33. The Bar
The Bar
Amyriad of country ballads had been playing for the better part of the last hour, courtesy of Belle, who was in the mood for it.
Her search led nowhere, and now she was back at square one; or if she had it her way, square eleven, but that would mean tearing apart that hangar.
Amir was still on her mind, though several hours had passed.
That sly smile and thin lips; the spaghetti-thin mustache.
It made her skin crawl. As a child, she grew up with men like him.
She understood how French-speaking Arabs treated women who weren’t like them; they were seen as inferior, like dogs, to be used and then discarded.
A shadow loomed over her that did not mirror her desires; a dark foreboding that rubbed against her without permission.
“Buy you a drink, sexy lady?” A fat man said, his belly rubbing against her arm.
He approached her from the end of the counter after watching her for a while; with a whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other.
Belle looked at him and gave the most unflattering smile.
Awkward and lopsided, almost as if she’d experienced a stroke. “I guess not.”
The guy turned away and waddled off to the nearest table.
And Belle went back to work sifting through countless documents.
Airport records, company visitor records for APOLLO, messages, emails from suppliers, and international criminal gang movements.
She’d been at it for a while, searching for new leads, when he walked in.
“There you are,” Alex said, sitting down beside her. “Rum and coke, please!”
“What are you doing here?” Belle said. She opened a new folder and pulled out financial information from APOLLO.
“I tried to call you directly, but it went to voicemail. So, I called James instead and told him about what I found at the restaurant; then asked him about you. He told me you were here,” Alex said.
The bartender hands him the drink. He swirls it around and takes a sip.
He grimaces. “Did you find anything on your end?”
“No. Too strong?” Belle replied bluntly. She reached over, grabbed the drink, and took a big gulp. “What about you?”
“If you wanted a drink, you could’ve asked,” Alex replied in disbelief. “And no, not yet. I have a promising lead, though, which is why I came here.”
“You never offered,” Belle said. “Well, go on.”
Alex calls the bartender over and orders another drink for himself; same thing, rum and coke.
“I went to a restaurant that one of the original thieves, Jason, visited frequently. And talked to a girl there,” Alex said. The bartender handed him the fresh drink, but before he could grab it, Belle snatched it away and took a sip.
“You can have this one,” Belle said, handing Alex his old drink. “Thanks for the drink.”
“As I was saying, I went to the restaurant and ran into this girl. Apparently, someone else had been looking for Jason in the same week,” Alex said.
“Who and why?”
“I didn’t get his name. She froze up when I asked,” Alex replied and took a sip of his drink. “Turned out the guy had returned to the restaurant with several friends and was seated across from me on the opposite side of the restaurant.”
“James told me about that,” Belle said, jumping out of her seat in excitement. “These are the guys whose photos and prints you uploaded? The ones you’re still waiting on?”
“Yeah, but no hits yet,” Alex replied. “The girl didn’t give me any useful information other than pointing him out for me, and when I approached, this little kid ran in and robbed the guy.”
“What?!” Belle said. “You didn’t mention this to James.”
“Yeah! This little brat ran by me and swiped a black bag that was hanging on his chair. Then he bolted out the door,” Alex said. “The four guys at the table almost gave chase after the kid until they saw me.”
“Four of them?” Belle said. She grew silent afterwards. Pensive.
“Yea. I gave chase and finally caught the brat several blocks down. The guy showed up with his friends not long after, and I gave him his bag back.”
“Did you look inside?” Belle said.
“The bag? No, I didn’t have a chance,” Alex replied.
“What did they look like? These four men?”
“I only got a good look at one of them. They all looked similar and spoke with the same accent. Even their eyes were the same shade of dark brown. Except for this one guy. His were black like coal in a Christmas stocking. He’s the one who had the bag stolen,” Alex said, and took another sip of his drink.
“I had a weird gut feeling, you know. Like something just felt wrong when I saw them. And when I gave them the bag back?—.”
“What happened after you gave them the bag?” Belle said.
“They left rather quickly. Told me they were on vacation and had a flight to catch,” Alex replied.
“The pictures. Do you have a copy?” Belle said with bated breath.
“Yeah. I uploaded them all to the facial recognition system, but he sent me several of them as well. Here,” Alex said, handing Belle his phone. She gazed at the photo of the four men seated at the table and took in a deep breath like a free-diving swimmer who had just come up for air.
“I saw them,” Belle said finally after a long pause. She’d gone through all the photos, and by the time she finished, her face was whiter than paint primer. “I saw them at the hangar. At the airport.”
Belle tossed Alex his phone and went haywire. She quickly gathered all the documents, stuffed them in her bag, and took out her service weapon. The other patrons in the bar winced and hid behind chairs and columns right away.
“Whoa! Calm down. What the hell are you doing?” Alex said.
“We need to go to the airport. Now!” Belle shouted. She took out her phone and dialed her partner. Called in for backup, too. Even called her boss at this late an hour. She needed all hands-on deck; Belle was on a warpath.