ℂ𝕃𝕆𝕊𝔼ℝ 𝕋ℍ𝔸ℕ 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝕋ℍ𝕀ℕ𝕂

║ELEVEN║

      AFTER TWO MONTHS of working on the missing persons case, Neil got an anonymous call stating that a teenage girl was found halfnaked in a courtyard  near the callers home. The caller described the teenage girl, saying she had strawberry blonde hair, green eyes and light skinned and all the description matched  Janice's own. Neil immediately drove to the location where the caller said she was accompanied with some police officers. He saw the teenage girl, she was wearing a pant and singlet and it was stained with blood. It was actually Janice, she was sitted on the grass in the courtyard,resting her back on a tree, Neil noticed she was shot at her abdomen. Thank God she is alive.
     The police officers immediately carried her into the police car, driving to the hospital. While in the police car, Neil asked her some questions.
“What happened to you on Friday afternoon?”
Janice  cried, trembling as she sat with a quit wrapped around her.
“Melody and I were walking home, I was pressed, wanting to urinate. I entered the bush along the road to urinate and then I saw this pickup truck, someone from behind blindfolded me, carrying me into the truck. I tried to scream but the man who carried me tied my mouth. Afterwards, I found myself lying on a mat in a dark small cottage. My hands and feet were tied up, my mouth was too and the door was locked. So I couldn't run away, even if I tried to run away, where would I go because I didn't know where I was.” she sobbed.
“After that what happened?” Neil said creasing his eyebrows.
“I saw a dark skinned man walk in through the door. He had dreadlocks and a tattooed body. He came closer to me and knelt down beside me, he touched me in places I didn't like. He told me he was going to take care of me and that he has a surprise for me.” she cried.
“What was the surprise?”
“Timothy… Timothy O'Brien.” she said.
“Who is Timothy?” Neil said writing on his notepad.
“A boy in my Sunday school class.”
“The boy you were crushing on?”
“Yes” Janice answered as pink color filled her cheeks.
“Did Timothy or the black guy harm you?”
“Yes. Both of them raped me repeatedly, they hardly gave me food.” she blubbered.
“How did you get to the courtyard near the amusement park?”
“I escaped, they left the door where they kept me accidentally unlocked. The dark guy saw me and pursued me, so he pointed a gun at my direction as I ran, he shot me and the bullet hit me on my abdomen. I luckily escaped, running until I was exhausted that's when I arrived at the courtyard.” she wiped tears away from her face with the quilt.
“Do you know the dark guy's name?”
“No, but Tim calls him Jasper.”
“Were you dating Timothy?”
She looked at Neil and looked away outside the car window. “Yes.” she said.
“Then, why would he rape you and allow another guy to rape you too?”
“I don't know, I thought he loved me when he asked me out not knowing he has an ulterior motive. Anyway, I've learnt my lesson.” she sniffled.
“You are going to be okay, we will take you to the hospital so the doctors will run some test on you.”

      ☬              ☬              ☬

“Our precious detective Harper has finally resumed work.” Neil announced ethusiastically when he saw Nicole enter the office. Nicole flashed a smile at him as she walked to her desk.
“Welcome back Miss Harper.” Neil said as she sat.
“Thank you.”
“How was the two months leave?”
“It was okay, I really needed it.”
“And how is your mum doing?”
“She is doing well, she recovered from the shock of my father's death quickly than I did, she was even the one consoling me. She resumed work at the hospital last week.”
“That's good. Being a nurse she would understand better, she would have seen people lose their loved ones, you know.”
“Yeah, so how far with the case? You called me yesterday, you said you have found Janice.”
“Yep and we are looking for Timothy, once we find Timothy we can find the dark skinned guy.” Neil said.
“How is Janice doing and how far with the testing?”
“Janice is in a state of recuperation and the testing is going pretty well.”
“All this while I knew it would be the boy from her church.”
“Why did you say so?”
“We brought Travis in for questioning and he spoke innocently though he has some bad manners of talking rudely.”
“Why didn't you speak earlier?”
“I was just being patient and you know we added Timothy to our suspect list then we didn't know his name.”
“Hmm,” Neil stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps we can get some information from the pastor of Janice's church”
“That's true. Tomorrow morning  then.”
“Alright.” Neil said as he stood up, leaving the office with the missing case file in his hand.

     ☬              ☬               ☬

       After Nicole closed from work, she drove home. As she was about parking her car in the garage. She saw someone, coming out of the next house beside hers, he was with a trash bag. She had never seen the person before, she squinted in the dark, to see the person very well, the street light illuminating the area. He was a man. She drove into the garage and got out of her car with her handbag. She came out of the garage and climbed the stairs to her porch.
“Good evening!” someone yelled, greeting her. She spun around to see the man waving at her.
“Good evening.” she said waving back.

           Who is he?

She thought.
       Since when she has been living here she hasn't seen anyone coming or going out of the next house. She saw the man push his door open and walked into his house.

Is he living here? Or maybe he is my new neighbour.

She thought as she unlocked her door and entered her house.