Chapter 27
My mom lying in the hospital bed. She seemed lifeless. But the monitors showed faint heartbeats.
Jeremy came behind me and grabbed me by my waist and dragged me out of the ICU.
When she was gone, I stared at her for a long time. Feeling hollow. Jeremy put his arms around me and that's when I cried. I cried all night. Then I realized I had to find the reason for which my mom died. She couldn't just die like that. Not after the doctors declared her stable. I tip toed to her room and there I found someone lean and thin wearing a mask rummaging through the stuffs on the bedside table.
"What the hell!" I screamed and launched myself at him. But he was way stronger than I was. Though he couldn't take anything, he broke a few vials which feel from his hands. As he jumped off the window I cursed at him loudly and took the vials off the ground. These were mom's medications. What on earth did he want with these?
Granma and gramps rushed to the room and found me examining the broken vials. I kept smelling them. One of them smelled very familiar. Like in one of those senior party I attended. What did Candace say the name? Granma called for Jeremy and he pulled me out of the pool and took me to my room. he didn't even say any word. He just kissed my forehead and shut the door.
Cocaine.
That was the name of the drug. But it wasn't supposed to be in my mom's medication. That guy came to take the vials. They messed up in supplying. Because of their fault, my mom died.
They killed my mom.
The next day at the funeral, when I was giving the speech I saw someone at the back of the audience. His eyes both having 2 different colors. One green and one blue and having a lean strong body. Just like the guy in my mom's bedroom last night. My mind became cloudy with rage as I started screaming, "You killed my mother." I ran after him only to find him nowhere to be seen.
Noah tried to stop me. But I was already out of my mind. My mother wouldn't have been dead. I started suspecting everyone. I knew what happened to my mom. They will be here to destroy me just like those vials. But I will be on my guard.
"Jenny wake up, we have to go now." I spring my eyes open and to find Noah going through my stuff and stuffing things on my backpack.
I sit upright and recall the dream I just had. "I remember, Noah. I remember everything. Cocaine, my mom's medication. Illegal drug companies."
"I know Jenny. I found your diary after you were sedated. Jeremy declared it was best for you to forget everything. So we burned the diary."
"Yeah, my green diary." I felt weird that even when I was out of my mind, i managed to write everything on my diary.
"Your gut, Jenny. Your gut made you right the diary and help us know the truth. But we let it go because the responsible criminals were already punished. There was nothing more we could do. Now hurry up. We need to leave now," he brought out the nylon rope we used for hiking and hanged in around the backpack.
"Where the hell are we going?" Why did it look like we were going for a long trip?
"Agent Savvaro just called. Genevie died in the middle of the night."
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We were sitting in the familiar glass room where we sat when Luke was arrested. And by us I meant Noah, me, Skyler and Ivy.
Not Luke
"As you know Ms. Stone passed away in the middle of the night exactly at 2.01 AM. Her death was of natural cause. Her body couldn't function properly to saturate the oxygen given to her. Due to lesser percentage of oxygen saturation, she passed away." She looked at all of us one by one.
"As far as I know, none except you four knew the fact that Ms. Stone regained consciousness. So apparently, one of you did the killing."
"Wait what? You just said she died of natural cause," I said to her and looked at the others. They were just staring at their feet. Like they knew something I didn't.
"According to her oxygen supply rate, the cylinder should have been empty by 6 in the morning. That's when the substitute nurse arrived and found her dead and the previous nurse nowhere to be seen. The fact is that the cylinder had yet quite enough oxygen left in it by then. Which only meant someone turned off the supply in the middle of the night and turned it back on again. As she had her asthma problem, about half an hour was enough for her oxygen saturation level to fall."
My mouth gaped open at her. Then my eyes bolted to Noah. I told him that Genevie was in danger. If I had only gotten to agent Savvaro before, she would have saved her.
"Why aren't you looking for the nurse? She could have done it?"
"She was seen leaving the area way before that with a briefcase in which I suppose her fees were. But the doctor who came to check in her at around 12.30 met the nurse in her room. So apparently someone got rid of the nurse and pretended to be the nurse to kill her."
"Enough with the greetings. I know none of you were involved. Because my fellow agents kept eyes on you the whole time. I am very sorry that you had to go through all that Ms. Ryan. If I just kept my eyes open for a longer time, it would have been the real culprit behind bars rather than Mr. McFrey."
"What do you want from us?" It was Ivy who spoke out.
"The authority has tied my hands. They are going to interrogate Mr. McFrey. They believe it was him and his accomplice who did all the attacks. They believe it's time we stopped the field investigations and started rapping out nets. But I know that there is something graver. I need you guys to attend Ms. Stone's funeral today. Keep your eyes peeled. We are looking for the accomplice. Stay scattered. We don't want anyone to know you guys have formed a pack."
"What about Luke? You have to let him go."
"We'll talk about it after the funeral. Meet me in the woods near the MallO's smoothies."
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"What is she up to?" I asked Noah as we were heading back from the funeral.
"She probably suspects someone. But she can't investigate because of orders. She's trying to use us to solve the case."
"Why us?"
"Because I have brains and you got instincts." I punched him on the shoulder. He could ease whatever tension we had between us in a jiffy. I was mad at him for letting Skyler call Ivy and Ivy calling my grandparents and them calling in the psychiatrist. But as I remembered everything, I knew I would have done the same thing if I had been in his place.
We saw Skyler and Ivy enter the woods and we waited for a few moments. Come on foot and separately agent Savvaro's strict orders. We saw agent Savvaro come out of nowhere once we were all gathered.
"Okay, straight to business. The bracelet Mr. Flickermen gave to be indeed had the symbol branded on the victims. Ms. Ryan congratulations on you thorough examination." I wonder what else I missed while I was asleep. "Did you guys plant your supplies in the woods?"
"We did," Ivy told her. The backpacks we packed were meant in case we could not get back to our house due to safety reasons. So we hid them in the woods.
"I'll say only once and very fast. So listen carefully," she handed us some pictures. As soon as I laid my eyes on them, the air around me became heavier. "That's Riley Cragmaire I believe. She was seen wearing the bracelet probably before it fell of her wrist and somebody put it on a shelf. She was the one who hated Ms. Stone because-"
"Her father was attracted to Mrs. Stone and visited her often. Her mother came to know this and they were having fights at home," Skyler said as her body went rigid.
"Yes. Also, she was rumored to have dated the guy at the mall, Mr. Cooper. Who later threatened her about disclosing something. We found their call records and texts. And as for Mr. Cove, we found her texts in his cell phone. Where she repeatedly asked him to go out with Ms. Hannah. When she found the brand from me, she had to make a desperate target which fell upon Mr. Cove."
I pictured Riley with her tall frame and karate lessons. While we all tried to find a guy with blonde hair, the strong girl kept doing her works. I couldn't believe my instincts were so wrong. But now, it was clear as crystal.
"What do you want us to do?"
"As per my guessing, Ms. Cragmaire was the main attacker. But the one that attacked Mr. Cove had been the accomplice. We found traces of drugs in his punch which made him hallucinate and see Mr. McFrey instead of the attacker. So my point is, five of you are going to the Cove mansion to find the brand. The police does a lousy job and I wasn't allowed during the search. You have to look for hidden compartments and boxes. Day after tomorrow, midnight."
"You're coming with us?" Noah asked.
"No. Don't try to contact me. Give me your phone, I'll save my number in it, she said to Noah and he handed it to her. "I'll have a gun on me and be close by. If I see anything out of ordinary, I'll break in."
"Wait, you just said five of us?" Noah pointed out.
"You need a muscle in the team. I'll make sure the guard's are asleep." She tossed a key towards Noah. My eyes went wide when I saw the inscription on the key.
Station-Cell 4