Destiny

Chapter 19: Tension

As soon as they arrived at Lini's, Taker parks the car in front of the garage. He called Paul to pick him up at Lini's address, she took her bags and Taker his then put them at his feet. Lini walks to her door and opens the door to put down her suitcases then turns to Taker who was waiting for Paul on the sidewalk, his hands in his pockets.

The sky was starting to turn gray and the rain was starting to fall, the wind was starting to blow too. She decided to close the door and walk over to where Taker was standing. "Come wait inside." Lini said to Taker holding his arm. Taker looks at her, not moving an inch. "He's coming in 10 minutes, it'll be fine." Said Taker. The rain is starting to pour down and Taker doesn't seem to be bothered by the rain. But she wants him to be sheltered from the rain so he doesn't catch a cold.

"The least I can do is offering you coffee or tea while waiting for Paul as a thank you for last night." She said smiling, it's the first time she smiled at him. Taker takes his bag and his suitcase reluctantly and goes home. When he enters the house, he feels that the house is small and cramped for him. Lini announces herself but it looks like it was empty, no Agnes, no Will in the house. Lini not having worried, she heads to the kitchen with Taker and heads for the fridge.

"What do you want to drink? Coke? Orange juice? Tea?" She asked looking at what she has in the fridge. "I would like some tea." Finally said Taker looking around.

Lini takes the carafe of tea from the fridge, takes two glasses from the cupboard, puts ice cubes in the glasses and pours the liquid into the glass. Taker thanked her for the drink, look at her kitchen, he's not used to being in a house like this.

"What do you think of my house?" Asked him when she sees he keeps looking around, she sits on the stool next to him and drinks her drink. "It's...comfortable but small for me." He said drinking his drink. Lini surprised that he finds her house small when it is quite common. "It's not small here, Taker, it's a normal house." She said smiling.

"I may have this feeling because I live in a mansion. I have a large kitchen, a living room, a bathroom in each bedroom as well as a bathroom downstairs, 4 bedrooms , an office, a weight room and a basement."

Lini is impressed with how many rooms Taker has in her house, she is happy that last night nothing happened except the kiss. She can see that Taker isn't so bad and maybe trust him. "And tonight, is there a training at the shed?" she asked wondering. "Yes, certainly you have impressed everyone but you still need practice." Said Taker honestly drinking his glass.

The front door opens, voices familiar to Lini are heard. Agnes sticks her head out the kitchen door and sees Taker and his mother sitting on the stools talking.

"Mom !" Agnes shouted with her satchel in her hand and rushed into her mother's arms very happy to see her while Taker quietly drank his drink.

"Have you seen who is there?" She asked her daughter who turns to Taker who gives her a wink. Agnes stretches out her arms to Taker to give him a very big hug, also very happy that her idol is at home.

"How are you ?" Taker asked his very young fan.

"I'm fine Undy and you?" She said to her idol.

"I'm fine, how was school?" Said Taker looking at her.

Taker sets Agnes on the counter, listening to her talk about her day at school. Lini looks at Taker who seems to be comfortable with children. She drinks her glass quietly listening to her daughter during her day at school. Will comes home after parking the car, he takes off his coat and lays it on the sofa, he frowns when he hears a low-pitched male voice coming from the kitchen.

He crosses the living room towards the kitchen where the voices are. Arriving in the kitchen, he sees Lini sitting on a stool listening and laughing to what Agnes was saying about her day at school and...Taker. What is he doing here? Why is he here? Since when has Lini been friends with this man who made her feel bad? Will wondered.

Lini finishes her drink and sees Will, she gets up to give him a hug, very happy to see him again but he doesn't return her hug, his gaze remains on Taker wondering what he is doing there. Lini takes Will's arm to get closer to the counter to integrate him.

"Will, do you remember my colleague?" She said to Will holding out her hand to Taker. "Yes... Of course..." Said Will trying to hide his annoyance.

The two men shake hands, Taker looks at him as if he had seen Will somewhere else. The first meeting at the wwf was brief, he couldn't really analyze it, but now he knows he's already seen his face somewhere. Will goes to the fridge to grab a beer before sitting down next to Lini.

"So, Lini, did you spend the evening with Taker?" he asked still trying to hide his annoyance. Taker doesn't like the tone he was speaking and sensing that this discussion is going to end in an argument, he whispers to Agnes to go to her room to let the adults talk before making her get off the counter and go to her room.

"Yes and for the first time to go to a bar, it was good." She said smiling looking at Will who doesn't seem to be laughing at all. "Do you know that a psychopath is looking for you?" Said Will looking meanly at Lini who has her smile slowly fading.

"Hey man, she was well surrounded, if she wants to go have fun, it's her right." Said-Taker deciding to intervene, Will looks at him meanly in turn, doesn't like someone meddling in other people's business.

"You don't know what I'm talking about, why are you talking?" Will says nastily to Taker, Lini looks at Will and then at Taker who gets up and walks over to where Will is sitting while Will gets up too, showing he's not afraid of Taker, he's not afraid of him.

"First of all, you don't talk to me like I'm your friend because I'm not. Second, I know a lot more than you think and believe me, I'm very close to what's going on right now. And thirdly, Lini doesn't belong to you, she does what she wants with her life, she doesn't have to answer to you." Said Taker looking at him meanly.

The two men looked into each other's eyes as Lini decided to try to calm things down. Taker is looking out the window when he hears a car horn, it's Paul who has just arrived. Then turns his attention back to Will who is still in front of him and decides to go down the hall to get ready to leave. He puts on his coat, rummages in his pockets to see if he has anything that belongs to Lini. He turned the doorknob to open the door to leave but felt a hand hold his forearm. He turns his head enough to see who is holding him back and sees Lini very embarrassed by what just happened.

"I'm sorry for his behavior Taker." She said embarrassed.

"Be careful who you trust, see you tonight." Said Taker before leaving the house, goes to Paul who opened the trunk to put Taker's suitcase and bag in it. He went to get in the car and as soon as Paul gets in the car, the car starts and drives away from the house.

~!~

Police assigned to Josh's case have found out who owned the black pickup truck found in Lake Houston. The police return to the police station after having had a conversation with the owner to take stock with Sergeant Rodriguez who was still in the office consulting the various files.

Apparently the owner admitted that it was his van that was found but he says he didn't kill the policeman because the van was at the "Just Repair" garage and on the day of the murder the owner received a call from the garage that the van was stolen, so they immediately reimbursed the van, the man presented the proof of the invoice for the reimbursement of the van.

The sergeant thanks the officers who have done a good job then looks at the file. Try to recap in your head what happened that night. "Josh went to get some donuts then on his way out of the store he got into an argument with a dark haired man who was wearing a Lakers cap according to witnesses minutes later a black van pulled up in front of the car of Josh and fired two shots at him before speeding off and killing two more people in the process." Rodriguez then looks at the threatening letter that Josh's wife recently received. He takes it in his hands, looks at it carefully, the letters are carefully cut out and glued together to form the word. Does the killer know where Josh lived?