~~~
“What in the lord’s name is happening here!?” The voice was demanding, extremely pissed off, authoritative, and oh so familiar.
I turned slowly, my headache increasing along with my heartbeat. I gulped as my lips whispered with shock, surprise, and terror. “Mom.”
Behind me, I could hear Colton standing up, equally scared. “And Liam.”
Mike joined us too but his attention was on something else. “And a gun.”
“Mom.” I whispered in horror, staring at the gun in Liam’s hand and then at my mostly fuming yet a bit scared mother.
She stepped forward, Liam right behind her. “Don’t you dare mom me. Digging up your father’s grave, your own father’s grave!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? DID I RAISE YOU LIKE THIS? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? WERE YOU EVEN THINKING!!?”
Unlike typical heroes, Colton wasn’t ahead of protecting me. Instead, he was behind me, using me as a shield. Some boyfriend he is. “Um, there’s a gun.” He meekly uttered, blinking at the gun.
“I can see that.” I whispered back harshly, a bit annoyed that he wasn’t jumping in front of me saying ‘I’ll die for you’ but then again that stuff happens in books, not in real life.
“I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to your mom.” He retorted back.
“I know he has a gun.” Mom replied, “I told him to bring it.”
I frowned in utter confusion. “Why?”
Her eyes narrowed at me and I instantly backed away, prepping myself for a long furious lecture. Colton of course backed away with me, still using me as his personal shield. “Why! Why! Why? Because I have been trying to call my only daughter since three hours and there is no bloody answer. So I called her best friend who also had no freaking clue on the whereabouts but knew it was something to with the case. So being the wonderful mother that I am, I tracked your phone. And just imagine my shock when it pinged in the cemetery. The effing cemetery Racheal? What was I supposed to do? Forget that my daughter is in the goddamn cemetery? So I called Liam, asked me to get his gun just in case. Do you have any idea the thoughts that ran through my head on the way here??”
I just opened my mouth to explain the situation but my mother was on a roll.
“And here I show up only to find my absolutely dumb daughter, her brainless stupid boyfriend.” I felt Colton wince from behind me but kept his mouth shut. “And this cemetery guard who clearly isn’t doing his job right.”
“I am so getting fired.” Mike grumbled, looking down in shame.
I cleared my throat. “Mom-”
“Not another word. Get into the car and the first thing tomorrow I’m sending you into a very strict hostel. You are out of this town away from your friends and boyfriend. This is so not good for my BP.” Mom snapped, barely giving us another glance before turning around and starting to walk out. Liam shrugged an amused smile on his face but followed her.
“Ugh.” I stamped in frustration.
“Run.” Colton whispered.
I turned and frowned. “Huh?”
He nodded in the direction of my mother. “Run, catch up to her and explain everything.”
I sent him a flat smile. ‘Yes because it is that easy.”
Colton rolled his eyes, giving me a slight push.
Gulping down the fear I walked a bit closer and shouted so she could hear it. “Don’t you want to know why we dug up dad’s grave?”
That made her stop, freeze in her place.
Unconsciously my fists clenched with impending fright and my heartbeat rose. I ball of anticipation circled in my mouth and I was more than terrified of what the response would be.
Slowly she turned, her face looked nonchalant but I, being her daughter knew her. There were freckles of hope, dread, and even shame. “No.” She whispered back, shocking all of us. That was definitely not what I was expecting. Another shouting, maybe even a few glares but no?
Not waiting for another minute, I said. “Dad’s body is missing, mom.”
That caught her attention, her eyes blinked registering the words. For a second I thought she already knew this but the look of pure disbelief made me think otherwise. She looked shocked, her eye wide, her jaw dropped, and her breathing in short pants. “W-what?” Her hoarse voice broke.
I moved to the side and so did Colton, giving her a clear view of the dug-up grave and empty coffin. She took a step ahead, shaking her head. “But – but that’s impossible. How? We buried him.” By now she was talking to herself, trying to come to terms with the fact that her husband might or might not be dead. I don’t know which made me angrier.
Mom took another step ahead. “He’s gone? Like really gone.”
I took a few steps towards her, taking her hand in mine and she grateful clutched it, moving ahead. “Yes, mom.” I whispered, fighting back the tears.
This scene was sadly familiar. Me holding mom’s hand as we both fought back our tears and held each other’s hands tightly as if we were the only support for each other. The difference was last time this scene had happened, we were walking away from the coffin not towards it.
She leaned for a clear view and gasped, closed her eyes, and took a step back. “He’s gone.” She whispered, her eyes still closed as her head moved to face the sky. I could see she was still trying to get her feelings in thoughts in check. This was a shock for her, obviously.
“He is.” I whispered back. “But we found this, a clue.”
She took a deep breath and I could see tears lining on her eyelids as she blinked them away and a look of determination crossed her face. “Show me.” This was my mother, the one who felt everything but showed the world nothing.
I took out the crumpled piece of paper and handed it out to her.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she glanced over the words and numbers. Even Liam stood beside her, a confused look on his face.
“What does it mean? Sect. 7. 4. blah blah.” Liam muttered a bit frustrated. “Makes no sense.”
Mom shrugged. “I must mean something or it wouldn’t have been hidden.”
“You know this is inadmissible right?” Liam asked, his lawyer self coming up. “It was achieved illegally.”
Mom narrowed her eyes at him. “I just found out my husband might or might not be dead and that his last case might be connected to this case. Do you really think I give flying fuck about court laws and shit?”
Liam opened his mouth to retort but knew my mother well enough to not make her snap at this time so he wisely shut up.
My mother sent a straight smile at his smart decision and stared back at the piece of paper. After a few seconds, she said. “We have a library, don’t we?”
I blinked at the odd question and nodded. Of course, we had a library. Our family loved to read especially dad, he had all sorts of novels and books starting from mystery thrillers to romantics and Shakespeare. In fact dad was so possessive and neat about it that he had a strict place for every book. The racks were divided into se-
My mouth opened as I finally realized what the code meant. It was a book cipher. Dad loved those!
Sect was the section number in the library, then the row number, and then the position of the book from the left.
I and mom looked at each other, a giddy smile on our faces. “I know the code.” We both shouted together.
Liam and Colton instantly came closer. “What!?”
I grinned and looked at Colton, the sudden urge to hug him was overwhelming and came out of nowhere so instead of answering I just pulled him into a tight hug. It took him and everyone by surprise but I didn’t care, I was closer to figuring out the truth about my father and I was happy which means I had the right to hug my boyfriend. Fake or not, didn’t matter.
And of course, he didn’t seem to mind at all. After Colton got over the shock, he hugged me back equally tight. His arms encircling my waist and his face close to my neck. “That was all of a sudden.” He whispered into my ears, shooting a tingling feeling into my bones.
“I know.” I whispered back.
“I like it.” his lips brushed my ears and I involuntarily shuddered.
“Okay, your mother does not want to see this.” A scolding voice came but beneath that, I could hear happiness and hope.
Reluctantly I pulled away but Colton grabbed my hand in his, taking me by surprise. At my questioning look, he just winked and I hid my smile behind my hair. I wanted to Aww but that would just make me look crazy so I silently followed my mother and Liam to the cars.
“Hey, guys? Um can I come?” the hesitant tiny voice shot in the evening and Mike was standing there. His hands in his uniform pants and a puppy dog look on his face.
“He has been of help.” I said, supporting him. Despite having known him for barely a day, I knew he was a fun guy to be around and definitely someone you could trust. He did help us instead of reporting us.
Mom sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine but you better start hunting for a new job. I’m pretty sure you’ll be fired by tomorrow.”
Mike looked awfully desolated by that fact but shrugged. “Eh, maybe I can become a male stripper.”
The response he got was hilarious.
Mom looked shell-shocked.
Liam looked least interested.
I coughed up a laugh but patted him on the shoulder.
Colton went into a laughing fit, “Sure maybe they’ll call you Magic Mike, innovative huh?”
Mike didn’t look bothered by the sarcastic and unmotivational comments. He just hoped in our car and grinned mumbling something along the lines of ‘Let’s go solve a murder! Woohoo!’
For a guy of over mid-twenties, he acted like he was in his pre-teens.
Mom and Liam were in Liam’s car, Colton was driving with us and although he was no longer holding my hand, he sure passed a few winks and smiles at every chance he got. Mike sat behind, engrossed in his phone but glancing at us, as if analyzing us.
Finally getting agitated by Mike’s constant gaze, I turned with a frustrated sigh. “What?”
He pressed his lips together and tilted his face to the right, blinked at us before asking the question that seemed to be troubling him so much. “Are you guys sure you haven’t had sex yet?”
“Shut up!” was the instant reply from two people and not one word was said after that.
As we neared the house, my feet started tapping with impatience. We were this close to solving the code and I could barely sit inside the car any longer.
My mother definitely felt the same way because right as the car entered the gate, she was out of it, running towards the house, leaving Liam to park the car.
“Go.” Colton said, understating my exasperation and excitement.
I muttered a quick thanks before taking off after mom with a speed my gym teacher would have been proud of.
I saw Josh down the stairs, a half-eaten sandwich in his hand and a confused look on his face. “What’s happening?”
I didn’t reply, I couldn’t. Instead, I motioned him to follow me as I ran to where I knew mom was – dad’s library.
Mom already had the slip of paper in her hand and was looking over the books, trying to find the right section.
“There 7.” I pointed behind her, running towards the section. The library was my safe haven. Whenever I missed dad, or was in a sad mood I would come here, grab a book and a chair and just sit in the corner, reading the book and drifting into another world of imagination. So it wasn’t a surprise that I knew the sections by heart.
“Row 4.” I whispered to myself. “And book 19.” Counting the numbers in my mind I stopped my finger on the 19th book. If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon, one of my favourites and dad’s too.
Feeling a rush of excitement, I grabbed the book off the shelf. Mom was right behind me and I could feel her short breaths of exhilaration fanning my neck.
“CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL WHAT’S GOING ON!?”
We jumped up in shock at the sudden sound. Josh stood with a furious yet confused look on his face, a small piece of sandwich still left in his hand.
I turned to mom hoping she could answer his question because I knew he would get super pissed that we didn’t invite him to go digging. Instead, mom just shrugged and said ‘tell you soon’.
The reply just intensified Josh’s anger, he was just about to speak when Liam, Mike, and Colton entered through the door both panting as if they had run.
“We couldn’t find this place.” Liam answered the question on our faces.
“Hey, sandwich! Thanks!” Mike exclaimed happily, grabbing the small piece of sandwich from Josh’s hand and stuffing it in his mouth.
This was clearly a wrong thing to did, since Josh didn’t share, especially not food.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” He asked angrily, glaring at the person who just swallowed his precious sandwich.
“Oh.” Mike wiped his mouth with a hand and then rubbed that hand on his pants to make it clean and extended it towards Josh. “I am Mike.”
Josh ignored his hand, giving him a death glare. “Don’t give a fuck unless you can perform Magic, Mike. And don’t take my food, it’s mine.”
Mike pressed his lips together, clearly offended but not willing to show it. He took his hand back and shrugged. “Is he always like that?”
I shook my head at him, silently warning him to not fuel my stupidly furious brother’s anger anymore. I was sure another word from Mike and he would explode.
Luckily Colton came to the rescue. “So did you find it yet?”
I nodded and waved the book in front of him.
“That was dad’s favourite book.” Josh muttered, gulping a bit.
“I know.” I whispered, blinking away the memories. You gotta solve the clue Racheal, the clue. I reminded myself. “Mom read the numbers.”
She looked into the paper and took a deep breath, instinctively we all took one with her.
“Page 45, word one.” Mom started.
“It’s a book cipher.” Colton explained, to whom, I don’t know and didn’t care. I flipped the pages till it showed page number 45 and read out the first letter. “The.”
“That’s helpful.” Mom complained in a low voice before uttering the next numbers. “Page 94, 3.”
“That would be-” I froze as I read the word. “-killer.” I breathed out.
There were a few intakes of short breaths. “Page 14, 9.”
“Is.”
“Page 75, word 11.”
“A.”
Colton was writing down the words on his hand with a pen he found somewhere and looked up at me as we almost neared the end of the clue.
I looked at him, smiled, or at least tried to before looking back at the book again.
“Page 37, 14.”
“Am.”
“The killer is a am-” Colton read out, frowning at the incorrect English grammar.
“The last one.” Mom said. Her hands were fisting the paper and I just hoped she wouldn’t tear or damage it. “Page 18, word 15.”
I turned over to page 18 and mentally counted the number in my head. There were five heads all crowded together to get a glance at the last word. The last term and the clue would be solved, we would know who the murderer is, the drug dealer, the one who may or may not have burned my father, the one who created havoc in our lives.
“Butler.” I breathed out.
Everyone took a step back, eyebrows furrowing.
“The killer is a am butler?” Liam asked confusedly. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Colton was still staring at his hand before his head snapped up, his eyes twinkling with excitement and a huge grin forming on his face, showing off his perfect teeth. “It’s not ‘The killer is a am butler.'” He said, delight at solving the last clue evident on his face. “It is ‘The killer is A M butler’ Abel Mackenzie’s butler!”
“Holy shit!” Josh breathed out.
Holy shit indeed.
~~~