Husk & mask

Chapter 5

Knock knock knock Mark

Around twenty-three hours, tranquility sustained, except for the squeezing sounds of the brush I was making on the floor after wrapping the heavy bloody bodies in the polythene. Don't think the motive was to unravel the truth, solve puzzles or catch the bad guys and all those loser stuff. I wanted this, liked it, like the lost self I have buried in my personality cubes. It came out and I felt much better. For goodness sake, I missed myself.

I used my arm to wipe the sweat from my face and continued. I heard to take care of this myself, return the old me, continue with my investigation which I was convinced to set aside.

But this, this got my attention, like it or not. The invasion, drastic moves, openly was a work of one who had a serious motive which is what I wanted. It was mind blowing.

While I was busy, in those current minutes, I heard a thud. A strong one. At first, it alarmed me up, but as soon as my senses shared that it was Mark, I was relieved. His knock came to be strange. This must have been some senses overriding the others.

I ran to the door, turned the locker, let him in and focused on his first reaction. He looked sad, sympathetic and all the weaknesses humans always seem to be having infront of their pitiful loved ones.

He said, "Oh boy, I thought you quit."

"It's a mess," I said, frightenedly. "I'm starting to think, she is the one who released the video tapes. Can you believe it, she told me to say nothing and her face, completely different. I didn't recognise her. I have this strange feeling this might be messier than I can assume."

"You mustn't involve kids this time!"

"What kids?"

"We both know what we are talking about," he said, hoarsely.

I replied, defensively "That was only one time! Plus, that's how I came to discover the tapes were altered."

"You know how dangerous it can be?"

"Okay, okay! I got you." I almost raised my voice, then realising that the neighbours could be listening, I controlled myself. "I'm going to finish cleaning up and you know what to do."

I looked at Mark making sure we were on the same page. He seemed unwilling, but I didn't mind. All I had to do was help him put the slumpy bodies in his truck and I did. I knew he wasn't skimpy and I counted on that. It was his job, all in all, not mine, though it's obvious everyone hate their jobs.

I took care of every spot and stains. By the time I was done, it was probably morning hours. Who knew? The kind of smog which got me lose the time track was mind derranging. I was sitted, trying to figure out the person who unlocked my late wife's laptop. Not the one who died earlier. That one was my girlfriend.

It should be Lissa, I thought. It was definitely her, who ever she was. Probably, Lissa wasn't her real name. She might have been working for someone.

I jumped into several folders, trying to catch any possible trail of a mouse.
"This one looks interesting," I said to myself.

It was named Project Peanut Butter. I silently puffed the name. Definitely something fishy, I knew. I slowed down as I ran through a descrete of files showing bank transactions. I searched for any clue, stopped, scrolled back to the name which was frequently appearing and read it. Brian Ncube was the name.

I left the desk, went to turn the WiFi, done it, lit the coffee maker and herded back. I was so curious that my fingers trembled when I typed the name. I entered it using an untraceable Facebook account.

Thanks to Tapiwa, even though the kid died. I let his parents know though. You think I went to their home and confront them? Of course not!! That was the least I could do.
Turns out, the guy didn't look like someone guilty. He was a family man. There were several posts of his kids and her wife. They've been to Kariba, Hwange national park and some nice places. I scrolled down and saw they've been to China too. It was wonderful, but not what I was looking for. I moved down and got him. He was wearing a black t-shirt printed Mimosa tech-company. Pretty! I finally got a clue of finding him.
My coffee should be ready by now, I agreed to myself.