If It's With You

031- Tailing him

Nicklaus

“This is bad, Nick.”

The last time I heard those words was when my mother passed, and I still hadn’t completely recovered from losing her.

I had spent the whole night with her, even though she barely knew I was there at that point. Then, the next day my father came along and asked that I go home and take some time away. He watched her for a few hours and left. Then, later that day, the nurse taking care of my mother called saying those exact words.

With my mother we all knew she was headed to that point, I just hadn’t come to terms with it. But with Muna, hearing those same words had me feeling something unsettling growl in my stomach.

I cleared my throat and said, “Go on and tell me.”

“First of all, we got to the owner of the car. Dude said the buyer paid in cash, and the date of the purchase was two days before your girl was kidnapped. So I did some digging and guess who bought the car, Nick?”

This wasn’t a guessing game so when Neo waited for my guess, I said. “Don’t waste my time, Neo.”

“Tim bought the fucking car.” His voice pierced my eardrum, pushing a hard lump down my throat. It was him. “Dude didn’t even leave for Alaska, he had been in New York the whole fucking time. He played us, Nick and he is darker than what we though.”

“Fuck!”

“Tim isn’t his real name, man. Creep is named Vincent Sterling and he is fucked in the head. He uses the plants he sells to spy on women he deems attractive. Advise them to keep the fucking plant in their bedroom. He killed one of the women who confronted him. I don’t know if your girl got a plant from him, so maybe you should—”

“She did,” I swallowed, sweat forming at the back of my neck for all the information he was dumping on me. It felt like I couldn’t stomach it anymore.

“Sorry?”

“She got a fucking plant from him and it was wired.”

“Now that is fucked up and he’s been doing this for a fucking long time. The police haven’t gotten a hold of this guy. It seems like he is a fucking ghost or something. He is very good at this, Nick. Good at hiding and shit. I guess he suspected we were tailing him and made us believe he was leaving the city.”

I grabbed the nap of my hair. “Fuck!” I yelled, my stomach growling in rage. The pieces were finally coming together. “If he wants Muna for himself, he wouldn’t work with Carl and that means—”

“He has been spying on your girl and also stalking her for a long time. You know what I’m thinking, Nick? Dude probably knows about Carl and if I’m right, he might be the reason we are not able to find him.”

I exhaled heavily, trying to control the anger boiling inside of me.

“I think he has Carl and I think he was the one that took your girl. It might have been him who texted you and your girl on the day he took her. Tim played us, Nick. He wanted all of us to think it was Carl. ”

“Fuck!”

“Yeah, fuck! And if all my guesses are right, it means he got Carl too and for all we know, he might be dead right now.”

Shit! It all made sense. Tim was the mastermind planner of everything. It had been him all along.

“Send me everything you know about this guy, Neo. Everything down to the last time he was seen and where the fuck he might be hiding.”

“I’m on it, but finding him wouldn’t be easy man.”

“I don’t care, Neo. He has my girl and I’m getting her back no matter how hard you think it is going to be.” As the last word left my lips, I ended Neo’s call and called Detective James, who was on his way here already.