FREE US FROM DON PEDRO

Chapter 3: Operation Save Scissors

Brownie sweating profusely reads the message, for the third time in 5 minutes. The instruction was simple but precise. “She is back and you are to Continue waiting until she comes out.” But his phone still had no service, he sweated the more “how could this be”, he wondered

Claire, because of the urgency of the call, took a cab. On alighting from the cab, she discovered she had no keys with her.

“Oh my gosh I forgot the keys in the car and where, where's the parcel guy” she whispered.

“Thank God I have a spare key hidden in the backyard” she exclaimed as she recalled.

On getting to the backyard the sight that welcomes her makes her jaws drop, her back door was open.

“Oh! My God, what is this,” with her hands trembling she pulls her phone to call the police, on first instance but there was no network, she hurriedly runs into the house so she can use the house line to call 911, then she sees an assumed dead lady with blood stains sprawled in her cushion.

“Ohhh….!”, she screams. A scan across the house shows her there had been a fight.

Who was she, where are the nail men, why was the backdoor open, all these and more questions ran through her mind. She then reached for the phone but there was no gsm service for all she could see.

Unfortunately for her she still had a matter in court, over a patient's mysterious death. so utmost care had to be taken to avoid complications.

What should I do?” she asked as she started sobbing, face turning pink.

Preferably she could dispose of it somewhere in the neighborhood or in the woods at night.

“You belong to the streets and that's where I am going to send you,” she yelled at the body. she Quickly concluded on dispose the assumed dead body since she was the only one in the apartment.

While Brownie continued waiting as instructed, it happened.

Claire dragged the drugged body of Scissors to the sparse thicket behind her apartment, instantly Brownie swung into action, taking as many shots as possible with her knowing. After about five minutes of dragging the lady she dumped her at the edge of the thicket, sat on the ground and started sobbing,

“this is too much for a day” Claire spitting on scissors while cursing.

She was emotionally overwhelmed, at this point Brownie hidden in the thicket, did a thirteen second video, while making sure Claire's face was well seen.

Then the unexpected happened. She started cursing the unconscious lady, cursing with all her strength. Angrily stood up and walked to her kitchen, grabbed a shovel, came back and started digging a shallow grave at the edge of the thicket.

This was more than Brownie could take, he needed to act fast, he thought to himself, but time was running out. He then noticed that the gsm service had returned to his phone. So he hurriedly sent an SMS to Grego.

"Situation south, backup and distraction needed” was all he typed and sent.

About Three minutes later the doorbell of Claire's apartment started ringing, and a hand was pounding loudly simultaneously.

At that instant Claire paused, dropped the shovel and went into the house, thank Goodness the Grego had planted the backup guys, their obviously speedy response had done them good this afternoon.

Brownie ran out of his hiding, grabbed Scissors, dropped her on his shoulder and ran out of the backyard the same way he came, and disappeared.

Three buildings down he turns left and drops her beside an abandoned building. Hastily crosses the street to the location he parked his vehicle, turns on the ignition and with the speed of light swerves the vehicle to the side of the building where he dropped her. This was indeed his lucky day he thought to himself. He deposits her in the back seat of the vehicle and then notices that for the first time that afternoon she irked a little, obviously the pain of being thrown around was about bringing her back to consciousness, he had better hurry up.

How he hated this part of the job, he thought to himself as he started the engine and gently rolled out of the building's side, and down the street. On driving past Claire's apartment he recognized fat Joe and his pal frank,

“Oh so these were the two backing me up on this mission,” The mafia were indeed beyond simple description.

He now also understood why there was disruption in gsm service previously. These two were two pros with expertise in electronics, and cell phone jamming was one of their usual tricks.

The two cartel members had kept Claire engrossed in a conversation. A closer examination as he drove past, showed that she was obviously enjoying their conversation, from the look on her face.

Joe, on sighting him, blocked Claire's view while he slowly drove past and signalled Frank by spreading his four fingers which was the cartel's code for completed deal.

Three minutes later the two telecom guys suddenly received a call unknown to Claire, the call was from Brownie who had gotten to Pedro's villa.

After speaking in a low tone to the caller, Frank turns to her and tells her that they need to return to the office as they have an emergency but will return later.

The unsuspecting Claire lets them go without further delay as she was playing along in order to avoid any form of suspicion from the telecom guys.

They had actually informed her that the servers in their office were reporting continual fluctuation in signal level within her neighborhood, as such needed first hand information from her as she happened to be the only occupant who was available at that point in time.

After interrogation they now started requesting access to her backyard to ascertain the signal strength, which she refused before Brownie drove past so they let her off the hook.

“Oh my God! I was almost nabbed, how did I get into all these?”, Claire muttered after the visitors had driven off.

Sunken in despair she walks into the parlour, jams the front door and pours a shot of whisky for herself which drowns in a gulp. She then gathers herself together and starts reaching out to the backyard.

Then her eyes shoot out in bewilderment and her jaws drop in despair.

The lady with the gunshot wound was nowhere to be found.

Out of fear she runs into her house into her room and retrieves her colt 38 revolver hoping to be confronted by a dead person, maybe this was the day she will join her late parents in the grave but even if she must go she was definitely going to give a fight.

“This is no longer making sense” she said aloud as she ran out to the back yard holding the gun out in front of her.

On getting to the spot where she was digging the shallow grave it dawned on her that someone else had picked up the dead lady she dropped.

On bending down, a closer examination showed her some foot marks, obviously Boots.

“Where the hell are you”, she screamed

“Come out”, she fumed,

“Come out or I will blow your heads”, but no one showed up, screaming and searching. She traced the footprints to the thicket and from there to the fence that separated her neighbors house from the old unused building.

Upon sighting the fence she gave up and hastily went back to the house. This was one hell of a day. But a puzzle needed to be solved and that was.

"Who could have stolen the blond".

Two things were going on in her mind but one thing was most likely the case, and that was that she had most likely gotten herself into some trouble and more things were likely to unfold with time.

Then her phone rings, she stares at the screen to know who the caller was, and it turns out to be the schools principal was calling, in an instant something begins to dawn on her.

Could this be about the boy? , but of course he is still alive and the Don from what she had heard was not the type of person who would hesitate to pull a trigger at her should he want revenge.

While these thoughts were racing through her mind the phone stopped ringing.

Definitely the reason for the call was not connected to the incident between her daughter and the young Pedro.

“I just need another drink,”

s

he said, while redialing the principal's phone number.