The Secret Manuscript (Complete)

Chapter Ten

As Ben walked to the bus depot, the same nagging voice from the other night persisted in his head. This time it was telling him to return to the apartment where he had stashed the goods and extract them. The consequences of getting caught would be dire, but most of the hard work had already been done. It would be a shame to just leave all that stuff there, he thought. Ben weighed the pros and cons in his head and eventually decided to make a play for the stolen goods. 

He altered his course and headed back to the apartment building. He had no idea how he would manage to sneak in and out of the building in broad daylight with a pile of stolen items while remaining undetected, but he had a long walk ahead of him to figure it out.  

With his head down, Ben kicked rocks the whole way as he mumbled to himself. He was now about a block away from his building and had yet to devise a plan. In the distance, he heard some chatter and looked up. In front of his building was a small congregation of people just outside the fence. As he approached the group, he recognized their faces as fellow tenants. Ben saw Patrice standing with the others so he walked up beside him. 

"Hey, Patrice," Ben said. 

"Hi, Ben. How are you?" 

"I'm good," Ben replied. "What's going on here?" 

"Didn't you get the notification? They're allowing residents in to retrieve some of the items from their units." 

"I had no idea, I just happened to be walking by." 

"Lucky for you, because after today, they're going to demolish this place." 

"So where are you going to stay?" Ben asked. 

"Since I didn't win last night's lotto, I guess I'll have to apply for social housing until I can find a new place. Right now, I'm staying at the shelter, but who knows how long that will last." 

"What shelter?" Ben asked. 

"The town set up a makeshift facility at the rec. centre. I didn't see you there so I figured you were staying with some friends." 

"I didn't even know about the shelter or the demolition. Where are you hearing about all these things?" Ben asked. 

"It was at the Town Hall meeting we had yesterday." 

"Oh okay, I didn't go to that." 

The guard at the gate was checking people's IDs as they shuffled in. Ben moved along with the crowd while continuing to talk with Patrice. Suddenly, a new plan had revealed itself.  

Maintaining his spot in line, Ben funnelled in through the gates along with the stream of fellow tenants. When he got to the guard, he presented his ID and was permitted access. Ben had no idea which one of these people, if any, lived in the first floor apartment on the west wing, but he was willing to roll the dice. Patrice was next in line, but was stopped by the guard. Since Patrice did not have his ID with him, the guard would not let him in. 

"I'm sorry, sir," the guard at the gate said. "For security reasons, I cannot allow you to go in." 

Ben doubled back and vouched for his identity.  

"It's okay, Ben, I'll sort this out. You go on ahead and I'll catch up with you later," Patrice said. 

If Ben was really going to go through with this, it was actually better that Patrice was not around. Ben looked over his shoulder one last time before entering the building and saw Patrice still being held up. The whole time, Ben kept repeating the mantra 'in and out' as a way to psych himself up. His adrenaline started to flow and he began to sweat nervously.  

Once inside, fire personnel were on scene directing people as certain apartments were still off limits, but they had no idea which units belonged to whom. It was a noble effort that relied heavily on the honour system, another symptom of living in a small town - people were quick to lend their trust. As for Ben, he was happy to take advantage of it.  

Ben kept his head low and walked down the first floor hallway. When he got to the apartment door, he pretended to take a key out of his pocket and insert it into the lock. He knew the door was unlocked so he twisted the knob, pushed his way into the apartment, and locked the door behind him. Once inside, he quickly ran to the window and grabbed what he could take in one trip. He threw the backpack over his shoulder and zipped up the suitcase. He took the down jacket, pulled the arms inside out to make it unrecognizable, and draped it over the luggage in an effort to disguise it. 

In and out, he said to himself.  

Getting in had been relatively easy, he just hoped for the same smoothness on the way out. The hard part was exiting the building without anyone recognizing he was in the wrong apartment or that he had any of their belongings. He needed to be quick, since many of the tenants who lived on the first floor had showed up and might spot Ben coming out of an apartment that was not his. 

Ben extended the handle on the luggage and wheeled it to the door. He looked through the peephole, and when he did not see anyone, he opened the door a crack and peered through. The hallway was deserted since most people were probably still inside their apartments, blaming their spouses for misplacing their things - oblivious to the fact that Ben was about to march passed them with their former possessions. When he felt the time was right, he casually exited the apartment and wheeled the luggage out the front door. 

In and out, he said to himself. 

With his suitcase in tow, Ben headed down the walkway and out the gate. He gave a gentle nod to the guard as he made his exit. He proceeded toward the bus depot and never looked back.  

When he arrived at the bus station, he checked the schedule. As luck would have it, there happened to be an overnight bus to Calgary that was leaving at 10:00 p.m. Ben laid out his cash on the counter and bought a one-way ticket. Next stop - Calgary, Alberta.