Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
A good night's rest was exactly what I needed and I felt so refreshed when I got up. I looked out the window and the car that had been parked was gone. Evidently he was just checking to make sure I didn’t leave the apartment during the night. Maybe to create a distraction while they did something else.
I checked the monitor to see if anything was going on at John’s house. I saw that he was up and eating breakfast on his couch. I thought to myself, “I guess that is where most of America eats their meals.” I could hear some muffled screams that seemed to come from the room John kept locked. He got up and went into that room and the screams stopped as soon as the door was open for him to enter.
I wish I knew what was going on in that room and I couldn’t think of a way to find out without committing a crime myself. Breaking and entering was still a crime and I didn’t want to resort to that. I kept watching the monitor and waiting. I made some breakfast, complete with eggs, bacon and toast. Jill had eaten a bowl of cereal and already left to get back to the hospital to see her mom.
I got a phone call from Dorothy, the nosy neighbor down the street from John.
Dorothy said, “I wanted to talk to you. I had a guy come to my house and threatened me after we had talked. He warned me to stop spying on my neighbor’s house. I don’t know who he was, except I knew it wasn’t John.”
I replied, “They came after me too. I put in an alarm system here at my apartment and bought a gun.”
Dorothy replied, “I also wanted to tell you there is a black limo and a white panel van parked in front of John’s house.”
I said, “Oh crap, they must be getting ready to move whoever is in that room.”
I thought about going to the police and telling my story but I didn’t think I had enough information. I could drive over there but I knew I had to be careful, they knew my car. Driving over was what I chose to do. I parked more than a block away where it was hard to just detect me there but close enough I could see them with binoculars.
I was closely watching the house and was concentrating on seeing whatever was happening there. All was quiet in the neighborhood which made me more startled when there was a knock on my car door window. That was all I needed to send my heart racing for a few minutes.
There was a little boy standing outside my car door with a big smile on his face. He was holding an order form and some kind of printed catalog with candies and cookies on it. I knew he was just trying to sell something. I rolled down the window so I could hear the “pitch”. It was a fundraiser for school of course so I made a purchase, mostly to get rid of him.
Jill called while I was sitting there watching our suspect.
She said, “My mom had someone try to get in her room last night but the cop at the door stopped them. He checked the ID and said it was a man with a dark complexion, named “Hamza Osman”. He had a passport from Pakistan and said he was in the US for business. His family had an import and export business.”
I said, “A good line of work if your cargo is human.”
When Jill told me the address listed on the passport it rang a bell instantly. It was where I followed my attacker to. The same place I had sent photos of him and his family to. He had a house, so he wasn’t here visiting on business. The guy lied and I think we have now tied our suspects to the assault of Jill’s mother.
If these guys were kidnapping people and taking them out of the country we could never get them back. I may have to go to the police sooner than I wanted to. I decided to talk to Jill about taking the info that we had and going to the police.
I sat for several hours watching our suspect’s house but nothing more happened. I wondered if they knew they were being watched. I had a radio on just to make some noise while I kept an eye out. A news report came on about a missing woman and her twelve year old daughter. They had been missing for ten days and I had been watching my suspect for about ten days. Maybe it was a coincidence and maybe it wasn’t.
Maybe there were two people in that room. John always took one plate when he went into the room. Maybe they had to share the plate. The timing was spot on and the activity in that house looked like someone was held captive.
I made the decision to go to the police but I needed to go by my apartment first to gather up all of the evidence I had collected. I would have the surveillance video and a list of the things he bought that drew suspicions to start with.
Jill was home and I told her about the news story of the missing woman and her daughter. She helped me gather things we needed to show the police and I brought the laptop with the surveillance images on it.
Jill told me to go alone, she didn’t want to get involved. I reminded her that with her mother being attacked she was already involved. After she thought about that for a moment she decided I was right. She followed me to the car and helped carry the laptop.
We arrived at the police station and both went in to talk to the officers. I had been thinking about what I was going to say all the way to the station and I still had no clue. I decided to play it by ear.
I said, “I would like to talk to someone about the missing woman and her child.
They escorted me to a room with a desk and there was a man behind the desk wearing a shirt and tie with a jacket hanging on a coat rack in the corner. He asked us to sit and motioned us to the chairs right in front of his desk. He had a shoulder holster on with a badge attached to it. I was surprised he had a gun on his desk.
I began telling the story. I started at the beginning when John McKinley made the purchases at the store. I gave him a list of those purchases. He told me that didn’t prove anything and I responded that I have been a cashier for a long time and those items bought together were not typical. He agreed they weren’t typically bought together.
I told the detective about getting the guy's address off of the ID I checked when he bought beer. I told him about going to that address and watching through an open window with binoculars. Then I confessed about us setting up cameras in the house and how we did that.
He said what we did wasn’t legal but he was impressed with how we got it done. I then told the detective about the guy breaking into my apartment at night making threats. I included the story of me following him back to his house and responding with a threat.
The detective said, “You should have come to the police when the guy broke in. We could have filed charges against that Pakistani bastard but since you retaliated I would have to file charges against you as well.”
I then told the detective about Jill’s mother and how we think it was to make us stop spying on them. I showed the detective a photo I took of the panel van parked in the driveway of John’s house.
The detective said, “You may have enough legal evidence to obtain a search warrant to use to obtain more needed evidence.”
The detective dispatched a team to do a stakeout. Since there was already a panel van at the house it could mean time was critical. The team was given the information I had presented to the detective and he was going to try to get a warrant to do the inside surveillance.
The detective asked, “If I can get a warrant, may I use the cameras you already have in place?”
I replied, “I don’t see any reason why not. That would save you a few steps.”
He replied, “I can’t use anything you already have recorded but I can use anything after the warrant is in place.”
I gave the detective the connection information to connect to the cameras at the house. They would be able to connect and monitor those cameras with their own equipment. I was able to take my laptop back with me. The stakeout team would be given the connection info so they could monitor the inside of the house in real time.
The detective thanked me and gave me a card with his name and number on it. Detective Charles Hagan was written across the center but he said everyone calls him Charlie.
Charlie had checked out our story about Jill's mom. There was a record of the incident in the files and even a report about the guy who tried to get into her hospital room.
Charles Hagan said, “We did a background check on Hamza Osman. He has a long record, including suspicion of sex trafficking. You may have solved this case.”
Jill and I walked out of the station feeling like we had done the right thing. We could go back to the apartment a little more relaxed. I might even be able to bring Lincoln back home.
I asked Jill, “How did the detective know the guy who broke in here was from Pakistan?”
Jill said, “You told him?”
I replied, “I hadn’t told him when he first said it. The detective said, “You should have come to the police when the guy broke in. We could have filed charges against that Pakistani bastard but since you retaliate I would have to file charges against you as well.” That was before I told him about your mom being attacked and them stopping someone from going into her hospital room.”
The question got Jill to thinking. Neither of us knew what to make of the police knowing about the suspect being from Pakistan when we were first giving them our story.
Sometimes things happen to just make you question everything you know to be true. I didn’t know what to think about the police involvement in this case.