Obscure Blood

Chapter Ten

1:00 AM – Someone came up behind him in a sudden motion, and said, "Do not turn around." The man was very close to Octa's back. He pushed the muzzled of a gun into Octa's spine.

"When you go home tonight, use the windows to access your house," he said.

"Why should I believe you?" Octa said.

"You don't have to," he said. "You better not turn around to see my face or follow me. Don't put me in danger. The three-days rule does not apply to you or family members, so you should just let it go. Don't focus on the teapot at the crime scenes. It is a distraction for every detective who took the case."

"I have a question," Octa said.

"No, you don't have one," the man replied.

Then, Octa's car was there. He felt the man withdraw from behind him and resisted the urge to turn and catch a glimpse of him. He jumped in and drove home, but he parked across the street and down a way from his house.

Octa took out his binoculars. He saw a small light flickering in the house. Then, the light went off. He got out of his car. He pulled his gun and checked the chamber. He wanted to go in fully armed. He went in a half circle around the house. There was a tree close to the bathroom window on the second story. He climbed the tree knowing that he always left the window half open.

He went through it. The door was open. "Someone has used my bathroom," he said. There was a smell in the room, like a three-week-old, dead body rotting under the sun. This decaying body smell came from the perpetrators in his house. They must have never taken a shower. He took off his shoes. He stepped into the hallway that took him to his bedroom. The door was wide open, but no one was inside.

"They must be downstairs," he said. He heard two different voices coming from the first story.

"When is he coming in?"

"He should be here soon."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I had a phone call confirmation."

Octa realized that everything in his bedroom had been ransacked. Maybe they want to fake my death as a burglary that went bad, he thought. Just like the old woman...

As Octa approached the stairs, something rolled down the stairs. It was a vase he had accidentally kicked. Someone must have placed it there.

"What was that?" Octa heard coming from below. "You go look . . ."

Octa hid in the corner of the stairs. All the lights downstairs came on. He moved his position to the small closet. All the curtains were down, so that any scenes would stay in the house. A man headed along the hallway with his gun in hand, stepped in the bedroom, and looked for the switch.

Octa came from behind the open door, pointed the weapon at the intruder's skull, and said, "Give me your firearm." He took it from him.

"How many others downstairs?"

"Only one."

"Why are you trying to kill me?"

"We were told to."

"By whom?"

"I don't know."

Octa shot him in the right knee. He screamed. "Someone in your family wants you to suffer."

"Is it my father?"

"Your father is a victim of a criminal organization."

"What's the name? How do you know this information?"

"No one knows its name. Maybe my partner can help you."

Octa moved toward the stairs to meet the other intruder, who had heard the gunshot, ran toward the stairs, and froze when he saw the gun pointed at him from above.

He dropped his gun.

Octa pointed the gun in his direction, paused for a moment, then shot him in the right shoulder.

"Is there something you want to tell me before you die?"

"Please, don't do it," he said. "I got an anonymous phone call ordering us to kill you."

Octa heard glass breaking in his bedroom. Running back inside the room, he saw the other man escaping by jumping out the window and falling on his head. Octa saw the other man running and jumping in his car. The man with the blown-apart knee crawled to the car. The driver stepped out to get him. When Octa made his way down, he found no one. I have to do a little cleaning again, he thought. I need to move Lucinda out of this house for her safety, but she's stubborn about it.

Lucinda called him and asked him to come and get her at the airport. Before he hung up, he let her know he put up Christina's pictures on the walls, but she ordered him to take them down again. Octa had previously attempted to place their daughter's pictures around the house, but she wouldn't allow it. She also attempted to talk her into moving to another house, and she still turned him down.