Chapter 10

The next morning…

I opened my eyes in one of Cindy’s spare bedrooms, because the previous night I had refused to sleep in the same bedroom with her. Of course, she was disappointed but I had to sleep in a separate bedroom that night. On the other hand, I’ve been avoiding Charlotte’s phone calls and texts throughout the night. I knew that Charlotte cared about me but her slip of tongue and her short temper always bothered me, it always revealed that she had less respect for me. I wasn’t in the mood for conversations the previous night so the minute Cindy showed me the bedroom and a shower, I just went on to the shower then straight to bed.

My phone rang as I was still on bed, I glanced at it and it was still Charlotte calling. I ignored it and jumped out of the bed then walked out of the bedroom, I just let it ring without picking it up. I put the phone on silent because Charlotte wouldn’t stop calling, she was persistent throughout the night. I checked time on my wrist watch and realized that I still had a few hours before work. Cindy’s house was so quiet so I decided to turn on the TV and the news were on. Cynthia Smith’s picture appeared.

“Cynthia Smith is wanted for the murder of her grandmother and her three children. The family was found dead by a couple who refused to be interviewed on camera and asked to be anonymous. They say that it was a heartbreaking scene that they cannot erase from their minds” the news anchor reported.

I didn’t remember being asked to be interviewed by any journalist except for Detective Smith, I tried to recall but the only person Charlotte and I spoke to that day, was Detective Smith. After seeing this, I realized that the news didn’t really report what was really happening but there was so much propaganda going on.

“These things will depress you” Cindy’s voice came from behind me.

I looked at her as she smiled “Good morning” I said.

“Morning” she replied as she came and sat beside me, “why aren’t getting ready for work?” she asked.

“I will get ready; I still have time” I replied.

“Okay, you’re the boss. But I’m not coming in today” she said.

I giggled as we exchanged glances with me still amazed at the fact that Cindy worked at a bookstore yet she owned such a huge beautiful mansion, how would you even build such beauty with a minimum wage you get from a bookstore.

“How do you afford a house this big? Did you win a lottery or something?” I asked.

Cindy shook her head “No, I didn’t win the lottery. We can say that I got lucky” she replied.

“Lucky?” I asked once more.

“Yeah, I mean I had parents who were wise enough and could hustle. Me and my sister were the only children my parents had and we had everything we wanted. But at some point, I was sent to live with my grandmother because my parents didn’t have much favor upon me. I didn’t understand why I was sent away and I never asked the same question either” Cindy started explaining.

The whole room started getting emotional and her eyes got teary, while I gave her my undivided attention.

“To my surprise, my sister always received the best care from my parents and as for me I was living with my grandmother, sometimes we’d go to bed without food so by the time I was 15 years old I had started dating older men like Lesly, while my father was a millionaire, I mean how does that even happen?” She continued.

“Although my sister received the best care from our parents, for some reason she always found a way to be envious towards my own life. I only went to township schools while she went to rich schools and I slept in a shack every night while she slept in a mansion her whole life but anyway, she still had a reason to be jealous of the little that I had” Cindy added.

“After Lesly stabbed me, my parents decided to take care of me, took me to the best hospitals and by the time I was okay they took me back to live with them as soon as I got discharged from hospital. But to my surprise, Lesly never got arrested and when I asked my dad why, he just told me that people were too scared to testify against him which was a lie because Kat was willing to testify against him” Cindy continued.

I sat next to her wondering why she had to dig out skeletons and show them to me, at that moment I realized that she actually trusted me.

“To cut the story short, my dad gave me this house, the guest house and the restaurant we were eating in that day. I guess this is how he had to say sorry for everything he has done to me” she said as she glanced at me with a tear falling on her cheek.

I wiped her tears with the palm of hand and hugged her.

“I’m going to take a quick shower, I’m already late for work. You can stay home today it’s alright” I said as I got up from the sofa and headed upstairs.

1 hour later…

I was now at the bookstore, sitting in my office still thinking about everything Cindy told me about her past. What bothered me the most was the sister she was talking about, I thought it was Charlotte but I guess I was never going to be sure but there were similarities between them. After a few minutes of me being in my deep thoughts there was a knock on the door.

“Come in” I said.

One of the quietest staff members walked into my office.

“Good morning sir” he greeted me.

“Yeah?” I nodded and gave him a stare as he shyly looked away.

“Sir, there was a lady looking for you” he mumbled.

“Did she say who she was?” I asked knowing very well that he was talking about Charlotte.

“No, she just said that I should tell you to call her as soon as possible” he replied.

“Okay, thank you” I said.

He nodded and left my office, I glanced at the contract that Charlotte gave me then began to have doubts about signing it. I decided to go and check the books we had at the storeroom just to keep my mind busy. I went through the boxes that were there then I accidentally knocked a pile of books down, under that pile of books there was a button. I pressed the button and a secret door opened, behind it there was a passage which seemed like no one used it. I wanted to see where this passage went so, I slowly crawled through it which was a very long passage. There were voices up front so I became as silent as possible as I approached the voices.

I stopped at an entrance of the room that the passage was going to and carefully peeked then realized that the passage way lead to what looked like a laboratory. Not just a laboratory but I assumed that this is where the drugs were actually being manufactured. I took out my phone and captured pictures of everyone who was in the room. More people came into the room. I watched the group that came in, Detective Jones was also in the group then there were few politicians that I usually saw on TV and a guy who distributed his books through our bookstore.

I continued capturing pictures then I crawled back to the bookstore without being noticed through the secret passage way. I returned the books to their original state and rushed back to my office, I sat down and scrolled through the pictures that I captured then realized that the bookstore was really a money laundering scheme. This time I understood why Abigail reacted how she reacted when I asked her about the previous manager of the bookstore.

I could also feel it in my gut that Charlotte knew something about that passage way and what was going on in the bookstore.  My anxiety about signing the contract hit the roof and in my right mind I had no idea what to do at that moment. I had doubts about calling Detective Smith since I saw Detective Jones there, so to me they both could’ve been involved in this drug business.

As I was seating thinking about how these people could be involved in what I have witnessed there was a knock on the door.

“Come in” I said.

The door opened and it was Detective smith holding the books I gave him last time.

“Detective, to what do I owe the pleasure” I shook his hand.

“Hello sir” he replied as he took a seat “thank you very much for these books” he handed the books to me.

“I hope they were helpful” I said as I reached out my hand to take them.

“Yes, thank you very much, I will get going now” Detective Smith said as he was about to get up from the chair.

“No, detective sit down. I would really want to talk to you about something” I insisted that he seats down.

Detective Smith settled on the chair again as I wrestled with myself deep inside not knowing if I was supposed to tell him about what I saw or not.

“What is it?” he asked.

“How is the Cynthia Smith case going?” I avoided the real topic that I really wanted to talk about.

“At the moment we have got nothing” he paused and cleared his throat “It’s difficult to investigate cases that involve rich people. They bribe, blackmail and threaten everyone who might be a threat, so it’s twice as hard to get the truth” he added.

When he mentioned rich people, Charlotte was the first to come to my head. I had no idea why my instinct always pointed her every time anything bad happened but I remembered that she lied to Detective Smith about why we were there that day.

“Rich people?” I added one more question.

“Yes, see there’s a group of rich people and politicians who are in a drug business that is making a huge profit each and every year” he said.

I realized that the headquarters of that business might be just a secret passage away from where we were sitting but for me to tell him, I had to trust him first.

“Are police officers involved in this?” I asked with the intent to let him know that his partner was part of the particular drug business.

“Everyone is involved, even judges and some government officials are involved” he said.

“So how does Cynthia Smith fit into all this?” I asked.

“I have a feeling that she knows something. There’s no way she could’ve killed her own family and then disappear on her own. I’m assuming that someone has kidnapped her but the question is who and why? And they’re already preparing to throw away the case because we can’t find Cynthia” Detective Smith said.

“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked.

Detective Smith cleared his throat “I can’t trust anyone at the police station not even my own partner. So, I’m just giving you the benefit of the doubt. With the hope that you won’t betray me” he said.

I figured out that now I could also trust him. I pulled out my phone and went to the pictures that I captured in the secret laboratory earlier that day.

“I realized that we both need to trust each other so detective I’m going to show you something and you need to keep it to yourself for a time being” I said as I handed him the cell phone with the picture of his partner in the lab.

He took the phone and was astonished as he came across his partner’s picture.

“What the heck?” he stared at me “what is this?” he asked.

“Somewhere around this town, there’s a lab where all these drugs are manufactured and are taken to townships to be sold” I paused and cleared my throat “the exact location doesn’t matter at the moment. I need to know if I can trust you detective” I said.

“If I can trust you, you can trust me” he nodded.

“Okay, then let’s bring these bastards to justice” I said as I extended my hand.

“Thank you very much sir” Detective Smith shook my hand.

He left my office, I glanced at my watch and realized that I had to go to the driving school and finish up my lessons but I was not in the mood for any driving lesson that day. I decided to go home and to my surprise as I was walking out of the store, I found my driver packing right in front of the bookstore while I didn’t call him to come and pick me up. I just got into the backseat and told him to drive me home. When we got home, I walked through the front door. I people heard laughing and talking in the dining room. A voice of a female and a male were laughing and giggling in the dining room.

I walked all the way to the dining room and saw a gentleman seating on the table with a plate of food in front of him. I took a clear look and it was the same middle-aged gentleman that I met at the bar the previous night. I had no idea why he was with Charlotte in our home, my assumption was that maybe they knew each other, Charlotte was a lot of things. When I walked into the room, it became silent then Charlotte stared at me with a smile as if nothing was going on between us.

She approached me “Babe, you must be exhausted” her words were accompanied by a kiss and a smile.

Confusion was all over me because I was not expecting Charlotte to be this happy at my sight because the last time, we saw each other we had an argument and now she was all over me. The Charlotte I knew would give you a silent treatment for the whole month even for the smallest arguments but this time I assumed that she was just pulling an act because of the gentleman’s presence.

I stared at the gentleman and without saying a word back to Charlotte I went to the table and sat on the chair opposite to him.

“We’ve met before?” I asked him.

“Yes, at the bar yesterday” he replied.

Curiosity appeared to be occupying Charlotte’s face, in her silence.

“You guys have met?” Charlotte asked.

I ignored her question “What are you doing here?” I glanced at Charlotte who looked confused.

“I came here to visit an old friend” the gentleman replied.

I stared at Charlotte who seemed to be bothered by the fact that the gentleman and I have met before.

“I was leaving anyway; it was nice seeing you once again old friend” he said glancing at Charlotte.

Charlotte nodded with a smile “Let me walk you out” she offered.

He got up from the chair and winked at me. This guy was very odd, he had one of those sinister smiles and had a suit on like a corrupt government official. Whatever he was doing here was more than just checking up on a friend or maybe I was just doubting him because the day I saw him, he was being followed around by bodyguards but the time I found him with Charlotte he was alone.

I remained sitting down as I watched Charlotte walk him out. I stared at them without moving my eyes as they walked out. Something was very odd about that guy and my instincts weren’t allowing me to trust him. I didn’t want to dwell upon the weird gentleman so I took out my phone and checked my texts, I found detective Smith’s text.

“Steve, I found more information about Cynthia Smith. Meet me at the bar not far from your bookstore, 10 PM. See you there” I read the text.

“Okay, cool” I texted back.

As I was putting my phone away, Charlotte walked in and glanced at me while I stared back at her, she was filled with shame that she couldn’t look back at me. I got up from the chair without saying a word to her, as she stood at the same position she was in after she came back from walking her weird friend out. In my silence, I walked past her but she held me by my hand.

“Babe, wait” she pleaded with me.

“What?” I replied coldly.

“Listen, I was wrong and I’m sorry” she said.

“Oh, today you can acknowledge your wrongs” I sighed.

Charlotte remain silent with her teary eyes starring at me. I walked back to the chair I was sitting on and took out the contract she gave me last time. She opened it and was disappointed to find out that my signature wasn’t on it.

“But you didn’t sign” she said.

“Charlotte, I’m tired” I replied.

She glanced at me with shock, probably surprised that for once in a long time I called her by her name and that annoyed her at times, it was an obligation that in whatever situation I was never supposed to address her by her name, the only name she was to be called by was babe. But this time she was the one begging to fix things with me so she was in no position to fight me for calling her Charlotte that moment.

“I’m tired of you and your nonsense. The only time we fix things, it’s when you want to fix things and besides that it’s always screw me” I paused as tears started falling “and I’m not signing that thing because I know that even if I can own the whole universe, I will never be man enough for you. You don’t respect me” I added.

Charlotte let my hand go and covered her face with both her hands listening to me speak what was in my heart. I gave her a cold stare as she wiped her tears with the palm of her hand, then stared back at me.

“I love you, but sometimes you make me feel like I’m less of a man to you. And I can’t blame you, everything I have is yours. So maybe if I can work on having what’s mine, you’ll respect me but I doubt that” I said.

I looked back at the whipping Charlotte “And by the way, I’m sleeping in one of the guest rooms tonight” I said.

I walked away and left her crying in the dining room as I went to take a quick shower. I stared at myself in the mirror asking myself how I got where I was. Having two of the most beautiful and rich women in our town, being happy with one and being miserable with another one, not knowing who I was and also being in the middle of a drug investigation. I had no idea how I got in that situation and why, I asked myself if the person that I was before losing my memory was also like this. I had so many questions in my head and I was going to find answers on my own.

After taking a shower, checked time on my watch and realized that I had to meet Detective Smith in 1 hour. I put on my track pants and a grey hoody as if I was going for a jog but the aim wasn’t to fool Charlotte about where I was going, even if I was to tell her that I was going for a jog she wouldn’t believe me.

It was now 09:30 PM…

I texted my driver to come and fetch me, I walked out of the front door and Charlotte was still in the dining room probably thinking about everything I said. She glanced at me as I walked out, and I guess she realized that she was in no power to ask me where I was going. My driver was already at the front door waiting for me, so I got into the backseat then he started the engine, we then drove off.