The Stillwater Mystery: The Timeless Dress Series, #3

By R J Devland

Heather's Dress goes missing.  Martin's friends have rejoined the cast as he uncovers the mastermind of a scheme to reclaim the dress and the plan.  New faces peek from behind closed doors and hidden halls.  Stillwater Vaults security system is compromised.  Martin has his own to plan to regain the dress and expose the culprits.  The plot digs deeper as the faces appear.  All of them from Martin's past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R J Devland
• Release date: Nov 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393414346

Book preview

The Stillwater Mystery

One – The Investigation Begins

For hours, Martin searched his heart for the words to tell Zoe and Alex about the Stillwater problem.  His heart found no good way to tell Zoe that the most beautiful dress in the whole, wide world has gone missing.  He never thought such a thing could have happened at Stillwell, a facility that had made millions from the elite scattered all over the world.  He figured out only one way to break the news to them.  He had to tell them the truth.  If he told them anything less than the truth, he would fail them.  They thought of him as a man of utmost integrity.

The worst thing about the events of the past few days centered on the fact that no one could be trusted.  Martin, the outsider, made an insider, created a whole difficult situation.  He wanted so badly to trust everyone.  He also wanted a great relationship with the entire town, especially since he and Cody owned the Hotel.  Martin understood that people earn trust.  When one earns trust, it then becomes a valuable commodity.  For him to trust anyone now, they must earn that trust through truth.  Truth will be the object of his investigation.  Martin scrutinized those closest to him because strangers held no responsibility in this terrible event.

Zoe, I have some startling, terrible news for you and Alex.  It is the worst news I can imagine.  I really hate to tell you.

Go ahead and tell us, Martin.  I am sure we can take it, Alex tells Martin, with a squirming foot and a grimace on his face.

Kids, the dress has gone missing.  Stillwater doesn't know where it is.  They know how, but they don't know who.  They have logs and video, but they don't know who took it.  They actually have video of the person walking in, opening the vault, then walking out again.  A car left the facility shortly afterward.  I am preparing myself to go there.  Hopefully Cody will go with me.  We hope to find the dress.  We will get it back.  That dress means a lot to me.  It means a lot to you.

Don't worry about us, we will be fine.  Be careful.

The nerve of these people to allow this to happen to me.  It is beyond comprehension. Martin thought.  He hoped that Cody would agree to go with him.  It would take both of them to get to the bottom of this theft.  Gone is just another word for stolen.  Martin read between the lines when first heard that the dress was gone.  He should have been informed of the theft from the very beginning, without the stonewalling for so long.  That would have been the brave and ethical action to take.  Just be honest.  Martin lost all confidence in Adrian and everyone connected to Stillwater.  They should have already contacted him again in order to give him an update.  But they haven't.  Martin, and Cody, if he agrees to go, will just show up at Stillwater, without warning. 

Cody, I am leaving in half an hour for Stillwater.  Are you coming?

Me?  I have a congregation who expects me to be at church Sunday.  How can I go?

Call Thomas and tell him what you are doing.  Tell him you are going with me, at my request.  You are needed.

I will call him now and let him know.  Can you get the plane ready?

I already have it warmed up, Cody, already warmed up.

Martin knew the Stillwater people expected the worst outcome when the news broke.  Management's plans to minimize the backlash from their clients and their outrage over the theft met with uncertainty.  Stillwater increased their security and the level of scrutiny of their employees.  Logs were printed, videos backed up, photo clips generated and logins re-checked for integrity.  The biometric identification technology installed a few years ago ended the possibility of security breaches into the vault areas.  Development partners selected Stillwater for testing new technology.  Stillwater integrated the new devices into their already hardened security system.  Their motto stated that no one came in, unless they let them in.  They boasted of a triple-redundant security system, touted as the best in the world. 

Martin realized on the plane that Adrian anticipated his arrival.  Martin and Cody discussed a plan to enter the vault.  They needed to see the logs, the videos, and the biometric data.  They wrote their questions in a logical order.  They planned to lead Adrian into a lie.  Martin for sure would find something about the theft.  The foolproof biometric data made false identity impossible.  That meant that some unknown person physically entered the vault and took the dress.  The questions they wrote concerned the state of the dress itself.  Was the dress intact or altered?  Adrian already told Martin they saw the perpetrator opening the vault and carrying out the box.  So who entered the vault and stole the dress?  Did the thief just waltz into the vault, like he owned the place?  Martin considered the original location of the cameras with respect to the current position.  Any difference between the two propelled his investigation toward an inside job. 

Martin, didn't Adrian say the cameras captured the perpetrator leaving with the dress box?

Yes, he did.

Did he confirm that the vault was empty?

That is what he said, but I don't believe anything of it.  We have to check it out ourselves.

What do you mean by that?  How can we check it out ourselves?

There is a secret motion system that can detect a person moving around within the various vault buildings.  It first appears as an outline image of any motion.  Then the process repaints a clearer picture of the motion.  In most cases, if the human moves something, it will capture the physical movement of the item also.  The system detects all objects in motion.  Humans are objects in constant motion, right down to the heartbeat, circulation, and respiration.  Imagine that.  This system is a redundant system, working in tandem with the video system.  When someone alters the video system, the secret system presents the truth.

How do you know that?  Sounds very far advanced.

Cody, it is much like an ultrasound at the doctor's office.  The difference is in the resolution.  This system has resolution many times better than ultrasound because it is tracing movement in air, rather than in fluid through flesh.  That device can produce an almost video quality image of every movement.  If the dress was still in there after the perpetrator left, we should see it.  The idea of this system is its secrecy.  They ran around there thinking they had everyone tricked.  But I have them right where I want them.  Hand me my small case there.  This small device holds the truth of everything we need to know.  See here at this point?

Martin, what is this?

Don't ask me and you might live a little longer.

What?

Don't ask.  Look right here.  Martin points to the computer screen.  See this outline?

Yes, I do, what is that?  I suppose it looks like a human figure.

It is.

How do you have this?  Why did you want me to come along?

I want you because you are the only one I can trust with what I have.  You are the only one who can know what I will do in order to get that dress, my dress, back.  No one has ever seen this setup.  The computer, anyone with enough money can buy.  What is inside the computer, no one has ever seen.  You are the first one to see this device.  Don't ask and you might live longer, remember what I just said.

Martin, what have we got ourselves into?  Whatever this is, Heather must have known.  Did she tell Sandy?  Is it in the book Sandy penned for her?  She knew because she said Zoe would get the dress back.  Yes, we must get the dress back.  For Heather, Zoe and Abby, we must find it, and find out why they went to such lengths to steal it.

We will.  One more thing.  Do you see this object moving, there in the corner?

Martin, it is the outline of a rectangle, maybe about eight inches high.

"Exactly!  This is the actual dress box.  The dress was stolen when they said it was, but not in the original box.  Someone stole the dress, oh yes, someone stole it.  The perpetrator brought in another, identical box.  Someone switched off the cameras for the length of time to enter the vault and return to the outside again, then properly re-enter building and vault with the cameras switched on.  See here on my device.  This doesn't lie.  That is the dress box coming back in.  In that way, they could say someone stole the dress, even when it wasn't.  Sounds strange, but that seems to have been their plan.  The camera saw the box going out.  But the cameras were off when the box came back in.  I have the record of the duplicate, identical box coming in.  The whole record.  I will never be able to reveal that, though, no one can ever know that or that I developed this device.  

"You see, the intention was not to steal the dress.  The intent was to get something out of the box and leave the dress there, intact, without anyone knowing the dress was still there.  Removing the duplicate box in full view of the cameras,  added confusion which clouded the investigation.  It was a video trick to slow down the investigation so they could make their getaway.  Someone shut off the vault cameras for a few minutes at the right time.  However, the perpetrator couldn't find what they were looking for in the box.