I'm Being Followed and I Know Why

The Chief

I'm starting to fear for my life, so should anything happen to me I guess these posts will stay as some kind of record. If you're reading this, please copy the text from my original post, the second update, and what follows and keep them on your hard drive. Maybe someone else will be able to understand what's going on better than me.

I decided to speak to my boss about the murders on the boat. Jan was obviously not going to talk to me, I don't know what happened to her but I assume she was threatened by whoever has been following me.

The chief is someone I trust. A few years ago when my marriage was breaking up, he was full of great advice and was always understanding when my work slipped due to the stress. He's a good bit older than me, approaching retirement, and always seems to have a handle on things, but he seemed genuinely concerned when Jan was randomly transferred and this guy Tony was assigned as my new partner. It was as if he sensed that something strange was going on.

I had to find out how much he knew.

Tony was obviously a plant, but I couldn't figure out what he was sent for, or who by. Was he connected to the intelligence services who attended the homicides on the boat? Or was he with someone else? Someone who had the power to organise Jan's transfer and randomly assign a partner to me? And for what reason? Did he think I had figured out what I was supposed to see in that cabin, did he want to know, or was he just ensuring that I didn't talk?

None of it made sense.

I had to talk to the Chief. I didn't know if it was Jan's sudden departure which had unnerved him, or whether he could just smell that Tony wasn't a legit cop, at least not any more, but he was the one person I felt I could ask for advice. One of those guys who just seemed to have most of the answers.  

I just hoped he'd have some for me.

Shaking Tony was more difficult than I thought. As my partner he went everywhere with me, and as I had signed what I assumed was some form of confidentiality agreement on the day of the murders, I didn't want to take the risk that he would report to whoever he was working for that I was speaking to my boss alone. I have a kid to support and while I felt compelled to find out more, I didn't want to end up in jail, breaking national security and losing my job in the process.

I decided that the best thing was to approach my boss after work. It's funny, after all these years of working under him, I realised that I knew very little about his life. Where he lived, and how, was a bit of a mystery to me. I knew he'd been through a divorce, but that was really the extent of it.

I sat on a wall at the back of the car park where colleagues often have a cigarette. There I stayed from about 6PM onwards, but it wasn't until around 7PM that the boss left work. Tony had come over about twenty minutes before, making idle chat after finishing his shift. I could tell he was trying to gauge why I was sitting there. I just made a throw away remark about having a date nearby in a little while and didn't see the point in going all the way home just to come back to the area.

I didn't have my car and I don't smoke, so I guess it looked strange me sitting there in the car park for such a long time, but it was all I could think to say. I could tell he was suspicious, but after a little while he wandered off.

15 minutes later the strangest thing happened. The Chief comes out of the building, walks straight up to me and says 'Follow me.'

I said nothing, but as usual did as he asked and walked with him to his car. I got in and before I knew it we were driving towards the south side at speed. I tried to speak to him, but he seemed like a man possessed and when I asked him what was going on he told me to be quiet and returned to concentrating on negotiating the traffic quickly. I started to sweat, and as the miles flew by I began to fear that I had made a huge mistake and that the chief was in on it too. I looked around at the locked doors, even considering jumping from the car at one point, but we were moving too fast. I had to bide my time and make my escape as soon as the car stopped at a set of lights. I couldn't believe that the chief was involved, but it all made sense with Tony being planted and Jan transferred. He'd have the power to do that!

Then, he pulled in to the side of a busy road abruptly. I took this as my chance and jumped out ready to run, but just as I was about to make my escape I watched in amazement as the chief strode right onto the middle of the street, darting between the fast moving cars and oncoming traffic. Then, without so much as breaking a sweat, he stood still, arms stretched out at shoulder height, staring down a car which I was certain would hit him.

Damnedest thing I ever saw.

The car screeched to a halt. It was Tony. He slowly exited the car and I was certain now more than ever that the chief was in on it. Tony said something but it was out of ear shot, then, without warning, the chief decked him! He might be approaching retirement, but I wouldn't have wanted to have been at the end of that punch.

He cracked Tony right on the nose.

My instincts took over and instead now of running away, I found myself sprinting towards both men, hoping to get there before anything really bad happened. It was clear that the chief could squash him like a fly as he dragged him off the side of the road like a stuffed doll, onto the curb, throwing him against a wall.

I was shocked, the chief was someone that sure could shout louder than anyone I knew, but I had never seen him so brutal. Tony's nose was now gushing with blood and he seemed to whimper a bit as he tried to regain his footing.

I can't remember word for word what was said, but the chief gave Tony some dressing down, but oddly seemed to remain calm while doing so, almost expressionless. He told Tony that he needn't bother coming back to work the next day as he knew he wasn't a cop.

Tony spat some blood on the ground, grinned at us both and then staggered over to his car, screeching off into the distance.

The chief told me that he had been watching Tony since he had arrived, and although he didn't know exactly what was going on, he knew outside interference when he saw it. Tony had followed him to his house on three different occasions, but the boss is no spring chicken and had in fact worked for a government agency at one time, so he quickly spotted him. He was aware that not only was I being watched, but that our entire station was now under surveillance by a number of people both outside and inside the building.

He first knew something unusual was happening the day the two bodies were discovered. All police call ins are recorded should they be required for a court case or to investigate whether an officer has been following procedure or not. I hadn't even thought about it, but when Jan and I had discovered the boat, I made a call to the station to report the murders. So the station had a record of this! The chief had been contacted soon after with a request from my country's intelligence agencies to cancel any response and to hand over the relevant recordings of that call. The operator who had registered the report and the chief both had to sign similar documents to myself, swearing them to secrecy on behalf of national security. He suspected that Tony and the surveillance was a direct result of whatever that call in was referring to.

I filled him in quickly about the deaths and everything which had followed. The only time I've ever seen the chief back away from anything was then. He had went as far as he could and I didn't blame him with retirement on the horizon. For the first time, to me, he looked his age. Weary and unwilling to throw himself into the fray.

He did give me one piece of advice though. He told me to investigate the nearest canal lock, up river from where I had found the boat. He might have been tired, but the chief was still smart. That lock would have a record of every boat which had passed through it, I just hoped he was smarter than whoever was trying to cover this up. I prayed that record still existed in some form.

Three things happened the following day:

1) The chief was transferred to another station with a replacement to be announced. I never got to speak to him. 

2) Tony never showed for work. 

3) And I found out the name of the boat and who owned her.

I'll update if and when I know more.