Ice Cream

Chapter Twenty one

"What's wrong?" I questioned, looking between both men. The stranger stood, cleaned his palm on his shirt, stretched it forward to me for a handshake.

"Hi, I'm Stan Chu!" I took his hands in a firm handshake. His name sounded familiar. On cue, he said "I am his Private Investigator. Perhaps he has mentioned me once or twice, I hope?" he continued in an effort to be funny.

Oh! The Private Investigator Chiké mentioned yesterday. The one he hired to find out my whereabouts.

"Oh yes, he has! It's nice to finally put a face to the name." I replied with a friendly smile. I turned to Chiké but he remained silent and standoffish.

"What has gotten your pants or should I say hospital gown, in a twist?" I laughed at my silly joke, poking fun at him. He didn't react the way I expected. As a matter of fact, when I touched him, I got the worst treatment ever.

"Please, get your hands off me!" Woah! My hands curled back in rejection. What have I done wrong? I glanced at Stan, hoping he'd explain Chiké's sudden change of character.

"Will you sit down, Miss?" he motioned to a sofa nearby. I looked at the side of the bed. On a normal day, Chiké would suggest I sat right there, next to him. This time, he didn't. This was much serious than I thought!

"Okay." I conceded, settling down on the sofa looking around the room for the first time. It was a rather spacious and convinient room.

"I love getting straight to the point, Miss. So here it goes." Stan began and I straightened. "In the early hours of the morning yesterday, your best friend sent Mr McAdams an email containing details of an orphanage of which needed assistance, am I right?" he asked.

I replied, "Yes, you are." wondering where exactly he was heading to.

"In that email, she explained that the orphanage is in need of two hundred thousand Canadian dollars." Wow, that was a lot of money, I thought.

"Well, Mr McAdams asked me to look into it, to know its validity and I did. I just dropped by to let him know that everything about the so called orphanage is a sham!" he continued, crossing his legs.

WHAT THE...

"I didn't quite catch that. Please come again." I just hoped my ears were deceiving me.

"The orphanage doesn't exist! Every detail about it is false; from the name to the address, to the need for financial assistance. In summary, your friend was only trying to dupe Mr McAdams."

"What? No, Rose would never do that! I've only known her for a few months and she has never ever attempted to swindle or deceive me or anyone else in any way." I quickly rose to her defense. She was my best friend, I had every right to vouch for her.

"Stan is never wrong! He's the best at what he does. If he says your best friend is guilty, then she is!" Chiké contradicted my words, speaking up for the first time.

"But..." I wanted to say more but didn't know where to start from.

"Maybe you should go talk to her. You might be surprised by the actual truth." Stan suggested, staring at me with pity.

"And when you go, don't return!" Chiké bellowed, throwing me off guard. I turned to him immediately, totally speechless.

"Wh-What, Why?" I stuttered.

"Because I'm fully certain you knew about this. You all but coaxed me into the orphanage topic. You're best friends for crying out loud, you cooked up this fraud together!" there was so much venom present in his voice.