Happy Saturday, guys!

We are getting very close to the end of this book. Thank you so much for reading this book if you've come this far! <3

Hope you enjoy the chapter! xx
•

               “DIDN'T THE PRIME Minister fly out of the country a couple of days ago?” Perez asked, looking at Johnson's daughter.

               “Yes. But Bailey is planning something to bring him back into the country,” She suppressed a yawn, placing her chow mein down on the table, so that she could stretch her limbs.

             “What will she do?” Johnson asked, dabbing the corner of his lips with one of the serviettes that came with the food.

              “I'm not sure,” Dawn replied. “Thank you for the meal. I really enjoyed it,”

             “You are welcome. I can see you are terribly tired so I'll take you to your room,” Johnson stood up, placing his food on the coffee table as well.

               He placed a hand on Dawn's upper back, slowly and gently guiding her to her room. After tucking Dawn safely in bed, he pressing his lips on her forehead. He turned to go to the door but as soon as his hand touched the handle, he turned around to observe the beateous blonde fast asleep.

              He lingered in her room for a couple of more minutes before he finally left, shutting the door quietly behind him.

•

                “Johnson?”

                “Mm?” The investigator rolled over, rubbing his eyes. As he sat up, he tried to make out who was speaking through his hazy and distorted vision. 

                “I can't sleep. Is it okay if I stay here with you?”

                 The investigator immediately recognised the voice as the beauteous blonde's. “Yes, it's alright with me,” He moved over to the right wing of the bed.

                Dawn climbed into the bed, before she wrapped herself with the blanket. “Thank you,”

              “Is there anything bothering you?” Johnson asked, curiosity getting the better of him. Realising that he may have pushed it too far by asking that question, he quickly said, “You don't have to answer it. I understand if—”

                 “No, no. It's alright. Don't worry,” Her voice reassured his worried tone. “Yes, something is bothering me. Do you remember when I told you that Bailey and her crew liked to torture us? It could be at any point of the day. Early in the morning, very late at night...she would torture us at whatever time she pleased,”

              Dawn rolled over to meet Johnson's eye. “I couldn't sleep because of that. Also, because I had the same recurring  nightmare that Bailey found me here and took me hostage. Again. I woke up in cold sweat, tried to calm myself down and I went back to sleep. The fourth time that happened, I couldn't take it anymore,”

              “You can come here whenever you want. You don't really have to ask,” Johnson suggested, meeting the beauteous blonde's gaze.

               “Thank you. It would be a big help to wake up and see that I wasn't dreaming about being rescued by you and Perez. That it is real. I've dreamt of freedom so many times that it started to become a figment of my imagination,”

               “It's real, Dawn. It's hard to believe it but you are free from Bailey and her companions,”

               “It's going to take me some time to believe that,”

              “You'll believe it one day,”

              The beauteous blonde did not respond because she fell asleep. There were times she did wake up during the night hyperventilating and paralysed, but Johnson was there.

               He would wrap his arms around her and hold her until her breathing rate would decrease and go back to normal. He would tell her that it was alright, while stroking her hair. After that, Dawn would fall asleep in his secure arms with her hair resting on his chest.

•

               “Uh, guys? I think you may want to see this,” Perez said, as she sat down with an omelette on her plate in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other.

             Dawn opted for cereal and she was trying to reach for the cereal box when Perez's voice stopped her. Johnson handed her the box before the two made their way to the living room.

              “What is it?” Johnson asked, running a hand through his hair.

             “I was just watching the news like two seconds ago when the television screen went black,” Perez explained, placing her breakfast on the table.

             “Well, change the channel then. There might be an issue with the broadcast,” The male investigator shrugged.

             “That's the problem. When I switch to another channel, the results are the same. A black screen, ”

            “Odd,” Dawn commented. “It's as if—”

            Suddenly, a pop was heard through the screen. In the television, the three could see Jack Anderson tied to a chair, a gloved figure dressed in black pressing a sharp knife against his jawline. The figure's upper body was cut from the camera.

           The background was dark. Dull grey walls with water seeping in and out of the cracks. There was someone seated next to Jack, who was staring directly at the camera that was recording everything that was going on.

             Jack looked awful. He had a giant wound on the left side of his head, he was far more paler than Dawn. From the pictures that Perez and Johnson had been given in order to identify him, he looked significantly thinner than he did before.

             His clothes were stained with blood, parts of his shirt ripped. There was a red bandana gagging his mouth and even though he looked almost poised and calm, his eyes said otherwise as they darted left and right.

              “Mr and Mrs Anderson,” A deep voice cut through, loud and clear. “We asked you to pay a ransom a couple of weeks ago, but it seems that you do not care enough about your son to pay for his liberation,”

             “Word on the street says you aren't even in the country right now. Then, with that in mind, you wouldn't mind if we end his life right here and now, would you?”

              The figure starts gently digging the knife into Jack's skin. The three could see Jack gritting his teeth and turning his head slightly, but not uttering a single sound. Not a moan. Not a groan. Not even a cry.

              “We are going to give you one last chance, Mr and Mrs Anderson. You have two days to fly back to Melrose and cooperate with us, or it's your son's life on the line. Your choice,”

             “You could choose to hide away like cowards as the country watches your son die or you could come back here and avoid all of this. Two days. We'll be waiting,”

             “Jack, do you have anything to say?”

            The bandana is aggressively ripped from his mouth as he gasped for air. His eyes were trained on something — or rather someone — behind the camera. The look that he gave them was a look of disgust mixed with anger.

              “I do have one thing to say,” He wheezed out. “Or rather, to ask a certain someone. What never changes about a person, no matter how hard they try? That's the last thing I would like to say, before I die,”

             The screen went black again, before the Channel 7 news was displayed once more. 

•

               After taking eating breakfast, each of the three took a shower, before they stopped by to Perez's house. Dawn received a bunch of clothes from Perez to change into.

             Now dressed more decently, the three headed to Johnson's office. Their plan was to track down where D.A.B's broadcast transmission came from and to search for clues based on the riddle.

              However, they needed to inform Johnson's boss about Bailey's real plans with the Prime Minister.

             “About my boss,” Johnson started, looking at Dawn. “He can be a little...difficult. I'm just giving you a heads up,”

            “Okay. Thanks,” Dawn nodded her head, as the three walked through several office tables.

              Papers were flying everywhere, from a distance there was a phone ringing as well as the clickety-clack sound of the computer's keyboard.

              They reached a door at the end of the room, where Johnson knocked on the door.

              “Yes?” A gruff voice asked.

               The three took it as a way to get in. Perez walked in first, followed by Dawn and then Johnson. The male investigator shut the door.

               “Johnson? What do you want? Shouldn't you be solving the D.A.B case? You have a huge lead now — with the television transmission that they made this morning. Did you see it?” His boss asked, reaching for his cup of coffee.

               “I did see it and actually that's why I'm here, sir,” Johnson said, taking a deep breath. “This girl standing right next to Perez is actually connected to D.A.B,”

                “Connected? Then we should arrest her!”

                “No, no, Mr Cooper! Not in that way!” Perez intervened. “She's one of the people kept hostage by D.A.B but we rescued her,”

                “Is that so?” Mr Cooper finally acknowledged Dawn's presence in the room. “And what's your name?”

                 “Dawn Harris,” The beauteous blonde replied.

                  Mr Cooper's face twisted with confusion. “Enchanté. Where have I heard that name before?”

                “Did you hear about the fire at the children's home, a couple of blocks from Melrose Academy?”

               “Ah, yes! That's where!” He nodded his head, in remembrance. “Look, it's great that you are here and all, but why are you here, specifically in my office?”

              “Dawn knows D.A.B's next move, sir,” Perez answered, running a hand through her hair.

             “And so do we. They are planning on killing Jack Anderson if the Prime Minister and his wife do not return to Melrose to pay the ransom. I was actually in the middle of contacting them before you came in,”

               “With all due respect, Mr Cooper, that is really not their plan,” Dawn said, causing Mr Cooper to raise his eyebrow. “That is simply what they want you to believe,”

               “And how do you know this, Dawn?” Mr Cooper questioned, his voice laced in suspicion.

               “The leader of D.A.B is my twin sister,”

               “So you are telling me that the leader of one of the most infamous gangs in Melrose is what...” He looked at Dawn. “A teenager?”

              “That would be correct,”

               He snorted, before picking up his cup of coffee. “You can't expect me to believe that,”

               “It's true, sir. Ask Johnson or Perez,”

               “Fine. Suppose it is true. What is their real ploy?”

               “They plan on assassinating the Prime Minister and his wife,”

             Mr Cooper threw his head back in laughter, spitting out his coffee in the process, while Perez, Johnson and Dawn stood before him, staring at him with unamused expressions.

             “Sir, I don't see what is funny,” Dawn raised an eyebrow.

            “You are! You really expect me to believe that a teenager can kill the Prime Minister?”

             “A mentally unstable teenager can,”

            “There is no one who can even dream of such a thing in Melrose. You know what I think, dear? I think that you must have lost a lot of blood while you were a hostage in D.A.B and that must be what is making you say such things. You do look ill. On your way out, I believe you should have Johnson and Perez take you to the doctor,”

              Johnson was ready to pounce on Mr Cooper, but something inside of him told him to bite his tongue. Perez was beginning to lose her patience.

             Dawn inhaled sharply. Her eyes fluttered shut, before she opened them, her blue eyes icier than ever. Taking a step forward, she said, “I thought the police listened to people,”

           “We do. I heard you loud and clear,”

           “Note, I said listen, not hear. Anyone can hear, but only a few choose to listen,”

           “Fine. I'm listening to you. But I have a question. How exactly were you rescued?”

            Dawn explained the scene that occurred the night before, not leaving out a single detail.

           “I see. Suppose that the Prime Minister was to be assassinated. Why should I believe you? If you are who you say you are, then why did your twin sister attempt to kill you? Abandon you? How do you even know about D.A.B's real plans? Let's start there,”

              “Sisters tell each other everything,”

             “Why did your sister throw you over?”

             “So that she could make her hasty escape. She also must have known that I wouldn't die with Johnson around,”

              “So why did she let you, off all the hostages, go? You know all her secrets because ‘sisters tell each other everything’, and you also claim that she knew that you wouldn't die,”

               “Think about it, Mr Cooper. If she had informed anyone else and then let them go, for example, Parker Andrews, Jace Alexander Hamilton, Madison Meyers or even Jack Anderson, they would immediately alert you about what her next move was and you would believe them without a doubt. Correct?”

                “Well, yes,”

                “And why is that, Mr Cooper?”

               “I know that they were held by D.A.B,”

               “And where did you get your information from?”

              “The news, of course. Johnson never bothers to tell me whatever goes on in his cases. He would walk out of my office with an unsolved case and the only time he'd step back into my office would be to say that he's solved it,”

            “You would believe Parker, Jack, Jace and Madison because you've heard about them in the news. You heard that they were kidnapped or abducted,”

              “Yes. That would be correct,”

              “Now take me. You've never really heard of me, excluding that time when there was a fire in the children's home. The media barely covered that, though,”

               “That is true, but where are you going with this?”

               “Because I'm a nobody in your eyes, you won't believe a single thing I say. If it were Jack Anderson, you would believe every single thing he says,”

                 “Yes,”

                “That's what my twin sister wants. She wants you to not believe me so that you don't intervene with what she is planning. That way, indirectly, you would be giving her a ‘go ahead’ sign with her plans. What we saw this morning is a diversion,”

                 “What?” The three adults turned to stare at Dawn.

                “Think about it, Mr Cooper. If it were Jack here, instead of me, and he told you that his father was about to be killed, you would listen and thwart her plans by intervening. That's why she chose me out of all the rest. She knew that you wouldn't believe me. She knew that you would think I'm a mental case,”

              She tilted her head. “And that is exactly how you are reacting at this point. ‘I lost too much blood’, you said. ‘I need to go to the hospital’, you claimed. My twin sister was always a step ahead of your team, Mr Cooper, and if you do not listen to me, she always will be,”

             “So they really just want to kill the Prime Minister and his wife and take the ransom that they are going to pay for the Jack's freedom,” Johnson muttered, trying to make sense of the situation.

               Dawn looked behind to smile at Johnson. “Exactly. They are using Jake to lure his parents back into the country where D.A.B will kill them, and probably Jack as well. The reason is because Jack's parents did not deliver the money on the day that D.A.B had scheduled. That's disobeying my sister's orders and as a punishment, the whole family will be killed,”

               “Damn,” Perez muttered, shaking her head. “That's probably why Jack said, ‘this is the last thing I wanted to say before I die’. He knows he is going to die either way,”

              The beauteous blonde nodded her head before she took a step back. “So what will it be, Mr Cooper? Will you listen to me and stop my twin sister and her army of misfits? Or will you throw me out of your office, also throwing out the only chance you have to be on the same level as D.A.B?”

               Dawn held out her hands, both hands facing horizontally. She leaned on her left side. “Ignore this deranged girl and have the Prime Minister's blood on your hands as well as his son's and his wife's. Not to mention, humiliation as the whole country knows that you can't stop a teenager,”

               She leaned on her right. “Listen to the family member of the leader of D.A.B, save lives and have the police regain their reputation as do-gooders, not by-standers,”

                 Her hands dropped to her side as she held them behind her back innocently, like a school girl. “What will you do? Remember Mr Cooper, it's your choice,”