Seattle Fraude
Chapter 6: 5 weeks later.
"Excuse me, is Eluned Jane Moon present this evening?"
"No, I'm sorry sir, she is at home today," the woman replied politely. "Shall I phone her to say she has someone who wants to see her?"
"No thank you, I'll visit her at home," the young man replied.
"Does she expect you?"
"No, why?"
"She is a member of the upper-class, sir, you can't just enter her house."
"Trust me: she won't mind."
"If you say so." The woman turned away to help other guests.
The young man smirked at her. No, dear Lune certainly would let her in. Then he left the white light of the Opera building.
He walked through the snowy streets to his BMW.
He stepped in his car and took a list.
"Opera, check," he whispered, "and so far for London, now let's check the Welsh border." He took out the remote control of his Galileo system and typed Shropshire Llanymynech, North Road.
He smiled and started his engine.
He would get her. No matter how.
)-()-(-)-()-(
In most dramatic cliché movies he would have arrived at night, in the rain, in this story however he would not have found a room in the Bradford Arms Inn at that time and it would snow. But since I'm not such a sadist to leave him without any comfortable place to sleep but a BMW Does he arrive the next day at noontime.
And stopped at one of the local pubs: the Bradford Arms Inn. The innkeeper of the Bradford Arms Inn was in his late fifties and never in his whole career of serving drinks to his fellow villagers he had seen someone like the man who had just come in.
"Good day sir, what can I serve you?" he asked covering his surprise with his famous smile. He had all right to cover his enormous surprise at the mere sight of the man who stood before him: he looked absolutely flabbergasted, tired and had a determined look in his eyes. He had the aura of someone who had lost everything.
"A pint," he said in a hoarse voice, "and a room."
"A pint of what, sir?"
"I donno, something with alcohol," was the annoyed reply.
Carwyn, that was the Innkeepers name by the way, took a bottle of his more expensive low alcoholic drinks (he didn't want to have a fight in his pub), and versed his early customer a pint of it.
"Thanks."
"You are not from here," Carwyn tried to start a conversation."
"You're kidding me," the sarcastic reply was.
"What wind has brought you here?"
"An extremely cold one as you can see outside," the customer answered. Laughing at his own joke for less then two seconds.
Carwyn laughed politely with him but stopped when he looked in the cold eyes of the man. They scared him.
"What do you know about the mistress of the Manor?" the man asked suddenly after he drank half his pint.
Carwyn a bit taken aback by this sudden question asked: "You mean Eluned Moon?"
"Yes that one, what do you know 'bout her?"
"Where to start? She has many weird things, the whole family is weird, you know."
"Doesn't surprise me at all," the man muttered, "please do continue."
"Well, hue… yes, in the first place we don't even know where she, her brother and sister went to school. And her job is also odd. She investigates the most curious murders you can imagine."
"In other words you don't know her don't you?"
"She isn't a very social type."
"Understandable."
"But she is nice, every Sunday evening she gives a violin solo concert for free in my pub. But you know, you need to talk with Celyn."
"Celyn, who's Celyn?"
"Her best friend," Carwyn answered, "but what happened to you? You are an American not?"
"Yes." Carwyn nodded as if to say: that solves the question.
"Why do you ask?" the customer asked.
"Well… your accent," the innkeeper replied. But his customer didn't believe that was the real reason.
"Are you happy?" the customer suddenly asked.
"I have no reason to complain, I have a great social life, a nice wife. It's nothing too exiting, but it is nice."
"You are to be envied," the American said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said you are to be envied, everybody dreams of a life filled with excitement and danger, a life like Rambo's or a life like the Ancient Greek hero's.
You know someone said once to me that you never know what's going to happen until you die, after that event there's no need to worry about anything anymore. I thought she was wrong," the customer drank from his drink and continued, "I thought that the economical boom times we lived in were a real Utopia. A garden of Eden, a safe heaven on earth. I was wrong, my company was taken over and I was thrown out. And then 'it' happened. The Great Scam of Washington. That whole state was drained of all it's money, it was like magic.
As the high buildings fell, was I in the middle of it, looking around and see how it fell, like a house of cards, I grabbed the money I had left, changed it in Euros and left for Belgium, a country I didn't even know it existed before I was on the plane to it," the man fell silent for a moment. "Why does it rain over Utopia?"
)-()-(-)-()-(
"Yes, I know what to do, mum, I live in this house for over ten years now, of course everything is alright with the kids, what could be wrong?" Eluned Moon said into her mobile phone. "Okay but would you mind not reading that list again? It makes me tired and you know how well I sleep, don't you? No, the kids aren't up anymore. No not even Cadi, at the moment I'm just watching television. What, you want proof?" Eluned aimed the mobile phone at the television that was showing the late evening news, "Do you believe me now? Okay bye, yes I love you too, bye."
"That was close, mum."
"Just make your next move Cadi," Eluned replied, laughing at her youngest.
"Checkmate," Cadi said happily.
"Hu? … Cadi, before I got on the phone there was a queen of mine standing right there, protecting my king against that very move, where did it go?"
"I'm off to bed," Cadi squealed, gave her mum a kiss and ran to bed. Eluned smiled, after she couldn't hear her youngest daughter anymore, she put the chessboard away and prepared to go to be herself.
The doorbell rang.
"Who could that be?" Eluned wondered. When she opened the door the cold steel of a gun was aimed at her. she was shocked, didn't know how to react for a moment, but then she seemed to recover.
"Hello," the stranger said in triumph.
"You'd better come in."
Now that took long to write this, but I was a little mixed up with the plot. But the problem is as you probably noticed solved. I'll send some e-cookies to the one who can say me where the phrase about Utopia comes from. I'm not sorry for the cliffhanger. I bet you already know who the stranger is?
~Rhady