REMINDER:
Jay: a detective Neal hired to find William.
Eois: first appeared in chapter 5.
CHAPTER 10: The Barn
In the hospital, Neal found Jay lie unconscious in bed.
Poor Jay, Neal thought. He remembered years ago in the past when he asked Jay to investigate if Candy lived together with someone*. At that time Jay was looking for his first case and eagerly took the job. Neal sighed silently. Who would have known that the man turned out to be William…
"His car was badly damaged, Mr. Leagan," one doctor explained.
Jay's condition was okay nothing too serious but still he's not conscious. According to the nurse he occasionally murmured "barn" in his dream.
Barn? Neal thought. Today at lunch Jay told him where the Cornwells' truck, that's used to kidnap Albert, was found. Jay investigated some places of interest nearby and found a deserted farmhouse and a barn to be the most intriguing. Jay said he'd investigate the barn after lunch.
"The truck is the Cornwells'," said Jay. "But I doubt it means more than what it is. It's even weird. No thieves would want to reveal their identity that bluntly."
From the hospital, on the way home, Neal was thinking about the kidnapper's motive.
Many of William's enemies are bitterer than me, Neal thought. For once he believed that Albert was in serious danger.
Actually, now that he thought about it, many people would benefit if Albert died. Aunt Elroy had more power, Archie got promotion. Many family members, including himself, Candy and especially Beatrice, got a large sum of money from wealth distribution written in Albert's will.
While thinking, Neal was driving to Elisa's office. He wanted to tell her and hear her thought of the mystery since her sharp input usually was worth taking.
As Neal drove to enter the office gate, he saw Eois' car leaving the building. He felt weird right away. Eois again, why would Elisa be interested to someone like him?
Neal understood his sister well. To simply doing business networking with people with less money didn't seem to fit her character. Suddenly Eois bothered him.
"Hi Neal, how's your first time with the children?" greeted Elisa.
"Good. Just came back from one. Did you go?"
"Yes, just came back with Eois."
Probably that's why he's here?, Neal thought. Regardless, he decided not to tell Elisa anything to prevent unnecessary leak of information.
Neal stayed some more time to do some light talking without mentioning anything about Jay, the barn, or Albert investigation in general. He then went home to do some more thinking.
Neal believed he should start by investigating the barn which Jay had been murmuring. It seemed suspiciously important. To be safe, he would do so in disguise. He would take one woman with him for his plan to work. Regardless of what happened this afternoon, the only person he wanted to be with was Candy.
She still can't forgive me, he thought sadly.
He decided to act coolly, treat her just like a stranger as she wanted to avoid further fighting. It's better that way than he couldn't be with her at all.
oooOOOoooo
Candy couldn't be more relieved when Neal came again. As a gratitude for his continuous effort to look for Albert, she tried to look as normal as possible as though their afternoon conversation never took place. But to her disappointment, she noticed he had changed. His teasing manner was gone, his grin was gone too. He behaved so cold, just like a stranger as what she demanded.
"I have some news," Neal said stoically.
He told her what happened to Jay.
"Can you look for a new detective?" ask Candy.
"Yes. But it takes time," he answered blandly. "The screening process to make sure that the person is clean and not connected to the kidnappers would be laborious."
"Oh?" asked Candy.
"The kidnappers seemed to have a connection with the insiders otherwise they couldn't enter to the Ardlays' party and outsmart the tight security protocol. Unlike Jay who I've known for a long time, I shouldn't trust a new one as easily."
Candy nodded. "So what to do?" she asked.
"I'll go to the barn to check what's in there," said Neal.
"I go with you," offered Candy.
"Probably it is too dangerous. Just look at what happened to Jay," said Neal. "But frankly, your presence would be helpful for my disguise purpose."
"Then I go," said Candy. "I'll do anything for Albert's sake."
As soon as she finished saying it, she bit her lips. She knew he's jealous to Albert. But to her disappointment, his face stayed the same didn't show any sign of jealousy. Somehow, she felt disappointed. She didn't think she could bear it if he didn't have any more feeling towards her.
"I have to do some preparation now to prevent what happened to Jay to happen to us. We go tomorrow morning," said Neal.
"Neal, aunt Elroy looked particularly worried today. George said she got another threatening letter from the kidnapper. She didn't say what though."
Neal nodded seriously. "We need to work fast. I don't think we have much time."
He bowed graciously before leaving. After a few steps he turned around. "Try to look for shabby old clothes for disguise tomorrow."
While watching him leave, secretly she's hoping that he'll be back to normal tomorrow...
ooOoo
The following day early in the morning Neal had come to pick up Candy. He looked unlike she had ever seen him before. His beard was unshaved, he used shabby short sleeve shirt carrying shabby backpack in his shoulder.
"A shirt?" asked Candy. It's the first time she saw him wearing such an informal clothing.
"Wear your shabby clothes like me, Candy. We disguise as vagabonds."
After she changed, he took her to his car, a cheap looking car. Worse than the car Albert bought long time ago, thought Candy.
Everything with him was the opposite of his usual luxurious belongings. Surprisingly, he looked much more appealing. He looked roguishly disheveled in his unshaved beard. She shivered seeing his well tone forearms fully displayed with his short sleeve shirt. The top buttons of his front shirt was open displaying part of his chest skin. That tanned skin screamed, soon she found her eyes mindlessly wandering at it.
He took two wigs out from his backpack. He wore one and asked Candy to wear one, too.
Seeing his meticulous preparation, she could only say, "He-eh," shortly to comment.
He's still cold. He was unusually quiet inside the car, not much words were exchanged during the ride. Based on the information Jay had given him, Neal found the dark red suspicious barn relatively easily.
Neal hid the car in the bushes in nearby area which had lots of trees. The car was barely visible from the far. Neal and Candy then walked to the barn on foot. He walked unusually far from her, probably about an arm away, and didn't flirt at all. She regretted for being overly fierce at him. She never thought it's possible to hate someone and want him at the same time.
Soon, they could see the barn from the far.
"Hold my hand," Neal said coldly. "Our presence can be seen clearly now from the barn." He looked serious, without teasing smile and eyes stayed nailed to the barn. "With all do respect, we disguise as a pair of vagabond lovers," he explained in the most gentleman like manner.
"Oh?" asked Candy.
"Romance. Everyone understands, universal language," he explained dryly without any expression.
She complied.
She felt his warm smooth large hands holding her. Right away her brain was flooded with improper thoughts again. She stole a look at him, but he looked composed, seemingly not affected by it. Now that she got what she wanted, he acted like a stranger, she regretted it instead of rejoicing.
Finally they arrived at the barn. They entered and he closed the doors from the inside.
"This barn seemed to be special," he said. He told her briefly about Jay. "We should try to find out why."
They looked around and saw lots of hay, old cabinets, old stuffs, old toys, nothing seemed unusual. They wondered what the connection with Albert was.
Barn, Barn, Neal kept saying to himself repeatedly and walked back and forth.
Candy was busy thinking too. She searched and searched, examining all old toys, opened all drawers in the old cabinet, dresser, and more but there's nothing.
In frustration, Candy took a seat on a stool. Since that short stool was the only seat available in that barn, he also took a seat on that stool next to her. She felt their arms brushed now that both of them wore short sleeve shirts. That fraction second of brush was enough to make her feel breathing difficult. In confusion, she withdrew herself to move farther away from him and accidentally she hit a metal ball…
The heavy ball rolled on the floor. While it's rolling, Neal noticed that it left different sounds on the wooden floor.
"That's strange," said Neal.
Hurriedly he got up, took a wooden log and tapped it on the floor. In some area that's covered by an old rug it had a peculiar hollow sound. Curiously, he lifted up the rug and unexpectedly found a door handle.
"A hidden door!" Neal said amazed.
Candy gasped.
He opened it. They saw a tunnel equipped with stairs on the wall.
"A tunnel!" Candy said astonished.
"Candy you wait here. When someone comes call me," said Neal.
"You're going in?" Candy asked trembling.
The tunnel looked so dark and for the first time she felt afraid of being left alone.
"Yes, who knows I'll find William inside," he grinned. "Imagine if we could take him home today."
He took a flashlight with him and disappeared into the darkness. Candy was frightened. She wanted to pull his arm to prevent him from getting inside but couldn't as though something locked her mouth and froze her limbs. Trembling, she saw him disappear. Finally, after the last glimpse of light from his flashlight disappeared, the tunnel returned to total darkness and silence…
oooOooo
Neal kept walking along the tunnel. It's quite long. After a while, he reached the end of the tunnel. He observed carefully and noticed that the tunnel was surrounded by wooden wall of interesting wood pattern. There's a side door. He tried to open it but couldn't, it's locked.
Suddenly Neal heard voices. His heart almost stopped beating in alarm. After listening carefully he realized that the voice came from above him.
The voice was soft, but after some effort he could catch partly what they said.
"We... - ... slow," Neal heard. The voice was almost like humming.
"We - have... William ...-... long" Neal heard a man said. "-... dangerous ... us."
"I ... - ... move him ...," Neal heard a woman's voice answered.
"Not.. enough..." a man's voice said...
Then Neal thought he heard Candy's voice calling him. He couldn't be sure but he decided to quickly go back to check.
ooOooo
In the barn, Candy was waiting impatiently. Minutes by minutes passed by which seemed like hours to her. After a while she started to get nervous, what if Neal got harmed like Jay or got injured, killed, or perhaps captured together with Albert? She started to regret to pull him to go through all this.
Bah, he's just a despicable man. If not because of Albert, my life would have been ruined by him. He had to pay for making me suffer, she thought. Her heart felt in peace right away.
But after long minutes later, he still didn't come back. This was too long. If anything happened to him, there should be a better way of saying good bye, not after the intense argument they had yesterday. At least she should thank him for his effort to rescue Albert.
He's dead... He's dead, she thought feeling so guilty to herself. She tried to think all wicked things he did to overcome her guilty feeling. But it didn't work. Instead, she remembered his kind happy face when carrying those children yesterday in the hospital and felt guilty even more. Tears ran down like rain.
Summoning all energy she whispered real softly. "Neal, comeback Neal."
But he didn't come back. The silence scared her even more. She walked back and forth, unable to sit still. Worried tears started to build up.
Oh no! Poor Neal. What have I done?
Candy put her head inside the tunnel and called him again and again, louder and louder. At the end she screamed at the top of her lung. But still there's no answer. She promised herself she would count to 100 and jumped into the hole if he didn't show up. At 48, she couldn't take it anymore. She called Neal again, still no response and she was about to jump to the hole following him when she heard some noise and his voice responded.
"I'm coming." She heard his familiar voice coming from the tunnel.
She felt so relieved, probably never be as happy in her life.
"Anyone coming?" he asked as he climbed the stairs hurriedly back to the barn.
Unable to speak, she jumped to hug him tightly. He's alive and safe!
"Anything wrong?" he asked worriedly pushing her away to look at her face. That's when he saw her eyes were swollen with tears.
"You've been crying!" he said surprised. "You are worried about me?" He asked dumbfoundedly, couldn't believe what he saw.
"No, I'm not." But at the same time big drops of tears escaped her eyes rolled on her face. She wiped them frustratingly with the back of her hand.
Suddenly they heard people talking outside.
"Unbutton your shirt," said Neil.
"What?" asked Candy in disbelief. This man never changes, he is just totally...
"Remember our situation, we are a couple of vagabond lovers," said Neil quickly. "Don't forget that."
"But..."
"For William's sake, or probably our own sake, do what I said," urged him as gently as possible.
He ran to close the door of the tunnel back and put the carpet on top of it as before. He just had enough time to put his arms around her and she just had enough time to unbutton the top two buttons of her clothes when the doors were banged opened. Neal saw two men enter from the corner of his eye.
Neal lifted his head pretending to be surprised and interrupted by their presence. Then, he pretended that he didn't care about them and edged closer to Candy as though to continue hugging her back tightly. Feeling her so closed to him, her breasts pressed against his chest made him feel totally dizzy. His blood boiled, heart raced. Unexpectedly to him, he felt her body respond to his.
"There's only a couple of love birds inside," shouted one man to his other colleagues outside the barn.
They went outside, banged the door, and left.
Candy was waiting for Neal to release her, but he didn't.
"Neal, they left," said Candy finally.
"I know," he said.
But to Candy's surprise, Neal still didn't release her. On the contrary, she felt his grip got even stronger.
"Don't hate me, please," begged Neal.
She couldn't believe her ear. It was staggering. Instant heat crippled her. She felt the distance between them narrowed. The air between them got hot. His heavy breath against her ear made her heart beat stronger with each word he said.
"You want me," he murmured tightening his grip. "Admit it...," he said hoarsely.
She trembled instantly.
"No, I don't want you. Let me go," she said without trying to struggle. Her voice wobbled.
"I can't," Neal said. He pressed his face to hers, his hands roamed against her back, slowly, intensely pressing her towards him.
"I love you, Candy," Neal said. "I'm tired of pretending. I don't want to fight with you. I want to love you." He said with unmistakably poignant passion in his voice.
She was on fire and not sure what to do. After all these years, this same man suddenly came again to wreck her heart all over again although in a different way. The tension was so strong unlike anything she had ever experienced. She wondered if she dared confront the past all over again.
While for him, he didn't care of the consequence or what happened next anymore. All he knew was he had to tell her the truth which had been buried inside his heart for all these years. That was he truly loved her madly deeply.
-To Be Continued-
NOTE:
*Jay's idea is loosely taken from chapter 9 of manga, page 18.
My deepest gratitude for all the readers. Thanks for still being here to follow the story :') We're almost done. Please stay till the end :D