The Mysterious Women Series:Blackmail

by Paramita Choudhury

  Chapter 19

  After lunch was over Lucie and Sara went out for a walk in the periphery of the ranch. But Sara wanted to see the horses and other cattle before going to the walk. Stroking the mane of a Chestnut brown horse Sara asked "Why is he isolated from the others"? "Thrill is aggressive and he won't let his rider seat on his back for more than ten minutes, except Zack and Laney, both of them were trained with horses right from their childhood", Lucie answered "You know we should always try to understand their psychology and develop a friendly relationship with them only then will they trust us enough to ride ", Sara took a sack and laid it over the horse with that."So how many horses do you have now"? She asked turning over to Lucie "We have four horses now including Thrill and two ranch hands, one of them has been working for more than a decade and the other one we appointed him last month right after Jake, another ranch hand of ours who broke his hand falling off Thrill", "that's awful", Sara exclaimed "Let's head over to the tree you were talking about". Sara followed her friend towards the northern fields which were fenced using barbed wires. "You think they are getting bored without us," Lucie asked while showing Sara a tree that had been there for more than hundred years. "I assure you they are enjoying themselves without us whining about things", Sara chuckled "Do you have any idea of who planted the tree"? She asked."The land actually belonged to Zack's family; he gifted it to us when we thought of settling down. But Laney as a dignified man he is he paid half the money for the plot the rest was considered as a gift," she said while resting near the red wood cedar. "Do you think it would age close to the civil war?" Sara asked while investigating the old bark. "It should because as much as I remember once Zack told me it was planted by his great grandfather," Lucie stood up for their next trip "Ready to get a look at my special rose garden?" "Definitely" Sara replied high spirited. When they reached the garden Sara was completely astonished "This is so wonderful, just look at these flowers all different shades of pink, how did you do it?" Lucie smiled" I had a friend while in Science college she was a Botanist, she taught me this hybridization process if we place the branch of a red rose plant with that of a white one we'll get a light shade of pink, hybridizing pink and white you get an even lighter shade and so on, come," holding hands they went inside the garden which was a kind of maze. "Why did you pattern it this way?" Sara asked while looking at a rare species of orange pink. "When Willy was a toddler he used to love solving puzzles, while I organized the garden here he wanted to play the puzzle game here so I had to do it his way," Lucie told her while heading back to her abode. As they headed back, Sara could hear a male voice singing at the top of his voice."They would never get bored with Willy singing so loud," she chuckled "Honey it's his father singing," her friend replied, Sara narrowed her brows not believing Lucie's words" Come you'll see for yourself." When they reached, Lucie took Sara to Willy's playroom where the three of them were sitting on the floor along with Willy "both the adults look not even a day older than Willy", Sara whispered standing outside the door "This is the only time they relax ", Lucie told her. After Laney finished his song both the ladies entered the room clapping their hands " I would never believe her if I wouldn't hear you out on my own," Sara commented "Your voice resembles that of Bob Marley." "You don’t say," Laney chuckled "Yes, I do," Sara said now sitting close to her boyfriend. "Know what I'm going to audition in the next season of American Idol," Laney told them seriously, Zack guffawed out loud making little Willy to shut his ears with his fingers "Uncle Zacky you laugh too loud," all of them became quite suddenly, Zack turned out thoughtful for a while then replied" It's because of the pancake that we stole from your mom's kitchen." Sara muffled her laughter with a cough, Lucie now glaring at her son asked" when did you do this?" "Mom, dad's stomach was aching and he said only a pancake could relieve him," her innocent child replied out of fear. She looked at her husband, pretending to be angry but a smile tucked at the corner of her lips; he surrendered without her doing any more talking "I simply couldn’t miss the best pancakes of the world." She hugged him and gave a quick kiss. Meanwhile Zack got a call and soon after he returned, he announced that they had to leave then and there. Lucie packed them a few fried bacons and when they got on the car Sara screamed "Don’t forget what I said," winking at Lucie.

  Hours later when their friends were gone" What was she talking about?" Laney asked his wife. "She advised me to keep you under surveillance," Lucie replied. They were watching' The Hobbits' along with Willy, "Mom why do we need to keep dad under surveillance?" their son asked. "Because she thinks I can't do my tasks myself," Laney replied nudging his wife's shoulder, "and here I thought I'm the only child ", Willy said playfully."You are the one and only we have”, his mother assured him "you watch the movie, me and your dad have got some talking to do." "When they reached the bedroom Lucie asked "What was he talking about Laney?" He knew his wife pretty well to understand what she meant and he had no doubt on her level of sincerity "They were attacked last night," then he narrated her the whole incident that Zack told him "But I don’t understand why would someone attack him now?" Lucie asked. Her husband didn’t answer her for a while and simply stared at their wedding picture hung on the wall, "You looked much prettier then, than now." She got annoyed and made him face her "You know how I hate it, when you behave this way"? He shrugged behaving like a gentleman 'I don’t know what you are talking about' written all over his face; "Lane please honey I need to know," his wife pleaded. He thought for a while before answering "Zack says it's about the pictures," she narrowed her brows, to clear out her confusion he replied "the ones his father bought in an auction." Lucie was totally puzzled now "Why would anyone want to kill him for civil war paintings?" Laney let out a low rumble "Silly they are worth billions." She swore aloud "I'm sorry, I never knew."Now what is it that Sara asked you to remember?" Laney cooed "Its about his birthday, she wants to give him a surprise party."

  "All the bugs placed properly?" Michelle rasped out the words to agent Mark who had been sent to Raven Smuts as a repairman, "Everything has been done mam," Eric replied before setting the folder containing forensic report of the body which was found near Manhattan on her desk and then folded his hands behind his back. She must thank Hudson for the last minute changes in their plan, sending Mark in the second half was a much better idea since most of the employees would have gone home by the time he completed his task. She could see the tall skyscrapers being electrified as the sunlight got dimmer. "Found anything or anyone suspicious?" she quickly flipped though the folder and set it aside for closer scrutiny "Yes mam," the agent replied, "A man with green eyes, blonde nearly as tall as me," Eric said "he asked me a question or two regarding my job experience." The mention of the tall blonde reminded her of a past acquaintance and brought her thoughts back to reality always the nosey one; she didn’t need to know Eric's reply to know that the guy was Richard; years of training had taught her that she should always be observant to her environment. "Where have you put the thingies?" "Two on Zack's cubicle wall, one near Mr. Nosey, and one close to Sara's the other three on the control room and elevator," he replied and waited patiently for her approval. "You may leave now", she walked him out of her cubicle and when he was about to leave she shook his hand saying "thank you for your services," loud enough for others to hear. I'll have to discuss Richard with Sara, a girls over would be a good idea; her face gleamed at the thought because as much as she wanted to meet Sara more than that she wanted to know about Sara's brother.

  "Why did you do this?" was the first question Sara asked as soon as they left the country region and hit the highway."Do what?" Zack asked innocently "take me to the NYPD to file a case against the gangsters and then without the task being accomplished, you left the place abruptly and finally take me to the ranch," she said while chewing a protein bar. Tonight she was quite hungry, lunch had been a total mess due to the kid she couldn’t have her lunch properly and as Zack had some important meeting to catch up due to which they left earlier so he
r only reliable source was the bar. "I can't answer all of them at once," he replied without taking his eyes off the road. Even in his cowboy jeans and polo tee-shirt he looked just as handsome as he usually looked in a business suit, why you couldn’t be a geek or a nerd or something instead of being ruggedly handsome. "You know why I went with you to the station," it was a statement not a question. "I do expect answers for the rest", she replied still munching on the bar, "the constitution doesn’t let us file cases against anonymous people , and to top it all we don’t have any evidence against them", "But you checked their SUV and you know its number", she was about to say but stopped herself before spilling out her true identity. "And as for visiting the ranch they are the only family I'm left with except Ben and right from the moment I proposed you I wanted you to meet them." Sara had been noticing for a while that a silver Mustang was following their Ferrari for a long time, yes that’s what he was driving today, a Ferrari Enzo, as black as a Stallion, with its plush seats and Zack driving it as fast as Vin Diesel in fast and furious, the difference was, the car is a Ferrari instead of Mitsubishi Eclipse. He can get me to the apartment first and then I can fight them off , she tightened her seat belt, then she wondered again what if they are after him, as soon as that thought crossed her mind a slow grin spread on her face Mr. Hitman can possibly hit all of them off the field easily. He must have known that they were being followed because he soon took a U-turn and the Mustang lost them. "So what was your excuse to your grandma"? She was startled by his question. "I told her that my boss had an accident and I had to go see him", she made up. "That was a lame one", he chuckled "And what was your excuse"? She asked. He grinned "I told him the truth "; she looked puzzled "I told him that we were going for a date". She couldn’t believe how he could keep on advertising about their relationship they usually hide from the media. It's his life he can think about it; once my job is done I'll be long gone.

  When they reached her apartment "drop me here," she told him. She prepared herself for another heated argument; yet didn’t get any of it he just parked the car, opened the door for her, let her get down, and wished her Good Night and left. She stood there amused and when she thought of reasons only one came to her mind, perhaps he is exhausted. He had been taking care of me for the last two days. Its time I should get some rest myself. Zack had been thinking something very different he was excited to have someone in his life who would be forever his, but what if she comes to know the truth an ache formed in his heart. This will be her test if she can understand me then she'll surely accept the truth. But before that I must take care of this blackmailer.

  "What are you doing here"? Sara asked Michelle who had been talking standing outside her apartment for about half an hour. The latter gave her a wry smile "Needed to crash in that apartment of yours". Sara rolled her eyes and opened the door to her apartment "Alright, follow me".