The Mysterious Women Series:Blackmail

by Paramita Choudhury

  Chapter 14

  "Come on, I'm ready", she said while walking towards him, he blew out a low whistle; her dress was a Carmen Marc Volvo Floral Mesh dress. It featured a rounded neckline, a sleeveless silhouette with embroidered mesh shoulder panels, a fitted bodice and full A-line skirt. Her black stilettos matched perfectly with her dress. She tied her hair into ponytail, dabbed some makeup, a little bit of red lipstick, showing her fiery nature, with a touch of delicacy. She slipped her hand in the crook of his arms as a real couple would do. Today he was driving a black Buggati Veyron, just from its polished surface and interior design she could imagine the millions that this car had cost him. Once in his car, he said "I'll send a supervisor tomorrow," she frowned "Why?" The car came to a halt, when she turned towards him he pointed towards the red light," You know the reason ". She couldn't let him interfere in her life, her radar changed to an active mode whenever he was near and if he kept on coming closer to her , she will have to flee from there sooner or later.

  By the time they reached the gallery, he had already spoken a great deal about his friend Armel Leroy. Both of them were friends since University days. They met accidentally; Armel was a student of fine arts whereas Zack studied Business Management. Zack had picked a hot oriental chick during one of the dormitory parties, who was later confirmed as Armel's girlfriend when he confronted Zack in the library. They had a fight which was enlisted as the great library battle in the history of Howard, because they messed up most of the stacks. A few months later, after the semester end exams coincidentally both of them attended the same dorm party. After a few shots of beer when most of his friends were busy dancing up with few of the girls they got hold of in the party he noticed the French guy, who seemed to be spying on someone standing behind a pillar. From his position it was difficult to find out who this guy was concerned for, that part of the room was now filled with boys and girls dancing at the DJ beat; so he stealthily went closer to Armel, whose emerald eyes were now filled with rage and hands balled into fists. He followed Armel's line of vision and broke into laughter, "how foolish of us to fight over a girl, who never cared for either of us". The same girl for whom they fought so hard so as to create a history was now dancing with the captain of the university soccer team. Startled Armel turned towards him his expression turned form rage to scowl and a smile appeared as got hold of Zack's joke. Both of them later shared drinks and jokes like old mates.

  Armel went back to France with a degree in Fine arts, his father was too sick to look after the family business of Winery. So he took over their business and now it produces one of the best wines in France. Both of them were too busy preparing their empires to communicate with each other, but last week Zack received an anonymous hand written invitation letter, the handwriting seemed familiar to him, then he tried matching the signature in one of his paintings gifted by Armel on his 23rd birthday. By pulling a few strings he got Armel's number, called him and today they were visiting his gallery.

  After they reached the gallery Sara could not help but admire the paintings, "they really are exotic", "exotic indeed", Zack said. While they were looking at a painting placed in the centre of the gallery someone called from behind "Bonjour my friend", Sara turned to find a blonde guy, walking towards them with a glass of Tequila as she supposed."Hello, yourself man you have done a wonderful job here"; Zack said shaking hands with Armel."Thanks, now won't you introduce me to this beautiful lady?" the latter asked pointing towards Sarah "She's uh my secretary Miss Sarah Aaland"".Armel took her hand in his and kissed it "Vous êtes une belle dame", she smiled "Merci", and she immediately placed her hand back in the crook of Zack's arm. She had noticed the ire in Zack's eyes when Armel kissed her hand, how can he be so possessive? It won't help me in any way if I create jealousy between them. Both the friends then told her stories about the different adventures that they took part in together. Armel stood up with a refilled glass his eyes twinkling with joy, surely he is going to make me stumble, Sara prepared herself to lie once more like the million times she did, by now her lies seemed to be so realistic, she could almost write a book named 'Thousand ways to lie on your boss', "I've an exciting idea why don’t we hang around during lunch hours just like the university days", Armel said, "you can join us too, Sara", he winked at her. Zack didn’t miss the way his friend flirted with her, but no man in his sanity could stop himself from admiring her. Whenever they are in office he has to keep his eyes on her male colleagues, in case they break in before him. Thinking of confessing his thoughts makes him cringe away from her, then how will I ever stake claim on her? That's why when Armel told them about a get together lunch he was pretty excited to show his friend that she was his possession and even his friend should not dare cross his limits "that's a great idea". Sara kept an impassive face not good for me Zack. She pretended to be perplexed "I'm sorry but I think I'll have to decline the offer", Armel frowned "Porqui Mon cherry?" Immediately Michelle's excuse hovered on her mind, "My grandma is arriving tomorrow from Philadelphia, so I need to pick her from JFK", she replied. Zack chuckled "Do I look like a pompous brute?" she rolled her eyes "humor me", "I'll have somebody else pick her, just show me her photograph", he said. Her facial expression remained taut but inside there was complete panic, meeting grandmother seemed a good idea, why this pig head interferes everywhere? She growled inwardly. "Actually tomorrow evening she has a flight to Italy", she said "so while she is here she wanted to spend some time with me". Having been in a tight schedule Zack understood the extremity of the situation "its okay", "Okay with me too", Armel added, "thanks", she rejoiced.

  After checking out three more pictures Zack decided it was time to leave. Tonight he wanted to take her out for dinner. A dinner for which he started planning since last week and the arrangements were already made. The current painting that they were gazing at seemed to attract her, he knew she wouldn't say anything so he decided to buy it for himself and later gift her. So as he went to the counter to pay for the painting, she excused herself to use the washroom. "When are you going to propose her", a surprised Zack turned back abruptly to see Armel standing there. The latter had excused him a few minutes back to entertain the other guests while they were busy praising his paintings. "Is it that obvious"? Armel smiled "the performance of possessiveness that you put for people even a fool would tell"; he said "she is a beautiful dame". Zack nodded "she hides a dark past behind her beautiful demeanor", he said "something I can't quite reach". Armel patted he hand "you'll be able to, don't worry, just don’t let her go". Zack's face now beamed a glow "thanks buddy".

  In the washroom Sara sprinkled water over her face" this is all too much, I can't take it anymore", she felt exhausted while a lady who was fixing her make-up in the tilt mirror chuckled "you'll have to sweetie, if you want to find out the real convict". Sara let out a moaning sound "It's tiresome", the other lady now facing her said "same here, keeping you under 24/7 surveillance is same as running around a rogue dog, most of the time you sneak out of our eyes and we get anxious, for you honey". Sara knew how much this woman cared for her she said "Did you get your hands on the convict"? In fact she was the one who trained her for this job. The lady scowled "not yet and that’s a reason I had to come here undercover, hoping to get him if he follows you", she quickly put the lipstick that she been rubbing for a while "I think there's someone else waiting for you", If I don’t go out now Zack will probably send a search party", before the lady could warn her she had already walked out. "Warning her on our behalf", a blonde came out of one of the stalls. "You, I never thought", but before she complete her sentence her throat had been slit precariously.

  "There she is" Armel said while she walked towards them"; now we don’t need you operated". She seemed puzzled" operated for what?" Armel laughed out loud "Zack was ready to bust in through the lady's washroom doors, if you wouldn't come out by now", he said "I told him that he needs to get GRS done before I let him do the job", her facial expression changed from gloomy to bright. Zack notic
ed this change; he silently thanked Armel for lightening the mood, "I, uh, we should leave." Armel knew his friend's idea so he didn’t stop them "Okay, see yaa bye." Now when they were back in the car her mind started getting filled with his thoughts, he is so handsome that any girl would fall for him including her, as the days pass it seems to get more difficult to resist his temptation, while in her thoughts she swayed on her seat and turned to see outside the window, usually this road has the highest traffic rate but today there were very few cars, probably because of the ongoing high alert and the massacre that took place near Manhattan. Through the rear view mirror she could see a car following them, it hightailed their car right from Houston street and now they had reached little Italy, maybe this was what she meant by 'waiting', she flipped on her phone but it was too late she couldn’t call her now, especially with Zack sitting so close to her, even though her didn’t seem to notice, he has his thoughts elsewhere. Zack turned off his Buggati in front of a miniature form of McDonalds, "well it's better here than being brazen out by paparazzi" he had said after looking at her puzzled expression. He asked her to get down and wait for him as he drove towards the parking lot. He must have gone to take care of his fan following and what are you doing here Sara waiting for evidence to land on your head, she dodged herself. She quickly did a sneak peek towards the parking zone. Sure the SUV followed Zack and smacked his car from behind. The crooks got out of the SUV and took their positions. Two of them were tall and lean and the third one looked like a mountain of fats, with no neck, this guy really is intimidating. Zack followed suit and instantaneously got out of the car, he shot the driver first who was still inside the SUV through the windshield. Sara could see the ongoing action scene pretty well from her current position while she assembled herself in the trunk of a random car and peeked through that, she was properly trained to break every kind of locks, so it was like a child's play for her when she saw a 1960s Ford parked there. The crooks were all dressed up as MIBs, each of them dive rolled and ran towards different cars. Suddenly one of them shot Zack who was kneeling in front of his car. He missed the shot by a few inches. Sara tried to see where the bullet came from but it was in vain, then she turned towards Zack, he by now had tiptoed to a different car and stealthily caught the neck of one of the crooks from behind twisted it and then let the dead body fall slowly. One more' lanky- panky' left and then he can take the "fat mountain", he should do it fast lest I'll have to hide somewhere else; God the trunk lid is killing me. Her cell phone vibrated and she slowly dug it out of her purse, without letting the lid close. She glanced at the number before answering "Hello, Martin for Pete sake why did you have to call me now of all the times"? She bantered still keeping her eyes on him. "Where are you now"? He demanded, "Hiding in a car's trunk", "What are you doing there"? "Watching chick-flicks", she grunted "Martin it's no time for playing quiz, why did you call"? "Elsa is no more with us". As if the scene in front of me was not good enough to scowl and now I get this mind-wrecking news, "Any hints of her assassinator"? She asked after a long pause. "Not yet, but the person must have known her for there was no struggle from her side while the throat was slit and her eyes were wide open", he answered "what are you doing now"? "Watching Zack taking down the trail trekkers one by one", her voice now too faint to be heard by him."Now he crawled towards a pillar stopped his breath for a while, took out his Bayonet knife and sliced the neck of the other crook. One more left. He placed the dead body slowly on the ground and tip toed towards the SUV where the fat mountain seemed to be waiting for him", she kept on commenting on a low voice. Zack was about to take this one using his knife, but it was missing from its place; he might have lost it while he dive rolled between the cars. Within this lapse of time the crook turned back abruptly and punched Zack on his jaw. His body almost took a flight and landed near his Buggati, it was where he left his shot gun. He rolled on his back took the gun and shot the last one. He must deal with these people every day, since he knows how to complete a task without letting the beans spill", "You don’t know him properly yet to judge him", she let his preaching pass by "I must sneak back to my place otherwise things may get ugly", she ended the call and sneer 'Fussy Martin' .As soon as she was out of the parking area she ran to the spot where he left her Someone from the department knew of her surveillance tonight, but who could it be?