9.
I always felt Braxton has been hiding something from me, since the day he met that made me more curious about him than anyone on the entire planet. He was an entirely independent topic to dig into. I have been following him like a hawk following a snake from thousands of feet above from the sky.
It was already mid-autumn. The golden leaves had already been started spreading by the trees while waving their flags towards the wind to the north. Swirling away the leaves around the corner, Braxton drove off. I was following him in a different car than before. It was my fifth car that I have hired this month to track him. I was driving approximately 300 feet apart from him. He was in his blue Audi. He was heading towards a casino. He parked. I had few memories connected with that casino. I followed him inside.
After a couple of minutes of him entering, I went inside. I took a seat around the bar and ordered a Martini. I saw him talking with other three guys whose resemblance was quite remarkable to him. They appeared to possess high energy and with intense excitement they took one seat each. The entire table was a computer screen where one can place a bet with just a touch of a finger. There were fifty tables like that and, in front of everyone, there was a big wheel that was spin by one bald headed guy on black suit. They were on the last row. The game can be viewed on the screen of each of their tables. Technology has gone advanced but it wasn’t new for me.
Suddenly, a woman in green shiny dress passed me which reminded me of my wife. I wondered if I had visited this place with my wife.
After thinking a while, I said “Yes” to myself. I was here with my wife.
A guy sat beside me bought a wine. He was shuffling the tokens on the table which he must have won, while the bartender was busy preparing his drink. Then I realized that I had seen few tokens similar to those, inside one of my drawers in my house.
A series of epiphanies were hitting my head as if someone played a slideshow of pictures. I walked out and took my car. My speedometer showed 110mph when I realized I was driving quiet fast but I didn’t care. I missed to observe something that was in my own house.
Throwing the entire body mass towards the door, I rushed inside and started checking all the drawers I had. I remember I had seen those tokens but I forgot which drawer it was. I rushed. Finally I found it in one of them. They were identical to those used in that casino. There were 3 of them and all of them were blue.
Finally everything was clear.
Braxton was so superstitious that whenever he used to go to the casino he used to wear all blue because he used to say blue is his lucky color, especially while gambling. Those tokens I found in my drawer were the ones which he used to carry in his pocket because it brought luck to him as my close friend described.
But why was it in my drawer? - was the question that had a solution to my mystery.
So my story began when I had returned home from the prison, after a month, where my lonely wife was waiting for me. The next day, I checked the drawer for my shaving blades when I found those coins. Soft matt blue coins. I was suspicious how those came there during my absence.
That night I asked my wife to go for a trip to some countryside location for refreshment during our dinner. She agreed. We even decided the place.
The following weekend, we went out for the trip. On the way, I asked her, “have you seen Braxton recently?” she looked surprised. She gave an obvious answer, “no”. I took out those tokens from my pocket and asked her about them, “then how did these come to our house?” She got nervous and aggressive, at the same time, and told me to stop being too skeptical about things.
At that very moment, everyone will consider me a possessive and controlling husband but those coins weren’t the only thing that made me question my wife’s integrity.
It was October 23rd, a woman was shot and she was none other than Lena, wife of Braxton. The reason she was killed was that she was the first person who solved the case of “Yarsagumba” - the ambivalent plant as I used to call it. It cost the GGD a significant amount of money to bounce back into the business again after the hustle. She was approaching me to provide me with the evidences she had but before she could reach me, she was prevented. But I had the bag she was carrying. I had suspicion that the evidences might be inside that bag. I didn’t open it at the moment. I decided to go through her bag at my house. I went away.
To my surprise, I saw Braxton and my wife on my backyard. I stayed behind the fence to hear what they were talking about. Nothing was audible except him saying, “Case Solved!” He was about to leave handing over a small pouch to my wife. Suddenly, from behind I was grabbed by the cops. They both were alarmed by the hustle. Both of them tried to hide while I was engaging with the fellow cops.
I hadn’t planned for any trip when I was inside the prison. But yes, sure I did when I saw those blue coins inside my drawer. I didn’t want to lie or deceive her but as an ordinary man, I was helpless.
It was the second day of us arriving Tasmania that I took her for a drive. I didn’t tell her we were going to the hills nor I cared about the speed but she did. I guess she was trying to explain something with all her might but I played deaf. She was crying and begging me that it will never happen again. I took another gear up the hill with infinite speed. I took several turns following the shrink sounds. On each turning, I could see her dying a bit which made me more excited. I could just hear her crying in fear and yelling and begging me to stop. Neither I cared nor did I stop.
Now I don't care about anybody’s opinions on this case as I did what I thought was right. And obviously it wasn’t my wife’s hand that I was holding before going unconscious.
THE END