The Stringer

Last Chapter

(Let's pretend that Lou and Tanya have been dating for a while.)

I felt guilt wash over me like a wave.  I was supposed to be assisting in this investigation but yet all I was doing now was compromising it. Since I had begun dating Lou nearly a year ago, I had barely retained any information that might lead him to be capable of the crime he was accused of. I only had little recordings that would merely suggest his guilt, rather than proving it. I had seen the way he interacted with others and my suspicions continued to grow. As much as I genuinely cared about Lou, I believed without a doubt that he was responsible for Rick's death and that he had withheld information. If I didn't bring in my evidence soon and continued to protect him, I too would be withholding information.

Mistakenly, I had fallen for him and I would have to dig myself out of this hole. I still had the microphone and earpiece sealed away in a bag under the driver's seat of my car. I hadn't used to for a while. There were snippets of conversations and a few short, yet discreet videos.

I could go to jail perhaps for not completing what I was asked to do. After all, this was legal business. I would need to admit my faults to Lou and turn the evidence in. He would be home fairly soon, this I knew, so I frantically scooted to his computer. The original video file had to be in here somewhere.

I started to backup his computer. If he wanted to be angry, he could do that behind bars. I wasn't exactly sure of all the things he was capable of and I didn't want to leave his computer up for him to see the process.

My heart was thumping wildly in my chest and my hands had started to shake. I cursed myself for being so stupid and messing things up. I stood up and paced the width of the apartment. I made a mess of this and it was my job to fix it.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I nearly threw up from nerves. 'Will be home within 15 minutes. Love you,' Lou's message read.

Five minutes left on the backup. I shuddered with fear. A wave of nausea swept over me.

'He's your boyfriend you can't turn him in,' a voice in my mind argued. 'That's not very loyal.'

'He's wanted for a crime!' the other voice argued. 'You would be just as guilty if you didn't turn him in.'

I raced to get my flash drive from my purse and hurried to plug it into the computer. I nearly missed the USB port because of my excessive shaking.

Then there the files were from the backup. Old downloads, pictures, documents, video clips. I had ten minutes left. I searched through the videos, none of which had proper titles. They were raw footage titled with a series of numbers and the video file extension.

"F.cking hell," I muttered. I kept an eye out for any with a thumbnail of a house or police lights. For sufficient evidence, I'd need both videos.

I opened each video that seemed like it could be the one. One caught my eye and I opened it, skipping to the end to check the contents. There it was, Rick getting shot. I felt sick to my stomach as I rewinded to a minute before.

Lou let him get killed. He let him die.

I clasped a hand over my mouth and dragged the file to my USB. Who knew how long it would take to find the missing footage? Lou had briefly talked about the house he had gone in but never ventured further into detail.

My heart began to calm down a little as I found a video with a big house for a thumbnail. This was it, the proof that Lou had withheld information. Just to double check, I clicked through to see if it was the right file. With that, I copied it to my USB.

Within a minute it was there with my other files and I proceeded to pocket the flash drive. All there was left to do was delete the backup files and shut the computer down. I couldn't leave a trace now that I knew exactly how heartless Lou was. I grabbed my car keys and stuffed them into my pocket.

The computer was nearly shut down when I heard the lock in the door rustle. My heart leapt in my throat and I went to lay on the couch.