Aldrich’s other eye twitched. It was entertaining to see the volley of twitches from one eye to the other.
Garnett’s voice interrupted my fun. “Sir, should we proceed?” Garnett said.
I admired Garnett for keeping himself professional, even though he knew Aldrich was a criminal.
Aldrich coughed. His twitching ceased. “Yes, go ahead, Detective.”
Aldrich was about to move away from me when I said, “Sir, you were right. I am young, imaginative, creative and bold. I used all these qualities to solve this case.”
I think he wanted to hit me but he just walked away.
When Garnett gave the signal we were at the front of the warehouse in less than a minute. Both Beadsworth and I got out of our vehicle at exactly the same time.
I followed as Beadsworth raced along the side of the building and toward a door. With all his might he kicked the door. I was amazed at how much strength those legs of his had. Maybe the door was in bad shape with the hinges wearing out. In any case, the door went down.
Beadsworth moved in.
We were inside a small area no bigger than two elevator shafts. On my left were empty pizza boxes. It smelled of onions and anchovies.
We were faced with another door. Like a fly, Beadsworth attached himself to the right side wall, his gun tightly gripped to his chest. I wanted to do the same, but the pizza boxes got in my way.
Beadsworth motioned his head toward the door.
I gestured. What?
He moved his leg and motioned again.
I was to kick the door down.
I shook my head and touched my upper lip. I was not in good shape.
He nodded, abruptly turned, and with one kick knocked the door down.
Kicking down doors was not my thing. I could manage breaking windows with baseball bats, if the windows were thin and I was guaranteed no flying glass would hit me.
We heard voices echo from inside.
Police.
Get down.
Stop.
Don’t move.
We entered the warehouse, the fluorescent lights high above us. The place felt cold.
We were confronted with large baffles that ran along one side, with occasional openings that resembled doors.
A man peeked out from one of the openings.
“Stop!” I yelled, my gun trembling before me.
He ducked back in.
I ran after him.
Inside the opening I found a disorganized room. It looked like it was in the process of being cleared. Monitors, keyboards, and cables and wires were scattered everywhere. There was other equipment, too. Your chemistry lab type: beakers, test tubes, flasks, and instruments I did not know the names of.
The man disappeared around another door. I heard a voice. When I turned the corner I saw Beadsworth on top of the man. The man was sprawled on his stomach. He had brown skin and a punched in nose.
From the corner of my eye I saw a man with blond hair, holding something that looked like a computer monitor. It was the guy who had pulled the gun on Beadsworth at the BUBBLE T SHOP.
When he saw me he dropped what he was holding and ran behind another baffle.
The place was a maze.
I wasn’t going to run after him. Let Garnett or Nemdharry do it.
But Beadsworth had seen me see him, so he was expecting me to run and arrest him.
Reluctantly, I did.
As I spun around the corner and through a door draped with long strips of plastics, I felt a sudden chill.
I was inside another room. Huge racks that went up at least eight feet now surrounded me. The racks held empty trays. As I moved past them I realized some were full. Most of the trays contained individual white tablets.
Curiosity pushed me to pick one up. I applied pressure, and there was a weak jolt, not enough to cause any alarms, but the tablet crumpled between my fingers, leaving behind small crystals that looked like sugar.
I was about to lick it-that’s what they did on TV, when I heard steps further up. I wiped the white stuff on my pants and with my gun ready, went deeper into the room.
There were maybe two-dozen of these racks. I crouched, and through the racks tried to spot any legs.
There was movement on my left.
I turned.
Nothing.
This was absurd, I thought.
“Hey, dude,” I yelled. “You’re surrounded. Come out and we’ll go easy on you.”
Go easy on you? Who ever says that?
I eased forward, my eyes darting around. I wasn’t going to let this guy surprise me. No sir. I was like a tiger sneaking up on its prey.
Nothing got past these radar ears.
A shadow came over me, as a huge rack tipped. I rolled sideways, missing it by inches, but several of the trays flew out and hit me squarely on the face.
That hurt.
I was covered with hundreds of white tablets.
I stroked my hair and tablets fell out.
I got to my feet, but lost my balance on the scattered tablets. I scrambled up and composed myself.
This was really absurd.
I tiptoed over the sea of white tablets and stomped ahead.
I was now pissed. “I’m going to shoot you,” I said. At this point I would have.
As I was getting further, it was getting colder.
I was shivering.
I knew why.
Many of the freezer doors were left open. Purposely.
He was trying to freeze me.
I don’t think so.
He didn’t realize how resilient I was.
I sneezed. And then sneezed several times more.
I wiped the snot with the back of my sleeve.
I must be coming down with something.
I did a full circle and when I was certain I was alone I gently shut one of the freezer doors.
I went along doing this.
When I pulled the last door to close it, out came a fist from behind. I reacted, but not fast enough. It smashed into my chin.
I lost my footing and fell on my back. My gun, already too cold to grip, flew out and landed underneath one of the racks.
I had to get back on my feet, but he was on me like a tiger.
He raised his fist but stopped in midair.
I was confused.
He looked to his left and I did too.
Garnett stood with his gun aimed squarely at him.
This was the second time Garnett had saved my life. It was embarrassing.
I got to my feet as Garnett cuffed the blond man.
The blond man had the I-almost-had-you look.
I hated it.
Garnett pulled the blond man away by his collars.
I was standing alone in the cold room.
I had had enough. The warehouse was secure and all the occupants in custody. I took the first exit out onto the street.
Three members of the Clandestine Laboratory Unit brushed past me. They had their hands full with all the chemicals and stuff inside.
It was the middle of the night but I could still make out a dozen or so marked and unmarked vehicles around the warehouse.
The media would be swarming in any minute.
I couldn’t believe it was finally over. We had RACE and Nex. But I didn’t feel cheerful or happy.
I was relieved, though.
Maybe, I was expecting more.
I guess I was hoping I would be the one to solve this case all by myself. Instead, it was Beadsworth who’d made sense of everything that had happened.
There was a noise that made me turn. I saw Herrera escorting Laura, whose real name, I later found out, was ZeenaStankovich. She was handcuffed and her head was bent.
As they got closer, I stopped them.
“I knew it was you all along,” I said.
Her face contorted. She was ready to spit.