Chapter Thirty-One
Charlie sat at his desk. For the first time in hours, the office was silent.
Mrs B and Duck had gone home. Mr Vanstone was working on getting the list of properties held by Monarch Holdings and he’d promised to send it to Mrs B as soon as he had the information.
Charlie had also reached out to Abela, but with no positive results.
She didn’t know which vet clinic Jules worked at, and she said that she hadn’t spoken to Jules, or heard anything else from her since she’d last seen Charlie.
He had no idea what to do next, so he sat at his desk and waited…
for something…anything that would lead him to Declan.
The downstairs door alarm chirped and Charlie got to his feet and rushed to the outer office. Sam and Gary walked through the door.
“Any news?” Charlie asked nervously.
“I tried to get in to see Simon Griffin at Calgary Remand,” Sam replied, “but it isn’t possible until Monday morning unless I want to drive up to Edmonton. He’s been transferred up there for a hearing. I’m hoping I can at least reach him by phone in the morning.”
“I’ve got better news,” Gary said. “I was able to get access to those phone records you wanted to see. It’s just a list of numbers, though. No names.” He handed it over to Charlie.
Charlie glanced down at the list, which had hundreds of calls and texts logged.
It went back almost a month. “Thanks, Gary. I’ll see what I can do with them.
” Charlie looked at the most recent entries on the log.
“It appears that no calls have been placed since Thursday evening after Jules disappeared.”
“I noticed that, too,” Gary replied, “but there are a couple of numbers that have been called more frequently than the others in recent weeks.”
“I’ll look into those ones first. I’ll let you know what comes up…if anything,” Charlie said, dejectedly.
Sam put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “I’m not giving up, and neither should you. Okay? He’s only been gone for a day. We’ll find him, I promise.”
“Sure,” Charlie replied. He turned away. “I’m going to get started on these phone records.”
“Come on, Sam,” Gary said. “Why don’t we leave Charlie to his work. You and I can go get some food. Can we bring you anything back, Charlie?”
“Sure. Whatever you’re having.”
The second Gary and Sam left, Charlie went to his computer with the list. He started with the first of the two most frequently called numbers and did a reverse lookup on it. It was unlisted. On a whim, he called the number. The call went immediately to voicemail.
“Thanks for calling. I can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message at the tone.”
The voice was smooth and rich—possibly a woman’s. Charlie felt like he’d heard it before, but he couldn’t place it. Someone from his past? He decided to leave a message.
“Hi. This is Charlie Watts from Declan Hunt Investigations calling in regards to Jules Slate. I’m trying to locate her and I’m hoping that you can help. Would you please give me a call at…” he recited the office number, then hung up.
Charlie picked the next most frequently called number on the list, and followed the same routine.
This time, a reverse lookup yielded a hit.
Charlie swore under his breath. The number belonged to Tyler Chipping, the person he had been investigating in January—the person he had gotten fired from his job—the person who had attacked him outside the office on a wintry night earlier this year. Charlie’s heart raced.
The fastest way to nail down someone young was to look up their social media accounts.
Charlie did a quick search and located Tyler’s Facebook page—a page Charlie hadn’t visited for some time.
Tyler’s friends list was more highly populated than the last time he’d looked at it.
Charlie scrolled through the photos attached to the page and spotted a familiar face, but one with a surprising name—Julie Chipping.
The image associated with her account was a photo of Jules.
One click took him to Julie’s page. A quick scroll down and Charlie found what he was looking for. There was a photo of Julie and Tyler. The caption read, Me and Ty, the best brother a girl could have. Anything for you, Bro!
Charlie was pissed at himself. Why hadn’t he done an online image search for Jules’ picture in the first place?
It was what he’d done in the past when looking into a person.
He hadn’t taken Jules’ case seriously and look what had happened.
All this time they’d been looking for someone who had a grudge against Declan.
Instead, maybe they should have been looking for someone who hated Charlie.
Did Tyler and Julie kidnap Declan to get back at me?
Then a memory flashed through Charlie’s brain. He had accessed Tyler’s work computer during the previous investigation, and had discovered a large stash of images and articles about Declan. At the time, Charlie and Declan had brushed it off as a harmless fixation.
Maybe not so harmless now.
Charlie went back to Tyler’s picture on his Facebook page. He compared it to the CCTV images of the man at Bar-None who’d beaten up Angel. With different clothing and facial hair, it could be Tyler. But if it was him, what was the Monarch Holdings connection?
Charlie rechecked the results of the reverse lookup on Tyler’s number and found an address on the fourteenth floor of a condo tower in Northwest Calgary.
He grabbed the phone and called Gary’s number.
“Hey, Charlie. What’s up?”
“The phone records paid off. I think I’ve got a lead on Declan. There’s a guy, Tyler Chipping—he had a grudge against me and a creepy fixation with Declan. More than that, I found out that he’s Jules’ brother. I’ve got an address for him. What do we do?”
Gary paused on the other end of the line. “I’ll get a police unit to go over there. We can meet up with them and see if this Tyler guy’s at home. Give me the address and we’ll see you over there.”
“We need to get there fast,” Charlie said.
“I know, Charlie,” Gary replied. “Meet us at the front door of the building. Do not, I repeat, do not enter the building without police presence. Understand?”
“I promise.”
Charlie ran to his car. He spun out of the parking lot and grasped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.
By the time Charlie got to Tyler’s building, a police cruiser was waiting in front, along with Sam and Gary. There was a young officer standing beside the car. Gary made a quick introduction. “Craig Smith, this is Charlie Watts.”
The young officer just nodded.
“Okay,” Gary started. “This is the way this is going down…”
Gary marched up to the concierge desk, the others in tow. He and Constable Smith flashed their badges. “I need the key for suite fourteen-o-two. This is an emergency situation and a life could be in danger.”
The concierge couldn’t have been more than twenty. From the look on his face, Charlie figured he hadn’t dealt with a situation tougher than a residential noise complaint. The concierge reached for a binder labelled ‘Procedures’ and said, “Ah. Just a moment. I’ll have to—”
Gary interrupted. “You’ll have to give me the key to that unit now, unless you want to be charged with obstruction of a police investigation!”
The face of the concierge lost what little colour it had.
He turned and unlocked a wall cabinet from which he removed a key-card labelled ‘14M’.
With a shaky hand, he passed it to Gary.
“It’s the master for the fourteenth floor.
It’ll open any door on that level, but please only use it on fourteen—whatever suite you said.
Oh, and if you could hand it back to me when you’re done it’d save my job. ”
Charlie and the others took the elevator up and located suite fourteen-o-two.
Gary pointed to Charlie and Sam. “You two stay well behind us. First, we knock. If there’s no response, we use the key and check the place out.
Once Smith and I have ascertained that it’s safe, we’ll come back for you two. Understand?”
Charlie and Sam both nodded.
Gary knocked several times, opened the door and the two cops disappeared inside. A few minutes later, Constable Smith reappeared. “You can come in now. No one’s here.”
Charlie followed Sam into the apartment.
It was sparsely furnished. In the living room there was a leather armchair and sofa that shared a simple chrome and glass end-table.
In front of the sofa was a wooden coffee table with an empty tumbler and a half-full bottle of Grey Goose vodka.
The only other furnishings were a large flat-screen TV and a stereo.
The walls were covered with images—dozens of photographs, newspaper and magazine pictures of Declan. A few of the photos had obviously been surreptitiously taken at The Greek.
“Well, that’s creepy as hell,” Smith said as he came to stand beside Charlie.
“Look what I found,” Sam called out. Charlie turned.
Sam came from the other room holding a bundle of old clothes.
He laid the items out on the sofa. There was a grubby trench coat, a black fisherman’s cap, a contact lens case with a pair of coloured lenses, and a plastic bag filled with hair.
Sam opened it and pulled out a fake beard and a wig with a ponytail.
“Oh, shit,” Charlie said. “They’re his disguises.”
“Okay,” the constable said, “whatever that means.”
“Is no one else curious about these?” Gary said, pointing to two suitcases on the floor by the front door.
“Looks like someone is thinking of taking a trip,” Constable Smith said. “I bet he’ll be coming back for these. I can put a watch on the apartment if you want.”
“That might be a good idea,” Gary said. “Charlie—do you have a picture of the guy?”
“Sure. I can pull one off of Facebook. But that isn’t going to help us find Declan any sooner.”
“There’s nothing else we can do here,” Sam said.
“At least I can spread the word with the division to keep a look out for Chipping. In the meantime, we have to reassess.”
Charlie slammed the heel of his hand against the wall in frustration. His smart watch made a pinging sound. Charlie glanced down. There was an email. It was flagged as urgent and the sender’s identification had been blocked. Charlie opened the message.
Are you available right now? If so, reply Yes.
Charlie replied.
Yes
Another message came through.
If you want to see Declan alive, you need to come to the parking lot behind the old Accurate Car Parts warehouse on 106th Ave, Southeast. Head to the rear. Drive in your own car. Do not involve the police or I will send the order and Declan will be murdered. You have thirty minutes to get there.
Charlie reread the instructions and burned them into his memory. After a few seconds both messages disappeared.
“What was that?” Sam asked.
“Whoever has Declan, just contacted me. They said if I involve the police, Declan is dead. I’m supposed to meet them…on my own.”
“No way,” Gary said. “You can’t do that. You’ll just be giving them a second hostage.”
“I have to do it.” Charlie paused. “But I think there’s a way I can do this so I won’t be totally alone.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sam snapped.
Charlie continued. “I’ll go as bait. You stay well out of the way until I’m picked up, then you follow where they take me.”
“And how are we supposed to follow you if we can’t get close?” Sam asked.
Charlie held up his hand, revealing the smart watch. “You don’t have to be close. Not with this.”
“Brilliant,” Constable Smith said.
“What the fuck is brilliant?” Gary asked.
“You can track him with that. You can do almost anything with a smart watch like that,” Constable Smith said.
Charlie held out his hand. “Sam, unlock your phone and give it to me.”
Sam did as he was instructed and Charlie started to work on it. In less than a minute, he handed the phone back to Sam. “There. I’ve synced my smart watch to your phone and downloaded the app you’ll need. As long as I have the watch on me, you can track me wherever I go.”
Charlie continued. “The watch can also record sound. Everything that goes down will be captured.”
“Do you know what kind of risk you’re taking?” Sam asked.
“The same kind of risk Declan would take for me. Sam…I have to do this. Declan’s everything to me.”
Sam nodded and extended his hand. Charlie went to shake it and Sam pulled him into a quick hug without saying anything.
“Well, I guess you should get going, then,” Sam said. “There’s nothing else you can do here.”
“Wait a minute, there is one more thing,” Charlie added.
He fiddled with his watch. “I’m installing a form of panic button.
When I press it, it will sound on Sam’s phone like an amber alert.
Don’t come in guns a-blazing until I press it.
What I don’t want is to have you burst in too soon.
Whoever this is may not be taking me to where Declan’s being held right away, so if you’re early you may end up saving me but not getting Declan.
And as far as the police notice on Chipping goes, hold off on that.
We can’t run the risk of tipping them off that we’re onto them. ”
“Do you still want me to stake out the place, Sarge?” Smith asked.
“Better not,” Gary said. “Hopefully nobody’s watching the building right now.
No matter what, we can’t run the risk of Chipping seeing a cruiser parked outside the building.
Park a few blocks away so you can get here fast if you need to.
I’ll tell the kid at the front desk to keep an eye out for him and call if Chipping returns.
I have a feeling that Charlie’s plan is our best bet. ”
Charlie left the building, got into his car and raced to meet up with Declan’s captor. He just hoped and prayed everything would go according to plan.