The man in black - chapter 3 (short story)

 chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 4

Selene sat the three men down on a bench.

“Okay, let’s start with Darrell. Tell me what you’ve been doing today.”

“I woke at around two in the afternoon. Then I worked on a painting, started another, and then remembered a commission I was supposed to do, tried to start on that, realised I didn’t have the colours I wanted, came here to shop, the shop told me they didn’t have the paints but their supplies would be coming in a little later. So I visited a few other shops, and walked to the gallery upstairs, hung around there, talked with the people there for a while, browsed the bookshop – you know, the usual.”

Cassie didn’t know whether she was worried about him or for him. Still, the story made some sense. Possibly.

“Okay, Hal?” asked Selene.

“Did some writing, watched some stuff because I couldn’t concentrate, and then realised I needed new headphones. I was also browsing for a pen drive and maybe a good keyboard, but I didn’t find anything I really liked. Other than that, I’ve also been looking for a microphone, but again, I didn’t really find anything.”

“I thought you were a writer?”

Hal shrugged. “I was thinking of doing some instructional videos online, and I have a face fit for radio.”

“That’s why you weren’t looking for a camera?” asked Darrell.

“Yup.”

Cassie didn’t think he needed to worry about it that much. Maybe he was just shy.

“Then, Adam?”

“I’ve been here since morning, except for the times I was drinking copious amounts of coffee at Ed’s shop. Mostly at the repair shop, actually. Seriously though, if I wanted to rob a shop here, I’d start with our cash register. The stuff we sell are usually more expensive, you know.”

“But don’t most people pay using cards?” asked Phil.

“Not always,” said Adam.

“Yeah, who’d rob a coffee shop?” asked Darrell, “there are three bank branches, a few shops selling extremely expensive clothes and stuff, a few expensive restaurants, several shops selling phones, phone accessories and computer accessories, a couple of shops selling actual computers, cosmetics shops, at least three fast food restaurants, and probably many others. Why would anyone target a small coffee shop?”

“They had a pretty big order today,” said Cassie, “and they paid for it in cash. Someone probably knew about it in advance.”

“Internal information?” asked Selene, “interesting. So, anyway, this would be a lot simpler if one of you could confess. So, did any of you do it, and could you tell me the approximate amount that was stolen if that is the case?”

The three men looked at each other. All of them shook their heads. Selene sighed.

“Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way then. You know we’re going to find out, right?”

The other policeman, Mark, returned just then. Cassie noticed that Liv and Ed weren’t with him.

“It appears all three visit the shop often enough to be remembered,” said Mark, “They knew Adam very well, and apparently the other two visit the shop regularly as well, though they didn’t know their names and occupations for sure.”

That makes sense, thought Cassie. Hence the whole communicating with boards thing – he didn’t want anyone to hear his voice.

Selene turned to Mark. “Could you take over here? I’m going to go look for eyewitnesses.”

“Sure.”

Selene turned to them. “Anna, coming?”

Anna nodded. “Sure, sis. Cassie, Dany, Phil, are you coming too? They’re great at noticing stuff.”

Selene looked at Cassie. “Sure. Come along then. Who chased the perp to the bathroom?”

“Bella and Lex,” said Cassie, “it’s a good idea if one of them tag along as well.”

“Yeah, I’ll stay,” said Phil, “I forwarded it to Dany and Cassie, but I have to show it to Mark as well.”

Cassie nodded. Selene looked mystified. Cassie looked in her messages, found the video, and forwarded it to Anna, as they set off. Lex joined them, as Bella would be more useful in a fight.

Anna got the message and forwarded it to Selene. “Sent you the video, sis. Phil videoed the guy robbing the shop.”

Selene was her sister? Cassie had never heard of it, but then again, the two of them rarely talked about their families.

“That’s what you were talking about,” said Selene, “I’ll take a look at that. So, he ran through here?”

“Positive,” said Lex, “Dude crashed straight into a bunch of cables in boxes around here, about landed on his face, but he didn’t actually fall. The cables weren’t that lucky.”

“Let’s ask the people in the shop then,” said Selene.

She walked in and talked to the two women who worked in the shop. As it turned out, one was busy with a customer and didn’t see what happened, but the other saw the incident clearly.

“He straight up kicked the box, and almost fell on his face because of that. I think we’ll be digging cables out from here for the next millennium. Anyway, I didn’t see a lot, except for him being about average height, dressed in all black except for a light purple shirt. Then he and a girl came running after him.”

Selene tried to press her for but details, but that was all she could say for sure. None of the men had been wearing a light purple shirt.

The next shop Lex indicated was a music shop, where the perp had narrowly avoided a collision with a customer. Selene went inside and talked to the owner of the shop. Cassie followed her in again.

All they got this time was that the man was definitely wearing something light coloured with a collar, which fit all three men.

Next, they stopped at the bookshop, where the cashier confirmed she had seen the chase, but couldn’t describe the man at all other than say he narrowly avoided falling on his face due to almost running into a stack of books on a low table. He did manage to knock a few of it to the ground.

The whole distance was maybe 150 m. They talked to several other shops as well, but they didn’t know much more about the man. Finally, the five of them stopped near the music shop.

END OF CHAPTER THREE

Sorry for the delay! Things happened and updating this sort of slipped my mind. 

I will upload two chapters today (this and the final chapter).

Previous chapters: chapter 1 | chapter 2 

Next chapter: chapter 4

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Until next time!