MYSTERY MANOR

Part 40: THE MESS

A voice said,

"SO YOU ARE DRAKE HUH?!"

as drake turned ,he was slammed to the ground by a steel rod. he fainted. a man from the shadows knocked stan out as well. it all felt fishy as if they planned this would exactly happen. as stan blinked to the reality ,he was in a police car. he rushed out and ran, placing his hand to his wound on his head  as  the wound in the shoulder's been sealed ;to the place drake ran to. 

drake was not there. stan started searching for a clue that the criminal always leaves, yes the cryptex. but he found nothing. did he escape? where's drake then? is he done? many questions lined but the answers were still missing. stan walked slowly dragging these questions behind. a police man stopped by saying,

"SIR SOMEONE LEFT THIS FOR YOU!"

at that point of time that was everything he wanted to hear. stan received the paper. not like usual it was in code language, that only stan and drake knew. so it is drake the one  who left this. stan started decoding ;it said,

"the chief, he is the next target"

it took him time to realize what's been said here for real. but once he got a hold of it; stan yelled ,

"CHIEF!!!!!!!!!"

only then everyone started looking for him, but no sign of him anywhere. then out of no where a man's whispering was heard. it was chief's voice . it was from the field but; far deeper part of it. It didn't stop stan from rushing  into the field with few allies by his side . they started walking and some running towards the sound ;not clear what he says but a whisper it sounds.

a few minutes of walk , they saw him tied to a pole that was planted only a minutes ago as the sand is still soggy. Stan's group stood behind  the pole at the same time the other group of police men walked in the front. stan was the first to notice that something is wrong ; there is no way for these men to reach the spot the same time as ours ; before he could find what it is. the other gang started  moving ;stan was so busy analyzing that to notice this coming. a man in the group walked past a trigger, that let out no sound but silently it lite up the dry corn field . suddenly stan started to free  the man in the pole and shouted everyone to flee. the fire started spreading faster. in a split of a second it covered half the field. Stan's men  carried the chief and left the area as fast as they could. stan managed to save the rest of the men that were still inside the field searching and fled the area with no casualty. if they didn't make wise choices then this could have been a great disaster.

after making it out ,stan checked if the chief's alright; and learned what happened and how did he got caught in this mess. only now stan realized that this is getting even more messier than he thought it to be.