“Mr. Vale, you have a call from the police station,” Sue said, standing by the door.
“The station? Can you tell them that I would call them later?” Cade said he was feeling weird about it. He did not know what to expect from the police because today was the questioning.
“It is important,” she said. “And then I would transfer it to you,” she said before closing the door and returning to her desk.
Cade looked down at the intercom with the blinking lights. He took a deep breath before taking out the phone and pressing it to his ears. “Hello?” he said with a squeaky voice.
“Mr. Vale, so sorry for disrupting your busy schedule, but we need you to come in.”
“Me? Come in?” Cade said like he had lost comprehension of what to say. His brain was a scattered mess because he did not know what to expect.
“Yes, the culprit is asking for you,” he said before taking a deep breath and adding. “It seems urgent.”
“Is the culprit supposed to make a request?” Cade asked. “It makes no sense to honour the request of the culprit over the request of the victim,” he added.
“I understand what you feel and why you feel it, but after listening to the testimony of the culprit, I believe that you need to listen to her. If you do not want to meet her, then there would be no issue about it. I highly suggest that you come. You would be glad you did,” the officer said.
“Can you give me a hint?” Cade asked. What could be so important that the police were urging him to come even though they had agreed just to punish the victim and not have any interactions with them?
“I am afraid I cannot, but you would need to hear this. I will, for your sake, detain the culprit for the next six hours before I let her go; I might not be able to keep her in, and then you might not be able to meet her,” he said, like he was doing him a favour. “So should I be expecting you?”
“Can I get back to you about that?”
“I will expect your call,” the man said, and the call dropped dead.
Cade closed his eyes and tapped his head gently. He wanted to call Ophelia to let her know what was going on, but he did not think that was a good idea; she would most likely want him to go, and as much as he was worried about what would happen, he wanted to know who had been stalking him so much all these years as well. He called the officer up immediately and told him that he would be right there.
“Are you headed somewhere, sir?” Sue said as she stood up. Cade had called her to come in on Sunday, which was unlike him; he was a workaholic, but he respected the weekends at least. She could tell he had a lot on his mind, and she wondered why he could not think about those things at home.
“Yes, I have to drop by the station,” he said, walking to the elevator. She followed closely behind him but never tried to overtake him.
“Are you going to be back?” she asked because she had to know so she could know what she had to do.
“I do not think so,” he said, blinking at his reflection on the metallic door as he waited for his elevator to come.
“So can I go?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Also take tomorrow morning off; I will be somewhere important,” he said. He had been contemplating attending Ophelia’s ceremony even though he had yet to discuss it with her. He was sure that she would kick against it, so he made his plans around it.
“Tomorrow morning?” she asked, wondering why he would not want to come to work on a Monday morning.
“Yes, it is urgent; you should take that as compensation for coming in today,” he said with a tone of finality. He was telling her without words that he should not ask any more questions.
He got down and made his way to the police station. He was nervous, but he was sure that there was nothing more to this and his mind was just playing cruel tricks on him. When he got to the station, they invited him to a private room so he could discuss, and when an officer came in with a middle-aged woman who looked prim and proper, he was at a loss.
“Is this Valerie?” he asked, confused. They had told him the culprit was Valerie, and he thought she would be someone his age and not someone as old as this.
“She is,” the man said before seeing himself out of the room.
“Hi Cade I am Valerie,” she said, sitting opposite him with a table separating them. However, if they stretched their hands, they would be able to link hands comfortably.
“You are Valerie,” he said, swallowing the lump in his throat. “And you call me here because you have something to tell me?” He added, and she nodded. “Well, what is it?” he asked, and she cleared her throat, shifting to the edge of the seat.
“I want to, first of all, apologize for doing this. I know it was wrong of me to send those text messages over the years, but I thought that was the only way I could get your attention, and I guess it worked,” she said gently. She carried some kind of grace that was strange to Cade.
“You could have made an appointment with my office and come in like a normal person,” he said, adding the last part with spite. She had to feel it for making him feel strange all these years.
“Your grandfather would have found out and blocked all the possibilities of me doing that.”
“How would he find out, and why would he want to block you out?”
“Because I am your mom.”