Mystery: Missing Rita: (Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Suspense Thriller Mystery) (19 page)

“I will need everybody to please remain calm,” Detective Lohan said in an authoritative voice. Luckily for him a good number of people respected the badge and looked at him expectantly. He knew he had to act fast and looked around the room at the scared faces.

“Is it true, officer, is Rita Sutter alive?” a random person in the crowd asked.

“We have reason to believe that.”

“Is she in the room? In here with us?”

“We have reason to believe that as well,” Lohan answered again.

The previous chaos erupted a second time and before they could do or say anything else, the place was filled with uniformed police officers at both ends of the room.

“Please, please, I am going to need the lot of you to remain calm, we are going to take care of this situation,” Lohan said again.

“How on earth are you going to do that?”

“What your very dramatic narrator here did not tell you was that Rita Sutter was allergic to strawberries,” Lohan said and gave a signal to the guard who was standing on the door. He in turn gave way to different men who walked in with cartons of strawberries mounted on their shoulders and placed them at Lohan’s feet.

“So you are going to make each and every one of us eat the strawberries?”

“Not all of you, just a few.”

“That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard,” a voice from the crowd said and was followed with cheers that supported her comment.

“Then let me do my job so that you could be on your way,” Lohan said in a stern voice before regarding the crowd and taking a deep breath. The room was now silent as he ran his gaze through them and tried to think of criteria to carry out the exercise.

“This is what will happen,” he started to say. “I will call out random suspects who will come here and sample the strawberries. If you do not react, you walk out and let us carry on the experiment with everyone else.”

“How long is this going to take?” asked a different person in the crowd.

“As long as it takes.”

The room went into murmurs again and before Lohan could make another move he spotted a tall, slender woman rising from the crowd and walking straight to where he was standing.

She had a unique walking style that represented her unique personality and commanded the presence of the room. Everyone else went quiet as they watched her walk to the front and stand in front of everyone.

“Stop the shenanigans already,” she said and pulled off the wig that was securely fixed on her head. With it she pulled off the sunglasses too and gave everyone a blank stare.

“Here I am,” she announced.

Everyone in the room had a different reaction. Tracy ran to the front of the room and stopped in front of her to glare at her sister. Ryan collapsed as his children were beyond horrified. He placed a hand over their mouths.

“Rita Sutter,” Sam was right behind her in a minute. “You are under arrest for fraud.”

Sam went on to read her rights to her but Rita was not shaken, she loved the various dirty looks that were thrown her way as he was handcuffed and escorted outside by the uniformed men.

“You don’t have to all escort me to the station like I’m a terrorist or something,” Rita said sharply but still had a cold, sinister smile playing on her lips.

Tracy was right behind her as she was being escorted and couldn’t believe it. She was silent all along and got into the police car with her. The crowd of people who were left at the memorial had a lot to gossip about and Tracy spotted someone trying to revive Ryan.

“My dear sister, it has been a while,” Rita said and looked in Tracy’s direction. “You could not wait for my memorial to at least pass before you got underneath my man?”

“Now now, Rita, let us not forget, he was my man first.”

“Get over yourself, Tracy, that was decades ago,” Rita replied. “You really do know how to hold a grudge.”

“Let's talk about you and the predicament you have now found yourself in,” Tracy said and settled down in her seat. She loved how Rita had managed to still maintain her youth and how vibrant she looked now.

“What about it?You are facing some serious charges.”

“I know that.”

“Do you plan to fight it?”

“No, Tracy, I plan to go to jail and be raped for the rest of my days.”

Tracy let out a chuckle at the sarcasm and loved how composed Rita was. Her gut told her she was up to something but she could not see how she could possibly escape from a police van handcuffed and on her way to prison.

“I know what you were looking for, Tracy,” she said. “I know you were looking for the account information.”

“I was.”

“You can have it.”

“What do you want in return?” Tracy asked.

“Nothing much. I would like you to deliver a message for me and you can have what you want,” Rita answered.

All along the two police men were listening keenly to their conversation without saying a word. Sam adjusted his rear view mirror to see if they would exchange anything but both ladies did not speak to each other thereafter.

What neither Sam nor Lohan could see was the necklace that Rita handed over to her sister without knowing. She then winked at her before letting out a wide smile.

Lohan was fixated on the fact that they were carrying Tracy in the same van as Rita and spoke about it.

“Miss Evans, you will have to get out of the car.”

“I understand,” Tracy answered without much of an argument. She knew Lohan had given her enough passes already and did not want to get Sam in any trouble.

“You can drop me at that bus stop ahead and I will get a cab to the station later on, after I have changed out of these clothes.”

“I am looking forward to seeing you, little sister,” Rita said.

“I am sure you are,” Tracy said before stepping out of the car. “No-one else will visit you in prison anyway.”

They exchanged one last dirty look before Tracy shut the door behind her and watched as the police car disappeared into the distance. She was just about to hail a taxi to head back to her apartment but a van stopped right in front of her. A young man rolled down the driver’s window and gave her a look.

“Miss Evans.”

“Yes, do I know you?”

“I believe you have something of mine from Rita?” he said. “Hop in.”

Tracy did as he was asked with the necklace still in her hand. She sat in the backseat of the van and wondered who the person was but knew better than to ask questions.

“Let me see it,” the man went on to say. There were two different men in the car too who gave Tracy slight shivers and she did not bother to hesitate. She handed him the necklace and relaxed in her seat. The man parked the van at the side of the road and let out a smile after looking at what he had just been handed.

“They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” he said before giving a signal to the men with her in the back seat. He then began slowly driving off. He looked straight ahead as he addressed Tracy.

“The information you want is in the envelope that this nice man will hand over to you,” he said. “We will drop you at the next bus top where there is a ticket to Mexico and a new identity for you. You need to start a new life and with the money saved up, you should be comfortable.”

“What about Rita?”

“Don’t you worry about Rita, she always lands on her feet.”

Tracy did not know what to say to this but again thought of her life; there was nothing to hold her back and therefore no reason to stay. The prospect of starting over fresh was appealing and she couldn’t deny herself the chance.

“Thank you, Rita,” was all she managed to say as the van kept moving.

*****

Sam kept on driving once they dropped Tracy off and would look in his rear view mirror from time to time. He had a lot of questions for her but the wicked look apparent on her face gave him shivers. They were momentarily stuck in traffic. He threw a glance in Lohan’s direction who seemed calm.

Once traffic cleared, Sam set off again with his mind set on the task ahead. He was however blocked by a van that seemed to have stopped moving right in front of them.

“What is going on there?” he asked as he honked at them impatiently.

“Go check it out,” Lohan advised.

He got out of the driver’s seat and walked over to the van. There was a black man behind the wheel, who seemed to be struggling with starting the van.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he apologized. “My car won’t start, I took it to a different mechanic the other day who swore to me he knew what he was doing.”

The man struggled but only seemed to be making things worse. Smoke started coming out of the bonnet of his car and this made him even more confused.

“Oh, crap!!” he shouted and opened the car door.

Sam could not believe his bad luck. This was the last thing they needed at that particular moment on their way to the police station.

Sam went over to stand and look at the man struggling before a honk from Lohan alerted him that they were wasting time.

Open it,
he signaled and walked to the front of the car where the smoke was getting thicker. He looked at it and tried to pull and tug on a few things but that only made the smoke worse. Lohan honked again which made him more uncomfortable and before he knew it Logan was beside him.

“What is going on here?” he asked.

He took one look at the smoke, and looked at Sam and the strange man who was now holding up traffic, before shaking his head.

“Amateurs. Move out of the way, let me show you how to take care of this,” he said.

Sam knew his partner was simply bragging and was about to ask him a few questions before a call came through for him on his cell phone.

“Hello,” Sam said after seeing the call was from the station.

“Hello detective, is Lohan with you? I am trying to reach him but he is not answering his phone.”

“Yes, yes, he is right here.”

Sam held out the phone for Lohan who had rolled up his sleeves and was getting busy on the car.

“Who is it?”

“Station,” Sam answered. “He says you are not picking up your phone.”

“That is because my cell phone is in the car.”

Sam held the phone for Lohan and listened to him talk as he worked on the car at the same time. The look of worry that formed on his face made Sam feel nervous and he knew it had to be bad news.

“I was done questioning him but I did not sign any release form for him,” Lohan spoke angrily into the receiver. “I will be right there.”

Sam took the phone from his ear and watched as he went on to work.

“Is everything ok?” he asked in a concerned tone.

“They are telling me I signed for Dr. Mathews to be released from the prison.”

“Did you?”

“Of course not,” Lohan answered. “But they say that my signature is on the damn form. These rookies must have found a way to forge my signature.”

“Now why would the rookies forge your signature?”

“That is what I would like to know!” Lohan said.

He took a step back from the vehicle and was proud with the work he had done. The smoke was now clearing and he looked up at Sam and smiled proudly.

“That is the work of a pro, my friend!” he said. “Try starting the car, sir.”

The man got into the driver’s seat and was more than pleased when the car roared to life.

“Thank you!”

“Most welcome,” Lohan replied as he shut the hood of the van. “You might want to have it checked later. Whatever I have done is only a temporary solution.”

“I will sir, thank you again.”

They both watched as the man drove off smiling and Sam could feel the pride in his partner explode. They slowly walked back to their car but stopped in their tracks when they saw that the back seat was open.

“Where the hell is Rita?” Sam asked, worried. “Did you leave the door open?”

“Sam, do you think I’m a retard? I locked the doors, for Christ’s sake!”

Sam felt confused and immediately started scouting his vicinity.There was no sign of Rita anywhere and the multitude of honking horns directed their way did not make things easier.

“We have to move the car off the road,” Lohan said and signaled Sam to get into the car.

He did as he was asked though a look of fear was all over his face.

“She could not have gone far,” Lohan said. “Let’s just drive around, we might spot her.”

Lohan’s phone started ringing again and he chose to ignore it, simply because he feared the worst.

“Are you going to pick up?”

“No, and I suggest you do the same,” Lohan answered. “I’m sure it’s the boss asking about the good doctor.”

“Boy, aren’t we in trouble!”

“You think?” Lohan said.

Sam looked around the street but could not spot her; it was not so easy for him to keep an eye on the road and at the same time look for Rita.

“Let me call Ryan,” Lohan volunteered and dialed Ryan’s number on his cell phone. It rang but no-one answered.

“Let’s swing by his house,” Sam said as he took a left turn on the road. “I am hoping she at least stopped to say goodbye to her kids.”

He drive on to the house. Both were thinking the same thing but neither of them voiced it. The distance to the house that day seemed long compared to the urgency of the matter and Sam was there in well under five minutes. He pumped the brakes right in front of the house and stepped out without waiting for Lohan’s instruction. He raced to the front porch and rang the doorbell before looking at Lohan who was right behind him with a worried look on his face.

“Ryan Sutter!” he called. “This is Detective Sam. I need you to open the door.”

The only response was the silence in the house and he turned to Lohan who signaled him to go to the back door.

Sam rushed there after pulling out his gun and heard Lohan call out at the front of the house again. He waited for a response but there was silence again. He then decided to turn the doorknob and let himself in.

The kitchen looked empty. Sam looked around it and walked into the living room where he found his partner Lohan waiting for him.

“Nothing here,” Lohan said and pocketed his gun before signaling upstairs.