30. Hot on the trail

Isaac left early and Chloe has just washed the dishes. She suddenly feels downhearted where she sits at the dining room table and ponders the impossible events. They have discussed it again this morning but could get no clear explanation. Everything was locked and secure. There was no loose window that could be manipulated and opened. It is unthinkable that someone could have entered quietly, opens the fridge, roll salami around pieces of cheese, calmly ate some of it and then lit a pipe and smoked until the fumes filled the kitchen. And on top of that, trigger the alarm and then vanish quickly and left the place so secure as if it was barricaded from the inside. Dammit! She is losing it. Her only comfort is that Isaac also experienced it, or else she would be sure she is on her way to the loony bin.

When they couldn’t solve the puzzle, they began to discuss the supernatural and soon realize that they both don’t believe in such things. They were both too pragmatic. Isaac, however, related to her unexplained occurrences that sometimes take place in hospitals. People mysteriously recover and some die inexplicably without a clear cause of death. Who can say it was a miracle just because the cause is unknown? There is no proof that it was a miracle. And what about the law of circumstance? It is a clear mathematical probability that the unlikely event, be it one out of a million or a few thousand, sometimes must happen. Miracles are maybe just those rare occurrences that mathematics predicts can happen and when it does, it is colored by the frame of reference of the persons involved. People really like sensation or grab that rare incidence to confirm their ‘beliefs’. Yesterday’s hero easily becomes a god tomorrow. A random act of someone becomes a legend the next day. People like to fabricate stories based on the truth, but in the end little of the truth remains and it is just a story. Isn’t it exactly what a legend is? Or is it a myth? She doesn’t know.

In any case, human beings are very stupid. We are restrained by our restricted knowledge based on deductions. We often think we understand something and are talking sense just be proved totally wrong afterwards. Even experts quarrel over basic things and each of them can supply a solid argument why he/she believes in something. However, they could not all be right.

Later on, she and Isaac discussed the newest models of quantum mechanics about what mathematics reveals of the invisible relation amongst different kinds of energy and how it relates to one another. The probable existence of dark matter, antimatter, and multi-dimensions are the deductions the mathematical models arrive at in explaining the newest observations of the firmament.

It was then when they hugged each other and their touch was their consolation. The reality of that moment suddenly became even more precious and Isaac again felt like her rock.

The smartphone ringing on the table pulls her out of her musing and she grabs it and sees it is ten o’ clock and it is an unknown number.

“Good morning, Chloe Eastwood here.”

“Good morning, how is our beautiful princess this morning?”

“Hunter! How are things in George? Did you move in with your friend?”

Hunter gives a naughty little laugh. “Yes, I slept nice and warm and was spoilt with breakfast in bed.”

“You stud bull! You are certainly only going to start your investigation tomorrow. Today is Sunday. You have surely not done anything so far.”

“On the contrary, Chloe, already I have interesting news. Luckily I met an old colleague of mine the first time I visited the supermarket and when we talked I found out they are hot on the heels of our Quinn Wiggil. There is a warrant for his arrest because of fraud. They are looking for him also because he might be an important state witness in a case against a money-laundering syndicate.

“We must get to Quinn before the syndicate finds him. The syndicate sees him as a weak link and wants to eliminate him to prevent him from becoming a state witness. They have a contact that arranged a meeting at a predetermined place and the plan is to surprise him there and arrest him. Chloe, this is for your and Isaac’s ears only. Promise me you won’t tell anybody.”

“I promise, Hunter. Please be careful and remain in one piece. Does this mean that either Quinn or the syndicate is responsible for attempted murder on Zoey and Lyle?”

“Chloe, I expect to get the answers as soon as Quinn is in custody and the cross-examination begins. But don’t become complacent. Be alert because anything is possible. Although it seems that the attempted murder has something to do with Quinn, it could be only coincidence and there may be something quite different going on. How are you? Is everything okay? Tell me everything, even the smallest detail you might think insignificant.”

Chloe wonders whether she should tell Hunter.

“Where are you phoning from, Hunter? It looks like a landline and I don’t want to upset your darling with a huge phone bill and cause drama for you.”

“Chloe, you are always so considerate. Her name is Yvonne. But you can talk as much as you like. I am sitting here at the desk of my old colleague and using the state’s landline.”

“You remember Isaac, my neighbor?”

“How can I forget him? The guy who knows exactly which button of you he can press.”

“What do you mean, Hunter?”

“Chloe, you are messing up each other’s hormones totally. That is so clear anyone can see it immediately.”

“In any case, long story short, I had dinner at Isaac’s place and he accompanied me home after the time. We found the remains of a cleaned pipe right in front of my front door as if someone scratched out his pipe there. Isaac would not leave me alone and slept in the guest room. The alarm woke us in the middle of the night and we found evidence of a midnight visitor in the kitchen. Someone took food from the fridge and pipe smoke hung in the air. We looked everywhere but could not find any place where an intruder could enter or exit.”

“Chloe, are you sure you have looked thoroughly everywhere. Could there be a secret entrance perhaps?”

“Hunter, we made sure we looked everywhere. There isn’t even a loose window or something. Everything was locked and secured from inside.”

“Now, this is very strange.”

“Hunter, Tony always smoked Rum and Maple on the farm’s veranda. And sometimes, in the middle of the night, he took food out of the fridge and wrapped salami slices around pieces of cheese and ate it. That is precisely what we found in the kitchen with a few portions left of his favorite snack.”

Silence follows and Chloe wonders whether she has lost him when he speaks: “He usually only smoked that pipe when he longed for and thought deeply about the people on the farm. Chloe, I feel I must tell you something now. Remember I told you of that suicide mission, Operation Coolidge, which we conducted deep in the enemy’s territory when we attacked the bridge? There was a good chance that we wouldn’t survive it. We sat there in front of our bungalow before we had to finally prepare for the Puma to take us to the waters full of man-eating crocodiles upstream to the enemy.

“Tony opened a letter from Clea, read it and took out a little photo that accompanied the letter, looked at it and put it in his pocket and then lit that pipe of his. I was immediately very worried because he only lit that pipe when he was troubled by something. We just couldn’t risk a lack of full concentration on that mission. I asked him what was wrong and he handed over the letter to me without a word. Chloe, his mother told him that he became the father of a daughter from the girl he had been intimate with one evening and with whom he had lost contact. Clea was on the farm with her baby, Zoey, and they were waiting for him to give up the army and start a family on the farm. He handed me the little photo of the beautiful Clea with Zoey in her arms.

“However, during that mission Tony many times put his life in danger to save mine and it was only a miracle that we escaped with our lives. I must go now, Chloe, look after yourself carefully and be alert. I shall phone you when I have something new. Goodbye for now.”

“Goodbye, Hunter.” She scarcely has answered before the link is cut.

Chloe has the feeling the news was upsetting him. The long silence after she has told him what happened is surely an indication. This could be the reason why he suddenly ended the call and she doesn’t blame him. These undecipherable events are very upsetting for all because it really looks as if it was a ludicrous visit from Tony.

And that is totally impossible!