CHAPTER 495: DON VINO (1)

In the Wendover home, things had taken a drastic turn- one thing was certain: Something had changed.

It had only been a few days since that strange episode - the one where Clara had collapsed, her body also undergoing a bizarre temporary transformation. When she awoke, she claimed not to remember a thing, her mind seemingly wiped clean of the night’s torment. But the people around her remembered.

How could they forget?

Since then, Clara had grown... odd. Unsettling.

They were unsure of the root cause, but with each passing day, they felt it best not to cross Clara’s path. Even Angela had begun to feel the same way.

Clara’s behaviour had become erratic - more volatile than usual, and disturbingly vacant at others. It wasn’t just Clara’s mind that seemed off; her appearance had begun to shift, almost imperceptibly at first, but now it was undeniable. Her eyes had lost their old lustre, and her once-smooth skin on her body was now waxy and sunken in places. Others noticed the trembling of her hands when she thought no one was looking.

And through it all, her obsession with finding Rocky deepened to the point that it even crossed the mother-son relationship. No one dared to speak his name around her anymore, for fear of what Clara would do.

Though no one wanted to say it aloud, they all felt it in their bones: this wasn’t just some breakdown. This was... unnatural.

Some of her workers muttered behind closed doors that it was payback for the things she had done in the past .... Things she had watched being done to her daughter, and other dark, unspoken things no one ever dared confront her about. Others claimed she had meddled in powers far beyond her control, that she had called on something unholy.

They weren’t far from the truth.

But no one said a word. No one wanted to be made an example of, as the last person who had uttered an off-handed remark was still nursing the scratch wounds on her body, which were not healing no matter what they did!

Clara was losing a bit of herself with each passing day.

On this day, brushing her hair in front of the mirror, she smiled... and the face smiling back at her was unfamiliar for a split second.

Clara dropped her hairbrush and stared wide-eyed at the image. It was ....

not wrong - just... off. A stranger’s eyes looked at her from a face she knew was hers.

"Ahhhhh!"

***

The police Chief sat in his office, staring unseeingly at his small TV. He could not believe his eyes! The blinds drawn tight against the creeping afternoon light and he had been that way since the break of dawn. Heck, he had come in early upon a lead of the Shelby Monroe case, but even that lay forgotten on his desk after that single call from one of the newspapers that he sometimes worked with:

"Good job on this! You now have two rising stars in your team... but how is it that all the other officers deployed to the island had their faces covered? Is that a new protocol?"

The chief had been confused, but to maintain appearances, he had smiled, nodded, and agreed with the reporter. However, inside, he was a mix of emotions, including confusion, anger, and more. Before he could make sense of this, the news started pouring in from different channels, and that was when he understood.

With trembling hands, he dialled Leon’s number and then Evans’, but all those had gone straight to voicemail. This was understandable as they were off the island. However, this only fuelled the chief’s anger.

"Get over here right now! How could you go over my head and mobilize such extensive resources!? This is direct insubordination! You- you- Get your ASSS HERE as ASAP!"

He left similar voice messages and numerous ones on both of their voicemail inboxes, but by midafternoon, he had not heard back from them to his dismay. The chief understood in-depth the implications.

The air was heavy with silence - except for the insistent buzz of his phone on the desk in front of him. It lit up again.

An unknown number, just like the previous ones, but he only understood the issue as much as everyone else watching from their TVS at home or online.

His bitten nails hovered just over the screen, trembling slightly. He didn’t answer. How could he? What could he say?

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

He had thought it clever ... assign the Leon and Evans, a dead-end task, send them chasing ghosts to keep him out of the way. A convenient ploy to save face and bury a mess quietly. They needed a scapegoat for the accident – a fall guy, and Leon and his partner had been perfect for this.

But now, somehow, the mess ... no Leon had risen like a corpse that refused to stay in its grave... and clawed his way into the headlines... again! And this time it was something even bigger than the Chief had ever anticipated!

"How the hell had he found that Mush girl?

How had the whole bloody task force missed it for years?

How had Leon mobilized this task force to go to the island in the span of a few hours?"

He asked himself, then stood and began pacing, wiping the sweat off his brow with a handkerchief that was already damp. Another buzz.

The night before, it had all been quiet and they had been nothing. He knew that such an operation took weeks, if not months to mobilize but this special force had worked so swiftly that he was unsure of how Leon had worked this.

"Leon’s backing is bigger than I thought! Have I bitten more than I can chew?"

Then his worst fears came true! Internal Affairs... every cops’ nightmare!

He swallowed hard. This time, he knew better than to ignore it as the screen flashed.

A knock came at the door. His secretary peeked in with a pale face and a clipped voice: "Sir... they’re here. Internal team."

’H-how?’

He wanted to say, but the words got stuck in his throat.

He didn’t respond. Just nodded vaguely, like a man watching his world collapse in slow motion.

Moments later, Detective Leon walked into the chief’s office, with the officers from the management office at his back, and the chief made a last-ditch attempt to seize control.

"Leon! Evans! You went over my head!" he barked, voice cracking as he slammed a fist on the table. "You had no clearance to escalate this - no right to take this outside protocol!"

Leon didn’t flinch. His eyes were calm, but deadly. He was wondering why the chief was still ’yabbing away’ despite the presence of internal affairs (IA). Was the chief so in over his head that he did not see the higher authority?

"No, sir. I had a responsibility," he said. "But I also worked on the case you had assigned.... Both tasks have been almost resolved... we have a clear path to work on this.... but Chief, I know what I have to do in order to keep a case from being buried!"

The silence that followed was suffocating. None of the officers in the office had expected Leon to say that... out aloud!

The IA officers exchanged glances, then motioned to the chief.

"This way, sir. We need a statement."

They shared a look and some of them started putting together the files in there.

And just like that, the throne he had built with arrogance and everything came crashing down.

Leon had not kept his voice down; therefore, almost every other person in the station, apart from the Chief’s office, also heard this, making the station become unusually quiet as officers and admin staff gathered in the common area, tension hanging. They had all heard the whispers, seen the IA cars parked outside, and watched the exodus of files being quietly boxed from the chief’s office.

Who did not know what that meant?

The doors opened. The former chief stepped out in cuffs, flanked by Internal Affairs agents on either side. His face was pale, lips pursed tight as though still trying to figure out where everything had gone wrong. As he was led past his own officers, no one spoke. Some looked away. Others didn’t bother to hide their smirks. Yep, they just spat on anyone who was down! It was ridiculous!

The Chief turned to glance back once, just before stepping into the waiting car.

Inside the building, the Commissioner of Police, who had also come down for this, flanked by the IA officers and his sub-team, faced the press and then addressed them:

"Effective immediately, the current Chief is under formal investigation for abuse of authority, obstruction, and willful neglect of duty." He paused, eyes scanning the gathered press.

"We require leadership that serves the people, and nothing outside of this!"

He sucked in his breath, narrowing his eyes, as all eyes turned to the Chief who had been ushered out. Even without the full details, they could understand what this could mean.

"Detective Leon and his partner, Evans, who led this operation, are the perfect example of this for the other officers. These two will continue to lead this investigation to its conclusion.

Most importantly, Detective Leon, from henceforth will be Acting Chief, until further notice."

*********

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