Where Snapdragons Lie

To follow a fraud

I love how technology just makes things so easy. Delilah sent me all kinds of stuff on my most recent tag from her laptop at the hospital. She requested I take things over to Shamar who can get the additional details on his wrong doings. He's they key to actually securing a warrant, or giving us any evidence to get Honen into an interrogation room. The problem was, we didn't have a physical check. Honen could be potentially working with a second ghost account for all we know. What we needed was a way to track and confirm his accounts, so we needed a debit card.  Its easier to frame the evidence if we have something tangible. I decided to help out. Sure as hell better than sitting a filing Delilahs paperwork all day. Shamar can easily track down the last transaction Mark Honen made, but the matter is getting to a check before someone shreds it or gets rid of it. A debit or credit card number at least gives us a starting point for tracking his transactions. We have enough probable cause to get it. Delilahs confidential email detailed the last few places Honen used a potentially fraudulent check to purchase an order of paper for his office. So there was only one things to do and that was spy on him until I find what we need.

The GPS was steering me towards Red Butte garden. Rumor has it this was where he was going. That's when I saw his car. He makes illegal bank and yet he drives a crappy purple scion. He had two little toddlers in the back. I can only assume those are either grandchildren or some other family connection. I'll keep the safety of the kids in mind, but my goals is to get information. I parked leagues behind them and waited until there were at least half way to the front door. I doubled checked that my gun was concealed. Not that I would actually use it, but just as a measure of precaution. I followed behind them. He was carrying one of two little boys. They were cute, and had elements of Mark in their eyes and nose. The woman with them refereed to Mark as Gran-pap. Assumption confirmed. I took to the level above the ticket counter and looked over the edge, while staring at my phone. I put it away and instead used something Shamar gave me. He equipped my sunglasses with a small camera, one he hid behind the right lens then attached it to the inside of the sides so the wire was facing my head. This was he could get information from me in real time. Honen paid for the tickets with a card. I took note of the time and made sure I was looking as casual as possible. I put my phone to my ear and called Shamar.

"Hey Mom," I said, "How's Hurricane City?". Shamar did not respond. We agreed that hurricane city was going to be the code for "record". I felt some heat from the tiny camera near my eye. My heart rate increased slightly. The stakeout was set in motion.  The fear of getting caught is an innate one. One I feel even more now that I've got non-human antibodies coursing in me. I felt all my silk channels fill. Not that I can control when they fill up anyway. But they do that especially when I'm out in the field. 

"Hurricane city is a sight to see," Shamar said in his fake granny voice. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. What a charlatan. But at least now he's got the number now. Now all that is left to do is try and look casual while I follow him. If I can get anything incriminating that's even better. Delilah may not even need to stake him out tonight. A relief on her end. I made my way outside as soon as Mark and his family began scaling the stairs. They immediately got on the next golf cart tour of the grounds. Getting on with them would be a dead giveaway. As easy as it would be to just sit and listen I probably wont get much of anything of use. Maybe some baby talk, but that's not what I need.  So I made a note of all the places the tour stopped. I scouted ahead to their third stop, the desert and dry plants, near the building they use for daycare and field trips. Now I wait. The mountain landscape views from here are incredible. Its  almost as if I can just reach out and be on top of the world. The vast openness of it all reminds me of how small I am. In a good way. Like being a small fish in a big pond, or a blade of grass on a big hill.