The Mystery
Admirer
by Joshua Falken
Thanks to Janet Brayden for beta-read this fic :-)
Chapter 5 - Rescuer in the Shadows
The snow fell while the sun rose in Chicago. In her car, a red-haired woman fought to keep her eyes open. She had spent the whole night awake, watching McGinty's. "I have to stay awake." It was the last thought that passed through the head of the mystery admirer was before she closed her eyes and fell over the steering wheel.
Some minutes later, a black van stopped in front of the bar and Jake and Curtis jumped out of it. They went into the alley beside McGinty's and Curtis opened the lock of the service door. The two criminals entered the empty restaurant (the employees had not yet arrived) and the stairway that took to Gary's apartment rose before them.. The Cat had just meowed, informing Gary of the arrival of the Paper, when Gary opened the door and found himself face to face with the silencers of the criminals' weapons.
"Do you remember us?" Jake asked, pushing Gary inside.
Glass, who was sleeping in the floor, woke up with the noise. "But what...?"
"Shut up and get up, Mr. Glass! You and your friend will go with us.", Jake said with an unpleasant smile.
Gary didn't have chance of reading the article on page 4: Bar owner and mathematician found dead on Thomas Road.
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The mystery admirer woke up scared when she heard sounds of a fight. She saw when those two bandits put Gary and the man that he had helped in their van.
"My God!", she exclaimed, placing a gloved hand on her mouth.
The black van left. She started the car and began to follow the van, being careful to not be noticed. In that moment, she thanked the thriller films that she had seen when she was a kid. She got from from within her leather coat a cell phone.
"Come on... answer it!", she thought, while she tried not to let the kidnappers out of her sight..
"Chicago PD." a monotonous voice said.
"Hello, I want to report a kidnapping!" The woman in the black coat began to speak fast so she wouldn't be interrupted. "Two men in a black van, plate AGH-789, kidnapped Gary Hobson and a friend of his! They are in Wacker Drive and...!" On that moment the battery of the cellular died. "Damn!", she exclaimed, throwing the device in the backseat. Now, it was up to her.
After some minutes, the van crossed a train track, but their shadow had to stop because of the freight train that began to pass in that moment. When the train crossed, the vehicle of the kidnappers had disappeared.
"No..." she murmured.
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Later, Gary Hobson and Christian Glass were in the offices of Renquist Software, tied with adhesive tapes in the chairs in the center of the office. Jake and Curtis seemed bored.
"What now, Jake? When will the boss appear?"
"The witch said that she would came soon."
"The witch already arrived." A voice cold as liquid hydrogen spoke. The two idiots jumped when they saw who had entered.
Gary turned his head and saw a tall and very elegant blond woman, but with a cruel expression in her face. A chill went by his spine when she looked directly at him.
"Then, this is the man that was protecting Glass?"
"Yes." Jake and Curtis answered in unison.
She sighed. "Well, this will be a waste. He's very attractive."
Before Gary could thinkofany answer for that comment, she turned to the mathematician. "So, Mr. Glass, did you think you would flee with our secret research?"
"Your secret research?!? The General Demonstration of the Riemann's Hypothesis is the dream of all mathematicians! You can't keep it only for you and..." the blond woman interrupted him, laughing.
"What is that? In what century do you think you are? In the Renaissance? The discovery is of who pays for her!" She stopped laughing and she said for her two "security men", pointing to Gary: "Take him to the deposit and keep him there." While the order was obeyed, Renquist-Halloway turned again to the mathematician and she said coldly. "I think that is better for you to cooperate with us and to explain to us the demonstration, or your friend will die."
Christian Glass, feeling guilty for involving Gary in that confusion, agreed, with his head low.
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The sun was setting in Chicago. Meanwhile, in her apartment, a red-haired woman despaired.
"My God, what do I do?!" she thought. Gary had been kidnapped by those bandits and she didn't have any clue as to his whereabouts!
"Meow." The mystery admirer almost jumped from within of her skin when hearing the meow and the sound of a newspaper dropping in the ground. Confused, she turned and saw the Cat on top of her couch beside an edition of Chicago Sun-Times, the paper that Gary always read. She shook her head, thinking that she was imagining things. But the Cat and the Paper were very real.
"How did you appear here?" she asked by reflex. The feline spread the newspaper in her living room's floor. Still confused, she caught the newspaper and saw the date.
"No... there is some mistake." she thought, while she saw one of the headlines: "Drunk driver crashes through store's window". And in that very instant, the radio began to transmit the news. "... and a report has just arrived about a small incident than had happened some minutes ago, when a drunk driver, identified as Robert Cooper, crashed through the shop window of the Cosmic Way Sound Store with his car. Happily there are no victims..."
The redhead in the black coat was not understanding... how could that report be in the paper, if it had just happened...? She looked at again for the date in the Paper. Tomorrow's date.
When she understood, her brilliant eyes bugged out in surprise and understanding... and hope.
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Meanwhile, Crumb had just eliminated more suspect as being Hobson's mystery admirer. According to his informer, she could not be in Chicago. The private detective smiled: now remained a single possible name.
He was sure that was she was the one that he searched for.
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It was lacking fifteen minutes for 10 p.m., when a black Honda Accord stopped near Renquist Software. The light of only one office was lit. The driver of the car looked again at the Paper - the article stated that the bodies of Gary Hobson, bar owner, and Christian Glass, mathematician of the University of Chicago, were found in the front of the building of the high-tech company, according to Curtis Richter, company's security man, that found the bodies after hearing shots in the building. The estimated hour of death was 11:30 p.m.
She breathed deeply while she tried to decide what to do - she had not created a plan yet...
It was in that moment that she saw one of the criminals that had kidnapped her lover leave the building. Now she noticed exactly what was happening: Gary was being held in there.
A plan formed inside of her head. She caught her cellular - now with the battery surely recharged.
"Hello? Chicago PD? I wanted to report a kidnapping: two people, Gary Hobson and Christian Glass, were kidnapped and are being held as hostages in 1768 Thomas Road! Please come fast! I think they're going to kill them!" and the redhead cut the connection, hoping that her desperate voice convinced the police that it was not a hoax.
She left the car and went to the trunk. A wrench glittered in her black-gloved hand.
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Glass tried delay the explanation the as much as possible, trying to find a way that he and Mr. Hobson could escape. It was then that a window of the office was broken by a stone.
"But what the hell is that!?" Curtis exclaimed, when other stone was thrown.
"CHECK IT OUT, FOOL!" his boss ordered. "Jake, stay here and watch Glass." She didn't care with Gary, who was locked in the deposit of the floor.
Curtis went to the outside side of the building. As soon as he walked through the door, something heavy hit him in the head. He had time to turn and to see a wrench coming in his direction. He was knocked out.
The woman in the black coat held still for one moment, surprised with what she had done, before entering in the building. She arose for the stairways and when reaching the second floor, found a small red box with the inscription "Fire Alarm". With a impish smile, she broke the glass and pressed the button.
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In the office, Renquist and Jake were surprised when they heard the alarm. What was happening?
"Jake, See what that is. And what happened with the idiot Curtis!"
The employee left running from the office. The blond woman aimed a gold-plated gun at Glass.
"Don't let that small detail interrupt your wonderful explanation."
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In the deposit, Gary was stunned when hearing the fire alarm - he had come to recognize one of them immediately. His efforts to get free became frantic.
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In the Fire Department, a silent fire alarm was activated in the screen of the computer. The address was 1768 Thomas Road. The police were informed and Detective Armstrong was the designated officer.
The fire trucks left with the sirens wailing.
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Gary's mystery admirer opened the door of the fourth floor, where there was the office with the lights on. In that moment, she noticed movement in the end of the corridor and hid in a near cubicle. That other criminal was coming.
When he looked inside the janitor's closet, the woman in the black coat left her hiding place, and pushed him inside. Soon after, she locked the door, trapping the bandit.
"Hey, get me out of here!" he screamed. The only answer that she gave him was show her tongue. She gave a last glance in the Paper. And she smiled with the new headline.
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"What was that?" the owner of Renquist Software, when she heard someone knock on the door. Still seizing the weapon, Stephanie Renquist-Halloway opened the door, just to receive a jet of fire extinguisher in her face.
Everything happened very fast.
Christian Glass saw that from behind the jet of CO2 came a woman wearing a long black coat and a fedora hat that hide her eyes that knocked down the boss of the kidnappers with a well thrown punch. The woman went up to him, making a wry face of pain. She had never punched anyone...
"Listen, Mr. Glass. I came to help you and Gary! Do you know where he is?"
"Yes, I know!" the mathematician affirmed, remembering the blond woman's orders and the layout of the building.
"Great! Take me to him!"
The two had come out of the office while the blond woman with the gun was recovering.
Soon after, they were freeing Gary from the chair. Before Glass could remove the adhesive tapes of his arms and eyes, they heard a shot. It was Stephanie.
"Let's get out!" The mystery admirer exclaimed, at the same time that throwed another jet of the fire extinguisher. The mathematician and the mystery woman guided Gary - who still could not see - outside of the building. At that moment Curtis recovered and Renquist-Halloway appeared in the door of the building.
"Stop! Police!"
The two criminals were surprised with the order. The whole building was surrounded by policemen.
Later, while the police took the three kidnappers, Gary spoke to Glass.
"Did you see her face??"
"No, sorry, I mean, that fedora hat hid her eyes and..."
"All right." Gary sighed. Will it be that he would never know her? The woman in the black coat had simply disappeared.
"Mr. Hobson, thank you for everything."
"You're welcome."
"Excuse me." Detective Armstrong said behind them. "But we need your statements."
Both agreed.
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In the distance, a woman in a long black coat and black hat observed their departure, leaned in her Honda. She got in the car, and sighed, alone with her thoughts. Only the Cat had noticed her presence in the place.
What do you think? Who is your suspect? Next chapter coming soon!
Read and review! :-)