Let's Investigate

The next morning at the station, Detective Williams sits at his black marble desk in the corner office with his Microsoft Surface Pro 7 connected to two 24-inch monitors. On one side he has his email and on the other he has the notes from the red hoodie case. In the background he has music playing over the speakers. The aquarium is bubbling while the brightly colored fresh water fish and sharks swim around with the Orange Dwarf Crayfish walking along the bottom.

Officer Sean Gallagher walks up to his office door, “Hey, Ike, you want to go over the red hoodie case?”

“Yeah, is Lani in yet?”

“She’ll be here in a minute.”

“Cool, then we can go over what’s going on. This is the craziest case ever.”

“Hey, hey, I am here. We can begin,” Lani says as she walks through the door.

“Yes, we can. We need to go over all this craziness. Let’s start at the beginning. We have an alarm going off, then a guy running from the scene, tires squealing, but nothing being taken,” Ike starts out.

Sean adds in, “Then when I have talked to our group of walkers, they have seen the red hoodie around town including at Marinelli’s, on the race route and then at the celebration dinner.”

“They also said that at Marinelli’s they only saw the red hoodie and at the celebration dinner they saw the mystserious person going into the kitchen with a package wrapped in a brown paper bag. So, where does this leave us?” Lani says.

“Well, that’s all we have. I searched our previous cases and there is nothing. Also, I have reached out to other cities and the county to see if they have anything and so far, nothing has come up. So, this is a new one and not much to go on. We also don’t know what is truly going on.” Ike replies.

Staring at the fish and sharks, Sean asks, “Now we have the package that the mystery person was carrying, but yet no one saw the mysterious red hooded person in the kitchen. How can that be? We had people see the person go into the kitchen and then what, the red hooded person just disappeared?”

Shaking his head Ike says, “Yeah, I know. It’s just beyond crazy. We need to get something more. Unfortunately, this person isn’t on camera anywhere. Plus, how did the vehicle that we heard disappear? I can’t wait to figure out what that’s all about.”

Ike’s desk phone rings, “Hello, this is Detective Williams.”

Caller replies, “I saw a person in a red hoodie down by the river in town. They were on the bank with a package that was wrapped in a brown paper bag sitting on the ground beside them.”

“Can I have your name?”

They hang up.

“Well, that’s an anonymous tip. They hung up when I asked for their name. However, they did say where they saw a person with a red hoodie with a package wrapped in a brown paper bag. So, we need to head down to the river bank in town. Let’s go!”

They all head out of the office and to their cars. “Lani, what do you think? You seem quiet,” Sean asks.

“Well, it is the most bizarre case that I have seen so far.”

“This is definitely a head scratcher.”

They get in their car and follow Ike. “ Anything exciting going on at home?” Sean starts the conversation.

“Kai is doing great. He has a weightlifting competition coming up in a few weeks. This means that our meals are just plain weird. I eat whatever I like and he has his special meal plan. You?”

“Brina and I want to go on vacation. We have been talking about South Carolina and discovering a bunch of waterfalls. I’m not sure when though.”

“Oh that sounds awesome. You could also go to the ocean and see some real sharks,” Lani laughs.

He chuckles, “Yeah, they are a bit bigger in the ocean than the ones in Ike’s fish tank.”

“Being that his competition is in Hawaii we will be flying there and seeing family. It’s nice to be able to have a family reunion and a competition on the same island.”

“That does sound nice. Which island are you going to be on?”

“We’ll be in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. There are some great waterfalls in Hawaii too.”

“True, we haven’t been to Hawaii, yet. I’ll let you know when we plan on going and you guys can be our tour guides.”

“I’m not sure the department will let us off at the same time, but that’d be fun.”

“Here we are.”

Joining Detective Williams on the river bank, they notice the bag under the bench. “Hey Ike, you see that?”

“Yep, time to figure out what is in the package,” he kneels down next to the bench looking under it and observing the package without touching it. “I don’t hear anything, but maybe we should call the bomb squad just to be safe.”

Lani pressing the talk button on her radio on her right shoulder, “we are going to need the bomb squad at the river bank bend. The package is sitting by itself next to the bench and no one is around. There are no sounds coming from it, but it is wrapped in a brown paper bag. We will get the area cordoned off.”

Dispatch replies, “copy that, we’ll get bomb squad out there.”

Sean hands Ike one end of the tape and wraps it around the nearby trees so that the bench is in the middle.

“What’s going on?” asks a runner as they stop on the path right before the tape.

“It’s just a suspicious package, so we are waiting for the bomb squad as a precaution. Please go back down the path.”

“Ok, cool,” the runner turns around and goes back down the path.

A group of runners comes up the path passing the other runner and the guy in the lead stops and asks, “hey what’s up with the tape?”

Sean looks over at him, “we have a suspicious package. Have you guys been out here earlier today?”

“Nope, first time through today. We do a loop.” The whole group has caught up and are standing along the tape.

“Ok, we are not letting anyone through, but if you hear anything about the suspicious package, let us know,” and he hands him a business card.

“We will,” they say and turn around and go back down the path the way they came from.

Ike is standing there looking at the package and then looks down the path one direction and then the other direction and says to Sean and Lani, “this is a pretty busy path. Someone had to have seen something. I think I’ll reach out to some of the ConnectUs groups and see if anyone knows anything. So far we are striking out.”

“Yeah, I am in some groups as well and can post on there too,” he replies.

The bomb squad pulls up, and they get out of the truck. “What do we have here Ike?” while putting on his bomb suit.

“Hey Akito, just a package wrapped in a brown bag, at least it isn’t making any noise,” he chuckles and smiles.

“Well, what fun is that? Or is it more fun because we have no idea what’s in it? Anyway, step back, and we’ll check it out,” he says walking up to the tape. Charlie is behind him carrying the remote and he runs the robot around them and positions it in front of the package. Operating the claws he opens the top of it and the camera looks inside.

Charlie starts chuckling as he is looking at the screen. “What’s so funny?” Akito asks him.

“You are going to love it.”

“What?” asks Ike.

“It’s somebody’s lunch. We have a sandwich with chips, a slice of chocolate cake and a plastic shark.”

“Ok, so we have someone’s lunch and a plastic shark?” Ike questions.

“Yep, it’s all clear so you can check it out yourself.”

Ike shouts out, “All right guys, let’s take the tape down, everything is clear. It’s just someone’s lunch that was left behind.” He grabs the package and wonders to himself, a plastic shark? The caller said the person was wearing a red hoodie. Just one more question with fewer answer.

Officers take the tape down. Charlie runs the robot and controller back to the truck. Ike says to Akito, “I’ll see ya later. Are you coming over for BBQ tonight? I am trying out a new rub.”

“I’m in! I’ll see ya later.”

The vehicles leave the area in different directions.

“How about a coffee?” Sean asks Lani.

“Sounds good to me.”

He pulls in front of Kaffeställe, gets out of his vehicle, walks up and holds the door for those going out. The sun strikes his short strawberry blond hair that is peeking out from under his cap. The barista notices his ocean blue eyes and pauses before taking his order. She says to her co-worker, “look at the arms on this one. Dreamy eyes to go with it too.”

Freya looks over at him and turns back around, “yeah, but he could be taller, too short for me. I like my men to be over six feet tall, what’s he about 5’ 9ish?”

“What can I get you, officer?”

“I will take two black coffees to go.”

Laila turns to say something and Freya hands her the cups. She takes them from her and places them on the counter. “Here ya go. You are all set.”

He leaves them a large tip in the glass jar because they do not charge officers for coffee. He looks around and then exits to his car.

He hands Lani her coffee through the open window of the car, walks around and gets in.

“I love their coffee,” she says.

“I agree. This is my favorite place. Let’s head back to the station.”

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