To read the story from the start go to: https://the-inkling.com/catch-up-with-the-inklings/
D’arby was feeling really excited at 3pm when everyone gathered at the library to share what they’d found out. Rudnika had just hung up her phone after speaking to her friend at the police station and D’arby could tell that she’d received some enlightening information. Leopold also looked excited and Rudnika must have noticed because she asked Leopold to report first.
“Here is the rental application and ID that our spy used when he applied for the lease” said Leopold as he placed a pile of papers on the table. “He calls himself Lawrence Long. I tried calling the phone numbers listed but both the home phone and mobile numbers have been disconnected so I went to the address he listed as his residential address, which was a flat not far from here. It was empty. The neighbours said that they hadn’t seen anyone living there since the previous resident moved out, which was months ago and she definitely wasn’t Lawrence. The best thing is that I have a picture of Lawrence because his rental application included a copy of his Drivers License.”
“Great work!” said Rudnika.
D’arby was also very impressed but also very curious. “How did you get that file?” D’arby asked.
“It is probably better if you don’t ask” said Leopold.
Leopold’s answer made D’arby a bit cross because he really wanted to know how Leopold had got the file, but D’arby tried to hide is annoyance and looked at Rudnika to see what she would do next.
“What about you two” Rudnika asked Carol and Valentine.
“We decided to ask around all the nearby photo printing places and discovered that the photos were printed at the place closest to our office. The person who printed them called himself Lawrence and he printed them on Friday. He paid by cash, unfortunately, so that’s all we could find out from the photo place” said Valentine.
“Then we thought we should have a look through the bins at the back of the building Lawrence was spying on us from” said Carol. “And we found some things that might be useful”
As Carol was was speaking Valentine placed a plastic bag on the table and started taking things out of it.
“Ten identical disposable coffee cups suggests that Lawrence drinks two coffees a day. From inspecting the inside of the cups we’re pretty sure he drinks black coffee. We couldn’t help noticing that there are five brown corrugated coffee cups and five black ones so we checked out what kind of cups all the cafes around here use. We found the café that uses the black cups and it isn’t far from here but there are no cafes within two kilometres that use the brown corrugated coffee cups. We reckon that Lawrence must have bought himself a coffee on his way to work each day and that he must have travelled at least two kilometres to get here” said Valentine.
D’arby was very impressed, but there was still more rubbish in Valentine’s bag.
“These scraps of paper have notes written on them, which might be useful. We haven’t had time to have a good look at them yet, but we did notice that the word ‘Syaf’ is written on a few of them” said Carol.
Valentine then showed everyone some other pieces of rubbish and explained their significance, but D’arby had stopped listening because he realised the word ‘Syaf’ might be short for ‘Syafika’.
Finally Rudnika explained what she and D’arby had discovered at the building where they’d been spied on from, but by then everyone already knew that the spy called himself Lawrence. Then Rudnika told everyone what her friend at the police station had told her: The real name of the person who had spied on them was Anthony Lawrence and last year he’d spent a five months in gaol for forgery.
The Inkling 