Not even half a minute later, a group of three more security officers and their manager have come to join them.
"Call the police," the manager instructs immediately at the sight of the damage and one of his men leaves immediately. He then turns his attention to Zach, who has been restrained to the chair by the two officers.
"Sir, we will not use any force to restrain you if you agree not to leave this room until the police arrives," the security manager says to Zach.
"I need to look for Nikki, she's hurt!" Zach cries back trying to break free but to no avail. His body is still feeling weak from the after effects of the sleeping beauty.
"Our man has gone after her. Rest assured, we want to find her too and find out what happened here," the security manager replies bluntly.
Zach nods.
"Let him go," the security manager instructs and his men let go of Zach wearily, ready to bounce back onto him at anytime just in case he tries to get away.
Just then, the security officer who had earlier left to go after Nikki comes back panting into the room. "She left. The security cameras show she left the building before I could get to her," he breathes.
Hearing that, Zach immediately sprints up from his chair. He can't let Nikki wonder the streets of this unfamiliar country, injured.
The other officers instantly get hold of Zach and push him back down onto the chair, holding him down by the shoulder.
"I have to find her! Let me go!" Zach cries as he struggles to break free.
"Sir, I don't know what happened here but there are now two options for you to choose from. You pay for all the damages and we will omit pressing charges against you. If you don't pay for the damages, we will proceed with pressing charges. The police are on their way," the manager announces the options sternly to Zach, all of the officers looking down at Zach with disgust.
"I'll pay for every single fucking damage. Just let me go!" Zach shouts back, worried over Nikki's whereabouts.
"Do you have a valid credit card?" the security manager asks.
Zach frustratingly removes his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and opens it to pull out a silver colored credit card and hands it roughly to one of the security officers. He doesn't care how much they're going to charge him. All that matters to him now is to get out of here and find Nikki.
The security manager walks over to the phone in the room and dials an extension to the lobby receptionist. "Get Wali to come up here now and see how much the damages amount to," he instructs and puts the phone down.
"Just charge the damn fucking card and let me go!" Zach shouts and cups his forehead into his palms in exasperation.
"That's exactly what we are trying to do," the security manager snorts after a short pause, "Just to let you know, anytime your wife lodges a police report against you, we will be more than happy to cooperate with the investigations."
"What? You think I hit her? Fuck off, I need to find Nikki. She might be in danger," Zach curses as he jumps up from the chair furiously trying to push his way past the six tough men in suits.
The men immediately force him face down onto the bed. Amidst the commotion, the police arrive into the room, with a Chinese plain clothes inspector leading the way followed by four of his Malay officers in dark blue uniform. The security officers immediately let their hands off Zach. Hope finally arrives for Zach. He quickly bounces up from the bed.
"I'm Inspector Lee," the plain clothes inspector, a slightly beefy fifty plus Chinese man with his hair balding on top announces his name as he reaches his hand out to the security manager.
The security manager immediately shakes his hand and introduces himself, "I'm Mazlan, security manager."
"What happened here?" Inspector Lee asks, moving his head as he glances all around the room, analyzing the crime scene.
"My wife is hurt! She left the hotel. She is not in the right state of mind. Please find her!" Zach cries out loud, jumping in between the inspector and Mr. Mazlan.
"Do you have a picture of her?" Inspector Lee asks.
Zach immediately fumbles for his cellphone and opens up a picture they took at the airport. A Malay police officer comes up and takes the phone from his hand saying, "We will need that photo." After downloading the picture from Zach's phone, he starts to ask, "What's her name, age, height and weight?"
"Nikki Portman. Thirty two years old. Five feet four. Hundred and thirty pounds," Zach answers promptly and cooperatively.
"Is this her phone?" Inspector Lee suddenly asks, holding up Nikki's gray cellphone.
"Yes," Zach nods.
"What did you argue over?" Inspector Lee then asks.
"We didn't argue!" Zach replies in protest.
"Whoever was hit by those knuckles definitely wouldn't be looking pretty. Just how hard did you hit her?" the inspector continues to probe, eyeing at Zach's right knuckles which are swollen and bruised.
Zach never realized that his knuckles are bruised, until now. And of course he will never know how the mysterious woman removed the drawer from the dresser and used it to hit and bruise his knuckles, making everything seem so real. Zach stares at his knuckles, bewildered. It can't be. He is sure he didn't hit Nikki.
"I didn't hit her! We were drugged. When I woke up she was hurt. Then she starts screaming and tears the room apart. You gotta find her. Nik's not sober. She might be in danger. Go find her. Please!" Zach begs nervously.
Another Malay policeman with a mustache over his lips then comes over and reports something in Malay to the inspector. Zach has no idea what is being exchanged between them.
"My men have done some preliminary questioning. Every staff in the lobby witnessed how you came to the hotel drunk. Your wife was perfectly sober. The concierge sent you up. But now you're telling me that after two hours, someone entered your room, hit your wife, took nothing and left. Then you woke up and she went hysterical and tore down the room as you watched her like an action movie. Finally you let her run off before chasing after her," the inspector grunts sarcastically at Zach's illogical tale, "You reek of alcohol. From how I see it, this looks like a case of extreme domestic violence. Only that the victim has gone missing. No cameras, no proof of what you've done. In this case, we can only charge you for property damage."
"This is insane! Find Nikki, she'll tell you everything!" Zach demands innocently.
"We'll need you to come to police station with us to take some statements," the inspector ignores his plea and the policemen escort a reluctant Zach out of the room.
Chapter 27
Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 2:34 a.m.
The mysterious woman passes her passport and boarding pass to the immigration officer, a large Malay woman in her neat blue uniform and matching headscarf. The officer skeptically eyes the wound by the broken corner of her mouth and instructs the mysterious woman to take off her sunglasses. The pretend Nikki does as told and the officer's eyes widen with shock at the terrible bruise on her eye. With her face pale and partly scarred, it is easy to mimic the remaining sixty five percent of Nikki's face.
"I was hit by my husband. I just want to go home," the mysterious woman pretends to cry shakily, trying to hold back tears.
Seeing her shaken condition, the at first stone cold face of the officer turns soft with pity. She stamps Nikki's passport and passes it back to the mysterious woman without a word.
The mysterious woman nods a thank you at the officer as she puts her sunglasses back on. Holding her head up high, she takes her passport and boarding pass back and goes through with almost no luggage - just one black sling bag slung across her body.
The mysterious woman puts her documents into her black canvas sling bag and hurries to the designated gate for her flight. She is just in time to catch a leaving flight for London, her home. She reaches the gate in the nick of time to board the plane before the gate closes.
As the pilot announces that the plane will be taking off, the mysterious woman takes a peak into her sling bag, making sur
e she has what she needs. There it is, sitting snugly in the inside compartment of her sling bag is her own passport, the one she used to come into Malaysia just six hours earlier than Zach and Nikki.
The mysterious woman will be using her true identity, Brenda Whilst upon reaching London as though she has just been on a business meeting. And only having to move pass the E-passport gate in Heathrow, no immigration officer is going to check her passport for the stamp from Malaysia. About her face? That's all going to come off once she reaches Haethrow, even before she passes the immigration. No wonder Ada chose her. Without professional makeup skills like hers, no one could pull off such a stunt even if she was the best actress.
Furthermore, they promised her that if she followed through their plan, there will be no trail to trace things back to her as right this instance as the plane takes off, her name has been inserted into the immigration office's digital register of foreigners who just left Malaysia. Brenda, the mysterious woman closes her eyes in hope that everything will happen as it was promised to her two days ago.
TWO DAYS AGO
Peter Mall, a fat and sweaty sixty year old Caucasian with wild brown body hair all over him and a stench that repels even cockroaches slaps Brenda's naked butt cheeks as he humps the thirty one year old make-up artist. She hates him and the disgusting noises he is making but the small time movie director promised her that if she slept with him, he will give her a role in his next cheap film. A role is better than no role and maybe her appearance will gain the attention of some other directors.
Working as a makeup artist on set, Brenda is desperate for a role, just any role to start her dream career as an actress. She's been working on set for five years trying to gain opportunity but no one has ever given her a chance.
The animal of a man behind her finally is done with her and he falls onto the motel bed panting like an old bull. Brenda lays her head onto his man-boobs and pretends to have enjoyed the ordeal just as much, as she pops the question eagerly, "So Peter, what role am I going to take on?"
The man grunts as he laughs.
"Why are you laughing like that?" Brenda asks, raising her head.
"Do you know how many girls sleep with me for a role? If I were to give all of you a role, there will be more girls on set than there are ants in my sugar," he continues to laugh sarcastically.
"You promised me, you bastard!" Brenda spat angrily.
"Look at you, you're not actress material. I didn't point a gun at you. The only thing I offered you was my dick and you jumped at it like a slut," the sleazy director retaliated like a poisonous snake.
"Go to hell you fat fuck!" Brenda curses through her teeth as she grabs the porcelain ashtray from the bedside table and hammers it onto the director's forehead. He can die for all she cares.
The porcelain shatters as the man lets out a loud groan. He presses his palm over his forehead but blood still trickles down his face onto the dirty sheets. Brenda gets up from the bed and runs over for the empty beer bottle by the door. She is ready to kill this worthless piece of shit. While Brenda turns away, Peter reaches for his cellphone and calls for help. Lucky enough, his call goes through faster than Brenda can reach the beer bottle and he screams for help, "Help, she's going to kill me, help!"
Hearing that he has called for help, Brenda throws the beer bottle back onto the wooden floorboard and quickly put her clothes back on before fleeing the motel.
"Fuck, now that I didn't kill him, he's going to make sure that no one's ever going to give me a role," Brenda curses to herself as she waits for the train in the tube.
Just then her phone lets out a whistle. It's a message. Brenda removes her white phone from her jacket pocket and see's that it is a picture message that says, "I know what you just did to Peter."
She opens it in a panic and her phone is successfully installed with the embedded virus. Brenda has no idea who the untraceable sender is and her hands start to tremble with fear.
After merely five seconds, the phone in her hands starts to ring and the caller is herself - Brenda Whilst. Startled, Brenda does not know how to react for a few seconds before her fingers stumbles to answer the call from her own number.
"He-he-llo," she stutters into the phone, her heart beating ferociously, not knowing what to expect.
"Hello," her voice answers from the other side. It feels much creepier to talk to yourself than to meet a ghost.
"Peter is going to report to the police and you will get arrested for assault. He's going to crush your dream," her voice warns her, "I'll get rid of him if you do me a favor."
"Who the fuck are you? Why are you watching me?" Brenda asks, quickly looking around her.
"I'm your guardian angel. Don't believe me? You are going to get a call, it's your dream come true. Consider it a gift," her voice says to her and ends the call.
Brenda takes the phone away from her ear and stares at it blankly for a moment, wondering if the dose of heroine she injected to numb herself before having sex with that hideous lump of a human is playing tricks on her mind.
Before she can think any further, her phone rings and this time it's CJ calling. Everyone knows who CJ is in the movie industry. He is big time movie director Stan Jackson's right hand man. Brenda immediately answers the call.
"Hello -," Brenda says into the phone rigidly.
"Cut the crap. Audition 4:00pm this Thursday at Stan's office. Don' be late," CJ rudely interrupts.
"Wait, wait. Did he see the video I sent you?" Brenda asks before CJ can end the call.
"I deleted that shit ages ago. I don't even know how he knows your name," CJ crudely replies.
"What role am I auditioning for?" Brenda manages to ask.
"Can't believe he's casting you for the lead lady in Hero Returns. Just don't be late!" CJ yells into the phone and ends the call.
Right now CJ can be as mean or rude as he likes and it is not going to offend Brenda one bit. In fact, she is so ecstatic now nothing can bring her down. This is no joke. Hero Returns is the most anticipated blockbuster and millions of people are dying to be in it.
While she jumps in joy on the platform, her phone rings again. This time it's Brenda Whilst and immediately goosebumps form on her skin. Brenda slides the screen and answers the call.
"Happy with my little gift?" her own voice asks in a teasing tone.
"What do you want from me?" Brenda asks without hesitation.
"I know you are capable to kill for a role but I won't ask you to do that. Just act for me and I will secure the role for you," her voice replies.
"Be specific on what I have to do," Brenda demands, determined to take that role as the leading lady.
"I need you to fly to Malaysia and pretend to be another woman so that we can switch her off to us," her voice explains.
"That's kidnapping!" Brenda shouts in a whisper into the phone.
"Think of it as borrowing. We only need her for a matter of days and she'll be free again.
"That's fucking illegal. If I get caught I can be in deeper shit than this," Brenda reasons.
"If you follow through all the instructions, nothing will ever trace back to you. Just remember, I gave you an audition, not a role. If you reject my offer, the role cancels off with it. You're back to square one with an assault charge on your back. Your already pathetic life will be ruined. This is your only chance to redeem your dignity and dreams," her voice reasons back to her calmly.
"If I help you, you must promise to take care of that fuck shit asshole Peter," Brenda bargains.
"Consider it done. So do you agree to take on the task?" her own voice asks.
"Hell yes," Brenda agrees smugly. She's been in hell long enough to do anything to get her goal achieved.
"Perfect. There is an envelope in your apartment. Follow the instructions and your life will never be the same again," her voice says in a congratulating tone.
"What if things go haywire and I get exposed?" Brenda asks.
"You must only succeed. But
we have organized everything so well for you there is no way you can fail. Open the envelope and you will understand," her own voice explains and the call ends.
Chapter 28
Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 3:15 a.m.
After hours of interrogation like statement recording with the same question thrown at him over and over again, finally Zach is free to leave the police station. Instead of believing Zach and looking for Nikki, the police have assumed him a suspect of domestic abuse. However, without solid proof and since the victim is no where to be found, and with the hotel not pressing any charges, the police will just have to let him go.
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