When the Lights Go Out

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon in December. Harry was working at his desk. He was a reporter for the local paper, Sizzle Biz. “Harry. My office. Now”. The voice boomed from the chief’s office. Harry really didn’t like this man. He got up and made his way over to the office. “Coffee, Harry?” asked Jenny. She sat at the desk opposite Harry and was about to go out and get some lunch. She knew he wouldn’t want a sandwich; he never ate after 11am. “Latte with a shot of vanilla please” smiled Harry, “and two sugars”. Harry glanced outside at the flurry of snow that had been falling since early morning; he was hoping Jenny would take it slow in the car.

“Sit down Harry” the chief motioned for Harry to sit in the chair opposite as he entered his office. “I’ll keep it short” he continued “I’ve been informed that you are working on a big story. This is good news Harry, however; I am aware that the story will bring to light certain information that we do not want leaked”. Harry was flummoxed “I’m sorry chief, I have no idea what you’re talking about”. “Me, Harry. The information that could end up being leaked is about me. I am going to suggest you cut the story”. “But chief …” Harry protested. “No buts Harry. Cut it or there will be consequences”. The chief gestured for Harry to leave the office. He knew the conversation was over and there was no point in arguing.

A few hours later, Harry looked up at the clock, it was 3pm and most of Harry’s colleagues were leaving for the day due to the snow getting thick and heavy. He was wrapped up in this story that the chief had asked him to cut, he just couldn’t. He wanted to finish it. He wanted to find out what was so bad that the chief didn’t want it getting out? He was glad he had that sugar filled latte earlier to keep him going. “Not got a home to go to Harry?” joked Jenny. Harry laughed “I just want to finish this piece; I won’t be far behind you”. “See you tomorrow then” Jenny smiled. As she walked out the door, he thought about how pretty she was. She was a lovely person too, so kind and caring. He knew she was divorced; she had a daughter too. Harry soon realised he was procrastinating and that would not get his article finished.

Suddenly, the lights flickered and went off. Harry looked at the clock, but it took a second for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. From where he could place the hands on the face it was around 5.15pm. How had the time gone so quickly? It felt like just a second ago he had said goodbye to Jenny! Outside, the snow was really coming down, and the wind had begun to howl. This was bad; it must have knocked out the power. Harry packed up his stuff and took the stairs down to the lobby. The security guard, Danny, normally works until 5.30pm to ensure the building is empty and can be locked up. “Danny!” Harry yelled. “Danny are you still here?” there was no response. He must have left early to make it home before the blizzard. “Why didn’t I think like the rest of them?” Harry mumbled to himself. He was starting to feel rather hungry; he had eaten breakfast but didn’t normally eat again until 6pm when he got home. With no power, he wouldn’t be able to use the vending machines or anything. If he was going to be stuck in here until morning, which it was looking like he was as it was too unsafe to venture out in this blizzard, he would need some kind of food and drink.

Harry had decided to try and find the trip switches, if he could get the power working, he could not only get some food, but he could finally find the information he has been trying to gather on the chief, right here in this very building! But that would mean searching rooms he doesn’t normally go into, some of them he isn’t even allowed to go into! He went to his desk and grabbed his torch; always prepared Harry was, and this was why. You just never know when you’re going to need a torch!

Down in the basement, Harry had found the fuse box. Luckily for him he knew his way around electrical outage situations. There was one switch that had tripped, and Harry suspected this had knocked out the whole board. He flipped them all down, then flipped the main one up; this bought them all back up, and the lights flickered on.

Harry was relieved. He went back up to the lobby and checked the vending machines, sure enough they were all on. He grabbed a chocolate treat and a fizzy energy drink, that should keep him going. Harry figured he should begin his search from top to bottom, as they say. So, he went to the second floor, which was the floor above his office. This was mainly used for storage now, but it was worth a look around. The first door he came across was locked. Harry put his head in his hands; he hadn’t thought about the rooms being locked. Danny must have done a last check before he left for the day, but Harry wondered why he hadn’t spoken to him before locking up? Harry concluded that Danny must have been in a hurry and only locked certain rooms. They must be the important ones, he thought.

Harry headed back down to the lobby, there was a spare set of keys in the safe under the floor for emergencies. He knew Danny would keep the combination somewhere in his desk, it was just a case of finding it. He searched all the drawers but to no avail, then he noticed a sticky note stuck to the bottom of the monitor. To anyone else, it looked like a scrap bit of paper with an anniversary or birthday on it, and a little heart drawn in the corner proved it was someone close to Danny. Harry took his chances and entered it into the safe. The door popped up and Harry was elated.

On his way back up the stairs to the top floor, Harry looked out of the window. The snow was showing no signs of stopping and the wind was still forcing the snow against the side of the building. He hoped it wasn’t causing a snowdrift or he won’t be able to get out once the blizzard stops. He opened the locked door, inside there was nothing but some old desks and filing cabinets. He checked one of the filing cabinets but much to his disappointment it was empty. He tried the next room along the corridor.

Harry went through all the rooms, searching thoroughly. In the last room before the staircase, he made an interesting discovery. A jewellery box had been hidden at the back of a storage cupboard. It was out of place in a building like this. Upon searching inside Harry found a chain with a tiny key on it. He put it in his pocket in case he came across whatever it was that it unlocked and made his way down to the 1^st floor.

The first room Harry wanted to check was the chief’s office, he figured if there was anything to find it was going to be in there. The chief’s office was not what he expected for someone who owns a newspaper company. It wasn’t overly large, and it had wallpaper peeling from the walls. The carpet was worn down and frayed in some places. Harry also noticed a smell that he didn’t pick up on when he was in here earlier with the chief. Harry began searching the room, he decided to go from behind the door all the way around, clockwise, and then he would search the desk.

In the filing cabinets Harry found bits of letters, and different articles with circles around parts of the wording. He kept all his findings in his pocket and carried on with his search. He moved onto the desk, before going through all the papers he decided to try and find something that was locked, he had a feeling this little key he found would unlock something important in here. Suddenly, as he was running his fingers along the underneath of the desk, he felt a tiny hole. He crouched underneath the desk and used his torch to have a better look, and there it was. Harry had found a hidden cupboard in the chief’s desk!

Harry carefully unlocked the cupboard. With it being on the underneath of the desk the contents will tumble out if he opens the door too quickly, and Harry was unsure if there was anything breakable in there. He slid his hand in through the little gap and he could feel nothing but papers, so he opened the door and let them fall.

Back at his desk, Harry had gotten himself a snack and a hot drink. He was trying to piece together all of the information he had found. Suddenly, it dawned on Harry that what he was looking at was all the crimes that had been reported on by this newspaper since it began. But there were circles around the names of the perpetrators and numbers written next to them. The numbers seemed to correspond with telephone numbers that were written on a separate document. “Was the cheif in contact with all of the criminals who had committed these crimes?” Harry mumbled to himself. But he couldn’t figure out why the chief would want to be associated with these criminals. He carried on reading through all the evidence. Then he found it. A document that listed who the perpetrator was, where they needed to be and at what time. It even said who the victim needed to be. It was almost as if the chief was orchestrating the crimes in order to be able to report on them!

Morning came, Harry had managed to get a couple of hours sleep once he had returned everything to its normal state. He headed out of the building. The snow was still very thick under foot, but it had stopped snowing during the early hours of the morning, and luckily there was no snowdrift blocking the door. What Harry found last night was big news, but Harry had a decision to make, should he cut his current story like the chief asked and continue as things were? Or should he blow this thing wide open?