Levi's Secret

CHAPTER 26

Axky put on his gloves and gum boots before putting on a mask around his mouth and nose. He handed Gavin a shovel and took a rake for himself. Pedestrians gave them sympathetic looks as they hurried away from the foul smelling garbage truck.

"We're going in." Axky said, his voice muffled by the cloth. He really wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Hopefully he wouldn't be traumatized enough to miss dinner.

Gavin Walters gagged at the horrendous smell but nodded as he followed Axky who had a loud flashlight switched on. The yellow light illuminated the back of the dingy garbage truck as they climbed in.

Slush. Slush.

Gross!

"You look by the banana peels over there and I'll check this green muck right here." said Axky leaving Gavin to wade deeper into the mesh of foul smelling waste.

Trust the attackers to throw electronic gunk into recyclable organic waste. The wetness alone would probably render the device ineffective. But Axky was optimistic he would be able to zero in on the perpetrators if he just found the---

"Yikes!" Axky yelled as a rat jumped up clearly unhappy at being displaced.  What a Friday night this had turned out to be. There was no way he could complete a date night with Paula when he got home smelling like a biological apocalypse.

Fortunately the stuck up Gavin Walters was pretty subdued throughout the search. Maybe Axky had stumped him with the dirt he had on him about his previous marriage. In reality, that is all Axky knew about the marriage though. There was no information about the current address of his ex-wife, her full name, her education details, not even a birth certificate. Axky had searched, albeit halfheartedly and found that the divorce had gone smoothly. The woman had not pressed for alimony or demanded anything from Gavin. It hadn't been a messy divorce---that's why it was so hard to find any information about it. Perhaps both parties had been mature adults and parted amicably. However, it didn't sit right with Axky that Gavin's ex wife seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.

Gavin poked around the garbage with a stick, ignoring Axky. The self proclaimed hacker was nothing but trouble and Gavin had no desire to leave him alone for even a second. What if something interesting had been thrown by the attackers along with the god forsaken computer, what if some sensitive information was lying around in the disgusting truck, something that would help complete the puzzle on himself that he suspected Axky was already working on. It would be terrible if Axky got to it first, and so Gavin had to find it before him.

There it was, dull metal gleaming amidst a bunch of rotting celery. The laptop seemed to be completely destroyed, tomato juice and spoiled yoghurt liberally  draping it. But Gavin didn't want to take a chance.

Making sure that Axky wasn't looking, Gavin brought down the hilt of his shovel, cracking the metal casing of the laptop.

CRACK.

Axky turned the flashlight on the source of the noise as Gavin hit it once more for good measure.

CRACK.

"You idiot! Stop that!" yelled Axky hurrying over to salvage the laptop. "You'll break it!"

"Oh I'm sorry, " said Gavin smugly. "I thought it was a rat."

Axky let his rake drop to the slush as he bent down and pulled out the broken laptop, the screen shattered and hard disk deformed beyond recognition. Why would Gavin destroy the only evidence they had?

"Leslie Palasqua." said Gavin menacingly as he stepped closer behind Axky.

How does he know my real name? What's going on?