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Julie
I wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. Taking a personal day yesterday and today has undeniably been what I needed. Not to mention the added benefit of spending a four-day weekend with Devan. I stretch my arms over my head, feeling the pleasant soreness between my legs from last night. If he continues being that creative, this will be a great weekend indeed.
Rolling over, I notice that Devan is already out of bed. I walk into the master bathroom to find it empty. After brushing my teeth, I walk back into the bedroom and look at the clock on the nightstand. It’s already 10:30, no wonder I’m alone in the bed. I haven’t slept that late in years.
I pull on a pair of black yoga pants and a tank top from the overnight bag that Devan had thrown together a couple nights ago. After pulling my hair back into a loose ponytail, I open the bedroom door and am welcomed by the smell of coffee.
“Good morning sleepy head.” Devan says as I enter the kitchen, following the blissful scent of caffeine.
“Wow I must have been tired. I haven’t slept this late since before going to college. Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“Personal day, remember? I knew you were tired, especially after last night.” He wiggles his eyebrows and gives me a lopsided grin. “And you deserved the chance to sleep. It’s not like you’re going to work today.” He answers, winking at me with that sexy half smile of his.
“Thank you. I feel so much more rested today. And a little silly.”
“Silly? Why would you feel silly?” He raises an eyebrow in question.
“For acting like a child the other night. I freaked out when I got that note and it was stupid.”
“No, angel. It was not stupid.” He grabs my arm and pulls me into his lap, resting his hands on my hips and looking into my eyes. “You were frightened. Rightfully so. This is nothing to take for granted and I still think that you should have gone to the police.”
“I know and I’m still thinking about it. I do plan on talking to the head of security at my building though on Monday when I go back to work. I want to know who that guard was that was working the other night and why he wasn’t willing to escort me. We had an agreement that I would be escorted any time that I left the building, and he should have known about it. Someone dropped the ball somewhere and I intend to get to the bottom of it.”
With a smile, Devan wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his chest. Resting his chin on top of my head, he says “Beware the wrath of Julie, right?”
“You bet. They do not know what they’ve got coming. They might be like ten times bigger than me, but I can still take ‘em.”
“My money is on you any day, angel.”
I set my coffee on the table and wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you, Devan. I don’t think I can thank you enough for what you’ve done for me since the other night.”
“Don’t mention it, angel. I told you I wanted to be here with you. You needed me and I love you more than any job. There is no distance great enough to keep me from getting to you when you need me.” He kisses me softly on the forehead. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you something to eat.” The rumble in my stomach gives me away and we both laugh. He helps me off his lap and walks into the kitchen to cook some eggs and toast.
Devan spends the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon editing photos from his last job. I can’t wait to see the advertising they come up with. I had never seen buildings as beautiful as the ones he was able to capture before he came running back to me.
I finish up my stories for work and send the email off to Travis. Before shutting down my laptop for the rest of the day, I decide to check my emails just to make sure I haven’t missed any since I have not been at work. “Devan.” I look up at him, not sure how he’s going to feel about what I have to say. “I got an email back from my source.”
“Really? What did he have to say?” He keeps his eyes on his laptop, editing his photos. I can see the tension in his shoulders and know that he’s trying not to react.
“He’s ready to meet.” I take a moment to judge his reaction. I know he’s been worried about me meeting this source in person, and after what happened Wednesday, I may have to bribe him into letting me go. If these threats do have anything to do with this story, then I need to get to the bottom of it. “Tonight, if I’m available.”
He places his hands flat on the table to either side of the laptop, closes his eyes and releases a heavy sigh. “Julie, are you sure tonight is good? What about what happened the other night?” He opens his eyes and looks at me. I can see the concern etched across his face and know that he’s not happy about me going anywhere to meet this guy.
“Devan, I have to. I need this story. I just have a few pieces of information to confirm and it’s done. I need it to be done. I’ll meet him in public. How about the coffee shop up the block from my office?” I notice the time stamp on the email was just fifteen minutes ago so I shoot him a reply telling him to meet me at Club Coffee at 6:30. That should give me enough time to take an Uber back to my apartment and grab my car.
“Do you really trust this source, Julie?” Devan asks as I grab my keys.
“They’ve been right so far, Devan. I need this information to break the story. You know how hard I’ve been working on this. Between what answers I get from him, and what I’ve been able to gather on my own, I might be ready to write this story. I only have a few questions to ask him anyway, so I won’t be long.” I use the app on my phone to order a car to take me by my apartment before the meeting. “Hey.” I lay a hand on his arm trying to calm his nerves. He’s looking down at the table and not at me and I don’t want him to be angry. “Let me get the last of this information from him. Then, Monday morning, you and I will take everything to the police.”
He looks up at me then, narrowing his eyebrows and tilting his head slightly to one side. “You’ll go to the police with me?”
“Yeah. I want this to be over. I’m really close to breaking this story wide open, Devan. I think after I get a few answers from this source, I’ll be able to piece the rest of it enough to hand it over to the police.”
“Just please be careful. You know how I worry about you. Please call me as soon as you’re done.”
“I will. I promise I’ll text you as soon as I leave the coffee shop. I’m going to stop by the apartment before I come back here if that’s ok. There are a few more things I want to grab for the rest of the weekend. Then I’m all yours for the next two days.” He squeezes my hand and only nods in agreement. I grab my purse, throw my phone inside, and go to get my jacket out of the entryway closet. Devan walks me outside to wait for the Uber and I give him a quick kiss when it arrives. “I’ll be back soon. I love you.”
“I love you too, Julie.” He closes the door for me, backs away putting both hands in his pockets, and stands in the driveway as the driver pulls away from his house.
Once I arrive at the coffee shop, I order my usual and grab a table in the corner. I came early so that I would have a chance to get my thoughts together before he gets here. Not to mention, it gives me a few minutes to look around and make sure I am not being watched. Not that I would know what to look for, but so far, I am not getting any weird feelings like I had the other day when I was here with Marie.
I finish my coffee and return to the counter to order another one. It only takes a few minutes after sitting with my refill for a man to walk up to my table. He is not a tall man, maybe only a few inches taller than me. He appears to be in his forties with grey hair at his temples and a light scruff of a beard. His clothes are casual but wrinkled like he has been living out of a suitcase or the backseat of his car for several days and I wonder if this is the guy I’m waiting to meet or a homeless person off the street coming to beg for spare change.
“Are you Julie?” He asks, standing over me and speaking quietly.
“Yes I am.” He’s holding his hands in front of him and twisting his fingers together nervously.
“Thank God. I wasn’t sure if you would come or not. Sorry if I’m late.”
“You’re not, I came early so I could get us a good table. Please have a seat. Would you like for me to get you anything?
“No, I’m good. Look, I don’t want to alarm you, but I don’t feel safe. It would be best if we made this short so we could both get out of here before anyone realizes I’m talking to you.” He sits in the seat across from me. The table is small, so we don’t have to talk very loudly to hear each other. He leans forward in his chair and places both elbows on the table to get a little closer.
“Of course. I only have a few questions for you anyway, I won’t take up much of your time. Is it okay if I record this?”
“That’s fine, this is still anonymous, though right?” He seems nervous tonight. He keeps his hands fisted together on the table and looks over his shoulder ever few seconds as if looking for someone that may have followed him here. Not that I expect any different.
“Of course.” I assure him. “Just tell me what you know, I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Okay. I’m not sure where to start.” He looks down at the table and chews his bottom lip.
“You could just start at the beginning.” I tell him as I set my audio app to record and place it on the table between us.
“Okay. A couple of years ago, I was working in insurance. I was a claims adjuster so I was one of the guys that would go around investigating burglaries, vandalism, accidents. The types of things that generally resulted in a claim being filed against insurance. Basically, my job was to figure out who or what was at fault and tally up the numbers before a claim check could be sent out.” He proceeds to tell me about his job in insurance and how it had led to several sketchy claims that caught his attention.
“So how does this connect with the burglaries that are going on now around the city?”
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you. I had started to notice similarities in some of the claims that I was working. Simple break-ins really. No physical damage to property from the entry, but numerous high dollar items stolen. The claims would add up into the thousands easily. So, I started asking questions. It didn’t take long for word to get around that I was suspicious, and I was approached by a man. Don’t ask me his name because even after all this time I don’t know it. I had only met with him the one time in person.”
“I don’t remember hearing anything about these types of robberies a few years ago.” I state, starting to get suspicious that his facts are not adding up.
“That’s because it wasn’t here.” He says. “It was in Portland.” I need to look into that to verify his information later.
“So, you were in Portland at the time?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been involved in any of the robberies taking place here?”
“No.”
“Okay. So, you started asking questions and were approached by a man that you don’t know. What happened next?”
“I was given a burner phone. You know what that is right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“So, this guy gave me a burner phone and said that was how I was to reach him with information. He wanted me to get him contact information for businesses that had insurance with the company I worked for.”
“And did you?”
“I did.”
“Then what happened?”
“I began to get cocky. I was helping this group with the insurance claims, helping to doctor up the records to show more stolen than what really had been. Helping the business owners to get a bigger payout. The deal was, they would do the work, the businesses would get a claims payout, the group executing the robberies would get a cut, and then of course so would I. It was a huge scam with a lot of people involved. But like I said, I got cocky. I thought if I could get them more money, maybe that would mean more for me also.”
“I see.”
“I lost my job. I was arrested and charged with racketeering. I wasn’t the only one involved on the insurance side of it though. When the insurance company started investigating the large amounts of payouts these businesses were getting, the hammer came down and I was on the receiving end. But I wasn’t the only one.”
“So, what brought you all the way here then?”
“When I got arrested and fired, the group setting it all up moved on. I think it’s the same group here that was in Portland. It all fits. The robberies are the same. The lack of evidence is the same. I got caught, business owners were charged with insurance fraud. But the actual group doing the robberies was never apprehended.”
“Do you know the name or names of any others involved?”
“Unfortunately, no. But I do know that the surveillance systems in these businesses are the key.”
“Yeah, about that. I talked to the manager at Precision Security and he was not very much help. But when I dug deeper, I found that all the installations were done by different crews. But each install included a certain tech named Jerry that was at every job. Do you know anything about him?”
“No, I don’t. But it makes sense. That means that one person had access to every site as well as the security. They would have the means to be able to gain entry without getting caught if they knew how to disarm the system.”
“That’s true. Is there anything else you can tell me that might help?”
“No. That’s all I have.”
“Okay. Thank you for meeting with me.”
“No problem. Be careful okay? I don’t know the names of everyone involved. But I can tell you that they’re dangerous.”
“I will. Thank you.”
As soon as he leaves, I stop the recording app on my phone. I decide to not only store the audio file in the cloud, but I send it to my email as well. Not only my work email, but I blind copied my personal email too for just in case my work email was compromised in any way.