by V S Vashist
Jake took a deep breath, "Let's have a bargain. You tell me the third story and I will help you in solving the first case."
Uncle Phil looked at Jake with surprise. He took few moments to compose himself.
"There is nothing to be solved," Uncle Phil said trying to avoid any eye contact.
"OK...what if I tell you that you are Titus Barker in the story and the very reason you are here is to solve that case," Jake said calmly but Uncle Phil lost his composure. His face turned pale and sweat drops started to glisten on his forehead.
Marsha and Thomas looked at each other.
"I thought we were here for the marriage," Thomas said in a low voice.
"Yes. That's what was mentioned on the card," Marsha replied back.
Uncle Phil ignored them and kept looking at Jake who had a faint smile on his face.
"You really are up-to something," Uncle Phil said in a frail voice.
"I sure am but I will need the third story before I could share anything with you," Jake replied.
"What's happening?" Marsha asked with confusion.
"Nothing," Uncle Phil said immediately. "It's a deal, but I don't want a scene here. I am not going to give you any names. You have to find out the real names by yourself." He said and held out his hand.
Jake pressed it firmly. "You have my word."
With that, Uncle Phil got up and left the room. Jake did not react to it and started eating again. Marsha and Thomas kept staring at him but he ignored them completely. After ten minutes or so, they gave up and left. Jake looked at them and then gave a smile.
"They are not getting any sleep tonight," he said triumphantly and got up.
Chapter 5
The dinner ended at around half past nine and everyone left for their rooms. Breakfast was scheduled for seven in the morning. Jake knew he had a long day ahead of him. His outlook towards Uncle Phil had changed completely and he had started to like him a bit now. He knocked at the door while thinking about the events of the day.
"It's open," Kiara shouted from the bathroom.
Jake pushed the door when the thought of spending a night on the couch dawned upon him.
"What's that?" he said and looked at Kiara's face that was covered under a face pack.
"I am the maid of honor. Need to look more….feminine," she replied back.
Jake smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean to say that. It is just that I’ve never seen you like that before."
"It's fine. Just pulling your leg," she said, "What time is it?"
"What?" Jake said, "Oh..it's quarter to ten."
"Ok..Let me get this off. The bottle said to keep it on for fifteen minutes," she said and walked inside the bathroom.
"Where are my bags?" Jake asked while taking off his Jacket.
"Left side of the cupboard," Kiara said while coming out of the bathroom.
Jake walked to the cupboard, "Got it."
"So, how was the dinner? My parents said something about your deal with Uncle Phil," Kiara asked while wiping water off her face.
"Uncle Phil and I are on an exciting journey tomorrow. Let me get changed first," Jake said while pushing open the bathroom door. He cursed Kiara's parents. He did not want to tell her anything. She was going to either give her opinion or, even worse, she would like to be a part of it. This was the only way he could have survived the next day and he wanted to do it alone. He stayed in the bathroom for couple of more minutes before coming out.
"So, what's wrong with Samantha?" he asked trying to change the topic.
"What?" Kiara looked at him. Even she was not in a mood to discuss that with him.
"Is she getting cold feet?" Jake smirked.
"No," Kiara said immediately.
"So, is Casey getting cold feet?" Jake asked while sitting on the couch.
"No one is getting cold feet," Kiara said firmly.
But Jake was not the one to budge. He knew if he stopped she would start asking about Uncle Phil.
"Come on. You think I don't know why you rushed out of the bar or why her mother was sad?" Jake threw his arms in air.
"You very well know why I don't want to discuss this," Kiara said, "And, also I know that you want to discuss this so that I don't ask about Uncle Phil."
"What?" Jake gave a nervous smile, "And you were saying that I am being paranoid."
"Jake carter," Kiara said and walked to him. "I know you more than anyone. I saw you looking at everyone carefully and even Dad said that you showed interest in all the stories that Uncle Andrew and Uncle Joseph told you. How come you were complaining about Uncle Phil the whole time but you liked the stories told by Uncle Joseph, Uncle Andrew and my Dad; and now suddenly you are interested in Uncle Phil's stories too? You are definitely up-to something."
Jake knew his act was up. He got up and walked to the other end of the room. He kept staring out the window for some time.
"Okay. Then it's a deal," he said while turning around.
"What deal?" Kiara's eyes widened.
"I won't ask you about Samantha and you won't grill me about Uncle Phil," he said and held his hand out.
Kiara pushed his hand away, "Or, we do the opposite. You tell me your story and I tell you everything that you want to know."
"Only if you tell me first," Jake wanted to have an upper hand in this game of wits.
"Okay. I don't have an issue with it," Kiara said nonchalantly.
"Really,"
"Don't be surprised. There is nothing to it. We are attending a wedding, for God's sake. We are not in the middle of a crime scene," Kiara said, "Now, sit down."
Jake nodded and sat opposite to her on the bed.
"Janine is Samantha's step-mother," Kiara said.
"Yeah, Uncle Joseph told me. Her mother died during her birth," Jake said at once.
"Actually, she died of birth complications. She was there for around a week post her birth," Kiara said.
Jake nodded.
"Now, during that week, her mother wrote a bunch of letters to her. Just in case if she did not survive then her daughter could read them and remember her. They were mostly about her feelings towards Samantha during the pregnancy and also how she felt holding her in the arms for the first time,"
"Wow! That's heavy," Jake said with a smile.
"For you…Yes. For Samantha, that's a treasure. Her father married Janine when she was five. She never accepted Janine as her mother. However, Janine cared for her more than any parent would. She even decided not to have a kid of her own. For Janine, Samantha is her world. As Samantha grew up, she also realized this and now even she loves her as much as she can."
"However, not as much as she loves her biological mother?" Jake asked.
Kiara nodded, "The marriage has made her even more vulnerable. She is missing her mother. Samantha decided to wear her mother's wedding gown. It was with her maternal grandmother. When she went to take it, they found another letter in it. It seems her mother had put the letter inside when she handed over the gown to Samantha's grandmother. It was one of her wishes. No one understood it that time. The letter says about how she is looking at her from the skies and how beautiful she will look in the gown. I will spare you with the details, but basically it is telling her all the things she would like Samantha to do in her wedding. And, most of those things were what Samantha also wanted as a kid. Now she understands why everyone says that her nature is like her mother's. She is bit under the weather because of that and with the wedding day tomorrow, she is getting even more emotional."
"Even Janine is getting emotional because of that," Jake said thoughtfully.
"Yes, so that's the big secret that I was holding,"
"Well I shouldn't have entered into a deal with you," Jake said ruefully.
"You can't get away now," Kiara said and threw a cushion at him.
"But, it's getting late. Don't you want to have your beauty sleep?" Jake teased her and got a punch on his shoulder in return.
“Ok...Ok," he said, rubbing h
is arm, "Even my case is much simpler than what you think."
"Still I want to listen," Kiara said with fake anger.
"Uncle Phil misses his wife. Now, he doesn't want to speak about that lest he loses his macho image. So, he catches anyone who can't run away from him and creates this façade of sharing unsolved cases," Jake said thoughtfully.
"The whole town knows that. All of us have heard the stories a hundred times," Kiara said casually, "I thought you had found something new."
"I thought he wanted to speak more about it and since he got sentimental, I asked him to tell me the third story if it makes him happy," Jake said. "He resisted initially but I insisted and that's when your parents thought something was going on. Finally, he agreed and left."
Kiara covered her face in her palms for a moment.
"You understand that there is no third story," Kiara said while shaking her head in disbelief.
"What?"
"He just wants to tell the second story about his wife and get it off his chest. To make people listen to that, he tricks them into the first story at the pretext of an unsolved mystery. Now that he has told you the second story, his motive is achieved. He doesn't have to tell you another story."
Jake hit his head with the pillow, "That's why he was against it. Now, I can't ask him to not tell the story. The poor man will feel bad and if he tells me the story, I don't know how stupid it will be. He has to think of something tonight."
"That's why I stay around you during the cases. You never take hints," Kiara said and got up. Suddenly, she remembered something. "You said you were going to help him with the first case, but it's not a real case. Right?"
Jake took a deep breath. He had hoped that Kiara's parents had not told that part to her. But, now there was no other way out, but to tell her what he was thinking.
"I am not sure, but I believe the first case is about him getting shot. I guess, he doesn't know who did it," Jake said.
"What? That doesn't make any sense," Kiara replied immediately.
"Yeah, it was a wild guess but his expression said that I was right and I also believe that he suspects that the person who shot him is here. One of the suspects is definitely Uncle Andrew. Otherwise, who invites his partner whom he left twenty years ago for a rehearsal dinner? He isn't even that close to the family,"
"That's something if it is true. But, I still believe you are overthinking this," Kiara said.
"Maybe, we will get to know tomorrow," Jake got up and started making bed for him.
"What do you think you are doing?" Kiara asked in a soft voice.
"We need to get up early tomorrow," Jake replied, knowing where the conversation was heading.
Kiara gave him an angry look.
Jake looked at her and took a deep breath.
"Ok. I will shift to the couch. Goodnight," he said and took the pillow and blanket to the couch.
"And don't snore too much," Kiara warned.
"I don't snore," Jake said while making a snoring sound.
"Goodnight," Kiara laughed.
The rehearsal dinner had gone as planned and Kiara hoped that there wouldn’t be any issues tomorrow. Jake was already busy with his make believe cases. So, she did not have to spend any energy on him either. With that, she turned off the light and closed her eyes.
The next morning started early for Jake. By the time Kiara came out of the bed, he had already left. He reached the dining hall before anyone and kept looking at his watch. He had planned to scan each of the invitees. If the real culprit was amongst those who came for breakfast, his work was going to be easy. Otherwise he had to do the same activity at the reception post the wedding. Of course, he was working on the assumption that all the people Uncle Phil suspected were there.
He took his breakfast to the corner table from where he could keep an eye at the entrance. The first one to come was groom and his parents. He pretended to be busy with his breakfast, lest they come and join him. He didn't want any interruption. Slowly, everyone started to come. He pulled one of the napkins and took out a pen. He wrote Andrew's name at the top. This kept going on for fifteen minutes, when Uncle Phil entered. He looked around and gave a smile as soon as he saw Jake. He almost came running to him.
Jake hid the napkin in his jacket pocket.
"Are you listing down names of the suspects?" he asked hurriedly.
"I may be. You don't want to tell me the names. So, I have to do the work," Jake said.
"It's just that even I am not sure. I don't want to tell names just like that," Uncle Phil said while raising his shoulders.
"Tell me one thing," Jake said while looking around, "I understand that it happened here and you are Titus Barker since you are the one who got shot. Uncle Andrew is the elder son, James. He must have come late that night on his shift, making you suspicious, but he had an alibi as he saw all the shows during the night as per your story. I also believe there is more than one suspect that could be the younger son Ryan based on the assumption that you could have met these guys while on your way to here. So, they knew that you were coming here. What I don't understand is why you were here at the first place."
By now, Uncle Phil was breathing heavily. It was as if his deepest secret was out.
"How do you know so much?" he said while wiping the sweat off his face.
"Well, it's not that hard to decipher actually. This place is overlooking the hills. The town is far off, as per your story. Now when I got bored at the ceremony yesterday and even games on my phone were not helping, I searched for the history of the resort. I found easily that it was built by a Mexican immigrant family. So you changed Mexico to Texas and it was further confirmed by the name of the immigrant - Roberto Leon which you conveniently changed to more American name of Noel Robert."
"Who are you?" Uncle Phil asked in a low voice.
"The same guy you made fun of yesterday," Jake said and took a deep breath, "See, I hate marriages. I just need something to get through the day. If the person you believe shot you is actually here, you need to help me in finding that person. You have to tell me what happened that night."
Uncle Phil shook his head. By now, he knew that after so many years of telling the story he had finally found his match. He looked around one more time and then pulled his chair near to Jake's.
"We were short on force those days. Due to lack of personnel, we were also taking care of this area. Besides, there was nothing much to take care of. As you would have seen, there is nothing in the vicinity. Generally, no cases used to happen in this area. We would come here once in a month just to ensure that the land was not being used for any illegal purpose. Andrew used to accompany me most of the time. He had joined the force around six months after me. He was my junior at the school and was known to be bit of a loose cannon,"
"What does that mean?" Jake asked.
"Well, he never followed any rules even during school or college. And, now he was in the force. So, he had power as well as legal motive to do anything. That's why I always kept an eye on him. He would usually come late and sometimes won't even show up. Those days we didn't have any cell phones, so it was difficult to find out about his whereabouts. That's why sometimes I had to do the patrol alone. The same thing happened that day."
Uncle Phil stopped for a moment as Byron Hyde entered the room. Jake noticed that and gestured Uncle Phil to continue.
"This land is owned by a Reed family from Washington. There used to be a small cottage at the same place where this resort is situated now. A caretaker used to live here. When the caretaker died and the Reed family was looking for a replacement, Roberto Leon happened to be in the town. Ryan Reed is indeed the younger son. Roberto met him and convinced him that he could be a good caretaker. Ryan got him the job. This land is a disputed land. The Reed do not have any necessary paperwork and when Roberto came to know about it he thought of capturing the land as he was sure that he may get some compensation for keeping the secret a secret. The family threatened him, but he didn't leav
e, so they thought of developing the land - another way to kick him out. That's when the idea of building the resort came to their mind."
"But, Roberto's family is the owner of the resort now. So something went wrong with Reed family's plan?"
"Yes. I will come to that later. That day, I was on a regular patrol when I heard some commotion. It was happening on the back side, near the pond. I rushed there to see what was happening. Ryan was holding Roberto at gun point. The same morning Roberto had threatened them with a lawsuit and it didn't take me much time to understand Ryan's intentions. I reached there just in time. As he was about to pull the trigger, I jumped at him. I was about a second late and could not stop the shot. However, instead of hitting Roberto the bullet hit me in my hip. Before losing consciousness, I saw Roberto fainting and Ryan disappearing in the woods. However, when I regained consciousness, I was surprised to know that it was Andrew who had brought me to the hospital. He had reached at the same time when I had confronted Ryan. He was hiding near the pond too and had fired at Ryan to save me."
With that, Uncle Phil looked at his watch. Half of the guests were already there and there was not much time before they were going to have company for breakfast at their table.
"Ryan was caught the next day and the gun was recovered from it. However, all the bullets were intact and even the forensics confirmed that there was no gunpowder residue in the gun, meaning no shots were fired from it. On the other hand, Andrew's gun was missing a bullet, but it didn't match the one recovered from my body. He insisted that he must have missed the shot but no other bullet was found in the whole area. But, there was another thing…"
"What was it?"
"Andrew had a personal gun that matched the bullet in context. However, as per his account, he was not carrying it. He used to give it to his kids sometimes after emptying it and he had done the same. Now, I couldn't press any changes on him based on some hunch. So, I could never get hold of that gun."
"But you also suspect others. Why so?"
"Well, to be frank, over these years I have told this story several times in front of Andrew, but he never gave any reaction. Also, when I invited him for this marriage and even told him about the venue, he was more concerned about whether I will be fine being here. I still feel he is hiding something but my belief about him being the one behind this has been shaken a bit in recent years."
