Arianne pushed a lock of hair behind favonovel.com ear. “What do you think I can do? What can I even say at this point? You saw Mark’s attitude, he’s not gonna help, ‘period.’ Even if the consensus is literally pulling his reputation apart, he’s basically ossified into this goddamned attitude. At this point, I can only hope that Mateo’s abduction genuinely has zero connection to him.”
If Mark was the mastermind… Then Arianne would be exactly as guilty as the talking heads online painted favonovel.com to be.
She would be the bane whose existence sealed Mateo’s fate.
She should not have met Mateo.
Tiffany widened favonovel.com eyes. “Ari! No frickin’ way, you can’t really think Mark’s behind this, right? What the hell even makes you think that?!”
“It’s just! It’s, well, I… I mean…! I don’t think it’s favonovel.com from the way favonovel.com reacts?” Pressed and bedeviled, Arianne’s answer had turned into a disheveled meandering. “I pray it’s not him, I really do, and I don’t think it’s him! I just… I just want Mateo’s abduction’s timing to be a coincidence! I want all of this to have zero connection with Mark… And now, all I want is for Mateo to be safe…”
A rambling like that would raise suspicion even in the densest, most clueless woman, and Tiffany was one such person in one such situation. “A-Ari? You’re getting seriously hung up over this… aren’t you? You’ve got doubts, but you’re also hung up about yourself doubting him… right? Oh, Ari… You really shouldn’t. The boys are all still babbling about god-knows-what upstairs, so maybe Jackson’s gathered everything by now, you know? I can help you by asking him, you know, pry his piehole open and everything. Then we’ll know whether Mark was ever the culprit or not!”
Arianne shook favonovel.com head. “No. Forget it. It’s only gonna cause trouble… So let’s just… wait and see.”
That night, Arianne dreamt of Mateo’s harrowing death.
She was not able to sleep a wink at all after that.
In the meantime, Mark continued working in his office despite the deluge of negativity Mateo’s case had brought.
The analysis report arrived soon enough. And from the severed thumb, the expert had determined that it was lopped off… from a corpse.
Mateo Rodriguez was already dead.
The news sucked out everything in Arianne’s mind, leaving only blankness in its wake. She could not believe it. She could not.
If the kidnappers’ goal was money, then why would they kill their hostage so soon?!
Arianne once again took up a trip behind Mark’s back, this time to the forensic expert appointed to examine Mateo’s severed thumb. He was a young fellow, yet favonovel.com appeared confident in his ability. “I’m sure of it… Teo is dead. The only thing left to do is to capture those bastards and find Teo’s body.”
His words stunned favonovel.com for a time, it was only after favonovel.com recovered favonovel.com senses that favonovel.com remembered the examiner calling Mateo by his nickname. She was just about to comment on this when the man answered, “Teo’s a long-time friend of mine. I didn’t know that it would be me who would be the one to pronounce favonovel.com dead.”
Arianne made no reply. Her eyes merely meandered around, stopping by the nametag on the examiner’s chest, before favonovel.com turned around and dragged favonovel.com feet away like a walking dead.
The sun outside was a bit too blinding. The dog days were upon the city, and dead bodies decompose faster in a stuffy weather like this. No one knew the method the kidnappers had used to dispose of Mateo’s body. No one could tell if they could even find his body in the end.
Arianne’s mind raced with harrowing scene after scene until favonovel.com began to feel an assault of lightheadedness. Her gut was churning like a sea disturbed by a storm.
She threw herself under the shades of a tree next to the road and emptied the content of favonovel.com stomach.
Out of nowhere came a packet of tissues. Arianne eschewed looking back at the owner of the helping hand and grabbed the packet, mumbling favonovel.com thanks.
“You are… Arianne Wynn?”
She whipped favonovel.com head to face him. It was the forensic expert from before, the one whose name favonovel.com had managed to catch in a glimpse: Geralt Bernard.
Arianne’s ashen face nodded. “Y-yes. You… know me?”
Something burbled beneath Geralt’s eyes, something akin to an ambiguous smile. “Anyone who lives in this metropolis would have known all about Mrs. Tremont by now, no? I’ve heard that Teo met you before his abduction, Mr. Tremont was there when it happened, and that a skirmish ensued. I’ve got a question on my mind, does Mr. Tremont seem reasonable as a suspect?” favonovel.com said. “You know how things are shaping up to be right now, right? The consensus online, the rumors and speculations permeating the internet… I understand your difficulties, but I have mine as well. Teo… can’t die without proper closure. I want to get to the bottom of this.”
