Final Turn: A story of adventure, intrigue and suspense. (6 page)

Roger was amazed and even little taken aback with that news. He and Sam were still saddled with that encumbered property held by the investment club. Jack had been lucky to own that farm, especially now with foreign investors apparently chasing after opportunities.

"That's great! Congratulations." Roger offered. He continued, "Things went well with the eStorage account while you were away. Thanks mostly due to Bill. In fact, Bill turned the system on one day early, probably the day you left. It has been working well since."

Jack looked up at Roger. "One day early. What do you mean?"

"One day early. Bill turned the system on the day you left. We even collected some data from that day. It seems that there are records of one of eStorage's large moving vans going through the compound gate early in the morning and returning around eight." Roger said.

Roger continued, "I went out to the storage compound to verify the data. They don't have any manual record of that truck movement. There may be some problem with the system. Perhaps the record is a bogus one." Jack was now looking intently at Roger.

"I'll deal with that as soon as I get back in the office. Just leave it to me." Jack told Roger.

"I don't mind looking into it. I've already..."

"Just leave it to me Roger. Installations are my area. I'll look after it. As soon as I get back in the office I'll get the details from Bill and deal with it." Jack sounded firm. Perhaps there was a sense of guilt because he had left on vacation just as the system was to be implemented. He might be thinking that Bill had already taken some of the credit for the installation. Let him look into it, Roger thought, as long as it was not delayed. They could deal with that once they got back together in the office. This was no time to talk about business.

"There was some interesting news on the radio on the way out here." Roger changed the topic.

"News?"

"You've heard about the armored car robbery? The armored car that was taken just down the street from the office." Roger was not sure exactly when Jack had returned from his travels. He might not be up to date on the local news. Jack gave him an uncommitted look.

"On the way out here I heard on the radio that the robbers used a truck to load up the whole armored car; guards and all. They drove out somewhere to get the money out of the car. Then the whole thing, with the guards still inside was driven somewhere near the city and dumped. Some guy driving by found it with the guards still locked inside. Hell of a way to do it. They didn't say how much they got. I'll bet it was not just a little." Roger knew he sounded excited about it. It was exciting. He began to tell Jack more of what he had heard on the radio. Jack fidgeted as if he wanted to get going. He walked away from Roger and around his glider and put things away.

"I have to go,” he said bending over a bag into which he was stuffing polishing cloths and the like. "Remember, I'll deal with that eStorage account as soon as I get into the office." With that, Jack hauled himself off towards a group of club members who were also nearly ready to go flying.

Roger cleared off the table in Sam's gazebo and covered it with a map. It was a map centered on the city and extending for about one hundred miles in all directions. He held down two corners with wine glasses; each one filled, and another corner with the bottle. A notebook rested on the fourth corner. He held a calculator in his hand in a purposeful way.

Sam sat on the couch, took her glass from the map and studied Roger with some curiosity. She didn't know what he was doing but she did know how he would go about it. He had a theory. She watched his eagerness as he prepared to tell her. His almost boyish grin as he prepared some figures in the notebook reminded her of her brother. Her brother had been the family inventor. He had always looked for better ways to do things; the dishes, the chores, the yard work or whatever. He had been able to marshal everyone's enthusiasm, rallying everyone to try a new way and forget the burden of the work in the process. In the end the plan would fail and they'd do it all in the normal way but no one seemed to mind. Sam was fond of Roger partly because he did have some of her brother's characteristics; this made her feel comfortable. In some ways it made him predictable. Roger would prepare his theory and then present it to her as a plan, something in which she would have to try to find a hole. That she was willing to do.

Roger stood up as if to make an announcement. He held a long ruler, pointed to the map and looked not unlike a General about to brief the troops before the invasion. Sam thought the map should have been on the wall, Roger should be wearing a uniform and she should not be drinking wine. They should be in a tent out in the desert. Still, it did look like this was going to be a briefing.

"This is what I think." he began.

"I have the data which Bill retrieved from one of the trucks in the eStorage storage compound. The data and time all check out. The records indicate that the truck traveled 160 kilometers that morning. I have measured on the map the distances from the storage compound to the bank and from the spot where the newspapers said the armored car was found to the storage compound." Roger looked to Sam to confirm that she was in fact taking this all in. It was not always easy to tell where her mind was. 

He continued, "Now if someone did use a truck from the storage compound they would likely have taken the following route. From the compound to the bank, from there to some place where they unloaded the money, then to the place where they left the armored car and then back to the compound. What I want to find is the place where the unloading took place. If I subtract the distances from the compound to the bank and the distance from where the armored car was found to the compound I have left 140 kilometers."

Sam watched Roger's eyes shining with that light which said, 'this is only the preamble, just wait'. He would stretch it; he would present all the information and then hit her with the conclusion. Instead of re-filling her wine glass she put hers down and began to drink Roger's. He kept going.

"Now I'll take a string like this," producing a length of white string from his pocket, "which has been cut to represent 140 kilometers, at the same scale as this map. I can find all the places that the truck could have gone to use up those 140 kilometers."

Roger stuck a pin into the map at the spot where the storage compound was and another where the bank was. There was a small loop in each end of the string that he slid over each of the pins. He then took a pencil and pulled the string away from the pins until it became taut in two lines running from the pencil tip. One went to the compound, the other to the bank.

"Remember, the string is 140 kilometers long. On the map it is! So if I move this pencil everywhere I can, keeping the string tight, I will mark all the places where the sum of the distances from that place to the bank and to the compound is 140 kilometers. Agreed?" He looked at her.

"Agreed. Go on." Sam knew he would be drawing an ellipse around the bank and the compound. He drew it while she sipped. This was no briefing for an invasion; it was just a high school geometry lesson.

"Clearly the truck did not travel in a straight line between these points. It had to stay on the roads. That eliminates most of the line. Also, the truck made small excursions to get on a main road on off again. This means the actual spot is somewhere inside this area. Somewhere closer in."

"Granted." Said Sam to indicate she was not yet in a coma.

"So I make a few assumptions. One, I will look about 15 kilometers inside of the ellipse to account for the excursions. Two, I will look to the north of the city because that is the direction of the storage compound. If seems unlikely someone would chose to drive twice through the entire city. Three, I look for places which are reasonably remote, yet near good roads. A place that might offer the cover of some trees. That eliminates most points east."

Roger looked about for his wine glass and saw an empty one on the table. Sam was drinking hers.

"Just a second. I forgot to pour myself a glass." Roger filled the empty glass and set the bottle back onto the map. "Now look at this. To the north there are only two main roads that lead directly away from the city. This one goes to the east crossing mostly open country, no trees, valleys or other cover. This one goes northwest and runs into rolling, nicely treed farmland."

Sam sipped her wine. She began to get a feeling of some familiarity looking at that map. It might have just been the colors or the shapes of things on it but she was quite sure she had seen it before.

"Is that one of the maps out of your car?" Roger always had maps out when they went driving in the country. He liked to know where he was in geographic sense. He liked to be able to tell people where they had been, something more than 'just out for a drive'. To Sam it never seemed important where they'd been. What they had done and seen, whom they had met, yes, but not where they'd been.

Roger ignored the question. That told Sam she was either right or very close to right. He went on. "Over here there are a lot of smaller roads leading away from the freeway. Some of them lead to small towns and are probably well traveled. Some lead to farms in this area." He indicated a patch on the map. "I have a strange notion about this spot here." Roger put his finger on the map where someone had drawn an 'X'.

Sam looked causally at the spot and then at Roger. "Why that particular spot?"

"Do you remember where you saw this map before?"

"No. Why that particular spot?"

"This is the map..."

"Wait! Wait. Yes I do. That is the map we looked at when Jack showed us where his farm is. At his house party that night. Right?"

"Bingo! And that 'X' is exactly where his farm is. This is in fact the very same map. I put it in my pocket that night when Jack hauled himself away to talk to Loretta."

Sam starred at the spot for a moment. She looked at Roger who had the look of a cat with a canary in his mouth. For a moment she was afraid that Roger might say something about Jack. She remembered that Jack had drawn that 'X' himself that night. She drank the rest of her wine and put down the glass.

"What does that mean?" Sam reminded herself that Roger would not have taken it only this far. He would have some answer to that question and anything else which she might have kindling in her mind by now.

"Jack's farm had been well advertised in the real estate magazines. It would have been listed before the robbery. The listings would give the location; describe it as being secluded and likely even mention the machine shed with large doors. You can be sure that Loretta described every good feature there was."

"You think someone went there to unload the money from the truck? Why so far out?"

"It would not be an easy job to get those guards out and then the money. It would best be done under cover. An old machine garage on an abandoned old farm would be ideal. Remember Jack telling us how isolated this place is?" Roger seemed caught up in the certainty of his premises. He settled into a chair and went on.

"There were a lot of people who knew about that farm and there might have been quite a few who had gone out there for a look. They could have gone on their own, without Loretta even knowing. With rural property they give the township description right on the listing. Anyone can find it from that."

"It seems like a long shot Roger. The distances do add up and it might have been the right kind of place but who knows how many others there are like it. They might have gone south, or west. Maybe they just drove around the city. Maybe that truck has nothing to do with the robbery. It would be easy to get lead down some garden path trying to reconstruct what happened." She was not about to make it easy for him.

Roger sat back and looked at the map. Sam knew he was nearly done, but not completely. He would have save his best argument for the last. She took up the full wine glass and sat back to wait for it.

"Now, there were only certain people who had access to that storage compound. The only ones who could get in at that time were people who had one of the test ID cards. A test card was used to open the gate and to operate the truck. We know that from the computer printouts. Whoever did this knew that they would need those cards to get into the compound, what they didn't know was that the computer had been hooked up one day early and was already logging the information. Everyone was told that it would be turned on some time later. Then Bill thought, 'hell everything works', turn it on! We had one test card which Jack had custody of. I'm not sure where he put it before he went to Hong Kong. There were two other cards held by employees of eStorage. One by their accountant and one was kept in the office at the compound. I've talked to some of the guys they have working there and believe me, they could do anything. There is one fellow in particular, Craig, who can prickle the hair on the back of your neck.

Sam was beginning to wonder just how much time Roger had spent on this little project. And why? That too would be something for which Roger would have an answer.

"If you think there really is something to this theory, then you should to go the police. They could easily check out those trucks in the compound and take a look around the farm."

"Not without some reason they can't. They would need to get search warrants and for that they need some justification. I've thought of going to them but I think it's best to do a few things first. The police are steeped in bureaucracy and excuses." Roger knew Sam would interpret that as a cynical comment. He saw it as an irrefutable fact. Still, he hoped that she might ask him what he was going to do. She did.

"I'm going for a drive to Jack's old farm this weekend and nose around a bit. Never know what a person might find out. Want to come along?" Sam didn't say anything.

"If nothing else I want to find out if there had been a breach in the security system we sold to eStorage. I need to know if that system is working properly. I'm out there selling this thing to other companies and I'm not even sure it works. Maybe that data is all bogus." That did seem reasonable to Sam, professional justification for his actions, undeniably valid and selfless. There is always a way.

"OK! I'll go. It’ll be a nice drive. Maybe I will pack something special for when we get there." Sam gave Roger a look that took him a moment to understand.