A billion dollar secret

Chapter3

CHAPTER THREE

Catherine seemed to be settling in nicely in the new city of San Diego, although she hadn’t been able to get anything started on her own end, Jeffery has been keeping up his end the bargain. However she wasn’t comfortable with certain aspects of his lifestyle had he stayed out late and sometimes wouldn’t return till morning, she tried to not ask questions that could trigger unwanted clashes between them. She maintained her best conduct and would only look into things he got her involved in. She continued to observe him in the little way she can, until a certain day, Jeffery returned home at around half past 11pm, he walked in staggering with a cut on his forehead and blood all over his face, he walked straight in and ran into Catherine who was walking in opposite direction, seeing her he was caught by surprise, he didn’t expect her to still be up by such late hour, she has never been up at such time since she arrived two weeks ago “Jeffery, your face, it’s bleeding, what happened to you?” Catherine screamed in shock of what she had just seen “a car crashed into the highway light poles and flipped several times while I was driving back, it landed right in front of me and I ran straight into it because I couldn’t avoid it completely, I have the brakes of the car to thank for helping me avoid a very fatal outcome” Jeffery explained carefully. Catherine helped him on to the sofa, he directed her around the house to where she would find first aid materials, she hurriedly got them and helped him dress the cut and wrapped a bandage around his head, she also gave him some painkillers to relieve possible head or body aches “you should be alright for the night this way, please visit a hospital while you’re out tomorrow, you should please get proper treatment, I was going to bed when you rushed in, I’ll be doing that now, sleep tight” Catherine added.

The next morning, after Catherine woke up, she went to the yard where she had been grooming some species of flowers, she walked past the driveway leading to the garage she decided to take a look at Jeffery’s car, to her surprise the car had no single scratch to back up the scenario Jeffery described she tried to look inside but she couldn’t see the interior because of the nature of the car’s windows, it seemed hard to believe that the car was unscratched despite what he claimed happened but she let go of her building suspicion and went to tend to her flowers. While she was returning from the yard she met Jeffery at the driveway about to leave, “I thought you said you were involved in a crash with this car? How come it didn’t incur a single scratch?”Catherine asked, as much as she has been trying to avoid prying into his personal life, it was beginning to become a matter of real concern to her “no scratch? That’s impossible” Jeffery exclaimed before taking a walk round the car to observe “wow, no scratch indeed, you know I’m seeing it for the first time since last night as well, I guess that’s because it’s a really good car” Jeffery answered smartly before Catherine could say anything further looked at his watch “oops, it’s time to go, I’ll see you later in the day I should be back earlier today, and I’ll make sure I stop over at the hospital like you said, be sure to take care of yourself” Jeffery added, he bade goodbye, ignited his car engine and drove out of her sight. “Even the engine doesn’t sound like one who took a hit” Catherine said to herself as she watched the car zoom out of her sight.

Later in the day Catherine decided to take a walk, it would be the first time since she arrived in San Diego a fortnight ago that she would be stepping out alone; she took a walk round the street, making every possible turn she could find along the path as she walked hoping to find something or somewhere that could interest her. Her persistence would pay of eventually as she came across a private owned sports facility; she greeted the sight of it with a big smile on her face. She walked straight in to have a look, it was a beautiful sight to behold, it had everything one could possibly be looking for in a sports facility before she could move further, was confronted by a member of staff of the facility “Good day ma’am, I’m Victor and you’re welcome to Life Sports Complex, are you interested in participation? Or you’re just here for sightseeing” he asked politely “Hi Victor, I’m Catherine, I’m actually new in this city and I honestly didn’t know I would be heading here, I was just walking around literally, I think I’ll just stick to sightseeing, I didn’t come prepared to participate in any sports, like I said I didn’t even plan coming” Catherine responded.

“You didn’t make plans? Well, we got you covered. If you would like to participate in any sport, visit the LSC ticket stand to purchase your participation tickets, if you’ll be needing kits or accessories, the facility has made that available for just a little token extra, may I accompany you to the ticket stand?” Victor offered “you sure can, that’s very kind of you” Catherine replied “then let’s get moving” Victor added. They both walked over to the ticket stand. “So, Catherine, what sports would you like?” Victor asked “Tennis is my favourite, back in high school and college I excelled in both variants and won several gold medals, but it’s been over two years now, I don’t think I’m still agile enough to play lawn tennis, let’s go with table tennis” Catherine said “Table tennis, that’s an interesting choice. I may not be a gold medallist but I happen to know a thing or two about table tennis and my work schedule for the day ends in a few minutes, would you like a sparring partner?” Victor asked “Sure, okay” Catherine answered with a smile. Victor got the participation tickets for the both of them and for her playing kit, he took her to the changing room and off they went to the court, they sparred in ten 11-pointer rounds of games. Despite losing the opening three rounds, Catherine would eventually come back to win a whooping six rounds out of ten.

“You sure showed character worthy of a true gold medallist, I’ve never lost a single round of table tennis to anyone in this complex” Victor commended Catherine after the game while they headed back to the changing rooms, Catherine smiled without saying a word, she felt too elated to speak. They both got into their respective changing rooms, got changed and ready to leave. Victor walked her quite some distance from the sports complex, they talked about different stuff and exchanged contacts. “I’m afraid this is how far I can go, my place is the other way and my bike is still parked at the complex, where do you stay by the way? Could we maybe see some other time?” Victor asked “I stay at Jeff’s, he’s a really good friend of mine from college, I told him I needed somewhere to go and he offered to help” Catherine explained “wait a second, you stay at Jeff’s? With Jeffery Hendricks? Wow that is quite a twist” Victor responded with a puzzled countenance “Why is that? Do you know him?” Catherine asked hurriedly while trying to grasp the situation “Do I know him? Everyone here in Allen knows Jeffery Hendricks, but I’ll tell you this, for your own good, leave that place as quickly as you can” Victor added.

When Catherine got back, Jeffery hadn’t arrived.

Few minutes later, Jeffery walked in, he sat directly opposite Catherine who was in the living room enjoying a TV show. Catherine didn’t seem to notice his presence until he left for his bedroom and returned briefly after in a different outfit rearing to go again but sat down briefly to speak with Catherine “I was at the hospital just as I promised, and the doctor told me to avoid driving at night. I’ll be heading back to work right now, our suppliers would be making deliveries this evening and it might take until late night, which means I won’t be returning home tonight, I’ll be back early in the morning. Take good care of yourself alright?” Jeffery explained and left. Catherine tried but couldn’t say a word to him before he left. She got up to lock the doors and returned to the living room to continue the TV show, everything she could possible need was available within the house, staying all by herself for the night shouldn’t be much of a hassle given its something she’s been doing mostly during the day since her arrival in San Diego.

She continued enjoying the TV show until late into the night when she felt really tired and needed to sleep, she got up and went to her room, turned off the lights and laid to rest for the night, only to wake up suddenly few hours gasping for air, the house was filled by an insane amount of smoke, something was burning, she rushed out of her bed to the living room to find out what it could be, only to find out it’s the house she’s in, by the time she got to the living room, the flame had engulfed more than half the building, her only resort was to somehow find a way out to save herself.

The main entrance was no longer accessible; she instinctively headed to the kitchen which lead to the back door, the fire was minimal at that end and luckily she found a medium sized fire extinguisher hanging next to the shelf. She put off the fire around the door and knocked it open and was able to get out, she was able to catch some fresh air and cough out the smoke “oh no, my phone” she screamed as she remembered she left her mobile device inside and immediately ran back inside to get it, with the fire extinguisher in her hand, she got in, retrieved the mobile phone and got out unscathed.

She left the premises of the house and tried calling Jeffery but he wasn’t reachable. After so much futile efforts, walking down the street aimlessly and becoming almost devoid of ideas, she remembered Victor, the guy she met earlier at the sports facility and immediately put a call through to him which he responded immediately “Hi Catherine, I didn’t expect you hear from you at this hour” Victor said “I’m sorry to disturb you, but please can you come pick me up? I need somewhere to pass the night; I’ll explain everything when you get here, I’m out on the street right now” Catherine cut in immediately “Alright, just keep walking down in that direction from earlier, I’ll be there in five” Victor replied.

He got on his bike and made his way to where she was, it didn’t take long before he found her, from where they were he had a clear view of Jeff’s house which was engulfed in flames. “What happened?” Victor asked, “I’m just as confused, I can’t even talk about it now, one of the neighbours already reached out to the fire fighters, I don’t think they know anyone was inside because Jeff’s not home. Can we get out of here please?” Catherine replied