Sammy met with Mr. Gardner that day, but he had to leave for a meeting after a short moment. She mentioned how she did a little investigation on the apartment complex that had partially burned down last week and found out his sister had been involved. Mr. Gardner told her not to worry about it and that everything had been taken care of. After he questioned why she was looking into the fire, Sammy mentioned that while she had been following Jasmine, she had been making frequent visits to Victoria's next door neighbor. Maybe there was a connection there. Mr. Gardner was doubtful there was a connection between Jasmine and Victoria. But did seem intrigued about the host of the visits.
"Were you able to discover the identity the neighbor?" He asked.
"No, sir. Sorry. It proved to be more difficult than I thought. And after his place burned down, it was difficult to locate him."
"Hmm.. Well, continue your work, Sammy. Perhaps this neighbor is the other perpetrator we have been looking for."
"Oh, I will Mr. Gardner. I was actually thinking the same thing myself."
"I must leave now, Sammy. I look forward to your next discovery."
"What did she take, sir?" Sammy asked directly. "That Jasmine Bashir woman. What did she take off the porch by the way? It wasn't exactly stated in the file."
Mr. Gardner looked up and off to the side for a moment before turning to face her directly.
"I have ideas.. But have not come to a conclusion on that matter."
"I do not believe it is important for you to know at this moment. But, perhaps you will in time."
Over the next week Sammy began tailing Jasmine Bashir more diligently. Jasmine had been more active than she was in her first week on the job, making frequent trips to 2 locations. One location owned by a man in his earlier thirties by the name of Zach Rosinski. He had been residing at the location for about two years so it was unlikely he had also owned an apartment in the complex that had the fire. Also, it seemed he was gay according to his social media profiles. She thought maybe Jasmine had been visiting a roommate of his, but she hadn’t seen anyone leave the house besides her and Rosinski. Jasmine had spent the night there three times during the week and usually had left by the time Sammy had arrived in the morning. The second location was a large house in the Ravenwood neighborhood owned by a man of the name Roberto Mancada. He was a Spanish architect in his early 40’s. After looking into his background Sammy found out he was recently divorced, his wife leaving recently with their young daughter about a month ago. Jasmine had also spent 3 nights at this location. Mancada was 6’3 and big, but not quite fat. He had the look of someone who had been an athlete in his twenties, but hadn’t worked out in a while. He definitely did not match the perpetrator from the security cam.
The two of them also frequently went out and appeared to be in some sort of relationship. Sammy wondered if Jasmine had been dating multiple people or was having an affair with one of them. They did not travel to any destinations in town, preferring to go 20 minutes north to Cedarville. She had seen Jasmine and Mr. Mancada hold hands and kiss a number of times and they appeared happy together on the surface. She wondered if they had been having an affair during Mancada’s previous marriage and now that he was single they were able to openly date. This appeared to be true to her and Sammy had been proud of this deduction. There was something thrilling about the way Jasmine led her life, yet she seemed somewhat aimless. Constantly moving around. She seemed like the sort of person that would date a new man every month. Most likely an affluent handsome man. Jasmine Bashir did not appear to have a permanent job of any kind other than selling various items on Etsy.
Sammy had spent so much time following this woman she felt like she knew her intimately. She found herself growing fond of her even though Jasmine was not aware of her existence and hopefully would never be. Although, Sammy knew all the places Jasmine like to shop and eat, and she knew all her major friends in town. It was the little things that she paid attention to the most like the way her long black hair shimmered in the light and how she was constantly twirling her finger in it, the fact that she was always smiling even when by herself, and just how captivating she was. Although she seemed rich, spoiled, and had generic tastes in things she was truly one of a kind and everyone that interacted with her seemed pulled in by some magnetism staring behind her as she dramatically left them. After a couple weeks of this new job, Sammy hadn’t found any reason for why Jasmine Bashir took the package or what was inside, but she was beginning to think that that was not the purpose of this job. Mr. Gardner did not need her to understand the why of this scenario, he just needed her to acquire as much information as she could. She was okay with that seeing how much she was being paid now, but she couldn’t help but be curious by all of this. She was determined to connect all the dots in this case. Whether it was in the job description or not.
Eventually she located the vehicle of the person Jasmine Bashir had been visiting at Rosinski’s place. Or at least the assumed vehicle. This old tan Chevy Malibu had been parked halfway in front of Rosinski’s and half in front of his neighbors, but had not seemed to have left the entire time she’d been investigating. She couldn’t remember seeing it in the apartment complex parking lot though. After checking the plates, she discovered the owner to be a 30 year old man, by the name PT and after further research had discovered he was the neighbor at the complex that had burned down. In fact, his apartment had even been the source of the fire. She looked at a photo of him she had obtained online. He was of average height with dirty blond hair cut in the generic style most men wore their hair in these days and was conventionally attractive with a remarkably unmemorable face. He very well could be the man in the cam footage she thought. Later she found out he had attended the same college as Trevor Macomb and were also in the same year. She was unable to find any other connection however. She had an intuition that this information was more than just a coincidence. As she learned recently, the information is always there. You just have to keep digging for it. They both had attended State together. She had a friend in town who also attended State before transferring to Western like her. It was Georgie. She texted him and arranged to meet up for dinner again that night.
Back at the Macomb residence Sammy printed out her new findings and placed them in a crisp manilla envelope. She hesitated before closing and sending it off. This time she’d wait a little bit longer. She had a feeling she was about to find out a whole lot more.
