Michael and Sam were patiently waiting for the drama to begin. Jefferson had called up Jack’s parents and that meant it was only a matter of time before things got interesting. True enough, within the hour, Mr. Williamson and his wife were entering the building accompanied by two lawyers. Jefferson greeted the couple and asked them to send the lawyers away at once.
“Are you denying my son the right to engage a lawyer of his choice?” asked Harold.
“No, Mr. Williamson, what I mean to say is that your son will not be needing a lawyer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that he is an adult and thus, upon his arrest, he has already agreed to a deal.”
“What sort of deal?”
“The sort that exempts him from charges in exchange for his cooperation…and yours.”
Mrs. Williamson was about to say something, but her husband signaled her not to. He understood that the agent had something in mind and if the lawyers’ presence did more harm than damage, it was better to send them away. After the lawyers had been excused, Jefferson led the couple to a conference room where their son was seated, along with Brandon, Olivia, Michael, and Sam. Alice rushed to hug her son while Harold took a seat, opposite to his son. Michael noticed this but he did not say anything, if anything, he was impressed. Even in such times, the father was infuriated by the actions of his son.
“As I just said, your son has accepted a deal…” began Jefferson.
Harold cut in, “What are the exact terms of the deal?”
“The terms are quite simple, the FBI is in pursuit of the thieves who have claimed that they will be robbing your son’s collection soon, to catch them we will need your complete cooperation.”
“And our son will go free?”
“He will have to turn in his entire collection, and pay a fine but yes, if everything goes as planned, we will not be pressing any additional charges.”
“But the thieves had claimed to rob the collection today.”
“After all that happened at the property, it is obvious that they will be choosing another date.”
“What happened at the property?”
Jefferson gave him a short but precise description of the events which culminated in Jack Williamson’s arrest. Harold listened intently, shooting angry glances at his son occasionally, while his wife’s head was bowed with shame at the actions of her son.
“…So, you see, the thieves don’t want to attract attention while they are committing the crime, and thus, what happened today ensured that the collection is safe, at least for now,” concluded Jefferson.
Brandon smiled slightly. The story and logic that Jefferson had fed the family were far from perfect, but it appeared that they had bought it.
Suddenly, Jack looked up and said, “How did you know that I would be going to the property today?”
Olivia looked at Jefferson with a raised eyebrow. Finally, the kid had asked the right question, the one no one had an answer to.
Jefferson dealt with the situation in a diplomatic manner. “We don’t wish to reveal our method of operation, I hope you will understand that Mr. Williamson.”
Harold nodded his head thoughtfully. “So, what sort of cooperation are we talking about?”
“Well, first we will need all the information about the contents of the collection and the specs of the vault where it is stored,” said Olivia.
“And then we will need to know what is so special about the date that the thieves have chosen,” put in Michael.
“The former question has a rather long answer, however, the latter is easily answered. We have a party on that date, at the same venue where my son hosts his collection,” explained Harold.
“Safety in numbers,” muttered Sam.
“Do you want us to cancel the party?” asked Jack.
“No, we don’t do anything out of the ordinary,” said Jefferson. “Try to keep everything as normal as possible.”
“But that puts us in a position of a major disadvantage,” said Brandon. “A party means more people, people that act as a camouflage.”
“Not if some of the guests are our agents,” said Jefferson. “We’ll put up extra surveillance and scrutinize every single person on the guest list. They won’t escape this time.”
After discussing a few more points of interest, Jefferson allowed Jack to go back home along with his parents. Once Brandon, Olivia and Jefferson were the only ones in the room, the couple decided to touch a point that was quite personal.
Olivia said, “Jefferson, we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About Claire.”
“I already told Brandon. He can fill you in.”
Brandon cut in and said, “You never told me the entire thing.”
“Don’t talk in riddles, what do you mean?”
“What he means to say is that what happened to Claire’s son?”
“That does not concern you.”
“Oh! I think it does, seeing as we were his godparents,” said Olivia.
“You were imprisoned, so was his biological mother, his custody was given to his maternal Grandmother.”
“Where is he now? Still with his grandmother?” asked Brandon.
“We don’t know. After his grandmother passed away, he completely dropped off the grid, ran away and was never seen again.”
“You never even tried to find him?”
“We tried but there was nothing much that we could do. His grandmother didn’t believe much in education and thus, there was not much to go on from any educational institutes, he never had any of his own bank accounts so nothing there either. Basically, the kid’s a ghost now.”
“If he’s alive,” muttered Olivia with a dark expression on her face.
“I don’t blame myself for the choices the kid made, nor can you. He could have had a good future, but he threw it all away,” Saying this, Jefferson walked out the door, leaving behind two genuinely concerned individuals.
Michael’s Apartment:
Michael was thinking. He was pacing the length of his living room and his grey cells were hard at work. Jefferson had said that they only had two days now. Which meant that they had to start laying the trap from the very next day. It would be a complicated process, one that had to be carried out with utmost precision. But that was not the problem, the problem was predicting what move would their opponents make.
Michael could not stop his mind from thinking about the matter at hand, no matter how troubled he felt. Usually, he would take a drink to relax himself, but now that was a sin. In no time at all Michael realized that he was thinking about Evelyn. He wanted to pay her a visit but felt a little self-conscious, he did not want to seem like a stalker. To divert his attention, Michael decided to visit the public library. He loved reading, ever since he was a child, he found that reading was one of the few things that had the ability to rejuvenate him from within.
Just as Michael reached the library, it started to rain. The downpour was quite heavy, and Michael was glad that he had reached his destination before the drops from the sky landed on him. Michael went in and began browsing books. He had just found an interesting novel to thumb through when he saw the entrance of the library open once again. He could not believe what he was seeing. The woman who had entered was none other than Evelyn, and this development left Michael stunned. He found himself staring at her as she went to the bookshelf to get a book. He quickly averted his gaze and tried to focus on his novel as he didn’t want to invade her privacy.
But apparently, Evelyn had other plans. She had seen Michael and walking up to him she whispered, “Michael?”
Michael looked at her and then with a look of surprise, he said, “Evelyn? This is a pleasant surprise!”
Michael and Evelyn were soon talking in whispers. They kept their volume very low so as to not disturb the other readers, but they couldn’t help but talk to each other. As it turned out, Rob was at a friend’s house and thus Evelyn had some free time which she decided to devote to reading. The topics of the conversation between Michael and Evelyn varied greatly, novels, authors, and other forms of literature were the main contributors to the same. They also touched upon the topic of Michael’s case but only briefly. After forty minutes of whispering, both of them realized that it had stopped raining. They replaced their respective novels on the shelves and were soon walking on the sidewalk and enjoying the cool air.
“So, you might be close to catching the thieves?”
“We hope so, things have been going quite well, we do have a lead.”
“Which is?”
“I’m sorry but I can’t tell you that,” said Michael with an apologetic expression.
Evelyn nodded and said, “Of course. I understand. Anyway, it was nice meeting you.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” said Michael.
After Evelyn had gone her way, Michael found himself to be considerably relaxed. His mind was at peace and when he started thinking, an idea came into his mind, which shocked him into realizing what the robbers’ next move would be.
Jefferson’s apartment:
Jefferson was studying the plans of the location where Jack kept his collection. Indeed, it was quite cleverly concealed. He had constructed a sort of hidden safe in the parking space which was situated below ground level. But now that he had begun to think of ways the property could be infiltrated, he realized that there were multiple ways, especially when a party was in full swing. Anybody could head down to the garage unnoticed, but opening the safe would be quite a task. It required an eight-digit code and as if that wasn’t enough, the door had a puzzle-like mechanism for opening it. Everything went well if the code was put in and the puzzle solved within ninety seconds, if not, then an alarm rang out, and the door of the safe was electrified for fifteen minutes.
Jefferson was satisfied with the security arrangements, but then, he had been satisfied in the case of Les Morceaux de Lumiere as well. When his wife entered the room, he did not even realize it, but his daughter was not someone who could be ignored. As soon as she stepped into the room, she went straight to her father and sat down beside him.
“Dad, what are you working on?”
“Nothing much, Penny, just trying to catch a robber.”
“There are other ways to do that.”
Jefferson looked at his daughter and then at his wife. The latter was smiling but she did not say anything.
“What other ways?”
“In a game! Dad, you promised we’d play today!”
“Did I?” asked Jefferson with a deliberately made faraway expression on his face.
“Mom!” said Penny in a threatening tone.
Jefferson laughed and said, “All right, your threats are even worse than what I face at work! Go get the game, I’ll clear the table.”
Penny jumped to her feet with a wide smile on her face and rushed to her room to get the game. Martha got up to help her husband clear the table. Just as Jefferson finished, his phone rang. The call was from Michael.
“Hello Michael!” said Jefferson cheerfully.
Michael’s voice was urgent when he said, “Jefferson, I need you to listen very carefully.”
Undisclosed FBI Safehouse:
Brandon and Olivia were in visibly low spirits today. They had not even changed their clothes, nor had they bothered to cook something or even switch on the TV. Their minds were thinking about the same thing, and each was aware of the other’s cause of concern.
“Do you think he would be fine?” asked Brandon.
“Of course, his mother was a survivor, and so was he,” said Olivia in a definitive manner, although her tone made it feel as though she was trying to convince herself rather than her husband.
“And what about him?” asked Brandon.
Olivia did not reply, this single question had been pestering her for ages and hearing it from her husband only made matters worse. She got up and said, “I’m going to take a shower.”
Brandon looked at his wife disappear into the bathroom, and he shook his head sorrowfully.
Aurum Regium 