Her Silent Cries Page 5

  It was not exactly a library but it was a big room with lot of bookshelves fitted in the wall. There was a fireplace and cozy armchairs. Collins sneaked behind a tall Christmas tree near the door and listened.

  “No one would see a ghost tonight. What a shame!” Flora was saying to someone whom Collins could not see.

  “What if someone does?” The second voice was muscular and oddly familiar, but he could not recognize it immediately. “I am not saying that someone will but what if?”

  “Poor Alexander will get a heart attack.” She laughed.

  “Then I think we should make that happen.” The man said playfully and Flora said, “Ouch”. Collins heard a kissing sound.

  “Behave yourself.” Flora said breathlessly.

  “I am perfectly behaving like myself.” The man's voice had a touch of sarcasm.

  “Not here. Anyone can come anytime. I am going now.”

  “You are my master. You can do anything you want.”

  Collins heard the footsteps getting closer to him but Flora passed him without feeling his presence.

  “You can come out of there, Inspector.”

  Collins jumped out of the tree startled. The voice had now got a face.

  “You can call me Collins.”

  Richard Brenghoum was standing near a fire place holding a book in his hand. His face had a touch of melancholy tonight. He had taken off his coat and tie. With folded sleeves and a foot on the fireplace, he looked as if he was the true master of the house.

  “I like calling you Inspector. You don't look like a cop. You look like a college boy. You have given a human face and feel to your institution.”

  Collins read the title of the book in his hand. “My Loathsome Liege.”

  Richard sat on an armchair; Collins followed him.

  “This is one of her finest. Listen to this:

  He took me in his arm and forced me with his charm;

  I could never imagine that he would intend me any harm;

  First, he took my honor then he made my fears bigger;

  I lost all I behold dear in the room without color.”

  “Is this poetry?” Collins asked.

  “It was Ursula's style to mix poetry with prose.”

  “Was?” Collins searched Richard's face for any kind of emotion. Richard closed the book and looked into fireplace for a while.

  “She is gone, Inspector. I can assure you that. All that is left of her is her words-her silent cries.”

  12

  He was staring in the fireplace when he got a message from Fox. He was asking him to meet him at the front lawn. The front lawn of the Governor House was full of Christmas trees and snowmen. There were hardly any people in the open air except for those who were willing to tolerate the chilled breeze of late December night just to talk to each other. Collins watched the building with keen interest. On this very night last year, a ghost was seen in one of the windows of the castle. The house staff had only decorated the exterior of the area which was currently in use and left everything else. The dark, abandoned windows which were not used for centuries gave an eerie look beside modern architecture wrapped in lights. He wondered where was Fox and what he was doing.

  A large number of security staff was outside keeping an eye on any unusual activity. One of them looked suspiciously familiar. He dawdled lazily across the lawn to take a good look at him. It was none other than Nathan, another assistant of Fox, with very light makeup. Oh! So, the entire team is working. Collins relaxed his shoulder and walked away.

  He didn't have to wait for long. Fox arrived in a full black formal wear. Collins felt he was wearing arms.

  “Really? They let you keep yours?”

  “I have taken special permission for that. Anything interesting?” Fox rubbed his hands together. It was freezing outside. Collins didn't know why, but he felt furious looking at his handsome face.

  “The whole team is working and you didn't tell me. Do you have any idea how tense I was? And what is Nathan doing here?”

  Fox snorted. “Chill. You are the charmer in the team. You are the one to make them believe that we are still stumbling in the dark. So, what's the scoop?”

  “I think Richard is having an affair with Flora or at least was having an affair.”

  “Richard and his affairs!” Fox took a deep breath. “I would be very disappointed with myself if Richard turns out to be the real culprit in this case.”

  “Why? You are not suspecting him? You are still not suspecting him?”

  “Now these are three questions. I have not ruled him out but I don't think he is our guy. Have you checked the ties of the security staff?”

  Collins looked at him as if he had suddenly lost his marbles.

  “Are we here to check ties?”

  “We are definitely here to check all types of ties.” Fox chuckled. “But look closely.”

  The mark of the security team was black coats and red ties with badges pinned on their chests. Collins felt something was familiar. Even when he was eyeing, he had felt something different-something familiar. He strolled lazily to take another good look at one of them... and then it clicked.

  The tie. The red bloody tie. It was the same fabric they found in Ursula's car and on their way to Jacobsville. He smiled at Fox standing at a distance watching him who smiled back at him. They were on the right track. Now, the Governor House was completely connected with the kidnap of Ursula Bates.

  He walked back to Fox who was busy lighting a cigarette.

  “So, one of them have done it?”

  Fox didn’t reply for a while and silently stared at the smoke coming out of the end of his cigarette.

  “Look at this guy. No, don’t turn your head. The heavy weight head of security with a headset.”

  Collins subtly turned his head to take a look.

  Fox continued. “He is the previous chief of police of Pitmedden and was charged with on-duty manslaughter few years back. He got sacked from his position and almost immediately got this appointment. It turned a lot of heads in the circle of law enforcement.”

  Collins listened to him carefully, “so he is our guy?”

  Fox laughed for the first time in the evening. “Why are you so obsessed with finding ‘our guy’”?

  At that moment, a loud shrilled voice echoed around them. “Mooooooooooooooooooooooom!” All the guests on the lawn got startled and looked around.

  “There. She is up.” Someone yelled.

  They all looked up together to their horror. A girl was standing on the window sill of a dark window of the old castle. She was white from face to toes and Collins felt a cold chill down his spine.

  “Moooooooooooooooooooom!” She screamed again.

  “Becky!” Flora came running out of the house. Someone must have told her.

  Rebecca. It was Rebecca. Collins had only met her few times and it was difficult to recognize her in that white ghostly dress.

  “Moooooooooom! She is calling me.” She sobbed this time.

  “Becky! No-please no.” Flora yelled at the top of her voice. “Someone please-please take her down.”

  Guests were chattering with each other worrying about how to take her down. Collins gave a worried look to Fox who gestured him to stay where he was.

  “Moooooom! She is asking me to jump. She wants me to come with her, Moooom!” Two hands came from behind and dragged her inside. The security staff had managed to arrive in time.

  “Come with me.” Fox whispered to Collins.

  All the guests hurried inside to get the first-hand news of the situation. Alexander Jackson was not in mood to entertain them anymore. He stretched his hands and spoke in his booming voice.

  “Ladies! Gentlemen! I apologize if the events of tonight cause you any discomfort. My family is in dire need of some personal time and they need me right now. We are doing everything to make sure that my daughter is in safe and secure environment. Please make yourself home and allow us to take a leave.” As soon as he
finished talking, he walked up the giant staircase without looking at anyone in particular.

  Fox caught the eye of his head of security.

  “I thought the old castle was completely barricaded.”

  “This is true.” The heavy man watched Fox lazily as if he was wasting his time.

  “Then how she got up there?”

  “She put a hole in the wall.” He said and walked away.

  Collins chuckled. “He thinks we are idiots. She hammered down a wall in this condition? With what? A wrecking ball?”

  Fox clicked his tongue. “Let's go. Nothing more here to see. The act is over.”

  “Wait a minute.” Collins followed him to outside. “You expected that?

  “I expected that something would happen and it did.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the back. We are getting inside. Don't you want to see the real ghost?”

  13

  The Pitmedden castle was built around twelfth century and it kept getting abandoned by the local rulers for one reason or another. It was spread over hundred thousand square feet out of which only ten thousand square feet was inhabited by the current administration.

  Fox and Collins took a refuge in an all-night cafe situated nearby and waited for the midnight to fall. The decorated front portion of the castle was visible from distance. Collins watched through the glass panes of the cafe as the dignitaries left one by one. The building of the castle looked even uglier from distance despite all the modern upgrades. It looked rotten as if something was dying inside it.

  Almost after two hours, Fox received a call. He kept listening to it without interruption then put it down.

  “She was drugged.” He told Collins.

  “I guessed that but who did it?”

  “You would be surprised to find out. I checked the list of medicines you got through Hilda. Most of the drugs are anti-anxiety medicines to keep her calm except for today. I put Nathan in the security team specially to keep an eye on Rebecca, to make sure no one messed with her medicines. But someone did. Someone gave her LSD. He confirmed that no one entered her room before the attack.”

  Collins thought, “by no one he meant no one from the staff?”

  Fox sighed, “which only leaves her family and friends.”

  “except for today? Huh.”

  “Someone wanted to have a scene tonight to scare someone.”

  “But the question is to scare whom?”

  Fox mumbled. “I think I know whom. The question is why. In this case, I am still struggling with the why.”

  When the clock struck twelve, they moved. The cold breeze of the Christmas night was enough to freeze their blood, but they kept walking. They had covered their head and ears heavily to protect them from cold and recognition both. What they were about to do was clearly illegal. They were going to search a private property without warrant which just happened to be the residence of a sitting governor. Walking behind Fox, Collins wondered whether this was the last time Fox managed to avoid legal troubles.

  The back of the old castle was completely abandoned. There was no building insight as far as he could see. The walls went straight up to fifty feet. Fox stood there for a moment looking at the fortified wall then he took out a bottle from his pocket. He poured a dark brownish liquid on a side in a square foot area and sat down.

  “It will take some time.”

  Collins looked at the security camera above their heads and wondered. Nathan must have taken care these.

  “What will we do until then? That old fart must be in a heated room with his wife who is of daughter's age, and we are here under the open sky freezing our asses. Why don't we get things according to our age?” Collins accompanied Fox on a cold stone complaining in the same breath. He was grateful that there was no snowfall tonight.

  “I don't like this case.” Fox said with a grim face.

  Collins felt surprised to hear that. “Really? I thought we were going to catch the criminal.”

  “For what? What is the crime of this case? What is the big bang moment? We are brought here-practically dragged by hand and I hate this. I will never forgive them.”

  “Them? Who are you talking about?”

  “Leave it. Let's see why they want us here.”

  A slight force applied to the area soaked by Fox earlier was enough to break it off in small pieces. The empty space was enough for a man to crawl inside easily. After getting in, they took out the torches and looked around. It was just empty stone rooms around them deprived of any furniture or fixture.

  “Pick a finger.” Fox stretched three fingers at him.

  “How old are we again?” Collins picked the middle one.

  Fox picked the corridor in front of them.

  “Is it just me or there is absolutely no dust on the floor?” Collins observed throwing torch light around them. There were no cobwebs or dusty surfaces. “Do you ever have this feeling when something is abandoned but not unused?”

  Fox didn’t answer and kept walking ahead; Collins could now pick a whiff of hot mouth-watering chicken mix with perfume. They were getting closer to the residential area.

  “We need to find a courtyard now, and a headless horse statue.” Fox sighed.

  Collins rubbed his hands together. “If I die here, put my head on that horse.”

  “Well then your headless ghost will give company to the local ghost.”

  They searched the castle and bickered with each other in the pitch-dark castle, corners got illuminated occasionally when they threw their torch light at a specific object.

  “I have heard that locales can be xenophobic at times, especially if it is a medieval ghost. I hear they can be really picky about their companions. She won't like a heathen ghost living here posing a threat to her horse-and-buggy values.” Collins chattered trying to feel less scared of the spookiness around.

  “Horse-and-buggy? Is it a euphemism for marriage?” They finally arrived at the statue of the horse. “There it is.”

  From there, it was not difficult to find out the stone stairs going down.

  Fox whispered to him. “Don't talk now.”

  They turned off the torches and started the downward steep carefully. They had barely touched the surface of the basement level when someone threw a torch light at them.

  “What are y-?” He had not even finished talking when Fox punched him to unconsciousness. Collins quickly picked the torch dropped by him and threw the light at his face. It was one of the red ties. They tied his hands and feet with his own tie.

  “There can be more.” Fox muttered.

  The guy had come from the double door of a hall in front of them which was definitely in use by people with the tables and chairs lying around, a shelf with storage disks lined up and also a vault.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Collins threw the light around.

  “Look ... there is an elevator. It must be for people who did not want to enter the governor house officially.” Fox pointed in a corner. “Direct access to certain people.”

  “But access to what?”

  “There is another room.”

  This room was smaller and comprised of just a bed, a couch, wall drapes and cooking utensils. It also had a large screen covering an entire wall. Surprisingly everything was black.

  “The room without color.” Collins muttered.

  Fox found the remote and turned on the screen. The screen displayed a number of options which Collins could only think of as the number of hard disks outside. Fox kept exploring down to its roots which was full of videos. They exchanged a meaningful glance with each other and Fox played one of them, then another, and then another. They were all full of the similar stuff. The videos were shot in this very room with a different girl every time. The man was the same-a muscular man with a lion tattoo on his left arm wearing a red dragon mask.

  “The crimson fire.” Collins whispered. Fox nodded.

  Despite, the acts looked consensual, the girls de
finitely looked underage. The entire setup reeks of a woman trafficking racket. Fox quickly dialed a number on his mobile.

  “Code red. I repeat code red. Don't let anyone out of sight.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  “I have brought feds. The local police cannot do anything in this case. Now I want to see who is the guy with the lion tattoo.” Fox grimaced.

  They heard footsteps nearby of someone walking hurriedly. Fox gestured him to hide behind a drape along with him. The man who finally entered the room was panicked and quite easily recognizable.

  “Peter! Peter!” He screamed. “The police are here.”

  Fox came out of the hiding holding his service gun in his hands, “and here too.”

  Collins also followed suit quickly covering the door to block his escape.

  The man looked puzzled, “What do you want?”

  “I just want to see your arm, Mr. Governor.”

  He eyed both of them one by one as if trying to digest that he was actually surrounded by two police officers.

  “Do you have an arrest warrant?”

  “I am an arrest warrant myself.” Fox grunted.

  Collins came from the back and tore his shirt from his left arm. The lion tattoo stared back at them.

  ◆◆◆

  Fox was in very bad mood the next morning. He was in a heated argument with the federal chief of police at a local police station. Peter, the security head of the governor house, had the same identical tattoo on his left hand and had made a confession to all crimes. He had even promised to reveal the whereabouts of all the girls sold through him including Felicia. Alexander Jackson was not a small man whom they could keep in custody without any other evidence. He had denied all the charges and blamed police for trespassing in his private property.