The environs of the Valdez office building appeared more desolated than ever. I could feel an ominous mist of sinister swaddling me as we made our way towards the entrance. There were no guards. The gate was left unlocked too.

A sound from upstairs echoed in the otherwise silent area. Was it Uncle Nick?

Jonas and I hastened up the stairs. There was no hint of any human on the first floor, or the second. Then there was, on the third floor-

Brian.

He stared at us with his eyes wide open in fright at our arrival.

It was his voice that had reached our ears downstairs. But he was not alone-

Uncle Nick.

Uncle Nick lay motionless with blood oozing from his forehead, his head rested on Brian's lap. No, he could not-

"Amy!" Brian howled.

"Uncle-Nick-" his voice broke as the words came out.

I dropped to my knees. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out. I had forgotten how to speak. Tears froze in my eyes, making the vision blur.

Uncle Nick's condition brought back the painful sight of Uncle Dave and Pappa in my memory. When I had seen them in this state, it was the last time I had seen them. Was Uncle Nick also-?

"What happened to him?" Jonas asked in a low voice.

"He fell down the stairs," Brian replied with a note of terror.

I noticed Uncle Nick's chest puffing in and out as he struggled to breathe. He was alive. I took his hand and rubbed it unceasingly while calling him out, as if he would wake up by that.

"Did you call the ambulance-?" I asked Brian restlessly.

He nodded.

"They are coming."

"Let's take him downstairs," Jonas suggested, coming forward to lend a hand.

Jonas and Brian wrapped Uncle Nick's hands around their necks from both sides and descended down the stairs. I walked ahead of them, making sure none of them tripped. The ambulance was already there by the time we reached downstairs.

The medical team placed Uncle Nick's wounded body on the ambulance stretcher and immediately put him under ventilation using an oxygen mask.

As if just for a moment, Uncle Nick's eyes opened when the ventilation was provided. Wide open. He grabbed my hand and strained to move his lips. He was choking. His forehead was beaded with perspiration. He gave his best effort in saying something, but we couldn't hear anything.

"You'll be alright Uncle Nick, don't worry," I tried to calm him down, ignoring the stress that was inundating inside me.

"Nurse!" Brian screamed anxiously.

We leaned closer to Uncle Nick in an attempt to either hear him out or to help him out.

"My pocket-" at last a whisper came out from his mouth. "The keys.....the locker."

With those three words, he drifted out of consciousness once again.

The nurse checked his pulse and breathing rate but didn't give us any update despite our tenacious demand.

Brian and I remained by his side, with all our failed attempts to revive him back to consciousness. It wasn't in our hands. Jonas was following the ambulance with his car. My cheeks were stained with uncontrollable tears while hands were stained with unwanted blood.

What was Uncle Nick talking about?

His pocket...

I slipped my hand inside Uncle Nick's pant pocket. There was nothing in the left pocket, but there was something in the right. It was a key enveloped by a creased paper.

"Do you know what this is about?" I asked Brian in a low voice.

He shook his head. I heaved, keeping the key in my tight grasp.

Brian called up Aunt Nora to inform her about her husband's accident. Attempt to murder would be a better term. It was the most difficult task in the world, to let her know, and in no way I had the courage to do it. I didn't know how Brian mustered up the strength to carry out the task.

We reached the hospital soon enough. The emergency medical team wasted no time as they pulled the stretcher directly to the ICU. Brian and I waited outside in apprehension. Jonas joined us in a short while.

"How did you get there?" Jonas asked Brian after a few minutes had passed.

"Uncle Nick called me," he answered feebly, as if his vocal cord had lost all the strength.

"I saw Uncle Josh leaving the building when I approached."

So it was Uncle Josh after all. That meant it was indeed his voice I had heard over the phone. How could he do all these to his own brothers...

Aunt Nora arrived with Aunt Lucy before we could discuss more of it. Tears pooled under her eyes as she searched for her husband.

"Where's Nick-?"

The doctor appeared out of the ICU with a distressed look.

"Doctor, what happened?" Aunt Lucy asked hurriedly.

Did she have a clue that her own husband was behind what had happened?

"The fall has caused a great effect on his brain," the doctor responded. "Mr. Valdez is in a coma now."

I grabbed Aunt Nora as she almost lost her balance at the news. It wasn't something easy to take in, even though the doctor assured us that Uncle Nick would soon likely come out of the coma.

Aunt Lucy remained beside Aunt Nora in the waiting room, consoling her while Brian and I made our way towards the reception. Maybe Aunt Lucy didn't know after all...

"I had even provided Uncle Nick with a gun for his safety, but still-" Brian broke out in emotions.

What gun?

Something rang in my mind. I recalled the night in the forest. A hooded man had exchanged a gun with Uncle Nick.

"So was it you in the forest on 7th August-?" I inquired.

"How do you know about the forest?" Brain asked in turn, surprised.

"I was there too," I replied.

I didn't mention that I had followed Uncle Nick there out of suspicion. It didn't seem like the right time to mention something like that.

"Who had initiated the gunshots?" I questioned.

"Uncle Josh. He had gotten a hint that we were working against him."

So both of them knew about Uncle Josh?

"You both were working against him?" I repeated. "Since when?"

So it turned out that Uncle Nick called Brian four days later after he had left for his grandpa's house. Uncle Nick was already collecting evidence against Uncle Josh, and later Brian joined the work too.

So this was going on for so long, and I literally had no clue about it.

"Why didn't you both inform me as well?" I asked restlessly.

"You had left the Mansion and taken shelter in the house of the detectives who had contact with Uncle Josh. How could we have trusted you?"

Made sense.

"I was investigating the case too-" I said in a low voice.

"-With them. But they didn't know about Uncle Josh."

I felt so guilty for having my suspicions on Uncle Nick.

"Strange, isn't it?" Brian sighed in disappointment. "How we both were working on the same case, but separately?"

I nodded.

"Maybe if we had worked together, we could have saved Uncle Nick from the attack today," I whispered, expressing my part of grief as well.

At least the fact that Uncle Nick had decided to call me during the attack showed that he didn't entirely distrust me.

"Brian," I called.

"Did Uncle Nick tell you about any locker?" I asked, finally opening my grasp to reveal the key wrapped in the paper.

The skin on my palm had groove marks because of the key.

He shook his head. "I don't know about any locker."

"There are things Uncle Nick didn't entirely tell me as well," he explained.

"Do you think that Uncle Josh is alone?"

I remained quiet. I didn't have any personal opinion about it.

"There's a second person involved with him in it, I have guessed that much for sure. Uncle Nick never told me about it though," Brian mentioned.

Well, even if there was someone, who knew except Uncle Nick?

Maybe the locker did.

"Brian," I spoke. "If there's indeed a locker, then I think it's either at the office or with Aunt Nora."

Brian nodded in agreement. We had to find the locker.

There was a minute of silence during which Jonas received a phone call. Brian and I talked to a nurse from the ICU in the meanwhile.

"Amy!" Jonas called out from the back.

There was a note of trepidation on his face. That look filled me with even more dread.

"What happened-?"

"Xav Bro just called, and suddenly-" Jonas gasped for air, "-there was a gunshot."

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