Meeting again

Everyone of us looked at her in complete surprise. Mr. Nibble suddenly jumped up from his seat almost making the chair fall and held Mrs. Tyler's shoulder tightly and asked in a harsh urgent tone, totally unlike his previous lazy croaking voice,

"Mrs. Tyler, do you happen to remember Mrs. Miranda's car number?"

Mrs. Tyler's stern face turned even more stern as she moved Mr. Nibble's hands from her shoulder and said in a steely voice, "Of course not. I just rode her car once when my car wheels got busted. At that time I saw that she had a grey hatchback. That's why I was surprised to see a silver hatchback. She is the only one whose got a grey car here"

Mr. Nibble looked at her in a slight resentful manner and quickly pointed at the gate guard and said, "Go fetch the guard of the back gate and Maria" he said pointing to the girl in blue, "get me the recordings of the parking and the details of ID card scanning of today"

Both of them nodded and left immediately. Once they left, I quickly came face to face with Mr. Nibble and spoke in a fearful tone, "You can't be thinking that Mrs. Miranda abducted my son?"

Mr. Nibble gave me a scared but sympathetic look as he said, "Mr. Hawker, I don't think it is Mrs. Miranda but rather I think someone sneaked in assuming Mrs. Miranda's Identity. In that case, I am afraid that maybe your son is abducted"

I felt my leg go numb and my expression froze. No. This can't be true. Why would anyone kidnap Twen? He isn't from renowned family neither am I. There is nothing to gain. This is all just a big lie!

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard Sam's tensed voice say, "But how is that possible? Wouldn't you guys have noticed?"

Three of them looked at each other with strange blank face. Miss Keyla was the one who broke the silence, "I didn't really see Mrs. Miranda today. Since, I had morning classes"

"Neither have I" Mrs. Tyler said, "I came in late. By that time, classes had started and Mrs. Miranda was not in the faculty room"

Now, all of our eyes turned to Mr. Nibble, who had suddenly turned a little red and had started sweating. He took out a kerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead with his hands trembling slightly. Seeing his suspicious behaviour, I immediately reached for his arm and grabbed it, asking in a sharp tone,

"Did you see that woman?"

Mr. Nibble spoke nervously, "I saw her as she was leaving in the evening. I called her but she said she was in a hurry. I didn't doubted anything. I just thought, her voice sounded a little different"

"Did you see the woman's face?" Sam asked

"I-I didn't" Mr. Nibble said sweating even more

"Then, how did you know?" I almost screamed, tightening my grip on his hand

He winced as he answered, "Blond, tall and her figure"

My hand only got more tighter around his wrist making Mr. Nibble hiss in pain. My fear for Twen's life was making me feel a little crazy, "That's why..... that's why you knew she had left, and that's why you got hyper when Mrs. Tyler spoke of her suspicion isn't it?"

"Mr. Hawker, please let go of his hand" Miss Keyla said putting her hand over my shoulder, "I understand, that you are anxious but right now we have no proof if someone really did sneak in. We were not the only one at school. So, if a suspicious person were seen, they would have definitely reported"

Right now, I would like to believe anything that would deflect the possibility of Twen being abducted. I looked at her concerned face and let go of his hand. I forced myself to believe that this was all the big misunderstanding. Twen must be lost somewhere and waiting for me to come.

After sometime the gate guard returned with another lanky, watery eyed fellow. He walked in and was about to greet when Miss Keyla interrupted and asked him in a soft firm tone, "Did you see Mrs. Miranda come today?"

The guard looked surprised by the question and spoke in a confused tone, "Not really! She had her car glasses up till her eyes!"

I grabbed on to Sam, I started to feel dizzy. Mr. Nibble suddenly questioned the guard pointing at the laptop screen, "Is this the car she came in?"

The guard blinked looking muddled and moved closer to the screen. There was a long pause, before he said, "Yes. She is the only one who owns a GREY hatchback"

"That's not grey, you dumbass! It is silver!! Are you colourblind?" Mrs. Tyler said, rudely

The man was very shocked. He looked around the room where everyone were eyeing him sourly.

"I-I am sorry. They both looked pretty much the same" he said, in a scared tone, his already watery eyes turning more watery.

"You-" Mrs. Tyler was just about to rage when the light footsteps of a lithe, long faced girl in blue interrupted

Mr. Nibble and Miss Keyla didn't bother with the guard any longer. They both went straight to her. Keyla quickly snatched the usb drive from her hand while Mr. Nibble quickly took the A4 sheet from her.

Miss Keyla started the parking lot's recording. I and Sam went to stand behind her. Mr. Nibble came after minute and said slamming the sheet on the table beside the laptop,

" 11:34am she scanned in and 3:37 pm she scanned out her ID. There is no other record of her today"

Miss Keyla quickly forwarded her video according to the timing. We all saw the silver hatchback enter the parking lot but then it went out of frame. Miss Keyla looked at the other recording but it was put off frame from there too. Was this just a coincidence?

The recording showed her leaving the car. But didn't show her face. Just her tall, proportionate body and blond hair. But this was not the shocking part, the most shocking part came at the time of her leaving. The video went blank for whole of ten minutes. Miss Keyla and Mr. Nibble both of them looked back us and then at Maria and John. John immediately started speaking, explaining the matter,

"My apologies, sir. Our CCTV's have been malfunctioning for a week. It's power had been turning on and off at times. It was just one of those times. It suddenly had a power outage and blacked out"

My head completely stopped working. I couldn't hear what was passing between the teachers, Sam and the security any longer. My Twen! He was kidnapped. He was taken away, I don't know where and by who. I don't know how he is. I don't know what they have done to him. I was so panic stricken that I didn't even realize when I had crashed on the floor. I heard myraid of voices around me, I felt someone called me but I don't know who, I was seeing everything in blur. I felt very drained and weak. Sam suddenly came into my view as he said to me,

"Tony? You ok? Tony? TONY?"

His loud call brought me to my senses. I looked at him and saw his worried face. I caught hold of his collar and started blabbering in my horror and fear,

"Twen...Sam Twen is taken away. He is kidnapped. Why? Why would they take my Twen. He had done nothing wrong! What do I do? What if they hurt him? What if they ki-"

"TONY!!" Sam shouted, shaking me by the shoulder, "You can't lose your mind right now. If you lost it, then who will save Twen? Pull yourself together!!" Sam scolded me

I felt tears forming at the corner of my eyes. I was scared, anxious, worried and panicked. I felt helpless and weak. Sam gripped my upper arm tightly, pulling me up on my feet, though, I felt wobbly, like I have forgotten the use of my leg

"Pull yourself together, Tony. You are Twen's mother. You can't lose your head like this" Sam spoke in stern domineering voice.

I looked at his eyes which were always kind and gentle, were now firm and strong. He spoke now with a dominant tone which he always used on his subordinates,

"Twen will be a lost case if you gave up. You are Twen's only hope. Don't you dare give up!"

I looked at the fiery eyes of Sam as his words slowly entered my head. I suddenly gained my ability to use my leg again and stood straight. I wiped the tears off my eyes and nodded to Sam.

"You are right! I can't give up like this!" I said clutching my fist tightly.

"That's more like it" Sam smiled, "I'll be calling the cops-"

No sooner had Sam mentioned 'cops' than all three of the teacher started speaking at the same time,

"Mister, you can't call cops on schoo-"

"The school's reputation will be shat-"

"The parents will be mistrust-"

Samuel turned to them and I don't know what they saw but the three of them instantly went quiet. Sam spoke in a cold dominant voice,

"Your lax in security, malfunctioning devices, irresponsible guards as well as teachers are the reason a child had been kidnapped and your still worried about your education business and school reputation? You should be thankful that I haven't decided to sue the school yet. It would be better if you shut up!"

This was not the casual, happy-go-lucky Sam but rather he was the Executive Chef Samuel Dumas. The pressure he exuded was unbelievably strong. The three teachers didn't dare to open their mouth any longer.

Sam turned to me and said in a milder tone, "We don't have time to waste. Tony you need to inform Mr. Walker about it right now!"