Mistakenly Eaten

19. A Mole

As everyone gathered by the town’s square, which was an old rustic statue of an old mustachio man, who was considered as the founding father of the different pasta shapes and was also the first mayor of the town, people stood on the bricked pavements, chanting amongst each other.

The workers from the restaurant also came together, spreading word about how two men showed up mysteriously and pretended to be from the Secret Chef Hunters’ Society and took Althea away with them. But everyone was stunned by Seb’s revelations that Althea’s rejection letter had already showed up.

The town’s commissioner, Jacob Sarmiento who was also Gustav’s close friend, also showed up at the square and approached Monique, gently touching her hand.

His hair greyed and slightly white beard grown around his jaw, freckles and wrinkles covered his skin, showing his ripe age of sixty five, as he was only biding time till he would be asked by the council to finally retire from his job.

He once loved and adored that woman and was also almost engaged to her but had to let go off her, when she revealed that she was in love with Romeo Ferrara, Althea’s father.

He also helped her elope with him and even protected them when Monique’s brothers wanted to kill the two for putting the family to shame.

He always understood her pain and knew that her daughter was her pride and with Althea, he could only imagine that Monique must be completely shattered and in extreme pain.

“I have contacted the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society that the two men who showed up, claimed to be from. The society is currently gathered for some event on an island, which is their annual cooking competition, so it could be true that Althea might have been recruited by them and the first letter that Seb and Luna saw, might be an error because of which they had to come on their own to take Althea with them. So, don’t worry. People at the restaurant were also certain that Althea left willingly and they didn’t look harmful. So, please have some patience, until I would get some more information. I promise you, I will find Althea safe and sound.”

Monique nodded and hugged Jacob, thanking him gently for always being her pillar.

“I know, I trust you Jacob.”

She told him and people around the square, grabbed the flyers for Althea’s pictures and began putting it up on different buildings around the town, just so who didn’t show up at the square, might give some information on the girl.

Seb and Lur guided everyone, providing them with tapes and Althea’s posters and even gave their interviews to the local newspaper journalist, so that the word would spread and anyone might help them out in Althea’s case.

Irene stood with shame, as she put up the posters on the wall, trying her best to play her part and Peter had also shown up, only to support his fiancé but she felt nothing but a pure fraud, crumpled up in that entire crowd, who was actually worried for her sister and she was the one who was least worried about Althea’s disappearance.

“Your sister was a really nice girl. I mean, I hope she still is.” Peter told Irene, snapping her out of her guilt. “I know you are worried.” He told her, hugging her from the side and pecking her forehead gently, “Don’t be worried, we will find Althea.”

Peter moved forward to put on some more of Althea’s posters but Irene stood back, ridden with guilt over how she was not worried for Althea and in fact, the realization had just began dawning on her, that she was indeed a horrible person for mistreating the woman, who gave up her entire life and dreams for her.

“She did all of this, only because she didn’t want to pay me my money back.” Gustav’s loud voice boomed, making everyone around the square turn towards the source of voice.

Irene saw her uncle, as she stood on an upright pavement and immediately rushed to her mother’s side.

“Your daughter took money from me and now she had ran away, pretending that she had been kidnapped. Does she really think it will fool me? I will not be fooled by her. the entire town might be fooled by her little trick but I know. First she took loan for Irene’s education and when she couldn’t pay me back even in four years and had to take a loan for her wedding as well, she ran away, pretending to be kidnapped.”

Gustav didn’t stop bickering and barking, making everyone in the town, loath and distaste him even more than they already did.

“Gustav, stop it.” Jacob stepped ahead, urging his friend to stay low but Gustav was beyond angered, as all he saw was his money going down the drain.

“You shouldn’t come between this matter now.” Gustav warned him. “You have always been blindsided by Monique because of your affection towards her. the whole town knows that the reason why you couldn’t stay with your wife was because you just never got over Monique. But I am not going to be fooled by her. she is a traitor. She betrayed our family to marry that fisherman. Her daughter stems from the same root, I know she is also betraying me and had run away…”

“Enough!” Irene yelled at her uncle, who didn’t let go off her as well and targeted her as well.

“You shut the hell up. You are the root of the entire problem. Had you not been born, Althea would’ve never taken any money from me and I would have never been stuck with some lousy money loose nieces but don’t you worry, I will make sure that I get my money’s worth from you. If not Althea, than you will work in my restaurant. I want my money’s worth…”

“Enough of your bullshit.” Monique yelled back at her brother. She had had enough of her brother’s bullying.

Althea had always asked her to hold herself back from saying too much to Gustav, since she was grateful to him for just giving her the loan for Irene’s education and for keeping that a secret from Irene as well.

But with Althea gone, Monique was not going to stand back and listen to her brother’s belittling words.

“You manipulated and exploited my Althea. I will not let you even touch Irene.” Monique stated, holding her daughter firmly and at the same time, the people of the town who had gathered around began throwing slurs at Gustav, for being so impatient and shameless.

“Gustav, don’t you have any shame? You should be helping the poor woman.” Said one of the bystanders.

Perhaps, people never intervened in the family affair but they knew that Gustav was a cheap miser, who only cared about money.

“Yes! You should be worried about Althea’s well being. That poor girl kept your restaurant going for years. No worker had survived with you for more than six months and it is because of her that your stupid retsuarant is still working. Have some shame.”

People began throwing slurs at Gustav, who finally started to get embarrassed as the entire town turned towards him.

People were torn, broken and worried that someone who was such an integral part of the town, known for her loving, positive and caring nature had gone missing in such a horrible way.

And with Gustav, whom people already distasted, showing up and bickering to the poor mother of the girl, who was already in shambles because of Althea’s disappearance, the town’s residents didn’t hold themselves back either and rose a full fledged war with Gustav.

“Shame on you!”

People began yelling and chanting at Gustav, making him bow and throw his head down in shame.

“Get out of here!”

“If you are not here to help, don’t make it harder on the poor woman.”

People stood up for Monique and Irene was stunned to see how Althea’s kindness was able to win over everyone’s heart in the town, so much that people didn’t care to go against Gustav, who was a rich and powerful man.

Gustav immediately left the crowd, humiliated and embarrassed and Monique turned towards Jacob, thanking him for standing up for her.

Seb and Lur continued putting up posters around town, thanking those who did the deed with them.

“I’ve heard Commissioner Jacob tell that Althea might be taken by someone at the secret chef’s society.” Lur informed Seb, who shook his head as he put up another poster outside the town hall, where people came in from nearby villages and he wished that someone would somehow recognize Althea and report her whereabouts.

“No! she is not taken by that secret society.” Seb stated.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because, didn’t you hear Detective Lana, they had deleted the surveillance footage as well.”

“They?”

“The kidnappers.” Seb commented. “They are some big powerful people and I am honestly worried for Althea. I won’t show it but there is some big gang involved in all of this.”

“Wait! But let’s just say that they have kidnapped Althea. Like some big gang did it.” Lur tried to trace the entire events in her hand and mapped out the series in front of Seb, trying her best to connect the dots, “Like someone from a gang, who kidnaps girls and sells them in p**********n or something did so, let’s just say that. But don’t you think that they would do it on a random occasion. Like they could’ve picked her up when she was travelling from the restaurant to her home at night? Like she usually leaves the restaurant late and the way to the fields is always deserted, so it was a more easier way for them. They acted and pretended to be from the Secret Chef Hunters’ Society, which means that they were either tailing Althea for a long time and knew that she was yearning to be accepted by the society or they were actually from the society. I mean, why would someone tail Althea for a long time and just show up pretending to be from the Secret Society. I mean, why would someone just tail Althea and even know the fact that she doesn’t even know that she was rejected by the society. This is just so messed up.”

Lur grunted, throwing her hands up in the air and even Seb scratched the back of her neck.

“This is f****d up.” He agreed. “Like if kidnap her, why put so much effort. Like send a bunch of pretenders and then just take her and….”

Seb paused in the middle of his sentence, as he watched detective Lana passing by him, entering the town hall.

“Detective Lana!” he called her out, making her turn back to look at him.

“Yes?”

“Could it be possible that when Althea’s kidnappers took her, she didn’t even know that she was being kidnapped?”

Lana nodded, “It is could be one of the many theories.”

“So, it means that whoever took her, didn’t want her to know that she was being kidnapped and took her pretending to be a part of that Secret Society and maybe, she is not at that Secret Society but wherever she is, they might still be pretending that they are the Secret Chef Hunters’.”

Lana c****d at Seb’s theory, that made the slightest sense. “Yes, but why would someone go the lengths of pretending to be… wait!”

Suddenly a realization hit Lana, and seeing her pause in the middle of her sentence, Seb and Lur looked at each other, hoping that Lana had some sort of epiphany, that could lead to any development in the case.

“You guys said that she was a great cook, right?” Lana inquired and both Seb and Lur nodded in agreement.

“I might have to check something.”

With that Lana, sped up inside the hall, going up to her station, in order to work on the theory that she just came up with.

She rushed to her desk and Seb and Lur followed her up in to her room.

Her assistant sat on the desk parallel to hers and opening up her desktop, she called for her assistant’s attention.

“Did you check all the bus stands and train routes for the day Althea Ferrara went missing?”

Her assistant nodded, fixing her glasses on her face.

“I did but all of the footage was deleted from all of the stations.”

“I am asking about the routes.” Lana emphasized the poor girl bit her tongue inside her mouth.

“Oh! I am sorry. Wait…” she typed something in her computer and then sent an email to Lana, who was quite frustrated by the girl’s lazy and dim witted behavior.

Lana opened up the email that her assistant sent her and checked all of the train routes that were present from the day of Althea’s disappearance.

“The restaurant’s staff said that they didn’t come on a car and they left at around three in the evening and no train or bus left between twelve to six, which is the time during which all of the surveillance footage is deleted.”

“What does this mean then?” Seb requested and Lana finally reached the finally conclusion.

“This means that they left neither by car, bus or train. They left by ship.”

Seb and Lur, looked at each other in utter bewilderment, thinking about the new development in the story.

The assistant got up from the seat and walked towards the washroom, locking the stall that she got in and threw down the toilet seat cover. Sitting on top of the cover, she took out her phone from inside her chest, hiding in her bra. It was a small button phone and dialed the only number saved on it. The call went through after the first ring.

“They found out that you left by ship.” She stated firmly and clearly, without saying saying any other salutations.

“Anything else?” the rustic voice asked from the other side.

“That you might be tailing on her for a while to know that she was obsessed with that stupid cooking competition.” She stated, remembering the things that she heard Seb and Lur say when she was hiding behind the pillars of the town hall and eaves dropping on their conversation.

“Hmm. Anything else?”

“Oh! That the footage was deleted deliberately and it might be some big gang involved and shit.” She reported and after another ‘Hmm’, the person said a few simple words, that were enough of a command and finally cut the call off.

“If there is any further progress, then report me immediately. You know what you have to do with this sim now. Pick a new one from the train station.”

With that the call got cut and the assistant got from the toilet seat, removing the cover, she took out the sim from the phone and threw it in the toilet, draining it right away.

She shoved the empty phone back inside her clothes and walked out, having zero remorse or guilt on her heart, for cheating and betraying at her job.

The guy, who was on the other side of the phone was Gigi, who had left his spies all over the town, in order to make sure that he knew what was happening in the town with Althea’s disappearance.

He was certain that Salva’s plan was just going to work with Althea and was solid enough to fool her but not everyone in the town and he was right.

So far, he found out that the real competition had already rejected Althea, she didn’t know about it, her friends did, who received her letter but luckily for them, they threw it away.

It was just another thing that was going to come handy for Gigi in the upcoming times.

He sat inside the monitoring room, looking at the street surveillance footage of the streets of Gragnano, from when he and Salva picked Althea up from the restaurant.

He had all of the footage deleted but kept the records for his own self , because he didn’t want his or Salva’s face to be traced at all.

Salva was a quite careless and was simply focused on bringing Althea to the island and making sure to keep her there but Gigi was going to tread even more carefully.

-------------------------------

Thoughts on Gigi?

Do you think Althea's friends and family will find her out?

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3