Mirror, Mirror on the Wall ✓

23 | A Liar's Tale

Chapter 23: A Liar's Tale

Clark had decided to park the car away from the target house. They could risk being discovered at this stage. After he was done parking, he and Curreri walked back to the house. When they were still two minutes away from the entrance, they saw Sanders and Hunter in the Impala driving away, probably to Joko's. It was all for the best, the less the number of their enemies, the better. He spied two sentries at the gate. They had guns. And suddenly he did not know what to do with them. Kill or knockdown? But considering that they were muscly and well armed, running to them to take them down physically would be a folly. So he decided to go with the former. They were getting a good shot from where they were. It was a quiet and less populated neighbourhood, with nobody but an old lady with a probably deteriorating hearing power. And fortunately, Curreri's gun was armed with a silencer. Taking Christ's name, he signalled to Curreri to aim and shoot. The sentries were down the next minute and they were making their way in. 

But he stopped in his tracks. 'What, boy?' Curreri asked. 'Listen,' Clark replied, his fingers on his lips. He thought he heard a groan and someone's laughter. The former sounded like Sanchez's. He stopped to listen again. There were sounds, but the words weren't clearly distinguishable. Silent as a lamb, he made himself follow the source of the sounds. What he finally reached was a window, inviting him to spy inside once again! He found himself repeating Curreri's words from yesterday: Could they be this stupid? These guys were probably not that experienced, he had come to know from the rookie mistakes they had committed till now. 

And the window was open! He wanted to dive right in, but Curreri, the more seasoned crook, told him to hold his horses. 'Shut up and listen. You can have valuable information right out of the Detective's captor's mouth.'

Clark understood. He had another flash of inspiration and decided to record the conversation with his phone. The video clip paired with those incriminating photographs would prove to be a set of formidable evidence. He also averted all his senses towards what was going on inside the room.

When he peered inside, he saw a young woman with long, luscious black hair sitting in front of Sanchez. She looked familiar. No, he thought, as realization dawned on him. It can't be. Kim, back from the dead? What? But she was there, there was no denying that fact. 

'Kimberly Marlin for you, Victoria Ricci for the rest of the world.' she said in her lovely voice. 'Missed me, didn't you?' Sanchez didn't care to reply. 'Well, I know you're hurt. But don't mind, it was nothing personal. Pure business.'

'Business?' Sanchez barked. 'Nothing personal? We were about to get married, Ki—Victoria! You lied to me about yourself. You lied to me about your heart. You lied to me about your name. You lied to me about everything! I was depressed for years when I thought you were gone. I worked as much as possible to keep my mind away from thinking of you. I even contemplated killing myself! You were all I had. I'm all alone now. And you say it was nothing personal?'

Even from this far, Clark could see tears glistening Sanchez's eyes. He could not help but feel sorry for the detective. 

She stood up. Clark had to duck down even further to escape her view. She continued, 'Uh, I never thought a guy as tough as you would not recover even in three years. Whatever, I think it's my duty to answer all your questions.

'I never fell in love with you. It was all part of a plan. Morris had bought that shop three years ago. But the basement of the shop had been our unlawful storage room for the initial supply of our new drug business for the past year. But we could do nothing. We cleaned up as good as we could in the short time and went into the shadows. We kept quiet, thinking he would discover the drugs and hand it over to the cops. Even if our new business died, we would be safe. But the old man never opened the basement or discovered the packets.' She chuckled. Clark could sense that Sanchez was as burnt out as he was. She sat down in front of Sanchez again.

'We could have gunned him down, that old man. Hardly would anyone miss him. But we did not want any attention. It was a big stock; attention would ruin the business before it had started. We made a plan. I courted you because I knew you would be the policeman concerning our case if Morris would ever go to the police. I'm afraid I can't tell you how I knew that. I got to know everything about you—your habits, hobbies, likes and dislikes. When I was convinced I had grasped your way of thinking, I left, behind the illusion of a kidnapping.' Sanchez's eyes went wide at that last statement. 'What, did you think it was all real? That means my boys played their parts well.

'After that, we sold the fake mirror to the old man. It was forged but its inauthenticity was so well hidden that only the sharpness of the mind could crack its veil of forgery. The old man was so dazzled by the mirror that it did not take much time to become his favourite artefact. He quickly had it insured. We were sure he would register a police complaint if any harm came upon it. At the same time, I also sent Sanders and Hunter to work for the unsuspecting men Jerold and Morris respectively. It was a matter of hours to get their records cleared for the job. Hunter did a nice job getting a copy of the keys to the shop and the basement and getting himself kicked out. Sanders also did a nice job of becoming a favourite of Jerold and registering his presence in Morris's mind. That ring was a nice idea of his. 

'Then he simply had to break in and shoot the mirror. A pity, that thing was a beauty, even if it was fake. He dropped the ring intentionally. Then he just acted like a crybaby in front of you and that hired woman did an amazing piece of drama as his mother. You believed her tale and we just had to sit back and watch. You, Lee, did the rest. 

'And I've something to return to you. I don't think I deserve to keep it now.' She took out a ring from her pant pocket and extended her palm towards Sanchez. A beautiful diamond glinted from the top. When she realized he was tied and couldn't take the ring himself, she stood up and dropped it into his shirt pocket.

'You helped us clear our way of Scott Morris. I thank you for that. But you were not supposed to follow us down here. It was a mistake you made. And I had no intention of inflicting any harm upon you, but you have left me no choice.' She added in a stern voice, 'It was a pleasure knowing you.'

No sooner than she had spoken in the past tense, Clark knew something bad was going to happen. He pocketed his phone and told Curreri, 'Be ready. The time's come.'

Kim—Victoria, whatever her name was—turned to exit the room. Before going out, she said to one of the men, 'José, get rid of him.' And she was gone, leaving Sanchez and the man, José, alone.

It was now or never.