Young Squatters

by London, Blair

  “An I.P., sir is an identity of a computer, like a driving license identifies you. Uniquely. In short, I was able to track the computer used that day, and thankfully enough they had video surveillance, and guess who was caught on camera that specific day and time? Bradford!”

  Forbes spoke out in both amazement and relief. The Bradford kid was not going to see this coming, he was sure of that. Colin had just helped solve the case. The law would soon bring down Bradford. He smiled as he watched the tape.

  ***

  The surveillance video caught him in all dimensions known to man. It was no doubt that it was Bradford inside the cyber café committing the crime. “We have him right on the crime scene, son. I will need the video footage for validity purposes.”

  “No problem sir, you can have it for I have another copy at home.”

  “You have done a great job son, and one day you will become a brilliant forensic analyst if that is something in line with your interests.”

  Colin smiled a smile of appreciation knowing very well he deserved such a compliment.

  Forbes had to make sure the tape was legal, as he really had to be sure this time around since the Bradford kid had beaten him in his own game once, and he was not going to let that happen again. He asked Colin to go with him to the cyber café that he used to collect the surveillance footage.

  On the way Colin told him how he met Bradford and the friendship ties that led to all this mess. Colin was happy, having met someone who at least understood what he was going through. Forbes wanted to make sure that no other innocent victim would have to suffer due to the likes of people like Bradford.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The sky was clear, the roads clear, and the sirens of racing police cars were clear of their destination. Forbes was the lead driver as he led his pack toward the capture of a criminal. Bradford had managed to fool the police once, and he wasn’t about to let that happen again.

  The police cars squealed. Forbes led the formation to the house with an arrest warrant in hand as he knocked on the door. “Good afternoon, we are looking for Mr. Bradford.”

  Before Harper could even utter a single word he shoved himself inside the house with the warrant in hand. They searched each and every room in the house.

  Forbes then asked Harper: “Where is your boyfriend ?”

  “He is my fiancé,” she answered.

  “Okay, but we still need to know where he is”

  “I do not know sir, he left this morning and I have not seen him since,” she carefully constructed her words so as not to arouse any form of suspicion.

  “Okay, do you know when he might be back?”

  “I do not know, sir. He is his own time keeper” she insisted.

  Forbes sat in a police car to be on the lookout in case Bradford decided to show up.

  Harper was scared, not knowing what sort of trouble Bradford got himself into this time. She wanted to call him to deliver a prior update on the situation, but was too afraid of Forbes. He had his eye on her.

  The evening was calm and too quiet than normal for Bradford. He was unsettled, as if something was going to happen, but he could not put his finger on it. “Maybe it’s nothing,” he said to himself as he increased his pace to be home earlier with his fiancé.

  As he approached the house, he caught a glimpse of a police car that was surveying his house from a distance, and quickly froze before he could make a full appearance on the scene. Something was clearly wrong.

  Harper. The poor sheep did not know how to survive in the world of wolves. Did he teach her well? He must have prepared her for the worst. Abe had managed to disappear, but if he knew what was good for him, he would never show up near this town again.

  Maybe Bradford should have considered job searching like Harper wanted him to. To him jobs were for losers. He went an extra mile to find a castle for his lovely Harper, and now it was under threat. He feared for Harper; she would have to go back to her abusive environment of her mother and the many boyfriends wanting a piece of both of them. He needed an exit plan.

  Forbes patience was coming to an end. He briefly interrogated Harper about the acquisition of the house through Craigslist, but she was a good student of Bradford’s teachings. She knew very well that she was to play the victim and not the suspect, and that is exactly what she did.

  “I am sorry sir, but my husband handled all the paperwork. I am not too familiar with the legal issues, as all I did was take a back seat sir,” she innocently defended herself.

  “Your husband acquired this house illegally, and he is a suspect in a very vicious cyber-crime and we will need to bring him in for questioning. As for your current home status, I am sorry to say that you will have to move from the house by morning, as the real owners of this house will be moving back.”

  Harper was speechless. Tears were clouding her eyes.

  “Where the hell is Bradford when you need him?” She shouted in her rage. You promised me Bradford, you promised me a better life away from the hurt and guilt and now you must keep to the end of your bargain.”

  By then Forbes was long gone, taking the good news to Nora; a woman whose limits of hope were at its end. He was human, after all, for he gave Harper a night to get her affairs in order for by morning he was sure Nora would beat the sunrise back to her home

  ***

  The night was quiet, and Belinda was late from work again for the second consecutive week. Nora was a brilliant timekeeper as she liked to characterize everyone in her life based on their time and organizational skills. The newly acquired character of Belinda seemed to upset her. She did not know why but she had an idea. They had extended their visit in Belinda’s household for too long and she was beginning to doubt the temporary accommodations.

  Belinda was not a heartless person but was slightly upset by Nora’s characterized behavior as she thought of it as too compromising. She did not understand why she had to rely so much on Nick so much, that good for nothing, as she liked to refer to him. She should step up like she did and become a fierce goddess like she had managed to prove herself to Ben, making him feel like he was the one that was married to her and not the other way around.

  Maybe it was the reason why she stayed out so late after work just trying to avoid some level of confrontation with Nora. She was too frank to everyone and that was why Ben feared her, making him look like a child in front of everyone.

  Nora was deep in her thoughts, the thoughts that took her too far away from the painful reality. It was a safe haven for her as she could construct the nature of events only she could control and understand. Before she could drown further, a polite knock on the door was the one thing that brought her back to her senses. Ben was busy on the computer and she saw herself as the only idle suspect at home and therefore had to answer the door.

  “Good evening ma’am. Name’s Forbes, and you must be Nora right? I have been handling your husband’s case and am glad to inform you there is some level of progress on the case.”

  The words should have been music to her ears, but she was upset at herself and the Forbes guy. She had no expressive response to the report brought by Forbes but he continued anyway.

  “I also have some positive feedback about the situation of your home. I mean your previous residence.”

  The report now sounded more like a musical tone to Nora’s ears as she literally dragged Forbes inside the house with words of excitement.

  “Please, what news do you have of my home? Have you finally managed to get the intruders out of my house?” she went on.

  “Not really ma’am, but the house will be yours by morning. We have to go through some clearance protocol, but be sure to be in your house by sundown tomorrow.”

  This was the kind of news Nora wanted to hear, but she could not wait for sundown as she wanted her and her kids to have breakfast in their house since it was the beginning of a kind weekend.

  “Oh thank you sir, what a relief this news will be to my kids, and here I thought I
was becoming a homeless person.”

  “Things in life always have a way of fixing themselves, ma’am.” Forbes tried to comfort her in the glimpse of the excitement. He had solved a piece of the puzzle, but that was not the real deal, for he wanted more. He wanted to take down Bradford for drug charges, but Nora’s family just happened to be in the middle of the mess he was cleaning up.

  Colin came through the door and was surprised to see Forbes.

  “You have a very bright son, ma’am, as he was able to assist us in resolving the conflict in your case. He provided us with key evidence that was able to alienate the obstacles that were standing in the way of this case.” She even felt more guilt drown inside her. Here her son was working on a solution to bring the family back together when all she did was complain all day long about what Nick did or what he could have done. She felt more of a kid than Colin was because his maturity level toward the situation surpassed hers. She couldn’t be more proud of him. She informed Colin of her plan to beat the sunrise to their home and that just made the night more interesting for him. They were to be back home by morning, but Nick was not in the picture. Forbes promised her that her husband would be out in no time. The news was comforting and was enough to sleep on that night.

  Colin quickly ran up the stairs with the good news to tell Clara. “We are going home!”

  “Now? But it is dark outside!”

  “Not now silly, early in the morning. Mom said we’ll have our breakfast there like old times.”

  “What about daddy, will we be seeing him any time soon? I really miss him, Colin,” she complained.

  “Not to worry. I miss him too, we all do, and in no time we will be back at our home as one big family.”

  Clara was finally satisfied with the response from her big brother and she happily jumped on him for a hug.

  ***

  Nora was busy moving the last of her belongings into the car as she hurried Colin and Clara to be ready. Life was giving control back to her as it had a change of heart. She went back inside to bid farewell to Belinda and Ben. She had been exiled for six months now from her dear home and this would be the homecoming. Belinda was not only happy for her sister, but relieved. Ben on the other hand was sad to see them leave; he was so attached to Nora. They had managed to be good friends in ways they both thought could have never been possible. It was time to move on with life but they were still a family and meeting again every once in a while for a get together was never going to be an issue.

  Bradford knew he was a wanted man. This Forbes guy had managed to ruin his paradise and he did not know the reason behind his actions. He was a fighter and never backed down from any fight, but now he had to pick his fights carefully. He knew what he was fighting for and at this point all his cards were on the table for Harper. He had made arrangements for a moving van to come for Harper and their things, as he watched from a safe distance.

  Harper was struggling to get every of their belongings together before the neighborhood caught a glimpse of her. She knew very well that she should be out of the house before the first ray of sunlight. The neighborhood housewives were another nightmare for her and it would really be a good day if she made it out without one of them realizing her departure.

  She had especially made an enemy out of the Parker woman who was recently taking note of each and every move of hers. They had managed to find out where she went for her internship and almost got her in trouble with her employer, was it not for the fact that he did not prey on gossip like they all did. He was a good man, and she remained with a single month in the company before she could be placed in another job. As she took the last of their belongings to the car, she turned back for a last glance of what could have been her dream home, but the dream was never truly hers. It was a stolen dream and deep inside her heart she must have known something like this was not possible

  She turned away from the present memory as she was now determined to walk away from all this and find a safe haven somewhere else, but not sure where. Bradford must have had a plan for her, he was her guardian angel and she had to have some level of faith in him. Before she could fade from the view, Nora’s car was already in sight and she felt energy leave her body. She had to clear from the scene before Nora put her claws on her. To Harper, Nora was the queen of all the deranged women she had met ever since her existence in that house. Nora was quick to unpack her car as she made an approach toward Harper as if to bid her farewell.

  “What the hell are you still doing here you whore?” Nora yelled as she tried to keep up with her pace.

  Harper could not take it; the scene she was trying so hard to avoid was already in site. She ran screaming at the truck driver to start the vehicle. The neighborhood was slowly adjusting to the current change of events with Millie Parker being the first one to come out of her house.

  “You should be in jail; that is where you belong. You just wait until I get my hands on you,” Nora yelled.

  “Welcome back neighbor” Millie smiled at the scene Nora had caused as she waved frantically. Nora waved back. She quickly hurried the kids out of the car now remembering and feeling embarrassed due to the scene she had caused. She should have known better how to conduct herself in front of the kids, but they seemed to understand the scenario. They cut her some well-deserved slack.

  The lawn was lazily nurtured and Nora compared it to the skills Nick used to keep it nice. The house looked like it was hit by a hurricane. Nothing was in order. Bottles of alcohol were everywhere in the living room and the trash had not been taken out for days.

  “Roaches!” she murmured to herself.

  Clara was complaining of the mess in her room. Colin was not happy about the writings on the wall of his room. Nora knew very well there would be some fixing to be done in case she ever wanted the house to be like it was.

  She was proud of her kids; of how strong they had been throughout the whole ordeal. Colin had been impressive, having brought a great ray of hope back into their lives and she was sure of making it up to him one of the fine days. She searched through the telephone directory and dialed Sarah’s number, hoping she would be willing to come and offer them some assistance. To her surprise, Sarah was busy searching for employment after a previous monthly contract that was terminated. She was more than glad to be rehired by a familiar face for she had run out of alternatives of where to go next.

  Sarah arrived only to find them still stacked up with their belongings, as no one was willing to unpack anything until the house was cleaned. Sarah knew exactly where to begin for this was her territory. Colin and Clara went to the backyard.

  ***

  Harper felt a sigh of relief having evaded the madwoman Nora. She did not understand where the truck driver was taking her, but anywhere was a destination to her so long as it did not involve the presence of Nora. She was led to a rental apartment downtown where she was helped to unpack several of her belongings inside. It seemed like Bradford had it all figured out when it came to her, but still it felt like she was learning things she didn’t know about him.

  He was now this ghost that did not want to show up in public but only lived in the shadows. She opted for a morning stroll in order to clear her head of the recent drama. She then heard a voice behind her, which caused her heart to skip a beat.

  “Where the hell have you been Bradford? Leaving me worried sick to my stomach and now the police are looking for you everywhere.”

  Bradford gently zipped her mouth with his hands, not wanting her to draw any more attention.

  “I am okay love, I just need you to assure me that you got the letter I left at the reception desk.”

  “I have the letter but I am yet to read it. Just tell me what is in it.”

  “When you read it you will understand. Listen Harper, my presence of even talking to you is a risk to your well-being because I do not want anything to do with the house issue coming back to you”

  “Okay, I understand” Harper replied.

  “You m
ight not be hearing from me in a while just promise me to follow up on the letter and every instruction written and everything will be alright.”

  “Okay, Bradford, you just make sure that you come back for me.”

  She quickly gave him a goodbye kiss and a hug when she realized he was about to leave the public scene. She never wanted him to leave but there was no other way.

  The two love birds were busy saying their goodbyes when the words freeze police! were heard. He could have made a run for it, but he had someone dear to protect and all he could do was just raise both of his hands up in astonishment.

  She grasped the letter tightly in her hand as she proceeded to the newly rented apartment, desperate for some level of privacy so she could read the letter from Bradford.

  ***

  Nick was a happy man, slightly pleased with his endurance skills in the prison chambers. He was now a free man and as the prison gates opened to release him once again to the world, it felt like a second chance to do right by his children. The incident with the kid Bradford was more of a lesson than a challenge to him.

  Life in prison taught him a lot, and he could not afford to be angry at anyone even if the dismissal of his case led to his freedom. This taught himself the virtue of appreciation.

  ***

  Harper carefully opened the sealed envelope with tears now oozing through her eyes as if trying to prevent her from revealing the only words of connection left between her fiancé and her. The letter was brief and straight to the point, just like typical Bradford.