CHAPTER 11: THE SECRET LETTERS

Unknown person's POV

I was busy looking over papers when my telephone started to ring. I felt quite mad that someone would dare to disturb me at this hour.

"Hello?" I answer the phone annoyed.

"Good evening sir." Christopher, my right hand man, answers.

"Christopher, what can I do for you?" I ask.

"Nothing sir, I just wanted to let you know that the letters were already shredded."

"Where did you dispose of them?" I ask.

"I......uhm....left them in his shredder."

"What?!" I scream, "did you not think that the police might go through that shredder?!"

"Sir I don't believe they will look into it, they are searching for stolen things, not letters." He says.

"We can't afford to make a mistake. But I think you might be right, they won't really take the time to construct that letters. Thank you for notifying me." I say.

"Yes sir. Goodnight sir."

"Goodnight, and Christopher let me know if you find anything else."

"Yes sir." He replies and I know I can always rely on him. I feel a bit more relieved now that I know the letters are destroyed, I just hope no one will be curious enough to reconstruct those letters.

******************************
Victoria's POV

After the Shadow returned with the shredder and the letters, I immediately started to work on the shredded paper. It was like solving a very complicated puzzle with no idea how the puzzle should look like at the end.

The Shadow and I were sitting in the living room. The Shadow was going through Lucas's letter while I worked on puzzling Michael's letters back together.

"How are you doing?" The Shadow asks.

"It's a working progress." I reply, "and you?"

"Same, there is only two letters and they are not great help." He replies frustrated.

"Why?"

"There isn't much useful information, let me read it to you, maybe you can find something I missed." He says before he clears his throat and starts to read, "Dear Lucas, my patience is low and you know I don't like to be played with. Remember the ball is in my court and I will decide what happens next, you don't want to screw up twice. It is signed by a w and a h, and what appears to be a bracket, do you have an idea what the bracket might mean?"

"A bracket?" I ask, that is weird why would a letter be signed by a bracket?

My thoughts were suddenly interupted by the telephone ringing.

"Hold that thought." I tell the Shadow before walking towards the telephone that is next to the kitchen door against the wall.

"Hello?" I answer while staring at the Shadow who is still inspecting the letter.

"Hello honey, how are you?" I hear my mother's voice through the telephone and it sounded like music to my ears.

"Hey mom, I'm good thanks and you guys? How's the convention?" I ask and the Shadow's head snapped up as soon as the word 'mom' left my lips.

"We're good, no complaints. The convention is as boring as always. How was your day with Gracie and Leila?"

"It was actually quite fun. And they bought lunch so there is nothing to complain about." I say as I recount my shopping trip.

"So that is how they got you to go with them, smart girls, and how was your date with Jaydan? Is my dream of having the perfect son-in-law going to come true?" She asks.

"Mom, not this again, but if you must know the date was amazing and he was a gentleman." I say, feeling a bit uncomfortable about discussing my date infront of a stranger.

"Date? So it must've went well for you to call it a date instead of a 'friendly meeting'." She says and I can just imagine her making air quotes.

"Well I guess you can say that it went well."

"Good, so when is the wedding, I'm thinking a summer wedding with roses and lilies or a winter wonderland. We can-"

"Mom, this was hardly a first date and you're already planning a wedding?" I ask as I shook my head at my mother's antics. I looked up to catch a small smile playing on the Shadow's lips. Ugh now a complete stranger knows about my mother's craziness. Great.

"Well you said it yourself that it went well."

"Yes I did, but I didn't mean marriage well." I say with exasperation.

"I know darling, you know I'm just teasing you, so on a more serious note, did you enjoy yourself?"

"Yes I did thank you, and there might be a second one."

"Wow, that is great darling. Hold on for a second.....yes....I'll be down in a minute....I have to go darling they are going to serve dinner in ten minutes."

"Okay, enjoy the rest of your trip and tell dad I love him and I miss him."

"I will honey, bye love you and take care of yourself."

"I will. Love you too, bye." And with my final goodbye I returned the telephone into it's holder.

"So have you decided on a date yet?" The Shadow asks as a take my seat again.

"Date?" I ask confused.

"Your wedding date of course, what else?" He replies and I hit him on the shoulder.

"Ouch." He says as he rubs his shoulder where I've hit him.

"So anyways, what were we talking about? .... oh yeah the bracket. Let me search it on the internet maybe it has some sort of meaning, but I doubt that it would." I say as I search the bracket on Google.

After scanning through a few of the result, I saw that there was nothing special about a bracket.

"Nothing, a bracket is just a bracket." I say as the Shadow shrugs, then suddenly an idea pops into my head, "What if the bracket isn't a bracket, but a letter c?"

"It may be possible, but what can the c stand for?" He asks.

"I don't know but we'll figure it out eventually, what does the next letter say?"

"It says: Dear Lucas, I heard that you were in dire need of money and I decided to give you a second chance. You are to rob the bank and you will put all the money into a black garbage bag. After you are done throw the bag into the dumpster, you will have to decide where the garbage truck will deliver the money, but you must bring the money Saturday night to the Silver Lake. You have a week to get the job done, use your time correctly and don't screw up a second time. It is signed of the same way." The Shadow reads the letter thoroughly before looking at me.

"Well, at least you were right about the Lucas guy, he does work for the White Hawk." He says.

"So we still have nothing?" I ask frustrated.

"Looks like it, maybe the letters to Michael will be more helpful."

I nodded and the Shadow started to help me put the pieces together. The coffee table was littered by strips of paper.

After fitting a few pieces together I started to get hungry. I decided to get something to snack on. I walked to the kitchen and gathered some snacks for the Shadow and me before heading back.

"Here is some snacks if you want, I've got shortbread cookies, chips and jelly babies, what would you like?" I ask as I place all the different snacks onto the table.

"Some jelly babies please." He replies and I hand him a packet, "Thank you."

I grab a packet of jelly babies for myself before plopping back down onto the couch.

We both ate silently as we worked on the letters. It wasn't an easy task to rearrange pieces of letters, but it was something that could lead to a breakthrough in the case.

"Bingo." The Shadow screams from next to me and I'm so startled by the sudden scream that I jump off the coach and fall on the ground with a loud thump.

The Shadow starts to laugh at me and I give him the biggest, baddest death glare I can muster.
"That was not funny, were you trying to give me a heart attack?" I ask as I stand up, ignoring the Shadow's outstretched hand completely.

"Sorry about that, I was just excited for finally reconstructing a letter." He says with a smile.

"You finished a letter?" I ask as I stared at the strips of paper forming a letter.

"Yeah." He says as he looks at me with a big grin.

"I'll go get the tape." I say as I rush to my father's office to retrieve the tape.

I hand the Shadow the tape and we both start to tape the first shredded letter together. As soon as the paper was back together my eyes scanned through the contents.

Dear Michael
I have been watching you for quite a while now, and might I just say what a lovely mother you have. We wouldn't want anything to happen to her so I suggest you better do what I say. I need you to rob a jewelery store for me, Diamond & Jewell, you have two days to do it and you will meet one of my guys in the Silver Lake park in exactly two days. You will meet him at eight in the evening and don't be late.
WH(

"What is it with this guy and the Silver Lake park?" The Shadow asks after we both finished reading the letter.

"I don't know, maybe because it is easy to access and there isn't really any security system in place." I say.

"Yeah, maybe it is close to his hide out?"

"That would make sense why he prefers the drops to be made there, it is near his territory."

"Shall we finish the next letter?" The Shadow asks and I give him a nod and we start to work on the next letter. After a while our last letter is constructed. The house is quiet as we both read through the letter.

Dear Michael
Your two days are up and just because I'm a lenient man I decided to give you to more, use your time well.
P.S. I added a recent picture of your beloved mother just to keep you motivated.
WH(

"That was helpful." The Shadow says sarcastically.

"I thought that the letters will solve the whole case, but it seems like I was wrong." I say as I lay back down onto the couch feeling utterly hopeless. I was dissapointed that the letters that I thought would lead to a breakthrough, brought me back to square one.

"All this letters told us was that the people were threatened to rob for him, that's all, we don't know how they met him, how he knows that Lucas was in need of money. We don't know anything useful that can help us track the White Hawk down." I say frustrated, "If only we can talk to Michael, he must know something."

"Well that is impossible, he is in prison and I think people are going to ask a lot questions if we pay him a visit." Shadow says as he rubs his head.

I stood up and started to pace up and down, it was something I did to help me think. My thoughts were a jumbled mess and I didn't know what we were going to do now. I was so sure that the letters would lead us to the White Hawk's doorstep, but no such luck.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I quickly snapped out of my train of thoughts to come face to face with the Shadow.

"Victoria are you alright? I was calling your name for a while now and you didn't answer." He asks with concern.

"Oh sorry, I was just lost in thought, what did you say?" I ask.

"I said that I had an idea."

"And what would that be?"

"A stake out." He says simply.

"A stake out?" I ask.

"Yes, what if we kidnap the next thief that robs a store or bank and question him before the police can arrest him? I'm pretty sure the White Hawk will get someone else to rob for him again."

"You want to kidnap a thief, that may or may not work for the White Hawk and interrogate him?" I ask.

"Yes, you said it your self that if we could talk to Michael it would help the investigation, but we can't but we can talk to the next thief before he is arrested."

I let his words sink in. It did sound a bit crazy, but he was right. If we can talk to a person on the receiving end of the letters we can find out how the letters started and if we're lucky discover a link between the people he forced to work for him.

"It might work, but how do we find a thief, we can't just kidnap every dodgy looking guy on the street." I say.

"Of course not, that is why we are going to keep track of all the break ins."

"And how do you suppose we do that? Patrol the streets?" I ask.

"No, yes, but with cameras and a set of police radios." He says with a grin.

"And where are we going to set this whole system up?" I ask, my house could not be turned into a stake out base.

"My place." The Shadow says excitedly.

"Your place? Where exactly is your place?"

"I'll take you there tomorrow night. So what do you say, will you come to my lair?" The Shadow asks.

"I guess this is our only option right now, so yes I'll go to your lair." I say with a sigh.

"Good, now I have to leave, it is getting a bit late and I have to be up early tomorrow. So goodnight Victoria and see you tomorrow." The Shadow greets.

"Okay, goodnight see tomorrow." I greet back and the Shadow, after gathering all his gadgets and tools, turns around and gives a small wave before leaving.

A few minutes passed before I heard the bike roar to life and riding off. I started to clean the coffee table. I placed the letters into my binder and disposed of the papers that littered the coffee table.

After shutting my laptop off and returning my binder and laptop to my room, I plopped down onto my bed.

I thought about going to the Shadow's place, I couldn't help but wonder where his secret hide out was located. I knew it wasn't the smartest to go to the thief's lair, but after tonight I trusted the thief more.

I just hope that his plan would be more successful than the letters.

____________________________________
Hey guys
So here's another chapter for you guys, I hope you like it. Please tell me your thoughts on the Shadow's lair. How do you think it will look like?
And thank you for giving my book a shot, I hope your enjoying it as much as I am.
Please comment and vote.
Thank you.
-Amorie