Ch.214Work Record #031 – Duty Record #003, Staying One Step Ahead (3)

I prepare for work again today. Today, only Ben and I will remain at the sheriff’s office. Though Ben is passive, at least he hasn’t been corrupted by Old Road. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to hope he’ll turn a blind eye.

Celine woke up just as I was finishing my preparations. Seeing me already dressed to leave, she hastily wrote down her contact information and handed it to me. After shaking her head to clear her mind, she spoke.

“You’re up early… Anyway, um, today I’ll be meeting with truck drivers—outsiders—even though I’ll be working with Old Road people. What about you?”

“I told you I’d look through the case files. Today it’ll just be me and that deputy I met before, so no one will complain if I dig through the records.”

Celine nodded after hearing my plan. Letting her use my sofa until she finished her work wasn’t even worth calling payment. I gladly offered it and left.

I drive to the sheriff’s office. The morning in Madeline’s Lot remained peaceful as always, but I viewed it differently than yesterday when I could overlay this scenery with my post-retirement future.

If Marcus Cavendish had been a better person, the scenery of Madeline’s Lot would have smelled of hope. Right now, Madeline’s Lot only reeked of a coward’s stench.

I arrive at the sheriff’s office. The sheriff himself and the other deputies, including Harry, were already preparing to head out to the wasteland. I went to the locker room, changed into my uniform, and came out to find Harry smiling amiably at me.

“I made it clear last time, but you’re not going to complain about being treated like a kid again, are you, rookie? It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just that… the third day has its own appropriate tasks.”

“I understand. Clearing out their base might be even more unpleasant than last time, and it seems like you’re trying to shield me from that. I’ll gain more experience before joining such operations.”

Though my words lacked sincerity, Harry seemed satisfied enough. The vehicles carrying five deputies and the sheriff departed from the office. I returned inside.

I immediately approached Ben. He seemed much more comfortable in the empty sheriff’s office than when six deputies were bustling about. I casually spoke to him.

“Oh, Ben. About that woman we checked yesterday… She came to see me yesterday. She mentioned her brother, Fabian… What happened?”

When Fabian’s name left my lips, Ben turned pale again. Is the sheriff’s office being bugged too? Probably not. Marcus Cavendish isn’t that brave.

“I don’t know who Fabian Diaz is. Wherever you heard that name… Look, being kind is good, but you shouldn’t extend your hand to everyone asking for help.”

As his words shifted to a lecturing tone, I naturally played my next card. Though I’d known it from the beginning, I spoke as if I’d learned it during last night’s conversation with Celine.

“Miss Celine Diaz seems to know exactly what increases alongside Old Road’s business expansion. I wanted to work as a deputy sheriff, not as a megacorp security team member.”

Ben’s expression turned deathly pale. He chewed his lips, seemingly acknowledging that I’d become someone who knew too much, then spoke.

“Fabian Diaz, well… he tried to confirm if Old Road was really producing drugs. If he’d done just enough, he might have just been kicked out, but he was good. With my help…”

With Ben’s help—someone who disliked Old Road—Fabian might have accomplished something. And the higher the possibility that he accomplished something, the lower the chance he was still alive.

“He got into the hydroponic tower and captured evidence. He couldn’t get samples because staff were stationed there, but he seemed to have avoided all the CCTV…”

Did he enter and exit where there were no cameras? Perhaps possible since this was Old Road in Madeline’s Lot. With only about three hundred personnel with access, external surveillance might be sufficient.

“Harry Piper found footage from a truck’s dashcam. All I remember is Harry dragging Fabian away. The case was processed, but just filed as unsolved—illegal entry followed by disappearance.”

Hearing his words, I headed to the file cabinet. Since it wasn’t an old case, I pulled out the cabinet containing recent incidents. In a town with few residents, there weren’t many files.

I searched for the name Fabian Diaz. There was indeed a record of him trespassing into Old Road and then disappearing, but it didn’t specify how Fabian had infiltrated Old Road. That was to be expected.

While pretending to skim through it, I captured the entire document with my vision and scanned it. I closed the file and returned to Ben. For now, I couldn’t learn anything beyond the fact that Fabian had been caught.

“So, did Harry take that evidence too?”

“That’s the problem—I don’t know. Fabian said the information was safe, but he was caught the very next day. Harry and the Old Road guys must have searched everywhere…”

According to the files, Fabian’s trespassing incident occurred only about a month ago. The whistleblowing must have stemmed from Fabian’s infiltration, making this the starting point.

I should assume Harry and Old Road obtained the information, but if by some chance they didn’t… finding that information would simplify matters.

Fortunately, the case file included the address of the motel where Fabian stayed before his disappearance, as well as details about his vehicle. This makes it somewhat more hopeful that Fabian might still be alive.

If they’d found the information, killing him wouldn’t be an issue, but if they didn’t know where Fabian had hidden the evidence, they’d have to keep him alive. Harry had likely tortured him, but still.

This was my destination to pursue. But I needed to appear different to Ben. I needed to make him think I was investigating the murder, not searching for evidence to dispose of it.

“It doesn’t seem like this was Fabian’s first attempt to infiltrate Old Road, Ben. What exactly is going on here?”

“Well, he wasn’t the only smart one who thought Old Road was connected to distribution volumes. They all came in, but they all… That’s why I dislike Harry Piper.”

Though it’s just testimony, the picture is gradually becoming clearer. My supervisor, Harry Piper, acted like Marcus’s right-hand man, seemingly having more authority than even the sheriff.

Is Ben a whistleblower? If he had contact with Fabian Diaz, he might have tried to resolve things after sensing something was wrong when Fabian disappeared. Asking directly probably wouldn’t yield an answer.

Even though I was investigating Fabian on Celine’s behalf, I was still a rookie deputy trusted by Harry. To Ben, I must be someone to be cautious of.

I should talk to Celine. Finding where Fabian hid the information was more her task than mine.

But then, Ben, who had been watching my contemplative expression with some anxiety, spoke up. His voice was slightly trembling.

“So, rookie… which side are you on?”

Neither Old Road nor Madeline’s Lot… I’m from the outside. I swallowed those words and said what Deputy Matt Collins would say.

“Why do you think I became a police officer instead of a right-hand man to thugs masquerading as a megacorp? I’m on the side of doing what’s right.”

“I, honestly… I don’t know. I can’t boldly declare ‘for justice!’ like you, nor can I throw myself into danger out of curiosity like that Fabian guy…”

“In situations like this, if I just sit still, I wouldn’t be able to sleep properly at night. It’s trivial, but… I’ve always acted so I can sleep well at night. At least this much.”

This was Arthur Murphy’s sentiment, not Matt Collins’s, but it seemed like what Ben needed. Ben nodded briefly and then whispered cautiously.

“If you’re thinking of gathering evidence to report to the FBI or somewhere… forget it. I’ve already tried. Even though they went into the hydroponic tower, they said there was no trace. Those dirty bastards…”

The reason Ben seemed too weak to be a whistleblower… was it because an attempt he’d already made had failed miserably? I hadn’t considered that possibility.

Still, evidence is necessary. I couldn’t choose to save one person at the cost of over a hundred lives without evidence.

“What kind of evidence did you gather and report?”

“It wasn’t much, but… I took a photo of drugs packed inside a truck’s food container. Honestly, I was too anxious to leave it anywhere, so I’ve been carrying it with me…”

After a moment’s hesitation, as if placing hope in an outsider not worn down by Madeline’s Lot, he pulled out a photo from his pocket and showed it to me. I turned on my computational assist and captured the image.

The photo showed a small food transport container with Old Road’s logo, filled with packages of white powder. Even in this high-speed era, drugs are still drugs, and smuggling is still smuggling.

Ben was still looking at me with an anxious expression. He had acted. He had bet on the right side of the gamble, and he would get back what he wagered.

“Showing you this wasn’t a stupid choice, was it? I mean… can I trust you to keep quiet about this to Harry?”

“Of course you can trust me. If I were to inform on anyone, it would be the drug dealers, not the whistleblower.”

To Ben, this must seem like youthful rashness. Seeing his continued unease, I held up my phone and said:

“Then, is it okay if I contact Celine quickly? She said she was looking into this too… I want to call her right now and let her know, so we can search for Fabian’s information together.”

Ben nodded briefly, but he seemed uncomfortable with me leaving his sight. I dialed the contact number in front of him. It was a more inconvenient method than using a communication channel.

“Hello, Celine. I confirmed that there’s a record of Fabian being arrested, and from what I’ve heard, it seems he hid what he found at Old Road somewhere before being caught. Which is your priority?”

“Damn… I want to say my brother comes first, but I think the information should be our priority. It wouldn’t have been difficult for them to capture Fabian and do whatever they wanted, but finding what he hid would have been harder.”

Is this level of trust between siblings common? The training I received from Jeff flashes through my mind. It’s absolutely not common. Celine continued.

“Is that all you found out? The truck drivers were told not to talk to outsiders, and they wouldn’t say a word to me.”

“Not everything. I also found the address of the motel where Fabian stayed, and I learned that it’s obviously the truck drivers who smuggle the drugs made in Madeline’s Lot, so of course they’d keep quiet. We started from the wrong point.”

“Every time I try alone, I come up empty-handed. Alright, fine. See you after work. I don’t know why you’re helping, but you… you’re really good at this. Let’s go together.”

It was remarkable to find direction in just one day. As I ended the call, the listening device I’d planted in Marcus’s office began transmitting non-work-related sounds.

I hear a knock on the door. Marcus’s voice invites them in, and a different male voice comes through the listening device.

“Chairman, just now, um… Fabian Diaz’s sister appeared at the logistics center and was asking the truck drivers about Fabian Diaz. I think she’s the outsider reported by the sheriff’s office.”

“Is Harry in the wasteland now?”

“Yes, sir. Deputy Harry Piper will probably return in the afternoon. Should I assign someone else?”

How many times will Harry’s name come up? Harry goes to the top of my kill list. It’s better to kill him first.

“No, wait until Harry returns and have him handle it. That new deputy would probably do well if instructed, but that guy… I don’t want him on such menial tasks; I want to bring him here.”

At the sudden mention of me, I double-check the audio quality of what I’m hearing. Hidden in the carpet, half the sound was rustling when noise cancellation was turned off. I hadn’t been discovered.

“Well… since we know which motel she’s staying at, I’ll send Harry tonight. Nothing else to report.”

I should go to her motel with her today. Harry will break in, and shooting an armed intruder who enters a motel room is legal.

Thinking about killing someone who’s treated me well leaves an unsettling feeling. I try to dispel the discomfort by telling myself it’s just eliminating a drug dealer’s right-hand man.

After that, the conversation turns to business matters—how much to reduce synthetic crop cultivation and how much to increase real crop cultivation—so I didn’t pay much attention.

The sheriff and deputies who went to search the wasteland returned to the office around 4 PM. The sheriff, whose glasses were covered in gray wasteland dust, washed them off and sighed.

“I’ll announce the results of the wasteland search. At the location Deputy Harry Piper learned through interrogation, there was indeed a wasteland gang hideout, but no one remained inside.”

An expected result. What mattered more than the report’s content was the sheriff’s expression. Though still stoic, he seemed somewhat relieved.

Drone photos are transmitted to the tablet. They show an underground room, likely once a small storage facility with emergency phones, half-buried in the wasteland’s sand and dust.

The walls, originally clean white ceramic, had maps of the wasteland, Madeline’s Lot, and nearby towns hanging on them. Even the times when trucks usually passed by were marked.

Several outdated weapons were also found in the corner of the building. The weapons they brought for the infiltration were already too old-fashioned, but those stacked there… they made the ones they brought seem better in comparison.

“We searched the surrounding area as a precaution but detected no unusual movement. The citizens of Madeline’s Lot can finally rest easy again. Is it alright to announce this?”

Everyone’s answer was the same. A sheriff is someone who does sheriff work well. The problem is that even if the leash changes, the dog remains the same—merely observing Old Road without intervention.