Close Enemy

Chapter 16

Time seemed not to be on our side. It had been five months ever since Joel died, still no new leads.
The police force tried their possible best but they kept meeting a dead end, it seemed the killer was very smart and calculative.

The police found something new about Joel, he had a double life, if I could put it that way. Detective Robles had come across several drug dealers contacts on Joel's phone.

At first that seemed like a new lead, but it was only a dead end. Joel seemed to have had several fights with them, but they claimed that they never tried kill him.

They had admitted getting into a fight with him two months before his death, but they never had intentions of killing him.

I remembered the last time I had seen Joel beaten up badly, i could remember clearly that he didn't want to talk about the injuries he had sustained, now I realized that those injuries were not from chuck but the thugs, so that was the reason he never gave me an answer.

After they had all been questioned, the detective kept investigating them, he kept a close eye on them,  but they had no idea.

At this point my pregnancy had reached the mid term, I was now six months pregnant, my mom didn't agree on me having the baby. I had literally ruined her plans on getting me married to chuck.

Chuck and I kept communicating, he literally ignored the fact that I was pregnant with Joel's child, he was still as interested as he was from the first day.

But I wouldn't give into all his advances even when they seemed so tempting. At this point finding Joel's killer was all that mattered.

*******

I was upstairs in my mom's room,  she had sent me to get her medication for her, I searched her bed and side drawers for the drugs but there were nowhere to be seen.

I kept searching, I went through all the drawers in the room, finally I decided to check her wardrobe, still I couldn't find it, but I found something more interesting.

It was a $10000 receipt, showing that my mom had transferred that sum of money to Brenda Larson.
I was stunned, I kept wondering why mom would send money to Brenda.

I stopped searching for the drugs, I placed the receipt in my arms as I left the room and headed downstairs.

I walked down the stairs slowly with my eyes glued to the receipt and a frown on my face, i wondered why mom would send such a huge amount to Brenda, or why she would even send Brenda some cash, and why Brenda didn't bother letting me know.

My mom sat on the couch as she watched her favorite soap opera,  I furrowed my face in confusion as I approached her.

"mom I found this receipt in your wardrobe "

"what receipt " she ignorantly asked as she backed me facing the television screen.

"this" I stretched it out

She turned around, with the sight of the receipt her eyes opened wide, she seemed really shocked, she quickly grabbed it from my right hand.

"That's not what I sent you to get for me"

"I was searching for that before I found the receipt"

"oh ok" she turns towards the television

"mom why did you send money to Brenda"

"hmmmmm no, your friend no" she stuttered

"then whose Brenda Larson"

"she works in the same place with me"

"Really, waow so much coincidence, so why did you send such amount to her, and how did you get so much money, you've been complaining of no money" I said playing along

"business transaction, it's the company's money "

"really why couldn't the company send it to her directly"

My mom looked at me for several seconds, she was shut of words, all of a sudden she started having a panic attack, for a moment I doubted her and felt like she was faking.

"oh please spare me that crap, stop faking"

She started gasping for air, as she demanded for her drugs, I became scared, first of all I couldn't locate them.

"okay mom calm down, try and remember where you kept it last"

She points to the kitchen. I rushed into the kitchen, I ran straight to the drug container with hopes on finding it there.

I rushed back to the living room with a glass of water and her drugs in my hands.

"here you go" I handed over the glass of water and a tablet to her

She swallows the drugs, she was left reckless after that, I felt so mad about what I had caused, I was only curious.

My mom wasn't known for wasting money so it all seemed suspicious to me. She positioned her body in a relaxed position as she took some rest.

I quickly snatched the receipt without her notice. I remorsefully walked up to my room. I wanted to know what she used the money for besides we were short on cash, so I felt like wasting money wasn't the best option.

I walked up to my room, and picked up my cellphone, I dialed Brenda's number it took like forever for her to pick the call.

"hi Brenda how are you, it's been long" I said in a happy tone

"how are you dear,  how's your life going"

"well not too good"

"well i'm not surprised,  after the death of Joel "

"how did you know Joel was dead" I was shocked on her knowledge of Joel's death

"I saw it on the newspaper"

"oh ok, Brenda I need a favour from you "

"sure,  what are friends for "

"well someone wants to send me some cash, but my account is frozen at the moment, could you please let the person send it through your account "

"okay sure"

"thanks so much, do you use chase bank"

"yes"

"okay send your account number"

I hanged up as I await her message.