It was the middle of a quiet night. All of a sudden, the loud screeching sound of car tires echoed all over Fifth Avenue. A heavy duty truck barged into an Estate followed by saloon cars, destroying the massive gate.
Men dressed in black exited the cars and walked straight to the entrance door of the Estate, brandishing their weapons of all sorts. The man at the front suddenly raised his fist in the air indicating for the others to halt their movements and pay attention.
With a loud voice he said, “Guys, we have exactly ten minutes before the alarm goes off or the neighbours call the cops. Let’s move fast and leave no stone unturned. No matter the cost, find it!” He unclenched his fist and waved his men forward.
Without hesitation or a care in the world, the men rushed into the Estate. Once inside, they split into two groups and began their frantic search.
The neighbourhood was unsettled. Dogs barked and the lights in some neighbours’ houses were turned on. Some nosy and bold neighbours stepped out to check what the entire ruckus was all about.
Few seconds before the ten minutes elapsed, the leader raised his left hand and whispered some words into his wrist. “Move out!”
The men scrambled out with briefcases, laptops and jewellery casings into their cars and drove away, leaving the neighbours in a state of shock. When the dust settled, it was like those men never came there. Fifth Avenue returned to the status quo.
The cops arrived a few minutes later patrolling the streets, knocking on doors and conducting their investigations about the raided estate belonging to the late Chief of Staff of the United State of America, Edward Gray, who passed away a week before in a plane crash.
The lead detective, Frank Brady, and his partner, Sophia Shaw, were convinced that the incident was not an ordinary case of robbery. Though most valuables in the house were carted away, the discovery that the security footage had been wiped clean, hard drives and laptop taken was the evidence they needed. Their search around the estate yielded no result except an old partial fingerprint which was a few days old.
Two days later, the news had spread like wildfire. Various media vans were parked in the vicinity of the Estate making the police investigation even more difficult.
At the precinct, Frank was buried deep in pictures of different scenes spread across his desk. The pressure could be felt as everyone was working round the clock to get to the bottom of the case.
Suddenly Sophia ran to Frank with a wide grin plastered on her face as she waved a paper around, “We got a hit. The partial we got at the scene of the crime belongs to Stark Gray, the infamous son of the late Chief of Staff.”
Frank quickly went through some papers on his desk. They were the list of visitors to the estate a week ago and nowhere in the list was Stark’s name written. “How’s that possible?” Frank said out loud.
“Let’s pay him a visit. We can't let him slip out of our grasp.” Sophia replied.
It took them half of the day to finally track him down after combing the city and consulting their C.Is. Stark Gray was holed up at the Deluxe Hotel. The manager of the hotel led the cops to Stark's room after seeing their badges.
After several knocks, the manager used his key to open the door. The cops stepped into the room and noses were assaulted with the nauseating smell of vomit.
Frank dashed into the bedroom and found Stark wrapped in a blanket, pale with a syringe sticking out of his arm. He placed his hand close to his nose and to his neck region to check for pulse. "Call it in!" he yelled to his partner.
The drifting distant voice of Sophia could be heard over the radio, “male, Caucasian, O.D…."
Stark was taken to the hospital and the doctor put him in an induced coma. Frank and Sophia stayed at the hotel to gather footage of Stark's movements but something caught Sophia's interest in the room. She picked up an objet d'art that had fallen and was almost hidden under the bed. She bagged it for testing.
Back in the precinct, she briefed Frank on her observations. “Hey, did you notice we also found a section of objets d'art at the estate?"
"Do you think they are related or have any clues?" asked Frank.
“Hear me out. Some of these objets d'art are famed to sometimes have a false bottom. Something important must have been hiding in there. I think this is the reason for the robbery. Stark is a junkie who will do anything for a fix and that's why his dad had always kept him out of the media. So I think he probably snuck into the estate after his father's death and stole some of these objets d'art and sold them for a quick fix. "
Frank sat on his desk in deep thought.
"You sound crazy but I like your line of thought. ” He quickly began to browse through the footage obtained from the hotel dating back to a few days before the robbery and with a stroke of luck located a footage where Stark close to the parking lot of the hotel, made an exchange with Carlos a well known notorious drug cartel member with a bag suspected to be containing the missing objets d'art for drugs.
Frank snapped his fingers at the monitor, “got yah!”
Frank and Sophia quickly ran their findings and theories to their Chief. After careful deliberation with the top brass, they were given a team to go bring down the notorious Oblos drug cartel and their member seen in the video. The team raided the Oblos cartel hideout and brought in the culprit for questioning.
After Carlos was grilled by Frank and with the charges against him, he began to sing like a cannery. He signed a deal with the feds for his cooperation and told them everything they needed to know about their safe houses, networking and stashes. Most of all he told them he gifted the objets d'art he got from Stark to his baby mama.
The team escorted Frank and Sophia to Carlos baby mama's house where they finally retrieved the objets d'art from a reluctant and hostile Carlos’ mistress.
The collections were finally taken to the precinct for inspection and it was there that one of the objet d'art collections was found with a false bottom. After it was opened a flash drive was discovered hidden inside. The contents of the flash drive was jaw dropping and just as Sophia had thought was indeed the main reason for the disguised robbery.
The flash contained many shady dealings of military contracts worth millions of dollars entered into by the security chiefs, the late former chief of staff and the vice president of the United States of America.
This could very well spell the end to the campaign of the vice president for the office of the president and also implicate him and others in the death of so many including the late former chief of staff.
The meeting room went dead silent as everyone inside saw the content of the flash drive.
The top brass in the room looked around and swore Frank and Sophia to secrecy and promised to handle this delicate matter by making sure it gets to the right hand and see to it that justice is carried out.
Three days later the chief was suspended based on several allegations. Frank and Sophia were shocked and knew this had to do with the case.
The next morning, there was a big buzz all over the city as various media outlets reported on the story of the decade. The story contained in detail everything discovered in the flash drive. The story had been leaked.
The precinct was in disarray as the news broke even Sophia was shocked as she thought the case had been swept under the rug. She turned and caught a mischievous smile plastered on Frank's face which was brief and hardly noticed. Her heart raced in excitement as she stared at the bold and courageous face of the person behind the impending storm that was bound to sweep across the country and which may leave them untouched.
Inspired by the Inkwell fiction prompt #120. Do enjoying reading.
