Thursday, the 5th of May.
07:22am.
The Manhattan spring morning was chilly and cool and oddly quiet, maybe it was because he had woken up too early or maybe it was because he was not used to waking up from this part of the city, he was not used to waking up in this house. It had been eight years and a couple of months since the last time he had slept in here. He laid still in the bed, unmoving, with the covers pulled all the way up to his chest, he breathed softly, listening to his surroundings, the house was quiet. Throwing the covers off of his body, he slid his feet into the flip flops and casually strolled out of the room, he quietly descended the stairs and headed for the back door leading out of the house.
He stepped out onto the terrace and stood, shoving his hands into the pockets in his trousers. He had slept in his suit trousers and his singlet because he had not brought any other clothes. He had not even planned on spending the night here but he did and now he missed the feeling of being in a complete family, a completely normal one.
He heard the foot steps approaching him from behind but did not bother to turn back around to see who had just stepped onto the terrace, it was just him, Michael, Grand father and the butler, Grand father’s right hand man in the whole house, none of those people posed a threat to him so he remained unalarmed.
“Weird having to see you waking up in this house.” Michael said as he approached Chester who was standing in his favourite spot in the whole house, the view of nature from the terrace was calming and peaceful and most of the time, Michael needed such calm feelings. Most of the time like right now.
Chester took in a calming breath and nodded in approval. “Hmmm… weird, true.”
He heard Michael chuckle and take a couple of steps forward until he was in line with him. “What made you return after all these years? After being away for this long?”
“I missed my family?” Chester replied sarcastically, which caused Michael to roar out in laughter.
“We both know that is not the reason why you decided to return, and speaking of family, is this it? The family you missed is just one old man.”
“The old man happens to also be your grand father.”
“And what do you think I am to him? Family too?” Michael chuckled and stretched, standing on his toes for a second and breathing in the cool morning air. “I am turning thirty in a few days and I am still not recognized by him as a member of this god forsaken family. Thirty years of trying to be the perfect one and yet still…”
Chester turned to him now, speaking to him in a sharp but still calm voice. “Michael, you should know that I am not here to contend any position with you…”
“You do not even have to.” Michael said, cutting him off and already pissed off. “You are the legitimate one, just try not to get in my way.” He said and walked back into the house, leaving Chester alone.
Chester sighed loudly, if this family had been right, then Michael would have been a better younger step brother but grand father always had to remind him of how much of a mistake it was for him to be born but could you really blame the child when the father did the sinful thing?
Their family, as much as Chester could recall of it, had been small and that small was perfect, it had just been him, his mother, his father and grand father and they had tried to live as a normal family but that was until that night when every thing had changed for the worst…
* * * * *
The house was silent and calm and peaceful that night as every one had all gone to sleep, every one except for his mother, he could tell because the piano still played, it was some thing she always loved to do. Every night before bed, she would play the piano, the sweet melodies could easily put Chester to sleep, whiffing through the house in its soft dancing tune, peaceful and calming and hypnotizing. Chester laid in his bed with both eyes closed but his ears still open to his mother’s night lullaby. He was slowly drifting into sleep when there was a sudden loud high pitched note and it jacked him out from his half sleep state, it had woken every one up. Mother had missed a key.
He bolted upright, it was not just a key she had missed, but rather the whole tune. He waited for her to recompose and get back into the soft tune but she did not, rather the unpleasant tune went on for a while, the loud and none melodic sound ripped through the house like she had just slammed her fingers on the keys in anger or frustration.
Throwing the covers off of his body, Chester stepped out of his room in a flash to check on what had happened when he saw that his father too had come out of their room as well and was already walking down the stairs. Chester stayed up stairs. Walked up to the railing and looked through the spaces between them, what he saw that night would forever haunt him.
Down below, slumped against the piano was his mother, a red thick liquid pooling out fast from a tiny hole by the side of her head, her eyes closed peacefully. He gasped and slapped his palms to his mouth, his eyes beginning to tear up. Three men, all dressed head to toe in black stood around her, one still had his gun held to the back of her head. Then there was a shot and this one was not silent, it ran out in the now quiet house and Chester saw his father go down but not dead. He scrambled back up the stairs, holding on to his left arm which was now bloody.
Chester watched as he took cover behind a pillar and pull out a gun from a secret compartment behind the pillar which Chester never knew was there and he loaded it. Chester watched on, he saw his father yelling at him but he could not make out what he was saying, his hearing was low and his vision was slow, some how he was struggling to breathe. He looked back through the railing, back at his mother’s body and her blood still pooling out, all around the piano keys and on the floor around her. His eyes shifted, the three men were making their way up the stairs, each one of them pointing a gun towards the pillar where his father hid behind.
Another shot rang out and it knocked Chester back into reality. The bullet had chipped the side of the pillar and he saw his father clearly now. He kept yelling at Chester.
“Get out! Find the escape chute and go to grand father! Chester run! Now!”
Chester breathed and scrambled away on all fours, now wanting to stand up for fear of being seen. The escape chute was in the study, hidden exactly where the desk was, where the rug covered the small trap door. It was a narrow passage way, built like a tunnel slide which led all the way to the back of the house, under the ground and outside of the wall. Once outside there, he could easily find his way to grand father.
Just before he shut the door to the study, he saw on of the assassins fall and tumble down the stairs, hit by a bullet from father’s gun. He took a last look at his father before shutting the door to the study and securely locking it, making his escape.
* * * * *
Chester released a breath which he had been holding and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. He wanted to push all those memories away but he could not help but remember then now, it had been in this very house that both his parents had been murdered and ever since then it had been difficult for him to stay here and maybe that was one reason why he had left in the first place, even after Grand father had tracked down the assassins only days after the attack and wiped them all out as his revenge for his son’s murder. It had turned out to be an impulsive move but there was nothing that grand father ever regretted, turned out that the attack on his son had been based on vengeance.
Elena’s pregnancy was a responsibility that his son had denied and ignored, abandoning her to suffer alone, the pain of a difficult child birth. She had given birth to a healthy baby boy but with so much difficulty that she had initially died at first, she had stopped breathing and her heart had stopped beating for a few minutes after she had given birth, the doctors had to do every thing that they could to get her heart beating again and they were successful but the pain and grief of almost loosing his sister had driven Philip mad with anger, he wanted to make the man behind his sister’s pain to pay for his crimes and what better way to do that than to take his life and every life that he held dear to him.
But grand father had already wiped them all out before he learnt of this truth, he had killed them all including Elena, and he had adopted her son because he found out later on that the child was also his grand son and he had grown him into the Michael Hunt that he now was, but his was the part that was kept hidden from Michael, the fact that his mother had died by the orders of grand father. It was an unnecessary truth which Michael need not to know about.
The circumstances surrounding his birth and the events that happened after wards still lingered strongly in grand father’s memories and he just could not bring himself to accept Michael fully as his true grand son because his birth had led to the death of his own son. The family’s tragedy it seems, was never ending.
Chester hated to remember the sad parts of his life, he hated to remember that he had not grown up with his parents and at some point he had also hated Michael after he had found out the truth concerning the death of his parents, and it had taken him a while to accept that all these was not Michael’s fault but his father’s - their father’s fault - and often, despite the fact that Michael never actually got to know his mother, he would find himself imagining how the situation would change if Michael found out what grand father had done to his birth mother and to her family in his vengeful anger.
This family truly, was a write off.
Chester turned around and walked back into the house, he still felt some how uncomfortable staying in the house even though he had missed the place where he had grown up in, it triggered memories, memories Chester would rather prefer that they remained beneath the surface of his thinking, totally buried and submerged since they could not be forgotten and neither could they be erased.
“Positive thinking.” He told himself, making his way back upstairs to his room, he needed to bathe and change and get out of this house as soon as he possibly could. “Think only positive thoughts.”
Positive thoughts inspired by the sweet aroma of freshly grounded coffee and the delightful sight of mouth watering doughnuts. Thoughts he could get in his coffee shop where he wanted to be at right now. The busy morning would distract him and the change in environment would help clear his head, plus Gabby would be waiting on him for her coffee with extra cream.
08:03am, Chester was dressed and ready, he left the house without telling any one that he was leaving because he did not need to and he really was not wanting to hear his grand father rolling out orders to him, orders he would not be tied down by any way but still, the talk would be extended and they would end up arguing back and forth without any one of them yielding to the other. He got into his car and drove out of the premises.
From the window in the study on the first floor, grand father stood and watched his grand son get into his car and drive off. He smiled lightly, Chester might have agreed to come back home but he was still a rebellious spirit and he would only do what ever he wanted to do. Grand father was patient enough, Chester would have to, sooner or later, fulfil his first son duties to the Hunt family.
Thursday, the 5th of May.08:31am“And here are the autopsy reports on Miss Pamela Neil.” Aiden announced, setting the file on the desk and pulling a chair closer as he did so.Tia looked a bit worn out, she and Aiden had come to the office a little earlier than normal because they wanted to dive fully into this investigation. Neither of them ever liked to have their cases turn cold, but the two cups of coffee on the desk in front of Tia had already turned cold. She wrapped a hand around the cup and when she did not feel the heat any more, she shifted the cup to the far corner of the desk.She yawned.“Tired already?” Aiden asked out of concern. Tia looked at him and smiled, shaking her head slowly while picking up the file. “When last did you have a decent sleep?” He asked again.“The same year I became a detective.” She replied and they both chuckled. “Now, let us see what we have got h
Thursday, the 5th of May02:13pmTia sat across the most seductive looking man she had ever come across, even with his apron on and his disheveled hair, he still easily took her breath away, but of course she was not going to act to make it so obvious that she found him attractive. No, that would be like her throwing herself at him, and although she did find him to be very attractive, she was not about to think up a scenario of both of them intertwined in a sea of bed sheets and torn clothings, making wild passionate love to each other and unable to just let go of each other.She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head slightly, why would she think that? And now that she had, it was stuck in her head, but the scenario did make sense to her in some kind of way as she could not remember the last time she had had sex with any man, or the last time she had even made out.“Stop it Tia!” She yelled in her sub conscious. “What the hell are you
Friday, the 6th of May.07:03amThere was something about the Manhattan spring morning asides from the fact that it was always chilly, or maybe it was just the way Tia felt. She was unable to get any comfortable sleep last night and she had been awake long before the alarm had gone off.She knew why she felt like this, and it was because of the fact that she had a puzzling case at hand and it was giving her sleepless nights. None of the cases she had worked on in the past had troubled her this much.Unable to sleep and unable to stay put, she had left the house earlier and had gone to the office, maybe she could have a head start in this. Pamela Neil and Clarissa Jan had more than just one thing in common, and asides from the fact that they might have possibly been killed by the same killer - no, hold that thought, it was a fact as clear as day that they had definitely been killed by the same person - they also had each other’s DNA sample in the other
Friday, the 6th of May.03:40pm.Of all the cases she had had to work on, Tia had never really felt this much tension, and this was not the kind of tension that came from your boss or from your superior to hurry up and close a case, no,this was tension from herself. Some thing about this case made her feel uneasy, maybe it was the fact that it was even more puzzling or maybe it was the fact that DNA samples were popping up ad appearing in the oddest of places. No, it was the oddest of DNA samples popping up in the crime scenes, or… she breathed.“Relax Tia. Aiden said, relax. So relax.”But relaxing was not some thing she could really do right now as it was a kind of luxury she could not afford. She had promised a mother that she would find the killer of her daughter soonest. What ever she must have been thinking when she had made that promise, she did not know, but what she knew now was that she had made that promise and now was not th
Friday, the 6th of May.05:10pm“Hey Aiden, what’s up?”Tia, Chester and Zara had spent an hour, walking round the park and doing every thing Zara found to be fun and exciting and they too had been having fun doing every thing that she wanted and of course, staying in each other’s company, most especially for Chester. He had the most fun just watching the mother and daughter spending time together and he had the chance to see Tia being loose and being her free self too.As they all walked towards the entrance gate, heading out and going home, after much convincing and successfully bribing Zara with another full day date, Tia’s phone had rang. It was Aiden and it was a call she could not afford to miss. She flipped it open and slid on the screen.“Tia, where are you?” He asked immediately he heard her voice.“I am at the park. South Cove park. Why?”“Some thing has come up. Yo
Friday, the 6th of May10:12pm.The meeting room was dim with the only source of light coming from a lone yellow bulb handing low from the middle of the ceiling and illuminating the round table. Grand Father Hunt was present and so was Michael and seven other members, all of them being men much older than he was. The agenda for the meeting always changed but what they discussed afterwards was always the same. It had been the same for two years now and Michael was already tired of hearing them bringing up the same thing over and over again.“You had promised to bring Chester this time around but I do not see him grand father.” One man at the far end of the table said.Michael frowned deeply and looked to grand father who sat down calmly and comfortably at the head of the table. All Michael ever wanted was to be the one on that seat with every one looking on at him and giving him just as much respect and fear as they gave grand father. Getting t
Saturday, the 7th of May.08:16amThe New York police state department was more alive today than it was the day before and that was mainly because of the murder that had happened just last night. Every one was busy, every one was moving to and fro and in a hurry too, every one had some thing to do and most of them had to turn in to work much earlier today and some had chosen to stay here over night. Some like Tia and Aiden, they were the detectives assigned to this case and they had much of the pressure on them and Tia most especially, was putting in her heart to cracking this case. She knew there was a pattern so there had to be some sort of a clue, like a hidden message, some thing they could use to track down this serial killer and bring him down. One reason why she had refused to go home last night.“I can not believe you guys actually stayed here the whole night.” Mark commented, coming into the detectives’ office and seeing Aiden just get
Saturday, the 7th of May.12:56pm.Skyline was used to being on the front covers of magazines, newspapers and tabloids, they wanted that and they earned that, but as of recent they had not been on the front covers for business related news, no, rather they had been on the front covers because of the controversy of the heir having returned after years of staying away. This news would not be dying down so easily.Chester sat uncomfortably in the back seat of the car, his arms and legs crossed and his face away from the tinted windows. He frowned in annoyance, once again his grand father had done as he pleased and he was sure that it had been him who had tipped the media that his so called heir would be visiting the company, grand father really did want him to stay back in this company and take over.Taking over the company was not an issue to him, after all it had been his father’s company once, what did not sit well with him was the way grand father
Monday, the 16th of May.01:12 pmThe pain was minimal but he felt it, it was the first thing he felt when his eyes opened because it throbbed, and so did his head. It was a little too bright in here so he could only open his eyes slowly until they could adjust to the brightness. He took in a deep breath, enjoying the flow of air through his lungs but what he did not like was the smell that flowed with it, it smelled of drugs and medicine. He moved his arm and only then did he realize that somebody’s head was resting on it, he turned his head and the person lifted hers, he was surprised seeing her there beside him but he was also happy. He smiled.“Chester,” She said, standing up close beside him and holding on to his hand. “Are you alright? Feeling much better?”“Tia, you’re here?” He wanted to sit up but she held him down to the bed, he winced.“You’re hurt, stay, don’t move.&rdquo
Saturday 14th of May02:02 pm.Chester did not look surprised at all by what Aiden had just revealed, although he had not known it before hand but he had made a guess, there were only two boys in the Hunt family; himself and Michael, so it was not that difficult to figure it out, but he story behind that, behind how Michael had come to live with them was a surprise no doubt, and he wondered if Michael already knew about it.Aiden got up and walked towards Daniel. “Well now that you all know the story and the reason I had to do this,” He turned directly to Tia who stood rooted to the ground in utter disbelief. He smiled. “You cannot leave this house alive, I’m afraid none of you will.”“Aiden,” Tia called him with a shaky voice. “My… my daughter Aiden… she’s only a child…”He waved a hand in the air to stop her. “I had no intentions to hurt her and I was not the o
Saturday 14th of May12:52 pm.The tension in the room weighed down on all of them, most of all Chester, who was on the ground with his grand father in his arms, he was pained and he was angry, the surprise of seeing the detective Aiden come into the room in support of Daniel who had shot his grand father, had vanished from his eyes, in its place was anger. Raw, mad anger and he was struggling to contain it. His eyes never left the detective as both of them glared at each other. More than anything, Chester wanted to storm over to him and rip his heart out and then he would deal with Daniel later.“You both look surprised.” Aiden said with a chuckle, glancing over at Tia who stared at him like she wanted to put a bullet in the middle of his head. “I know it is a lot to take in.”“Why are you doing this Aiden? You are a police detective.” Tia said.“This is the only reason I had become a detective Tia,
Saturday 14th of May12:12 pmThe ward was empty, the crumpled sheets suggested that she might have not been gone for so long but the fact was that she was not here and even the nurses did they know where she had gone to, and neither did they know when she had left the hospital. All her items were gone; the gun, her badge and her phone, Aiden was furious, how could a patient have left the hospital without anyone taking notice of it? But he did not bother to remain in the hospital after that, what was the use? She was not here.As he drove back to the station, he reasoned to dial her number, he needed to know where she must have gone to and what would have made her leave the hospital, she was still hurt and needed care and rest and it worried him. Maybe she had gone back to the station to talk with Chester to ask for her daughter’s whereabouts, she was a mother after all and if that was the reason she had left then it would make total sense, he understood t
Saturday, the 14th of May.10:34 am.The whole thing had gone south and totally not as how they had envisioned it to turn out, they had gone there just to make an inquiry and an arrest and had ended up not making any inquiry, arresting Chester Hunt and a police woman down. In the whole frenzy that had ensured earlier with Tia ripping out the face mask, one of grand father’s body guards had fired a shot in defense of Chester and that had hit Tia in the shoulder, bringing her down.Aiden sighed and paced the hospital room Tia was in, the nurse had said that she was unconscious and might be for a while, this was not how it was meant to go, he brought out his phone and placed a call to the one person whom he would blame for all this.“Where are you?” He asked in annoyance as soon as the person picked up the call, he was pretty upset as to how every thing had gone down.“In the house, with grand father.”Aiden seethe
Saturday, 14th of May 07:46 am. It was much too early for a face off and maybe a little bit too early to be angry but Chester could not care less, he was angry, he was upset, he was boiling, he was fuming and he could not keep calm. Not any more. Yesterday, Tia had been attacked and hurt when her daughter had gone missing and then it had been topped off by her partner who had called her to tell her that her daughter’s DNA sample had been found in the crime scene of the recent victim. Although he did not know what that meant, he knew it was pretty serious. He might not know who the killer was, but he had a suspect on who would have dared to kidnap Zara. The hotel had a twenty four seven hour service so he was sure that he would meet his grand father there whenever he went to his office in the hotel and right now, that was where he was headed to. He walked swiftly, his half hidden face contorted in a deep frown and every one was wise to stay clear off his path,
Friday, the 13th of May 07:43am. He knew what time they would be leaving the house, he had studied them, taking his time to map out their schedules and time. He also knew what time the bus left the station there to get here and he had been right on time. He saw the bus pull up from the comfort of the car he was sitting in, and he watched it come to a stop with a low whistle, he watched the children get down and he waited until the bus started again, easing off the side and joining the traffic. He saw her, the little detective girl, skipping happily to school and accompanied by her friends, her mother did not come drop her off today, which meant that the girl would also be going home on her own as well. He smiled devilishly, every thing was just going way too smoothly for him and he could not be any happier. This would be all too easy for him to do and he knew that there was no way he would ever be caught. He looked on as the girl disappeared into the sc
Friday, the 13th of May 04:06am. The CCTV footage had come to them even earlier than they had thought that it would and Tia could not be any happier, it was the CCTV footage from Wagner park, the particular footage showing the entrance of the park where they had seen the tire marks and the police men had said that they had seen Trisha come in from that direction. Tia’s heart was in her throat as she watched the footage, she was so jittery that she could not sit, so she stood behind Aiden, her eyes wide open and her eye brows furrowed in a slight frown, focusing intently on what played on the screen. A black car had pulled up by the entrance to the park and entered only to stop still close to the entrance, a man got down from the driver’s side of the car, his face shielded by the mask he wore. Tia frowned even deeper but kept on watching. He went around the car to the other side and opened the passengers’ side door and got in, they were unable to see or
Friday, the 13thof May.12:22amNight time was always fun because it was as mysterious as it was thrilling, you just never could tell what night pop out of the corner but tonight, he knew what would be popping out of the corner; he was, bringing with him yet another victim, another body for the police to find, only that this time, she was still alive so he could not yet refer to her as a body. He chuckled as he drove quietly and slowly crawling the car along the road. He needed to do this as quietly as he possibly could, he had enough time on his hands to do this and he knew.The girl was tied up in the back seat and she did not struggle, he glanced at her through the rear view mirror and he could smell the fear in her eyes; he loved that, he looked ahead and continued driving. He had chosen Wagner park this time, it was closer to Skyline clubs than all the other parks were and so he had a good feeling about this one. He tried to imagine how the scen