Shay Collins 2

Detection 2: The Wandering Man

Shay Collins

Here I am, once again, this time on my second filed case. To once again start out with my informant would be strange and repetitive. This time I will start with the scene of the crime, because I was actually taken there.

. . .

"Captain, what's happened?" I said as a stooped under the crime tape and came up to the house.

"It was apparently a break in. The front door had some damage done. This is the third break in like this, apparently nothing stolen just like the other three. It's been ridiculous." The Police Captain said.

The door was hanging lopsided on one hinge. It looked like that was the only damage done to the house.

"Is that it Captain?" I asked.

"It's all my men can find." He said, He gestured towards the house with one hand. "You can go inside and see if you can find anything. I didn't call you over here to stand outside."

"Thank you," I said as I went past him. I stopped at the door. The door was busted to the outside. "Captain!" I called.

He quickly came over, "What did you find?"

"The man was certainly inside," I said seeing if he would see what I had.

"How can you tell?" He asked blankly.

I felt slightly angry that he didn't even try to see, but that's the way people are sometimes. "The door was kicked out, not in."

"I... probably would have found that sometime." He said.

"Is it fine if I go in through this door?" I asked.

"Yeah they've already taken pictures of it so it's fine." He said grabbing an edge and pulling the door. It didn't budge. I leaned over, grabbed the door and helped the Captain pull, it moved enough to get through. We went through the door and looked for anything that might give us clues as to the identity of our culprit.

. . .

There were no clues inside at all. Me and the Captain stepped outside and were met by a man in a suit and a cane. "Is everything alright here?" He asked when we stepped outside.

"It'll be better when you get back on the other side of the crime tape." The Captain said.

"Oh, yes of course." The man said walking towards the tape. He stopped at it and looked back. "You didn't answer my question though." He said.

"Yes everything's fine." The Captain called to the man.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"That's a guy who's been at every crime scene for the past three days, since the robberies... well not robberies, break-ins started, been in the same spot too."

"What I'm wondering is how the criminal got in, since he didn't come in through the front door, or even out it." I said trying to think out loud.

"What? Didn't go out the front door? What are you talking about?" The Captain said stunned.

"We had to pull the door open to walk through. The Criminal would have found it much easier to just go out the way he came. He also would have had to be stronger than both of us put together." I said explaining my logic.

"Yes that would seem about right. I'll check every possible entryway and look for anything. I'll also have some pictures taken and sent to you. Go back to your office and I'll call you if we need anything else."

"I might need the pictures of the other break-ins; so if you can send those to me too, I would appreciate it."

. . .

When I arrived at my office I had nothing new to add to the case. Three break-ins, they might be connected, might not. I had to see the pictures of the other one's to know for sure if they were connected.

The phone rang, I quickly grabbed it answered. "Shay Collins, Private Detective."

"Shay this is the Captain, I just heard news from one of my officers down here at the station that the first two break-ins left the something behind."

"Really?" I asked quickly.

"Yes, they left old newspapers from around forty years ago."

"Is there anything that stands out in them?" I asked.

"No, it's really making me angry; nothing is connecting except the break-ins." The Captain said, he sighed, "Well have you got anything new?"

"I don't have anything that you don't already have." I said. "Can I have a copy of one of those newspapers?"

"Having one sent with all the pictures. The officer should be there any second with them."

There was a knock on the door. "There's someone here, might be the officer, bye."

"Good bye, and don't forget to call if you find out anything else."

I hung up and opened the door. A woman ran in as fast as she could and shut the door quickly.

"Uh... Excuse me, do you need a detective?" I asked quite confused.

"Please stay out of this if you wish to live. They won't hesitate to kill you if you continue!" She said eagerly.

"Do you have information about these people?" I asked surprised.

"More than I care to but little of it will do you any good, all I can say to help you without having them at my throat is that the answer is in the newspaper." She said. "But please do not continue in seeking them it will only result in death, it always has." She reached into her purse and handed me a business card. "You can reach me at this number, just ask for Susan." She opened the door and departed quickly.

"All that I have left to do is to wait for the pictures and newspapers." I said quietly to myself. I stood by the door for a second thinking.

The door opened and a large man walked in. The first thing I noticed was his ring; it was a large circle with a small gem in the middle. "If you want to stay in one piece you'd better listen to me, stay out of this business."

"And which business would that be, because I'm certainly not stopping my job as a Detective" I said trying to make it sound as if I didn't have the case in my mind.

"The robberies leave them alone, or you may find yourself unable to do anymore cases." He said trying to intimidate me.

"And what's to stop me from taking you and you're whatever you want to call them down?" I said seeing how he reacted.

"Ha, if you could take me down without letting me signal my friends then you might be good enough to take us down. But I haven't yet met someone who could do it."

I quickly grabbed the ring off his finger and kicked the back of his legs. He immediately fell to the floor. "I guess I have a chance of taking you and your friends down. I could certainly take you down right now. I have an officer coming down with some evidence for me, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking you back with him."

The man looked up at me with fear in his eyes. "Please don't let him take me away!" He said getting up on his knees.

"Stand up and pull yourself together, I'm certain that he's walking up to the door now. Sit down in the chair across from my desk." The man realized that he didn't have a choice and stood up and sat down in the chair. I ran to the other side of the desk and sat down. "Now about your lost dog..." The door opened and the officer walked in.

"Shay, here's the evidence folder. I'll just leave it on your desk for now." He said walking out.

"Thank you." I said as he closed the door.

"Why..." The thug started to say.

"Shh" I said waiting for the footsteps to fade into the distance. "Okay continue."

"Why did you let me stay?" He asked confused.

"I did it because you can be of more help to me here than in jail. Now first things first," I rummaged through the evidence I had been given and found the newspaper, "What is this supposed to be?"

"That's his calling card, he..." he hesitated, "He is in there."

"He's in one of the stories in this newspaper?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's how sure he is that he'll get away with it, he put himself at the scene of the crime, but I don't know which one." He said.

"What's your name?" I asked. My mind was still trying to come up with questions and answers.

"My name is Sam." He said confused.

"Okay Sam I have one more question to ask you, how high are you in the ranks of this gang?" I said staring into his eyes.

"I'm..." Sam hesitated to answer, "I'm number five in the ranks."

"Just as I thought, they only hand out these rings to the higher ranks right?" I said holding the ring up to the light.

"Yes, they thought you might not listen to reason and had me come instead of one of their underlings." Sam said.

"Good now you..." I hesitated, what could I do with this thug? Who could I bring him to without turning him in? I could turn him in and tell the Captain that he had been very cooperative, but that might not turn out the best. But I didn't trust him anywhere else. "I'm going to drop you off at the Police station." He looked at me in fear. "Don't worry I'll tell the Police Captain that you have helped me and that will help you with your sentence. I'm sorry but I have no other option. If you would tell him all that you have told me, then I will tell him to double the time deduction." He looked at me as if I had just told him that he wasn't going to die.

I dropped him off and the Captain agreed to my Idea and got all the information from him. I said that if he wanted to catch some more criminals to push the ruby on the ring. After I dropped him off I started to search the newspaper for the answer.

. . .

I continued to look through the newspapers marking down every crime that was mentioned in the newspaper. It wasn't long before I had a list of twenty. This wasn't going to help me so I went through again and marked down all the unsolved cases. I found that there was only three. I went over the list and looked to see which one was the important one. There was a bank robbery, a small house robbery and a vandalizing that I wrote of because the people that were threatening me didn't seem like just punk vandal.

I continued to do research on these three crimes. The captain let me go through the police records and I went through and found the bank robbery. The robbers hadn't cared who they killed and apparently several guards and a couple passerby's had been shot. Fortunately few of the people had actually died. But none the less people had died and the robbers hadn't cared. There had been four robbers and they all got away with almost twenty million.

I looked at the other robbery, there was no one hurt so that one couldn't be the one. I then checked the vandalizing to make sure that nothing came out of that one. I had been right. The vandals had actually been caught the next year.

So that left only the bank robbery. I was having an idea but I wasn't sure.

I checked who lived in the houses, which had been broken into, at the time of the bank robbery. Two of the people had criminal pasts and both had been dead for a couple of years, apparently from gang fights. The third person has still been living there with his wife.

I knew I had the pieces of the puzzle maybe not all of them, but hopefully enough to solve this case. I had to talk to the third person of this case. They must have information. I drove over to the third victim's house and knocked on the door.

"Go away, we're not interested in being in a newspaper." A female voice called through the door.

"I'm not from a newspaper, I've come to... well ask questions about the break-in, but I'm a detective, not a reporter." I called back.

"Okay that's fine, I guess. Go ahead, come on in." She called.

I opened the door and found the man's wife. She was slightly on the larger side, she was wearing plain clothes and some jewelry on her, they looked fake but who says jewelry has to be real now a days?

"So what do you want to ask me?" She said getting straight to the point.

"I want to know what you think of these break-ins."

"Nothing of it, my husband was mad though. I didn't see the point though. The person didn't steal anything and we were going to get the door replaced soon." She said

"Hmm, when do you think your husband will be back?" I asked after thinking things over a little bit.

"He works almost late but if you give me contact for him I'll hand it off to him." She said. I handed her a business card from my pocket and walked off. I would have to wait to hear from him to get the rest of the information. There was nothing for it but to sit at my office and wait, my least favorite thing to do.

. . .

It was 10:00, time for me to close up shop. I had been over all the evidence twice. I locked the front door and started to go for my late dinner when the phone rang. I answered it, "Hello, Shay Collins Detective."

"Hello Shay, this is the Captain, I have evidence that the man that broke in came in through the windows in all three of the houses." The Captain said over the phone.

"Thanks, I didn't really need that information but it might end up being helpful." I said.

"Got anything new on the case?" He asked eager for information.

"Not yet, I'll tell you when I do. Was Sam cooperative?" I asked to see if the Captain would honor his promise.

"Yes, and I've told the Judge about it. He got minus ten years from it. He only has on year in jail because of you." The captain said irritated.

"Your welcome, I got to go now, I'm expecting a call." I said hanging up.

I waited ten minutes before standing up and starting towards the door again. The phone rang and I answered. "Hello, Shay Collins Detective."

"Shay, this is Timothy North, you don't know me, my wife said to call you to answer questions about the break-ins." He said.

"Yes thank you for calling, I want to know if you know anything about a bank robbery that happened forty years ago." I said.

"I... was..." The voice paused. "The statute of limitations has run out on that you know."

"So you do know exactly what I'm talking about." I said glad it hadn't been following a goose chase.

"I left that gang a couple of years after the robbery but I got to keep some of the money. I stashed it... Oh, my. That's what you've figured out already, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yes I have. I just need to know who the fourth robber was. Can you tell me that?" I asked.

He stopped for a moment. "I... well..."

"He's the one who broke into your house."

"I guessed that. His name is... Berne Lewis." Timothy said.

"Thank you, I have one more question. Do you still have the money?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"No I'm sure Berne took it when he broke in. I had five million stashed away and wasn't ever going to spend it unless I had to. I stole that money out of greed, and then I didn't turn it in while I had the chance." Timothy said. "Just something you should know I wasn't even holding a gun during the robbery." Timothy then hung up the phone.

I had it all I had to do now was to find Berne Lewis before he left the country. I called up the Captain. "Captain this is Shay, I have the man's name."

"Excellent, I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, what's his name?" The Captain said eager for the case to end.

"His name is Berne Lewis. He's been breaking into these houses and he was involved with a robbery forty years ago." I said.

"Great but you do realize that the statutes of limitations have gone for that?" The Captain said.

I didn't say anything because I could hear the Captain shouting something to someone at the police station.

"That's great." The Captain said as he stopped shouting to the person. "My men are going to watch all the Train stations all the airports and have some men posted at your house, just in case."

I hung up and went to sleep, after feeding my cat and myself of course.

. . .

When I woke up in the morning I got a call from the Captain, the man that had showed up to all the break-ins had actually been Berne Lewis. They had caught him trying to get on a plane with a false ID.

. . .

There you go my second documented case. This case's name fits it better than my first case. There it is the 'Case of the Wandering Man'.