| General Fiction posted April 17, 2024 | Chapters: |
...35 36 -37- 38... 
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The culprit is detected
A chapter in the book What We See
What We See - Chapter 33
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.| Background A high school teacher wrongly accused of sexual assault reinvents his life. |
Recap of Chapter 32: Alan calls Callie’s attorney father to ask his advice about getting a patent for his invention. He is given the name of a patent attorney, with whom he makes an appointment.
Warren comes in to work an hour late the next day and says he didn’t get to bed until 3:00 AM and that he’s been losing at the poker table. Later in the week, he calls Alan, saying he won’t be in until 1:00 PM because he’d slipped coming out of the shower, banged his head, and blackened his eye. Alan urges him to go to the emergency room to be checked out for a concussion. When Warren comes in at 1:00, he asks Alan if he can work late that night to make up the hours. Alan agrees to it.
Before he leaves, Alan sets up the secret camcorder in case Warren tries anything. When Alan makes a surprise visit to the store at 8:00 PM, he finds out the hard disk was removed from the computer, and everything else relating to the glasses was stolen, including the original prototype. He suspects that Warren did it, and takes the hidden camcorder home to view it.
Chapter 33
Ginnie was in the living room reading when I returned home. I went in and sat next to her on the sofa. She immediately noticed the agonized look on my face and put her book down. “What's wrong?”
“Your fears were justified. Everything’s gone.”
“What do you mean? What’s gone?”
“The son-of-a-bitch stole the hard drive out of my computer. He jimmied the filing cabinet open and stole the files and the original pair of glasses. Everything pertinent to the invention is gone!”
“Oh, sweetie, no!”
“I mean, I haven’t lost everything. I back up my hard drive every week to an external hard drive I keep here, and I did it two days ago, so I haven’t lost all the plans and documentation. Plus, I’ve still got the newest pair of glasses, but a lot of the supporting material sent to me that I’d put in the filing cabinet is gone. This is bad, Ginnie. Do you know what he can do with everything he’s got?”
“What?”
“He could beat me to the punch in trying to patent it, or he could sell it to someone who could patent it. Then I’m screwed.”
“Even if you could prove it was stolen from you?”
“Well, maybe not. I don’t know about this kind of stuff. Now I’ve really got a need for that patent lawyer I’m seeing tomorrow.”
Tommy must have heard our voices, because he came downstairs and joined us in the living room. Seeing my expression, he said, “What happened, Dad?”
“Warren stole everything concerning the glasses. He even took the hard drive out of the computer. He didn’t find the hidden camcorder, though. Let me rewind the tape, and let’s see what it shows.”
We all huddled around the little screen as I began playing the tape. For the first few minutes, nothing unusual happened. We could see Warren had pulled a magazine from his backpack and was just sitting there reading. I guess he hadn’t planned on doing any work after all. I fast-forwarded the tape for a long time before we saw the action change. I slowed it back to normal speed, and we watched him go over to the computer, take the monitor off the top of the system unit and set it over to the side, then begin to open up the computer. We heard him whistling “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” while he worked. We watched him unscrew the brackets that held the hard drive in place and remove it. He placed it in his backpack, then turned his attention to the filing cabinet, which was also in the picture.
He had taken a screwdriver and a hammer with him and worked for a few minutes on jimmying the lock. We watched him go through the files, studying them for the pertinent ones. He finally found them in the bottom drawer, hidden beneath a few old magazines. Then he found the pencil sharpener box with the original prototype of the glasses inside, and we heard him mutter, “Oh, yes. Come to Poppa.”
He carried everything over to his backpack and stuffed it all inside. Apparently satisfied he had everything he needed, he moved out of the frame, which soon went dark, as he must have then turned the lights off and left. There was nothing more on the tape, which remained dark until it ended.
We just sat there for a minute, deflated, not saying anything. Watching something like that makes you feel incredibly violated. And now I had that damn “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” running through my head.
Then I began to burn, until finally I shouted, “Mother-fucker!”
“Cock-sucker!” Ginnie added.
I smiled, then we looked expectantly at Tommy as I beckoned him to add more with my hand.
“Stupid shithead!” he shouted, and we all began laughing.
When we finally quit, Ginnie said to Tommy, “I hope you don’t take that as permission to begin swearing now. This is—”
“I know, Mom. You don’t have to tell me that. It was kind of fun, though.”
She turned to me then. “Well, at least you have all your data backed up on your other hard drive, and you’ve still got the newer prototype, so it’s not the end of the world. And now you’ve got that tape to prove it was a theft.”
Tommy added, “See, Dad, it’s not such a wicky sticket after all.”
I smiled ruefully. “Thanks, guys. You’re both right.” I looked at Ginnie. “So, do you think I should call the police tonight, or can it wait until morning?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should call them now, just to get it on the record, even if they don’t send someone out tonight. Then there’ll be no questions about why you waited so long after the discovery.”
“Yeah, good thought.”
During the call, I gave them all the pertinent info, including Warren’s name, address, and phone number. I told them I had video proof of the theft but that the threat was now over. They said they would send a detective out tomorrow afternoon.
I stewed about it the rest of the evening. As we were lying in bed, I said to Ginnie, “That suspicious nature of yours really paid off this time. That and Abby’s musing about setting up a spy camera. I mean, I had some doubts about the guy, but I never really thought he would stoop to this.”
“People aren’t always who they appear to be. I’ve sure learned that lesson. That guy is an enigma, though. I mean, he acts like this friendly, teddy bear kind of guy, but he’s got this creepy side too, especially with women.”
“Yeah, and he’s got a gambling problem, I’m pretty sure. He said he’s been losing at poker a lot lately, and that black eye he got this morning from a supposed slip in the shower? Makes me suspicious that maybe it was a collector of sorts, giving him a warning to pay up. Might have been a good incentive to steal my invention and sell it.”
“Make sure you mention all that to the detective.”
“Yeah, I will.”
“We’ll get through this, sweetie," she said, cuddling up to me. "You’ve got the proof he stole it. That’s got to count for a lot. And you haven’t really lost that much since you had it all backed up. It’s just a hassle, but we’ll manage it.”
“Nothing ever comes easy, does it?”
“Nothing worth fighting for, it seems. But we’ll fight it together. I love you.”
“I love you too. I’m glad I’ve got you with me. It will be a lot easier than going it alone. Just wish I could quit thinking about it now.”
“I know how to solve that.”
“You do, do you?”
“Yes.” And she succeeded.
 Recognized |
CHARACTERS
Alan Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.
Archie: David's orange tabby cat
Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.
Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.
Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.
Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.
Leroy Beeman: Miss Ida's grandson and Tommy's friend.
Mrs. Dunbar: Tommy's 7th grade English teacher.
Callie Lyons: A nice girl in Tommy's class at school.
Trent Lyons: Callie's father, who is a lawyer.
Warren Meyers: Alan's assistant in the repair shop.
Abby St. Claire: Callie's cousin who is a math major with an engineering minor at Penn State University.
Harold Carmody: A patent and infringement attorney.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. Alan Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.
Archie: David's orange tabby cat
Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.
Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.
Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.
Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.
Leroy Beeman: Miss Ida's grandson and Tommy's friend.
Mrs. Dunbar: Tommy's 7th grade English teacher.
Callie Lyons: A nice girl in Tommy's class at school.
Trent Lyons: Callie's father, who is a lawyer.
Warren Meyers: Alan's assistant in the repair shop.
Abby St. Claire: Callie's cousin who is a math major with an engineering minor at Penn State University.
Harold Carmody: A patent and infringement attorney.
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