The Turbulence✔️ (#1 in the Our Side of The Dice series)

24: An abrupt disruption of plans

Christopher
Bonn, Germany

My phone interrupted my sleep well enough for me to ignore the sound and go deeper into slumber. I opened my heavy eyelids. The morning was still early, intensely dark with the light from my vibrating phone being the only form of illumination.

It was a message notification. A very important one. A collection of missed calls followed. Quickly, I left for the bathroom, ensuring to be discreet about it so I wouldn't awaken my sleeping wife. The next time my phone chimed, I was fit and ready enough to answer it.

"Is there an update?"

"Yes sir."

"Should I come over now?"  I looked at the time, it was half-past four.

"Yes sir. Only feral cats are in sight."

"Wait for me."

I rushed back to the bedroom, noiselessly as I could to grab my coat from the sofa when my eyes moved to her peacefully sleeping form on the bed, believing that I was still next to her. I wished I would not have to leave her when we just had the most beautiful night together but I had to pay the price first so I could enjoy later with a clear mind.

I dropped a note by the table. An affectionate kiss came next. I covered her body with the blanket so she wouldn't catch a cold. I wore my coat over my pajamas and hurried down the stairs.

***

It didn't take long for my car to be covered in snow once I had gotten to the third street. Hurriedly like a homeless rooster, I rushed into the building and took the elevator to the fourth floor - where my office was situated. It was silent and dark with only the lighting from my phone aiding me to see the floor ahead.

I deliberately let it remain that way as I hurried to my office, my phone firm in my hand. I couldn't afford to be seen by an outsider. Bonn was a strange place as I had gotten to observe.

I opened the door with a bit of trepidation and turned on the light. The curtains were closed and the person who called was already seated. I was pleased to see that he was able to keep to a simple policy - secrecy.

"I didn't expect to get feedback so soon." and at such an early hour.

"Madam Irene is a force here in Bonn so it was easy to locate her enemies."

"Hm, " I settled on my seat and cleaned my eyes. "What did you find?"

"First, I learned from one of the informants who happened to live in Madam Irene's former neighborhood that she is a total villain and is very smooth about it. Normally, people saw her mother outside quite regularly and suddenly no one saw her leave the house ever again and that strange occurrence started after Irene came by to visit once. A witness saw Irene pack a few luggage that afternoon and assumed that she and her mother were relocating but the witness never saw her mother step out to join Irene in moving but as of then, it didn't seem too suspicious. Everyone just sorts of assumed that no one lived there again until a realtor as was told stepped into the house and saw her mother bedridden with smelling, rotting sores on her body."

"So...the probabilities are Irene knew her mother was sick before the time she stopped by and chose to leave her to rot or...she did something to her that must have caused her to be in that state."

"Yes, " affirmed the man.

"So...what did the realtor do after he found her mother? Were you told anything on that?"

"The realtor couldn't even touch the woman talk more of rush her to a nearby clinic for fear of contacting what must have looked like a disease to him."