Chapter 4

Niall barged into the hospital room and slapped the flash drive onto the table beside Louis. Louis raised his eyebrows.

"What's this?" Louis asked

"Your security camera footage," Niall said proudly, "you should really update your firewall. It only took Liam, like, three minutes to get in."

"Dang," Louis breathed out, "Liam's good."

"And here are two screws that were missing from a vent cover," Niall said as he presented the screws to Louis.

"They would have just been loose and fallen out. Could they not?" Louis asked.

"True," Niall shrugged, " but every other vent in the place was in the perfect position with all its screws. You'd think they'd have just replaced them if they'd noticed, so it must have happened recently"

"Ah, good job detective," Louis smiled.

Laughing at Louis's comment, Niall pulled out a laptop from his bag and inserted the flash drive. The file immediately popped up, and he clicked on it. The Jewelry store came into view on the screen. The security camera could see from the back all the way to the front of the store. With the display window at the street in view still.

"Alright 15 hours starts now," Niall said as he handed off the laptop, "I'll probably have to leave soon, so you'll have to watch the rest by yourself."

"Let's do this," Louis said.

Niall was able to be there for the good portion of two hours, only having to leave a few times. By the time his shift finished, there were still five hours left of the tape.

After watching three of the five hours, Niall paused the tape and turned to face Louis.

"It's on a loop," Niall said.

"Huh?" Louis asked.

"We've been watching the same thing over and over again," Niall clarified, "you can see the same people passing by the window every hour."

Louis was stunned, "how on earth did I not notice that…?"

"I mean, one of the reasons you're in the hospital is for a concussion," Niall said.

"So this guy is smart enough to hack the cameras so they loop their previous footage while he's in the building," Louis said to himself.

"Exactly," Niall laughed to himself, "but not smart enough to make sure the screws stay in the vent."

"Now we just need to figure out where he's going to go next and we can call it in as anonymous tip," Louis said

Niall took the laptop and pulled up a map of the London area the robberies had been taking place in.

"Ok so, the last few robberies happened here, here, and here," Niall said as he pointed to four different places on the map, "all within a block of each other.

"So if this one happened here…" Louis said, pointing to where the most recent robbery was,

"...then that means there's only one store left in the area." Niall finished, pointing to the only place left, "here."

"Ok, we should call it in," Louis said.

"I got it," Niall said as he pulled out his phone,

"Hello . . . Yes, I'd like to report a robbery that will take place at 232 Park Avenue South . . . Yes . . . No . . . Thank you . . . Ok . . . You're welcome."

Louis was staring expectantly at Niall the whole time he was on the phone.

"They said they'd send out a patrol to watch the area and have security put around the building," Niall beamed, "Oh my gosh this is so cool! It's like I'm in a cop show," he signed dreamily.

Louis just laughed at Niall' antics.

"You'd make a pretty good detective, you know," Louis complimented.

Niall finally came back down to Earth and blushed, "thanks!"

"And now we wait and see if we were right," Niall said nervously.

"There's no way they can mess this one up," Louis assured, "all they have to do is watch the entrances/exits of the vents,"

"If the thief followed their usual schedule, the robbery should take place in an hour or so." Niall surmised.

Niall took a seat in the chair beside Louis and tuned the TV to the news. Both boys sat there for close to 45 minutes before the regular reporter that had been covering the thefts, appeared on screen.

"There's just been another robbery in the chain of jewelry thefts that have been plaguing London," the young, male reporter started, "only this time, authorities received an anonymous tip, and were able to get to the scene before the thief got away. The criminal, who has been identified as Harry Styles, is now in custody."

Niall and Louis cheer loudly and hug each other. As they're jumping up and down in excitement, a nurse pokes her head in and tells them to be quiet.

"Sorry!" Niall whisper-yelled, both boys still quietly laughing in joy. Both turned their attention back to the TV to catch the rest of what the reporter was saying.

"Harry Styles was a suspect in a string of thefts that took place a year ago in Los Angeles, but was let go due to lack of evidence," the reported said, "after that he flew under the radar until he decided to start stealing from jewelry stores in London's more wealthy area."

A photo of the man in question popped up in the corner of the screen as the reporter was talking. Louis gasped. All his memories from the crash came flooding back again. That man, Harry Styles, was the one whose car had collided with his own. He was the reason Louis was in the hospital.

"Authorities have said the case will go to court in the next few months," the reporter said before the news switched to coverage of the bike races happening over in France.

"He was the guy that hit me," Louis turned to Niall, "he caused my accident."

"Whoa," Niall said shocked, "that's a plot Styles"

"Yeah," Louis breathed

"At least he got what was coming to him though!" Niall said, back to his cheerful self, "they got him!"

"No mate, you got him"