Burgundy Wolf - National Novel Writing - Day 08

Wolf popped in the same USB drive he'd used to pull information out of Olivia Crast's office computer and popped it into Nicholas Randall's computer. he powered the computer on and the familiar progress bar flickered onto the screen as it started copying videos, images, and other files to the drive.

Wolf looked around on the desk and in the office for anything else that might give a clue about what Nicholas's relationship with Olivia had been. The office was incredibly clean and there wasn't much left out, "A little anal retentive or just lots of cash spent on cleaning crews?" Wolf pondered.

He heard someone walking up the hall and figured it must be the maid so he turned off the monitor on the computer and ducked under the desk. He heard the door open and footsteps walk a little way into the room before turning around and heading back down the hall.

"She's suspicious and trying to figure out where I am. Better wrap this up soon," Wolf thought as he peered over the desk and, once he had made sure the coast was clear, powered the monitor back on and saw that the file copy was at eighty five percent.

"Just a few more minutes," Wolf thought as he continued to look through the desk drawers as quickly as he could while keeping it quiet. He tried the bottom left drawer and noticed it was locked.

"Good thing I keep a set of lock picks in my back pocket," Wolf said to himself as he deftly picked the drawer lock. The locks on drawers were notoriously easy to pick and could in fact be picked with a flat head screwdriver most of the time. This one was no exception.

"Mr Stewart? Jacob?" Wolf heard the made calling as she wandered around the house. He looked at the progress bar and saw that the file copy was at ninety eight percent.

Wolf looked into the drawer he'd just unlocked and saw several loose sheets of paper. He pulled out his digital camera and started taking photos as quickly as he could, "I don't have time to really look these over right now," he thought to himself, "but if he's locking them up, there's probably a reason."

The minutes seemed to drag on, but Wolf eventually managed to get a quick snapshot of each of the documents. He then placed them back into the drawer and used the picks to lock it again.

"I'd better get going," Wolf thought to himself as he felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead. He wiped it away as he listened for the maid's footsteps and voice. She was getting louder and was headed back towards the office.

Just as her foot steps could be heard walking up to the office doorway again the screen flashed, "Complete," and Wolf quickly unplugged the computer, pulled out the USB drive, and quickly tucked it into his pocket. He knelt near one of the power outlets in the room and waited for the maid to walk in.

"Mr Wolf," she said sharply, "I've been looking all over the house for you."

"Hm?" Wolf turned around and pretended to shove something back into his laptop case, "I'm sorry, Miss, I tend to zone out when I'm running the tests."

Her face softened a little, "Well I guess that's okay," she said while glancing around the room. She was obviously looking for anything that might be missing, "Are you done with your tests? I need to get back to work."

"Oh yes. I think I've got everything I need," Wolf replied as he stood up and allowed the maid to show him to the front door.

"Thank you for your cooperation. . . Miss?" Wolf asked as he stepped outside and extended his hand for a handshake.

"Aloe, My name is Britney Aloe," the maid replied.

"Thank you, Miss Aloe," Wolf said with a smile.

"Thank you Mr Stewart," she replied, shaking his hand, "Have a nice day."

Wolf wondered about the documents he'd taken photos of and the computer files he'd have to sort through later as he made his way back up the sidewalk towards the front gate of Ocelot Ridge Estates.

"See ya around," he said to the guard at the front gate.

"Have a good one, Mr Stewart," replied the guard as he entered in a departure time into the guest database.

Wolf looked around surreptitiously as he exited the Estates and noticed that the black van was still keeping up with him, "There you are again," he said under his breath, "I guess you're definitely the tail at this point. I'll come and say hello soon."

Wolf continued making his winding way through Heartbeat City on his way back to Al's Inn. Even though he knew he'd have a hard time losing the tail since he had to keep the cell phone on his body and turned on in case a call from the perpetrators came in, he still had to avoid the cops.

When he made it back to the motel Al head a package for him, "Some jackass dropped this off for ya," Al said, "This ain't no post office."

"Thanks Al," Wolf replied while taking the box from him.

"Thanks yer self," the greasy man replied as he turned back to his television.

"What did the guy who dropped this off look like?" Wolf asked.

"Huh? I dunno," Al said, "White, about six foot tall, nice clothes," he replied absent mindedly, "Now would ya get lost?"

"Sure Al, thanks again," Wolf replied as he headed for his room.

Grendle was happy to see him and ready to go out for a walk. Wolf took the dog out to the alley behind the motel and let him take care of business as he thought about the box, "Must have been the ones who framed me that left it. I'll have to be careful opening it. I doubt it's a bomb or poison. If these people wanted me dead. . . well, I'd be at the root end of some daisies right now," he said to Grendle.

When he finally returned to his motel room Wolf opened the small box. Inside he found George's badge, "This must be their way of telling me that they really do have George," he said to the dog at his feet, "I'm always getting him into bullshit, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically.

Wolf copied the information he'd pulled off of Nicholas Randall's computer and the photos of the documents onto his laptop. Nick had been exchanging e-mails with Olivia on a regular basis, some of them setting up appointments to meet at restaurants, some risque, and some near the end seemed to be talking about whether or not she had found something he wanted her to find. He kept the exact nature of what she was supposed to be looking for vague, as if he suspected that someone might eventually go through his records.

The documents we copies of Vestafex order forms listing various office supplies, chemicals, and machinery the company had been purchasing over the course of the last eight months.

"What were you looking for, Mr Randall," Wolf asked out loud as he poured over the documents, e-mails, and images he';d collected.

Most of the items that Vestafex purchased looked pretty standard, though several of the chemicals were unfamiliar to Wolf. He took note of these and set the list aside to research later, "Maybe John will have some idea about what was so interesting about these chemicals," Wolf said to himself taking special note of the chemicals that Nicholas had highlighted.

"None of this is making any sense so far," Wolf said to Grendle. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes trying to breath deeply and clear his mind, "None of these people are connected to me at all. It's as if someone wants me to piece together some shady deal at Vestafex, but why kill Olivia, why frame me? I'm starting to think that the people toying with us are just insane. . ."

Wolf decided to try to sort through some of it by lucid dreaming. He found that the waking dream state, a way of dreaming while being aware that you are dreaming, often provided unique insight into otherwise jumbled and confusing sets of clues.

"I am dreaming. I am dreaming. I am dreaming. . ." he repeated to himself as he drifted off to sleep. After a few minutes he found himself in a familiar room, with stark grey walls, no windows, a bed with simple white sheets, a bookcase full of books, and one door. He looked around for his cue that he was dreaming. He opened a book and saw it filled with the words, "Yes, you are dreaming," and he knew that he had successfully entered the lucid dreaming state.

Wolf called up images of the documents he'd been looking over, photographs from the two computers, videos he'd watched, and e-mails he'd read. He let the images of these objects drift around him and watched as they slowly spun closer together, eventually taking on the general shape of a woman, then pulling tighter together, as the paper and ink faded away and were slowly replaced by the features of the woman who's body had been left outside his office.

"Hello Olivia," Wolf said while looking at the image of the victim in front of him, an image that represented all the things he'd learned so far brought together in a sort of dream avatar. Her left eye was still missing, though not bleeding, it was just an endless void that Wolf found hard to look at for more than a few short glimpses.

"What do you think, Olivia?" Wolf asked as he walked out of the door of the room with her at his side, "Any idea why someone killed you and left your corpse as a calling card for me to get involved?"

"I was obviously the target of some sort of corporate espionage," the avatar replied, "Nick had been chatting me up for weeks and after gaining my trust had even managed to get me to steal order records and possibly more."