Pools of Blood

Chapter 55

      Angela and I started to dig out every corner for the hidden camera. How did Frank arrived and placed a camera in my home, that I couldn’t understand? There were so many police guards, all patrolling every nook and corner of my building. How he came in, caught hold of my parents, and dragged them away without anyone getting aware of. Then again I remembered how he killed Lenus. How he entered Woori’s chambers in the old age center and slaughtered her. He was the master of dark killing. An assassin may be the right word.

"Michael, I have found it", said Angela from the living room. " It was on the Chinese dolls up there on the mantelpiece". She placed a small black dot on my palm. A hearing-aided cam. FTH’s own technology.

-"How did he came in and inserted it here on the dress of the smallest Chinese doll? "

I had no idea. past few days I was in a whirlpool. My mind was literally swirling in the dark waters of my past. My family, wealth, grandpa’s clue, and they will all take a great toll upon me.

As we were ruminating on this fact, suddenly someone knocked on the door. It was one of the police guards who were assigned to guard our house. I had asked them to come over for interrogation.

-"Sir. We have all arrived", he said.

I nodded. There were five of them. They filled in the living room and we all sat discussing the main events of that day.

"Tell me everything you know", I asked. I was hoping silently that at the end of this meeting, I could form a clue for Frank’s next attack.

" Sir," the main guard began. "It was a normal day just like the other days. We were all posted at our respective positions, completely armed with our guns and knife. Your mom, just like every day, went outside for a walk and brought home some flowers."

Yes. That was one of Mom’s habits. Every morning she would go for a stroll and would come home with a bunch of flowers that she would pluck from the roadside trees. She said those wildflowers smelled very intoxicating and she loved the smell. She used to scatter them all over the little table at one corner of the living room designed especially for that purpose. A table full of flowers. Even after settling at my house, she couldn’t eschew her habit. I loved it. I loved everything that made her happy, gave her peace.

"Your dad was sitting on the chair at the patio and was reading a newspaper when a young man came in".

I became alert immediately. "Describe him. Why did he come in and why did you allow him to enter?"

-"Sir. He was a pizza delivery boy. He said that your mom had ordered a slice of pizza. I allowed him in. He went inside. From my position, I could see clearly that he was talking to your father. Your mom came out in her cooking apron. She took the pizza from his hands and paid the bill. The man asked for a glass of water. Your mom politely asked him to step inside. After five minutes he came out rubbing his face with his handkerchief and went out of the house. We didn’t think of him as one suspicious so we let him go."

Angela looked at me. " Michael, I think while he was inside drinking water, he might have plugged the camera on the doll."

I nodded.

-" Well. Can you describe him? "

-"Yes. He was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants from the pizza shop. He had a huge delivery bag and he was wearing a cap. He had golden blonde hair and a brown beard."

"Frank didn’t have a beard while we saw him at his wedding?", Angela asked me.

I shook my head. He was clean shaved. But he had blond curls. He must have come with a disguise.

" What happened after that? "

-" After that, suddenly around 30 minutes later there was a blood-curdling cry from your mom. I rushed in. I found her in her cooking apron, smoke billowing all over the room and your dad was lying unconscious. She was in hysterics. She said that dad was eating the pizza when he all of a sudden started to choke. She got panicked. She went for a glass of water and forgot to switch off the oven. By the time she came back with the water, dad was already unconscious. Smoke filled the room and she tried her best to help dad. Then she cried out in alarm. We rushed in and called for the ambulance. Within 20 minutes the city hospital sent their one vehicle and I carried both of them in. The vehicle drove away and that was the last time I saw them.’

I understood how the kidnapping took place. The ambulance driver must have been a fake one. They must have dumped the original driver and took his position on the van. Then he pretended to take them to the hospital but turned the van and went in another direction. The pizza contained something that didn’t go well with my parents‘ constitution.

-"When the van didn’t reach the hospital after 30 minutes we got alarmed. Then we checked into the mainframe security cameras and saw that the ambulance was standing empty with doors wide open at a little distance from the plaza. We cordoned off the whole area and ran a laser search on every inch of the ground. But we found nothing. Even we brought search hounds for our purpose they too couldn’t smell a thing. Maybe Frank shifted the two unconscious beside into some other vans and disposed of the ambulance for good."

Yes, I agreed with them. That was what Frank had planned. He had pulled the ambulance in a no-camera zone so that no one could identify him. His poster had been placed everywhere as the most wanted criminal. He disposed of the van, erased all the fingerprints, and took my parents away to god knew where part of the country.

I stood up and went near the window. Sun was setting. The whole western horizon looked brilliant in the red hue of the setting sun. Birds were flying back to their nest to their babies. But my nest was empty. The birds of my nests were still outside, trying their best to come back to me.

The guard stood up and came to me. he placed one hand on my shoulder.

"Sir. Before your mom fell unconscious inhaling the smoke and the poisoned pizza, she urged me, again and again, to call for you. She said, "Call my son. Tell him his father is unconscious. Call him now".

Tears welled up in my eyes again. Why did I fail each time? I had failed to save my parents. I had failed to save my brother and now the only two people who mattered to me were in danger.

My phone began to buzz again. I rubbed my eyes and saw it was Bo Chang’s number. I was surmised. I beckoned Angela to come over.

"Hello? Sir? Where are you?"

- "Hello? I am calling from Ma Dong’s nursing house. I saw your number on the top so I am calling you."

-"What has happened to Bo Chang?"

-"I am sorry to say, he has met with an accident. He is in Coma."