His Conundrums

Chapter 28

An Attack From The Unknown

Joe went to the kitchen. The countertop was made of a solid slab of granite with four steel chairs. He has a 3-door side by side matte black refrigerator on the right side of his kitchen sink. His hanging cabinets are painted white paired with golden knobs. His left was made of a full glass, which you can enjoy the afternoon view of the city with his small potted and hanging plants around each corner. He has a series of jars sorted out by size. Joe took a handful of cookies from its cookie jar and some candies. He noticed some jar filled with dried leaves and some potted plants are planted with green leafy veggies.

“He’s quite a healthy living man,” Joe remarked. Enjoying the luxury he dreamed of having.

“But why?!” Joe almost crushed his cookie when Sirius suddenly popped out from nowhere.

“God! Could you stop doing that? Are you a mushroom?” Joe asked him.

“This… This plant Joe! I thought that this could be something.” He said, pointing out a plant in a small pot. The pot doesn’t look like any other pots displayed. It still has a ribbon and a tag saying ‘Get well soon, bud.’

“I told you, sometimes our intuitions are wrong.” Sirius looked at him with his eyes searching for something. Joe raised his right eyebrow giving Sirius a mischievous look, and turned around eating his last bite of cookie. He saw a plant he saw once before. Maybe being a botany teacher’s assistant paid off.

“Is that a yarrow plant?” he asked Sirius, but it turns out as he asked himself. Sirius looked thoroughly through each of its features, from the flowers to its roots.

“It’s not yarrow. It’s hemlock,” he said, looking at Joe.

“A hemlock? How could it be? Mr. Hiro told us he gave…” Joe realized something. “…Mr. Sting a medicine, but it’s not,” he continued.

“I told you, this plant is something.” Sirius gave him the same look Joe gave him.

Sirius saw how Joe’s eyes went bigger. He stopped midway from biting another cookie while his mouth was still full. He pointed out something on Sirius's back, which made Sirius turned around and immediately avoided a powerful attack.

They were interrupted by two men who suddenly popped out of the bedroom. They were wearing black from their cap down to their shoes.

“Who are you?” Sirius asked them while getting his fist ready. The man didn’t reply. Instead, he gave him another blow. Luckily, Sirius was too quick to read his movements and moved away.

“Joe! Help me out.” Joe was still holding his cookie in his right hand and can’t speak. The other man, who wears black, hid something in his pocket and looked at Joe. Joe took a step back and didn’t know what to do.

“I… I don’t know how to fight,” he said. His eyes were restless, and his mind couldn’t process everything. He’s been a thief almost all his life, but he’s never been involved in such fights. He said, “I’m a thief, not a street fighter.”

“Use your head and your instincts,” Sirius told him while struggling from his fight.

Joe, on the other hand, had the longest stare fight with his opponent. The man in black suits looked at Joe and the cookie he was holding. “You help me out,” he said to Sirius as he ran around the kitchen while the other man tried to catch him. He took the cookie jar he’s been stealing with and threw it over. He didn’t even bother to look back. He heard the glass shattered on the floor and a loud thud, but he saved his life first and his cookie. He locked himself to the bedroom, leaving Sirius behind.

“Who sent you here?” Sirius tried to exchange blows with his opponent. He’s not bad, but he’s not good either.

“You’re a loyal servant, aren’t you?” He landed a quick punch on his opponent’s face but openly received a massive one that made his nose bled. He can taste the stain-like red liquid on his mouth. He spitted it out. He saw the other man lying on the floor with broken glasses around him. “He’s lucky,” he blurted out.

He was about to receive another hit again when his hands reach for a wooden rolling pin and wacked his attacker’s head.

“Ouch,” Joe blurted out as he watched Sirius from the door revealing only his head.

Sirius looked at him with a lazy face raising his right eyebrow. “I told you to help me not to hide and save yourself,” he said.

“I did. Look at him.” Joe opened the door and pointed out the man lying on the floor. “Is this the message behind those codes?” Joe asked him while raising the crumpled paper from the trash bin before. “It’s pure luck. What if you didn’t hit him?” Sirius' face went redder. “Is he mad?” Joe thought.

“But I knocked him down,” he said, crossing his arms. “To exist shall pay? What does it mean?” he asked Sirius.

“It means the killer is someone between the partners. The codes came from their Articles of Partnership. No one has a copy of it except the partners.” Sirius went closer to the man Joe luckily knocked out. He took something from his pocket and saw a suspicious round black rubber. He tried to squeeze it, and it split into half, revealing what’s inside. It’s a flash drive.

 Sirius put back the flash drive's cap and saw a small shiny sign, the epsilon. He put it in his pocket and moved away from the body.

“Sirius!” Joe called him from the bedroom. “I found something. Come quick!”

Sirius went inside the bedroom where Joe was. “Look under his bed. The rug was a bit damped, and that’s where that stinky smell came from,” Joe told him.

He reached the floor, and his hands went under Mr. Sting’s bed. Joe did the same on the other side of the bed.

 “It’s dried ice,” Sirius said.