The Absconsion

The Investigation (P-2)

' Tom, we checked the traffic cams of all the roads connected to the place where Elly was dropped by her friend. We spotted some suspicious vans. The reason we found them suspicious was, as we continued to track the vehicle, many identical vans kept joining the route. We could track them till highway 54, and we do not have traffic cams after that road. '

' Okay. Where does the road leads to? If there are many vans involved, then they need some big place to stop by. '

' There are three paths connected to it, one lead to Minnesota, the other one leads to Madison, and the last one leads to a harbor, called Paul Dockyard. That is a dead-end. '

' Well, if the vans might have gone through the highways, we can pick them up on the traffic cams of the highways. I think the dock is our best chance. We need to go and investigate the pier. I will update you once I am done interrogating them. You check on the cams of the other two highways and if you spot those vehicles, inform me right away. If you did not spot, then they must have stopped at the dock itself and I am going to find out. '

Tombeck then set off to the pier, hoping he would get some clues. They need to act fast as it had already been a few days and there were no solid leads to pursue. The police are not able to answer the parents who were devastated about the missing of their loved ones. The families needed just one small hint that their loved ones are alive and safe. Usually, if certain amount of time passes by, then it would be near to impossible to find the missing people.

After questioning the pier's owner, Tombeck ringed Daniel to let him know about his findings.

' I think I have something. After questioning the owner, I came to know that the harbor was rented to some anonymous person the day the kidnappings occurred. The money that had been wired to the owner got traced back to some shell company overseas. All the guards and workers were given a day's leave and all the cc tv cameras were disabled during that day. When asked for the reason, the owner said that the person who was renting the harbor for a day was throwing some kind of fancy party and he did not want any footage of it. But I knew that he had some kind of footage related to that. After giving him some money, he told that he turned on the camera which was fixed to one of the containers and from that, I could see that all the vans were coming to the harbor, after which people got down from the van and then they were boarded onto buses. I recognized Elly as one of the persons being boarded onto the buses. It looks like they were going along willingly. I could not see where the buses went, the cams did not cover that. Then the owner also confirmed that no ships departed from the harbor that day, so they have not used the ships in the harbor either. Daniel, I will send you the camera feed, and I want you to track where these buses went by checking the traffic cams. I want to know where they went as soon as possible. '

Daniel immediately started doing the work Tom had said. Tom did not disconnect the call while Daniel was working on the lead. 

' Tom, I spotted the buses. They took route 36 and headed straight for 98 kilometers and took a small detour then. '

' Where does that road lead to? '

' Another harbor called Blue Jay. '

' I am heading there right now. I want you to reach there too. '

It took two hours for Tombeck to reach the port. He hoped that he would get some new leads. He has to.

' Are you the owner of this port? I am detective Tombeck, Kansas City. '

' Yes. How may I help you? '

' I received a piece of information that, a few days ago, many buses have come to his port. May I know the reason? '

' Buses? Why would buses come here? '

' If you don't mind, can you show me the past week's footage? '

The owner accepted his request and took him to the monitoring room, where the cc tv feeds are constantly monitored. As the owner said, Tom could not see any buses entering the port. It puzzled him. But instead of buses, many transport trucks were entering the port. Inside the truck were containers that were directly shipped onto the ships without being checked. Tom wondered if all the people were sedated and then moved into those containers to avoid being detected and to keep the people in dark about where they were being taken.

' What do these containers consist of? '

' I don't know. They had a no-check permit which was signed by some officials. So, we had to allow them into our port even if it was against our policies. They even had their own ships. Our harbor was only used to load their shipments onto their ships. '

' Do you have contact with the person who has talked to you about this? '

The owner gave him a name and a number, but as expected, they were fake.

' Do you know the destination? '

' We do not know the exact coordinates, as we did not want any trouble from the government. But it went deep into the north-pacific and the ships returned after three days without the shipment. '

Tombeck asked some more questions and then left to work on what they had got till now.

----*----

Elly's parents were worried sick and their trust in Tom was slowly fading away. Even though Tom made some progress with the case, he did not have any convincing answers for the victim's family. Even though, Tom had seen Elly in the cc tv cams which was captured a few days ago, he refused to meet her parents and tell them about it because he did not want to get their hopes high until he finds solid proof that Elly is alive still. But that did not stop Elly's parents from coming to the station every day to know about the whereabouts of their daughter. Nita, out of guilt, also accompanied Elly's parents to the station every day, neglecting her studies. Elly's parents were mad at Nita for keeping this a secret, but they did not have the energy left in them to hate her anymore.

----*----

' We got an update from the police, sir. '

' Did they find him? '

' I am afraid not, but they think that he is kidnapped. '

' Kidnapped? That man is one of the smartest people that I ever knew. It is not possible to kidnap him when people don't even know that he exists. What if he had teamed up with any of the rival companies? Nah, I mean he would probably not go against the company that he built from scratch. Or will he? Is the rage to destroy me had overcame his desire to claim back his company? If that is the case, then we might have a bigger problem. With his mind, it would not be so long that he would demolish our company. I think it is time to deploy everything we have in finding him. He is becoming a greater threat than I have anticipated. I should have never let my dear friend go, I should have ended him. '

----*----

' Mrs. Lee. The detective has said that they made significant progress in the case. If this continues, then John will be back in a couple of days. Now I am worried about you. You probably have only a few days left to recover your health. You do not want John to see you like this, right? John might be irresponsible till now, and maybe we are the reason for that, but trust me when I say this, Mrs. Lee, he has changed. He has grown and started to understand what responsibility means. All he needs now is your trust in him. Just believe in what he is doing and he will not disappoint you, Mrs. Lee. So, all I am asking you is not to worry about his absence and concentrate on getting well. '

----*----

' What story are you going to tell me today, mom? '

' The story that I am going to tell you today is Ananse and the Pot of Wisdom.

Long ago, people knew very little about things. They knew nothing about farming, tools, or how to weave cloths. Nyame, the God of heaven had all the wisdom. He kept all the wisdom stored up in a clay pot and one-day Nyame gave Ananse the spider a special gift; the pot, with all the wisdom in it.

Ananse was excited. Every time he looked in the clay pot, he learned something new. Greedily, he decided to keep the pot away from the world. He did not want to share the wisdom with anyone else. He tied a rope around his waist so he would be able to climb a tree. Also, he tied the rope around the pot of wisdom and it hung down in front of him. He began to climb the tree.

Ananse was disappointed that despite the knowledge he could not tie the clay pot properly. But then a boy who saw Ananse approached him and offered to help. the boy tried tying the clay pot full of wisdom to Ananse's back, and it really was a lot easier. In no time Ananse reached the top of the tree. But then he stopped and thought. "I'm supposed to be the one with all the wisdom, and here this little kid was smarter than me!" Ananse was so angry about this that he threw the clay pot down out of the tree. It smashed into pieces on the ground. Of course, all the wisdom got out and flew away all over the world. That is how people learned to farm, and to make clothes, and to make iron, and all the other things that people know how to do. that is how people are intelligent and smart now. '

Aaron was already asleep by then. Lisa also noticed that from the time she started acting like a mother to him, Aaron did not ask much about when Jackson would return. Lisa was surprised about happy she felt when she is with Aaron. She wondered why she acted so cold towards them all this time. As she began to ponder, she realized that all this time, she has been diverting the anger she has on his husband for leaving her alone, which she was channeling on to the kids. She did not hate them, but she was angry at the situation she was in. She felt left behind. She really did love the children when she married Aaron's father. And she really does love them now. When she had this realization, she felt light-hearted. She felt at peace. She now know what she needed to do. And she decided to clear things out with Jackson when he returns, after all, he is her son.