Chapter 5 - The Eyes of Truth are watching

Bianca though could not sleep, and was tossing and turning the entire night. She went to the kitchen and made herself a favorite sleeping aid remedy of her mom's, which was to boil milk with honey and grate some banana in and then just drink and enjoy while waiting for the soothing effect of the mixture to sink in, and send off to lovely deep sleep, but not even that seem to worked for that night. She then went and sat at the bay window in the sun room they had and was staring out into the night when her eye caught something she had not noticed a moment earlier. There on a bench, on the pavement near a street light, was a man sitting down. He looked up at Bianca and was grinning at her as he tipped his bowler hat mockingly in greeting her and continued to just sit and stare at her. In a flash, she jumped from the bay window and ran to Dana's bedroom to wake her up. Dana not being able to sleep was already awake and Bianca grabbed her by the hand and almost yanked her out bed, with Dana swearing at her and asking her what in the name of all things sane was going on. As they raced out the door in their pyjamas with Bianca having her gun in one hand and Dana in the other, Bianca explained hurriedly to her that she just seen the strange stocky man with the rain coat and bowler hat and that she was sorry for not believing Dana and that they had to get him before he disappeared again. Dana in shock ran with her down the stairs ignoring the elevator and when they reached the outside area of their apartment building, out of breath they found no one, the previously occupied bench was empty and the street was filled with dead silence except for the far away sound of what must have been an ambulance or police car. Disappointed and frustrated they both went inside again, passing the doorman who was trembling at the sight of them with Bianca holding a gun and just about looked like he was going to faint, until Bianca explained the story of why they were there and what happened to him. His courage then found him again and he swore that he would be extra vigilant from that night in keeping them both safe and alerting management to the incident as well to have security brought in. Both Dana and Bianca thanked him and said goodnight. Back in their apartment, in shock and certainly not able to sleep at all now, after what just happened, they both sat huddled against each other, in deep thought, as to what this meant, who this strange man was, and why he was stalking them.

Closing the door to his bedroom suite at the Indomnia Sun and Towers hotel room, the man with the bowler hat laughed hysterically, as he replayed the night's event over in his head. Yes, he was quite proud of how things were progressing and the fact that he had Dana and her partner at the point of almost hysteria made him laugh a deep and disturbingly hysterical laugh. Realizing that other hotel guests could hear him, he stopped and walked over to the liquor cabinet to pour himself a well deserved glass of cognac. He was absolutely certain now that things were going as planned as he knew now that it was time to strike, as the girls would be so easy to get to, now that their common sense and logic was failing them. He picked up the phone and made a phone call. The voice on the other side answered:"Yes? What is it?". He replied:"Evening Sir, it's me, all is going very smoothly and according to their plan, I have the girls in such a sorry state of distress that the next move will be almost too easy to execute, I will keep you updated once it is complete."The other voice on the phone line said:"Very good, be quick, a clean operation and remember they are not willing to accept failure on this, good night".

Wincing as he put the phone down, he nodded subconsciously to himself in agreement, that yes they were not willing for him to fail in this important part of the mission at all.| Letting out a deep sigh, he went off to his bathroom to bath and soak in the hot tub. He had an early morning tomorrow and needed to get rest.

The morning did not bring Dana and Bianca any relief. They sauntered to their lounge exhausted and stressed and sat down to just coffee with no urge to eat anything never mind breakfast. Dana started:"So Bia, now that we have established that the creepy man with the bowler hat is very real ….what now? We have no idea where he's from, what he wants from us and why he is stalking us. Having absolutely no answer to give Dana but a shrug of her shoulders, Bianca then finally said:" We need to get this freak, we need to find out if he is tied to the murder case of Mayor Cato, and if so, if he is working for some whacked high profile politician or big wig, who might be involved in this matter. I think we need to pay a visit to an old friend of mine. A judge I used to work with back in my days as a part time legal secretary, don't look at me like that, that connection helped me get into the academy and I think the Judge will be the one to open doors for us again that seem to be either closing way too fast, or slipping through our hands just as fast. Dana nodded in agreement and they both went to their bedrooms, to finish bathing and dressing for what was going to be a very interesting day.

Judge Ian Holder sat in his chambers, paging through the notes of a case in front of him. Judge Holder, an old federal circuit judge was respected amongst his peers for his clear cut rulings and judgments, he was a no nonsense judge who prided himself in always ensuring that with each and every case he heard, he had carefully studied all the evidence and facts presented to him from both prosecutor and defense teams and had only made his ruling, once he was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt of what that ruling would entail. As he sipped on his warm ginger tea, a favorite of his, that he had enjoyed every morning for the last 20 years, he tilted his head back and allowed memories of a bygone era to wash over him. Suddenly he started feeling hot, his head felt very strange and he thought that maybe the air conditioning in his chambers was not working well, he loosened his tie but the odd sensation of finding it hard to breathe persisted. He tried to get up from his desk and chair, but could not seem to balance himself, he staggered back into the chair and tried to scream but could not get any sound to leave his throat, he writhed and contorted his face in pain as the horrible feeling engulfed his entire body, he looked helplessly at the phone on his desk, as even now his body had become immobile and thought to himself, that he was suffering a stroke. He tilted his head again in agony and gasped his last gasp for air as the last thought in his mind, was that now he could not event tell the defendant in the case before him that he was found innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt. As he lay there dead, a shadow emerged from the office adjoining his chambers, the shadow stood behind the now dead judge's body, looking over him to ensure he was dead and letting out a cackling laughter, the shadow disappeared from the office and left the dead judge's body to be found. That would be the sad passing of the Judge Ian Holder.

Champion of the people and Judge of character that was loved by all.