Boosted Pt. 03

He was on his way back to the station, but the tickle in the back of his mind simply wouldn't stop. There was something about the place that was calling him for a second look. The more he tried to ignore it, the more the thought nagged at him. He knew himself well enough to know if he didn't turn around and go back for a second look, if he didn't scratch that itch, it would bother him the rest of the day. With a sigh, he made a right and circled the block. He was probably wasting his time, again, just as he had the first time he drove by, but that was a small price to pay for peace of mind. He drove by BIGS again. Other than the Fiat was missing from the parking lot, the building looked the same this time as it had the last. He pursed his lips in annoyance and gave his head a little shake, but now the little voice was silent. He again reached the crossroads, but when he started to pull a U-turn he noticed a car approaching from the rear. Rather than confuse the driver he turned right and drove farther down the road until he found a place where he could turn around.

While sitting at the stop sign, waiting for a car to pass, he looked at BIGS. He was about to pull out when it clicked. The fence! He drove past BIGS. He couldn't tell if the back had the privacy screen on in the fence, but the three sides he could see did. He didn't know how much the privacy screening cost, but it wasn't free. He could understand BIGS putting up a fence to protect their customer's cars, but why block the view? If someone were going to rob them, the privacy screen wouldn't stop them. If anything, it would allow a thief to work without the risk of someone seeing them. He thought about it all the way back to the station, but no matter how he looked at the problem, he couldn't come up with a logical reason to spend the money to block the view into the service area.

He hurried into the station, pausing just long enough for Kim to buzz him through the door, and went directly to his desk. He called up the website of Lowes Home Improvement, the closest big home improvement center, and keyed in what he was looking for. The privacy screens were all different prices, but the cheapest he could find was ninety-five dollars to do a fifty-foot section of eight-foot-high fence. He leaned back in his chair. Fifty feet wasn't very much. He guessed there was 2,000, maybe 2,500 feet of fence around BIGS. He did some quick math. Why would BIGS spend four or five thousand dollars to keep people from seeing what they were doing in the shop area? He stared at his computer. There was only one reason. There were things going on back there they didn't want anyone to see.