C18 Chapter 18

That day, Detective Boldmir found it very hard to go to work. He had not been able to stop thinking about Adam’s discovery all weekend. He had not considered a possible conspiracy against the two young men. The story of Jeff and Enrique blackmailing Emma, resulting in her death when she tried to make her escape, appealed to people and it worked well for the journalists too as they could make up all sorts of theories and fill the headlines.

The detective still wanted to speak to Jeff and Enrique to disprove what the Hawks were saying. Ironically, his position as a police officer was getting in the way, as there was no way for him to get close to either of them. The overall attitude to exclude the police had grown. He found it very strange to read in a bulletin last Friday that the police were ’prohibited’ from intervening in the Emma Kantor case. When he got back to his small, first-floor apartment that afternoon, he realized there was one place where he was not prohibited from going: Harborne University. If he could find an excuse to visit the campus, he could try to talk to the girl whose name was on the list of Emma Kantor’s ’acquaintances’ that Adam had given him last week. The draft list of names linked to the Bernard Lowinson case that his friend had also given him sat in a drawer in Boldmir’s desk, forgotten. He had no time to focus on what he considered to be an abstract puzzle.

Tuesday, May 20, 1681

"Boldmir?" said Carol, seeing him standing in front of her. In plain civilian clothes and with a serious expression on his face, he quickly approached her as she exited the main entrance of the university. She instantly remembered him, and surprised, she stopped breathing for a second. Lindsey, who was standing next to Carol, looked at them both in confusion.

Minutes later they were sitting down in a restaurant. Carol, as a child, had often visited the police station where her father worked. When Boldmir became a policeman, four years ago, he had been posted to the same station. Carol no longer visited her father at work, and due to his senior position and the work he had to do, they were no longer as close as they used to be. One day, when Carol was fifteen years old, she was questioned because she had been with some friends in the same store in which a robbery later took place. General Jad Flightrod preferred not to smother his daughter with protection, but at that time he had chosen to assign a bodyguard to accompany her to and from school, a rookie officer with a straightforward attitude: Bright Boldmir. Carol and Boldmir had followed this routine for almost a month, during which time they formed a friendship. They even managed to stop a robbery thanks to a strange hunch she had, which led them to discover a group of crooks stashing stolen goods in broad daylight.

It had been three years since she had last seen the detective, but she recognized his face and confident stride. She knew that he was someone who could help them.

"Detective Boldmir," Carol said.

The three of them were sitting in a restaurant close to the university. They had not ordered anything yet.

"Boldmir will do," he replied, sitting in front of them with his arms folded across his chest.

"Okay, Boldmir . . ." continued Carol. "We haven’t seen each other for a while, and this is a bit hasty, but there is something we want to talk to you about—"

"Carol," the detective interrupted. "You and Lindsey were close friends with Emma Kantor, right?"

They both looked at him, apparently he also had something similar on his mind.

"Exactly what are you looking for, Mr. Baldmir?" asked Lindsey Whitelock, looking into his eyes. She had never heard of the detective.

"Boldmir," he said. "I understand that ’yes’ is the answer" he said. Lindsey felt bewildered. "So I have a few questions—" he was interrupted.

"Wait!" Carol exclaimed. "We have some questions too! So if you could listen to us first . . ."

The detective paused for a moment before resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. He nodded.

Carol Flightrod took the three copies she had made out of her bag and placed them on the table. Boldmir scanned them quickly, noticing the words ’pattern’ and the ’EK’ initials. He remembered having seen numerous documents with similar notes, usually archived evidence that was marked to be transferred to the Blue Hawks. He noticed the date ’May 5’ and grabbed the papers for a closer look.

"What’s this?" he asked, looking serious.

"They are drawings of—", explained Carol.

"I know they are drawings."

"Let me finish! They are drawings I found among my father’s papers, in my room!" The detective listened quietly, looking at her stone-faced. Carol continued more calmly. "I tried to copy them and well, this is the best I could do."

"In your room?" asked Boldmir, surprised. "What exactly were they doing there?"

"I don’t know, but I’m sure that ’EK’ stands for Emma Kantor."

The three of them sat in silence.

"I would not recommend that you repeat that out loud again," said the detective to Carol, as he gathered the papers, glanced cautiously around the restaurant, and handed them back to her. She put them in her bag.

"I agree with her," said Lindsey. "They couldn’t be anyone else’s initials. The date is also very clear. ’May 5’ the day Emma . . . well . . . died."

"Exactly what do you want me to do?" asked Boldmir, leaning back in his chair.

Carol needed someone to find a way to use what she had found. If that were possible, she could try to find more documents in her father’s things. Boldmir seemed like the perfect person, Carol could not think of a time when the now detective had ever been dishonest with her. It was risky, but she could do it. Boldmir did not know if he could trust her. On one hand, she was still quite young to take on this kind of responsibility but, on the other hand, the very fact that she had been able to get these copies in the first place proved that she could be a very valuable ally.

As they agreed to meet again and then left the restaurant, he thought to himself that she was just a student, not yet twenty years old, which reminded him of the days when a young Carol used to run around the police station.

"By the way, Carol," said the detective as they walked down the street. "After copying the drawings, did you leave everything as you found it?"

"Obviously."

"Of course, you are Flightrod’s daughter after all," he said with a slight grin. Maybe Carol was not so clueless after all.

The three of them did not know it, but they were being watched from afar by Elmer Bellamy. He had a hunch that Boldmir was up to something. He had thought it strange to see him pass by dressed in plain clothes that day and had decided to follow him, thus discovering their little meeting. When he returned to the Blue Hawks’ headquarters, he did not hesitate to request to speak with Sean Thiel and Leid Braghest to report what he had seen.