Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 44

There was not a soul to be seen anywhere around at the warehouses. Ava felt a little silly. She had gotten up extra early and was now standing at 10 a.m. sharp on the other side of the street, where so many weeks ago she and Natasha had taken the photo of her stranger, who later turned out to be James. In Ava's mind, it was safer to drive to a possible crime scene in the morning because, as countless episodes of Law & Order had proved to her, crimes usually happened at night. So she felt on the safe side as she confidently crossed the street to get a closer look at the warehouses.

There were no vans parked among the myriad rows of warehouses. Ava headed straight for the outermost warehouse where she had once observed men putting boxes in and out. This had to be a good starting point for her research. Ava approached the heavy metal door, only to find that it was locked. She felt rather foolish standing unprepared in front of a locked door. She was sure James would have made a sarcastic comment to her now if he would be able to see her.

Ava had to think of a new strategy. There were many warehouses here, so she couldn't rule out the possibility that the men hadn't stored their things in other warehouses as well. Ava looked more closely at the locked door she was standing in front of. On the top right corner, a small symbol had been spray-painted with graffiti. It was golden and looked like a helmet with two very pointed horns. It looked familiar, but she could not remember where she had first seen it. Ava walked down the row to the next door and again the strange symbol had been sprayed in the top right corner. At last she seemed to have a lead and she hurried to the next door. Abruptly she stopped: The door was not locked, someone had wedged a wedge between the door.

Ava pressed her back against the wall. She would still be seen immediately if someone came out of the warehouse, but the wall at her back gave her a feeling of security. Tensely, Ava listened, but there was nothing but the distant roar of cars and an isolated coo of a pigeon. Maybe someone forgot to take the wedge out?, Ava thought and listened a moment longer.

There didn't seem to be anyone around, so Ava made a decision. Slowly, she opened the heavy metal door just enough to fit through. Inside the warehouse, she pressed herself against the wall again and took a moment to steady her breathing. Her heart was pounding madly and her hands were starting to sweat.

From the inside, the warehouse was huge. The ceiling seemed to be a good 10 metres high and was covered in glaring overhead LEDs, some of which flickered in an irregular rhythm. Tall, cluttered shelves took away Ava's view of the back of the warehouse, but it looked like the space still extended far back. There had to be well over 50 rows of shelves that stood in this warehouse.

Ava looked around again in both directions but could see no one. She slipped into one of the aisles and stroked the countless boxes stacked on the shelves. None of them were labelled and Ava wondered how anyone would ever find anything again like that. She looked down the aisle that stretched far into the back of the warehouse and then stopped in front of a box. It was the only one in this row with a handwritten mark:

For my one and only, my everything.

Ava was overcome with goose bumps at the words. At the same time, her curiosity was aroused and she carefully opened the lid to peek inside the box. Inside lay several rolled up pieces of paper and Ava couldn't make out what they were supposed to be. Are they gun plans?, she asked herself and carefully took one of the rolls out of the box. Only when she held the roll in her hand did she realise that these were no simple pieces of paper. They were rolled up paintings.

Carefully she unrolled the painting in her hand. Again she got goose bumps. The painting showed a naked woman and a naked man who seemed to be in some kind of altercation. She had seen the painting before, only where? The white horse in the painting caught her eye immediately. A shiver ran down her spine and involuntarily the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as if someone was watching her. Ava's heart started beating faster again, she had been staying in this warehouse for far too long. The men are probably just taking a quick cigarette break and that's why they left the wedge in the door, Ava's subconscious interfered. Hastily she rolled up the painting again and put it back in the box.