Chapter 16

     Elias Pov

My phone suddenly rang while I was sitting quietly. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Mrs. Holloway calling. For a moment, I wondered why she was calling me. I had not been going to work for the past few days, so I already knew she might be worried about me.

I picked up the phone and answered.

“Hello, Mrs. Holloway.”

“Hey, Elias. How are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine, ma’am,” I replied, even though I knew I was not completely fine.

There was a short silence before she spoke again.

“If you are fine, then why haven’t you been coming to work for the past few days?”

I knew I could not avoid the question forever, so I decided to tell her a little of the truth.

“I’m not feeling very well. That’s why I have been on treatment for the past few days.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that, Elias,” she said. Her voice immediately became softer. “Maybe I should come and visit you after work. While I’m coming, I can make some muffins for you.”

A small smile appeared on my face.

“Thank you, Mrs. Holloway, but I’m not at home. I went to stay with a friend.”

“Oh, I see,” she replied. “Well, take care of yourself, Elias. Your muffins will still be here, so make sure you get better and come for them.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I will.”

We ended the call, and I placed my phone on the table.

Immediately after I ended the call, Ortega came into the room. He looked at me carefully before asking how I was doing.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“I think my arm is feeling much better,” I replied. I looked down at it for a moment before continuing. “After everything that has happened, I think I should have the strength to control the Force soon.”

Ortega looked at me and smiled. I could tell he was happy that my arm was getting better.

“We both know you have been through a lot,” he said. “But we still have work to do.”

He picked up the broken cassette we had found in the building the night before.

“Well, I need to repair this broken cassette we found in the building last night.”

The moment he mentioned the cassette, I became interested.

“That’s great,” I said. “Find an old cassette player and let’s play the audio. Maybe we will find something useful. There could be a clue hidden inside it.”

Ortega frowned.

“That’s the problem, Elias. We need to find an old cassette player. Most people don’t use them anymore.”

I thought for a moment.

Then, suddenly, I remembered something.

“Wait,” I said. “I know someone who has one.”

Ortega looked at me.

“Who?”

“Mrs. Holloway. My colleague at work drives a 1980 car model, and I’m almost sure the car still uses a cassette player.”

Ortega's face changed immediately.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go. We don’t have time to waste.”

I nodded and stood up.

The moment I moved my arm, I felt a sharp pain. I tried not to show it, but Ortega noticed.

“Careful,” he said.

“I’m fine.”

He came closer and helped me move my arm gently so I could put on my jacket.

Then he looked at me with a teasing smile.

“Is this how you plan to become a Force man?”

I laughed.

“Better than becoming one while sitting on a couch.”

Ortega laughed too.

After that, we left the house and got into his car. We drove straight toward the quarantine house.

The journey was quiet for most of the way. My mind was filled with questions about the cassette. I kept wondering what kind of message could be hidden inside it and whether it would finally give us a clue about everything that had happened.

When we reached the Auction house, I decided not to go inside.

I did not want anyone to see the condition of my arm. I also did not want people asking questions that I was not ready to answer.

So, I stayed with Ortega while he went closer to the house.

By then, it was already around lunchtime.

Ortega got out of the car and suddenly noticed Mrs. Holloway coming out of the auction house. She was getting ready to go and buy lunch.

He quickly came back toward me.

“Elias, that’s Mrs. Holloway.”

I looked in her direction.

“Call her,” Ortega said.

I took out my phone and called her.

A few moments later, she answered.

“Hello, Elias. How are you?”

“I’m getting better, Mrs. Holloway.”

“That’s good to hear. But what are you doing here?”

I looked at Ortega.

Then I quickly tried to think of an excuse.

“Just look at your left. You will see me in a car.”

She turned around and looked toward us.

When she saw me, she smiled and walked over.

She approached our vehicle and looked at both of us.

“What brings you here?” she asked.

I knew I needed to think quickly.

Ortega leaned toward me and whispered, “What will you tell her?”

“Leave that to me,” I whispered back. “I have a degree in lying.”

He smiled and shook his head.

Mrs. Holloway reached the car and looked at me.

“Hey, Elias. I’ve missed you. What brings you here when you are supposed to be resting and getting better?”

I quickly came up with an excuse.

“Well, our car broke down, so I wanted to borrow your car because I’m going for a checkup at the hospital.”

Mrs. Holloway looked worried.

“Oh, then I’ll drive you to the hospital myself.”

“No, no,” I said quickly. “Please don’t stress yourself. My friend here can help me out.”

She looked at Ortega and then back at me.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be fine.”

She thought about it for a few seconds before reaching into her pocket.

“Alright. But please be careful.”

She handed the car keys to me.

I took them and smiled.

“Thank you, Mrs. Holloway.”

“Drive safely,” she said.

I nodded with a smile.

“Of course.”

Ortega quickly hurried me away before she could ask any more questions.

We got into Mrs. Holloway’s car, and I looked at the old dashboard. Just as I had remembered, the car still had a cassette player.

I looked at Ortega.

“I told you she would have one.”

He smiled.

“You were right.”

We started the car and drove away from the quarantine house. Once we were far enough away, Ortega took the repaired cassette and carefully placed it into the cassette player.

Then he pressed the button.

The machine made a small clicking sound before the tape began to play.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but a little noise from the old recording.

Then a voice suddenly came through the speakers.

“Listen closely, my friend.”

Both Ortega and I became completely silent.

The voice continued.

“A shadow has fallen across our house. The second branch of my family tree now sees the sun while planning to prune my existence. He waits with a hidden frost, waiting to bury my remaining warmth.”

I felt a chill run through me.

The words were strange, but they sounded serious.

Then the voice continued.

“My own blood is sharpening a blade for my heart.”

Ortega and I looked at each other.

Neither of us spoke.

The recording continued for a few more moments before it ended.

I sat there quietly, trying to understand what we had just heard.

“What do you think it means?” I asked.

Ortega shook his head.

“I’m not completely sure.”

I looked at the cassette player.

“Play it again.”

He pressed the button, and the audio started again.

This time, I listened even more carefully.

The words were still difficult to understand, but one thing became clearer to me. The person speaking seemed to be warning someone about betrayal from within his own family.

When the recording ended again, I slowly leaned back in my seat.

“It’s hard to understand,” I said. “But if I have to guess, I would say that someone who was related to Lorenzo Morreti was the mastermind behind his death.”

Ortega remained silent.

The idea sounded frightening.

If I was right, then Lorenzo Morreti had not simply been killed by an enemy from outside. Someone connected to his own family might have been involved.

And that made everything much more complicated.

I played the audio again.

This time, I took out my phone and recorded the message so we would have our own copy.

After recording it, I saved the file carefully.

“We should keep this,” I said. “We might need it later.”

Ortega nodded.

“We definitely will.”

We then drove back toward the quarantine house. When we arrived, I thanked Mrs. Holloway for allowing us to use her car.

She was also kind enough to give us the muffins she had mentioned earlier.

“Make sure you eat something,” she told me.

I thanked her again before we left.

After that, Ortega and I returned to his house.

By the time we arrived, I was already hungry. We had been moving around for hours, and all I wanted was to sit down and eat.

At Ortega’s house, we had lunch together.

For a while, neither of us spoke about the recording. We were both still thinking about the strange words we had heard.

Finally, Ortega broke the silence.

“This audio shows that there is a middleman in the Morreti Syndicate.”

I looked at him.

“I think so too.”

He continued.

“This makes more sense now because everyone and all the killings that happened around that time seem to be connected somehow. We may have been looking at the wrong people all along.”

I slowly nodded.

The more I thought about it, the more confusing everything became.

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

Still, I did not want us to make a decision too quickly.

“Let’s not conclude anything yet,” I said. “Things may soon take another turn. We need to find more evidence before we decide who is behind everything.”

Ortega nodded.

“You’re right.”

I picked up my food and continued eating.

For the first time in a while, I felt like we had finally found a small piece of the puzzle.

But I also knew that finding one piece did not mean we understood the whole picture.

Somewhere out there, someone knew the truth.

And until we found that person, the mystery surrounding Lorenzo Morreti, the Morreti Syndicate, and the strange cassette would remain unsolved.