“How was the weekend Eldridge?” A familiar voice called out as he entered the station. “I heard you did well in that golf event.”

“One might say that Nina,” Eldridge replied as he looked toward the front.

His eyes fell on a middle-aged woman sitting in her office chair, cup of joe in hand. She sat before the metal grate covered front desk, a barrier between her and those who would enter seeking the department's services.

“I mostly did chores throughout the house. Honestly looking forward to a bit of detective work after that monotony.”

“If only I could get Dan to do some of his list.” Nina replied as she took up her cup of coffee. “You though, you should hit the town. You’re never going to find a girl at this rate.”

“Not looking yet,” Eldridge replied with a slightly raised voice as he opened the door to the offices in the back. “Give me a few years Nina.”

The rest of the precinct was barely moving as everyone was trying to get themselves back into the swing. He did his best to ignore the rest of them and head to his office. That only slightly hindered the morning greetings as many wanted to congratulate him on the golf win. A few minutes more of catching up with everyone and he was finally able to close his door.

The office was pretty much how he left it, with the awards, certifications and everything else you pick up that holds little meaning on the left wall. The rug stained with unknown substances he inherited from the last resident lay underneath his scratched and banged up metal desk. The surface was as clutter free and well organized as ever. All of it brought a sense of belonging to Eldridge and he let out a contented sigh.

With no outstanding cases of much importance, he pulled up the recent reports to see if there was anything that needed his immediate attention. Most of the weekend, it seemed, was uneventful.

Some domestic disturbances, a few missing animals, A man complaining about the deer eating his yard. After a half hour of searching, he finally found a report that piqued his interest. It was on a missing laptop. As he read the report, he found it more and more unusual.

Byung was a man new to the town, having just picked up the old Sade residence at the edge of the park. Either he was a man who loved his forests like old man Sade, or he was a man who valued his privacy. Most likely it was both.

Such a man having only his laptop stolen from him smelled off to Eldridge. True, life wasn’t like a tv episode where everything leads somewhere, and this could very well just be some tweaker high and only seeing the laptop. The Sade place was rather far from anything though, so it was unlikely for that to be the case.

“It was reported yesterday evening, so that leaves me a short few days before the trail goes cold.” Eldridge said to himself as he stood, marked the case as his, and headed towards the lockers.

The locker room wasn’t that large as these things went, barely large enough for three men to change in. Eldridge half suspected they repurposed an old storage closet sometime in the distant past.

Fortunately, there was no one in the room, which left him plenty of space to stretch. He moved to the back of the room towards the three lockers reserved for the detectives, at least the male ones. He opened his locker and began to take off his overshirt.

He stared at it for an overly long moment as he tried to figure out what it was that felt off about it. He was sure the thing moved after he placed it down on his bed this morning. But with everything going on it only made him more certain he was losing his mind.

A long exhale of breath later and he set that silly thought behind him and began to put on his vest and gear. Though he was only going to ask about a laptop, one never knew when things could go south. A few minutes later he reached out for his overshirt once more and noticed it hadn’t moved in the slightest.

“I really need to get that night out of my head,” Eldridge mumbled as he picked up his shirt. He was becoming more certain that he had been drugged somehow, well beyond what alcohol would do.

“Eldridge, I see you grabbed the laptop case,” Justin said as he entered the locker room. “Now I have to go interview some lady about someone keying their car.”

“What was the saying,” Eldridge paused as he started to button up his shirt. “There’re no small cases, only small men.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Justin replied as he opened his locker. “There may be no small cases, but there are sure boring ones.”

“You never know where a case may lead,” Eldridge said in an upbeat sarcastic tone as he closed and locked his locker. “Perhaps the keying of the car will lead to something deeper.”

“We both know that is very unlikely, it is the reason you skipped it and instead went for the laptop.” Justin replied. “Bah, you know just once I would like a case to lead to something exciting.”

Eldridge laughed as he adjusted his clothes, “Yeah, but then someone got killed or something.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Justin said defensively. “I was talking like a drug bust or underground smuggling or something.”

“Hey, maybe you will stumble upon a car body scam.” Eldridge said as he opened the door. “You know, like, they go around keying cars so that people will have to come to them for repairs.”

“One can only hope,” Justin said before the door closed.

Eldridge left for his car as his mind wandered towards his friend. Here he was saying it was unlikely for any case to be more than it seemed, yet he’d spent years trying to seek that very thing.

“That’s different,” he mumbled to himself. “There is too much that doesn’t add up.” Like the laptop case, his mind retorted. “Everyone deserves a little indulgence from time to time.” Eldridge argued with a sigh as he opened the door to his jeep.

He looked down at the scratches from the years of use and wondered what it would take for someone to want to key a car. “To be fair, you probably couldn’t see it if someone did that to mine.” He said as he climbed in and started the vehicle.

A twenty-minute drive saw Eldridge pulling into a long-forested driveway. He had to admit, even though he knew the nearest neighbor was a few hundred feet away, that the pine and maples really made the place feel separated from anyone. Add the fact that the dark brown two-story house blended in well with the dirt and trees around it and you have a nice forest getaway that was only a short drive from town.

As he shut off the car a well-dressed Asian man opened the door, “Are you lost?” he asked in a gruff tone from behind the halfway opened door. His gaze inspected the vehicle.

“Byung Kim?” Eldridge asked as he stepped out of the vehicle. He saw the man take in his uniform before he opened the door all the way.

“And who might you be?” Byung asked as he stepped onto the porch his arms crossed.

“Eldridge, with the Port Coulee PD,” Eldridge answered as he walked confidently towards the man. “You filed a report about a missing laptop.”

“I see, well come on in.” Byung answered as he turned towards his house, his arms fell to his side, hands in fists. “I will show you where everything was, not sure how much it will help.”

“You’d be surprised what it is that makes the difference,” Eldridge responded as he followed the man into his house.

He was a bit surprised to find that the house had little in the way of anything. There was an old couch, clearly left from the sale, as well as a wooden table. The floor was a hardwood that showed signs of much traffic and little care. And the kitchen was something out of the seventies, with a yellow that drove you to want to puncture your own eyes.

“My laptop was left here to charge,” Byung said as he pointed to a counter between the table and the kitchen. “I didn’t think anything of it as I went to shop for some furniture, when I came back this window was opened, and the laptop was gone.”

Eldridge watched as the man pointed to the kitchen window.

“I see,” Eldridge answered as he walked into the kitchen.

The window was an old school one that required you to rotate a handle to open it. Certainly, one that would be hard to open from the outside. On top of that it didn’t open completely, leaving the glass at an angle even fully extended. This was unlikely to be the entrance.

“Do you mind if I look around the house? Perhaps the thieves left something else as a clue in their haste.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Byung answered almost reluctantly.

Eldridge turned towards him for an instant before he once again took in the rest of the house. He wasn’t sure if it was the theft, the fact Eldridge was a police officer, or something else that had soured Byung’s mood. Eldridge wasn’t even sure if it mattered for the case, but he still made a mental note of it.

Eldridge walked around the lower floors looking for any sign of forced entry. None of the windows were broken and with the house’s state of disrepair it would be hard to tell if any of the scratches might have been made by an intruder or not.

“Is there a reason you need to check my closets?” Byung asked as Eldridge opened the door to the bedroom closet. Eldridge glanced at the man before he turned back to the small closet before him.

“I said it earlier, you never know what it will be that tips the case.” Eldridge replied as he knelt onto the floor with his hand moving around. “But in this particular instant I am looking for an access panel or someway into a crawl space.”

“Why would you need that,” Byung replied and Eldridge found it hard to tell if the man was curious or frustrated. “I mean it’s not like there was, I don’t know, an open window.”

“Indeed, and it is most likely the way they entered, but that isn’t something we should just take at face value.” Eldridge said as he stood and headed to the next bedroom.

“If you’re looking for the crawl space access it is over here,” Byung said a few seconds after Eldridge left the room.

Eldridge paused trying to decide whether to follow or continue on his own. He quickly decided to follow Byung as it was his house and he didn’t want to set the man off any more than he already was. The man led him to the hallway and slid open a door. His outstretched arm pointed to a small square under one of the shelves.

“As you can see it is nearly impossible to open the thing, let alone crawl through it.” Byung stated. “I am considering removing that shelf, as I don’t know why they put it in, in the first place.”

Eldridge examined the square hole, and the small nearly indiscernible amount of dust that lay around it. It had been disturbed but it was hard to tell in what manner. Was it from someone entering, or Byung or the previous owner opening it?

There were also some small scratch marks around the edges. Given there was no latch, it made sense as it would be nearly impossible to get it up without gouging the surrounding wood in some manner.

He next took in the shelf that was put in at some point in the past by the Sade’s about a foot and half above the hole. “It would be hard to get through this hole, but not impossible. I’ve seen some seriously crazy moves over the years.” Eldridge answered Byung. “Is this the only way into the crawl space?”

“As far as I know,” Byung answered. “Though I’ve only been living in this place for about a week now.”

“I see, mind if I check the perimeter?” Eldridge asked in a tone that said he was going to do it anyway.

“Sure, go ahead and rummage through all my stuff.” Byung replied. “Why would I care?”

“Great,” Eldridge answered as he left to head outside.