Chapter 7

All I see is Checkmate's eyes and his arms with scratch marks on them. His bitten nails and the way he's staring at me. Then the scene changes to when I first met him. He was shocked to see me, though I have never seen him before, or so I keep telling myself. Everything rapidly changes to when I lied about searching for Zach and his eyes became teary. Then, I see when he knew my name. He had said that he knows everyone's name in Upper Church Town. My focus changes from Checkmate to Zach.

I see Zach, from when I was 10. He was 14 and we had gone fishing to our lake. Inside our cabin, there were 3 rooms. One for mom and dad, one for me and Zach and the last one was the living room. At night, it used to be so chilly. Zach had given me all of his sheets because I was feeling so cold. If I had known that I only had four more years with him, I would have never taken all those sheets. In the morning when we had woken up, his nails were bitten and he had scratch marks all over his arms. No matter how cold that night was, the memory feels so warm.

The cabin, the sheets and Zach, all fade away and get replaced by the day Sarah got kidnapped. The number plate of the car is all I see, and I all I hear is Marsulti Nunoi Imeto, over and over again. I can't understand what my subconscious is trying to tell me. Suddenly, the car starts going in reverse, and just before it hits me, I wake up. Just like yesterday. I wake up covered in sweat. Then it hits me, Checkmate can't be fired. If the name of his boss was a warning in disguise, it's safe to assume he had no boss. He's the head of the Altruism Union, and the only reason that the Altruism Union donates and volunteers for stuff is to make sure no one will get on their tail. Hence, the name. So, to find Sarah, and possibly Zach, all I need to do is confront Checkmate.

Since he won't give their location away, I'll have to pay attention to his words. Often, he's hidden secrets inside them. Just in case this is all a distraction, I will be simultaneously investigating things based on my interrogation with another one of the workers at the rent-a-bike.

And hopefully, all of this doesn't get me killed.

I take a shower and go downstairs. Mom is eating her cereal and dad is reading the newspaper. I slowly tiptoe to the kitchen, hoping not to be interrogated by mom and dad on yesterday's events. The moment I get to the cereal drawer, mom says, "Chris, instead of taking that to your room, come and sit with us."

"Do I have to?" I ask

"Yes. We have something we want to discuss." dad replies.

"If it's about yesterday, I'm not telling you anything." I say, and make my way towards the dining table.

I keep my cereal on the table start to eat.

"If you want to keep secrets, go ahead and keep them. We just want say that we respect what you're doing, however dangerous it may be." Mom says.

"Yes. So, if you want to go investigate or whatever, you can go. We won't stop you." Dad says.

I raise one eyebrow and say, "Really? I'll only go out when I want to. And, I'll be making sure that none of you follow me, or any of your employees."

"Yes. All that is guaranteed." Dad says.

I eye them suspiciously, and go upstairs. I change into a white hooded sweatshirt and jeans. I wear my sneakers, pull up a red and black jacket and climb out the window. I'm on the 3rd story of a building so, I knew that when I was younger that I would need a tree or a ladder beside my room so I could sneak out. Luckily, when I told this to Zach, he loved the idea. So, a ladder was placed beside the window in our rooms. That way we would go into each other's rooms when we were not allowed to.

I climb down the ladder and run out, passing Dave, the guard of Holloway mansion. He smiles at me and I start to walk to Diana's house.

When I go through the tall, thick gates of her house, Gaufre Manor, (her father named it after her love for waffles!), her Samoyed dog, Aura, comes and jumps onto me. I play with her for sometime, and then run towards the door, Aura chasing me. I ring the bell, but Diana doesn't open it. She always opens it the minute I ring the bell. I ring the bell once two more times, but she doesn't open it. Maybe it's because I didn't tell her I was coming? It's a Sunday, maybe her parents are home, though they normally go to their retreat in Vegas. But they weren't home yesterday, they can't be home today.

I look at Aura, and feel that something's wrong. I know how Diana is about Aura, she's only allowed to go out to do her business, and come back immediately. Diana is with Aura the whole time to make sure nothing happens to her precious dog. Then Diana takes her inside to the treadmill, where Aura runs at the speed of 25 miles per hour for 2 hours. After that, Diana takes her to eat food or gives her a treat. But, none of that matters right now, I just found Aura outside unsupervised. That is impossible unless something happens to Diana.

All of a sudden, Aura starts barking at the door. It's open. There has had to be a break in. I immediately take my phone out and call Conner. It rings for a minute, and he finally picks up.

"Why'd you call me so early in the morning? You're cutting into my Sunday sleep time." he says.

"It's 11:30 a.m." I reply.

"I like to sleep till 1 p.m. on Sundays. You know that. Besides, can't you just message like a normal person?"

"Cause you wouldn't see the message till 1 p.m. Meet me at Gaufre Manor ASAP. I suspect there's been a break in."

"What makes you think that?"

"The door is open." I reply.

"Diana must have forgotten to close it." he says.

"I rang the bell 3 times and she didn't come. Aura was roaming around unsupervised in the garden. You know how Diana is about Aura."

"Yeah, you're right to suspect. I'll be there in 10 minutes." He says.

I don't think he was sleeping. He sounded to fresh. It's not the voice of someone who just woke up. He was probably reading. On Sundays, he doesn't always sleep till 1 p.m. He's only set this time cause he doesn't want to be disturbed. Of course his parents think he sleeps, but I know he doesn't.

After what feels like a whole hour, I see him coming in. Aura runs to him and jumps over him to start licking him. Conner tries his best to push her off, and finally does. Then he comes over to the door and we go in. The house is a mess. There are broken glass bits here and there, the huge mirror is cracked, the wooden table in the corner is broken to bits, the stairs are covered in dust and a bit of red stuff. I'm hoping it's not blood. Before following the trail of red stuff, me and Conner look around to see if we've missed anything. I bend down and pick up a small, button sized camera. A camera this small can only be used for spying. I show it to Conner.

"So someone was spying on us the whole time?" He asks.

"I guess so." I reply, and shove it into the pocket of my black jacket. I start going up the stairs. Conner follows me.

The red stuff trail goes cold when we reach the 2nd floor. We start to look around for clues. This part of the manor looks untouched. No one could have come here. If they did, some clue would have been left behind. This place is scrubbed clean of them.

"What if all that blood is a red herring?" Conner asks.

"Don't call it blood. But it must be a red herring." I reply.

We go back downstairs and see Diana lying on the ground, her eyes closed. She seems to be breathing. While Conner calls the paramedics, I look around. It's like no one broke in. Even the red stuff is gone. How the heck did these people manage to clean everything so fast. We were on the stairs. All the evidence is gone, except the camera.

I hear the lady Conner is speaking to say, "Yes sir, the paramedics will be arriving shortly." He cuts the call and turns to me.

"They're coming." he says.

"Yes. Well, if they ask anything about what happened, we entered the house and found her like this. She must have fainted or walked into the door or something." I tell him.

I start to give her first aid. As I check Diana's pulse, Aura starts licking her face. Her pulse feels normal. I move on to check her breathing, which is normal. But it looks like she has a head injury. So, I place her head in line with her spine, remembering what I had learned about head injuries in first aid.

Soon, the paramedics arrive. They come in and one of them asks, "Isn't this Anthony Golding's daughter?" He must be one of her dad's supporters.

"Yes." Conner replies.

"Any idea how this happened?" One female paramedic asks.

"We came and found her like this. We think she fainted or walked into the door. Her pulse and breathing is normal. Though I suspect she's a got a head injury." I reply.

"You're right in doing so. She's got a contusion by what I can tell. We need to take her to the hospital to do a few more tests." The lady says. The male paramedic runs to the ambulance and gets a stretcher out. I do hope the media doesn't come. Being the daughter of such a powerful politician, it's very possible that she'll make the headlines tomorrow.

Just before taking Diana to the hospital, the male paramedic asks me about her parents. I tell him that they had gone out for brunch and that I would inform them about what has happened.

I go inside with Conner and tell him about everything I've discovered.

"So your plan is to confront Checkmate? You know what happened to Agatha Oddlow when she confronted Arthur Fitzwilliam about the stolen paintings." Conner says.

"I know. I'm paying attention to his words. And in case that doesn't work, I'm as it is interrogating another worker today." I tell him.

"Doesn't it occur to you that if he's lied to you so many times, he's just gonna lie again."

"I've thought about that too. If we want to know whether he's lying or not, we should go to the rent-a-bike wearing the disguises we were wearing on Friday. He had seen us, hadn't he? If he attacks us, he's lying. If he doesn't, he's telling the truth. That's the main reason I came here. For access to Diana's secret closet." I say.

"Yes. We can't go to closet right now, we don't have Diana's fingerprints, but we can go to the rent-a-bike." Conner replies.

"Not we. Me. I'm already on their radar, I don't want you come on it too."

"I don't care. Whatever happened to Diana done by the Altruism Union. All she knew was that Sarah's missing and that they're planning a bug extermination. I don't want anything to happen to me, but, if something does happen, it should happen because I know something. Diana knew practically nothing! Let's face it Chris. They're coming for us no matter what. Instead of going in vain, we can make a difference."

"Can't argue with that. Let's go." I say, and start going towards the door. But just then, Conner's phone starts ringing.

"Hello, who is it?....Oh... Okay.... I see.....Never...You're lying.....WHAT DO YOU MEAN REAL PARAMEDICS?! 911 is a closed line..... liar... give me one reason to trust you.... We're not walking into your stupid trap... the camera? We already took care of it.... No you can't.... liar. You're a big fat liar..... You don't have him..... You're tracing this call, aren't you.... Well then, BYE!" Conner says and cuts the call.