THE BEAUTIFUL MINDS

CHAPTER 9

"Four cups of coffee" said Ronny into his phone.

Ronny and Sarah were still in his precinct. Patrick had gone over along with Rachel to fetch the security cameras from the Louis' mansion. Angela was resting.

Sarah looked engrossed in deep thoughts.

"What are you thinking?" asked he.

"Let us analyse the situations meticulously and one after another" chimed she as she got up and paced.

"Firstly, we know that Angela is not lying because the wounds in her limbs corroborate it. In addition to it, the security has been sedated. Did you inquire him?"

Ronny smirked at her enthusiasm. "Yep. And it was futile. He said he didn't spot anyone or anything out of the blue and everything was as it should be. He didn't even know that he was sedated"

"What if someone from inside the house had done this? Perhaps one of the servants?"

"I was wondering the same. But, the fact is, the guard had bought the coffee from outside. Which means the stalker would have added the sleeping pills into the mug when the guard wasn't noticing"

"But, that doesn't eliminate the fact that someone from inside the house could have done this. It's plausible that the stalker walked out of the house and hid behind some bush to put the pills into the mug"

"If that's the case then why would they need to sedate the guard? I mean, only if the stalker was from outside he has to sedate the guard to get in"

"That's the trick, Ronny. He knew the cops would be there. He didn't want to make it obvious that he is someone from inside the house. He wanted to mislead us"

Ronny rubbed his head. "Do you think I should question the servants?"

Sarah took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know. This is so confusing" she said.

After a few minutes, she looked around to ensure that nobody was watching. Then she went over to Ronny's desk and leaned over it so she could be real close to him.

"You know what, Ronny? I seriously suspect if Mr Louis has got a hand in this" she whispered to him.

"Him?"

"Yes. I think that for some unfathomable reason, he'd wanted to murder his wife and then Richard and now Angela"

"But, why would he do that?"

"I don't know" she said, sounding defeated and sat on a chair. Then, she brightened up again. "What if he is very possessive about Veronica and Rachel?"

Ronny couldn't comprehend where she was heading to.

Sarah sighed out loudly. "Come on, Ronny. Maybe he killed his wife because he loved Veronica. Except if it is someone powerful, no one can erase their names from records"

Ronny nodded. There was a point in what she said.

"And because he loves his daughter, Rachel too much, he would have killed Richard for breaking her heart. And Angela... Maybe she was interfering too much into their family affairs, or maybe Rachel was growing out to love Angela more than him or something like that"

Ronny shook his head. "But, he is in Canberra right now, for a business meet. And so was he yesterday"

"Remember he was powerful enough to erase his name and evidences from the records. If he could do that, he can do this too. Perhaps, he'd influenced one of his servants to stalk Angela"

Ronny wondered if she could be right while Sarah went on.

"Besides, he was here when Richard was murdered. He comes home very rarely. Why would he be here exactly at the same night when Richard was murdered? Is this just coincidence?"

Ronny thought for a moment. "Maybe you are right, Sarah. And that secret meet up with Richard, the night he was murdered, proves your theory could be right"

"I had an employee in the cafe send the whole video of the two talking together" she said and logged into her e-mail account.

"And I found something shocking"

Ronny's brows clenched as he saw the video more closely. In the beginning, it looked like Richard and Louis were having a leisure chat. But, as time passed by, their conversation heated up.

Richard finally got up, spoke something very adamantly to Louis and walked away.

Ronny looked up, shocked.

"There was a brawl" whispered Sarah.

"Hey! Sorry for being late!" Chimed Patrick as he got in.

Ronny made tremendous efforts to come back to the present. "Yeah. Hi!" He said. Rachel smiled at him.

"We've got everything copied into my laptop. Let's take a look" Patrick chirped and opened his laptop.

The four of them scrutinised everything. Every bit of it.

Yet, nothing out of the ordinary.

Suddenly, something struck Rachel.

She asked Patrick to rewind and pause at a pregnant woman talking to the security at the gate.

"What is it?" asked Patrick.

"This is impossible!" she exclaimed.

The others sat up straight. "What is it?" asked Ronny.

"That woman there is one of our maids. She went off for maternity leave two months back. I heard she had her baby yesterday. She couldn't have come to our house"

The rest of them were spellbound.

"Someone has switched everything. We can't believe anything that is on the camera!" exclaimed Ronny.

"Well, Rachel" said Sarah getting up. "I think we should have a word with your father. Could you ask him to leave Canberra on his next flight?"

Rachel shot a perplexed look. "He'd be glad to co operate. But, may I know why?"

The next minute she was staring into Sarah's laptop and watching the CCTV clip that proved Richard had met up with Louis the night he was murdered.

Her eyes bulged and jaws opened wide.

"Father!" she cried.

Later that evening.....

Rachel was in Angela's room caressing her hair.

"How are you?" she asked.

Angela grinned and held Rachel's hand tight. "Better now" she said.

"You seem a little worried about what the cops told you this evening"

"Yeah. I'm wondering why dad would meet up with him. It looked like they were arguing about something."

"You never know, Rachel. Maybe they were talking about something else. You think he would go to the extent of murdering someone?"

"No. He won't"

"So, we'll see. Let him come back"

Just then there was a knock at the door. Rachel walked over and opened it.

It was Patrick.

"Hello" he said in a faint whisper.

"Hello" Rachel replied and let him in.

Angela got up and sat on her bed.

"I came to see if you were fine" he told Angela.

"I'm better now, thanks"

"Hmmm you guys keep talking while I go get some drinks for you" Rachel said, winking at Angela.

Patrick really wasn't in the mood to drink anything. If he didn't want some solitary time with Angela, he would have denied.

He cleared his throat and sat uncomfortably on a chair opposite to her.

"So, I came to see if you were fine" he said with much reluctance.

Angela grinned sheepishly. "Yeah I know. And I told you I'm fine now"

"Oh yeah" Patrick said, smacking himself inside for acting like a fool.

There was a moment of silence and their eyes met. Patrick felt shy and moved his gaze to the wall immediately.

Screw you, Pat!

"So, out of all the people you know, you chose to call me at the time of danger. Why?"

Angela smiled. "That's because you are a cop. And you are the only cop whose number I had"

Patrick was snubbed again. This girl was scaring the hell out of him.

Angela was as nervous as him. But, she had the capability to keep things locked inside her and act very normal outside. The feeling that she was going through was inexplicable. She was dazed, scared and confused at the same time.

Additionally, she also felt sorry for snubbing him.

Patrick moved uncomfortably in the chair. He never knew he'd be such a bad flirt and was afraid of being snubbed again.

But then, what Angela said after a moment made him stare at her in shock.

"Don't you think we should meet up this Saturday night?"

Down the stairs.....

Rachel was pouring mango juice into three glasses.

She knew there was something between Angela and Patrick. She knew Angela too well to not notice it.

All this brought back memories with Richard.

Those precious moments she'll cherish all her life.....