Louisa's p.o.v;
When I woke up in Ace's room, it was only me who was laying on the bed, and the room was empty too. I tied up my hair high and stepped out of the room to encounter Mateo who was talking with some Bodyguards.
Seeing me walking out of Ace's room, he said, "Ace asked you to take off from college and stay at the house for a while."
"Why?" I asked while walking to my room.
He said while following me, "For your safety, ofcourse."
I looked around the house and asked, "Then where is he?"
"He went to deal with some business."
I stopped from walking further and told him, "The only person who needs safety is him. Not me. I'm not someone who's the next in line leader." And headed to my room to get ready for college.
When I came out of the house, Mateo stopped the car in front of me and said, "Get in. I'll drop you at college."
I got in and remained silent.
While he was driving me to the college, I got a call from Bernie. I answered, "Hello?"
"Louisa, where are you?"
"I'm on the way. Why?"
"There's a cop here asking for you at the front gate. Do you know him? He says that you know him…"
Is that Raphael?
"Did you talk to him?" I whispered on the phone since Mateo was in the front.
"No, I heard him while talking to the security. Do you know him? Louisa…"
"I'll be there in a few minutes." And ended the call.
After a while, the car halted in front of the college entrance. I didn't see Raphael at the entrance who Bernardo mentioned to me on the phone. Did he leave?
Mateo asked, "Get inside. I have to make sure you enter the college safely."
I thanked him for the ride and walked inside the campus.
After a few steps inside the campus, Bernardo wrapped his hand over my shoulder saying, "How are you?"
"We met yesterday."
"But it feels like a long time since you moved to your friend's place. When will you come back to our apartment? Without you, it's boring for me. So boring that I don't have someone to quarrel and fight with…"
I interrupted, "Where is the cop you were talking about?"
"Oh! I forgot about him. Hold on, didn't you see him before entering college…"
Was Raphael there when Mateo dropped me in front of the college? Did he see Mateo and me together? I turned and looked in the way in which I entered the college, there wasn't anyone. Did he see?
"I have to make a call."
I excused myself and walked away from him and ringed Raphael. He answered.
"Did you make a visit to my college?"
"Yeah, I did. Something else came up so I left."
"What do you want to ask me?"
"I can't do that on the phone. Are you free after evening?"
"Yeah."
"Then we'll meet at Jules Avenue. At 6 p.m." and he ended the call.
He doesn't sound like he saw me and Mateo together. He must have left before we came here. But, what did he want to talk to me about? Asking me to come to an isolated Avenue? Still looks suspicious to me.
While I was thinking about why Raphael wanted to meet me, I got a message from Arthur. It was a picture message. When I opened it, I saw the rich guy who bought the red stone that day and who burnt down the house after the bargain. Under the picture message, there was a text message by Arthur saying that, "Check out this guy, he looked similar to your description as well."
I messaged him back, "Where did you see him?"
He wasn't online.
"Weren't you down with the call? Why are you still staring at your phone?" Bernardo asked from where he was standing.
I walked to him and said, "Head in. I forgot to take something. I'll be back."
Bernardo shouted, "Don't be late!" While I was walking out of the campus.
After I came out of the campus, I called Arthur. He didn't pick up. Why isn't he picking up the call? I rang him again and again to get a negative response from him.
I saw the picture again. There wasn't much information about the place he was in since it was just buildings.
I got a call from Arthur.
"Sorry, I was at work , that's why…"
I interrupted, "Where did you see him?"
"Is this the guy who you were looking for…"
"Just tell me where."
He let out a chuckle and said, "Seems like I got the right person. I would like to make a deal…"
"I agree. I agree to whatever you ask for. Just tell me the location."
"22 street."
"When did you see him?"
"A few minutes ago."
I ended the call and headed to the location which Arthur sent me.
After a while, i came to the place but couldn't see him around. Did he leave somewhere? I lost him again. By the way, what was he doing here?
"Louisa!"
When I turned around, I saw Raphael waving at me while being in his patrol car.
He walked to me and asked, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in college right now?"
"I'm on the way."
"This is not the way to your college."
"To be honest, I got lost. Every street looks the same to me."
"How did you know that I went to your college?"
"My friend told me after seeing you asking the security."
He nodded and said while pointing to his car, "Come on, I'll take you."
"It's fine. I'll find a way by myself."
"I can't leave you here. After all, I'm a cop. Have to help someone in need." And walked to his car.
I took another look around and walked after him.
While Raphael was driving, I asked, "What is it?"
"What?"
"What do you want to ask?"
He took something from his pocket and gave it to me. It was pictures of a deceased person from different angles.
I said, "Why am I looking at this?"
"Have you seen him?"
"No. Why do you think I know him?"
"He was murdered by phantom gang."
Phantom? That's Ace's gang. Act fool!
"Phantom?"
"There's many gangs in the province. Majority are Pandora and phantom. Others are in minority communities. Since you rescued me from that shithole I thought you would have seen him but it looks like you didn't see him."
"How can you be sure that this was by phantom and not by others?"
He took a single photograph out of the many and said, "Take a look at this. This is the symbol they leave behind on the victim's body to make others live in fear. More like a warning to other gangs."
"What if someone does it and carve the phantom symbol to fool us?"
He smiled at me and said, "What faculty are you in?"
"Literature, why?"
"Wrong choice. You should have chosen law. Why did you choose literature?"
I remained silent and looked at the picture of the deceased man. He had a lot of bruises and cuts on his body. Looked like he was tortured to his death. Was it Ace and his gang that did this? Whoever killed this man, must be a crazy one.
After I got out of his car and tried to enter my campus, he stopped me by calling out my name and said, "For a moment, it felt like you were defending them too."
"I got kidnapped and tortured by them. I still remember what happened to me while I was being held captive by them. Do you still think I'll defend them?"
"Don't take it seriously, it's just a thought. Anyways, you don't have to come to Jules Avenue."
"Hold on, How did you find where I was studying?"
"I'm a cop."
After Raphael left, I walked into the campus with mixed feelings in my mind.
At 7 pm,
"What do you want from me?" I asked Arthur who was sitting across from me at the casino.
"You know what I want." He said while pointing his finger at the roulette table and continued, "I want money."
"How much?"
"Half of a million."
"What!?"
"I would have demanded one million but since you didn't catch that guy, you still need my help so I'll collect my remaining money after you get hold of that guy. Don't worry, next time, I'll catch him if I spot him again. So, today, half of a million is enough for me." He patted my shoulder and continued, "Remember that I'm counting on you. All the best." He gave me a smile and started betting his coins.
After a while, "I'll get going. I'm already running late."
"Aren't you going to take your winning money again?"
I shook my head and said, "I'm not good with money, Arthur. Just call me when he gets him."
"What did he do to you? Why is he more important than this money?"
"About that, you don't have to know that."
"Whatever, until I get money, I'll do the job for you, babe."
After some time, I came to Ace's residence and encountered bodyguards outside the house. What are they doing out here?
I walked past them into the house and saw Ace yelling at Mateo. I ignored them and tried to go to my room but stopped when Ace called out my name.
"Where did you go after college?"
"You're not my parent. So stop acting like one."
Ace slapped me on the cheek and shouted, "Do you know what happened here? Everyone's looking for you but you're walking past me like you don't care about it."
"Why should I?"
When he tried to slap me again, Mateo stopped him by saying, "Let her go."
I asked Mateo, "Why are you stopping him? It's not like he's beating me for the first time though."
I took Mateos' hand off Ace's hand and moved closer to Ace and held his collar and stared at his eyes and said, "Don't think you have dominance over me. Those days are over."
I stepped back and apologised to the Bodyguards for making trouble for them and headed to my room.
In my room, I looked at my face in the mirror, my cheeks were reddened after his one slap. I think I should cover it with foundation tomorrow before going to college.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Who's it?" I yelled.
I didn't get an answer so I ignored it and washed my face. I heard the knocks again. Definitely, it's Ace.
"Stop knocking and leave. I don't want to see your face right now."
After that, I didn't hear any knocks. Guess, he left.
I turned off the light and went to bed.
In the middle of the night, my sleep was disturbed by some noises from outside. Isn't this house quiet even at night? I got up from bed and tried to open the door but stopped halfway after seeing a man being dragged by Bodyguards across the hallway. Who is he?
I sneaked behind them and found a room where the noises were coming from. When I looked into the room, a guy who I saw earlier in the hallway was getting beaten to a pulp by a number of bodyguards. I couldn't see his face since they covered it up. His body was covered by bruises and was bleeding like hell. Are they trying to murder him? The way his bruises occurred reminded me of the photograph shown to me by Raphael. Was it really Ace and his gang then?
I saw Ace walk up to him and ordered his men to remove the bag which covered his face. When the bag was removed, I was stunned to see that man's face. Suddenly, Ace pointed a gun at him. I shouted and banged on the door but I heard the gunshot before the door was open. When they finally opened it, I ran up to the guy and checked him. I couldn't hear his heartbeat. He was dead.
Ace, "What are you doing…"
Before he finished, I gripped his collar and asked, "Why did you kill him?"
He asked other Bodyguards to get that man's body out of the room and asked, "Do you know him?"
"I was searching for him all these days like crazy. Here you are, murdered him. And now, he's dead in front of me."
He removed my hands from his collar and asked, "He sold our drugs without our concern to students and some of them died since the drug was still in trials. It became a big issue, Father asked me to clear things up, that's why I shot him." "Then, Why were you after him? What did he do to you?"
"He's the one who has the red stone you're searching for!"