TWENTY-FOUR

SOMEWHERE IN YELLOWLEAF

Meanwhile, in the deep forests of Yellowleaf, a couple had gone out for a drive. Since their marriage was on the rocks, they figured they needed to go out and enjoy nature and try to go down memory lane. It was one of the proposals from their counselor who were assisting them to rediscover themselves. Some days were good, and other days were bad. Their feelings confused them sometimes, especially the wife.

It pained her how the same heart of hers had the power to extremely love and to extremely hate the same man. On some days, she woke up believing that she could not do without him, and on some days, she woke up believing him to be the greatest error of her life. She hated her inability to make decisions. On that day, she was feeling good. She was happy. He wasn't that bad, after all. She wished to have that feeling for ever.

After parking their car at the side of the road, they walked hand in hand and tried to go back to the day that they met. He told her what he had loved most about her. She told him what she loved about him. They each spoke about where they thought they had gone wrong. They pointed out to each other where the other person had lost it.

They hoped they could give their marriage another chance. At first the woman would not believe it, but after a long walk deep into the woods, away from the noise of the city, with only the chirping of birds and the whistling leaves, she became calm. She started to trust herself once more. She felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. She felt it was possible to give the marriage another shot. She told herself that she was going to hold on to the divorce papers and give the man another chance. The last chance.

They continued walking deep into the forest. The tree leaves calmly danced in the wind, and the dry leaves rustled nicely under their feet. What an experience. She saw a huge rock and sat on it. Her husband sat next to her, and took her hand in his. He did not have to say anything. It was enough that he was there. It was enough that they were together. They enjoyed each other's presence in total silence. after a long time, the woman spoke…

"Let's go back now, or else we will get lost", the woman said.

"Anything you say, my queen," the man responded.

He woman laughed and stated to run around playfully. In response, the man ran after her, laughing.

"Hide and seek, let's play hide and seek", she said.

"OK you go first!" the man said.

The woman giggled and ran a few steps away.

"Three, two one…ready or not, here I come!" said the man. And he started to search for her. Then he broke out laughing. "Honey you can't hide! Look at you! I found you in less than a second! Let me show you how it's done."

The man hugged his wife and said, "my turn."

The woman closed her eyes and waited. Later she called out, "three, two, one.,….ready or not, here I come!" and she opened her eyes. There was no sign of her husband anywhere.

"Where are you!" she called out with a giggle.

She kept searching, from one tree to the other, but she did not see him. She searched behind the bushes and rocks, but still there was nothing. Then she saw the tip of a black shoe and smiled to herself.

"There you are!!" she said as she walked towards the shoe, yet the shoe remained in its place, without moving an inch.

"Give up now, I have seen you," she spoke out and as she got closer, she realised something…the shoe was not even her husband's! No; he owned no such shoes! Who was it? Who was there?

"Honey!" she called out, but no one responded. Slowly she proceeded to go towards the shoe. Was someone wearing that shoe, or it was just dumped there? How come it did not look old? It looked good, as if it was new! So...who left it there? Who left that shoe?

The woman looked around and picked a thick stick for self defense, just in case. She proceeded to move towards that shoe and…in front of her was the most horrifying scene of her life. What? A man? A dead man! His whole body was swollen, and huge flies buzzed about him. The lady let out a sharp scream, echoing throughout the mountainous forest.

Her husband came out of his hiding place, running. He saw for himself the dead body. He scanned around the place and saw car tire prints, meaning that there had been a car. The dead man was badly bruised, it looked like he had been beaten a lot before being shot.

"It looks like he has been dead for days," the man commented, talking more to himself than to his crying wife. He protectively held his wife's hand and pulled her aside, away from the corpse.

"Call the police! Call the police now!" the woman wailed.

"Wait honey. We might have just gotten ourselves twenty million dollars! Imagine what we can do with twenty million dollars!" the man told his wife.

"What twenty million dollars? Just call the police, please!" the woman wanted to get away from the horrendous scene.

The man calmed his wife down as he started to remind her of the trending news. Doctor Dylan de Milo was missing, and chances were high that the body before them was his. It was impossible for them to tell whether the man lying before them was indeed Dylan de Milo, because his face, and whole body, was seriously swollen.

His head was damaged by the bullet wounds. The man moved around and looked. One thing was certain, it was a body of a young man. The man looked at the corpse's swollen foot. One of his shoes was still on, and the other one lay on the ground near him. There was a foul smell around the place, and the number of flies seemed to continue increasing with each passing second.

"This is Dylan de Milo", the man said with certainty. "We just got ourselves twenty million dollars" the man was happy. Twenty million dollars! Who would not want to get that much money?

"It's me who found him. The twenty million dollars is mine," the woman said.

The man looked at his wife in shock. He could not believe that she was saying what she was saying.

"Honey we can share the money", he said in a pleading voice.

"Yes we can, but it's me who gets to decide who gets what. I can't give you half of it, but I can give you some. You should be grateful that I'm willing to give you something. You haven't treated me well throughout our marriage." The woman's voice was beginning to sound hurt. The man did not like it.

"Honey", he sighed. "I thought we were over that? I thought we were moving on?"

"Yes we are, but still the money remains mine", the woman said and she folded her hands on her chest.

They were both silent, then the man asked, "Should I make the call now?"

"No!" the woman snapped. "I will make the call to the police! I saw him first!"

"But we need to be careful. Remember many people also wish to get the twenty million dollars. So we need to make sure that the police do not cheat us out of the reward." The man sounded serious.

The woman thought for a while and said, "I wish we had doctor Roderick de Milo's number, so that we make the call straight to him"

"Or", the man said "we can say give us the reward first and then we lead you to the body."

"The police can force us to show them the body." The woman was in deep thought. "Why don't we call and ask for Roderick or Shimmer's number?" The woman insisted.

"Honey," her husband tried to reason with her. "The police wont just give away the de Milos' numbers. Have you forgotten who they are? It's impossible for an officer to just give away their numbers. Who knows, maybe the officers don't even have their numbers."

The woman pulled out her phone and started to search for the news online. The network was not too good, but she managed to find an article with detective Harris' number. Silently, she dialed it.

"Detective Harris speaking, how may I help you?" a male voice came through.

"Detective," the woman's voice was full of fear. "I know where the de Milos' son is. But I want the reward first."

"Wait! Hold on….ok, talk to me now. May I have your full name please? And where are you calling from?" the detective asked.

"I…I will need the reward first, detective."

"I understand. The de Milos are trustworthy people. They will surely give you the money. But for the sake of progress, can you tell me where their son is."

"I…I am looking at his body right now." the woman stated.

There was a brief silence from the other end of the line, followed by, "his body? Is he not alive?"

"He is dead, detective."

"Tell me where the body is."

"Yes detective. If you are in Yelloleaf, take the road that passes by the citrus farm, and…"