- 2.3 - The Lock Picked Locker (The Culprit)

HIBARA

“SEE YOU WHEN I see you, detective wannabe,” I smirked and left him standing there. When I arrived at the top, a female voice rang in my ear.

"Yeah, I just stole seven original shoes. Selling these at their real prices would give me enough money to buy an elegant gown for the ball, Indigo."

I leaned on the wall of the Sports Office. Its door was slightly opened. “Yes, yes. Black helped me in picking the locks,” the female voice spoke once more. She’s on the phone which is why I can’t hear the other end of the conversation.

“Alright. I’ll send you pictures of the items.” I heard footsteps coming and the beeping sound of the call ending. I quickly and quietly rushed downstairs. I looked around to find an unfamiliar face but found none. I sighed. Looks like I got no other choice.

“Jacob,” I called the man standing by the gymnasium’s entrance.

“Wow. You didn’t call me a ‘detective wannabe’ now. You must need something,” he smirked and I rolled my eyes.

“The last suspect that I haven’t interrogated yet had just finished talking to someone named Indigo on her phone. I overheard, it's about selling the stolen original shoes to buy an elegant gown for a ball. She also said something about Black helping her pick the locks. She’s a classmate of mine, so there’s that,” I explained. If he’s what he claims to be, then he would know what I need.

“Ah. You needed an unfamiliar face to borrow her phone and find information about the caller or whereabouts of the stolen items. She wouldn’t let you borrow her phone because she knows that you have yours. The same situation if you ask your other classmates to help,” he said, smiling.

I pushed my glasses and spoke. “It’s good that you know. If my calculations are right, she will be passing by us…now.”

As if on cue, Irish Francisco walked past us without taking a single glance. She didn’t find us suspicious. I gave the detective wannabe a nod and he approached Irish who stopped her tracks by the stairs that lead to the cafeteria. I followed and hid behind the stairs.

"Hey, Miss. I wonder if I may borrow your phone. Mine's dead and I need to contact my girlfriend," he began. Hmm, nice lie.

"Uh, y-yeah sure..," Irish is obviously hesitating to lend her phone but did anyway. Definitely hiding something.

The detective wannabe typed something on her phone and then returned it with simple thanks. He walked up to the cafeteria and Irish walked toward the direction of the Square (It is a place with trees and benches in front of the SHB).

“You don’t have a girlfriend. You texted your secretary,” I deduced as I approached him.

“Well, you’re right about that. I won’t deny it. I told Zia to research about your classmate and that mystery man named Indigo,” he responded.

“You also told her to send the information to your phone. It’s not dead. Of course, assuming that you’re a detective wannabe, you have deleted the text you sent so she won’t know its contents. Did I get that right?” I smiled when he slowly nodded.

I am confident that I’m a good detective and probably next to the great Sherlock Holmes. Similar to him, I have always worked my cases alone. That is until he met Dr. John Watson, which apparently I don’t have.

“You’re amazing,” the detective wannabe praised out of the blue.

"Are you drunk or has an alien invaded your mind?" I asked and he just shrugged.

Praising me or my skills is probably in the last of his to-do list, but then he suddenly did. He did not give my question an answer and walked away instead. I didn’t mind it anymore and walked back to our classroom, Room 401. I still have a case to solve to bother myself with his weird change of attitude. After almost fifteen minutes of being alone, my classmates came back in their usual daily uniform.

“What did Esmilzo mean when he told Mrs. Torres that you were solving something? Do we have a Math assignment?” Loiella asked as she sat beside me.

“No, I’m actually not yet done with what I’m solving. It didn’t occur to me that finding a shred of evidence for this case to prove who the thief is will be quite difficult,” I replied. My eyes widened when I realized what I just said.

“Wait. Evidence? Case? Thief? Did you join The Forensic Club?” She asked in confusion.

“Ah, right. Yes, I’ve met with the club president during our P.E. class and submitted my membership application. Our active case right now is about the stolen original shoes. We gathered some information that they are to be sold to accumulate an amount right for a ball gown,” I informed. I don’t think she will see through my lie because she definitely doesn’t have such skills. Also, I have only been with them for a week. They don’t know anything much about me so they will believe every word I say.

“Really? Jacob accepted a Junior High’s application? Whoa, that means you’re intelligent!” Loiella’s eyes sparkled and I simply smiled. See?

We composed ourselves when our Christian Living and Values Education (CL/VE) teacher, Mr. Josefino Palabras, entered our classroom. I’ve had this subject before, in my Grade 9; both CSD and AMU are Dominican schools.

"Good afternoon class!" He greeted. We were about to stand to greet him back, but he spoke before we did. "Today, we will start our discussion with Human Dignity."

And just like he said, he immediately started. "Our dignity is inalienable, inviolable, inherent, and universal. It means no one can ever take our dignity away from us. Those who are saying that their dignities are gone when they got abused are wrong!”

His voice started to fade in my ears. My apologies, Mr. Palabras, but my mind is focused on the Lock Picked Locker case right now. I have to devise a plan to catch Irish Francisco and also to find out who Indigo and Black are.

I took out my CL/VE notebook and pretended to take down notes when in fact, I'm writing the names of Irish, Indigo, and Black. I began listing down the reasons why these three are in contact with each other and what the said ball all about is. I also wrote all the information I have gathered about the case. It kept me occupied until…

"Hibara, what is our own free personal response to God's love?" Mr. Palabras called my name. Oh no.

I stood up as I quickly wandered around my data fortress. Come on, it has to be here somewhere! How do we respond to God’s love? We praise Him even without knowing of His existence. Aha!

“Faith,” I answered and Mr. Palabras smiled and told me to take my seat.

"Well, that is right. So, we should…" And his voice faded once again.

I went back to my notes, thinking about ways to capture the thief and her accomplice. All persons have their weaknesses and I must find Irish Francisco’s.

A knock on the door got everyone’s attention. A tall male student was standing by the open entrance. “Excuse me, Mr. Palabras. The Forensic Club sent me to hand over this document to your student, Hibara,” he announced.

“Hibara, you may leave your seat,” Mr. Palabras said and I approached the student. I took the white folder, said my thanks, and went back.

“Now, back to the discussions…” Mr. Palabras’ voice faded in my ears again as my focus went to the one piece of bond paper inside the folder.

IRISH FRANCISCO y ZAPANTA

• 15 years old
• Grade 10 Section I
• [phone]***

Deleted messages retrieved (as of today):

• Irish (9:20): Black.
• L-Black (9:25): White are you prepared to do the job
• Irish (9:27): Yeah, you’ll be there to assist me, right?
• L-Black (9:28): I will just be doing the lock picking thing
• Irish (9:30): That’s more than fine. I’ll call Indigo. Let’s meet at the cafeteria.
• Irish (10:54): I’m done storing the sixth pair. I’ll be going to class now. Meet you?
• L-Black (10:55): Nah I will go late
• Irish (10:56): Come on, education is important!
• L-Black (10:57): Not when you have a job with lots of money
• L-Black (10:57): You dont care about education you just want to see your crush
• Irish (10:58): Whatever. Shut up.
• L-Black (11:00): Next target Esmilzo. Locker is open take the shoes
• Irish (11:01): Noted. That’s the last one.
• L-Black (11:02): are you sure
• Irish (11:10): I got it. Class will start at 11:15. We gotta rush. We’ll be late or get caught.
• L-Black (11:11): Oh I dont care

Deleted call logs (as of today):

• Indigo (9:30) *number can’t be traced*
• Indigo (12:13) *number can’t be traced*

“Why can’t it be traced? Why?” I mumbled in disbelief after reading the last entry.

I turned to the back page of the paper and found the detective wannabe’s handwritten notes. Yes, I deduced it’s his because it’s messy and his other two members seemed to be organized.

“I have a digital copy of this document on my cellphone,, we don’t know your e-mail so here’s the printed version,, Indigo’s number is strangely secured,, either they used a burner phone or their number is just really untraceable..”

“Moron. If they used a burner phone, it won’t even be saved in Irish’s contacts. It is obviously named Indigo in the call logs. And you’re using an excessive number of commas!” I rolled my eyes and wrote down some deductions in my CL/VE notebook. So far, here are my notes:

Irish – the mastermind of the Lock Picked Locker Case, she did it for Indigo’s ball, codename White, she’s not as competent as Black, they met at the cafeteria around 9:30 and stole shoes together until 10:30 (not yet class hours; probably entered the campus earlier along those who have morning classes and stole from afternoon class students), she took Esmilzo’s shoes five minutes before the class started

Indigo – the host of the ball that Irish will be attending, the ball might be a debut since gowns are involved or maybe a costume party and Irish wants to play a princess, there is a probability that he/she is Black and White’s leader, his/her phone number is untraceable which means he/she has some sort of computer-literate companion

Black – Irish’s accomplice, has a name initial of L, probably male (if and only if White is the codename for females), he did the lock picking (clearly not an expert), he’s not good with punctuations or just lazy to use it in texts, he doesn’t care about his classes so probably he’s someone who’s frequently late, they get paid for doing crimes

I placed my pen down and took a deep breath. Then, I started to analyze what I’ve written so far.

I need to investigate our section. If Irish kept telling Black that “they” will be late, then they are in the same level or same class. I must have a starting point for the search, so I’ll begin with 10-I. If I find who Black is, then he can tell me where Irish hid the stolen shoes. Surely, the thief will not disclose such information so I’ll ask the accomplice. Now, we only have seven boys here and only two with the initial L: Levy and Luke. The Major was with me in the suicide case earlier so he’s out of this. Levy, however, is also on the suspects list so there is a high probability that he is Black.

KRRIIIIING!!!

Perfect. It’s recess time. I can interrogate him out of anyone’s earshot. I looked in his direction and to my astonishment; his auburn eyes are staring right into mine. I also caught a glimpse of his gold L necklace which I didn’t see earlier in P.E. class. I smirked at him and stood up. When I did, he suddenly dashed out of the room. I didn’t move and just watched him escape my sight.

I dialed a number on my phone. After three rings, Chief Andrew Velasquez, the Head of the Campus Police picked up. “Chief, I have a report regarding a theft case that occurred just about four to five hours ago. I would like you to take Irish Francisco and Levy Ray Ticcus of 10-I into custody. I’ll meet you in twenty.”

I made a mental note: Black is Levy Ray Ticcus.