Shangri-Lah Furniture Limited was a large manufacturing company found on the outer edges of the big city, miles away from the original crime scene. It had several large warehouses used to store raw wooden material such as lumber and wooden planks; one giant shed to house their carpentry machines that were cooling down or under maintenance; and one single story office building close to the entrance gate. Tall chimney pipes rose up to point into the sky, belching thick white smoke to mix in with the clouds. The parking lot could hold about 30 cars. So far, only 3 cars and one company van could be see, and the other lots either piled up with neglected garbage or had random machines and materials left out for the rain to chew on.
Sergeant Leo drove up to the factory and parked his vehicle in front of the office building. He entered the lobby and spotted a young looking secretary at the front desk. One glance and the detective could see 15 waiting chairs and couches. All empty. The only person alive was a young looking secretary at her desk, behind a short wall with the company name branded on across the face. As Leo came up he could see the secretary had her head down, watching a stream on her phone of a mouse girl Vtuber with iron-horns playing a horror game.
Leo faked a cough, loud enough to make the secretary to jolt in her seat and shove her phone under her files. The muffled voice of the mouse Vtuber could still be heard.
“Welcome back boss, I have--Oh...” The secretary stood up, only to stop when she did not recognize Leo, “Um. D-do you have an appointment sir?”
“Sergeant Leo.” The detective nodded, showing his ID card, “C.I.D. I am here to talk to your employer, Frank Tucker.”
“He’s out right now. Ahem!” The secretary sat back down, hands folded on her lap under the table. When her buried phone made a faint Vtuber scream, she had to bring her hands back up to press down and muffle out the noises from the game stream. “Uuuh. He, he is in the middle of an important meeting.”
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“He’s......out.”
Leo resisted the urge to sigh. He gave the secretary a break by breaking eye contact, letting her sneak her phone out to turn off the sound and hide it in her desk drawer. He glanced about in the mean time, and noticed the door to an office cracked open.
“Is that his office?” Leo pointed, “shouldn’t you lock it?”
“Uuuuuuh.” The secretary stood up, shuffled over, and closed the door...the door slowly opens again on its own with a creaaaak. “We’re, rather I, a-am waiting for the locksmith to come over but...he’s um..running late.”
“Oh, why don’t I help?” The detective would step into the doorway, examining the lock and the handle, “I did house construction and renovation work before I became a cop. If you got tools, I can fix them.”
“How-how much, officer?”
“Ah well. I would charge you but given my position, it would be considered bribery. Tell you what, since I’m waiting for you boss I’ll do this for free.”
“Oh wonderful!” the secretary clapped with glee, “this would help, sooo much. My boss, is such a penny pincher. If I couldn’t find a locksmith that fit his budget, he’ll take a cut out of my pay. This, you’re a life saver officer!”
Leo nods back with a wry smile, “To protect and to serve. Tool box please.”
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Sergeant Leo stepped into the boss’ office and closed the door behind him, which quietly bounced back off the frames with a creaaaaak.
The room was large, spacious, enough to fit a large custom made mahogany office desk with solid legs and a back cover; a set of three wooden couches with well worn and exotic cushions across the eats; a coffee table carved out of a thick and gnarled tree stump; and a small standing table top corner with a collection of Scotch, Whisky, and some Wine bottles.
Leo would turn to look at some cabinets stand against the walls. One was dedicated to a series of crystal awards and brass trophies, all labelled BEST FURNITURE COMPANY, BEST SERVICES, BEST EMPLOYEE TEAM, NATIONAL FURNITURE COMPETITION, etc.
Another cabinet full of cube shelves, each holding a miniature model of some furniture assets the company produced with silver stickers. One group of miniatures had golden labels reading between the 6th and 12th year of the company’s life span they won consecutive awards in some national competition. That was until Leo looked at the rest of the miniatures dated in the last three years: 2nd place, 2nd place, 3rd place, 4th place, honorable mention, participation.
Leo reached up to touch the latest furniture miniature of a plain looking beach chair. The leg and arm fell apart, the entire beach chair model tip over dead.
“...”
The sergeant cleared his throat and walked around. The wall dividing the main lobby and the boss office was a single window-style glass wall. There were some strips of glass that were frosted, and as the rest were 100% transparent there were a series of dripping blinds dangling to obscure the boss’ office for some privacy.
As the secretary would make the occasional glances at Leo in the office, he avoided turning the blinds for now. Rather he tried to minimize detection by crouching down. He used one of the couches in the room as cover and brought out tools from the box to feign ‘helping’. As he continued examining the room, he would tap the tools together in his hands like drum sticks to mimic ‘fixing’ noises. Eventually the secretary relaxed and resumed watching her favourite mouse Vtuber girl’s horror stream. Leo took this opportunity to peek over Frank Tucker’s desk.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The office desk was well used, areas where people rest their wrist left a small impression and the sleeves having polished the wood with some scratches of the cuff links. A wooden cup was filled with the type of blue pens people can easily throw away when it runs dry, the computer screen has a crack in the corner and fixed with several transparent tape, and the clunky PC tower had a half torn sticker with the words SEC—HAND US— still stuck on it.
Leo eyed the corner of the desk, spotting a pile of mail clipped in a holder. With a wide move of his arm, he ‘accidentally’ knocked them over and they spilled across the ground. Being a ‘good Samaritan’ he started to pick them up – examining each sender.
[KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND CARGO – SUPPLY SHIPPING COMPANY, URGENT!]
[LUMIERE HEAVY ELECTRIC COMPANY – IMPORTANT NOTICE, OVERDUE]
[CITY DOCK AND PROVINCIAL SHIPPING – PLEASE ACT BEFORE DEADLINE]
He glanced at each envelope, covered in red URGENT/OVERDUE stamp ink over and over. Before Leo could try and ponder on them, or even open one of the letters, he heard a noise outside of the office. He quickly shuffled and crammed them back into the tight holder, then crawled to the window wall for a peek.
Outside, a large man wearing a red and black shipping uniform burst into the lobby with a shove through the door. As he stormed over he gripped at his cap as if getting ready for a sudden bar fight. The cap had a well embroidered logo of KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND CARGO showing a knight in full plate armor riding a cargo truck like a horse.
He slapped his hand across the secretary’s desk, the leather of his driving gloves making a violent thunder crack on the surface. It startled the secretary, making her drop her phone to the ground with a SNAP, the broken screen going out harder than a burnt light bulb. Unable to mourn over the death of her phone, she turned and seized up in front of the large man.
“Where’s he!?” The driver barked, veins bulging on his neck. “Where’s that cheap skate Tucker!?”
“H-h-h-he’s out!” was all the secretary could say before her table gets struck again. “EEK! P-please don’t hit the desk, s-sir or, or--”
“Okay, look! I’m real sorry for being up in your face, but I had it up to here with Tucker!” the driver held up his large hands and tried to suppress his scowl quivering with rage, “This is like what, the fourth time his cheque bounced! I gave him more than enough leeway, but not today! I am running a shipping business, not a charity hall. Now go and get that two faced son of a—“
“Excuse me,” Leo stepped out of the employer’s office right before the drive could finish his curse. “Something wrong?”
“Who are you?” The driver snarled, looking Leo up and down with a glare.
The secretary gasped with relief, hand on her chest to calm her heart. However, just as she was about to call out to the policeman, Leo held up a hand to interrupt her without breaking eye contract from the driver, “I’m one of Frank’s business associates. Wanted to sort out some...overdues.”
After a beat of silence, the driver gave understanding nod. “Oh come on. Don’t tell me he owes you money too. God, this jack--”
“Why don’t we, you know, step outside. Get some fresh air.” Leo would then stride over and usher the truck driver towards the door. Just before leaving he gave the secretary a silent ‘ok’ gesture with a hand and walked out of the office.
The woman just stood there with a confused stare.
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Leo and the cargo driver stood outside in the parking lot, around the corner of the office building and leaning against the wall under some shade. Leo pulled out his vape bottle and passed it to the driver, letting him take a deep puff. Faint purple mist spills out from the driver’s mouth, his eyes rolled back with ease and relaxation, then he blew the purple mist from his nostrils like a sleepy dragon. A strong scent of grapes filling the air between them.
“Better?” The detective asked, patting the driver on the shoulder. “Let me guess, kicking the habit?”
“Wife’s about to have our first kid so I had to quit, but it’s just bad timing with all work and no pay. Just...man!” The driver lifted up his hands with a quivering lip, but drops them back down in defeat, “four times. Four freaking times. The cheque bounced again. I get paid by commissions and this was suppose to cover our expenses, you know rent, milk money, diapers, maybe some tuition down the road– but this Tucker is a, a—GAAAH!.”
Leo stepped back to let the driver stomp at the curb a few times, to vent out his frustration. The detective offered another drag from his vape, and the driver eventually fixed his red cap to calm down. Leo took in a deep breath, “he really screwed you over, didn’t he?”
“Tip of the ice berg.” The driver groaned and rubbed a gloved hand over his face. “Guy is buried in debt. And you wanna know the funny thing? Instead of doing his company a favor and pick up more business,” he glanced left and right before he whispered, “he’s picking up women.”
Leo raised an eyebrow and listened closely, “You don’t say? How can you tell?”
“Oh, you can tell alright.” The drive grinned, pulling off one glove to show his hand and tapped the wedding band on it. “Walked in on him fooling around with another woman a few times. Said she was his insurance broker here on business and she ‘slipped’...Hah. Sure.”
“Huh.” Leo tapped on his chin for a second to pick the right words. “Frank told me he was making a killing. Even convinced me to invest in some shares. I got some money at first but then it started shrinking. He then said something about a new buyer and money should come back in. What do you make of that?”
“Heh. If you think he’s gonna make a killing, then you’re either naive or a dupe.” The driver took another puff from the vape, releasing the tension in his neck and muscles. “If he does make any money it’s all gonna to his mistress. Limited edition purses, anti-aging cosmetics only available overseas, a new sports car, a 4 star flat, all of it down the drain in her name. Honestly it just...” With no strength to curse, the driver stomped his foot into the ground to get the last of his anger out.
The detective folded his arms while leaning his head against the wall, thinking over the information. The driver handed back his vape bottle, and Leo wiped the top part with his sweater. “You said it was the fourth time the cheque bounced. Why keep working for him?”
“My company has a business package with his furniture place, so I can’t really just say no...Further more, the man’s a weasel. He would legit break down crying in front of everyone to make me look bad if I kept pushing him. Like I was a loan shark or something. He’s got no pride, no shame. Worse, doesn’t bother to hide the fact he has another women when he’s working.” The driver then twitched an eyebrow at a thought. “Now that I think about it. That cheapskate might be pretty happy right now.”
“How so?”
“I mean. Mistress is an insurance broker. Wife’s dead. Do the math and you get yourself both money and a brand new woman to dote on. Two birds with one death, you know what I mean?”
== TO BE CONTINUED ==>