Max - Freelance Police - Part 6

Chapter 6

It was over an hours’ time until Max got back to the warehouse. Thankfully it seemed there were at least some staff around, despite the late hour. Even if it was just a skeleton crew minding the place, he could still probably bluster his way in.

With that in mind, Max walked up to the entrance and, again to his satisfaction, he found the same lady minding the reception desk.

What was her name?

“Dorothy! Good to see you again” Max said cheerfully.

The sudden look of surprise and the extremely fake smile Dorothy display pretty much said  “We can pretend that’s the case, but it obviously isn’t”.

What she actually said was “Why hello officer. How can I help at this… late hour?”

Max glanced at the time. 9:55. “I just wanted to continue with my investigation. Had to follow some leads after I left, you know. Detective stuff.”

“I see” Dorothy said dubiously. She glanced again at the time and sighed.

“Talking of detective stuff, using my immense skills of deduction, I deduce” Hehe, deduce. Always wanted to use that word someday “That your shift ends in 5 minutes”

To Max’s delight Dorothy’s grin seemed to become far more forced as she obviously resisted saying something biting back to him. “Why yes Mr… Maxwell?”

“Max” Max corrected her.

“Max, yes I do technically finish my shift in 5 minutes, but if you happen to need something, I would be more than happy to-”

“Outstanding!” Max shouted, cutting her off as he walked over to the walkway she had lead him through earlier that day. Practically hear the sound of her teeth grind behind him, Max walked confidently over to the main doors leading to the factory, waiting for Dorothy to catch-up.

Dorothy noticeably slouched as she got to the door and opened it for Max, already resigned that she was not getting home at a reasonable time. Max on his part was aware of this… and didn’t care.

The two walked through the aisles of the seemingly endless warehouse, Max leading the way until they got to the scene of the crime. The same empty spot in the middle of an normal looking aisle welcomed Max as he looked over the area again. It was only then that Max took out the folder he had been given by Mike. He began leafing through it but after a few pages, just handed it over to Dorothy.

“Um, Sir, can I ask-”

“The form looks like something you guys use for your shipping containers, right?” Max asked, cutting her off again.

Dorothy looked confused but answered “Yes, this is the standard report that we make on all our containers. You can see the same details clipped on to most of the boxes around here”

Max nodded “Ok, might save time then if you know where to look to get the stuff I need”

Dorothy looked annoyed at been given the job as, for all intents and purposes, a secretary. Despite that she nodded and waited.

“Ok, first thing, how much did each crate weight”

“We don’t store the exact weight for these items. Only grades so we know if we need to use heavy equipment like a fork lift to move them.” Dorothy answered as she looked over the form. “If it helps, each crate was of grade E… which is our highest weight category” This last part seemed to surprise her.

“And grade E means…?” Max asked impatiently.

“Um, at a minimum each crate would be around 1000 pounds. With 6 missing that’s….”

“6000 pounds…around 3 tons” Max whistled at the figure, “That’s the weight of a truck. And the size of each crate?”

“Umm… the dimensions are-” Dorothy said looking through the document again

“Just point at a crate of the same size. Doesn’t need to be exact” Max said, cutting her off again. However now she didn’t seem to be getting annoyed at Max’s demands, seeming to get involved in the work.

“I would say this is probably the best match” Dorothy said pointing at one particular crate.

Ok, so five crates stolen. Each one weighing over 1000 pounds and as big as the desk back at the office. So too heavy and large for a person to lift… so maybe they brought a fork lift with them… or stole one from here…

Max mused as he tried to make use of what Dorothy said but decided to just shelve it for the moment. “Ok, second thing. I saw police tape over one of the driver entrances, right”

Dorothy nodded “Yes, they assumed this was the method in which they entered the premise”

Max thought about this. “Ok, let’s have a look”

Max, again without waiting for Dorothy, walked away in the direction he guessed the delivery point was. It didn’t take long to find the open hole into the night where a metal folding door should be. Max didn’t know what to expect as he looked at what remained of the metal.

“This thing looks… shredded”

Dorothy nodded, eyeing the strips of metal hanging loosely off parts of the door. “Yes. Mr Liverstone believes they must have used hooks on gaps in the metal and physically ripped the door away. Probably using a truck with some chains”

Max nodded but stopped. Don’t listen to the clients guess work. That’s what you are for. Max repeated in his head. He looked again and realised that probably wasn’t the case. It wasn’t down to anything scientific about the tear patterns or anything but, after a long career of one weird case after another, Max had first-hand experience with the sorts of things that caused this damage.

“Nope… someone did this” Max countered.

“Someone? Well that’s obvious” Dorothy replied, a little annoyed at Max ignoring her theory.

“I mean someONE did this. Alone. Someone very strong and…”Max knelt down and looked at the irregular tears circling the door and finished “…someone with very long claws.”

Max nodded as what he saw matched with what he remembered. He didn’t remember any one thing actually. It was rather surprising in fact to go through the number of beats, monsters, mutants and demons Sam and he had met over the years who could tear down a metal door with one sweep of their hands and found he could easily reached double digits before he stopped counting.

“You mean a creature did this?” Dorothy said, not at all convinced

“Can only hope so” Max said happily, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. However, not wanting to linger on this for too long, and convinced there wasn’t anything else to cover, Max walked back into the warehouse.

Max still had one thing left to check. In fact it was the only thing Max had wanted to go through after leaving Flint’s place. Though he felt compelled now to ask all the questions he knew he should have asked when he first got here, now he wanted to chase up on the one thing that had bothered him the entire time he had been to the warehouse earlier. So Max walked on, deep into the warehouse as he followed his instincts… and his nose.

It was only when he was getting close that Max knew now why the smell he had picked up earlier had been bothering him so much. It wasn’t because it was bad… which it was. But really it was how distinctive it was. Originally he just thought it was… well… crap. And again he had let Mike just wave off the question saying some chemical could have caused it. There was one problem with that, and that was the fact Max knew this smell. It was the smell of the sewer.

Now most people would assume that the smell of dung and the smell of the sewer were one in the same. They weren’t. Yes, that particular smell was one you got when you ventured forth through the underground water works of New York, and that stench alone did rather demand your attention. But the sewer also had other distinctive scents. Again, none of them particular nice and not what Max would be willing to try and identify individually, but as one who, due to past cases, had been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time in the sewage system (usually near his apartment building) Max was very familiar with its particular … bouquet.

It was this unique collective of scents that led Max to a corner of the warehouse. One noticeably empty, with many of the shelves containing no storage crates of any kind. There just seemed to be an area of concrete in front of him with a door at the end. It looked like a janitor's closet to Max.

Well, my nose has lead me this far, Max thought.

“Could you open that door please” Max asked, trying to hold back the impulse to hold his nose. The smell was no longer something he needed to follow. It was everywhere and hard to miss. Even Dorothy was holding a handkerchief to her nose.

“Of course Office…Urgh” Dorothy said, obviously trying to hold her breath “There must be a pipe broken. How on earth has no one noticed this?”

With that Dorothy walked forward and….

What is she doing? Max thought as he watched her walk toward the door and open it. “Um, Dorothy. Thanks but… could you walk back to me”

Dorothy looked back quizzically but complied before Max stopped her again.

“Ok…” Max paused wondering how to phrase his next comment “Dorothy. Why are you walking the way you are?”

“I beg your pardon?” Dorothy asked, a little taken aback at the strange comment.

“Ok. Humour me here. Walk back to the door… that’s right. Now, look directly at me and start walking to me….”

Dorothy did this but Max just shook his head. “Why are you not walking in a straight line?”

“What? What on Earth are you talking about?” Dorothy replied, no longer hiding her irritation.

Max just watch in confusion. Did she know she was doing it? Know that when she walked towards the door, she didn’t walk towards it, but curved around the main walk way as if avoiding something. And she did the exact same thing when she walked back. Walking around something that wasn’t there.

It was when she got back to him, still giving him that questioning glare that Max just shrugged and walked forward, not bothering to take the strange path that Dorothy took. It was for this reason that, unlike Dorothy, Max suddenly found himself falling.