5- The Truth Behind The Door

5.

 

It was around midnight when Ross heard his door bell ring. The heat and anxiety has caused his body to sweat exceedingly. He felt the wetness on his cheek from the patch that driveled saliva had created on the bed sheet.  His head was pounding, his heart racing; as he wondered if it could be Eliza and Hamid. He vigorously got out of bed and ran downstairs, but by then the ringing had stopped. He slightly opened the door, to be greeted by the cold breeze.

Ross took in the dark night, in search of any living and moving form, but there was not one thing in sight. He took a step out, in spite of the growing cold. By now, the heat from his nightmares had turned into a growing cold and agitation, creeping up his back. His eyes ceaselessly wandered for what he wished to see but unfortunately, there was nothing around to provide the sense of relief he needed. With a bit of indignation, he decided to get back in, when an envelope on the floor caught his eye.

He stared at the envelope for a while as his shivering body kept on struggling with the freezing cold. Sudden thunders roared up in the sky signaling the upcoming rain.

He hunched back as to pick up the envelope and closed the door behind him. The temperature inside the house was quite a relief to his body. He settled on the couch in the living room where he browsed the envelope for some clue about the sender but it looked anonymous.

Something told him that this should tell him what he wanted to know about his family. So quietly and steadily, he lacerated the edge of the envelope and took out a precisely draped letter.

He unfolded the letter and started reading the content in his mind. It was a short message, straight o the point and addressed to him.

   

“Come to Bronxway Storage, Warehouse number twenty-one before dawn and make sure you come alone”

 

This letter gave me some kind of hope, but it still didn’t change the fact that his family might be in an inconsiderable danger and somehow he felt responsible but could not figure out who would do something like this. He was not able to remember anyone of his who could have accomplished such an act of hatred.

Without wasting any time, he went upstairs to his bedroom where he got dressed, took his keys and immediately left the house.

In the meantime, Detective Vaughn had reached the Fairfax Police headquarters, where in his cabin he prepared his case file about Denver’s missing family where he stated Mrs. Amila Rehman as his main suspect.

Officer Allison, a fairly young assistant entered the cabin. She had her hair tied neatly, as usual, and was wearing a gray pantsuit.

“You called me Detective?” She asked

“Indeed” Vaughn replied.

“What can I do you for?” Allison cheerfully asked.

“I want you to get me everything about Mr. Ross Denver…”He said. “Also run down a check about Mrs. Rehman, the wife’s mother. See if you can find anything about her”.

“Sure Detective, I am on it” Allison said. She left the cabin to start working on the task she had been assigned.

Allison figured that it usually took a while to dig up dirt about such respectable families, so she got comfortable. She checked out the database for any record on Rehman’s family but unfortunately there was any records of neither Mr. Hamid nor his wife so Allison moved on to run a background check on Ross Denver but all she could find about was beyond her belief and understanding.

She went straight in Vaughn’s cabin where he was leaning back on his chair, thinking about the continuous fights with his wife that had been bothering him lately.

“Detective, I want you to have a look over something that I found” Allison abruptly began speaking handing him over a print-out.

As he carefully looked over the paper, Vaughn was surprised and totally perplexed. The information he was looking at was cryptic in nature itself. That piece of paper was about to take everything to a whole different level.

Detective Vaughn immediately left the sheet of paper on the desk in front of him and asked Allison to come along as he exited his room. Allison hurried to her desk to get her jacket and her forty-two caliber gun, and then she followed Vaughn to his car. He rapidly drove out from the premises, and Allison guessed that something of great impact was probably about to go down.

 

Ross reached storage facility in time. There were still few hours left for Aurora to rise. He got out of the car as cold and frosty night welcomed him, tucking hands in the pockets of his jacket, he carried on to look for warehouse number twenty-one. The warehouses occupied a vast place in the facility. He kept looking for the warehouse with number twenty-one.

His feet were light; he made sure not to waste any more time. He was curious and tormented at the same time. This severe affliction was driving him crazy.

He kept on looking but the overwhelming fear and anxiety softened his sense of understanding.  His mind started to drift in thousands of directions, with a million of bad scenarios, but he told himself that if things were bad, he would have never gotten a letter instructing him to come. This must have meant his family was still alive; anxiety softened his sense of understanding as his mind started to apprehend the possibility of some harm could have been done by now.

Fortunately after some further struggle with the flakiness he was about to be driven into as the ray of light was about to hit the earth which could have shattered his expectation to see his Wife and Son ever again perhaps, he found the warehouse in time; he noticed an immense brown-colored gate numbered twenty-one. He bowed his head to enter the small door cut into the huge gate and made his way into the warehouse. He was not at all concerned about the size of the place. His only concern was safety of his beloved family.

The place was so dark that the corners of the warehouse were barely visible. Silently, for the first time since his family disappeared, he uttered their names: “Eliza, Hamid”. He continued calling their names and kept walking towards the other side of the gigantic place.

 

With the endless sound of chirping insects inside the warehouse, Eliza’s moaning was like a blessing to his ears. A sudden light emerged in one corner of the warehouse, and he could see Eliza, shackled to a chair with her mouth duct taped. She could be heard sobbing because of fear running down her veins. Her continuous moaning was a strand of hope.

“Eliza!” Ross shouted. 

With his heated desire to get his family safe and sound, he ran towards her, and did'nt see the blow coming. He got knocked down by a heavy weight. As Eliza witnessed him going down on, her moaning became louder. The sudden whack on his head disoriented him for a while but perhaps was not enough to keep him down for long.

He held his head in hands and shook it as to clear up the softness in his eyes as he made an attempt to stand back on his feet. He turned to see who it was when the softness in his eyes began to clear up giving him back his intact vision. Slowly, he looked around to see who the third party was. The scarred face of a tall heavy-bodied man with a long grown beard was staring back at him.

The long scar of stitches from his temple to his right ear which made him look more cruel, wicked and inhuman than he manifestly was. After quickly taking in the man he had knocked down, the huge man walked up to Ross, and before he could struggle  his way out of the brute’s embrace, his arms were behind his back, in chains.

“Who are you?” Ross angrily asked with strenuous efforts to get out of the tightly gripping chains.

“What do you want?” he shouted. 

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[Prritiy]

Slowly, he looked around to see who the third party was. The scarred face of a tall heavy-bodied man with a long grown beard was staring back at him.

The long scar of stitches from his temple to his right ear which made him look more cruel, wicked and inhuman than he manifestly was.

mystery darkens.....

liking it, just no more murders :)

best wishes