‘So what was that about?’
‘That business is responsible for digging up Lincoln. I had my suspicions but I needed to find evidence. Which I now have.’
‘Which is?’
‘They had the blueprints of Oak Ridge outlining every camera angle of the site, and Rick Spabrunt worked for them too under his original Patrick Burns name!’
‘I see.’ Darnell spoke calmly. ‘You do know we can’t use this against them, don’t you? What you just did was illegal.’
‘Oh I know!’ Vanessa chuckled like a madwoman. ‘But now I have confirmation that my suspicions were correct.’
‘You’ve changed.’ Darnell giggled. ‘You’re becoming more like me every day. What happened to the calm, calculated Vanessa?’
‘I’ve realised the calm, calculated Vanessa doesn’t get the results at the pace she’d quite like. My old boss in DC used to say that occasionally you had to break the rules and do things you wouldn’t necessarily be proud of to get results. That whole eggs and omelettes analogy. I’ve never broken the rules at work before. I was always by the book on everything. Now I know what my boss meant.’
‘You’re becoming a real cop now. So what’s your plan to catch these thugs?’
‘We just need to follow the owners night and day until we find something.’
‘I’m afraid there’s no we anymore, Vanessa. I’m no longer part of the force. So it’s all you. Otherwise we can get in a hell of a lot of trouble.’
‘But I need you, Darnell,’ she pleaded. ‘I need you to help me out, whether it’s legal or not.’
‘Why me? Get one of the others to help you. I don’t see what possible use I could be, or why I’d even want to after the way I’ve been treated by the department.’
‘You know you want to be involved, Darnell, don’t kid yourself. The opportunity to bring home the former president. Someone who was at least once a hero to you. And even if he’s not your hero anymore, who would pass up on this opportunity? Besides, I need you specifically as you’re closer to the mark on this than you’ll ever know. Springfield Structures is owned by Dingbang Chang, the husband of Lae Chang.’
Darnell took his eyes off the road and stared at his colleague. His mouth slightly opened as if he was about to speak, but his words were nowhere to be found.
‘Road, Darnell,’ Vanessa snapped, nodding her head towards the traffic. He looked up and narrowly missed a lamppost, swerving to get back on track. He gasped and took a deep breath, before checking his mirrors for potential cop patrols. An evening of revelations may have sobered him up but the blood still ran thick within his veins.
‘So now you see why I need you. You know this girl. You might have an idea of how we can get evidence on her.’
Darnell pulled hard on the steering wheel and turned the vehicle around, screeching as it took a one-eighty. Tyre marks ran across the tarmac. Vanessa’s head flung against the window causing a sharp pain to penetrate her skull. She felt around and a small bump formed.
‘What the hell, Darnell?’
‘Sorry about that, but I’ve just thought of where we might be able to get evidence.’
‘Where?’ Vanessa peered up with interest.
‘Just a little place where Lae Chang likes to hang out.’
*
Over the following days, the roommates saw very little of each other. Vanessa spent her days outside the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield waiting for Lae Chang to appear, while Darnell covered the nightshift.
It was a tough job, especially as the cold winter was beginning to set in. The first snow appeared in late November and they had to wrap up and took a flask of coffee with them to withstand the freezing temperatures which overtook the Illinois town.
During their opening hours, Vanessa would sit inside the church, reading the documentation that Lae had shown to her colleague when she gave him a tour of the parts of Springfield, which were relatively new to the man who thought he knew everything about the city. As she turned the pages and read the eye-opening passage regarding Lincoln’s plans for colonialism, which had shook Darnell to very core just days before, she spotted a mark in the corner; the fist which they had become all-too familiar with. She didn’t make a scene; she knew that was exactly what Lae wanted. Instead she took a photograph, before closing the book and hiding it away. She knew the mark on the book wouldn’t be enough; Lae by her own admission was using the text for her dissertation therefore her fingerprints would be all over it with a reasonable explanation. She needed to catch her in the act.
Vanessa wasn’t a churchgoing girl, although she’d had to pretend to be plenty of times before whilst her father schmoozed with Washington’s elite in the House of God back in DC. She knelt before the altar and positioned herself in prayer, occasionally lifting her head to see if her suspect had arrived at the church.
Five long days passed before they caught sight of their suspect. At precisely three AM, as Darnell was on duty, the young Asian student turned up. Jackson sat shivering in his car. The engine was switched off to save both the battery and his ability to remain invisible. He was just about to drift off when he spotted the familiar face.
Lae Chang was dressed head-to-toe in black, with a beanie hat on her head. The student got out of her vehicle, a burnt-out blue Mazda, and walked over to the back of the car. Out of the trunk, she pulled out a tin of paint and a brush, before heading towards the large red door which made up the church entrance.
Darnell lifted out his cell phone and began to snap away as Lae made her mark on
