Page 38 of Mission: Possible

"It's easy to walk in an open front door," said Solomon. "Less easy to wrench open a closed, alarmed one."

"Good point. Gerald, is there an alley or service road that accesses both the front and rear exits?" I asked.

Gerald nodded. "Sure. Go down three units to the left as you leave the building by the front. The alley there intersects with another service road at the back of this building."

"So the vehicle they used turned into the alley, dropped the team off, and proceeded toward the back to collect them. That works," I said. "The vehicle could remain out of sight almost the whole time and even if it were observed, they probably drove a delivery vehicle or a maintenance truck or van, rendering it virtually unnoticeable."

"Lucas, I want you to get every camera within a two-block radius and find that vehicle."

"You got it, boss."

"I think we have everything we need from the camera footage here," said Solomon. "Let's go talk to Charlie again. Thanks, Gerald."

"Happy to help. You should receive a copy of the taped footage by tomorrow. Let me know if there's anything more I can do," said the security guard.

We left him to his monitors and walked along the corridor without talking. Between Gerald's powers of observation and Charlie's open door, there simply wasn't anywhere to avoid being overheard.

Solomon knocked on the door, announcing our arrival as we entered. Charlie looked up from his laptop, an expectant expression on his face. "Did you find anything useful?" he asked.

"We have some leads to follow," said Solomon. "Once we review the entire tape, I'm sure we'll have more."

Charlie nodded. "That's good news."

"But you could really expedite the process if you provided us with a little more information. I'd like to interview the owners of the security boxes. We need to know what items were inside them, whom they shared that information with, and so on."

"I'm sorry. That's just not possible. As for whom they told, we generally advise our clients to be discreet about any of the information they share, but it's not a secret that we hold bank boxes here."

"How do you plan to return all the rifled contents to the correct owners?" asked Solomon.

"That's not your concern," replied Charlie.

"Do you know if any other items were stored with the missing item you seek?" persisted Solomon.

Charlie frowned. "I don't think there were."

"Can’t you give me a ballpark value?"

"No."

"Is the item illegal?"

"No."

"Has it ever been for sale?"

"I can't answer that because I don't know." Charlie's eyes darted to his laptop screen, his unwillingness to answer further becoming clear to us all. "Can you give me an update later today as to how far along you are with the investigation?"

"Yes," said Solomon. "I'll give you any updates we get." He turned and we followed him from the room. Patricia waited for us at the end of the corridor and I wondered if she was lingering there the whole time or if Charlie just discreetly summoned her.

"One last thing," I said, pausing as I reached the door. "Can you send us the schedules of all the employees for the past six months? That, along with any information about persons who might have left your employ during that time."

"I can only think of one person who left, but yes, I'll have that information forwarded to you. I'd appreciate a heads-up if you intend to formally interview any of the current employees. I have no reason to suspect a single one of them being involved in any of this."

"Not a problem," said Solomon, glancing at me briefly.

"What do you make of all that?" I asked as we left the bank and walked away.

"Charlie remains consistently unhelpful with key questions," said Solomon. I didn't need to check his face to know how irritated that made him. I could tell by his loosely clenched fists and the lack of inflection in his voice. I wondered if he regretted taking the case. "Good call on requesting the employee information. It'll be interesting to see if there are any unexplained patterns. You're inferring it could be an inside job?" he asked.