Gareth put away his phone and went to stand right in front of Jacob.
"Who stays in the attic?" he demanded for an answer.
"No-one," Jacob responded calmly.
Gareth immediately addressed his men, "He must be here, and he stays in the attic. If the attic is empty, it means he is in another room. Comb through the entire house and bring him to me!"
"Yes sir Gareth!" the men chorused.
Within a few seconds, they were all over the house, searching frantically.
Nesisa came downstairs and stood next to her husband.
"Where is he?" Gareth demanded for an answer; and after his men had updated that besides the couple and their son, there was no-one else in the house, he announced that he was not going to believe it.
"We are also looking for him," Jacob spoke.
"Who sleeps in the attic?"
"Gareth, no-one sleeps in the attic. I don't even recall the last time I was in there."
"Then why are there some blankets?"
"They were put in there, when we had some young nieces visiting. They were playing in the attic, and before they could proceed, we stopped them and asked them to come downstairs, because the place is too dusty. Do you really think if my brother was here, I would let him sleep in such a dusty place?"
Gareth thought about it for a while, and to him it was a puzzle. The blankets looked clean, as if they had been recently put in the room.
"When did the nieces come?" he asked.
"About a week ago." Jacob lied with a straight face.
Furiously, Gareth shook his head, refusing to accept the narration that Jacob was giving.
"Kneel down!" he pointed a shaky finger at the floor, and Jacob obeyed; going down on his knees on the spot which Gareth had pointed at.
Gareth lifted his eyes to face Nesisa. The woman was holding her son in her hands, and she sure looked very terrified.
"Woman, I will shoot your husband right now if you don't say where Jeremy is! Jeremy messed with the young master's woman, and he deserves to die! Where is he?" he asked.
"I…I don't know," Nesisa answered.
"You think we're joking? You think we're here for child's play?"
"I know that no-one is joking. That's why we have pictures of Jeremy all over town. He is a missing person that we are also looking for."
"Ok, if you don't tell me who sleeps in the attic now, you will soon regret it." Gareth's threat was so firm that Nesisa was not sure whether it was just an empty threat or real.
In their hearts, Jacob and Nesisa were also worried about Jeremy's whereabouts, for a few hours ago; he had been sleeping in the bedroom next to theirs. But each person swore in their hearts to not give away that information.
"Our nieces are the ones who set up that bed and blankets. They intended to play in the attic, but we stopped them because it is too dirty in there," she repeated what Jacob had said earlier on.
"Ok," said Gareth. "I can see that you don't love your husband. Because you have not spoken the truth, I will now make you a widow."
Nesisa felt an unexplainable feeling welling up within her. Why did the rich always have to get away with anything and everything? Why was the police seemingly not putting in enough effort in "finding" Jeremy? Yes she knew where he was, but she felt the case was not given the gravity that it deserved. And one of the days when they were at the police station, when they tried to mention that the Pinkertons had something to do with it, why did the officer make her silent? Why did the officer say they were not supposed to mention the Pinkertons' names?
Why? How come the world says no-one is above the law, yet the Pinkertons were clearly above it? Why did some people get to have anything and everything they ever wished for; and to do exactly what they wanted to do, and never get into any trouble of any kind?
Nesisa hated it; she hated that with her entire being. She had hated it for years; for as a child, she had witnessed a lot of injustice in her family. Her father, who was a butler in a rich home, was treated like a dirty broken toy, and she saw it all. She saw how the law protected the wealthy, and turned a blind eye to the less privileged. She saw it all, how the officers respected the man with fat pockets, but failed to give the same respect to those who had nothing.
She hated it. She truly hated it all. As a child, she had thoroughly despised how her father was badly treated, even in front of them, his children. The mockery that she had to go through at school, she despised it all.
"Then kill him!" she wailed at the top of her lungs, startling everyone.
She too could not believe that she had just said that, but she proceeded to talk. Her body and mind, and past emotional pain, were the ones controlling her at that time. There was no more turning back. The lying lion had been unleashed; and the anger that she had bottled for years, was suddenly let loose. She could not have it anymore.
"Kill him and make me a widow! You are going to kill all of us anyway, are you not? You will kill all of us, and you will get away with it! We live in fear, for something that we don't know! We have said it over and over again, that we are also looking for Jeremy! How else should we say it? Is it a crime to be poor? Is it a crime to be unable to also hold guns into your faces and say whatever we want to you? We do not know where Jeremy is! Kill us all, and get satisfied! You are rich and the law will always defend you; so go ahead! Shoot me first! Shoot me now let me die!"
"Nesisa…" Jacob was about to stop her but she went on to talk.
"No Jacob! Let them hear it! Gareth; have you not seen posters around town? Posters of Jeremy? It's us who got those printed! It's us who are looking for him! We are not rich like you, meaning if we knew where he was, we would not have wasted the little amount of money that we have in printing and distributing those posters! No, Gareth no! That is definitely not the way of the poor! If we knew where he was, we would have saved our money so that it buys our next meal!"
"Nesisa, please…"
"No! Let me tell them the truth! We make numerous trips to the police to report that our brother is missing, and they tell us in our faces, Gareth; they tell us in our faces that if it involves the Pinkertons; then we would rather forget about it! You think we have the guts to lie to you? We have the guts to lie in your faces; when we know what you're capable of? When we know how powerful you are? We don't have those guts, Gareth! We would not dare lie to you and yes; we are scared of you! All of us! I am scared of you; my husband is scared of you, and Jeremy is scared too!"
"Nesisa…Gareth please forgive my wife. I…"
"Yes! We're all scared! That is the reason why Jeremy is on the run, and has not had the confidence to call and update us on where he is! That is how much we fear you, Gareth! And now you're telling me that you will make me a widow? You are going to do whatever you want, and I can do absolutely nothing to stop you! The fact still stands: I do not know where Jeremy is!"
"Nesisa!" Jacob called her, his voice almost threatening her. He wanted her to be silent. He was in awe as to from where she gained all that burning fire to speak in such a way to the ruthless man.
"No, Jacob let me tell them! They're going to kill us anyway! … Kiara! Tell me what happened with Kara! Gareth, were you not the one who came in to take her, and did we ever fight you? You took her; and she herself chose to come back to Jeremy's house! Need I remind you, sir, that Kiara was the one in Jeremy's house? She snuck from the mansion and came, and as a result now, we have lost our brother! We don't know where our brother is!"
With that, she broke down and wailed like a child. The woman cried so much that the men looking at her were lost for words. Gareth slowly lowered the gun, tucked it back in his belt, and he looked at his men. He swore that as much as he had seen a lot of women crying, none of them had cried as deeply as Nesisa was crying.
Moving on his knees, Jacob took his wife in his hands and he could not help it, but he too felt the tears. With those tearful eyes, he looked up at Gareth and told him, "You have harassed us enough. We truly do not know where Jeremy is. Have you not turned our home upside down, even breaking some of our furniture in the process? We don't know where he is."
Gareth looked at the men standing behind him. He looked at the bald man and whispered in a tone of defeat:
"I believe them."
***
Early in the morning, a maid came through to inform Gareth that the lady of the mansion needed to see him. The man had not slept a wink for the entire night, and although he was exhausted, he did not allow it to show. He headed straight to the lady's wing. Master Pinkerton had already gone out for his morning jog. After saying his good mornings, which lady Pinkerton ignored, Gareth went on to say,
"I have come to show you what you need to see."
"Let me see, then" she smiled.
"If you don't mind coming with me to the mansion cells, ma'am."
With that he led the way, moving at a relatively slow pace. The lady followed, walking gracefully, not in a hurry for anything in the world.
Bodyguards were surrounding them, but slowly dropping off in the way, for each and every employee knew their limits. According to their grades, there were certain rooms and places which they could not enter. Thus, as the procession went on, the numbers kept dropping, because at each entry level, if one knew that they qualified not to enter therein, they silently excused themselves.
By the time they got to the room, it was only lady Pinkerton and Gareth.
The man walked straight to the center of the room, and he pushed a stretcher bed. He moved it until it stood right in front of the lady, who in turn smiled an evil smile, and nodded for Gareth to proceed.
Gareth held the cloth that covered the bald man's body, and he uncovered.
A terrible mess was on the table, for the man had a swollen face and gunshot wounds on both knees. The sight was ghastly, yet while looking at it, lady Pinkerton did not seem moved at all. She actually appeared pleased by what she was seeing in front of her.
"The swollen face? What did you do?" the lady asked.
"I beat him, I wanted him to talk."
"Did he admit to being a mole?" she smiled.
"No." Gareth chuckled. "He was a tough nut."
"And the gunshot wounds? His knees?" she asked with great anticipation.
"Since he was the mole, I needed to check if he had anything to do with Kiara's escaping and also if by any chance he ever got in touch with Jeremy."
"Did he admit to anything?" she frowned.
"He did not."
"And you shot him?" the lady laughed a very small laugh which ended just as soon as it had started.
"I shot him," Gareth also laughed the very same laugh.
"Can you get worse than this, Gareth?"
"I don't play, madam." The two high fived.
"Cover him up; he's disgusting me. Deal with the body. Find something to say to the family."
"Done," Gareth spoke while pulling the cloth to cover the bald man's body.
The lady slowly walked towards the exit and before leaving, she turned around to face Gareth with,
"The next time you call me in here, which should be very soon; you will be showing me a body, just like you have shown me now. And that next time, the body will be Jeremy's."
"Yes lady Pinkerton. He is next. Jeremy Rain is next." Gareth was speaking with a lot of confidence.
"Go get him, then. Go do what I pay you to do," the lady chuckled and walked off.