The Abandoned Swing

Chapter 13

The sun shone in through the bedroom window. Alby and Ryan were lying on Alby's bed. Jessy was curled on the bean bag and Airin was on the single couch near the door. All of them were having a peaceful sleep. The sunlight didn't seem to bother them at all.

They woke up to the noise of knocking. Alby rubbed his eyes and went to open the door. It was Maria.

"Now I see why you hadn't heard my call for breakfast. I can see you over-exerted yourself yesterday. Anyway come downstairs for breakfast." saying that Maria left them.

After reading the diary, they had got into a discussion of what might have happened to Bella and her parents. They knew that she was somehow dead and that was the reason why she couldn't get back to her diary. Airin wanted to go and search the graveyard for the packet that Bella hid there. Ryan didn't want to go. He said that he couldn't face Bella again if she showed up now that they know she is a ghost. Jessy was still sympathetic and felt sorry for Bella. She pointed out the irony that she had gone there initially to prove that ghosts exist but returned not believing in ghosts. Now they all had met a ghost of a little girl. Alby wanted to find out what had happened to the little girl and her family.

After slight argument, they all settled with the fact that the next thing they had to do is to find out what happened to the poor girl. They all were eager to know what happened to her. Alby said he would try to get information from inspector Davis. They finally decided that Airin and Jessy would search for news articles related to the incident while Alby and Ryan would go out and talk to people to gather any information they could get apart from inspector Davis.

They were kind of planning what to today the next day as it was Sunday but halfway through they had fallen asleep one by one. Alby tried to send Jessy and Airin to the guest room when he felt that Airin was feeling sleepy. But she refused to go saying that she would go as soon as they finished the plan. She didn't make another five minutes. She was sound asleep. Jessy tried to wake her up but she realised it was in vain. Then she also decided to stay in the room itself.

After Maria left they all got up and within half an hour, all of them were having breakfast. Maria was a good cook. The food was really good. When they finished with breakfast, they thanked her and went upstairs. As planned, Alby called inspector Davis to see if he could meet him. Inspector Davis agreed to meet him after an hour.

Alby and Ryan got dressed up while Airin and Jessy began to search for information online.

Alby popped him head to the guest room. "We are going to meet Davis and then see if we can get any other information from other people too. We will be back soon. Feel free to consider this your own home." Alby said with a bright smile.

Jessy loved to see that smile on his face. Airin and Jessy walked upto them. "Don't try to be too nosy. We don't want others to suspect something. Come back safe." said Airin. Alby looked to Jessy but she just smiled. That was a kind of reassurance for him.

Alby and Ryan went straight to inspector Davis. He had asked them to come to his place. Davis was sitting on the patio waiting for them. He greeted them and asked to sit down and have some tea.

"On phone, you told me that you wanted to talk to me about something. What is it?" asked Davis

They had decided to keep Bella and the diary secret for the time being.

"We just wanted to know about the men behind the haunted house. We just read in the news that they were also wanted for murder of a police officer." explained Alby.

Davis looked at them for a few moments and asked, "Doing some kind of investigation on your own?"

"We were just curious when we saw the news. I remembered that you told dad that it was not an accident but a well planned murder that was made to look like an accident." replied Alby.

"So you were always interested. Okay I will just tell you what happened. We had received reports that some men were wanted for smuggling drugs. The reports showed that their recent movements were around this place. James was transferred here to investigate the case as he had a history handling similar cases. James had done a good job. He was able to gather enough evidence against the smugglers. But then somehow they got the information and blackmailed his family.

James had to get some final information before handing it over. As his family was constantly being threatened, he wanted them to be moved out of town until those men were caught. On the day he was killed, he had informed me that he had found the final bit of information which was the strongest evidence against them. He wanted to hand over the hard disk where he stored all the information but he wasn't being able to. He was being followed. Then I found out that one of the policemen, John, had been passing inside information to the smugglers. I called James and told him to ditch the original plan. I told him to move his family out as soon as possible. I came to know from John that the smugglers were planning to take his family as hostage and get the hard disk back from him! before he could even move them out."Davis paused and then continued. "I don't know what happened that night. But my guess is that James was moving his family when the smugglers spotted him. He tried to escape but his car was hit. They killed him and his wife in what looked like a car accident." finished Davis.

"What about the hard drive? Did you get it?" asked Ryan.

Davis sighed and replied. "Unfortunately we couldn't find it. I thought it would be with them but didn't get anything from the car. Their house had been turned upside down when we reached there. It seems that the smugglers were there before us trying to get their hands on it. We had lost all the evidences against them. And then the smugglers seemed to have disappeared. It was only when you showed me the video tape, I realised they were still operating under my nose. They had stopped dealing with drugs temporarily to throw us off the tracks. We have been questioning them about the hard drive since we caught them. They don't have a clue about it yet."

"How do you know they are telling the truth?" asked Ryan again.

To this Davis smiled. "Our investigations are going on and their trial is next week. We are also trying to retrieve the hard disk. I am sure it's somewhere hidden in the house. James wouldn't let anyone get it easily." he said and then quickly added "That's all for now. No more questions please. I can't give more information. I am in charge of the investigation. Sorry about that. But I guess you got the information that you came for."

Alby spoke for first time since he asked for the information. "Thank you inspector Davis. I know you trust me. This information you gave us will not go out. Once they will be caught, I hope I can get the complete story from you. I mean the part that you left out. I can understand that you can't tell us more. I am sure that you are still searching for the hard drive, right?"

Davis looked at Alby suspiciously. Then he said," Yes, I am. Although we have got enough evidence to lock them away, I want to get them locked away forever. The hard drive contains every crucial information about them. I also want to solve the murder case of James and his family." He said the last part more like a whisper.

Alby and Ryan left after thanking Davis for the information. Alby suggested that they would go back home. When Ryan objected and tried to convince him to get information from others, Alby said," No one else would be able to give more information than this. The next thing we want to know is about Bella but we can't ask him unless we are able to prove how we know about her. I am sure that Jessy and Airin have collected all the information that came in the news by the time we reach home. Let's have a look at that and decide what to do after that. "

They headed straight for Alby's house.

*
It's a slightly long chapter. But I couldn't make it shorter.

Hope you enjoyed it