Chapter 7 Sign Of A Tear

Under the night sky, Edward heard vee call 911. He could feel his rapid heart rate and a burning pain but he tried to remain calm. He had been shot in the neck. Sarah kneels beside him and pulled off her jacket, she uses it to apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding.

He had finally been caught and this is how he goes down. He thought

He watched the blood flow down his arms, the reflection of the ambulance flashing lights in the puddle was a sign of hope. In the ambulance, Edward managed to stay awake. One of the EMTs on board took over the task of applying pressure on the wound from Sarah. He looked at vee, biting her lips, her legs trembled as she prayed. He tried to speak but found it difficult to. The EMT pleaded with him not to try speaking again.

The emergency room door is flung open, Edward is brought in on a stretcher and is given a shot of morphine by a male doctor who yelled for someone to page the thoracic surgeon, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. Sarah watched how doctors and nurses swarmed into the emergency room like bees after their honey, in their blue scrubs before being asked to wait outside by a nurse.

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Agent west sat idly down on a bench in the park as he recounts the scene he caused after being reprimanded for holding Sarah against her will without a proper cause at the supervisor's office that led to his suspension. He had begged his supervisor to give him more time to gather evidence to prove his claims but was shunned by the latter. He had a fit and cursed, accused the latter of being a corrupt moron who secretly worked for the mafia.

A minute later, a man wearing a long coat with hands in each pocket walked over and joined agent west on the bench. The man brought out a packet of cigarettes and took out one which he offered to the agent, who stared at him with a solemn expression

"Who are you," said agent west. His eyebrows raised, arms wrapped around his waist, and legs crossed. The man broke into a snigger and then relaxed against the bench with an arm stretched across the agent west shoulder

"I go by the name Martin's, a reporter and also your biggest fan"

"Is that why you have been taking pictures of me from over there?". He points at the tree behind them and removed Martin's arm from his shoulder "so what can I do for you?" he spoke in a calm voice trying to hide his already irritated look.

"You shouldn't worry about what you can do for me but what I can do for you" he stretched his arm once again across agent west shoulder

"And what's that?".

"Evidence! I can provide you with it".

"I don't understand what you are talking about," said the agent as he attempts to stand up.

"I can get you valid information and evidence on the Richardson's". Upon hearing this statement, agent west settled back down on the bench

"What do you know about them?" his eyes widened.

"A lot" he gave a sly smile and offered the cigarette once more. This time it wasn't refused. "What do you know about Felicia Richardson?"

"Not much, she was a nutjob who used to run the family before she committed suicide".

"Did she?" he chuckled "how was your investigation on the Felix wright case?".

"Fruitless, the whole place was wiped clean"

"That's because Felix wright was a nobody, the records of his life before being the family consigliere doesn't exist that why Felicia entrusted him with a flash drive"

"What's in the flash drive?"

"That I don't know of but plan on finding out, one thing I can tell you is that the flash drive is very important. So important that it cost him his life and the two girls were at his office the night he died". He hands over some pictures of Kate and Sarah walking into Felix's office to agent west.

"She lied," Said agent west under his voice. "Do you know you have helped me, with this, I can return to work and prove that I was on to something"

"I did not give you those pictures to return to work. I gave them to you so that you wouldn't think you weren't on the right track"

"Umm"

"Look at it from this angle, your suspension is a blessing. The law does not hold you down anymore, those pictures would just prove your claims, and then what, they get themselves good lawyers and come out of jail and you are back to square one that is if you aren't already dead by then". He draws closer to the agent and spoke quietly "there is a saying if you can't beat them you will join them. I can get you into their operations, real dirty deals that can be used to bring them and their allies down".

"Why are you helping me?" Said agent west, there was a trace of doubt in his tone.

"Like you I want revenge and also I get the exclusives first"

"But I can't infiltrate into the Richardson's operation because I have had quite some run-ins with them"

"I know, that's why you are going undercover into the Badami family run by don Vincent Badami; a close ally to the Richardson family. You are going in as Micheal Hemsworth, an ex-bodyguard".

"What!"

"Just leave everything to me, it's all under control" he takes out another picture and writes down an address at the back, and gave it to agent west. "You want into the family she's the key" he tapped the picture.

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Sarah was fast asleep on a chair just outside the emergency room. When She heard a voice call out

"Sarah Sarah Sarah!"

She slowly opened her eyes to see Bobby the baker standing tall in front of her. She turned to look at vee but vee wasn't there. She wondered if vee had eloped with her father's fortune, if she has, she was goddamn lucky. She closed her eyes once more in Hope of falling asleep again but was disturbed by the painful pinches of Bobby. She yelled out in anger

"What!"

"How is your father? the big guy sent his regards"

"I don't know, they have been in there for hours now"

"I hope he survives, I got men out on the field digging for the culprit as we speak and we are going to make them wish they were never born," he said in an enraged tone.

"You will make them pay, count me out"

"I don't understand, this was a message, a sign of war. What if you are next?"

"Ohhhhh" she grumbled, "you know how Edward is, surely he must have pissed off somebody or cheated someone off their girlfriend or wife".

Just then, she sees vee holding a bottle of cola and sniffing her nose intensely as she walked to them

"Is he dead?" She asked with utmost curiosity.

"No! How could you say such"

"Sorry"

Finally, the surgeon came out of the emergency room. Sarah and Bobby the baker both raised to enquire about Edward's condition from the serious-faced surgeon.

"Are you his daughter?" He said politely looking at vee. Sarah tried not to roll her eyes, she did not know if to laugh about it or get angry.

"I am," she said in a commanding voice.

"Oh," the surgeon had realized his honest mistake "I need to speak with you in private". He was surprised when Sarah turned to look at bobby.

"Whatever you need to say, say it. He is family"

"We had to tie up some arteries especially the carotid artery to get the hemorrhaging under control. He sighed. He was lucky the bullet did not come in contact with the brain stem when it passed out the back of his neck without severing the spine but the bullet bruised one of his cervical nerves that affected the brachial plexus"

"So what are you saying," said Bobby and Sarah at the same time because they could not make meaning of what the surgeon was saying.

"What I'm saying is, his voice will sound hoarse, he may also have some throat discomfort for some time and his arm would be temporarily paralyzed. Excuse me".

"So when can we see him," said vee with excitement in her voice.

"When he gets transferred to the ICU and is awake"

They heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment, Bobby thought he had lost his pal. He looked at Sarah and noticed her glassy eyes.

It had been quite a night. Sarah had yawned severally while rubbing her eyes. She picked up her phone to call the big guy but remembered no one calls him, no matter the urgency of the matter he does the calling. She sees a text message from Peggy and Bobby.

PEGGY: where are you, you left the house in a bad mood. Let's talk.

BOBBY: he is awake.

A nurse leads Sarah to the ICU, she opened the door and sees vee arms already wrapped around Edward, pushing the writing tablet in the way. Bobby waved for her to come in. Sarah walked over to the bed and watched Edward struggle to pull out a small box from his pocket. He gives the box to Sarah and writes HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY WILDFLOWER on the tablet with the help of vee. Sarah opened the box to see a diamond necklace neatly arranged inside. Edward smiled at her but Sarah stared at him expressionlessly. Unknowing to them that a man peeped in through the slight opening of the door and quickly withdrew when Sarah turned to leave the room.

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Sarah headed to the cafeteria, lost in thought as she fondled the box. Bobby comes up behind her to snap her out of her dream.

"Why are being nice to me today," she asked.

Bobby bit his lips and clicked his tongue.

"We have always been at each other's neck. He gives her a coin to insert into the vending machine "I think it's time to set aside the enmity". Sarah walked away after taking the item from the machine.

"You know, for a girl who seemed tough I saw a sign of a tear in your eyes today".

"Don't pity me I'm headed home" she spoke to him while walking in a backward motion. The sight of a black car parked in front of the hospital entrance jogged her memories, she recalled the plate numbers on the black car that sped off when her father was shot. She placed a call to Freddie a tech guy that works for the big guy and asked him to run the plate number and get back to her.

She couldn't leave without informing the others about her discovery. So, she quickened her steps back to the ICU. On getting there, she heard vee ask her father why he had given the diamond necklace to her and her father tried to calm vee down by making a promise to get vee another diamond necklace. He also revealed the fact that bobby informed him of Sarah's birthday and he gave Sarah the necklace to act like a responsible father.

Sarah slowly pushed the door open and stood there, looking at the surprised faces of the vee and her father she clapped her hands in disappointment. She had thought maybe her father had changed; maybe he was no longer the man she barely saw when she was a child, maybe he wanted her in his life.

She felt sad and angry at the same time. Vee attempted to speak but was hushed by Sarah, who had received a notification on her phone that read:

THE PLATES NUMBER IS REGISTERED UNDER THE NAME OF KATE RICHARDSON. Sarah laughed out loud, her eyes tried to withhold the tears.

"This is just the beginning of your suffering, it's ironic". She continued to laugh as she walked away but this time in a psychotic manner.