A pawn to Success

Part 3

Before I was about to use the flashlight on my phone, the car's  bright front lights helped me with finding the keys in my bag. 

Weirdly enough it stood still for longer than I anticipated without hearing anyone get in or out. I turned around to observe what was happening. The car was on the other side of the road, but close enough for me to see the driver. It was a dark suspicious van, with a very suspicious man sitting in the front. I felt like he was wearing a mask or something. As hard as I tried I couldn't figure it out. But it gave me the creeps when I knew I  made direct eye contact and saw a camera flash go off.

Did he just take a picture of me? That's when I knew for sure, this was not a regular passing car.

Maybe it was the same person from this morning when I went running. Just as the van started driving away I ran toward it, totally contradicting my instincts, to try and catch the plate number. I tried to memorize it and wrote it down in my phone before I could forget. Whoever it was, I wouldn't let them get away with it, not with me, that stalker gets reported to the police, right now.

I called 911, while finally getting into my apartment. When they answered I started blurting out words in a panicked voice.

"Hello? I'm calling to report a suspicious van, I have its license plate."

"Mam, calm down, what makes the van suspicious?" The woman on the other side of the line asked.

"It was a dark van and the driver looked like he was wearing a mask. He slowed down in front of my apartment. He had a phone or a camera  on him and took a picture of me, I could clearly see a flash go off. And once he saw me looking directly at him he drove off. That's when I got his plate number."

"Okay and was this the first time this happened?" she asked. "I'm not 100% sure, but I have the feeling I was being followed this morning too."

"Mam, are you in your apartment now?"

"Yeah."

"Dictate the number for me please." she asked. I gave her the number and sighed in relief, feeling a lot safer.

"Give us a few minutes, we'll be back." she said. Suddenly my tiredness kicked in and I laid the phone down on the bed. Meanwhile I got undressed, getting ready for bed, when finally the dispatcher called me back.

"Mam, that licence plate number doesn't exist, are you sure you caught the right number?" she asked.

"What? How? I mean that can't be, I could bet on this number, it's the number I saw. " I said, not believing what I was hearing.

"Mam, it doesn't exist in our system, which means it doesn't exist at all. Did you have a late night? Maybe you've had a few drinks?" she said. I didn't take that as an insult. On the contrary, it made me think that I could be wrong. Maybe I was hallucinating because of the drink I had?

"I did, I understand, I'm sorry for disturbing you." I said, sounding defeated.

"It's not a disturbance at all, lock the doors and windows, keep yourself safe mam, have a good night." she said politely. "Yes, thank you, you as well." the call ended and I think I've never felt this confused in my life before.

I only had 1 drink, and not the strongest one either, besides I was never really a drinker and avoided alcohol as much as possible. So what was it? My head started hurting, I needed some sleep, again.

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When I got up the next morning, I recalled what happened the night in the shower, during lunch and in the evening. I still didn't believe it was the alcohol. I've got that licence plate right, stubborn, I know but I was convinced of it. I looked at the saved number again and again.