A Night to Remember

Outline: Picking up a hitch hiker ends up in murder and blackmail with unexpected consequences I saw her out of the corner of my eye, and I immediately made a u turn to come alongside her on the other side of the road. She looked too refined to be looking for punters so far out of town on the motorway. There was something special about her and I had to find out, maybe she was in some kind of trouble. "Hi there, are you alright? Can I offer you a lift?" I said as I approached her. She looked at me, sized me up and then she spoke."I'm  not going far, if its no trouble you could  give me a lift to the next exit just past the lakes. I've got to get to my hotel.   I looked at her more closely. She was a real beauty, a mirage out here.  how could such an elegant girl be on her own in this remote place? Something didn't click, but she was worth taking a chance. What had I to lose? I opened the passenger door and she got in. I glanced over and noticed her tanned legs.  "Its pretty dangerous for a girl to be out here on her own," I said trying to make some conversation.  "First time I have done this, I had a raw with my boy friend." "People do silly things when  they are upset." "Yes, I suppose you are right," she said and then fell silent. As soon as we got to the Lakes I asked her. "Can I invite you for a drink? As for myself, I need to get something to eat and this seems a nice place to stop." "I don't know really, my boy friend wouldn't like it. I'm staying at the Sea Moon Guesthouse further on, and my boyfriend will have called to find out if I am there. "I can't see that there's any harm with having a drink, but it's up to you. I don't want to get you into any trouble over me." I said. She thought for a while. "Why not? He's working all night back in town. He expects me to call him. Yes, I'll join you for a drink and I'll call him later." "By the way, I am Jack. I'm working on the new power station by the river, and seeing as I am alone tonight, I was going into town for a drink." "Nice to have met you Jack, I am Sonia."  It didn't take long for her to feel at ease and we'd soon forgotten the boy friend. "What do you say we go back to town after you call your boy friend. You like dancing?  She looked at me with those big eyes; she thought for a while, then she said "let's go."   It was still early, but the disco was already packed. After a few drinks and all the excitement with Sonia, I started feeling dizzy. Not normal but maybe it was the lack of food. I'd  forgotten about food when Sonia had agreed to come back to town. Around midnight, Sonia wanted to get back to her hotel. "Sorry Sonia but I need to rest. I can't take you back to your place but if you like, you can come with me and we can go back early in the morning. There's a small hotel nearby that I use when I stay late in town." "I am not used to going with a man to a hotel but if you can take me back early in the morning then maybe it should be ok." The night clerk was still up and he gave me the keys to my room. That's about all I could remember. When I woke the next morning, my trousers were folded over a chair together with my shirt. I looked around. "Sonia are you in the bathroom?" I called. No reply. She'd disappeared. Gone! Instinctively I went for my trousers - the money. I'd drawn  800 euros from the bank. There was nothing there except a note. "Sorry, I had to go, got a call from my boy friend on my mobile, I took the  money as a present and hope you don't mind, thanks.xxx." She'd stung me for the lot but now all I could do was to put it down to experience. she must have spiked my drinks. "Well too late now, I doubt that I'll see her again." This was  a very expensive lesson,  but then no one need know about it, and I could have lost the money at the casino. When I went down, the night receptionist was still there. I asked if he's seen my companion leave. "It wasn't long after you came" he said. "She came down and I was surprised. I remember thinking you two must have had an argument, she was distraught and in a hurry but then it was none of my business. They come and they go, it is always best to ignore them." I left the guest house and went out to the car. I drove home and cleaned myself up, then midday I went out to get some shopping. After all that had happened, it was time to reflect. This would be a quiet week end I thought. There was little to watch on the tube but at six I looked at the news. There were the usual events from near and far that filled the screens passing for news, but there was an item that caught my attention. "Police have found the body of a woman in the river near the mid town bridge," the announcer said. There was a picture of her that was pretty clear in spite of her condition. "Anyone who might have seen her was invited to contact the criminal police at this number." Another poor foreign girl probably with no family I thought at first but I looked again. No, it wasn’t just any girl, it was Sonia. What the hell was all this about? What had she done? Or rather what had he or they done to her? And who were they? And she'd been with me probably just before she died. They might even think I did it. A shudder went through me. I poured myself a drink. I needed time to think. Should I call the police and tell them? I have to contact them, otherwise it might get to be worse. In any case I have little choice, since the guy at the guesthouse also saw her. The police were understanding. Having explained everything in detail they took a statement. It didn't take long. The girl was identified as the wife of a dentist in a village some distance from the town. Her husband could only think that she'd gone off to visit friends for the weekend. She must have been blackmailed, and made to work to pay for the habit, something that was unfortunately a regular problem. "If my wife finds out about this lieutenant, my marriage could be over. She'll never understand."  "Your involvement is confidential and no one need know." the officer said. At the inquest, it was established that she'd  been killed about six hours before she'd been found. There was no sign of recent intercourse which corroborated my statement of events but the girl had been drinking. I had other things to consider now. The police had assured me that there was no reason to involve me further, but I somehow knew otherwise. This was not the end of my involvement. I was soon to be proved right, it didn't take long after the inquest to get the dreaded call. " Hello, smart boy, you took  good care of my poor Sonia, and now you'll pay for it."  "Who are you? What do you want? I didn't harm Sonia, the police know that.  "Yes but does your wife know where you were that night? It was an expensive night but it will be a lot more before I am through with you. It will cost you 20000 Euro, and that's cheap for a girl like Sonia. I'll give you till Sunday to think it over and I'll call again. No point in going to the police if you know what's good for you."  There was no point trying to reason with such people, they were capable of anything. "I have to tell the police, I have little choice there's no telling what he might do next." The police were understanding."If you follow instructions and do as we ask we'll nail him. He's not alone but it would be a start. Do as he says. Tell him that you hope to get the money together in a few days, you need time because it's not something that you have in your local account." The man called as arranged. "OK you have three more days but don't string it out. Listen carefully. The money should be in 50 Euro notes in a brief case. Wait on the corner of Kaiser and Gospart Street at the traffic lights. A black BMW will come through and the driver will flash his lights. You are to toss the bag with the money into the back of the car." Everything was done as he asked. The police arranged with the bank to have the notes delivered and as instructed I tossed the brief case into the back seat as the car came along side. It was a Sunday and little traffic so when the car approached slowly I was in no doubt. He flashed 2 short flashes a pause and then three.  He drove away fast and then stopped behind another parked car. The cops waiting in their vehicles out of sight did not see the car they were expecting. The BMW had been dumped. It also didn't help that the cops were waiting on a different cross roads.   What had  bothered me all along, was how did he know how to find me in the first place? The only people who knew of my involvement were the police. And how is it that the police cars were not at the right place? It was time that I was out of  of this town.  I contacted my company and asked for another assignment.  Meantime I told my wife that the company were reassigning me. "Darling, another engineer is being sent out to replace me.  The company agent will deal with the closing of the lease and the dispatch of the house belongings."  My wife was not pleased. She had made good friends here.    As we were preparing our departure, I got a call from the police. "Mr. Jones there's been an important development and we need you at  headquarters." My hopes of keeping this thing from my wife were being slowly dashed, but I made an excuse and went to town. The lieutenant  explained. "An officer working on a case dealing with counterfeited money, got suspicious about some notes found here in the police department. There's a new system that uses the metal strip on the euro notes as an antenna that transmits the note number and other data such as the origin of the notes." "You mean that you can trace every note?" "Yes, all the notes we supplied were coded and one of them was intercepted right here in the station. One needs a special receiver to pick up the signals from the notes." Just then a very dour looking  sergeant entered and interrupted our meeting. "Officer Malvetti  has had an accident," he told the leutenant. "What kind of accident?" the lieutenant asked.   "He shot himself. His gun went off, apparently he didn't have the safety catch on. I don't know the details but it seems serious." "Malvetti's the suspect with the euro notes." "Yes," replied the sergeant. "He’s been going through a bad time lately with his wife. She’s been running up debts. His patrol partner remembered that Malvetti left him to go to the bathroom at the Rail station carrying a bag that he didn't bring back." "Ok sergeant, go through his things and see if you can find  the key to a locker. We'll see what he had in that bag." "Surely you are not suggesting that Malvetti was involved in the murder?" I asked. "No, I don’t think so, but he had access to your file and he needed money. We'll find out from him, as soon as he's well enough to be interviewed." Malvetti admitted that he had been behind the blackmail seeing it as a way out of his problems. He knew that I would find the money to keep it from my wife. He also mislead the waiting cars. He swore though that he knew nothing of the villains who had killed the girl. This would be a much longer inquiry and with little else to go on it would be classified as unsolved.