The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
★

Yasmine was in the kitchen whisking egg whites when the doorbell rang. She froze instantly, letting the whisk clutter noisily to the counter top. Had the police returned?

Wiping her hands on her purple apron, she contemplated her options. She could let whoever was at the door keep ringing the bell until they tired themselves out and left. But then Nicky would hear and he would create a scene like he did earlier that morning with the police. Yasmine sighed and went to open the door; there was no other option.

Yasmine saw Nicky standing at the top of the stairs. He was clutching Special Agent Paddington tightly against his chest. Their eyes met. She could not only see but also feel the raw hope in his eyes as he thought that the police were back. She had managed to chase the police away the first time. Would she manage to do it a second time?

She yanked the door open with more force than necessary and stared at the man standing at her door. He was a gigantic man with curly shoulder length hair and smoldering green eyes that looked better than emeralds. He pulled his charcoal grey coat closed and smiled.

"Yes?" Yasmine hoped that her voice didn't quiver as she spoke.

The man stuffed his hands into his pants. "I am Benjamin Moore."

Yasmine was annoyed. Call her primitive and old fashioned, but she hated it when people pocketed infront of her. It was a sure sign of contempt. She tried for civility. "And what is Benjamin Moore doing at my house?"

"I'm a house inspector. The realtor that sold you this house hired our company for routine house inspections."

"Can I see some ID?" Yasmine leaned against the door, folding her arms over her generous chest. She hoped the posture made her look as intimidating as she imagined.

"Oh it's right here." Benjamin gave her his ID.

Yasmine skimmed through the ID. It seemed genuine enough. Not that she would know how a genuine house inspector's ID looked like; she wasn't even well educated. She opened the door wider, moving out of the way and let Benjamin in.

"How long is this going to take?" Yasmine fiddled with the straps of her apron, afraid to look him in the eye.

"Well if I don't find any problems, I will be gone within the hour."

Yasmine suddenly remembered the woman in the basement. If the house inspector found the door to the basement, what then? How would she explain away such a  thing? She saw Nicky starting to descend the stairs and shouted. "Nicky, go up to your room! Let the nice inspector finish his work."

Nicky hesitated then ran up the stairs to his room, leaving Yasmine alone with the house inspector who was carefully examining every nook and cranny of the living room. She could tell him everything. About the woman in the basement, about her mother and, most especially, about her husband. But there was the tiny issue of the cameras. They were everywhere besides the bedrooms.  Yasmine would tell him everything when he got to inspecting the bedrooms.

The inspector abruptly turned making Yasmine jump. Had he found something? "Where is the bathroom?"

Yasmine waited for her heart rate to slow down before she answered. "Up the stairs. The first door on the left."

"Thank you." Benjamin said and took the stairs two at a time.

Yasmine went back into the kitchen. She no longer had the energy to cook anything. There was food leftover from yesterday. She would warm that instead. She sat on the counter top, thinking. Something about the inspector and the way he'd hurriedly ascended the stairs was bothering her. She was about to let it go. And then she remembered that Nicky was upstairs.

Shit!

★★★

Benjamin hadn't lied about wanting to use the bathroom. He entered the bathroom and peed into the bowl. He washed his hands then stared at his reflection in the mirror. The charcoal grey suit he'd been forced to wear was slow-cooking him to death. The suit was heavy and dark and expensive and absurd. He wouldn't be caught dead wearing a suit. The only reason he was wearing the suit was because he had to pretend to be a house inspector. That was the only way to get into the house. Yasmine had chased the police away when they'd come in uniform.

He opened the door carefully so as not to make a noise and shut it with even more caution and left in search of Nicky. Benjamin already knew that Nicky was the one who'd called in the tip. He also knew that Nicky was the only one in the house who was willing to speak to the police.

Wiping the sweat on his brow, Benjamin tiptoed across the hall. The blue door at the end of the hall seemed like something a boy like Nicky would like. He checked there first and almost danced when he saw Nicky sitted on his bed, headphones in his ears and a teddy bear at his side.

Nicky removed the headphones the moment Benjamin entered into his room. Benjamin pulled out his police badge from his coat pocket and watched Nicky's face light up.

Benjamin leaned close and whispered. "What was the emergency?"

Nicky got up and searched his cluttered desk. He returned with a paper which he gave to Benjamin.

Benjamin began to read.

My father is a murderer. He abducts women and keeps them in our basement. He likes to take them to the forest. I don't know what he does with them when they are there. He took Harleigh to the forest too but she didn't return. He killed Thelma as well. I know this because I saw him burying her hair in the garden. Right now, there is a woman in our basement. My mom is not at fault for anything. She is trapped here because my dad is holding her mother captive. Please save her.

Benjamin was filled with an uncanny euphoria. The kind of euphoria that came when the pieces of a puzzle in a case as difficult as this one started to fall in place. He folded up the note and pocketed it. "What's your father's name?"

Nicky began to write in his notebook just as his mother stormed in, her auburn hair wild and her eyes nearly bulging out of her head. Benjamin stood up and raised his hands like a criminal who has been caught red handed.

"You lied to me! The realtor didn't hire any house inspector." Yasmine was hysterical. She was yelling at the top of her voice.

"I need you to—" Benjamin tried.

"You don't need me to do anything. I'm the one who needs you to get out of my house right now." Yasmine snarled.

There was no placating Nicky's mother. Benjamin resorted to telling the truth. "Yasmine, your mother is safe. She's with us at the station. I'm a police officer. You can trust me."

At this, Nicky's mother stopped. She teetered to the side as if she was drunk and then she speared Benjamin with her disconcerted gaze.

"You are lying." Yasmine said but Benjamin could tell that she wasn't so sure. She wanted to hope.

"It's true. Your mother is at the station. You no longer need to be afraid of your husband. He no longer has leverage over you. Help me help you." Benjamin approached her like one did a feral animal.

"Why should I believe you? You've lied before. How sure am I that you are telling the truth?"

Benjamin made a call to Callie and handed her the phone. He gave her some space to talk to her mother.

When Yasmine was done talking to her mother, she handed the phone back to Benjamin and enveloped Nicky in a hug.

"We are leaving, Nicky. Do you hear? We are free. Ten long years later and we are finally free." Yasmine kissed Nicky's forehead and cheeks.

Benjamin cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt. But there is a woman in the basement who could use some freedom."

Yasmine grabbed Benjamin's hand, fear evident on her face. "No, there are cameras in the living room and in the basement. Let me disable them first."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?"

"I'll turn off the electricity. The cameras are obsolete. They do not accommodate an alternative source of power. So if I turn off the electricity, they will shut down. Wait here." Yasmine left the room.

Benjamin started to relax and then he abruptly remembered what he was going to ask Nicky before his mother barged in. He knelt before Nicky. "What's your father's name?"

Nicky thought for a while and wrote two names on a piece of paper.

Matthias Finn
Joe Warden (that's his fake name)

"You are doing great, Nicky. Do you have a picture of your father."

Nicky stared at him, uncomprehending. Did he not know that his father was a police man and that they probably worked together? He wrote on the paper.

Do you not know him? He probably works with you at the station.

Benjamin felt his heart lurch. "Huh?"

Nicky checked under his bed for the album that he kept hidden under the box springs. He flipped open a few pages and pointed at a picture. It was the only family portrait that they had. In the picture, he was sitted on his mother's lap and his father towered over them, the camera light giving his eyes an unnatural glow.

What — or who in this case— Benjamin saw unnerved him. He staggered back, all the color draining from his face. He looked at Yasmine then at Nicky, hoping that they would come out and say that it was a prank. The person in the picture couldn't be Matthias. And then suddenly, he felt like the world's biggest fool. Benjamin quickly took out his phone and called Rukelle.

"Where are you?" Benjamin asked immediately Rukelle answered.

"I'm at the forest. They found Thelma's body so I left Archer's house."

Benjamin pursed his lips. "Where's your partner?"

"Who? Matthew? I haven't heard from him. I left a bunch of calls on his cell but he hasn't called me back. I think he's still busy with the lead."

"Rukelle, there is no lead to chase because your partner is Matthias."

"Hold up. What? It can't be."

"Yes, it can. Is it so much of a coincidence that his last name, Socram, when spelled backwards, is Marcos? It's an anagram. He's been mocking us the entire time."

Rukelle was adamant. "Do you have proof?"

Benjamin felt insulted but he was not the kind to let his emotions get the best of him. He sighed. "I'm with his wife and son right now. They've confirmed it."

Rukelle was silent for so long that Benjamin thought that she'd hung up. She said. "Oh my God. We let Emilia go have lunch with Margaret. You need to get Emilia back to the station as soon as possible. She's in danger."

Benjamin got off the phone with Rukelle and dialled Emilia's number. He waited for someone —anyone— to pick up, his frustration growing with every passing second. He was about to hang up when a high pitched feminine voice filled his ears —a voice that didn't quite sound like Emilia.

"Who are you?" Benjamin asked a little too rudely.

"I'm Daisy Atkins. Umm there is no easy way to say this so I will just go ahead and say it. I think I just witnessed the owner of this phone being kidnapped."

Benjamin felt a trickle of sweat ran down his back. "What? Where was this?"

"At the basement parking lot of Shack's Bar and Grill." Daisy replied.

The lights in the room went out; Yasmine had probably succeeded in shutting off the main electric supply. She rushed in a few minutes later, looked at his face and paled.

"What did he do now?"

★

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