Chapter 87: Chapter 87
I accidentally dropped my weapon, I take the weapon in rush and run back to the basement, I hide in the basement with a piece of glass in my hand. The man comes from upstairs “Maia, we need to talk” He says running from the stairs. “There’s been some kind of misunderstanding. The police think-” He stops in front of the empty chair and shocked. I stab him from behind with a piece of glass in my hand. “Oh shit! Did you just stab me?” He groans.
He takes my hands and grabs them tightly, I punch his stomach with my leg and he whimpering in pain. He pushes me and I fall to the ground, then he holds my shoulders from above and facing me “What’s wrong with you?!” He yells in dismay. “Okay, I’m calling this off. This is getting too real, you can keep your $10.000, whatever” He states from the top of me. And all of sudden, someone is knocking the door house upstairs.
He’s peeking up from the basement window, and there are cops outside the house. “Oh, shit” He mumbles. “Help! Someone help!” I scream. He covered my mouth with his hand “Are you insane? The police are outside” He says in a low voice as he covered my mouth and I tried to scream under his hand. “We’re not in pretend land anymore!” He exclaims in whispers. “Shh… look at me, look at me” He asks. “Help me!” I keep screaming under his hand.
The police pounding the door once again, I muffled screams. “Yeah, just a second” He yells as he covering my mouth with tape and my hands again. We walk upstairs and he leaves me in the bathroom. I'm peeking up from the bathroom door hole as he opens the front door and talks to the officers. “Are you William Andrews?” The officer asks. “Yeah, I am...” He replies. “What makes you so long to get to the door today?” The officer asks. “Oh, I cooked something” He chuckles.
The blood comes through his back, soaking his shirt and go down to his leg, no one noticed. “How can I help you, officers?” He asks, hiding the pain which I made as the blood comes. “We’re here about a woman who went missing last night” The officer explains. “Missing?” William raises an eyebrow and pretending not knows anything. “Are you familiar with a woman named Maia LaLuna?” The officer asks.
They show my picture to William. “No, I don’t think so” William responds. “You drive a black van?” The officer asks. “Used to be black, now it’s more like full-colored actually” William laughs softly. “It has a red line on each door?” The officer asks. “Yes, actually it does” William replies. “Is the car in your garage?” The officer asks. “No, it’s in the shop right now… I gotta say, I’m getting a little confused here” William says.
“It was a neighbor that saw your car parked in front of her house last five days running” The officer says. “I’m sorry, whose neighbor?” William asks. “Miss LaLuna” The officer replies. “She’s the one that’s missing?” William asks. “Yeah, Miss LaLuna. Not the neighbor!” The officer responds. His blood dripping down from his back, running down to the floor below his feet, I stab him pretty deep and he’s pretty fucked up right now.
“Right!" He groans. "Isn’t it pretty early to open a missing person investigation?” William asks. The officer stares at him with a raised eyebrow. “I watch a lot of crime shows” William chuckles. The officers keep staring at him and waiting for some answers. “As I said, it’s in the shop and it’s been in the shop all week” William shrugs. “You know the name of the shop?” The officer asks. “Mmm I don’t know the name of it but it’s around Whitestone” William says.
“I have a friend who was a mechanic there” William clearing his throat with a trembling breath. “Who is your friend name?” The officer asks. “Byron” William answers. “Byron had a last name?” The officer responds. “Just Byron is all I know” William says. “You don’t think he could have something to do with this, right?” William asks. “You know, he did say… yeah he mentioned that he was in Queens. Oh man, Byron” William sighs.
“Do you have his number, do you?” The officer asks. “No, I’m not but he usually there if you go to his shop” William replies. “So should I just give you a call if I hear from Byron?” He asks. “Yeah, if we need to get a hold of you this week, we know where you live!” The officer says. “Great!” He chuckles. The officers are about to leave the house but they turn around again before they leave “Mr. Andrews… have a good weekend!” The officer smiles and they leave after.
I stop peeking up as William closes the front door. I sit in the bathtub with tied hands and a covered mouth. My stomach feels like a storm as the storm keeps tickling me up. William walks towards the bathroom and he whimpering in pain “Oh, shit!” He groans as he looking at his back in the mirror. He cleans the stab's wound in front of the bathroom before he gets into the bathroom to see me, he stands on his knees and winces in front of me.
“Alright… I’m just gonna need the truth from you here” William heavily breath. “Please tell me that shit you pulled back there was all part of the act… That you’re still acting” William says in dismay. “If that’s the case and I know that’s the case” He chuckles. “Then we can just end this thing right here and go our separate ways” William says. I point my gaze to the bathroom ceiling and heavily breathe as my hands still under the wrap.
“You know what this is, right? You called me on the phone, you… you asked for this, you paid for this” William explains in stutters. I shook my head, tears coming out of my eyes, dripping down to the tape which wrapped my mouth. “You didn’t?” He asks. I grunt and held my tears, I shook my head which rests on the bathroom wall. “You have no idea what I’m talking about? “ William asks. I shook my head. “Hold on!” William says, he removes the tape from my mouth.
I gasp and cough when he takes off the tape from me, running my mouth to my shoulder and clean my mouth. “Please let me go. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what it is…” I breathe trembling. “I think that you have the wrong person” I end. “You didn’t call me on the phone? You didn’t deposit $5000 into my bank account?” He asks. “I lied… I lied about Aleena because I thought if I told you…” I sob.
“If I told you what you wanted to hear, you might let me go…” I start to cry. “Please let me go home” I cry. William heavily sighs as he closes his eyes for a minute “There is no Aleena, I made her up!” William sighs. “You made up Aleena?” I ask. “It’s all part of the scenario” William replies. “I run a shanghai company” William says. I stare at him with a raised eyebrow “What?” I ask in confusion. “It’s kidnappings simulation!” William explains.
“Call it like a high form of Hollywood theater, you know…” William chuckles. “Oh, my God. You’re insane!” I state as I stare at him in disgust. “No, no, no… Look, a woman named Maia LaLuna called me a few months ago and contracted me to kidnap her on 8th August, to avoid her engagement day and disappear for weekend. Up until now, I had every reason to believe you were that woman” William explains.
I shook my head and laugh softly when I heard his sentence. “Why would…? Why would I do…?” I respond. “Why would anyone do this? Why would I hire you to do this to me?!” I yell at him and about to spit on him. William heavily sighs as he looks at me, he off the tied in my hands and we walk out of the bathroom. I follow him behind and looking around the place. I saw a lot of pictures posted on the wall, then I get closer to the section and looking at the picture.
“What the… f-” I mumble, as I’m looking at the pictures which posted on the wall. There’s a woman who tied on the chair with covered eyes and an apple in her mouth, there’s a fat old man who tied with burgers in his mouth, and many more. “These psychos pay you money to torture them?” I ask in disgust as I’m looking around the pictures. “No, they use our services for any number of reasons” William replies as he sits on his work seat.
“Our?” I ask as I turn around. “My… my services” William explains. I lean myself on the wall and stare at him “I don’t get it” I say. “Don’t they have loved ones, people miss them while they’re gone?” I ask as I walk closer to his desk. “Yeah some of them wanted to see how desperate the one they loved, some of them avoid debt, some of them do for fun. Typically a session only lasts six hours, not enough time to arouse suspicion” He starts.
“Yours was a special case...” William ends, his fingers clicking the computer mouse as he looks at me. I sit on the chair in front of him and caressing my wrists. “Let me guess Wil, you got carried away?” I ask. He opens the drawer and takes a contract paper inside the drawer, he shows me the contract and puts the contract on the desk “You paid for weekend!” William exclaims as he rests his chin on the palm of his hand. I reach over the paper and look at it, putting the paper back to his desk.
“Wil, I’ve never seen that before...” I say in a low voice. I remove my gaze from him and rest my elbow on the chair handle, tried to settle down. “You signed it!” William states as he flipped the paper. I turn around and looking at the paper, I take the paper from the desk and chuckle before I grab a pen on the desk and write my sign below the contract sign. "Look, this is my sign and that one wasn't mine" I say. “No, no, no. That’s not… that can’t be right…” William takes the paper from me. “You paid me half up front!” William says.
I shook my head and rest my arms on my back head, caressing my hair gently. I get up from the chair and walk closer to William, I stand next to him and staring at the computer screen. “That says anonymous deposit” I say as I staring at the computer screen. “Well, most of them are” William responds. “That doesn't come as a surprise to me” I walk away from him and back to sit. He shows me the voice records which he saved in his file.
“I saw you in the parking lot this afternoon. You didn’t say anything… You stalked me outside the elevator. Were you outside my house too? You really should be more careful next time, Wil...” Beeeep line ends. William stares at me with a smirk as he raises an eyebrow. “That’s not my voice, I don’t know who that is!” I say. He heavily sighs as he stares at me “That sounds a lot like you!” William exclaims. “That’s not me, there must be someone else with my name” I respond.
“No, no, no. that’s too big a coincidence. I mean, I saw you in the elevator that day. You brought it up earlier” William says. “Were you outside my house?” I ask. “Yes…” He nods. “How long were you watching me?” I ask. “Since I got a phone call” William replies. “Call the number back” I ask. William reaches the phone and calls the numbers back. “We’re sorry. The number you have reached is not in our service. Please check-” He hangs up the phone and sighs.
“Disconnected” William says, his face stares to the ground. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s only one logical explanation...” He states. “Mmm-hmm?” I stare at him. “I mean, isn’t it obvious? We were set up” He chuckles. “Who would do that? Who? Why? Who would waste all of their time putting together in… such an elaborate plan” I respond. “Don’t you have any enemies? I mean, somebody that might benefit from you being gone for a few days?” He asks.
“You know, missing your engagement day…” He ends. I raise an eyebrow and point my gaze at him “Me? I don’t have any… what about… what about you?” I ask as I remove my gaze from him and stare at the picture on the wall. “I don’t have any enemies, either” William says. “You work with these crazy people for a living, I mean you must have your fair share of disgruntled clients” I highly raise my voice as I point the pictures with my index finger.
William shook his head, putting his hand on his head, and sighs as he gives me a look. “Disgruntled? Never… I’m very good at my job” He says. “Well… No, you’re really not good at what you do” I reply. He opens the drawer and shows me a picture “Do you know her?” He asks. “No, I don’t think so. Who is she?” I ask as I staring at the picture. “Have you ever been to Hawaii?” He asks. “Once I was there when, I think when I was a kid. Who is she?” I ask as I'm looking at her picture.