The Shift - Part Three

A Piece of Stage Fiction

Read Part One here: https://medium.com/bullet-fiction/f33ccc061a99

Read Part Two here: https://medium.com/bullet-fiction/7e5656aaa3b5

Scene One

Location - Samir’s office

Time - 11:28

After the first hour, Michael and Peter were despondent due to their lack of success. Going through the CCTV footage to find any pieces of evidence was painstaking work even though the tape was on the lowest setting of fast-forward to ever so slightly speed up the process.

The second hour was even worse. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They put the tape at normal speed whenever a customer was in the sight of the camera focused on the till, but there were no signs of a robbery.

When they reached the end of the tape, Peter switched off the television with both anger and a sense of helplesness.

“We’re not getting anywhere,” Michael said with a sigh. Peter had to restrain himself from saying what an obvious comment it was.

“Let’s see if Samir’s back,” he said instead and held open the door for his companion before going back into the shop himself.

Scene Two

Location - Parling Stores

Time - 2:38

There was no sign of their boss, which seemed odd as he had left just over three hours ago.

“He must have had trouble finding Sam,” Michael explained and it seemed to be the best explanation to Peter. “Should we give him a call or just wait until he gets back?”

“Let’s not do either,” Peter replied. “We’re going to see how Samir’s doing ourselves.” Michael looked at his partner to study the expression on his face more closely.

“Do you suspect Samir of stealing the money?” he asked whilst they gathered their coats.

“We need to make sure it wasn't him even if I don’t suspect him,” Peter replied. Michael decided not to show how that hardly made any sense because of Peter’s frustrated mindset since the end of their analysis of the CCTV footage.

The two detectives left the shop and began to walk to Wicton Road to find out a little more about Mr West, the customer at the time of the robbery.

Scene Three

Location - Wicton Road

Time - 2:50

“Michael! Peter!” Samir exclaimed when he saw his employees walking towards him. “What brings you down here? Did you find something interesting on the tape.”

“Unfortunately not,” Michael replied with a genuine sound of regret in his voice. “Once we’d finished going through the video, we decided it would be best to give you some help.” He also thought it would be best to not mention their suspicions of their boss.

“Well I’m not sure what you can do. I have made very little progress,” Samir replied, but he sounded far less despondent than his fellow detectives.

“Have you just been standing outside his house?” Peter asked more aggressively than he had intended. He had been angered by his boss’ superior tone.

“No I have not,” Samir replied. “And you would do well to treat me with s-”

“Be quiet, both of you,” Michael said with calm assurance.

Before Samir could reproach him for his words, the three men saw Sam West walk out of his front door with his eyes glued to the screen of his phone. They stopped arguing and ran to hide next to several large recycling bins, which gave them a clear view of their suspect’s movements whilst concealing them as much as they needed.

Mr West turned left from his house. Samir, Peter and Michael rose to follow him.