Another World

Chapter 30

"Carl?"

His name was uttered in a hushed tone.

"Who else would it be?" His tone, on the other hand, sounded slightly annoyed.

"But...I thought...Eric said you were dead!" Charlotte stammered, her mind a jumbled mess and still unable to process that not only was she talking to Carl, but that he actually was alive and his usual grumpy self.

"Yessss," Carl huffed. "Remind me to put him on my To-Do-List. That son of a bitch blew up my house!"

"What?!"

"Let's just say I'm not very happy with him. I had a nice collection of cigars that I was saving for a special occasion."

Charlotte slumped down heavily on the couch, ignoring the dust that puffed up from the cushions.

"Carl! How can you be concerned about your cigars? Eric blew up your house, and all you can think about is that?! I thought you were dead!" Charlotte was vaguely aware that her voice had gone shrill, but at the moment she couldn't care less. How could Carl be so nonchalant about his goddamned house blowing up? She, on the other hand, was just relieved that he wasn't dead!

"Those cigars were expensive," he whined. "Do you know how long it took me to build up my collection?"

Charlotte ran her hand over her face in exasperation.

There was a slight pause on the other end, almost as though he could sense her consternation at him.

"Were you worried about me?" Carl finally asked, chuckling in amusement.

"Of course I was!" Charlotte paused, adding more softly. "I thought I had lost you, Carl."

"Bah! It'll take more than a bomb to get rid of me, my dear."

Charlotte did not disbelieve it.

"How did you escape?"

"Well, a friend of a friend of a friend..."

"Carl!"

Carl let out a hearty laugh. "Let's just say that I have a good friend working for the CIA. I happened to talk to her a while back about Eric and she has been keeping tabs on him ever since. She found out about his plans to send someone to blow up my house and warned me. I'm somewhere safe now."

Charlotte felt immense relief that Carl had the mentality of a soldier and had had the foresight to prepare for every possibility. She still felt shamed that she had not heeded his advice in the first place, and he had paid the price.

"So the CIA is aware of what Eric has been up to?" Charlotte asked. Why had they not stopped him?

"Sort of. After my little chat with Eric not too long ago, and after speaking to my buddy, I went to his supervisor and told him a watered-down tale of what was happening. But you know how those government officials are. They want to do everything by the goddamned book and don't want to believe the worst of their kind. Agent Philips finally agreed to start digging up dirt on our boy, but that sort of stuff takes time." Carl breathed in a deep breath. "They recently found something that you might not be too happy about."

"What is it?" Charlotte enquired, though she already had a suspicion of what it was going to be.

"Eric was responsible for the deaths of your parents. He did a damned fine job of covering his tracks, but with enough relentless digging, the truth was uncovered."

Charlotte sat motionless. Her fears were now confirmed, even though she had suspected it, but she was unsure of how to process this news

Finally, she asked. "Why?" This was the big question. Thinking back, Eric and her parents had gotten along like a house on fire. So why had he killed them?