Chapter 11
"Is there a problem with it being evening?" I heard Tim ask with a worried tone in his voice.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. "If I don't get back as soon as possible, Jack will arrest an innocent man and frame him for the murder of Robert."
Tim's face betrayed the same worry that his voice held. "But for now, finish your story. I still have a few minutes before the day officially ends. Go on, Tim."
I was talking about how important my research and the drug could be for human beings, curing all sorts of diseases." Tim's voice was not as vibrant as it had been before. The man truly looked conflicted.
"But I want to ask you, good sir. You're the only one who has sat down to listen to me for this long. Before, everyone else called me a madman. I have tried in the past to bring the few into my idea, but they didn't want to listen."
"Maybe I have a knack for the unusual, Tim." I smirked at him, lifting the worried look from his face ever so slightly. "I'm grateful for that, truly. But must I really…?"
Tim trailed off and shook his head softly, making me almost pity the man.
"I still have to take you in, Tim."
"I know that. But not now. I promise I'm on the verge of something new. Tomorrow. I promise that I'll turn myself in tomorrow willingly." I searched his eyes for any hint of disloyalty, but I found a resolve and assurance.
"I believe you, Tim. But I need you to do something for me. Give me something—a book, a sample, something to hold on to for tonight so that at least I know you're with me. I've been scammed anytime by people like you, and I would very much like to avoid it again."
Tim smiled back. "I completely understand, trust me, I do. Wait for me, maybe... but not today. Definitely tomorrow. Perhaps you can stay the night?"
I shook my head. "I have to get back to Jack and at least convince him to hold out till tomorrow. We had a deal, you see, me and Jack."
Tim nodded his head. "I don't have much sample left. It barely is a few drops at most. But tomorrow, I promise you, I will give you a vial. I have some in development, but tomorrow it'll be ready. I promise."
I kept hearing his promise ringing in my ear until I reached my car that was parked outside. I looked up at the evening sky and was grateful for the soft breeze that blew over my face as opposed to the hot afternoon weather.
What if he scammed me? The thought initially occurred to me. Giving him the benefit of the doubt was a little too much like a love story, I thought to myself, and began to debate whether or not I should go back inside and wrench a sample of that strange miracle drug of his from his hands.
I stood outside my car and paced for a little bit. The idea of going back inside suddenly seemed more attractive than heading towards Jack. I heaved out a breath and looked towards the dogs that were barking at me earlier.
They seemed docile now. I squared my shoulders and took the first step towards the house only to be blasted by a force wave from an explosion.
Boom!
The sound was so loud it left a ringing in my ears. Car alarms and screams from those around me filled the evening air.
I managed to force my eyes open and took in the site of the devastation in front of me. The house was exploded. Not one piece of wood or brick stood atop another.
All that was left was a blackened hole where the basement was and a large crater that had formed in the ground. The neighboring houses had been damaged, but not so much as to cause alarm.
I stood up after stumbling for a few seconds and leaned against the car. My breath was coming out in short pants as I struggled to take in the smoke-filled air.
My eyes were wide, and I felt my heart thundering in my chest, right next to the sound of the ringing that had somehow overtaken the screams from the background.
"Tim, you sly bastard," I pushed out through my lips and leaned back into the car.
I slid down, allowing gravity to bring me to the ground, and sat on the road, leaning against my car. I must have sat there for nothing less than 20 minutes.
I heard the sounds of sirens—both police and fire trucks—coming towards me. In my daze, I felt a hand on my shoulder and two sets of arms lifting me up from underneath my armpits.
"Everything is going to be fine!" someone shouted in my ear, but I only heard it as a dull whisper, the sound so far away I could hardly make out the words.
I was led into an ambulance and an oxygen mask was pressed across my face. After what must have felt like an eternity of breathing in clean air, sounds slowly began to come back.
"Is everything alright, sir? Is it your house?" I shook my head at the young female police officer who sat opposite me in the ambulance.
I peeled off the mask and cleared my throat. "Someone I was investigating. Do you know Colonel Jack?" The girl's eyes widened.
"Yes. I know him."
"Call him, tell him Ash needs to talk to him, and send him this address. Tell him I found the murderer."
***
"Where is he?!" Jack yelled from a distance. It didn't matter where he was; what mattered was that I could hear him from miles away.
Jack's arrival only took twenty minutes. Everything was quiet for a moment, and then I heard his feet stomping toward the ambulance, loudly clattering against the road.
"Get out of my way!" I heard him bellow, the sound of the ambulance door being forced open from outside startling me just a little. But I had already been startled so much that I had lost hearing for a moment.
Suddenly, I heard him breathing heavily, panting in fact. "Must you always announce to the world that you are somewhere?" I couldn't help but ask. It had, after all, been a question that had weighed heavily on my soul since I knew the man.
"Where is he—the murderer you spoke of? Where is he? Didn't you notice the exploded building? Didn't you notice that someone is dead? You have failed to deliver me the murderer, Ash."
"I didn't fail to do anything. I told you I would find him, and I did. I have his identity, I have most of his history recorded, and I will only give it to you if you say please, and of course, release the butler and the manservant."
"The manservant is not in my custody. I sent my men to go and find him; I'm sure they'll bring him soon. But this is not what we agreed on."
"Of course, it's what we agreed on. What did you think was going to happen? I thought you were going to bring me the criminal. In fact, I thought you weren't going to find anything, but here I am, minding my own business, finally catching a criminal, and I get a call that you said you found the murderer."
He climbed into the ambulance and filled the space with his large frame, scaring the young female officer who had been sitting opposite me.
"You're scaring her, Jack. You scare everyone. Why do you have to do that? Is it your life's mission to scare people half to death every time you enter somewhere?"
"It is my life's mission to do my job," he retorted. "Now tell me, where is the murderer?"
"He's dead," I stated blankly. "Very dead, in fact. I'm sure his remains are in the wreckage, along with the remains of some bodies—twenty or thereabouts."
"And you're sure this is the murderer?"
"I'm sure this is a murderer, Jack. Now, I'd like to go home and have a good night's sleep."
"You're not going anywhere until you answer my questions," he growled.
"And what are those questions?" My eyes were beginning to droop slightly, weighed heavily by exhaustion. I was practically fighting to stay awake, and I knew Jack could see it. The man had a wicked glint in his eyes that told me he only cared about my suffering.
"I told you I will give you the recording," I shot back at him when he asked me where the murderer was for the hundredth time that evening.
"The murderer is dead. His name was Tim. I'm sure if you run a few DNA tests, you'll find out who he was. He went to med school with Robert, blah, blah, blah." I waved my hand, indicating I wanted Jack and the female police officer to be silent while I rested.
"Sir!" I heard a familiar voice call. When I peeked through one eye, I found Bernard standing at the door of the ambulance, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a folder full of files in the other.
"Until today, I was thinking you were a spineless idiot, Bernard. At the right times, you prove me wrong, and at the wrong times, you prove me right." I stretched out my hand in expectation for the coffee, which he already knew to give.
"Blech!" I nearly spat out the cold liquid. "This is cold, Bernard."
"Yes, it is," he said sheepishly. "I have been holding it all day."
"No matter," I said, waving him off and downing most of the contents of the cold coffee in one gulp. I wiped my mouth and dropped the cup beside me before I turned my head toward Jack, who was still glaring at me.
I glared back at him and was pulled by the throes of exhaustion. "Wake me up tomorrow," I said.
"Jack, the recording is in my breast pocket."