THE ROOT OF A CYNOSURE

Chapter six

Unedited ( you may find lots of spelling and grammatical goofs)

Damon

After a long wait, John Terry finally appeared. He was tall, lanky with hollow eyes, hooked nose and tobacco dark lips. Dressed in black coat and baseball cap, he walked briskly towards his cabin. Our informant told us that he never came back to his cabin until 8:00 PM . He lived alone, and no one knew of his family members.

I and Alicia got out of the car as he walked passed us. He did not look at us.
“ Mr Terry.” I called as I moved after him while Alicia followed.
He turned, gave me an astonishing and askance look.

“ I’m sorry ,I don’t know you.” He said with a husky voice.
“ I am Damon Simon, and this is Alicia Grant.”
I offered my hand for a shake.
“ I don’t know you.” He repeated. “What do you want?”
“ It’s about  Richard Cliff and Maria Hudson.”
His hollow eyes shifted.
“ I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“ We want to know …….”
“ Go to the police. It’s almost twenty years and they questioned me to hell. I am not a heist. I told them and they found nothing to link me with the crime. I don’t want to talk about . If you are from the press, forget it because I hate you guys. “
“ We are not from the press and we don’t want no press in this.” Alicia said. “ I- I am their child.”

This seemed to have shocked him. He gave her a sharp look, like he was seeing her for the first time.
“ You mean….Oh my god! I can see her eyes. You were adopted by the Grants. Come on, come with me.”

He led us to his cabin. The living room was poorly furnished with old furniture and TV but it was very neat and organised. I looked round with interest, as we sat on the sofa. Alicia told him that she just discovered her real parents and wanted to know about them. John asked how she discovered him. she said it was in a case file. She did not want to mention Tyler so he would not become scared.

“ I met Richard and Maria when they first arrived United State in 1991. They were illegal immigrants and I saw them the first day they arrived by the sea. I was a fisherman, and I still fish. He was only sixteen and she was fourteen. I mean, they were as young as my kids and Wanted to know what they were doing here. He said his parents were killed by a local gang in Mexico. It’s bullshit when they say they were from Italy. They were Mexicans. She also lost her parents so they left and became lovers. They were sweet kids. This is where I got in trouble. I harboured them the and I knew they were illegal immigrants. I never saw crime in them. Six months later, living in hiding, they left and moved to San Francisco. I think they got mixed up with gangs and drugs there. Until one night, in 1998, they dropped in my house and told me they were in trouble. They said a gang from Mexico was after them. I never knew about the heist. I kept them, and they had a lot of money . I became suspicious, so I politely asked them to leave.I heard them talk about their baby ,and she looked like she had put to bed but they never mentioned it to me.

I became more suspicious. They left and I never saw them again until  the cops came knocking at my door. It was a hell of a time for me. Those kids needed help. They were children of circumstances, left in a baneful world, to survive in the wild and got absorbed by the wind of crime. I got the details later and found out that they had a daughter.”

He said so many things and showed us pictures. I saw their picture when they first arrived by the sea,with some Mexicans, also saw them eating Mexican food like Chicken tostadas,cheese quesadillas,pinto bean salsa salad, etcetera.
“ Do you have a family?” I asked him after he was through.

“ I lost my wife and kids in a car accident in 1976. I never got married after that. I am seventy- five. Just want to pass on quietly. I live alone. The closest to a family I had was her parents but unfortunately, the encounter made me became paranoid .”
Alicia gave him twenty thousand Dollars which he refused to collect at first but later accepted after persuasion.