Angela✓

Chapter 15 : Missing Points

Lucas rubbed his elbow as he looked at John inside the bus. He was a man in the mid-forties with a dark complexion and grey hairs.

"Joaquin Ross is the drug-lord of this area. I owe him a lot of money. They are after me. During the time period you were inquiring about, I was in jail for drunk-driving. You can confirm with the police...",he slowly explained.

John studied him carefully when he asked:

"And that black van?"

"Belongs to me. I used to hire it out to the clients who had to shift furnitures, cupboard ect..while shifting houses...like movers and packers..you know mostly to them..",he replied.

John wondered for a while and stood up to make his exit when he stopped and turned his gaze to him.

"There was pictures of army personnel in your home. Where did that came from?"

"Oh, someone or the other in my family has always been in the army. There are many institutions who hires ex-army men for security services"

To this, John sat beside him again.

"Was there anyone else from the Land Measurement office who was an ex-army man?"

Lucas travelled his eyes and wondered when John took out his notebook from his bag and showed it to him.

"Anyone from this list?"

Lucas studied each and every names with his fingertips when he stopped and said:

"This one"

                                 •••

"Did you get it? No water, no fan, nothing for him",Sandra ordered to one of the officers.

"Sandra, I need to speak to you..",Martin called out.

"Just a minute Martin"

"You stay there, get it?",she said to the officer.

"Ok madam",left the guy.

"Sandra.."

"Yes?"

"We haven't found Ronnie yet. We are surely making a mistake",Martin confessed. Sandra shook her head in disagreement.

"What mistake? It's an open and shut case! After looking at the wall in his house, there's no room for any doubt. He's just pretending, we'll break him"

"The yellow wall? What's so unique about it? You can paint any wall and take any picture, that's it?!",shouted back Martin.

Sandra rolled her eyes and left a breath.

"See, even if we believe that it is the same house but James is claiming that he was locked-up in some other place. The kidnapper could have taken the child there and clicked his picture. If James were locked up, then how can he make the ransom call?",Martin explained.

"Only if he is speaking the truth",argued Sandra.

"What if he's telling the truth? Look, the kidnapper called from the PCO. Then, he wiped his own fingerprints but left behind the cigarette butt. So, under the circumstances, he did two things; one he showed his clever side and the other, the foolish. Isn't that strange?",Martin explained.

Sandra stared at him and wondered.

"Now, we must think from a different angle. If he was wearing a pair of gloves, then everything would have changed easily. He would have never wiped the phone"

Sandra listened when she went towards her cabin and sat on her chair, following Martin behind who explained:

"In that situation, you would have found many fingerprints on the phone and you would have wasted precious time in finding a single match and yet you wouldn't have found your suspect. When we caught him, he was trying to throw the bag of money on the other side of the wall. Why? After taking such a big risk to get his money, why would he throw the bag on the other side? He would only do so if he had a partner on the other side or if someone had threatened him to do it"

"Your theory about the partner might be right...but the story about locking him up and threatening him...is bullshit",Sandra left her opinion.

Martin took a deep breath and looked away when he fetched a pen and was chewing it out of stress and wondered. Sandra was doing something in the documents when she closely stared at him.

"What are you thinking, Martin?"

"He repeated his 8 years old plan again. And this time..to perfection",he suspiciously said.

"How?"