Chapter 4: The 959
As James walks into the open plan garage, with cars in neat, company-organised lines, Arthur slowly closes the main door for the garage to go pitch black for a split second and then bright, interrogation-like, lights switch on.
"What a way to light your collection…" James mumbles loud enough for Arthur to hear, meaning differently to what Arthur might think, since the oil splatter turned out to be a dried red liquid.
"Yes, I like to see the finer details when looking at my collection, such as the perfect body lines on a 1974 Corvette Stingray." Arthur explains pointing at the Corvette in the distance, but the way he described the car sent cold, longing shivers down James's spine.
"Yeah… I agree, it is a gorgeous car especially in that shade of red." James answers looking in the way of the Corvette, but still staring at the, possibly blood, liquid stain on the maple wood floor.
"Oh don't worry about the stain," Arthur says, noticing James's eyeline pointing at the stain, "It's just a coolant leak. I'm working on the car, in question, at the moment."
"Ah right, sorry I have read too many murder books for my own good." James replies, mentally referencing to past cases he's dealt with.
"I think everyone has done that at one point, my favorite is The Silence of the Lambs. Really interesting." Arthur responds, with a smile that reflects the psychotic serial killer of the book, Hannibal Lecter. James does his best to ignore the smile but it's the type that haunts dreams at night time.
"I'll… I'll add it to my reading list." James tells Arthur and pulls out his phone to put it onto his notes page labelled 'books recommended by killers'. "I love the Porsche 959 in an ice white colour," James diverts Arthur towards the attention of the Porsche before him.
"Ah yes the 959, there is a fantastic story behind this car." Arthur answers and pulls out two bar stools from under a stainless steel, high table and passes one towards James, suggesting for him to sit down.
"Do tell," James suggests and sits down on the stool and pulls out his phone, "I'm recording."
"Well then, I was in Germany, back in 2010, and one of my sources in europe told me about this Porsche. If I can remember, he described the car as it 'hasn't seen the outside world in 20 years', all I had to hear was those words and I was hooked on this Porsche. So I sat down in a little cafe and called the seller who owned the car, to ask if it was in fact for sale or if it was a joke because no one in their right mind would sell a 959, even if it was one that hasn't been outside in 20 years. After going back and forth the person told me it was for sale and explained that it was put in storage because the original owner passed away in 1995 and left the car in his will to his two kids, who know nothing about the value of the Porsche that was sat in their father's old workshop. So I tell the seller I'm on my way, I then hang up, climb into my rental car and make my way up to Zürich to view the hypercar of the late 80's. I get there and the workshop doors are open, dust clouds are flying out of the shop and standing next to this black Ford Mondeo is the seller, waiting for my arrival. I drive up to park behind the ford and get out my rental to greet the seller, we'll call him… Sam. Sam tells me that the two children are clearing room for myself and Sam to look at the car properly, before I make any suggestions on price because even Sam hasn't seen the car properly. So, Sam and I walked into the workshop to be overwhelmed by how the glossy white paint and the grey wheels have been preserved, even the headlights weren't yellowed by how long it sat dormant, waiting for someone to come and drive it again. The 959 looked fantastic, I was shocked, Sam was shocked, the two children on the other hand just wanted the car gone so they could sell the building and move on. At that moment, I made them an offer, they accepted and the car was coming home with me back to the USA." Arthur explains to James with a flowing tone, like an audiobook reader, and James was taken back, no details were missing, not a letter.
"I'm impressed, but that's it for today, I have to get back to my boss and explain to him my big story. It was a nice start to this piece, thank you Arthur." James tells Arthur getting up from his stool and smiles, "Same again tomorrow?"
"I'm busy tomorrow, I can do Thursday, the day after?" Arthur answers and gets up to walk James out of the garage.
"Thursday is perfect, I'll bring my spare camera to take photos of some of the cars." James responds, walking out the door next to the electric garage door.
"Great, I will see you Thursday." Arthur ends the conversation and doesn't walk out of his garage to wave James off, instead he closes the door and walks towards a service hatch, just in front of the main garage door, and opens it to reveal a ladder going down a hole. "Thankfully he didn't hear you scream, but I did." Arthur shouts down the whole, to then begin climbing down the ladder, " I heard your little cry for help. I heard you shout 'SOMEONE SAVE ME', but sweetheart… no one can hear you scream, not even the loudest speaker can vibrate enough noise to be heard up top. So don't try to get help." Arthur explains to someone as he makes it to the bottom of the hole and opens a door into a padded room, to see a woman tied to a chair that is bolted to the floor. "Now where were we?" Arthur questions himself and takes off a desk two jumper cables attached to a high voltage battery.
"No… NOOO!" the sweat dripping woman screams as Arthur edges closer to the woman with the sparking, jumper cables.
"Yes!" Arthur replies and rams the cables into the ribs of the woman, for her to scream at the top of her lungs in agony.
James was making his way up the road, in the mustang from impound, and a single sentence was running through his head, 'I'm working on the car, in question, at the moment.'
"It must have been blood, and 'working on the car' could have meant victim. I need to get a hold of a copy of The Silence of the Lambs, to see if this links to Arthur's way of working." James explains to himself and looks at the time on the dashboard, to see it's 8 pm. "Book can wait. I need to drop this car off at the presynct and get home, doesn't mean I won't stop working though." James thinks and speeds up to get to the impound lot before the shift changes to night watchers, they don't understand what goes on in the daytime.
Weekly Power Status
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