Watch your back!

The Lexus Jeep came to a halt at the beginning of Murray street, there in Salt lake City. The car was parked in a nicely flowered compound with a building in its middle.

The building wasn’t an ancient one, it looked newly built with a large lamp by its side.

A man was hovering by the door way, he had a phone in hand and was talking over it.

She stepped out of the car and hurried to him. “Hey Paul, what’s it you wanted to show me.”

Paul frowned and welcomed her in, clearing way for her passage into the main building. “Come in Anna and see for yourself.”

The last time she had visited Finn’s building was at his family get together party where he had introduced her to his family as his fiancée, but now it looked so abandoned with an alarm clock beeping so loudly at the far end of the parlor.

She tried finding out what Paul was going to show her but it was up to no avail as nothing looked so interesting to deliberate on.

“Here Anna,” Finally, Paul called. He was standing in the dining room.

Anna walked there and sighed. “Okay.”

“You sat on this table on Finn’s party the other day,” Paul pointed at the chair by his side. The dining had six chairs on it.

She nodded.

“And you playfully mocked a lady who was in the party, the one that couldn’t stop staring at you awkwardly.”

“Yes. Stop being so creepy, go straight to the point.”

Paul smiled. “Patience Anna. That lady was the only person that wasn’t introduced to you in that party and when you asked Finn, he said…”

“She’s family,” Anna completed. “She did look like family.”

“Maybe, but not the way you put it. She is Gloria Martins by name and she was Finn’s fiancée and now, wife.”

Anna fell on the chair. “Was that the reason she was looking at me so strangely. But how can a fiancée watch her fiancé get engaged to another lady. Is this all a plot?”

“I thought as much that’s why I had to go deeper into this and I found this inside a flower vase in Finn’s room.” Paul was holding a device, it was a sound recorder. “Listen.”  

Anna put her ear closer to the device as Paul played it.

“Yes Finn, just do this for us, for the team… you know I really love you and I can’t watch that evil lady bring you down, she can never bring you down.” The recorder went off.

Paul sighed. “I think Finn was part of a club or something and they saw you as a threat.”

“I think you’re overthinking this Paul,” she stood up. “Finn had only one job and that was the one I created for him, the brewery job.”

“What if he had another job, a dirtier job?”

“I know Finn so well he was always focused on his job at the brewery factory.”

Paul looked so irritated as he grabbed her elbow. “If you knew Finn so well then you wouldn’t have had him as a life partner.”

“Stop it Paul!” she shook his hand off her elbow. “Who was the woman talking?”

“I think it’s Gloria, but what’s the team they were talking about?” he bit his lips and sat on the sofa, focused on the face of the woman in front of him.

Anna didn’t give a reply, she just scoffed and walked away. She climbed the stairs and headed for Finn’s room. The loud beep of her mobile phone came on as she picked the call. “Hello Diana?”

“Hello Ma'am. How are you doing today?”

Anna walked into the room and replied. “Great. Yes, great. You?”

“I’m fine. Reporter Seth brought in another news today ma'am, a more interesting news.”

She sat on the bed. “Okay? Speak.”

“The lady, Karen, who got molested by Mr. Sergio has been kidnapped.”

“What!” she exclaimed with mouth agape. “Wasn’t the police supposed to protect her?”

“Unfortunately ma'am, according to her mother, Emily Jonathan, she had taken her to the clinic to get examined when Karen pleaded to use the restroom, she discovered Karen didn’t show up for fifteen minutes and went to see things herself but couldn’t find Karen anywhere.”

“John is behind this,”  she whispered. “I hope it’s an accurate news.”

“Yes ma'am, the police had confirmed it accurate, and since her mother, a witness had spoken and necessary steps has been carried out it’s accurate.”

“Alright, work on it and get it published.”

“Yes ma'am.”

“And please be careful, it isn’t safe out there.”

“Thanks. Goodbye.”

She hung up and stood to face the person staring at her, the one in the mirror, a beautiful image of a severely rejected young woman, who has no one to call a partner, a life partner.

Anna stared at Finn’s portrait on the wall, his blonde hair resting on his left eye. She looked outside the window and saw the garden where they used to go on a Sunday morning before praying to the Lord.

“I know you miss him.”

“Yes I do Paul,”  she turned to see Paul sitting on the bed. How on Earth did he do that? “But I have a bad news.”

“Your dad froze your account?”

She chuckled. “No, even worse.”

“John?” 

Anytime she said that, it was about John.

“I kind of confronted him at the bar today and few minutes ago, Karen was confirmed missing, she has been kidnapped.”

Paul looked at her in disappointed. “ I told you to stay away from him.

“He stepped on my toes, he mocked me.”

“And you got Karen kidnapped.”

She didn’t talk back at him, he was right, if she hadn’t said anything stupid then Karen would still be a free woman. “I’m sorry.”

“Now we have to find out about this Finn’s team of a thing and about Karen’s kidnap,” he stormed off angrily.

She bit her lips and buried her face in her palms. The day was becoming worse, she caressed the portrait with her bare fingers, wearing a smirk on her pretty face. “You wouldn't have betrayed me Finn, I still trust you and I don’t believe all what everyone says.”

Anna walked to the closet and opened it, sniffing his abandoned clothes. “I love you Finn, I love you.”

Her hair was already dampened by the heat, she walked out of the room into the parlor, Paul had walked out. “He is more concerned about a foolish team, but as for Gloria Martins, I’ll find her and deal with her so badly that she won’t live to tell the story.”

She grabbed her purse and walked away.