Chapter 9 – Trust

"Come on in, Nick?" Bob said as Nick opened his house door.
"I am out of stock, can you cook for me too?"
"Yeah. Did you find out who those 2 people are?"
"James said it was his friends. Came in to help him financially. I have told them I don't want to see anyone else in his house. I also followed those people. I don’t think they can create a problem. Harmless. Just visiting their old school."
"They very well have to help James financially" the old man coughed.
"Did Mr. Clark tell the plan? How much is he demanding James?"
"Yeah. tonight 10 p.m, we are to drop the boy a street away from his house. The boy can find his way home from there."

The boy crawled on the floor towards the door. He could hear them better now.

"What about the money?" Nick was eager.
"He has asked James to transfer money to his bank account online"
"Is he crazy. How can he do that without being traced"
"I asked the same thing. He said it was AIB international. Transactions can be done anonymously. I don't know much about banks. For me only cash in hand matters"
"Whatever, as long as we don't get traced and as long as we get our payments in cash, I am fine. Only with Mr. Clark you let him plan the whole thing. We have never done with our other clients"
Bob now sat near Nick "How many clients have we worked for?"
"Big clients, may be 8"
"Each of these people have brought us some trouble. Either they don't pay us promptly or they don't pay the full agreed upon amount. And whatever tasks we have done so far, we always had so much pressure in planning out."
"I agree, the Marlyn Grand case, we planned out bad, we could have almost got caught. I would say it was very lucky that we escaped"
"That's what I'm talking about. We didn't have any such issues when we worked with Mr. Clark. For the Pam Miller case, how flawless execution it was. Man, he planned everything perfectly. Did we worry about a single thing? All we had to do was blindly follow his plan. And about the payments, 4 times more than what we get from other clients. We have to be definitely flexible with such clients. For this task, we should be more than ready if he says he will pay after the task."
Nick seemed to agree.

Robert Miller was shocked to hear the name of his mother Pam Miller.
'So, was it not just an accident' Robert murmured. His heart raced. Tears fell on the floor as he thought about his mother.

"Did you know how much is the demand?" Nick asked.
"Looks like he had demanded 150K but James was begging that he can't afford even half of it"
"So, what's the final?"
"I don't know, probably he might reduce his demands. "
"What else did he say?"
"If they finalize on the amount, James will have to pay them before 10 p.m tonight.
If Mr. Clark confirms the transfer, we will have to drop the boy a street away from his house from where the boy could run to his house"
"Probably we can give James a call to pick him up?"
"No Calls after we drop the boy. Mr. Clark was particular. We will follow what exactly he says, nothing more"
"When do we get our 30K?"
"He said, we can collect it from his house the next morning"
"Alright, cook for me. Let me swap with Josh for a couple of hours."
"Alright, bye"

Robert Miller crawled back to his pillar and sat back, staring at the wall and tears flowing down his cheek.
Moments earlier, he had liked Bob when compared to the rest of his gang. Now he was filled with fury.
He wanted to kill the whole gang before he left the place.
However, he knew he is not physically or mentally up to killing some one.
He wiped his tears on the cheek but the tears wouldn't stop. 'I have to run away from this place before my father pays a penny to these rogues. Not much time to think'

'How can I run out? If this door opens outwards, I can knock on the door and when Bob unlocks and tries to open, I can kick the door forcibly. Bob will fall down and I can run out through the front door, assuming the front door is already open or easy to open'
The boy took a look at the door. Hinges were on his side. The door opens inwards. 'So this plan won't work'

A few minutes later, the boy calmed down a bit and started to think patiently.

Still it took him an hour to bring up his courage to do what he planned.
"Do I have something to drink?" Robert knocked on his door.
"Will bring some coke"
The old man unlocked the door and opened it. He had coke in hand "Boy, are you all right?"
the old man put his hand over the boy's head, made him look up "Were you crying?"
"No, I am all right" the boy told with a shivering voice.
"I promise" the old man assured "you will be home tonight"

As the boy rubbed his eyes, he looked at his room door with keys hanging on it. 'As expected' he thought.
"Bob, also the bathroom light doesn't glow" the boy went inside the room towards the bathroom"
The old man followed the boy. As soon as the boy reached halfway towards the bathroom, he made a quick turn backwards and ran outside the room and pulled the door to shut it. Though Bob did not expect this, he was quick enough to lean back and hold the door from being shut. The boy tried hard, put one of his legs on the architrave of the door and pulled the door knob hard.
The old man tried equally hard from inside. He steadied himself and now he too had to put his legs on the architrave and pull towards him.
"Robert, Is this what you do for some one who trusts you?" Bob asked still struggling with the door.
The boy didn't respond, he had saved that energy to pull the door towards him.
After a minute of struggling, the boy left the door loose immediately. The door hit Bob's head and he fell on the floor. Robert reacted fast enough to shut the door before Bob could reach the door. Locked it and took the keys.
No time to waste. Hearing heavy poundings from inside the room, the boy unlocked the front door and rushed through front gate of the house.