The Triplets' Curse

Chapter 4 : The other man

The train had reached Sproutearth and they both got off the train and was waiting outside the station. They couldn’t see any vehicle in the road as it was very dark and silent. As they both started walking towards a village , A Galactic green colour car was passing them and the car stopped a few meters away. Seeing the car stopped, Mr.Karl went near the car. “ Sir, we have been walking in this lane for the past 20 minutes. Would you mind to give us a lift?”asked Mr. Karl. The driver looked back  and there was a man who leaned his head back with a piece of cloth covering his face. He nodded his head and the driver agreed to give them a lift.  Mr.Karl and Franklin comforted themselves and the car made a move. “ Where are you guys  heading to? ”asked the driver.  “ Fort Claurs, sir”replied Franklin.  “ Fort Claurs? Hmm… whom are you going to visit there? ” asked the man.“ Mr. Fabian Graves” told Frank.  “ Do you have any address of that person? asked the man  “ Yes sir. We do have.” And he handed a small piece of paper with the address on it.
After seeing the address, he asked the driver to stop the car and told that he wanted to go for a walk and ordered him to drop them  at the given address. Mr.Karl and Franklin thanked him. The other man gave a smile. After travelling for more  than half an hour they reached Fort Claurs , and they reached the address. “ 23, Campwell street…” sighed Franklin. Then the car stopped in front of a house numbered 23.  They both got off  the car and thanked the driver for the ride. Franklin was very excited as well as anxious. Mr.Karl rang the bell , but no one answered . Again he pressed the bell,still no one was at the door. They waited, they saw the sun rise but no one showed up. Then a boy came and dropped two bottles of milk at the doorstep seeing Mr.Karl and Franklin weirdly. The door opened, a man in his 60s with a shabby look came and took the milk bottles . “ Mr.Fabian Graves? ” asked Franklin. “ Yes.” replied Mr.Graves . “ Hello sir. I am Franklin Burk from St. John's  home for children”. After hearing this he grabbed Frank’s hand and rushed him inside his house. “ Why are you here after all these years? See after joining you and your brothers in that home I didn’t lead a good life. So please leave the place immediately”told Mr. Fabian. “ But sir, I am really here for some answers. I need to know who my parents are and where they are? And why did they leave us?. So please, give us the answer” told Franklin. “ NO. I know nothing about your parents. I was just told to admit you kids in the home. That’s it. I don’t know anything”. Patiently hearing this Mr.Karl  took a step towards Mr.Graves and gave a hard push where Graves  hit the cupboard and a few photo frames fell off the wall. Later Karl grabbed Grave's shirt and while he was threatening him, Karl happened to see a broken photo frame. After seeing that photo frame he was in a  shock  and handed him the photo to Franklin. It was Mr.Graves and “the other man” in the photo. “ He was the one who told me to admit you three. He was the one who dealt your brother's case. He is INSPECTOR BERLIN JAMES. “ told Mr. Graves.