Thursday Afternoon
1675 Fulton Boulevard Apt 3b
The Evidence
Maliya told me about her encounter with this Reddington character & Dan. & if you ask me this is just too damn much to have happened all within a couple hours , we arrived at the address Dan gave us & were unlocking the door to the apartment.
" it smells in here jeez. " it did , like he hasn't been here for awhile.
" who stocks a fridge at a stash house , is he crazy ? all this food , gone to waste " i hope he wasn't staying here at some point because this was not fit for any man.
" lets just find this evidence & get the hell outta here " i second that. we checked everywhere no sign of anything even remotely interesting , took the pictures off the walls & studied them for a quick minute each. nothing except for some numbers scribbled on the corners . so i took them out of the frames & took pictures front & back before returning them to the frame & hanging them back up.
" found something " Maliya shouted from the back room where there was a single mattress on the floor & a sheet over top. poor guy. i found her in the closet , she tore up some floor boards & was trying to open a safe. " i need a 6 digit code "
" idk he was your partner , a birthday , girlfriend ?"
" no the man barely spoke about his life until recently . thought he was hazing me for a while there . its gotta be written somewhere "
" the pictures .. here look " i showed her the pictures i took with the numbers scribbled on them " but there's 5 numbers on each picture . they must need an equation or something. "
" or find the mean from each picture & try that. "
" nice thinking ok i need a pen & paper " in the age of smartphones .. she chose the pen . how poetic
" ok first picture is : 3 , 6 , 6 , 9 , 11 "
" ok. 7 is the first number .. five more to go "
" 7 , 8 , 15 , 6 "
" second is 9. "
" 13 , 18 , 24 , 5 "
" thats 15. will that count as 2 separate numbers ? "
" so 7 , 9 , 1 , 5 , one more to go "
" 2 , 4 , 6 , 9 , 4 "
" ok , try 7 , 9 , 1 , 5 , 5 "
i pressed in the numbers as she read em off to me & it blinked red. shit , that wasn't it , " maybe the 15 isn't 1 , 5 , but 1 + 5 , making it 7 , 9 , 1 , 5 , 6 "
" try it "
" ok .. " i pressed in the new code & it blinked green before unlocking. " we're in "
" nice one bugs ! "
i opened the safe & pulled out several manila envelope stuffed to capacity & 2 spiral notebooks.
" looks like we have our evidence , lets clear out & make it look like we were never here . " meaning anything we touched gets wiped , anything moved put back to its original place & we finally get to breathe some fresh air.
we made it back to the car & we drove off to the black site to comb through this evidence .
" finally get to fix my damn hair , bc this wrap gotta go. thank god i had a hood on to blend in with this horrible bad hair day on top of being all inconspicuous "
" you look fine. have the others meet us at the blacksite , i am stopping for some good ole shake shack . i am starved "
" we just ate breakfast "
" woman its 12:30 , we ate at 7:15 . "
" wow , its been a morning man. didn't notice i was hungry til you said something "
" do you want the cheeseburger & cheese fries ? "
" yes , with a pickle & large sprite. make sure they put lots of ketchup on the bag sir. thank ya kindly. "
" so the usual , large sprite , extra ketchup "
" don't let them forget my pickyyy " i laughed as i parked the car & headed inside the establishment. the line wasn't too long , so i ordered & sat down to wait.
" excuse me but is your name Neil Burman ? " i looked up & came face to face with a woman , average height , who looked familiar ..
" depends on whose asking " im skeptical , this is sketchy.
" sorry , its me , Lindsey Seeres , from Oakdale High "
" oh wow , how are you , what brings you to DC "
" i just got offered a job as the new media consultant for the white house "
" oh wow . congrats , thats huge . "
" number 56 , Neil " the worker spoke into the microphone saying my order was ready
" excuse me but thats me . " i stood & walked back up to the counter grabbing my bag & sodas in the cupholder. " well it was nice seeing you. "
" you too , hope to see you around " she waved as i used my back to push open the door & smiled before walking off to the car. Maliya reached over & opened the door for me from the inside , grabbing the bags & cups before placing them into the cupholders in the car so i can get back into the car.
" wanna eat in the car here ? " i asked
" yeah & you can tell me all about who that was giving you goo goo eyes "
" she was not giving me goo goo eyes . "
" oh i seen em from here buddy. she surely was , home girl was undressing you with her eyes " she joked as she dipped her fry into the ketchup & bit it.
" she was not , but that was Lindsey Seers , we went to high school together "
" oh wow , old girlfriend ? ouuu high school rival ? " she was now turned to me handing me my burger
" no . she's my old lab partner . but my high school rival was a boy name Marcus Gerber. if i ever see him again you may need to sedate me. "
" oh there's a story , lemme get comfortable "
" well , it started freshman year , it started off as your typical bully but i wasn't 1 to cower in fear so he got the entire football team to come to my house at 2 am & scare me & my mom. so the next day i went to school & i beat him up in the cafeteria "
" oh my goodness . poor Sheila. " she joked as she continued to eat her burger , how can she do that & still manage to look so beautiful.
" poor me , i thought i was gonna die . well long story short he pranked me all freshman year into junior year until i had enough & stuffed his locker with paraphernalia & got him suspended for 2 weeks . he was so mad when he came back that he found me & tried to kill me . he would've succeeded if it wasn't for Lindsey. "
" Neil. did she damsel in distressed you ? "
" oh yeah . we were in lab & we were working with the Bunsen burners .. that could've been bad , she sprayed him with a fire extinguisher , he slipped & fell onto the ground so hard , by then the principal pretty much had enough of our antics & we were asked to do saturday detentions along with cleaning up after every pep rally until senior year. thats when it got bad "
" don't stop now im too invested ! " she continued eating , turned towards me waiting for me to talk. i sipped my drink a couple times , ate some fries & took a bite of my burger " c'mon the suspense is killing me "
i laughed , she's so cute when she begs " ok ok , he left me alone , & i figured our little war was over until .. prom night .. he had my date bail on me last minute , who was my date ? Lindsey Seeres . i still don't know why or how he managed to do it but they went together , i went alone & i was taunted until i finally graduated & got outta that disturbed town. "
" oh wow , im so sorry. want me to shoot her ? i'll go shoot her right now ! "
" no . well .. na , i actually could thank them. he made me feel helpless & i never wanted to feel like that again , or have anyone feel how i felt so i decided i was going to be a cop , while studying in college i got my degree in criminal justice & then i was off to quanico "
" where you met me & we live happily ever after "
" yes .. well not yet .. we have to catch reddington first. "
" speaking of , finish up so we can meet up with the others .. im sorry that happened to you , but im not sorry it did at the same time , meeting you in that closet was a turning point for me . one day i'll tell you all about it. " i smiled at her as she smiled at me & then looked away drinking her soda. " let me tase her "
" maliya "
" what ? i'm only half kidding "
we bust out laughing & soon after i finished up , threw out our trash & headed down to industrial park.
Industrial Park , Black Site
6 pm
we told assistant director shepherd we were working a case that's why we weren't in the office today , but since he's in bed with Mr Reddington , he knows the real reason .
we combed through all of Dans evidence on both reddington & shepherd. he had enough to take him down , but shepherd is a pawn , reddington will just recruit someone else.
" i say we bite the bullet , tell director wynters about shepherd only , have him validate our findings & we go after Reddington. " Trey was all for telling William but he forgets we don't know how high this goes.
" this leak could go over even my dad. i'm talking white house proportions. if we blow this story too early on a hunch we could lose everything , not to mention probably take the fall for all of Dans screw ups & shepherd's misdoings since joining the academy. he was one of our training officers. we have to be 100000% sure everything is solid , gather new evidence for ourselves & then i'll take it to my dad. outside of the office to avoid detection & prying eyes & ears. " Maliya was making an offer & everyone agreed because she was making the most sense. " ok we have nothing else to go over today. no call from Reddington , it's after 7 lets call it a night, reconvene when new evidence arises. everyone do your back ups & delete . ill let you guys know the new code. "
" goodnight & remember the annual dinner is next week , may be a target for Reddington , something to keep an eye out for. " Sasha reminded us as she left out in a hurry.
" true. what's the rush your my ride " Malik yelled after her
" ok you two , don't stay here any longer. i mean it , go home & get some well deserved rest. see you both at work tomorrow "
" good night Trey. say hello to Keisha for us " he gave me a thumbs up as he left & then there was 2. spider had on her thinking face & i made myself comfortable
" come on , its a thursday & it's karaoke night at Nathans " she sang as she stood up & shut off all the monitors.
" oh yes , time to watch drunken fools , sing horribly & make a fool of themselves. "
" gotta love theme nights "
" lets go. " we finished up securing the site & then shut everything down , we walked out making sure to reset the passcode for the main door.
we walked back to her car & drove to her building so i can pick up my car & go home to change clothes.
" meet you at Nathans , lets say 9 o'clock ? " she asked as i pressed L in the elevator & she pressed 10 for her floor .
" make it 9:30 , gotta stop by & see momma. "
" ok give her kiss for me , tell her i'll see her next weekend , i didn't forget. "
" bout what ?! " i was genuinely surprised my mom is not good at keeping secrets but she never told me about this & i make sure we speak every day.
" she didn't tell you ? well not my business to tell , take that up with your mom .. see you at nathans. " the doors opened & i stepped off looking back at her as she waved bye & the doors closed.
i headed to my car thinking of all the excuses so i didn't have to leave her. i spent all day with her & i miss her already .i got into my car & headed in the direction of my moms house , i will ask about her & maliya's weekend plans , im nosey its my job as a son to be all in her business