Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
The evening of the day Amelia left, I had a meeting with Lenny and Jerome again, demanding a progress report from the two of them. Lenny told me neither of the guards had seen or heard anything suspicious. They reported that one moment they were fine and the next moment they were fighting to stay awake. The next thing either of them remembered after that was waking up at Lenny’s place. The toxicology report had come back showing they had both been drugged with heavy but over the counter sedatives – the kind anyone could buy from anywhere. The drugs had been in their coffee.
Lenny had followed up on both leads. Unsurprisingly, the medication route had turned up nothing of any use. There were just too many options, and Igor wouldn’t have had to say or do anything to stand out to get them. He would have just bought them from a pharmacy or supermarket, a face in a crowd, nothing memorable about the transaction. Even if Lenny stumbled across the right store, there was no guarantee anyone would remember Igor, and even if they did, it wouldn’t give us anything useful. We already knew he bought the drugs, and it’s not like he would’ve been discussing his plans for them with the cashier.
The coffee shop had turned up something a little bit more interesting. It was the one all of the guards used daily – the one on the road to my estate. One of Lenny’s men had ‘persuaded’ the young barista to talk. He explained how a man had approached him and gave him the description of the two gate guards and he had confirmed they were regulars. The man had offered him a huge sum of money to put the drugs in their coffees. He had refused at first, but then he found out it was only a perfectly legal, over the counter sedative that wouldn’t harm them, and he had agreed to do it. I’d been fuming then, demanding to know what Lenny planned on doing to him.
Lenny had shaken his head. He explained to me that the barista was only a kid – barely eighteen – and that Igor, or a man matching Igor’s description at least, had offered him a sum of money big enough to get him through college. It was life changing for the kid for something that in his mind was essentially harmless.
Igor’s story had been that he had messed up at work and he wanted to be able to put his mistake right without his colleagues watching over him. It was a stretch of a story, but I could see how the kid had chosen to believe it. As pissed off as I was, I had to admit I didn’t really blame the kid for taking the offer. It really was an offer you just couldn’t refuse in his position, and it’s not like he’d drugged them with heroin or something.
As interesting as it was to learn how Igor had taken out the gate guards, none of this information helped me to find him. It did explain how he had gotten access to my estate though, and it saved the jobs of the gate guards, and stopped their heads from rolling. It was hardly their fault. They hadn’t even broken from their normal routine.
Lenny also informed me about all the added security measures he had put in place. I was tempted to ask him to put some men in the trailer park, but it would ruin the impression Amelia and I had broken up. I had to make it look as though I didn’t care one way or the other about what happened to her, and if I put men in the trailer park, it would make her more of a target because it would be clear that I did care about what happened to her.
Jerome told me his team was searching all of Igor’s usual haunts and some new locations they had scouted out. And that was pretty much it. A lot was happening, but nothing was changing. We were just hitting dead end after dead end.
I felt so useless in that moment, because there was really nothing I could do but sit back and wait for Igor to be found. And plot my revenge, of course. I daydreamed constantly about how I’d make the bastard pay, while in reality I knew I would go in and deal with him quickly and efficiently. I didn’t need to make him suffer or drag this out. I just wanted it over and Amelia back in my arms.
The daydreams were just another way of passing the hours without letting myself think about the smell of Amelia’s hair or the feel of her lips brushing against mine.
That was easier said than done.
Every day, Jerome checked in with me and every day it was the same old story – sorry boss, nothing to report. It wasn’t that his men weren’t trying. They were tearing the city apart looking for Igor. It’s just he wasn’t in any of the places we would have expected him to be in and it was starting to seem like he wasn’t in any of the places we wouldn’t have expected him to be in either. It was like the guy was fucking supernatural, a shadow that was visible only when he chose to be.