Buried Treasure - 17. Chapter 17

“I’ve got the video footage” Jamie called out as he came through the door of the main living room, making me jump at least four foot in the air and causing Craig to laugh.

Jamie ignored us and headed for the DVD player, it only took a few moments for the footage to load and it seemed it started three days ago.

“Jackson had his tech wizards work their magic, by comparing the till computer with the video footage they were able to isolate the bottles of booze that were actually sold. They eliminated all the footage that contained legitimate customers. Then they cross referenced the last weeks’ worth of footage and found only one person who repeatedly turned up when no sale was shown on the till but always left with a bottle of something.” Jamie skipped through the footage till he got where he wanted, “See this man goes in and a few minutes later… there he is coming out with a bottle. The till shows no sales for that time nor any of the other times this man is seen entering then exiting.”

I tried to see the picture but the footage was grainy and it was hard to make out the guy’s features.

“What are you looking for babe?” Craig asked as I leaned across him to try and see better.

“I’m trying to make out his face. The picture is rather grainy.”

Jamie beamed at me and took some paper out of his pocket, “No need to try and see. The tech’s managed to clear up the image. I give you Basil Water’s.”

With a flourish he handed out a picture to each of us. I looked in shock at the face of the man I had been chasing. I knew for a fact he was only 43 years old but the man in the picture looked to be over sixty. He had a roughly cut grey beard and dirty white hair. Judging by the lamp post in the picture Basil was just over five feet tall and he dressed like a homeless person.

“How on earth did he end up looking like this?” I asked.

Craig was the one to answer me as kindly as he could, “Basil has been taking drugs for years. I looked into his medical records earlier, I don’t know why I didn’t do it earlier, but I found that he has been in and out of rehab six times now. It started when his parents died in a car accident when he was fifteen. He got in with the wrong crowd and it was downhill from there. He had been put into a children’s home and you know how well they look after the kids. He was allowed to do as he liked and so his Friends decided to get him to try a few things. As I said he got sent to rehab and the last time seemed to have taken but then he met up with Crystal’s mother who was an old friend from before and the cycle started again. It was a miracle that Crystal wasn’t born with drugs in her system. Then he turned to drink to supplement when he couldn’t get drugs and well, you can see the damage he has done to himself.”

“Right,” Casey said clapping his hands together, “How are we planning on getting this idiot then?”

Jackson had been quiet up till now, “The techs said there is a pattern to when he goes to get his booze. He seems to go every two days and tries to get as much as he can. So I suggest we get the techs to monitor the cameras nearby and as soon as they see him we can be nearby and go get him.”

I nodded, “But we must make sure that we are all in pairs and also try and take him down from a distance, with little or no warning if possible.”

At Casey’s shocked look I hastened to add, “I don’t mean kill him. I mean use a sleeping spell in the case of you, Jamie or Ben and in the case of you vampires I’m sure you must have some tranq guns round somewhere.”

Jackson nodded and Adam looked slightly worried but everyone also looked determined. This man needed to be got off the streets quickly and taken somewhere so he couldn’t hurt anyone else.

“OK Let’s get this done,” Jamie said and bounded up dragging Andrew with him. “We’ll head for a bar near the shop, that way we won’t stand out but will still be within running distance.”

“We’ll go the Council Building,” added Adam standing up with Ben at his side. “It’s not unusual for me to be working all hours and it’s definitely not unusual for Ben to visit me there,” the last was delivered with a leer at Ben earning him an elbow to his stomach.

“Well that leaves us together,” Jackson said to Casey.

Casey shrugged, “Where are we going to be hanging out then?” He asked.

“What about my town apartment? I can get some work done and there is enough desk space that you can bring along some of that paperwork you’re always moaning about. The apartment overlooks the shop so we will be nearest if anything happens.”

Casey nodded and I looked at Craig, “Would you like to take a romantic stroll around town?” I asked standing to drop into an exaggerated bow.

“Oh be still my fluttering heart,” Craig said theatrically and pretended to swoon onto the couch and then rolled onto the floor.

I started laughing and Craig pouted up at me till I offered a hand to pull him up.

“Let’s get this done,” Jamie said standing and leading the way out the door.

Everyone was laughing and joking but I could sense the undercurrent of nerves. We all knew that we would probably only get one chance at this and we didn’t want to fail.