Chapter 31 EIGHT: A NEATLY FOLDED LETTER

Early the next morning, the sun set high in the sky to mark the dawn of a new day. Derik hesitated for a moment before entering the TCU building. His eyes were caught by the calendar that hung in the hallway, and his shoulder shrugged.

“It’s April 26th at last.” He muttered with dread. He never could have imagined this day would cause him so much fear.

As he walked down the hallway, he avoided being spotted by any of the officer already present in the building. And reaching William’s office, he plugged the keyhole with the keys he had stolen.

The lock clicked, and the door opened. Standing at the doorway, he peered into William’s office. Finally found what he was looking for.

Quickly reaching for William’s drawers, he pulled the first arm over and took out the keys to Lawrence’s office. Snuck out of William’s office with great stealth, pressing his back against the wall as he moved to Lawrence’s office.

Reaching the door, Derik tried all the keys on the bunch, but none of them could get the door to open. He wondered why it won’t open. Time was running out. Frustration was making his veins swell. He’d lost his patience and couldn’t wait any longer.

Derik’s hands became enlarged and animal hairs covered his skin. He smashed the door handle and knocked at the door, forcing it to open. Walked through into the office and turn to look back at the battered door. There was no turning back now.

Derik knew he would spend the rest of his life as a fugitive if he were wrong about Lawrence. He edged towards the door at the corner of the room. With a single thrust of his fist, he brought down the door. Peering through, his brows waggled when he found an empty room.

His eyes were drawn to a suit jacket in a hanger that hung on the wall. And beside it, a cowboy hat. He wondered why Lawrence had a special room built just for his jacket. Something seemed off about it.

Then Derik noticed something hanging from the suit jacket. Pulling it out from the breast pocket, he observed it was just an envelope. Three passports fell off as he took out the envelope. Bent to pick them up.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at the passport. There were pictures of Murphy, Leonard and Sam McClain. Murphy and Leonard’s passports were crossed off with a bright red ink—just like the ones he’d found in that bungalow at old Avenue hills, while Sam McClain’s photograph remained unmarked.

Derik quickly tore the envelope and emptied its content in his palm. A neatly folded letter fell off. Tossing the envelope, he quickly opened the letter, and his eyes glanced through the texts.

Lawrence Linus,

In a bid to push through with the ritual as earlier scheduled, we have taken some decisive measure to eliminate the hindrances that stand in our way. See the attached photographs of three police officers of the homicide department, Fallout city. These officers know too much about this organization, and thus, pose great threat to what we are trying to accomplish. Detective Murphy and Leonard Narlor had earlier been obliterated, but the location of the last Individual, Sam McClain, remains unknown to us. Find him and do what needs to be done to avoid any further complications in the future. Close up every loose end and stay safe.

Crystallow

24th April.

Derik’s mouth fell open. He stood still with the letter frozen in his fingers. Goose bumps were visible across his thirsty skin.

This is it! He stared blankly at the letter.

This is all I need to prove Lawrence is a member.

He wasn’t sure he understood completely what had been written in the letter, but that wasn’t important—for now. All that mattered was revealing the truth about TCU’s president.

Derik drifted from of his thought when he heard the door to William’s office opening. He quickly dashed out of Lawrence’s office into the hallway. Found William standing at the doorway, struggling with the lock.

William lour at him when he saw him coming. “What are you doing here?” he frowned, expressing his displeasure.

“I’m sorry sir, I know I shouldn’t be here, but you have to see this.” he quickly handed the envelope to him.

Derik remained still, observing William’s feature as he glanced through the letter.

The corners of William’s eyes crinkled as he read the letter. An expression of displeasure crossed his features, then he turned to Derik. “Where did you get this?”

“Found it in the room you’d refused to let me search. It was folded in the large pocket of Lawrence’s suit jacket.”

William was flooded with rage, hatred, and frustration when he saw Lawrence walking into the TCU building. Lawrence’s smile was formal as usual, as he received greetings from most of the officer at the entrance.

“The nerves,” William snarled, looking very cross.

He ordered some officers standing close to Lawrence to detain him.

At once, they tried to restrain Lawrence, but his bodyguard fought off everyone that got closer to him.

Derik quickly took the rifle from the officer standing beside him, aimed at the bodyguard and blew off his head. His lifeless body dropped to his knees before collapsing on the linoleum. His blood spluttered across the tiles and on Lawrence.

“What is going on!?” Lawrence fumed, momentarily confused.

William walked up to him angrily and bumped his fist in his face. The impact threw Lawrence onto the cold floor. Clutching his shirt, William snarled at him, his eyes shaking.

“Where is my daughter, you knavish bastard?” he gritted his teeth.

Lawrence turned to face him, the professional smile he’d worn on entry was quite gone. “Mr. Mattinez, what do you think you are doing?” he blurted in a harsh voice.

William immediately threw another blow to his face. Lawrence spun on the smooth floor. Blood dripped from his mouth. He walked to him and squeezed his shirt, holding up his fist to punch him again.

“I swear to God,” he muttered, face reddening, hands shaking. “If you don’t tell me where my daughter is, I’m going to rip off every single bone from your body!”

Lawrence looked up at him. “I’m sure this is all just a big misunderstand, and I’m willing to forgive your ignorance. But if you hit me again, I’m going to make sure…”

William ripped the words out of his mouth with a hard thrust of his fist to his face. The impact broke his nose.

“I want an address.” William snarled, before raising his voice. “If the next word that comes off your mouth isn’t that address, I swear to God, I’m going to blow your head off.” he shot a venomous glance at Lawrence. His expression was murderous.

As if on cue, Derik stepped forward to hold him back. William snarled at him and he quickly retracted away from him. “Stay out of this.” he warned him with a glare.

Everyone in the building had gathered around to watch.

William grunted as he returned his gaze back to Lawrence. “I will not ask again, where is my daughter?” His eyes were fierce and his forehead creased.

Blood oozed from Lawrence’s forehead. The region below his left eye was swollen. “William, stop this madness at once.” he gurgled.

Almost immediately, William lost all control over his actions. He punched Lawrence repeatedly in the face. He was visibly shaking in anger. Left Lawrence lying on the ground and walked to an officer standing beside him.

Collecting his gun, William aimed at Lawrence, but Derik moved quickly to stop him. “Sir, if you kill him, we’ll lose our only shot at finding Natasha. He is the only lead we have. He won’t be of any use to us if he is dead.” he enunciated.

Lawrence’s nose was broken, and his upper lips looked swollen. He crawled to an officer standing beside him and ordered him to arrest William. His order was flaunted. Nobody moved at his command.

William ordered that Lawrence be taken to the shifter prison. Some officer came and took him away. They threw him into a truck parked outside the building, then they drove away with him.

Thirty minutes into the journey to transport Lawrence, some hooded figure dropped on top of the truck in a loud thud. One of them swung into the truck through the window, breaking the glass, bashing the driver’s head against the steering wheel. Blood spilled from his forehead.

Sitting beside the driver, the hooded figure removed a sharp, pointy knife from underneath its large garment and slit his throat. The truck skidded off the road and crashed into a tree.

The rest of the hooded figures swarmed into the back of the truck. The figures found Lawrence lying on the cold metallic floor, both his hands and feet strapped. He’d been beaten to an unrecognizable pulp and had multiple bruises across his face.

The hooded figures turned to look at the officers that had huddled themselves together at a corner. They were all trembling as they stared at the figures. Then the figures spread their arms, releasing sharp, pointy knives.

The knives sliced the throat of every officer in that truck. Then the hooded figure took Lawrence out of the truck. Another figure tore the strap from his wrist, using its claws.

Lawrence rubbed his wrist after they found freedom. Then he turned to them and said, “I have been compromised, switch to Plan B at once.”