Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

The Missing Bodies

Mr. Mannivanan was so shocked that he remained silent. He didn't know what to say.

"Excuse me, sir, would you want us to arrange transportation for you to come to the embassy?"

Mr. Mannivanan almost dropped the phone.

"Sir?"

"Ummm. Y...Yes."

"May I know your address, sir?"

"Villa number 15, Al Dana Gardens, Al Waab, Qatar."

"Thank you, sir. We will send a car to pick you up by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you."

After the call was over Mr. Mannivanan stood frozen and shocked. He couldn't believe that his children and teachers have died. He didn't know how he would answer the parents of the children who entrusted their wards to him.

************

3:00 a.m.

Unknown Part Of The Rainforest, Plurinational State of Bolivia

The Wolfgang Children's joy at finding Kirt was overshadowed by the sadness of Catherine Newcastle's death. Just the day before Catherine Newcastle's death, they were happy that they got out of the bus, hoping that they would reach civilization. But, Catherine's death saddened out their joy, leaving them down just like how they were in the days following Emily Robinson's death.

The previous day in anger, Timothy killed the anaconda that swallowed Catherine Newcastle, hitting its head tightly with a rock, before the snake could lunge at him. Even though Kirt was reunited with the others, a sense of sadness and gloom prevailed upon them.

After mourning for the body, the children decided it was better to throw the corpse into the water. So, at 12:30 p.m on the previous day, they pushed Newcastle's corpse into the water. AnnSophia burst into tears when they did that. Shifaly joined her. They hugged each other as they cried over Catherine Newcastle's death. The others were disheartened. They began to worry if they were the next to die.

************

7:00 a.m.

Felipe loaded two small bags at the back of his car. In one bag were his laptop, clothes, and toiletries. In the second bag were lots of ammunition, three rifles, and two revolvers. Pablo was already in the driving seat.

Felipe was journeying to Sucre that day. He was to meet with two officers from the Argentinian Police the next day. It was a 15-hour journey from Las Taperas to Sucre. Pablo and Felipe decided to share the wheel on the drive to Sucre.

Felipe expected to reach Sucre by 9:30 p.m that day. He already arranged accommodation for Pablo and himself with his colleagues in Sucre. They reserved a villa in the government guest house at Sucre for Felipe and Pablo.

After Felipe got into the car, Pablo drove the car out of the station's driveway and joined the highway.

************

Mateo and Matias began their journey from Hipólito Yrigoyen, Salta Department, Argentina to Sucre. They were to meet the Capitán De Las Regiones De La Selva Tropical of Bolivia in Sucre. It was Felipe they were going to meet. Their journey to Sucre would take 14 hours. They weren't traveling through the shortest route because there was an accident that took place near the Puente Internacional Agua Blancas border crossing. That was the shortest way to cross into Bolivia. Since that route was unavailable, they were going to to take a longer route to Bolivia. They were to first drive to Jujuy, before joining the route that went from Jujuy to Sucre via the Puente Internacional La Quiaca border crossing. The journey would take them about 18 hours. If the road via Agua Blancas wasn't closed they'd have reached Sucre in 10 hours. But since the road via Agua Blancas was closed, they expected to reach Sucre by 12.00 a.m, the next day. It was a long drive. Since the business was urgent, they couldn't make any stops on their way. With them was a quick report that the duo wrote after discovering the passports and the bodies. The Argentian Police in the Salta Department was very quick in doing the identification of the bodies using the passports they found in the lady's bag.

****************

9:30 a.m

Doha, State of Qatar

Just four streets down the Cypriot Embassy was the Bolivian Embassy in Onaiza, Doha. It was a new building built recently after Bolivia decided to set up a diplomatic mission to the State of Qatar.

The Embassy had arranged for a Uber to pick Mr. Mannivanan up that morning. Once he reached the Embassy, Da Rosa escorted him to the Ambassador's office, where he was to wait for the Ambassador.

The Ambassador didn't arrive early. He was on a phone call with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani over some foreign investments that Qatar was making in Bolivia.

When the phone call was over, Ambassador Hernandez SanJose entered his office.

"Mr. Mannivanan, I apologize for the delay"

"It's okay sir."

"Before we get to business, let me ask how are you? Nice to meet you. I heard that your school won the Qatar Debates competition." The Ambassador made himself comfortable on his chair after shaking hands with Mr. Mannivanan and began to search through a drawer for some files.

"I'm fine, sir. Yes, our school is very happy about the victory at Qatar debates. But I'm really worried about what happened to my children in Bolivia."

The Ambassador pulled out a file and placed it on the table. "Would you like some tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, sir. Less sugar."

The Ambassador lifted his telephone receiver and said, "Da Rosa, Necesitamos un café con minimo azúcar y un café sin leche por favor." The Ambassador asked his assistant Da Rosa to bring one cup of coffee without sugar and one cup of coffee without milk.

Mr. Mannivanan had a worried look.

The Ambassador pulled out some papers from the file and glanced at them before clearing his throat. "So recently there has been serious flooding and a series of disasters in Bolivia. Your students, unfortunately, were killed in one of those disasters: a flash flood. Their bodies were discovered by the Argentinian Police in their Northern border with Bolivia. The good news is that slung around one of the bodies was a bag with twenty-five passports in them." The Ambassador handed the bunch of papers from a file to Mr. Mannivanan. While Mr. Mannivanan looked at it, the Ambassador added, "The Argentinians identified some of the bodies using the passports that they discovered but there were fiver passports whose bodies they couldn't identify even after referring to the bodies that they discovered before the discovery." The Ambassador pointed to a few names at the bottom of the piece of paper that Mr. Mannivanan was holding.

Mr. Mannivanan looked at a list of names under the heading 'Missing Bodies' and saw the names: Shifaly Udawatte, Avanthi Bandaranaike, Basura Samarasinghe, Agash Swarnasinghe and Malindu D'Souza. "These are the missing bodies?"

"Yes," replied the Ambassador.

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Next Chapter: The Meeting At Sucre