By the time the FBI team had arrived at the neighbourhood of Ms Crystal Meth, the sky had started to darken.
Lewiston hunched his shoulders as a chilly blast of air swept up the seemingly abandoned street.
He stood beside Lisa and waited for the other two FBI agents to park their van. He noticed that they seemed to be taking their time leaving their vehicle and glanced at Lisa to see if she too had noticed the delay. She seemed nonplussed so he said nothing.
While he waited, he took a good look around at the row of derelict edifices and sighed heavily. These neighbourhoods always depressed him as they reminded him of his past.
He had grown up as the only child of very poor family. Fortunately, he had realised at a very young age that the only way that he was going to break the cycle of poverty, was for him to excel scholastically as he was always a weedy child and hence that eliminated any desires for athletic achievement.
His keen analytical mind had always been his greatest strength and so had jumped at the opportunity for a scholarship and then internship with the Bureau.
That had been his ticket out of his past and had opened up a whole new world for him, a world that enabled him to flex his analytical mind and to meet like minded people who shared his enthusiasm for solving riddles. He was especially pleased when he had been assigned to work with Lisa.
He felt his face go red when he started thinking about his partner and his feelings for her. He became particularly self conscious when he noticed that Lisa was looking at him, scrutinising him as she moved over closer to him. He could smell her perfume, the slight hint of Jasmine and Lilac which triggered an intense uncomfortable feeling within him.
“Bang-Bang, are you okay? Your face is a bit flushed,” Lisa said as she took her glove off and put the back of her hand on his forehead. “You’re not sick are you?”
Lewiston coughed nervously and shook his head as he stepped back slightly, trying to move away from Lisa’s touch as his blushing intensified.
“I…I…I’m fine, it’s just the cold, I get a bit of a reaction to cold breezes, that’s all,” he said as he brushed a loose strand of hair away from his eyes. He felt uncomfortable so he forced himself to look in the direction of the other van.
“Why do you think they are taking so long?” he asked, trying to change the subject.
“Thompson looks like he’s talking to someone on the phone,” Lisa said just as her phone started to ring.
Lewiston watched as Lisa pulled her phone out of her pocket to answer it. He waited patiently as the other person on the phone spoke and she listened.
“Okay, no problem. We will remain here and take a look around. Call us if you need us,” Lisa said and then shoved the phone back in her pocket.
“What was that all about?” Lewiston asked as he noticed the other van pull out quickly, its tyres squealing slightly as it sped off down the street. “Where are they going?”
“Thompson just got a call from Durning; apparently, he interrogated a witness who gave them a good description of a van which was involved in the Boss’s disappearance. He did some checking; apparently Durning has some connections with the CIA.”
“Yeah, that’d be right,” Lewiston said with derision.
“Anyway,” continued Lisa, “Using a surveillance satellite, the van has been tracked to an abandoned hospital.
Agents Thompson and Cambridge are going there now to try to locate the Boss. Thompson wants us to stay here and find Ms Meth and see how much she knows about Sylvan and Justen Peters.”
Lewiston could see that that sky was getting darker and the threat of rain was imminent.
“Okay then, do we know which building Ms Meth is in?”
“Thompson said it’s the first one in the block of five, Apartment 401 of the Paradise Apartments,” Lisa said as she started walking towards the first building.
Lewiston was about to follow her and stopped. He looked up and down the street.
“Thompson must be losing it,” he said quietly as he followed behind Lisa. He could see that there were only four buildings in the block. There was only a vacant lot where the alleged fifth building was supposed to be.
Further down the street he could see a few obviously homeless people huddled around a burning rubbish bin. He wondered whether there would be anything to gain from interviewing them and then thought better of it. He shrugged his shoulders and quickened his pace, just as the first splotches of rain began to moisten the ground.
He was getting an uneasy feeling that he couldn’t explain. He caught up with Lisa just as she was about to enter the building. He noticed that she opened the door very quietly as if expecting trouble.
The interior of the lobby to the building was very dark. Lewiston felt the wall for a light switch. He found a group of them and flicked them all. The lobby remained in darkness. The building was obviously abandoned.
Even in the dim light Lewiston could see that there was rubbish all over the floor and parts of the walls were collapsing under the weight of decay. The smell was disgusting, a mixture of mould, urine and rat faeces.
“No power Lisa, I don’t think this is Ms Meth’s building,” Lewiston said quietly. “How about we go and check out the next one.
“Thompson said it was the first building. That means we are at the wrong end of this block that’s all,” Lisa said as she turned and walked out of the building into the pouring rain.
Lewiston hunched his shoulders against the wind and rain and shivered. He could see the huddled masses of the homeless getting closer as they made their way down the street to the last building. He tried not to look at them as they passed but couldn’t help noticing that one of the old men look a little bit like his Father.
There, but for the grace of God, go I, he thought as he wiped a drip of water from his nose and pretended to stare at the footpath, unfortunately he couldn’t help notice that the old man had looked up from the bin and stared at him.
Suddenly the old man moved in front of him and grabbed hold of his arm. He spoke in a croaky voice and pointed his finger at the building.
“That’s the she devil’s kitchen, do not go in there. If you enter, you won’t return.”
Lewiston stopped and was about to reply when he heard Lisa.
“Come on Bang-Bang, ignore him, he’s obviously delusional.”
“I’m so sorry.” Lewiston said as he shook his arm to detach the old man and strode off after Lisa.
As he walked, he glanced behind to see if the old man was following him, but lost him in the rain and the heavy layer of mist which was beginning to rise from the ground.