Slow start this one, but I think it is worth reading through. I had to struggle to stop making this a crime mystery and get back to the core of Suzanne's story. For those fans out there, I promise some real humiliation and submission for Suzanne in the next episode.
Worth reading the previous chapters to catch up with the storyline.
By popular demand, I am re-introducing voting, although I notice that the last episode (which excluded voting) didn't attract any flamers.
Chapter 13
They met again at 08:30 in a local "Good Egg" breakfast bar, ready to put their plan into action. The plan was to meet the co-owners of the Indian Desert Jewellery Company at their offices in Phoenix for a kick-off meeting before splitting up to find out more about what had gone wrong.
Ian was to visit the warehouse, scene of the break-in, which would take him along Superstition Freeway towards Mesa. Once there, he'd check out the installation and start the forensic examination of digital recordings and computer logs that they hoped would shed some light on the incident. He'd spent much of the night checking out the plans and drawings, but with one ear cocked for any noises from the next door apartment where his wife Suzanne was staying, hoping to get some clue as to what was happening there. However, the linking door had remained implacably closed and locked all evening, and all he'd seen of Suzanne since they had left Graham's apartment the night before had been when he drove into the Good Egg parking lot and found her sitting with Graham, already on their first cup of steaming coffee, when he entered the restaurant to meet them.
The plan for Suzanne, such as it was, was to remain with one of the client owners in Phoenix and to visit and check out, as much as she could, the two company-owned retail outlets in downtown Phoenix, hopefully picking up whatever gossip or grapevine intelligence might be being passed around the salesroom staff about the major event that had transpired at the warehouse. As Ian sipped his first coffee, he looked at his wife across the booth and was pleased to see that she looked rested and composed after the strenuous flight the day before. She was dressed conservatively in smart business-casual blouse and skirt, with her strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a neat pony tail, and with just the right amount of make-up – as if she was about to commute to her office for the day's grind.
Graham himself was planning, after the start-up meeting, the long drive down to Tucson where the local distributor for Ruler Electronics was situated. He wanted to hear at first hand from his own agents, all that had transpired prior to, and since the break-in at the Indian Desert warehouse.
It was all business as they ate a full breakfast, and then climbed into their two cars for the short drive to the clients' offices for their planned meeting at 09:30. On arrival, they were shown into a small conference room, and helped themselves to more coffee as they awaited the arrival of their aggrieved customers.
When the door opened and the clients arrived, Ian for one was somewhat taken aback to see two very large black guys, dressed smartly but casually and aged between 30 and 40. As they shook hands all around, Ian noticed how the large hands of each of the co-owners completely swamped his wife's small and dainty hand. They introduced themselves as Otis and Cordell Stokes, two brothers who had made their money in pro-football, and who were now respected businessmen in the Phoenix area. Graham himself had made the introductions of the Ruler Electronics party, and Ian's heart missed a beat as Graham introduced Suzanne to the two African Americans as "my assistant, here to help in any way she can".
They quickly settled around the small conference table, and Graham asked Otis and Cordell to explain what had happened in their own words. It transpired that their warehouse had been broken into three nights earlier, and only 3 weeks after commissioning the state-of-the-art CCTV and motion sensor defence system that had been supplied by Ruler Electronics. No alarms had sounded immediately, and it was only the diligence of the on-site security officer that had prevented a catastrophic loss of valuable stock. The security officer had happened to be doing his rounds when he saw a light in one of the stock rooms. He had challenged the intruders sufficiently forcefully that he had frightened them off, but not before they had loaded their bags with an estimated $270,000 worth of jewellery.
The security officer had immediately alerted the owner brothers, following the laid down Incident Response Procedures that formed part of his training, and both Otis and Cordell had been on site within 15 minutes to assess the damage. They had found no evidence or clue from the video tapes and system logs as to how the intruders had gained entry or why the alarms hadn't sounded to alert the on-site security guards to the break-in. However, they did find evidence of the entrance and exit route taken by the burglars; a small hole in a perimeter fence and a broken window at the rear of the premises.
At first, and in the absence of the system responding to the break-in, their suspicions had turned to the security guard and an "inside job". However, the guard was a long-term employee that they knew well, and subsequent investigations had all but exonerated him from any involvement. There was clear evidence of a break-in, there was lost stock worth more than a quarter of a million dollars, and yet their sophisticated defence systems could shed no light on what had happened, nor explain why no alarms had been sounded. All subsequent tests on the system had shown it working and functioning as designed, and Otis and Cordell were at a loss for an explanation.
"So Mr Leicester" concluded Otis, the older of the two brothers, "how do you explain this mystery? Is our expensive new system really just a piece of shit, or can you tell us what happened here?"
Graham was apologetic and curious, shying short of becoming defensive about his company's flagship products, but convinced there must be some problem with implementation rather than a fault with the products themselves. He asked some questions, and outlined their plans for commencing the investigation. It was finally agreed that Ian would drive with Cordell, the more technical of the two brothers, to the warehouse in Ian's car. Graham would drive down to Tucson as originally planned in his own car, and Otis would drive Suzanne into downtown Phoenix to tour the retail outlets, using his own car. It was by now a little after 10:30 am and they agreed to meet back here at 5:00 pm and compare notes.
As they left the office to head their separate ways, Ian's last sight of Suzanne was of her lowering herself carefully into the very low passenger seat of Otis' very sleek German sports car as Otis held the door for her. Ian couldn't help but notice the way Otis' eyes lingered on her exposed tanned legs as she backed herself into the seat and swung her legs around, before pulling the seatbelt across her chest as Otis closed her door and walked around to the driver's side. As he walked around the car, Otis nonchalantly adjusted his "package" as if he was already excited by what he had seen.
