The five-hour flight seemed like forever to her as the time trickled so slow. Finally, when the aeroplane made a touchdown, Amy quickly wore her backpack and sat up straight.
When the plane came to a halt, she jolted out of her seat and ran out of the plane, causing a mild commotion inside the aircraft. Amy quickly flagged the taxi closest to her and entered the cab. "Please take me to Kern County, please step on it, I'll pay double!" Amy said with a shaky voice, almost on the verge of tears.
"Alright madam, alright" the cab began to pick speed little by little, but that comforted Amy a bit. She kept looking outside the window for any sign that her beloved boyfriend is okay.
Amy's smartphone dinged, jolting her out of her thoughts. It was from an unknown number.
"As soon as you arrive back, come to the office immediately, no branching elsewhere"
"F*ck you bastard, you motherf*cker!" Amy cursed furiously on her breath. Why would she go back to work when Matt was in trouble? Why would her manager be this insensitive? Amy struggled to hold her tears. The cab driver glanced at the mirror in confusion. Why is this lady so worked up?
Finally, she arrived at her apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She ran into the kitchen where Matt always was, nothing. She ran to her bedroom, but nobody was there. "Matt!" she called out loud but received no response. She ran to the toilet, still, nobody was there.
While she was still contemplating where he was, she decided to call Matt. She dialled Matt's mobile phone and waited. Suddenly she could hear Matt's phone's ringtone faintly. She promptly walked to the source until she was in her garden.
The mobile phone was on the grass, but Matt wasn't there. She picked up the smartphone and stared at the contents. There were two messages from an unknown number.
The first message read: "Hey there amigo, there's something I want to inform you, so read this carefully if you don't want to be hurt. The girl you were with does not belong to you. She already had a boyfriend here in Mexico, and the reason she even allowed you to date her was that she was lonely.
If you know what's best for you, cut off any ties you have with her, otherwise, things would not go well with you. It's a warning."
By the tone of this writing, and the date at which it was written, she knew it was definitely from Henry. Amy knew this because he liked to say the word 'amigo' to people closest to him. He once said that he wished he was born in Mexico. He wishes!
Amy quickly opened the second message, but there was no word. It was an emoji of a face with an 'x' eyes. The message was sent a day after the last one, before the time she left for Boston. That meant it was sent before she left. Matt did not tell her about this.
Amy brought out her mobile phone, dialled 911 and waited, still searching for Matt, wherever he was.
"Hello this is the 911 call line what is your emergency please" the personnel began. "Uhh yeah, I have an emergency, my boyfriend's missing. I looked around my house, but I did not see him at all" Amy said.
"Alright, and how long has he been missing?" the lady on the other end asked, Amy pondered. She called him on Tuesday night, but when she called him again the next day in the morning, he was not responding. That was about 5 am on Wednesday.
"Since Wednesday, at around 5 am. Ma'am, please help me find him please" Amy begged frantically. "Alright I would see what I can do, so where are you currently?"
"I'm at home at Kern County"
"Alright, please stay in your current position, we will send you help right away"
"Okay, okay, thank you very much"
Amy ended the call and sighed, but she didn't stay idle. She searched the entire house, the garden, and even went and asked her neighbours, but they all reported that they didn't see anything unusual.
She went to her room and slumped on her bed wearily. Where the hell was Matt? While she thought, she began hearing a soft hum from outside her room. Given that it was eerily silent in her home, she was able to hear faint noises around her.
Amy followed the source of the humming sound until she stopped at her basement. The sound was coming from the dryer down there. She cautiously took one step after another while looking around her, so silent!
When she arrived, the humming became more obvious. She opened the dryer to see what was making the sound, but what her eyes saw made her severely paralyze in utter fear.
Inside the tumble dryer was a decapacitated head of Matt, whose face had dried so much it looked like a walnut. His body was no longer a body anymore. It was so beaten it literally looked like a mashed potato. Amy's mind was blank for a complete three minutes before she screamed.
The cops had already arrived right after Amy fainted on the floor. The cops began drawing lines on the floor and taking pictures of the head and the body while the ambulance took Amy and sent her to the hospital for a medical checkup.
Amy woke up a couple of minutes after she fainted, but still maintained that blank look on her face as the doctor asked if she was okay, but her surroundings were already blurred away from her. She could not even produce a single thought, it was like the world had stopped spinning.
Amy still appeared delirious until the doctor snapped her to reality. "Ma'am are you okay?" he asked, but Amy did not respond. "Ma'am if you're alright, there are people that want to see you," the doctor said again, signalling three cops to her bed.
"Ma'am we would like to ask you a few questions, would that be alright with you?" one of the cops asked. Amy slowly nodded, her mind absent. "Alright, the first question, what time do you last receive a call from the deceased?" the cop stared at the zero expression on Amy's face.
"yesterday"
"Good, and what's your relationship with the deceased?"
"Boyfriend"
"Okay, one last question, do you have anyone that held a grudge with the deceased, anyone at all"
Amy mind then came back to her. Tears burst out from her eyes as she wailed hopelessly as snot began coming out of her nose.
"How the f*ck would I know, how the hell did I know. You were supposed to do your job as a cop, do one thing, protect the citizens, but hell no, you prefer to maintain a blind eye at a citizen in distress!!" Amy screamed at the cops who were getting alarmed by her aggressive actions, so they informed the doctor to put her on the anaesthetic.