BITTER PILL:CANTALOUPE

CHAPTER 4*KARMA BITES*

||*CROSSVILLE*||

"Darling, are you expecting someone?"

Mrs Corkett Riley's mother asked her husband, as they rushed around their bedroom, sorting out items that needed to go in the two briefcases they had on their bed, and what needed to remain in the room. 

Despite the entire scandal with their son, and everything that has happened in the last one month and two weeks.

 The couple hadn't expected to receive a call so soon from their general oversea, but it seems their years of dedication to the church prevailed over the stain their son attached to them.

When they receive the call of service to an important evangelical meeting, the Corketts were full of delight, especially Tracy. She had jumped and sang for joy that Emmanuel had to call her to order at some point. 

Right now, their flight was leaving in two hours and they needed to catch the next train out of town, the knock on the door somehow irritated Tracy because neither her nor her husband had guest coming over and she doesn't want delay of any sort.

"No, I am not, perhaps it's the neighbour."

Emmanuel responds, getting his tie done and Tracy lets out a long hiss of annoyance. 

"I'll go who is at the door, just continue with the things we need."

Emmanuel suggests, prepared to walk out of their bedroom and Tracy pulled his hand, dragging him back as she rolled her eyes. 

"Can't you see we are running late? We do not have the time to entertain any guest, let's just ignore whoever it is they would leave in the next two minutes."

Tracy says, with a heavy tone of irritation setting in her voice and Emmanuel although felt the need to refute his wife's words, goes along with her suggestion instead of getting her upset. 

The couple continued with their packing as the hard knock on the door resounds again, which they successfully ignored. 

A few minutes later, the knocked seized and Tracy turned to her husband with a smile.

"See, I told you they would leave."

Tracy says, and Emmanuel nods closing the second briefcase and he picks up his bible bag before walking over to his wife. 

"Let us pray and commit this journey into God's hands."

Emmanuel says, and they joined hands in prayer. They looked so in tune while they prayed, and if anyone walked in on them, they would think of the Corkett's as the perfect family. 

One wouldn't believe just three weeks ago they disagreed over their missing son, in fact, the couple seems to have forgotten the existence of their son and went about their daily lives. 

Perhaps they didn't or just pretend to have forgotten about him, but they still carried on with their lives like nothing happened. 

 Tracy especially seemed to have ruled out the name Riley from her memory, and her husband Emmanuel even though he has moments where he wants to talk about the missing boy, thoughts of getting on Tracy nerves makes him change his mind and stay mute on the issue.

"In Jesus' name we've prayed, Amen. Shalom."

Both couples chorused as they opened their eyes, giving each other a light kiss on the lips before grabbing their briefcase. They locked their bedroom door and made their way towards the front door, ready to continue their service to the church.

As they reached the front door and pulled it opened, what the couple didn't expect was to find two men and one woman dressed in a fine navy blue suit, standing in front of their porch with long faces. 

"Uh, hello, who are you and how can we help you?"

Emmanuel asks, still holding the door handle as his eyes scanned the strangers and Tracy looked behind them to see a black van packed behind them. 

"Are you Mr. and Mrs. Corkett?" 

The strange woman asks and both Emmanuel and Tracy nods.

"Yes we are, how can we help you? We have a flight to catch."

Tracy says with underlining irritation in her voice, she believed whoever was knocking on their door had left, not knowing they were waiting outside, waiting like creeps. 

"I'm detective Scott from MNPD with me are..." 

The female in front introduced herself, pointing her finger towards the males that flanked her sides to introduce themselves.

"Sergeant James and Sergeant Willow."

Tracy and her husband shared a knowing look as the strangers introduced themselves, thinking they had news about their missing son. Tracy silently wished the officers came to break the news of their son's death and she was half right. 

"Okay, detective Scott, how can we help you?"

Tracy asks, sounding impatient and the female detective shakes her head at Tracy.

"Do you know one Mr Riley Corkett?"

Sergeant Willow asks and the couples nod.

"Yes, he is our son, did you find him?"

Emmanuel answered, hoping they found the boy and the police officer shared a glance before the detective nods and the sergeants moved forward on command, while the detective spoke.

"Mr. and Mrs. Corkett, you are under arrest for aggravated assault and for the murder of your son, Riley Corkett..."

"What! how dare you accuse us of killing our son, he's missing."

Tracy shouted, resisting arrest as the officers tried to cuff her.

"You have, the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can might implicate you in a court of law. You may consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, we will appoint one for you before any questioning if you wish. Officers, take them to the car."

Detective Scott commands, her hands in her pocket as she stepped out of the way, for the sergeants to pass with the couple. 

The other officers, exits the van as the sergeants brought the copy in, walking over to Detective Scott, while Tracy wouldn't stop shouting. 

"Search the house for the tiniest bit of evidence."

Detective Scott says, as she walks into the room with the officer. The two officers immediately take to searching the living room, for anything belonging to Riley that could help the investigation while detective makes her way down the hallway to the rooms. 

Soon the detective and the officers round up and they Detective Scott pulled the door close, before joining her team in the car and they drive away from the neighbourhood. 

Meanwhile, the neighbours that came out because of Tracy's noise had eavesdropped on every little detail they could, so they could spread the gossip to their friends. 

~~~

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[Is Ronin there? put him on the phone for me.]

Judge Wellington asked her wife, as they concluded the initial discussion they were having.

[Hold on while I call for him.]

Dr. Linda says, hollering for Ronin, who came sauntering down the spiral stairs of their mansion with a displeased frown on his face.

"What do you want?"

The eighteen-year-old asked his mom, irritated that she had disturbed his nap.

"That's no way to talk to me, I'll deal with that later. Your mama wants to speak with you."

Dr. Linda says, passing the phone to her son, who collects it with a slight grumble.

[Mama.]

Ronin calls into the speaker, as he pressed the phone to his hear.

[Your friends' parents were, apprehended earlier today.]

Judge Wellington says, cutting to the chase and that one sentence changed Ronin's countenance from sour to delight.

[Oh my God, really mama. You mean it?]

Ronin question, his eyes dancing with joy as he looked to his mom. 

[Yes son, they are on their way to Nashville right now. The government prosecution office will follow up on the case. If there is enough evidence, we can go to court.]

Judge Wellington provides, telling Ronin what he needed to know for the time being and the teenage boy fist bump in joy. Knowing that justice would finally bite those evil parents in their asses.

[Thank you so much mama, Thank you so much, I love you.]

Ronin gushed in gratitude towards his mother, who smiled at the other end of the phone.

[But, the detectives might need you here in Nashville, since you are the one reporting the case and only person close to him before everything that happened. They would need you to tell them everything you know about Riley, the people in school, and what happened to him. Also, why you believed his parents had anything to do with this. Are you up for that?]

Judge Wellington asked, letting her son know how much of a big deal, this whole situation might be, since the victim wasn't there to testify or lay any allegations. They have to be extra careful with the case, or the judge might end up making a fool of herself. 

[I understand mama, and I don't think I was the only one close to him. I saw him a few times with a teacher in school; I don't know what it was about. They always had something to discuss.]

Ronin provides, looking at his mom in the room for some sort of encouragement that he was doing the right thing. 

[Okay baby, don't worry about anything. I'll get some people to look into him and the detective would be the one to decide if they need him for questioning.]

[Thank you, mama.]

Ronin says once more, smiling from ear to ear as his mother tells him to hand over the phone to his other mom, and Ronin complied. 

Now he knows he can sleep at night without guilt in his heart for the injustice that happened to his friend.