Taming The Mayor!

Investigation Begins!

I sat down at the corner booth of Con's as Fel sat right next to me and with Connor sitting right in front of us.

There was a huge drop of silence defused between us and no one was making an effort to resolve it.

I asked them to make a turn to Con's back from the maniac in-house party, because I didn't fee like going home.

I thought and rethought about everything. About every situation and with only six days left for the wedding there was no way I was going to get out of this wedding with little or no clues to my hands.

With the way Brandon mistreated me, the way he clearly showed he hated me, with the way everything with dad was, there was no way I was going to jump into this marriage and I definitely needed help to investigate the matter and find the root to this entire problem.

"I need your help guys.", I finally blurted out and the two stiffened with attention.

"What is it Amy?", Fel asked grabbing my hand showing me her support.

"But this is dangerous. Once I tell you guys everything, there's no turning back.", I warned them of the dangerous consequences and the two furrowed their eyebrows with tension.

"Amy, what is it?", Connor asked with distress.

"Remember guys, you still can back out. If I tell you this, I'm risking yours and the life of people you guys love.", I added again making sure they understand the complete consequences.

"Amy! We don't care. All we care about is you at the moment. Tell us what's going on. I knew there was something fishy about this entire sudden engagement thing. Because the day you came up to see me you weren't even talking about him.", Connor said holding down my hand and squeezing it tight.

"Amy... Tell us. We're here for you.", Fel added to my confidence.

I finally heaved a sigh looking through all the pages and finally begin shattering light of information upon them.

Their expressions were dramatic.

I sequenced the entire story in my point of view from dad showing up in Miami, to the papers I signed, to the surprise engagement, to the threats on the ring, to the engagement party, to the major threat on the ring, the spy in my house, to dad's office scene which was the biggest shocker of the story for them. I finally finished down with connecting the puzzle between the strike and the day's attack on Brandon.

"This.... This is entirely f****d up.", Connor announced as soon as I finished my story.

"I know. And the cherry on top, someone has bugged my room.", I told them and the two gasped.

"And I don't even know who this might be, dad or Brandon. I can't even tell.", I said holding my head due to all the spinning thoughts inside my brain.

"So if your dad is involved in Brandon's attack, then why did he pushed himself in the entire trouble to lying and bringing you here by playing that sick game of lies and forging you and forcing in this marriage.", Fel said trying to find the missing piece of puzzle.

"Whoever this E.P was with the initials on the gun? They definitely didn't want Brandon to die. The attack was like a strike to weaken him.", I connected one puzzle down the other one.

"Strike that your father talked about on the phone with the person.", Connor added connecting another puzzle.

"For now it's sure that your father is part of the cult that's against Brandon. But why go through all the trouble of bringing you here?", Fel asked another question.

"What if the possible contract that you're talking about Amy", Connor jumped in with another theory, "What if your father is obliged under that contract to have you marry to Brandon and what if... He is definitely against the Mayhews and just wants to get rid of Brandon for some unsure certain reason that we still need to find out.", Connor added.

"You're actually good at this detective stuff.", I c****d my eyebrow at him.

"Well... Too much for reading Sherlocks and watching Riverdale.", He shrugged his shoulders.

I scoffed a little as I shifted my gaze at a man standing outside the café looking directly at us.

I instantly recognised him as Brandon's guard.

"Guys... Start laughing.", I immediately spoke as I saw him and shifted my gaze back to Fel and Connor.

"What?", The two asked spontaneously.

"Start laughing. Okay? One of Brandon's guard is following us. He's sneaking on us at the moment. So before we look suspicious and I get questioned on what serious matter what were we talking about, by my loving fiancé.", I said throwing my left hand in the air pointing at my ring and smiling out fakingly, "Just start laughing. Okay?", I said as I burst out with laughter followed by Fel and Connor who both followed me in laughing with a fake tone.

It felt extremely awkward to do that but what other choice did we have.

We continued our plans followed in by laughing at inappropriate intervals just to make it look like a casual conversation.

"I'll try to get into my dad's study again and go through his stuff. I couldn't reach the laptop last time.", I paused and laughed as I continued speaking again, "I'll try to get into his laptop and see if I could find something out. I will need your support."

"We'll try to find something about the E.P thing.", Fel suggested.

"How will you guys do that?", I added and smiled to not to look suspicious.

"I have intels and resources. Don't worry about that.", Connor said.

"But still...", I began but Fel cut me off.

"Amy! Let him, okay? We'll get to the bottom of this. You're not alone now.", Fel patted my hand and reassured me.

All I could do was thank them for being there for me.

"Thank you guys... It actually felt better by sharing it with someone who could help.", I smiled holding back a tear.

It actually is a blessing when people are there for you. Because that's something I haven't had for a long time now and having it now made me feel better somehow.

"Hey! Amy. We're your friends and we couldn't be there for you when you needed us, but we are here for you now.", Fel patted my back leaping me into a hug.

"Why am I not a part of this hug?", Connor asked making me laugh as I gestured him to move to my booth and he rushed in leaped in our small group hug.

I felt a pause for a moment as I looked up and saw Fel and Connor looking at each other as their hands intervened by a touch on my shoulder.

I didn't want to move and let these two smoother in their feelings and reflect upon their choice of feelings.

But soon Connor realised something as he was the first one to move his hand away and sat straight. Fel followed in the same.

I cleared in my throat.

"You guys should... I mean we should leave for home now.", I said through an awkward tone.

Connor was the first one to get up as he immediately made his way outside the café.

"Are you okay?", I asked Fel on our way out.

"Yeah of course I am.", She said through a fake smile.

I could sense from her tone that she was hurt by something but I couldn't comprehend as to what it could be.

As we walked out I saw the guard standing in wearing a casual button down and leaning against his car. He eyed me with a daunting tone knowing that he would be informing his boss with every single minute detail of the events and my behaviour if suspicious as Con's.

As soon as I got inside the car I saw another black Ford SUV standing behind the tress and lagoons that surrounded Con's. The lights of the car were turned off but it seemed suspicious of the car to be too clean to be standing at such a corner.

My observational powers were keen at the fact that Brandon's official or non official sub dutied men didn't hold any Ford SUV rather they held Infinity or Hummer's.

But again I thought I could've been over looking at things.

*******************

The next morning was as tiring as ever.

With everything that happened last night it had now become a dream of mine to have something good happen to me even for a while of few seconds.

I made my way at the breakfast table and sat with Margaret and Carol but to my surprise Sarah and her daughters were also present.

I greeted them with a cheer and somehow felt better by seeing them.

"What are you guys doing here?", I asked them totally forgetting the obvious.

"Well I came here to attend to my sister's wedding you idiot.", Sarah pointed out.

I made an 'Oh' face at the obviousity of her appearance and feeling stupid.

I busied myself with Elizabeth and Charlotte.

"You know, I've ordered your dresses at Fel's shop.", I said out loud during our conversation and caught a glimpse of dad's expressions that were plain yet stiffed at my words.

He definitely did find it a difficulty for him to have me feel good about the marriage.

"Oh! We should then go there for our final measurements.", I told Sarah.

"But I can't go. Brandon told me as we were getting married soon it'll be good for me to stay inside and have as less of exposure as possible.", I said and looked over at dad who gulped down hard as I mentioned Brandon's name sweetly.

"Isn't he right dad?", I called dad directly on purpose.

He just looked at me with raised eyebrows and nodded his head.

"Well... I know that the beginning to this relationship was wrong but I just hope and pray that everything goes well from now on.", I faked a smile and saw dad as he coughed loudly and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Connor was right! Dad definitely doesn't like the Mayhews!

A feeling of anger and disgust ran inside me as I looked at dad who now rubbed his palms uncomfortably.

"I need to catch some work early in office. I'll take a leave.", He passed down his smile at Margaret and got up to leave.

"Oh and dad.", Sarah added as dad was about to get up and leave.

"Don't forget to visit Uncle Aiden's grave. It's his death anniversary.", She added with a soft smile.

Uncle Aiden was dad's younger brother whom he lost in a car accident alongside his wife and son, years ago, even before I was born. Sarah was only an year old back then.

Dad would visit their grave in our family cemetery every year and so would we to pray for peace for him.

It reminded me that I needed to visit mom's grave as well but again I needed a heart for it and by brain was already filled with mist and fumes of the inconsistent thoughts about everything happening at the moment.

"Aunt Amy? Can we go to your room and play?", Elizabeth spoke and my brain ignited with an idea.

"Of course. Carol, why don't you join us?", I asked her and she readily agreed.

I took my nieces and Carol towards my room, on our way up I coincided with Rosita who seems to have gotten ready from the freshly blow dried hair and red lipstick matching her height with the red pencil skirt and white sleeveless blouse she wore.

"Rosita!", I claimed with fake excitement as I saw her. "As you're desperately always looking opportunities to annoy me why don't you join us? My nieces want to play and meanwhile you can keep your eye on me?", I offered with sarcasm and Elizabeth and Charlotte giggled at my words.

She looked down at Elizabeth and Charlotte and then at me, "Umm... Actually I have been called by Mr. Mayor in the office. You guys enjoy and if you need to go anywhere, just let me know. I've added my number in your phone's contact list.", She added with a fake smile.

I smirked as my plan went successful.

I knew that she would never agree to play with toddlers as this effected her self appointed, self induced ego so I knew that she would make an escape and well... Leave me alone to execute my plan.

After two hours of exhausted playing with Elizabeth, Charlotte and Carol we came down to talking and giggling on stupid stuff.

It lightened my heart to even have them around me. I felt relieved and light at heart. I felt all my tensions and stress easing out as I listened to Elizabeth and Charlotte talk about imagination and creativity.

Soon slumber took over them and the three slept with heaviness taking over their eyes.

I looked around and made my way towards the master bedroom knowing exactly how to put my plan in action.

By now I knew it that Margaret and Sarah would've left for shopping so I made my way inside Margaret and dad's room.

I remembered how I found out about uncle Daniel, by going through the drawers of Margaret and dad's closet.

If there is any possibility of a contract to be the apparent reason to this marriage and it wasn't in the study then there is a possibility of it to be inside the locked drawers of the closet.

I went inside the room and locked the door for my good safety.

On my way I picked out the old polaroid camera from Sarah's room, knowing that she kept it because it was her favourite.

I went to the bedside drawer and picked out the keys.

Always smooth and safe -- Amy!

Without wasting any time I picked out the drawers and went through them one by one. Much to my dismay I didn't find anything. But as I was about to shuffle through the last drawer I realised that it didn't had any key on the key chain, there were only five instead of six keys.

This made me suspicious.

But I had my mind set onto something.

I went back to Margaret's dressing table and picked out a cuticle remover and needle nail filer.

I went back to the drawer and placed the two adjacently inside the lock and ruffled them before the lock clicked and the drawer opened.

It had certain documents.

I went through each and every document, one by one but didn't find any. All files were blue folders that were the O'Neil organisation's trademark.

They were some corporate mixed files. None of them seemed to have any link with the marriage or any other suspicious thing.

I heard the door's lock being shuffled.

"s**t!", I exclaimed out loud as I ruffled the files back into the drawer.

A file caught my attention that was brown in color.

I picked it up and opened it.

It had articles of Cherpress, with different headlines. The headline on top caught my attention.

THE FAMILY OF THREE DIED OR KILLED IN THE ROADSIDE ACCIDENT

I read another headline beneath it and it read:

"THE ACCIDENT OF AIDEN O'NEIL, A PLANNED MURDER?"

I gasped out loud as I read that headline.

I looked at the date and it dated back to twenty six years. When Sarah might be an year and Uncle Aiden died around that time.

I shuffled through the articles and the rest of the headlines were nearly the same pointing the theory that Uncle Aiden's death was in fact a planned murder.

One article in particular caught my attention.

"COLE O'NEIL'S POSSIBLE INVOLVEMENT IN HIS BROTHER'S DEATH? INVESTIGATION SPECULATES!"

My breath was caught somewhere in my wind pipe.

I read the name of the writers to the articles and he was the same writer.

Barry Freeman

I shuffled through those pages and found a list of numbers with names written right next to it.

Underneath those pages were another set of articles. I read the headlines.

"CHERPRESS STAR, BARRY FREEMAN DIES IN HOUSE ROBBERY!"

I shifted the page and read another article.

"THE TRUCK MAN INVOLVED IN AIDEN O'NEIL ACCIDENT, DIES IN HOSPITAL DUE TO INJURIES!"

The door's lock moved again with someone trying to open the door from the outside.

It could be dad.

I hurriedly took out the polaroid and snapped pictures. I didn't risk doing it with my phone because my iCloud was possibly linked to one of the computers in the city hall and Brandon would have his hands on the information in no time.

The door started banging and knocking loudly and I immediately picked the polaroids and hid them under the table drawer and went put everything back in order and locked the drawer throwing the keys inside and ruffling my hair a bit to look like I'd just gotten up from sleep.

I threw open the door and saw Rosita standing holding her phone in her hand and tapping her feet, with a hand on her hips.

"What were you doing?", She asked and I c****d my eyebrows at the audacity of her questioning power.

"Mr. Mayor's asking.", She said as she held the phone out to be trying to explain herself.

I grabbed the phone out of her hands, because I know she'd been lying as she spied on me.

I put the phone to my ear and I heard Brandon yelling.

"Where the f**k have you been?", I yelled and shrieked pulling the phone back a little from my ear.

"Jeez! Relax! You don't need a phone if you're going to speak that loud. I could literally hear your screams from your top notch office.", I pointed out and saw Rosita's face who had expressions of amusement plastered on them, making me roll my eyes.

"I've been calling you!", He said in much lower voice, still loud enough to give the essence of yelling.

"And why have you been calling me? Have you been missing me?", I said in a teasing tone and caught Rosita's expressions that were now of a furrowed eyebrows.

Well looks like someone's got an insipid crush on their boss. Much jealous?

"What? What the f**k are you saying. I was calling you to tell you to get your ass to my office.", He yelled at me and I giggled showing an entirely different face of my relationship with Brandon to Rosita.

"And what the f**k were you doing?", He asked again making me realise that I needed to come up with a lie.

"I... I was sleeping.", I lied stuttering a bit.

"Why weren't you in your room and why'd you lock the door?", He asked and I could sense his anger.

Jeez! What is it? The FBI interrogation series?

"My nieces and sister were sleeping there and I needed some place to crash...", I lied but Brandon cut me off again.

"Why'd you lock the door?", He questioned again making me roll my eyes.

"Because... Because..."

Think Amy! Think fast!

"Because I had my skinny jeans on which were totally uncomfortable and I... I took them off as I slept and my bra was unhooked so it took me time to open the door. I guess my bra is still unhooked.", I instantly lied not knowing what else to say.

There was an awkward silence before Brandon cleared his throat and spoke.

"Meet me at my office by ten!", He roughly said cutting off the phone.

I turned back and saw Rosita looking at me, eyeing me head to toe.

"Now if you mind.", I shoved her phone back in her hands and turned to close the door, "I still need to sleep and oh! Don't forget to take my nieces and sister out for lunch. They love McDonald's though.", I smiled as I closed the door and heaved a sigh.

I picked the polaroids out from the table and waited for another hour.

I didn't know how to pass the time so I opened my phone and saw ten missed calls and three texts from Asshole.

Asshole: Pick up my phone!

Asshole: Don't f*****g test my patience!

Asshole: Where the f**k are you?!

I practically rolled my eyes at his texts.

When I heard Rosita leave with the kids. I went inside my room and wore a jacket inside which I hid the polaroids in an envelope.

I decided to expand my search into dad's study where I could finally explore something and try to find out.

I wasn't left with much time before I was bounded into this marriage of threats, fears, lies and liability.

I tip toed my way towards dad's office and found his laptop placed on the table.

He didn't take his laptop, which means he didn't go to the office, while I clearly remembered he left home saying he was off to the office.

I opened up his laptop and it asked for a password.

I remember his password that I once sneaked in to his laptop while I used to work in his insipid corrupted organization.

It was "Infinity Gauntlet 98765"

Dad's love for comics was definitely something I inherited and besides no one could guess that to be the password of owner of such a huge organisation.

I heaved in a sigh as I went through his laptop that had multiples of file and corporate links.

I went through each and every file but still didn't find the contract.

I sneaked into his personal profile which required of a password.

I tried the same password but it failed

Shit!

I looked for the hint and it was "College"

I remember dad was in Hawks team in college and was quarterback.

I typed in Hawks and it didn't work as well.

There was only one thing that was special for dad in College or I thought it could be.

I typed in Juliet, my mom's name and it gave me the access.

I guessed a part of dad's heart really did love mom. He wasn't that cold and dead on the inside.

I shifted through his files one by one.

And one file caught me attention because of it's unusual name.

"Associates (City Office and Docks)"

No such file was named as such.

I opened the file but it didn't show anything rather only codes and numbers showing that it was encrypted.

I looked around the drawers and found three drives in one and picked up one drive and copied the associates file in the driver.

I immediately made my way out of the study, without getting noticed and went ahead to pick the house line phone and dialled in Connor's number that I still remembered by heart.

******************

We sat on the same corner booth at Con's and waited and went through the entire series of polaroids and the encrypted file that Connor had put into his laptop.

"I can't decrypt it. It's encrypted by ten folds.", He complained.

I looked back into polaroids and my soul shook again at the combination of the puzzles combining.

"I still don't get it why would my dad kill my uncle.", I stated shivering at the mere thought.

"Amy we still don't have a solid proof.", Fel interjected.

I rolled my eyes at her words holding back my tears.

"The journalist who was investigating Uncle Aiden's death died in a house robbery shortly right after he published these articles in the local newspaper, what do you really think it was a coincidence? The list of numbers that was given, that Connor called in and found out that they belonged to the detective that was assigned on this case, the truck driver that was hospitalised in the accident with whom the car collided with during the accident, the sheriff that was working on this case and they all died within a span of a week. And in accidents? Look at these articles.", I pointed down at the polaroids in front of Fel.

"No Fel, I'm not stupid enough to see that it's all my father's doing. Besides why else would he have all these clues and proofs saved up in his drawer who's key he doesn't even share with his wife.", I pointed out at all the obvious connections.

"It's all one missing link. Just one small link that would give is a clearer picture.", Fel said going through all the polaroids one by one. "Did you break the file?", She asked looking at Connor who was busy in his laptop.

"No... I'll need a little bit of more time to c***k it.", He said sipping down his coffee working on his laptop.

"Take as much as time you want but do it before Sunday. Or else we don't have anything left to our hands.", I told him.

There was a huge dreading silence between us.

"I still don't believe...", I heaved a sigh rubbing down my face, "I lived my entire life under the same roof with a man who I thought to be my hero. Whom I loved with my heart, I worshiped him. I thought he did everything for his family and now I just... I feel like... I can't believe my father's a murderer.", I added lowly holding my head in my hands that was spinning with all these thoughts.

"Amy... None of this is your fault. You did everything you could for this family. You couldn't stop it. It was happening even before you were born remember?", Fel tried to sooth me down as she patted my hand.

Soon Connor and Fel left, because I asked them to before it began more suspicious for anyone as I could already sense guards all around me.

As I made my way out of the café a tall man wearing a black tee shirt and a pair of blue jeans cornered me. He was tall, extra huge and built up with a bald head and a beard around his face.

I looked up at him and he was the guard from yesterday.

"Ms. Cole, Mr. Mayor would like to see you.", He added as he stood tall in front of me.

I looked down at my watch, "It's seven. He told me to come to his office at ten.", I c****d my eyebrows and made my way passing ahead of him.

"Ms. Cole, he asks for you now!", He called me out from behind and I stopped my pace.

"How should I trust you?", I turned around and crossed my hands across my chest.

"Check your phone!", He gestured at my pocket.

I picked my phone out and saw a text from Brandon five minutes ago.

Asshole: Get in the car with Darryl!

"What's your name again?", I asked him still looking down at the phone. My heart was racing madly.

What if he's not Brandon's guard and he's been sent here by dad if he's found out that I snuck in to his study or the other person that dad was working with.