But it wasn’t the fate of the clients that bothered Theodore. Nope, it was his own self he was concerned about. Once again, Theodore had a fair idea which bail bond employee was about to end up on the pointed end of the stick. Therefore, his forehead now tilted toward the floor.
“What do you want me to do, Mr. Johnston?”
“Your part is very simple this time, Theodore. Since the precinct captain believes that Internal Affairs is looking over his shoulder — concerning some rather small indiscretions on his part during the last few years — he is not currently able to meet with me in person in order to provide the rest of the robbery details that we need. And he is afraid of scanners picking up his cell phone traffic in any prolonged conversations, which therefore precludes passing on the information in that fashion. However, he will have a trusted subordinate, with copies of all reports, waiting for you at a restaurant out on the wharf.”
The proprietor scribbled an address on a piece of paper and slid it across the desk as he continued his instructions.
“You, Theodore, are to take a seat in the booth farthest from the front door. You will sit facing the rear wall. The informant will take a seat in the booth behind you, verify your identity, and then hand over the reports without you ever seeing his face. Any questions?”
“Yes, sir. What about the thief in police custody?”
“I’m sending Moklal Feringheea to obtain the thief’s cooperation into what we will assure him is a joint venture of his interests and ours. Moklal will then make arrangements for the man’s bail.”
“But, sir, our pet Thuggee... I mean, our executive secretary, has no experience with our standard bonding contracts. You know our under-the-table agreements can be tricky. Let me go to the jail instead.”
“Time is of the essence here, Theodore. Someone else might stumble over the memory card’s hiding place before we determine its location. So you will be the one to retrieve the police reports, which will assist us in our planning. As for the Hindu, since he has attached himself to us for his own personal reasons, we may as well compromise him through his negotiations with the thief. That way it is in Moklal’s best interests to keep the secrets of our firm until the day he dies.”
“I see,” replied Theodore as he considered the import of this last statement. He then turned for the door and hurried out of the inner sanctum as fast as his short stubby legs would allow.
Two hours later, Theodore, with a large manila envelope under his arm, returned to the bail bond firm. He was observant enough to note that the executive secretary’s office outside of the inner sanctum no longer had that malevolent presence to bar his entry. That Thuggee must still be at the jail was his conclusion. Good. Theodore hoped the Hindu had gotten into some kind of trouble this time, instead of himself being the one to make a mistake and then having to face the wrath of the proprietor.
Without knocking, Theodore opened the door, advanced across the plush carpet and onto the priceless Oriental rug lying in front of the proprietor’s mahogany desk.
Cletis Johnston looked up from the paperwork before him.
“You have the police reports?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you read them?”
Not sure what the proper response was, but wishing to appear as if he were on top of the situation and therefore prepared to be a team player with something to contribute, Theodore took a chance. At the same time, he tried to rationalize his answer just in case it was the wrong reply.
“Yes, sir, I did... but the envelope wasn’t sealed, you see, so I didn’t think you’d mind.”
The proprietor tapped his right index finger rapidly on the desktop.
“Very well then, give me the details on the robbery.”
Theodore extracted several reports from the manila envelope and arranged them in chronological order to give a timeline on the events at the convention center. He started with the prelude to the robbery.
“The monitor screens in the security room are fed by cameras focused on the arena floor and on the front and back doors. The supervisor claimed he was in the control room when all the screens suddenly went blank. The only monitor still maintaining a picture was from the camera installed in the vendors’ hallway between the back door and the arena floor. Turns out that particular camera had been temporarily installed the previous day just for the Software Convention, and therefore it was not hooked up to the main system. It didn’t go down along with the rest of the security system, which means it was the only camera to obtain a video of the robbery.”
“What was on the video?”
Theodore read farther down in the report.
“As the courier and the armed guard passed a janitor’s closet, the closet door swung open and a masked man disabled both courier and guard with some kind of spray from an aerosol can. When they collapsed, the robber grabbed the briefcase and removed the secure digital memory card. At that point, the rear door opened to admit a crowd of vendors, plus two security guards arriving for their next shift. At the sight of the uniformed guards, the robber panicked and ran toward the arena floor where the convention was set up.”
“What happened next?”
“The control room watching the one working monitor observed the crime in progress. They radioed the guards on the arena floor to apprehend the suspect.”
Theodore shuffled the reports until he found one written by a security guard that had been closest to the vendors’ hallway entrance onto the convention floor. The bail bond agent then continued reading.
“When the robber burst out into the arena, he quickly removed his ski mask and discarded it in a nearby trash can. The thief then slowed his pace and tried to blend in with the rest of the vendors. Unfortunately for him, the approaching security guard had already been alerted and therefore shouted for the robber to halt. Instead, the thief ran and the guard pursued.”
Theodore halted for breath.
“Go on,” said the proprietor.
“Well,” resumed Theodore, “the thief, while looking back over his shoulder, tripped over a mop bucket being used to clean up a soft drink spillage in one of the aisles. The guard subsequently lost his footing on the same slick area of the floor and crashed into the maintenance man pushing the bucket. He suffered a concussion as a result of the mishap. The guard that is, not the maintenance man.”
“Forget the maintenance man and get on with it,” rumbled the proprietor.
Theodore looked for the report of the next security guard. “Yes, sir. Here we are. A second guard that had joined the pursuit took up the chase. He said he watched the thief turn a corner, where the thief collided with a clown carrying a handful of mylar balloons filled with helium.”
“Tell me about the clown.”
“Yes, sir. He is a representative of an ISP company, and the balloons were a form of advertisement for said business. The clown was supposed to give the balloons out to the children of passing conference attendees. Both clown and robber fell to the floor with the thief on top.”
“And then?” inquired the proprietor.
“Both of them must’ve had the wind knocked out of them because a moment passed before the thief slowly got up and took off running again. The clown remained flat on the floor watching all of his balloons gradually trail up to the ceiling of the arena. That’s when the robber ran straight into the arms of a third security guard. This guard arrested the thief and searched him thoroughly, but found no memory card.”