The Ice Prince

Chapter 48

I saw her blanch at my words, as she painfully pieced things together, the logic which had ruined my trust in anyone forever. I'd believed Arnold to be a friend, but this was proof enough that he'd been a traitor, all along. I could see everything fit together.

When I was taken by Slader and Ramírez, it was Arnold who had gone to Hayley. It was Arnold who'd told Justin about the note, and it was him all along who'd tried to dissuade me from leaving the hospital on Hayley's trail. He had been the only one to know that Hayley would be waiting in her house, and yet he hadn't told me when I'd asked. He had been the one to give Hayley the lunch which had gotten her sick. He must have tinkered with the food too. Again, his quarters weren't searched, even after Hayley had run away from there. That had definitely been fishy, and it should have warned me that something was amiss. I could strangle myself for having believed in Arnold all along. Hell, I'd even told him that Marc and Stellan were the same guy.

It all made sense in a twisted, painful way. Arnold was most definitely related to the gangs. It wasn't a coincidence, as I'd supposed, that Jerry's basement connected to the exact one of the garage where the gangs conducted their business. And it was all too easy when I linked Jerry's to the gang. That was how they could easily get in the drugs and crates, through delivery to Jerry's. Nobody would question a food package going to Jerry's now, would they? That was where they got the ice from, the huge ice-cube machine that Jerry's had, most inconspicuous way to source ice for torturing people. I felt sick and repelled by the fact that I'd ever thought of Arnold Wood as my dearest friend.

"Arnold Wood is a traitor?" she whispered, and I could feel the words echoing in my ears. Miserably, I nodded, unable to answer her.

It is all your fault, Ash. You should have chosen your friends wisely. Now Carver may be dead because you blindly trusted that traitor, Arnold Wood.

I had to pull myself together. Hayley needed me. And Stellan was in danger too. Because Arnold Wood, I was sure, was associated with Domingo's gang, and not Ramírez's. I remembered the time when I was shot, and it had been Ramírez's men who'd come to seek Hayley and Carver, and it had been Arnold who'd lied to them, sending them off. Because at that point of time, we were vulnerable, and he could've turned us in to them, especially if he was an information source for the gangs. So I could definitely see that Arnold was connected in some way to Domingo's gang, and not Ramírez's, and the old rivalry was a habit for him.

Now if Arnold Wood knew about the traitor in Domingo's gang, he would definitely not keep quiet about it, and Marc's cover was about to be blown. I only knew enough that he was still posing to be Stellan, when I'd left the gangs in search of Hayley, but I had to make haste if I were to save him in any way. Because if he was found, Domingo would make sure there was no way he escaped the garage alive. Had Arnold been one of Ramírez's associates, there would've been a passing chance that he might have spared the detail for old rivalry's sake. But now, there was no chance whatsoever.

Thankfully, Hayley understood what my terrified glance meant. She must've done the math herself in her head, when she nodded and patted my shoulder. She was numbed by the fact that Carver was mostly dead.

Suddenly, I remembered that I had pilfered Arnold's wallet. Pulling it out, I tried to see if I got any clue as to where he might have taken Carver. I hadn't really paid attention to the wallet or its contents when I'd pulled out the bills to pay for the bus ticket.

Hayley looked at it in surprise, and I tried to see if I could find anything which would give me a clue about where Arnold could have taken Carver. I couldn't see anything strange. There was an old ID card as issued by Jerry's seven years back, and of course the leftover bills. There were a couple of receipts issued by some library two blocks away from Jerry's, and a library card, in the name of Arnold Wood. There was nothing even remotely suspicious. Hayley beckoned me to let her see the wallet, which I tossed towards her, not expecting her to find anything different as she went through it.

She surprised me by not going through it at all. Instead, she closed it on the fold, and wriggled her forefinger inside, peeling back, to reveal that the cover was a fake. It enclosed just enough space for a credit card and another ID. This one did not say Arnold Wood. It belonged to someone named Darren Clay, who looked exactly like the Arnold Wood I knew. Rage built up, looking at this obvious evidence of his treachery and betrayal. I was a fool, because I'd let him do this to us.

Just then, Dr. Beauchamp entered the room, and he looked like he wasn't startled to find us there. "I knew you'd be here soon. Marc told me you'd left." He spoke seriously, without a hint of the smile that usually graced his chiselled face.

"Arnold Wood is a traitor, Rey. He's taken Carver with him." I was the first to speak up.

"No, Ash. He is a traitor, but Carver is safe." That familiar smile of his surfaced.

"What do you mean?" Hayley looked hopeful and scared at the same time, almost as if her hopes had been dashed too many times before for her to actually believe Reynold at once.

"I mean," he dimpled, "that when I came here to check on you, Ash, I found Arnold Wood sedated and lying on your bed. And I thought I'd left the syringe behind. But I was sure that you must have taken it somehow and drugged Arnold Wood. That made me suspicious of him because I didn't think you'd go about randomly anaesthetizing people who helped you." he smiled.

"I should hope not." I chuckled, thanking my lucky stars in my mind.

Reynold continued his narrative, "and I checked his pockets, only to find your phone with him. That made me doubt him even more. So I thought I'd shift Carver to someplace safer, and let Arnold be. If he did come to me for help, I'd know that he was a friend, but he ran away after he came to, and that just proved that he was a traitor throughout. Anyway, Carver is here, safe. He was admitted into the cancer ward, where he wouldn't catch an infection anyway. And I have a couple of friends there, looking out for him. Alyna is recovering fast, too, and soon you'll be able to meet her." The first good news in a long while. I smiled with relief that both Carver and Alyna were out of imminent danger.

"Thank you so much, Reynold. I don't know how to thank you enough." I told him, honestly. After all, he'd been by my side through everything, and I was grateful to him for it.

"Ash, you don't have to thank me. You carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and don't even expect your friends to help. The least you could do is to trust us to do our bit, don't you think?" he chided me gently.

"Look what happened when I trusted a friend." I sadly indicated the ID with Darren Clay's name on it.

"We'll sort things through, Ash." Hayley put in, squeezing me into a side-along hug. The news of Carver's safety had her spirits up again, and she looked ready to take on the world.

How I wished I could say the same about myself... I shivered lightly, and hoped that she didn't notice my fading strength.