Chapter 29: Twenty Nine

Chapter Twenty Nine

Mark got up from his huge but lonely king sized bed his head banging from the hangover he woke up to from partying hard the previous night. Well if Mike were here he would probably conclude that he was grieving. And why? Because of her. When he came back two nights ago into an empty house, he wanted to rejoice that he finally got her out. But he couldn’t. Why? Because he felt like a terrible person. He saw how angry he made her and he knew he crossed some limits especially after he had mentioned her mother. But what could he have done? She was a threat to his personal space especially with that her damn fine face and freaking lovely body.

“Arghh…” He grabbed a handful of his hair and squeezed it as the pain in his head grew.

‘Time for some home remedy.’

He went into his bathroom, not bothering to pull up his window blinds as he normally did. After easing himself of stored toxics and washing his face, he left his room. He came out to face his ‘red door’ where he did most of his art. His mind travelled back to the time he gave Jennifer his rules and he wondered if she ever broke the one where he prohibited her from going into the room with the red door. He entered his work room which was a bit messy with a few cans of paint laying around randomly and paint brushes tossed around the room. Being someone that took care of his work space extraordinarily, he couldn’t help but try to remember whatever had happened the previous night.

As he racked his brain, he noticed he had some work in progress covered in a white paint stained cloth. He walked carefully to the canvas and removed the cloth.

He was trying to paint her.

A loud thud came from across the hallway, and if he heard well, it came from his sister’s room.

‘Has she come back?’ He thought a bit excitedly. He covered his work and left the room to check if indeed she had come back. Perhaps she realized out there wasn’t so pleasant and she came back. he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. He touched the knob of the door, paused for a second, then opened it. The room was empty, it looked very empty. But he was sure he heard noise from in there so he went in.

“Jennifer.”

“Oh great, you are finally awake.” A voice said from the bathroom.

“Penelope?” The blonde smiled, readjusting the towel across her chest.

“What are you doing here?”

“Uh… you called me yesterday after you got excessively drunk at the club and I just had to help you.” She shrugged.

“Did we…?” His finger darted between the two of them.

“Hell, no. I could never. I am so over you.” Penelope was one of his girlfriends that he could not sustain or keep around.

“By the way who is Jennifer?” The question took Mark by surprise.

“Uh?”

“You kept chanting her name immediately we got to the house. Is she your recent fling? I would be careful if I were her.”

Mark rolled his eyeballs and said, “Thanks for your help. You can leave when you are done.”

He walked out.

“Oh wow, he says thank you now.” He heard her say.

As he entered the living room, his eyes landed on the laptop he got for her. As he was just noticing that she never took it, he just had to wonder where on earth she was.

The doorbell rang and Mark went to open the door.

His friend Mike was standing by the door, a brown furred puppy in his hand , a huge smile on his face making his afro shaped curly hair bounce.

"What are you doing here?" Mark asked, a groan coming after his statement as he left the door opened for him to come in while he went back to the living room.

"I came to see Santa Claus. Is he here? This particular Claus is quite grumpy though." Mike said with a bored voice holding the puppy closer.

"Oh just shut up." Mark groaned further holding his head as he went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water.

"Someone has a massive hang over." Mike pointed out when he came out of the kitchen.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock."

Mike laughed. "I came here for Jennifer not you. I got her a puppy."

"Really a puppy?"

"Where is she?" Mike ignored him and walked towards the corridor.

Exhaling a huge breath, Mark said, " She is not there."

"What do you mean by she is not there? Where else would she... Mark, what did you do?"

"Why on earth did you get her a puppy?" Mark tried to derail the conversation.

"Where is Jennifer, Mark?"

"She left okay. She left two days ago."

"Wait, two days ago?" Mike asked , surprised at the information.

"Maybe a day ago, I don't know. I am never good at calculating stuff you know."

Mike's face was frowning. He just couldn't believe it. "Where on earth do you expect her to go now that you have successfully chased her away?"

Mark sat on a nearby couch. He could still smell her.

"What happened exactly? Why has she left? What did you do?"

"Arghhh... Too many questions. See, I might have tried to force her to remember okay?"

"I always knew you were stupid, but I never knew it was to this extent. Why on earth would do something like that? You never force things like that."

"I was getting tired of seeing her around, okay? I love my space a lot." Penelope's heels clicked as she approached the men.

"Oh hey Mike, cute puppy. Bye Mark." And she left the room.

The puppy yawned as though he was bored by the silence that enveloped the room after Penelope's departure.

"Really? Penelope?"

"Nothing happened." Mark got up. "Listen, I feel bad for what I did, but I am stuck. I have no idea where she might be."

"Your neighbour's?"

"I went there yesterday, she is not there. She did not even tell Carol she was going anywhere."

"We need to find her as soon as possible. Ben is around and will be here soon. He has made some discoveries and since you have successfully pushed Jennifer out, she won't be aware of this. So, we have to do whatever we can to find her." The doorbell rang.

"I guess that is Ben" Mark said quietly as he went to open the door.

"Yo man, what's up? I am back yo!" Ben said dramatically.

"I see that, come right in."

Ben entered the living room and scanned it.

"Is Babes in her room?" He faced the two men who looked at each other, Mike giving Mike the annoyed face.

"Wait, wait. Mark what did you do?"

"Well he tried to force her to remember what happened to her and she ran away."

Ben faced Mark surprised. "Dude! You never force things like that."

"That's what I told him." Mark rolled his eyeballs.

"Yo man, we need to find her A.S.A.P. We need to look for her everywhere. I mean, she doesn't even know anyone here." Ben shook his head to keep calm before continuing.

"Anyway, I was able to gather a few things that would be of help.So, Francis her husband is responsible for her accident."

"I knew it!" Mike and Ben looked at Mark with a mother kind of warning eyes.

"Oh, whatever."

"As I was saying, he tried to drown her in the ocean, well he is certain he did. While I was there I was able to install as many surveillance equipment and I got the video where he admits to drowning her."

"Wow." Mike said, stroking the puppy.

"A little twist, another person is involved." Ben brought out a CD.

"A lady is involved in this scheme of his. Apparently, she is the mastermind behind the whole thing. But there is a little problem. Her face does not show a bit in the capture and the little data run I did on her voice was not successful." He gave the disk to Mike.

"This is why we need Jennifer, to identify this lady maybe by her hair or voice because I feel she is someone she knows. Oh, I also managed to get some proof that the company funds are being mismanaged. For someone who is trying to hide things, Francis is not exactly smart. So getting these wasn't difficult." He took out some papers out of his bag and gave Mike.

"Wow. This is huge. What do we do next?"

"We have to find Jennifer. Oh I forgot to mention, Francis is also married to some blonde lady whose name and I couldn't get because she hardly comes out."

"Okay. Wow. We really need to find Jennifer." Mike put the puppy down.