MIDNIGHT KILLER( The Beautiful Minds book2)

10 - raiding the house

Dana, Ashley and the whole lot of them were already speeding towards the harbour in their cars. "We'll get their ASAP. But, Laurie, did you find who the house belongs to?"

"It was built by three brothers" said Laurie. "They've abandoned it temporarily due to proprietary issues. Our killer must have known this and made use of it"

" I see" said Dana , sounding speculative. " What about the car?"

"Ordinary people cannot afford a Ferrari f430. Additionally, this person has a security firewall for his system which implies we're looking for a wealthy and powerful person, sheriff"

" Okay. Did you find out who owns it?"

" I have requested for an access to the database, so it'll take sometime. But, I've made a general search and found that only two people in the entirety of Houston own a black Ferrari f430, the car in question"

"And who's that?"

"Jeremy Preston and Mr. Clearwater"

Meanwhile...

The grand party was taking place in the huge conference hall of Mr. Clearwater's new office.

Beautiful lanterns were decorating the walls and fine linen curtains were hung over the windows. Jeremy was following Sophia with his camera, zooming into whoever she asked questions and passed a mic to.

The air screamed of luxury. Men were groomed with fine suits and women with posh glimmering dresses. Absolutely delicious and mouth watering food was served by Sunil and a few other chefs. A couple of waiters were moving around and offering champagne to the merry crowd.

Gabi and Daphne looked stunning in their knee- length silver dresses while Damien and Noah, all suited up, went about greeting people.

Sophia looked around for people she hadn't spoken to. Whoever she next speaks to will go live in the daily cornet's news channel.

"Sophia" said Jeremy, looking skeptical. "Haven't you noticed something odd?"

Sophia furrowed her brows. "What?"

"Where is Mr. Clearwater?"

Mr. Clearwater was standing behind the buffet tables, talking through gritted teeth to his senior software analyst, Steven.

"What do you mean there's a breach in the firewall? Why wasn't I informed of this earlier?"

Steven twiddled his thumbs. " I apologize for this discrepancy, sir. There's a team working on this and I assure you that it'll be fixed in a matter of seconds"

Clearwater took a swig of champagne and smiled warmly to a lady at the table. " To hell with your apologies" he said, still smiling, trying to conceal his rage. "To hell with your apologies, Steven! You've already detected this very late! A lot of my valuable data could have been stolen"

"No sir" said Steven anxiously. "Nobody could have stolen our confidential information without bypassing several security layers which is basically impossible. There's a team working to detect the source of this problem and it'll be fixed in the blink of an eye. There's nothing to worry"

Mr. Clearwater heaved a deep breath. "Whatever you say" he said, taking another swig. "But, if this leads to any serious issue, remember, you're sacked"

Noah and Damien were overhearing the conversation, standing a stone's throw apart. Noah's mouth was hanging open while Damien laughed at his reaction.

"Dude" he told Noah. "You're busted"

An hour earlier...

The tyres of a black Ferrari f430 screeched to a halt as a traffic light in the heart of Houston turned red.

Driving it was Diablos' right hand man and seated in the shotgun was a messy- haired Mexican by name, Ricardo.

"So this is the plan" elucidated the man to Ricardo. "You are to wait in the shack till the donuts arrive. It might take two to three hours but you are to wait there patiently and leave on no account. This is Diablos' direct order"

Ricardo nodded, his sleep deprived eyes hovering around the man's face.

When the lights turned green, the Ferrari whizzed past the other vehicles. In less than five minutes, they reached their destination, a small dingy shack, located two lanes down the harbour.

"You might want these while you wait" said the man, handing Ricardo a packet of cigarettes. Ricardo grunted and grabbed it from him.

He waited until Ricardo got down, walked into the shack and slammed the door shut. Then, he got down and ambled towards another one of Diablos' men who was waiting round the corner of the shack for him.

"You are to wait here for an hour. Exactly an hour" he said, handing over the car's key to him. "And then you are to take it to the secret parking unit I told you about. Do you understand?"

The other man got the key and nodded with utmost reverence on his face.

Diablos' right hand man then turned around and sauntered away, the triumphant grin never leaving his face.

****