Thirty Nine

Chapter Thirty Nine

Their little group was clouded by silence and each of them appeared to be in their own cocoon of thought. Jennifer looked round the police station then at the questioning room where Hannah was. Exhaling loudly, she looked back at Detective Sanders who was staring hard at the paper in her hands.

“It doesn’t make any sense. It is like she never existed, like she just came out of thin air.” Sanders said looking confused.

“How did you guys get her again?” Mark asked, his hands on his waist.

“We had to risk using Francis to lead us to where she would possibly be because we had no lead at all after four days of searching. Surprisingly, she was still pretty much around at the mansion.”

“My father’s house?” Jennifer frowned.

“The very last place we would think to look at. She was preparing to flee the country with a fake I.D which was fortunately for us, not ready by the time we got there. You guys remember the blonde that Francis re-married?” They all nodded.

“Well, turns out she helps them with their illegal business which includes making…”

“Fake passports and I.D.” Mark completed.

“Yes. But now that we have Hannah in our custody, she has refused to say anything. She hasn’t answered a single question we have asked her, instead she keeps giving this smug look. It is so annoying. We even tried asking her how it is that she has no birth record of any sort, no citizenship evidence, we could not even trace her past to any country. And yes, there is the question of what she, someone with hardly any record, would want with the Lewis family. But instead of answers, we are getting a smug look.” The detective was beginning to sound frustrated .

“It is indeed crazy. Because I remember clearly that my dad did a background check on her before hiring her as he does with all domestic staff before hiring. If I remember correctly, her result came out filled with good records and she definitely had a past in that file.”

“What if she found a way to make sure the background check came out with good records? I mean, someone with motives would definitely go to lengths to look good in front of whoever it is they want to harm. They would do anything to warm their way into that person’s life.”

“Mark has a point. But then, that doesn’t stop us from looking into that background check your dad did, we can get some amount of truth from it no matter how much of a lie the whole thing might seem. Would you by any chance know where the document could be?” Sanders asked Jennifer who racked her brain to remember where her dad kept such files.

“Oh, I know.” They all looked in her direction. “It is the penthouse. After dad died I moved some of his documents to the penthouse since they were home related.”

“Well, that is something. Are you sure Francis doesn’t know of those documents? We don’t want to risk Hannah knowing about them. If she could possibly find the means of totally erasing her tracks, getting rid of such document will be as easy as pie. ”

“I was grieving at that time, so kept to myself a lot during that time. I doubt if any of them knew I went anywhere or not.”

“Let us hope you are right. What we need right now is a way to prove that Hannah has a hand in your accident as Francis claimed since she has refused to talk. We need to dig into this hidden past of hers in order to crack this mystery. You guys should stay safe.”

Jennifer exhaled, thanking the detective as she excused herself to attend to something else. Jennifer faced the two men in front of her.

“I guess I have a file to look for. So…” She motioned for them to start walking.

Silvanus narrowed his eyes, biting his upper lip as he raised a finger to stop her. “If this Hannah lady used the mansion as a hide out, I feel there is a good chance we would find something that would link her to this case some how in the mansion.”

“What? Like a secret room filled with pictures of her targets?” Mark asked jokingly but Silvanus nodded, looking serious.

“A secret room.”

Jennifer pondered on what Silvanus had just suggested. “I would be surprised to find a secret room in that mansion.”

“Who knows, they might have done some re-constructing.” Jennifer and Silvanus nodded agreeably to Mark’s statement.

“Well, we have a mansion to raid and a penthouse to search, what are we waiting for?” The trio walked out of the station.

“Have I said thank you to guys for doing this much for me?” Jennifer turned to face them, looking at them appreciatively.

“A million times. And you are welcome.” Mark replied, giving her a grim smile. Jennifer returned him a short smile and they all entered their rented taxi. Jennifer told the driver the address, a part of her feeling thankful that she only lost a tiny bit of her memory. It would have been a disaster if she did not know who she was at all, if she did not remember where she was from. She would definitely still be in Hamesia by now, with no hope of ever knowing who she was.

She heaved a deep sigh and it caught Mark’s attention who placed his hand on her hers, looking her way with concern. “Jennifer are you fine?” She nodded in affirmative. “Are you sure you are okay to visit your house? It has been a while.”

“I’m fine. I am okay.” She gave him an assuring look and he slightly rubbed her hand with his thumb, leaning in to kiss her forehead afterwards. Jennifer felt her whole body shiver with delight. His simple show of what seemed to be affection made her want to just smash her lips against his, she wanted to feel his electrifying touch on her skin once more. But she didn’t want to seem jumpy, so she just smiled at him, trying her best to hold back herself from doing what was on her mind.

Luckily for them, there was no traffic hold up, so they were soon facing the gate that separated the mansion from the outside world. As the gate gave way for their vehicle, nostalgia overcame Jennifer as the white painted mansion came to sight, cars covered with protective nylons and well tended flowers, adorning the front. Jennifer smiled at the fact that the flowers were still being tended to.

As soon as the car parked, Jennifer got down, staring at the mansion like it was a long lost friend. Everything was still the same to Jennifer’s delight. The whiteness was still there, shining as her dad liked. They entered the house, the familiar red rug that adorned the floor of what was the reception of the mansion coming into sight. Looking to her right, she could see the door that led to the kitchen. Jennifer gave a light chuckle, covering her mouth with both hands as she gave a board nervous smile. She was just so delighted to be back and she was happier that everything seemed the same.

“Where do you think someone would find appropriate to hide something in this house, Jennifer?” Silvanus asked.

“Uh… probably the library, we hardly used it. Or maybe the back of the house.” She replied distractedly.

“I would pick the library. It is a great spot.” Silvanus said his eyes on Jennifer who was still high on happiness that she did not notice his hand gestures ..

“Jennifer quit acting high and lead us to the library.” Mark used his stern voice, bringing Jennifer out of the little shell she had created for herself.

“Oh yeah, sure.” Jennifer made her way to the door that led to the sitting room, leading the two men through to the library, Jennifer partially going back to being high on a mixture of nostalgia and happiness as she walked through the familiar rooms.

Silvanus walked into the library, looking around the fairly large squared room that had a very good section of it filled with crates of wine bottles. “It is refreshing to know that drinking in the library is a thing.” He commented as he made his way to the actual library., Jennifer and Mark following his lead. He looked down at the foot of one of the standing shelves. “This looks like it has been shifted a lot.”

He motioned to Mark to help him shift the shelf and that move exposed a little glass case inserted into the wall. “Well that was easy.” He opened the case and brought out the files inside, Mark leaning into see what they were.

As they flipped through the files, Jennifer took a look at the other shelves filled with mostly books about businesses. “Jennifer, I think we found what we are looking for.” Mark motioned to her to move closer.

“What did you guys…?” She felt something being pressured into her back, the move immediately followed by a click.

“You shouldn’t be here.”