The Mysterious Cycle | #wattys2019

Chapter 7

"What in the name of hell is this?!" Rhodes yelled in annoyance.

One last accused who was alive, and now even she was gone. Will sat down on the hospital floor with his head in his hand. He couldn't get himself to think, to move. Where were they supposed to go now?

There was silence for a couple of minutes. No one knew what to say to this sudden disappearance of an accused. All of a sudden, Will stood up and started dialing someone's number on his phone.

"Whom are you calling Will?" Rhodes interrupted. Will held up his hand to stop him from talking.

"Yes. I want every lane in the city to be blocked. I am sending you the picture of the accused who has escaped right away. Circulate it on every media ASAP. Announce prize money for whoever lets us know of the location." Will spoke rapidly on call. He hung up and sighed. The case was turning into a nightmare for him. It had become worse than what he had anticipated.

"Mr. Fognani, you are in charge of the precinct here. How was she poisoned in a 'well secured' prison?" Rhodes spoke with disgust.

"Mr. Rhodes, I apologize on behalf of my staff. But I'm afraid that I don't take care of hiring people in there."

"Then-", Rhodes was interrupted as Mr. Baumann came running towards them.

He breathed heavily as he took the support of the wall beside him.

"We have no lead on where this female ran away, and also of the old man who informed us of the bomb."

"Mr. Baumann, we have tried our best to take care of it. Hopefully it'll help." Will said as he continued. "What we want to know is who poisoned Melinda in the first place? Does anyone occur to your mind?"

"As far as I know, a close watch is kept on the inmates forbidding them to do any such thing. And no inmate had any idea about Melinda being shifted to this facility. None of the staff did other than Fognani and I..." His trailed off.

"This means whoever did it knew beforehand about what was going on in Manhattan and had complete information about the transfer of the inmate." Rhodes sighed. The old man was experienced but he was losing his patience and determination with every passing minute.

Will thought for a while and spoke, "Mr. Fognani, you don't hire people but there must be someone who takes care of that shit. Take us to him." Fognani nodded as everyone headed towards the facility.

As they entered, Fognani lead them through the staircase that led down to the basement. There seemed to be a room which was faintly lit. As they headed down, there was a heavily bearded man, huge enough to make the rest of them feel like dwarfs.

"Hello Fognani and Baumann. How did you remember this old man on this fine day?" he smiled through his beard.

"Will, Rhodes, this is Jonathan. Jonathan, this is Will and Rhodes from Manhattan. They have some questions for you." Fognani said as he gestured Will and Rhodes to move ahead.

"Well well, anything you wanna ask me." He smiled a warm smile.

"Mr. Jonathan, we wanted to know, are you in charge of hiring people in the precinct, like cooks and other people?" Will asked as he and Rhodes took their seat. Baumann and Fognani left them alone.

"Well yes. Nobody can escape the eagle eyes of Jonathan. I have a fine screening process." Jonathan laughed loudly. Will and Rhodes exchanged looks as they tried not to smile.

"Alright then. An inmate in your facility was poisoned yesterday. Do you know anything about it?" Rhodes said with a plain face.

Jonathan gasped. "Wh-what? How? IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" his warm smile had vanished from his face.