Receipts and invoices made up the contents. She sifted through them until she met the bottom of the safe, which appeared to be a brick floor. She tapped the bottom to find it was nothing more than a lino cover. Feeling around for a break, she squeezed her fingers in a gap and lifted the lino. Beneath she found a dark hole which went down below the floor she was currently standing upon. She felt around and lifted out a book. The dusty hardback was a copy of The New Testament.
‘That’s odd,’ Vanessa whispered. ‘Who would hide a Bible?’
Vanessa opened the book and inside found the middle of the pages had all been cut out and replaced with folded sheets of paper. Jamison unfolded the notes and found detailed blueprints of Oak Ridge Cemetery, all marked up with crosses amongst key areas, which from her memory of the tour of the cemetery on the first day of the case highlighted where the CCTV cameras were. Whoever had retrieved this clearly had access to private documentation from Oak Ridge.
‘Got ya!’ Vanessa whispered with excitement. She had her man. But it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t use anything she’d found at the cabin as she’d broken in without a warrant. However she knew she had the right person, now all she just had to do was get the evidence without landing on the same naughty step as Darnell Jackson.
Vanessa tidied the paperwork back into the safe, carefully placing the items back exactly where she found them and shut the door. As the detective sneaked back towards the cabin entrance, a jingling from the fence sent a grain of terror up her spine.
‘It’s just the wind,’ she told herself, but the motion-sensor security light outside told another story. Her heart raced as she glanced around the small cabin for somewhere to hide. It was a bare room with few places to find cover. A desk, which sat in the corner of the room, had a wooden cover over the front of it so visitors couldn’t see Chang’s legs, or anything else he was up to. Vanessa ran behind it and slipped between the gap, pulling her knees towards her chest like a foetus.
A light switched on and Vanessa caught a glimpse of Dingbang Chang in the reflection of the cabin window. He looked around, seemingly suspicious of the cabin door being unlocked. The businessman walked over to the safe and twiddled the dial. His shoulders relaxed as he found everything in place. Behind him, a second person entered the cabin. She thought it was Lae at first but her accent was European, rather than Lae’s recognisable Asian twang, which she had heard in the lecture theatre.
‘Fifty-five, yes?’ Chang questioned the female visitor.
‘It’s what we agreed,’ she replied. Vanessa could see the visitor was pale-skinned and had on a pink mini-skirt and high stiletto heels. Chang in contrast wore a more subtle pair of grey trainers and black jeans.
Chang lifted the lady into the air and placed her down on the desk, before dropping his trousers. The impact on the desk made Jamison jump. She grabbed her gasping mouth and closed her eyes after getting a full glimpse of his manhood as he thrust himself into the woman who was sitting above her with only a wooden table-top as a barrier. The romp lasted only a few minutes, finishing with a short squeal from Chang. His companion remained silent and unsatisfied.
The businessman pulled up his pants and walked over to the safe. He opened the door and unlocked the small tin inside, taking out a handful of notes before paying his friend. She thanked him and left. Chang glanced around the room ensuring everything was in order. He walked over to the desk. Vanessa tensed up as she heard a rustling above her.
‘What were you thinking?’ Chang said.
Vanessa’s eyes widened but she remained perfectly still, biting on her fist. She carefully moved her head out of the safety of her hideaway and found Chang to the side of the desk. His back was to her and he had a cell phone held up against his ear. Relief rained down her forehead and she wiped the perspiration from her face, returning to the space beneath the desk.
‘You left the cabin door unlocked. I came in to do some paperwork. Lae, this is unacceptable, imagine if someone had broken in?’
He closed the call and took one last glance around the office, before turning off the light and locking the door behind him.
As soon as she heard a vehicle driving off she stepped out from under the desk, reassured that her ordeal was over. Brushing the dust off her clothes, left over by the Changs who clearly hadn’t vacuumed in years, she rushed to the door and lifted out her pin to pick the lock. But as she reached for the knob, she discovered there was nowhere for her to place the pin. It was only lockable from the outside.
Vanessa was trapped.
Chapter 22
After a short nap, having passed out on the sofa after a heart-to-heart with his roommate, Darnell woke up to discover that she had gone. A scotch on the rocks made him feel a little more relaxed. It had been an intense few days after losing his wife, his children and his career. The three
