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Stay out of it (Unedited and unformatted excerpt from by upcoming book)
“Stay out of it”, was the advice given to me by Albert and detective Maitland.
They had a good point of course. It can be extremely easy to get yourself in trouble when interfering with police business. You may severely hamper the investigation, especially when you don’t have any investigative skills and experience.But somehow, I couldn’t leave this alone and I decided to make another trip to the truck stop and talk to Jeff again. There could not be any harm in that, could it?Just as I turned into the parking lot a big white pickup truck left and headed into the direction I just came from. Was it my imagination or was that Jeff in the passenger seat? It surely looked a lot like him.I quickly turned around and followed the truck at a safe distance. This was one of the times I wished that I had a different vehicle. Tailing someone in a fancy sports car is very tricky. Lucky it was silver though, and not a bright colored one.
At a slow speed it made its way through an industrial area, turned on to a fairly busy street and stopped at a convenience store. Both men got out and went inside. Darn, I wished I had binoculars. From this distance and angle, I still couldn’t tell for sure that one of them was actually Jeff.
My camera with the telephoto lens would have been helpful but I had left the equipment at the house. A rookie mistake, I suppose.Five minutes later the two man left the store and got in the truck. They slowly backed out and then sat for a short while, like they couldn’t decide which way to go. Finally, they moved and came back in in my direction.I quickly pulled into the entrance of a building supply company so I wouldn’t be seen from the truck. Of course, I wanted to keep flowing it, but I ran into a slight complication.
Just as I entered a big flatbed truck loaded with brick came towards me on his way out of the gate. The driver stopped and honked the horn. A stern looking middle aged man with thick glasses came hastily out of a small building what seemed to be the office. He gestured that I should roll down the passenger side window, and I did.“Sir, didn’t you see that sign at the gate that is a truck exit and entrance?” He pointed to a metal sign that I could only see the back of.
“This situation is exactly why we have a separate entrance for cars. The entrance for customers is over there.” He swung his arm and kept talking, basically reprimanding me for ignoring directions.“We don’t allow customers and visitors here because of the risk getting hit by a truck. And besides, from the office we have no clear view of people coming in. I guess we may need a bigger sign.”After I apologized a few times he continued. “So, what can I help you with. Anything in particular? We have a basically everything for your house and yard.”
Of course, I had no desire to explain to him what I was trying to accomplish. And on top of that, looking in the rear-view mirror I saw the white pickup go by. The man was leaning with both hands on my door so I just couldn’t pull out either.“Thank you, sir”, but I’m not in the market for any of it at the moment. I just needed a place to hide really quick.”“Hide? For what?”
The driver of the big truck came to the rescue. He hadn’t been able to move, and he grew impatient. With his head leaning out the window he yelled: “How about it? I have a delivery to make, people are waiting for me”“You better go sir”, said the man with the glasses and he lifted his hands.I backed up between stacked pallets with roofing tiles. The truck with the brick quickly pulled forward and blocked me for a minute while the driver was talking to the man with the glasses.
By the time I got back on the road there was no trace of the truck with Jeff.I just assumed that they had returned to the truck stop but when I got there, I saw no sign of them. Obviously, I had a lot to learn in the investigative business.
