8
Relieved she didn’t drive a car, Sarah parked her bike across the road from Edgar Ellis’s house the next morning. A van of the Federal Arson Detection Bureau, several civilian cars, and two camera crews from the local television station were already parked in front of the house. Red and white striped tape at the damaged front door prohibited unauthorized people from entering the residence. The fire had destroyed more than half of the house. A uniformed officer was guarding the place.
When Sarah climbed the steps leading to the front door, the officer stopped her. He allowed her to pass once she showed him her badge. A penetrating smell lingered in the house; it filled her airways the moment she stepped over the threshold.
Sarah walked through the rubble towards a senior officer of the FADB. She showed her ID.
“Leo Taoldo.”
“Any survivors”? Sarah inquired.
“We salvaged a charred body, it will be hard to identify him. All what’s left of the guy is a pile of burned bones.”
“His dental records might determine whether it is Ellis. Do you mind if I have a look around?” Sarah asked.
She walked through the rubble when her eyes spotted something glittering. She bent over to investigate the object at a closer range. The officer of the FADB moved to another part of the building. Using a pincer to pick up the object Sarah realized that she found a piece of glass. She took an evidence bag out of her jeans pocket to deposit the object.
She knew she’d done everything she could; Sarah gave the officer her business card and said, “Please call me at this number if you have any information about the person who lived here.”
“I am not sure if I can do that, I’ve got orders from above.” Taoldo put both his hands in his trouser pockets; one of them held a key he’d found amidst the debris in the house
“So have I, and I ask you to work together with me, I want to catch whoever is behind this crime as soon as possible,” Sarah commented.
It dawned on her the man was refusing to cooperate. Quickly she glanced around the house but decided to leave him in charge of the arson investigation.
Outside Sarah turned on the engine of her bike. Driving away, people stared at her.
Not aware her bike caused the commotion, Sarah continued driving. Shocked by a loud bang five minutes later, she parked the Kawasaki on the pavement and took her helmet off. She couldn’t believe it when she noticed the black smoke emerging from the exhaust. Not to mention the terrible noise the machine produced. Ashamed, Sarah turned off the engine.
Now she understood why people had turned their heads. She rang the garage so they could pick up the bike. Next, she called her friend Jose Mendez to give her a lift. In the meantime Sarah took her gear off her bike. With the traffic passing by and the sun climbing, she felt hot in her leather jacket. Since she didn’t need the piece of clothing any longer, she took it off. Ten minutes later, a blue Toyota pulled up along the curb. Sarah quickly hopped into the car. The motorists behind them were already getting impatient.
“What happened to your bike?” Jose inquired concentrating on the busy traffic.
“Something with the exhaust, I believe. Listen can you drop me off at my colleague’s house? I need to see him urgently.” Sarah knew what her friend’s answer would be. She knew Jose couldn‘t say no to her. Jose just smiled and listened to her.
With the car’s roof up, the wind blew through his black curls. Sarah’s face became hidden by her own dark windswept tresses.
“There is a hair band in the glove compartment,” Jose offered.
Without hesitation, Sarah looked through the glove compartment. Between all sorts of stuff, she found a brown elastic band. With her hair bundled into a ponytail, she smiled gently at Jose.
“That’s much better.”
“Does your colleague live far out of town?” Jose asked.
“About five miles, there is a bus stop at a crossroads. I can take the bus from there when I go back to town
Garnham hated getting up early in the morning the world was so different at that time of day. The noises were louder, it felt like there was cotton wool inside his head, and his legs were like lead. He wished he could go back to bed and sleep for another couple of hours. He just didn’t function properly before 11 a.m. However the importance of the case didn’t allow him to. To wake up he filled the espresso machine
He switched on the computer while he waited for the coffee machine to percolate. He witnessed his six-year-old red tomcat cleaning himself on the old wicker chair.
Beside it stood flowers pots full of blooming Dahlia’s and Anemones. Garnham turned to view the computer screen after he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He hated the thing. He scanned through the data, he’d discovered Ellis never been convicted, except for a few parking tickets he was clean. The tomcat had moved from its chair outside and was sitting beside him. The cat pushed his body against Garnham’s leg, he bend down to pet the animal, feeling its soft fur.
Just finishing his second cup of coffee, a blue Toyota drove down the driveway, when it stopped a woman with dark long hair stepped out of the passenger’s seat. The driver reversed the car, made a three point turn, then drove off again.
Reluctantly Garnham opened the door for his unexpected visitor.” What brought detective Wolters to his home?
Sarah followed him through the hall into the kitchen. She said, “I’m sorry to disturb you Cedric, but there have been new developments.” Meanwhile, he poured coffee.
“One or two sugars?”
“None at all.”
“Tell me what’s so important?” Garnham placed two steaming hot mugs of coffee on the table.
“You don’t mind if I smoke do you?” Not waiting for a reply, Garnham took a cigarette from a packet which lay on the table. Holding the Marlboro between his lips, he lit it.
“I just returned from Edgar Ellis’s residence. Apparently, someone committed an arson attack on his house. The place is basically destroyed.”
“Any sign of the man”? Garnham blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke.
“They found a body, but it was too burned to identify.” Sarah took a sip of her coffee, tasting the liquid; she found it terribly bitter; her host certainly liked his coffee strong.
In the meantime, Garnham struggled to find an easier position on the hard kitchen chair, unable he suggested, “Let’s move into the living room.”
Glasses from the previous evening stood on a small table. Hastily, Garnham took a few magazines from a chair before he offered it to Sarah.
“So we have to wait for the results of the autopsy” Garnham spoke the words slowly.
“Whoever torched the house couldn’t have been very clever, they left a gas can behind. Do they want to be found, or are they just plain arrogant?” Sarah asked, talking more to herself than to her colleague.
“The fire in the house has destroyed most evidence. One can buy this type of petrol can in any hardware store or gas station, nothing special. I have the feeling the kid you found at the car dump might somehow be involved in the matter too.”
“It is a possibility,” Garnham’s brows furrowed. He straightened his back against his chair. He was breathing slowly through his nose. For a moment his gaze roved over her curves, than he lifted his eyes towards the ceiling.
She noticed his mental effort, “The lad stole the Ford. Let us assume for now he stole it from Ellis’s drive way. This must have been either before or after the house got torched.”
Garnham tugged at his ear and pulled on his cigarette. A few seconds later smoke appeared from his nose. “So that means the lad set fire to the house and subsequently took off in Ellis’s car. How convenient, nobody at home and a getaway car for a bonus.”
“It looks as if Ellis left his car there on purpose.”
“Are you saying he hired somebody to stage his own disappearance? Then the body in his house must be someone else. You seem to know how the whole thing happened, perhaps you are involved yourself.” Garnham peered quizzed at his colleague.
“Don’t you start,” Sarah warned. “You know perfectly well I’m not a criminal.”
“Yeah, but you’re an arrogant bitch with tunnel vision,” Garnham retorted.
“I know I’m on the right track, but you are simply jealous. I want to go even further, Ellis might have been the one who torched his own house,” Sarah remarked.
“Ok, let’s assume for a moment Ellis did in fact burn his own house down and ordered the lad to get rid of his car. Do you believe the two of them were in the house when Ellis torched it?” Garnham asked.
“They might have been, but these are only speculations,” Sarah replied.
“Suppose something went wrong between the two. Let us say they got into an argument which got out of hand. But like you said Wolters, this is only a theory.”
Garnham rose from his chair the moment he drained the last remains of his coffee. “Is there anything else you wish to discuss?”
“There is as a matter of fact. There were traces of the virus found in the lad’s body.”
“Hearing this, we might indeed insinuate Ellis is our man. If only every case was that simple. The only thing we have to do is find him. Why don’t you go back to the station and write your report,” Garnham suggested, he was clearly tired of his guest.
*
Anika Jansen stood in front of one of the radiator in her converted ship container.
“Shall I turn it on”? She thought.
She wore four layers of clothes. Following a month of warm weather, she was not used to the cold weather anymore. Tonight she’d be on her way to LA, to take part in a medical experiment to fight the cancer cells in her body. She’d been afraid in the beginning; couldn’t they cut the tumour out or give her chemo? Unfortunately the cancer was spreading and was dangerously close to part of her brain controlling her vision. The chemo therapy only slowed the process. Many tests had been done using the new medicine on animals. It was her only hope of surviving.
Three loud knocks on the outside wall of the container startled Anika. The container she rented included the luxury of a toilet and shower. She couldn’t imagine how some people coped without sanitary fittings in their containers. With the great shortage of student flats in Amsterdam, she counted herself lucky to have a space of her own at all.
Almost breaking her neck by tripping over her own feet, Anika stumbled to the door. Her hazel eyes twinkled when she saw David Jacobs standing in the rain. He dragged his bicycle over the threshold and placed it against Anika’s bicycle. His chocolate brown hair dripped water across the floor.
“Can you take your rain suit off first please, you’re dripping everywhere.”
“Where do you want me to put it?” David turned to face Anika. Underneath his rain gear he wore a dark green sweatshirt and his favourite jeans. His eyes stared into Anika’s. For a moment they stood as in a dream, dazed.
Then Anika said, “Put them in the bathroom,”
Anika followed him unable to take her eyes of him she longed to feel his strong arms around her, caressing her. Their eyes met again, this time it wasn’t a dream. David took her hand in his and pulled her towards him. They kissed passionately, letting go David said, “I like what you’ve done with the place.” His usually neatly groomed hair was soaking wet, giving him a drowned appearance.
Anika handed him a towel. Finished drying his hair, she smiled. With his hair standing up on end, David returned her smile. Still a few hours to kill before her flight off to LA, Anika had tried to rest as much as she could. This wasn’t easy with the throbbing pain in her head. Shortly after David arrived, he said he needed to go back home to pick up his passport, which he’d forgotten.
She closed her eyes and listened to the music on the radio. Perhaps I should smoke a cigarette outside to relax? She thought. Her own family doctor had prescribed medical cannabis for her when she complained about her migraines and sickness.
The pot had come as a godsend. There was no way she could smoke inside the container. With only one window to open, the fumes might still be there at Christmas. What the heck, it’s my last day here.
Slowly she rose from her chair her eyes remained shut. When an intense sensation of sickness overwhelmed her, she hurried as fast as she could to the bathroom. After she vomited her muscles felt like butter.
With the cigarette completely banned from her mind, Anika thought about her father, he was not able to see her off at the airport. He was engaged in other matters somewhere in the Persian Gulf. Hopefully he would return before the end of the year, by then she’ll be home herself her headaches a distant memory.
The rain outside played a repetitive tune on the roof of the container. Anika loved its congenial sound. She loved the smell which hung in the air during a thunderstorm. Tonight though, it didn’t seem likely a storm was in the air.
At 20:05 PM, the sound of David’s voice outside the container roused her from her thoughts.