Misperception

Chapter 6 - A mysterious woman

Home sweet home, after such a long day of using all my observational and analytical faculties I just needed a nap. But no rest for the wicked, I had to meet with Luka, not just to report about what I found through the JBI, I needed hid input as well as I perceived him to be someone with observation ability. We agreed he will come to my office and bring his notes with him. When he arrived, he found me totally engrossed on my computer searching google maps. I didn't hear him coming, he startled me and for a moment I felt I'm looking at a portrait I've seen before, the gypsy lover of queen Elizabeth I Lord Dudley. The dark man who thought too much of himself and his intelligence, and proved to be not that clever after all. 

"Hello Jane." he said. 

after staring at him for a moment, and I guess I looked crazy, I said "Ah, Luka. Hello, I'll be with you in a minute." 

I rapped my saves and bookmarks, and moved away from the desk to the leather mighty chair opposite to him. He was staring at the painting on the wall, after a moment I asked him "Did you bring your notes with you ?." 

"Yes, that is the point. What were you doing so focused on the computer?, if I may ask. Is it related to the case ?." 

"Yes, I was trying to assert if there is a way into Paloma resort through the adjacent resorts. Just was playing with google maps." 

"And what did you find ?." 

"Actually it is very easy to get from both the adjacent resorts to the Paloma. They all share the beach in a way, you can walk or run on the sands or swim in the sea and no one will think anything wrong about it." 

"Interesting. God, is there a street lamp in the corner of this painting ?!." 

I suppressed a smile and just said "Yes.". He looked at me in amusement, and as I got up to get some refreshments as I didn't want him to think me a bad hostess. "I thought it was the original painting, but now I guess it is a reproduction. Strange that you have a reproduction when you can buy the original." He said. 

"I've much better things to do with my money, and I think original art belongs in museums. I think I don't have much of possessiveness in my soul." 

He accepted the cold cocktail I offered him, and asked me about my meeting with agent Martin. "He is a good man, he is going to get to the bottom of this, but I can help him to arrive faster.". Then I gave him a summary of my findings. 

"That is huge, how did you get this idea?." 

"How else the boy is taken from the resort ?. An adult must have taken him away, and since strangely enough there is no footprints on the sand outside the cabin open window, not even of Miss Clarke looking for her son. So the open window must be a red herring, and the boy is taken out through the main door. This is why I insisted agent Martin must retrieve the security tapes of the gates covering all of the previous day. I want to know when this car has entered the resort." 

"That mysterious woman will lead us somewhere you think ?. Next step I guess is to know her identity and follow her movements." 

"It won't be that easy Luka." 

"What do you mean?." 

"The mysterious woman in the dark blue car has gone out of her way to disguise her identity, and in the security photos don't show a boy in her car." 

"But who else could have taken the boy?. And again if he wasn't in the car, this means either she gave him to another person in the adjacent resorts, or ...

I interrupted him "Or the boy was in the trunk of the car, unconscious by some means." 

"Woo, that is ugly. But why unconscious ?."