Yuri had offered to drive, but as his driving is not only haphazard but downright frightening, I was once again behind the wheel. Still, as usual, he pointed out he’s never been in an accident while HE was driving, and, like usual, I reiterated my theory that his driving is so outrageous that other drivers keep their distance.
We’d decided to watch a triangular-shaped vacant lot in a commercial district along a fairly busy road not far from Mann’s headquarters. There weren’t too many vacant lots left in the city, and this one probably survived because of its odd shape. Signs were scattered everywhere, like wooden-stemmed cardboard weeds growing out of control, including a dozen or so for Knight. They stood out from the rest because of their color and careful placement on the lot. According to the file, Knight’s signs had been stolen from the lot in the past, and hopefully they would be a tempting target for the opposition this evening. Although I liked having an assignment, I didn’t necessarily look forward to spending too many nights in a car eating junk food and praying I could last the night without needing a toilet break.
“Want to start with chips or Cheez-its?” Yuri asked.
“I brought a couple of sandwiches,” I said. “Egg salad or vegetarian?”
“What’s in the vegetarian?”
“Eggs,” I said, handing him a sandwich. “I didn’t have time for dinner,” I explained. “I also have a thermos of coffee and some candy bars.”
“I brought Coke and candy bars.”
“Think we’ll have enough?”
“Only if it doesn’t take all night.” Yuri laughed. I like his laugh. And I like him. We work well together. Initially my kids had hoped we would end up romantically involved, but when they realized that wasn’t going to happen, they seemed content to settle for his friendship in our lives. At Yuri’s instigation, the three of us had gone on a camping trip to the San Juans. I’m not a fan of camping and never will be—too much roughing it and too many bugs—but the kids and Yuri had a great time.
We settled in, eating, watching, and making small talk. Yuri vented about politics and the upcoming election. I vented about my mother and the upcoming election. We speculated about the impact fewer mall customers might have on Penny-wise as big box stores left and were replaced with apartments. And we played with the idea of inviting his father to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Both my mother and Yuri’s father have been widowed for a while. Although we didn’t think they had anything in common, you never knew what might work until you tried. And I liked the idea of giving my mom a dose of her own medicine.
It was less than two hours into our stakeout when a truck showed up and parked next to the row of signs we were watching. Twilight had melted into darkness. The solitary streetlight at the apex of the triangle provided just enough light for some decent pictures. Yuri took a snapshot of the truck, then zoomed in on the license plate for good measure.
“Think we have our thieves already?” I asked.
“It sure looks that way to me.”
Three young people got out of the truck. One female and two males, all wearing hoodies.
Yuri snapped their pictures. “Take that,” he said. “And that.”
“There they go,” I said as they headed for the signs. Yuri kept snapping pictures as they pulled up one sign after another and tossed them into the truck bed. Then they got back in the truck, two in front, one in the tiny space behind the front seat. “And here we go. Let’s hope they don’t notice they’re being followed.”
It seemed too easy. The truck made two more stops. One at a strip mall in front of a convenience store where they picked up four Knight signs and another at a bus stop where they plucked three signs from the hillside. By then we had more than enough pictures to prove they were the culprits. Although we still didn’t have any clear shots of their faces. They pulled up their hoods each time they got out to swipe signs. Based on their silhouettes while in the truck, we knew that the person in the back seat had long hair. But that was all we could make out.
After the third stop, we followed them to Mann’s headquarters. They parked in front and started hauling signs inside.
“Can you believe it?” Yuri said, snapping still more pictures. “They’re storing the stolen signs at his campaign office. That’s cheeky.”
“And risky, I would think.”
“Wonder how many they have inside?” Yuri said thoughtfully.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned.
“Think about what?” Yuri asked, even though he knew that I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking it, too. But I knew we shouldn’t.
The trio left after just a few minutes inside. Yuri had taken pictures of them hauling the signs inside and more when they left empty-handed, but we still didn’t have any good facial shots.
“We could continue following them and hope to get a glimpse of someone’s face,” I suggested, then quickly changed my mind. “But that’s probably a bad idea. They haven’t seen us so far, and we probably shouldn’t push our luck.”
“Besides, catching the thieves isn’t our assignment.”
“You’re right. We’ve earned our fee.”
“Still, I can’t help wondering…” Yuri’s voice trailed off. “I agree we shouldn’t follow them and that we have sufficient evidence to satisfy our client. But aren’t you curious?”
“Of course, I’m curious, but that would be breaking the law.”
“I bet there are a lot of them in there,” Yuri said, “And there’s no one around. Just one quick peek and I’ll be satisfied.” He didn’t wait for me to argue him out of it. He simply grabbed a flashlight out of the glove box and got out of the car. I didn’t move. I just sat there, my good angel arguing with my bad angel. Yuri leaned over and peered in at me. “Look at it this way, if we go inside, you can use the bathroom.”
My bad angel won. I did need to go, but that wasn’t what swayed me. I rationalized that there was no way to stop Yuri once he got his mind set on something, and I couldn’t let him go alone. And to be truthful, I was really, really curious myself. “We can’t let on that we’ve done this.”
“Of course not. Catching the sign thieves was for the job. This is for us.”
Yuri reached back into the car and pulled a couple of baseball caps out of his bag of snacks. “You never know when you’re going to need a cap.” He handed one to me. We put on our caps, automatically pulling the bills down low on our foreheads.
The campaign headquarters was the last office on the end of a series of connected stores in a strip mall. Out front there had been signage for a pet store, a donut shop, a nail salon, and a deli. Nothing fancy, but I still wondered about cameras. I didn’t see any, but everyone seemed to have them these days.
We made our way around to the back of the building. There was no one in the alley. And there were no obvious cameras. But there was a spotlight on the corner of the end building that cast just enough light to ensure that we were clearly visible on any hidden cameras that might be aimed at the back of the campaign headquarters. We both kept our heads titled down, just in case.
“Let’s try the window,” Yuri whispered. I wasn’t sure why he was whispering since there was no one in sight. But whispering seems to go with sneaking around. He went over and tried to open the window. “It’s locked.”
“Surprise,” I said softly.
“No problem. The door shouldn’t be much of a challenge.” Yuri reached into his pocket for his precious lock-picking tool. “Cover for me.” He leaned down to study the lock mechanism. “Pretend like we’re making out.”
“With you bending over the doorknob?”
“Improvise. Make it look like it’s all about us.”
I leaned over him and watched as he tinkered with the lock. It was an old door in an old building that had been built cheaply and probably didn’t meet current code. I pulled out an expired credit card that I had saved for just such a purpose and pressed it into the space between the frame and the door.
“That doesn’t work on modern locks.” Yuri continued to probe the lock mechanism.
I pushed harder. “Worth a try,” I countered. Then added, “Especially if the door isn’t locked in the first place.”
Yuri grabbed the doorknob and gave it a turn. “Maybe I unlocked it,” he said, but not convincingly.
We quickly went inside and paused to listen and get our bearings. The outside spotlight reached the interior through the small, locked window, almost meeting up with the diffused light shining through the large storefront windows from the streetlight next to the parking lot. The building may have been old, but the spacious interior appeared well-organized and well equipped. There were telephones on narrow tables along one wall, desks piled high with campaign literature, flip charts scattered among the interior desks, and two glass enclosed offices. A long banner was draped above the phone bank tables, and huge pictures of the candidate decorated the back wall. I couldn’t make out too many details in the dim light, but everything suggested a professional, well-run campaign. So why had a door been left open?
Yuri got out his flashlight and ran it around the room. “Impressive.” Then, “Over there.” He aimed the light at a door next to a small kitchen at the back.
“It could be a bathroom,” I said, almost hoping it was.
“Looks like a storage room to me. You don’t usually put a bathroom entry through a kitchen.”
“Wait,” I said when we reached the door. “We don’t want to leave any fingerprints behind.” I got out a pair of disposable plastic gloves and pulled them on. “Allow me—”
“Prepared, huh?”
“Between the two of us we seem to have everything needed for a break-in.” As soon as I’d said it out loud, an inner voice cried out, “You’re being stupid. You should leave now.” Instead, I meekly followed Yuri. “Let’s remember to wipe the back doorknob when we leave.”
“No one is going to know we were here,” Yuri rationalized. “There are a ton of people coming and going in a campaign headquarters.”
“Who is always saying not to leave a trace?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll wipe the doorknob when we leave.”
I opened the door. Yuri was right. It was a small room, and was definitely being used for storage. Yuri pointed his flashlight at the left wall where a haphazard mess of bright green Knight campaign signs were piled. In the middle of the room, against the back wall, Mann campaign signs were neatly stacked, apparently waiting to be distributed to appropriate locations. And as Yuri trailed his light further to the right, we saw something else. Something completely out of place.
“Damn,” Yuri said out loud. At the same time, I blurted out a “holy shit.” My voice resonated off the walls of the windowless room. We both stood there motionless, staring at the body lying face down on the floor next to the pile of Mann signs. Fanning out from the man’s head was a pool of dark red, as if the paint from Mann’s signs had liquified and drooled off onto the floor, creating a bloody halo.