MELODY - LOST FROM HOME

BY TURNER2CORNERS

[ part 4 ]

I couldn’t think. I had been royalty setup! The uncle of Melody Jones had fixed me good! I couldn’t just return the girl, as she was known to be dead, identified by her uncle! The only people who could identify her were both dead; again I had to assume that her uncle had killed them too! The only question was why?

I had to read the information that Bill had sent me!

‘Melody Jones; Age 11; (picture attached) Parents John and Martha Jones both deceased – cause motor accident – police assumed that they had driven too fast and missed a corner, there were no skid marks and the car was demolished as it has crashed into a forest, the bodies were burnt and the only identification was from dental records.

‘The child has been examined by psychologists and is coping with her grief; she has periods of depression which are handled by her nurse (Mrs. R. Smith) who is in constant attention. Apart from this the child is quite mature and intelligent – see separate medical records.

‘Melody is now with her guardian Mr. Victor Jones (uncle), who has financial control over the family company until she is of age (18). Current commercial worth $20bn – company has diversified into several areas, all very profitable.’

Okay there was the information; the only available motive was cash! Without Melody her uncle would be the only man in charge of the company empire, but he’d still have control until she was 18, which was 6 – 7 years away, so why now?

I needed help, Bill wasn’t available, and who could I turn to? Then I realised, Elizabeth! She would be able to suggest some-body. Where did I leave that card!

I rummaged around and found the card I was after. I powered up the computer and logged onto the internet, I looked for the website; there wasn’t one -just a contact address.

The screen went blank for a moment, and then turned blue, White writing on the screen said.

‘Enter message:’

That was all that was displayed, so I type in.

‘Message for Dr. Elizabeth Watson - need help! Current client causing problems I need solution.’

I pressed the enter button and immediately saw;

‘You bastard! Why did you kill the kid?’

This puzzled me! I hadn’t? So I replied.

‘She’s safe - body found wrongly identified! Repeat commission is safe!’

There was a delay, and then I read the following.

‘Software following - load it and then attach camera to your system. We will decide later.’

And then the normal data message appeared on the screen, did I want to save it or run from remote site. I had to trust them, if the police arrived to arrest me they would find her downstairs; I’d even show them my evidence just to get my own back on my client. I clicked on the load button.

The display told me 2 hours to download and install, I sat down and poured myself a drink.

----

While I was waiting I thought I’d better cook a meal for my ‘guest’; I also went through a collection of clothing, which might be suitable for her to wear. I must admit that this was weird for me; normally I ensured they didn’t have much to wear in the first place!

After the meal was ready I took it down to the basement – I was wondering how could I tell her that the people she had now grown to love were not dead! Even worse than that, she was also thought to be dead!!

It turned out that I didn’t need to.

I found her, face down on the mattress, sobbing away – she wouldn’t talk to me, it seemed that nice Mr. Purple was now just as nasty as Mr. Blue and Mr. Red, when I asked her what was wrong.

She pointed to the paper I’d left behind me, after the photographs had been taken of course, being the naturally curious child that she was she’d started reading, and came across the details of her kidnapping. When she saw that people had died and read their names, she had stopped reading and had given up to her grief.

I tried to hold her, but this time she wriggled out of my arms. I waited some minutes before she would listen to me.

“Melody, I promise you, when I kidnapped you, your house was deserted, I’d been told all of the staff were away at the pictures! There was no mention of guard dogs and certainly no sign of any deaths! And I’ve also have to say that I didn’t kill the kidnap victim either!” Her head shot up at this and she looked me in the eyes, “Apparently your body was found and identified – I’m sorry to say that everyone thinks you are dead!”

“But I’m here,” She exclaimed, “I’m alive! NO you’re just playing with me aren’t you!”

I shook my head, I then picked up the paper and scanned through it, then showed the part to Melody, she read through it, and then looked at me, with puzzlement in her eyes.

“Yeah,” I said, “You’re dead, and you’ve been identified by your uncle, the only two others who would know you are also conveniently killed, and I’ve been set up to take the blame! No doubt at sometime your uncle will be able to supply a description of me, or so he thinks.”

Melody read though the paper again.

“But I don’t understand, what about Mr. Blue or Mr. Red, couldn’t they have done something without you knowing?” It was a good question and purely logical, she did bounce back from tears quickly.

I looked at her and shook my head, “They don’t exist, they’re just computer voices created to convince a young girl that she’s been kidnapped, in order to make her into a willing little sex slave for her uncle.” I told her

“Uncle Victor,” She sounded amazed, “He arrange all this, he wanted me to be his, his. . .” She tried to think of a name, I supplied it.

“Toy, yes! A willing little girl who was so grateful that she’d do anything for her uncle, of course this would be after the bad kidnappers had taught her everything!” I told her

She looked at me, open mouthed, “Was that what he wanted?” She asked me. “How did he think I’d do that?”

I tried to sound smug, “Well, that’s my speciality,” I said, “I train children to enjoy being sex slaves.”

“But why did you pick on me?” She asked.

“Because my agent had a very good price presented to him, on condition that I, or someone like me, could do the job.” I told her, and then continued with, “he passed it to me and like a fool I accepted!”

Before she could ask any more questions I offered the tray of food, “Now, how about getting a good meal inside you, while I wait for a program to load, I’ve got some clothes for you to wear. I think you’ve been in those pyjamas for a bit too long.”

She managed to smile at my little joke, picked up a fork and started to eat the cooling food.

I left the cell door open as I went upstairs, this time I wasn’t concerned about her running about, the cell itself wasn’t needed any more!

The program was counting down, 5 minutes left to run. I heard a knock on the door to the room, I turned to see Melody standing in she doorway.

“I hope you don’t mind me coming up here?” she asked timorously, I held out my hands, in some way’s being Mr. Purple had rubbed off.

She watched the download progressing and took a look at the number of bytes downloaded, “Wow! That’s a big program you’re downloading. What is it?” She asked.

“I don’t know!” I said, “When I found out about all the fuss over your kidnapping, I called out for help these people are my only hope.”

"Who are they?" Melody asked, and then seemed amused when I replied,

"I don't know! It’s a group of people somewhere. All I do know is their name!"

"So what's their name?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter." I said, "I just hope they'll be able to help us."

She gave a sneer, "You mean that you hope they'll be able to help YOU!" She said despondently, "Nobody cares about me!"

I picked her up and placed her on my lap, and then told her, "I said US, you and me. I have to prove that I didn't kill anyone, and you need to prove that you're still alive. What I can't understand is how your uncle can say you're dead, when the entire medical records. . ."

"Have all been destroyed in a singular computer error!" Came a strange male voice from my computer, "Not to mention the school records and any other we could think of that would be available to the sheriffs department in your home town, what I want to know is what the hell have you done?" I stared at the screen, a man's face was framed in it, his shirt was a sheriffs uniform, but I couldn't make out the name on his shoulders, he was wearing a name badge 'Evans' was visible.

"Nothing! All I did was to accept a commission to take young Melody here and train her!" I said indicating Melody who was still on my lap; she was looking at the man as if trying to place him.

He was looking at Melody as well; he had a picture in front of him which he was scrutinising, "Yes. That is Melody - this puts a whole new perspective on the case - what ideas do you have?" he looked at me as he asked the question.

I thought for a moment, I didn't really want to speak out in front of Melody, but I didn't know what else to do, except; "Melody, would you mind waiting outside until we finish?"

She looked at the man who nodded his head, she then looked at me, "Okay Mr. Purple - I'll look around the house if you don't mind."

I smiled at her, "No that's okay, just don't go outside please."

She smiled back, "Okay," she said and left the room.

The man on the screen just looked. "You took her how many days ago?" he asked.

"Three days ago, she knows now what has happened, and since I don't think I'll get my money for her I've stopped treating her as a guest, but that as of 20 minutes ago!"

"So why isn't she screaming the place down?" he asked. I just shrugged my shoulders

"She's been through a lot, with her parents death and now her two protectors having been killed she's all cried out!" I'm trying to offer her support, which is difficult! Anyway my thoughts on the subject, I think the uncle is the main suspect, Melody has control of the company when she's 18, what better way to prevent that than having her kidnapped, and then killed -it'll be the Lindbergh baby all over again."

The man studied me, "Okay you say the uncle, what proof do you have that he's behind it?"

I gave a hollow laugh, "None whatsoever. But it has to be him, but why he couldn't have waited longer I don't know!"

Melody's voice came from the doorway "I think it was because he was stealing money from daddy's companies." she said,

I turned to her, "How do you know that?" I said,

She hung back in the doorway, "Because that was what Michael said, he was going to get the information that night!" She looked at me, "The night you took me away!"

The man's voice sounded cold when it said, "I think he saved your life that night, otherwise you would have been that other girl!" we both looked at the screen, he nodded, "I mean it, Melody he had to get rid of you, one way or another, you couldn't just vanish there would have to be a reason, also witnesses had to be silenced, your nurse and your father's valet, I think if you hadn't been so efficient you would have been found fatally wounded, the kidnapper who was shot by the anxious uncle, but just too late for his niece."

I pulled Melody to me again as she started to realise what was being said.

The man had come to a decision, "Okay, you need our help, and we're willing to give it to you, but there will be a price. - What that will be I don't know but that will be covered later; I've got to have a word with the council, after that we'll get the ball rolling. I suggest you two remain there. Someone will contact you, I'd better tell you that the software we've downloaded can do many things, it allows us access to your system, and will give you high speed contact with us here, the system is highly encrypted and synchronized so you won't be able to attach another system to contact us. It's a security feature. By the way, I liked the cell setup you have there, it's very realistic."

I smiled, "Thank you, but how do I get in touch with you later, if I need to?" I asked.

He nodded at me, "The screen will have some new icons, try the address book, it's a directory of the people in the county, my name is Evans, I am the sheriff in Ropeville County. I'll be talking to you later." And with that the screen blanked back to my desktop.

I looked at Melody, "So what are we going to do while we're waiting?" I asked, she looked at me carefully.

"If I was still downstairs what would you be doing now?" she asked, I thought for a few moments.

"Well, I'd have the chief moan at me for taking my mask off, and then ordering me to remain downstairs looking after you, he'd be complaining about the pictures being wrong and not explicit enough and telling me to take more, all of this would be loud enough for you to hear, then I'll have either Blue or Red complain and say they wanted to have their way with you, this would all be designed to make you panic and then welcome Mr. Purple as he appeared in the doorway, this time I'll be talking you out of your panties, and then possibly playing a game of you've shown me yours now see mine. How did that sound?" I looked at her, she was smiling.

"That sounded as if you'd put a lot of work into it?" she said coyly, I just looked at her, she walked out of the room, I heard her going down the stairs to the basement and then the clang of the cell door closing.

"I HOPE MR. PURPLE DOESN'T GET INTO TOO MUCH TROUBLE" she shouted so that I could hear her, I smiled and started the next phase of Melody's training.