Stamped Corona (part 6)

This is my 60th post! This month the word for the blogbattlers was Corona. And yes it was a hard word to use.

On to the next part.
Miss out? Here is the rest of the serial story:

Part 1 Flowers Have Mysteries 
Part 2 Loss and Madness 
Part 3 Mayhem at Dusk
Part 4 It Happened on the Night Shift
Part 5 Airtight Solutions

Words: 1000+

Stamped Corona

By Rakayle Hier

The morning was crisp, the scent of rain was strong. Heinz and Lane followed the almost deserted, wet streets; they were heading to Heinz's office. It was barely 6 o’clock and Lane was barely awake. Heinz had his plans and Lane had his confusion. Last night Heinz had given Lane the plan, it sounded airtight, but Lane didn’t really understand how it would work.

Lane wasn’t for sure if the empty streets made him nervous or not. At least Hank couldn’t hide in a crowd, but if he was in the shadows, no one was around to see him coming.  

Heinz of course seemed in no way worried about an ambush. “When did criminals stick to a meet up plan?” Lane asked, but noticed Heinz was a block ahead, he hurried to catch up.

They arrived at the building, the sign on the second floor window read:
PRIVATE DETECTIVE HEINZ

TAKES ALL CASES

The detective unlocked the door and went inside. Lane slipped in after. The detective was in a slippery mood. Lane felt like he was stepping on glass around him.

Detective Heinz went upstairs to his office and shut the door. Lane stood there for a while before walking off to his small room that had a desk and some filing cabinets.

Lane was dozing when the telephone rang. He jumped up from this chair knocking over his lamp. It fell over into some boxes beside the desk.

It rang again before Heinz picked it up. Lane got up and moved over to his open door. Who was calling? Lane went up to the detective’s door and tried to hear what he was saying.

“Yes. No… Okay I will be right over... Goodbye.”

Lane heard him shuffling inside, suddenly the door snapped open and Heinz was there. Lane jumped back startled, his heart was thudding a little too fast. “Eavesdropping Lane?”

“Uh, um, uh.”

Heinz twitched his nose. “That’s what I thought. Come on Lane I have business.” Heinz sneaked a smile as he turned away, letting the assistant follow still trying to recover.

Heinz waved for a taxi cab.

“Where are we going?” Lane asked, as they stepped inside the cab. It was roomy and smelled of tobacco. Heinz was not a smoker per say, but he made a habit of knowing the smells of different cigars or cigarettes even pipe tobacco had a different smell according to the brand.  

“We are heading to the wharf.”

“May I ask why? Or are you just fond of fish?” Lane asked wittily, with a straight face.

“I got a message from a -an- acquaintance. He gave me a tip and I’m quizzicle enough to check it out.”

They arrived at the wharf and Heinz got out, paid the driver, and started off. Lane hurried to keep up. “What is the hurry?”

Heinz didn’t reply, but continued walking, brushing past dock workers and travelers, on a dead strait course. They came to large warehouses and more work equipment, fewer people could be seen.

Suddenly Heinz ducked and went behind a building Lane speed up; his side was starting to hurt. Lane looked in all directions, Heinz had disappeared.

***

Heinz felt sorry for leaving Lane back there, well maybe not too sorry. It couldn’t be helped. Heinz knew his way around and soon was at the place his “aquatintace” had told him about.

It seemed very quiet. He turned and there was a man in ragged brown clothes. His floppy hat hid some of his scraggly features.

“Hello Brown.”

“Hello Heinz.”

“What did you want to show me?”

The informant waved his hand for the detective to follow. They circled an old warehouse and came up behind a covered stack of goods. This was the shipping, loading, and unloading area. They both peeked up. Men in dirty, blue overalls were unloading small boxes from a ship into a Ford Model A pickup.

Heinz paid close attention to the boxes. They were around 3ft by 2ft, they were wooden, and nailed together tightly. He looked for any markings. He noticed a stamping on the side. He couldn’t make out what it said, he needed to get closer. “How significant do you think this is?”

“All I heard was this shipment came last night, late. I heard some of the men say it was meant to be a quiet job, nothing to draw attention. I also heard that man ordering ‘them there boxes’ was not to be trifled with.”

“Okay Brown.” Heinz started creeping closer. He ducked behind a few barrels, and snuck up closer to the pickup. He waited until the next box was dropped off before looking inside the back of the pickup.

He could see the black lettering stamped plainly on the boxes. It read: THE SOUTH CROWN. CORONA AUSTRALIS.  A little tilted crown was stamped below the words.

What did it mean? What was corona?

Heinz sneaked back to where Brown had stayed. “Thanks for the tip, Brown.”

“See you around.”

Heinz nodded and started off back the way he came. He found Lane not far from where he disappeared on him.

“Heinz!” Lane looked flustered. “Where did you go?”

“That is not important; ‘where are we going next?’ that is what you should be asking.” Heinz started walking again. Lane walked after him. “Okay where are we going?”

They got another cab and headed off to the library.

“Heinz! What are you looking for?” Lane asked as he trailed after the detective who was looking through the bookshelves. “A book.”

“I can see that.”

“Ah, ha!” Heinz pulled out an encyclopedia. He found a chair and started flipping through the book. Lane sat across from him, waiting. “Here we go. Corona Ausralis and Corona Borealis are constellations meaning “crown or a garland”.”

“What does that mean?”

“I am not sure yet, Lane, but I am going to find out.”

Heinz put the book away and thoughtful paced the library floor before heading outside. Lane went after him beginning to feel like a sorry puppy. Heinz snapped his fingers. “I got it. I should ask Sam and Lester, they might have heard or saw the symbol before.  

He decided instead of taking a taxi he would walk, after all the youngsters would most likely running about. Maybe they had found more on the mystery. Heinz turned and walked up the next street. He looked at the buildings and tried to not be too annoyed that Lane had to keep following. He was tempted to lose him.

Suddenly Heinz saw it.

The dark sign on the wall was unmistakable It was Corona Ausralis the same crown constellation he had seen on the package. What were those packages for and what did it have to do with this opera house?

                                                                🔎🔎🔎🔎🔎🔎
What is this new clue? And what does the opera have to do with it? Is the mystery winding down or is there more things that Heinz has to uncover?
///
I would also like to say this Thursday I will not be posting. Just taking a little break from blogging. I will be back next Sunday though, to rap up this month.

Do you have any theories?
Do you think Heinz is close?
Tell me below!