”
“I hope you were not sleeping?”
“No, I was awake. Did you report to the captain?”
“This is what I am calling about. The captain has agreed to launch an investigation into this whole thing. I will be on my way to come and get you as soon as I put an escort together for you”
“What do you mean come and get me? Shouldn’t I come to the station?”
“No, the captain thinks it’s safer for you this way. Once you are here you can hand yourself over to me. I mean, hand yourself over to the police.”
“I would prefer if I can hand myself over to you Derek”
“In that case, I better get back to work. See you in an hour”
Alexander Cooper read the email from Simon and called him right away.
“Hello”
“Yes, sir. I have located Katherine Hawkins”
“Ok. Give me her address”
Simon gave him the address and then continued, “Don’t you want me to be there to take care of things once you are done?”
Alexander Cooper wanted to kill Katherine Hawkins with his bare hands. But he also wanted the body to disappear, so the police didn’t launch an investigation into the murder. He hated her for almost ruining his plan to avenge Jasmine and his child’s death.
“Ok. Meet me outside the motel in half an hour”
“Also Mr. Cooper, I saw detective Derek Markus visiting Katherine Hawkins”
Alexander could feel his whole plan slipping out of his hands, “We will take care of the detective later. First, we need to get rid of Katherine, do you still have your van with you?”
“Yes, sir”
“Ok. I don’t want to leave any proof that Hawkins was murdered. So, we will take her in your van to somewhere and I will murder her there and you can get rid of the evidence”
“No problem”
“Ok. Make sure you are waiting for me outside the motel when I reach there”
“Ok, sir. I am already on my way”
CHAPTER 28
Alexander Cooper hurried to the parking lot and took out his car. He drove straight to his storage space. Took out his motorcycle, put a helmet on and was on his way to the motel to kill Katherine Hawkins.
He went over his plan again in his mind. Simon’s van would come in handy as he was not taking his car. He had liked Simon’s van the first time he had seen it. Simon worked in an organized and efficient way and during their first meeting, when Alexander Cooper wanted to know what resources he had at hand, Simon had shown him his van. Alexander liked it that Simon made use of the latest technology and was not an old school assassin.
Detective Derek put in a request for an escort to drive Kate and was awarded one right away thanks to Captain Todd. He left the same time Alexander left from his storage space.
Simon was the first one to reach the motel. He parked on the side of the motel and started waiting for Alexander Cooper to arrive. He hoped that Katherine Hawkins was still inside. This was the first time Simon was working on a mission like this.
So far, none of his clients had ever wanted to murder the subjects themselves. Alexander Cooper really must hate Katherine Hawkins to be willing to do this himself, he thought. Simon didn’t mind as long as he got his money.
He sensed that Cooper wanted to murder detective Derek next. Simon had never killed a cop. But if Alexander Cooper was willing to double what he was paying for Hawkins then Simon would think about taking on this unique assignment.
Alexander Cooper reached the motel and started looking around for Simon. Simon saw the bike come and park into the front of the motel, the rider was wearing a helmet. When the Cooper took his helmet off, Simon got out of the van and made his way over to Alexander Cooper.
“Before we go in, Mr. Cooper, you need to know the plan”
“What plan, we go in, get that bitch and take her away in your van, to her final resting place”
“No, sir, the reception window is manned by a boy. I will take care of the boy, while you go upstairs to the second floor and wait for me outside room 202. Please do not enter the room unless I am there. If
we don’t want to leave any loose ends, we have to stick to this plan”
“Ok”
“They went in the lobby together. The boy was behind the window. Talking to some customers. Alexander Cooper made his way up to the second floor and waited as per Simon’s instructions. Alexander Cooper hadn’t thought of any plan since he was blinded by rage. He liked the way Simon worked. He thought about everything.
When the boy was finished with the customers, Simon reached the window, “Hi there, it’s me again”
“I can see that”, the boy said in an uninterested tone.
Simon looked around to see if he was alone and then carefully took out his gun.
“What do you want this time?”
“The same thing I wanted the last time”, Simon aimed the gun at the boy’s head and pulled the trigger, “To kill you”
The last thing the boy saw was a gun with a silencer pointed at his face. He slumped back in his chair by the force of the bullet with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Simon would have enjoyed torturing the boy first, but he didn’t have time.
Simon calmly walked over to the door on the side of the reception, opened it and went inside. He picked up the boy’s body from the chair and hid it under the counter. Then he got out the reception and made sure that nothing from visible from the front of the reception window. Once satisfied. He went upstairs.
Alexander Cooper was pacing in front of room, “What took you so long?”
“Mr. Cooper, I know how to do my job and I like to do it well. Please trust me”
Alexander Cooper knew Simon was right, but time was of the essence. They didn’t know when detective Markus would appear again, so they needed to finish this quick.
“Ok. Let’s get on with it”
Simon rapped on Kate’s door.
Kate took a deep breath, put on her jacket, picked up her laptop and opened the door, hoping to see Derek.
Simon immediately pushed her inside. Kate fell back on the carpet. Alexander Cooper and Simon entered the door and closed it behind them. Kate screamed for help, Alexander Cooper kicked Kate in the ribs and then followed with two more blows. Kate tried to open her mouth to scream again but Alexander Cooper bent down and punched Kate in the face. Kate looked around for something to hit Cooper with, but her laptop had fallen some feet away from her. She decided that under the circumstances, it was best to keep quiet.