The clock in the hospital premises showed 9 p.m when Robert lying on a stretcher was rushed into the ICU. Mike ushered James to the waiting lounge. James closed his eyes and drowned in deep thoughts.
An hour earlier, he was waiting near Marcy's restaurant, when a van picked him up. He could see two men with face masks. They then blind-folded him and drove him to some deserted house. They removed his blindfold and let him see his son. His son lay unconscious, still breathing. A white cotton band with blood stains ran across his forehead.
"This is the first aid we knew"
James wasted no further time. The house had a laptop on a table with the AIB main screen open.
Charmaine had already demonstrated him how to do money transfer. After a few seconds "it's done. One Hundred thousand dollars transferred" James said and took his son and put him on his shoulder. "Please take us back to hospital immediately"
Nick called Mr. Clark over his mobile "Confirmation needed, Sir. We don't know internet banking stuff"
Mr. Clark confirmed the transfer. Nick blindfolded James, and they dropped James and his son near the hospital.
The silence of the premises was shattered by the ring tone of Mike's cellphone.
"Charmaine, what's up?" Mike whispered not to disturb other visitors nearby.
"Where is the boy?"
"He is unconscious and we just admitted him in the hospital."
"My God...Mike we need to talk"
"We are talking. Did you get the password in U-Shop. Did you try that in AIB. Did your 2nd principle work?" Mike said.
After a pause, "Mike, why did you do this to Robert?"
"What? What do you mean?" Mike sounded confused.
"What is the issue between you and James"
"What are you talking about, Charmaine?"
"Whatever it is between you and James, spare the poor kid" Charmaine burst into tears and hung up the phone.
"What's wrong?" James looked at Mike.
"James, I need to go to Folly Island right now. Need to talk to Charmaine."
"What's the matter?"
"Something's wrong with her. She thinks I am behind all this"
"Has she gone nuts lately? Where is she now in Folly, at her office?"
"Not sure, but at the top of her stupidity" Mike rushed to his car.
All his way to the Folly island, Mike couldn't stop wonder what has gone wrong with Charmaine. It was around 1 A.M by the time he reached Charmaine's appartment. It was locked.
'Where did she go?' Mike ran back to his car and went to the office. She wasn't there either. His pulse ran high.
The only other place he thought she might go is the Folly Beach county park. He entered the park but saw no one. The sea was rough and the full moon was beautiful shining above the sea. Mike walked over to the shore and sat on the small rocky surface, where he and Charmaine usually used to sit. 'Charmaine would have loved this beautiful sky' Mike looked up at the sky.
Mike spent another 10 minutes in the County park. Not knowing where else to look for her, Mike returned to his appartment.
As he unlocked his appartment, he was taken aback to see some one in. Charmaine gave a short scream and dropped a diary on the floor.
Mike remembered, Charmaine had a key to this appartment. Charmaine was apparently going through his diaries for nearly 10 of his diaries were on the floor.
"What are you doing here?" Mike asked.
Charmaine picked up the diary she dropped. "Reading your diary."
"What do you want to know?"
"Why do you want to hurt James?" Charmaine continued flipping the pages of his diary.
"I don't wan't to. What makes you ask stupid questions? Do you love being stupid? Or do you just think too much?" Mike walked over, grabbed the diary, threw it across the hall, pushed her hard on the sofa "What is wrong with you?" Mike yelled. "Why have you become a complete nut?"
Charmaine looked up and stared at him for a long time to Mike's irritation.
"My thesis suggests that it is you" Charmaine said softly.
"Throw that shit in a garbage. Will you?"
"Why should I?. If you don't believe in my thesis, why should I throw that in a garbage" Charmaine defended.
Mike knew she was always sensitive about her work. He walked over to the refrigerator, grabbed a coke bottle, drank some and offered some to Charmaine.
As Charmaine drank, Mike sat near her. "You got to explain me things, rather jumping to conclusions. I can't stand any irrational accusations. What have you found out? I can help you understand what you found."
Charmaine took a deep breath.
"I got the password in U-Shop"
"Did you try that in AIB?"
"Yes" Charmaine stood up and started to arrange his diaries back in his shelf.
"And don't tell me you were able to login to AIB with that password"
"I told you, mine was a well researched work"
"What do you mean? You logged in?" Mike was excited.
"Yes, I did"
Mike jumped with joy and lifted her. But she showed no excitement. Mike made her sit on the sofa. "Then what is still wrong?"
"You know what the password is?"
"What?"
"CharmaineWhite"
"What?"
"you heard it right"
"Who might have had that password?" Mike asked.
"I couldn't think of anyone other than you. My third principle says people keep passwords that are close to their heart. I thought it was you"
There was a long pause.
Mike stood up again and walked across the hall. "Charmaine, it is remarkable that your second principle worked - you were able to login to AIB with the same password as the one for U-Shop. Even your third principle can be true to certain level. I do have your name as password for some of my e-mail ids. But it is not logical to think it is always me who can have your name as the password."
Again there was a long pause.
"Then whom do you think it can be?" Charmaine looked at Mike.
"I can think of 2 possibilities.
1. Password might refer to some other Charmaine White.
2. Or besides me, some body else also loves you."
"My name is not common. It is highly unlikely to be just a coincidence. Number one ruled out"
"So, who else loves you"
"I don't know. I have only loved you"
A long silence prevailed.
Mike recollected the day when she met her in the chemistry laboratory. During lunch, he remembered James saying that she is already interested in the new guy in class.
"Weren't you interested in that new guy in our high school for some time?"
"You mean, Bill?"
"See, you still remember his name"
"Are you joking, it is more than 12 years. I initially was, but then we moved on. What are you saying?, we all know he was run over by a truck. What a dead person, can have anything on this?"
"James was right about you that day. I didn't listen to him. He was right you were in love with Bill" Mike turned a bit serious.
"Come on, it is not about me and you now. Can we think about how we can find the kidnapper?"
Mike had another gulp of coke "First things first. Transfer the 100,000 from the kidnapper's account back to ours."
Charmaine opened Mike's laptop and logged in to the kidnapper's AIB account with the password 'CharmaineWhite'. She immediately transferred $100,000 to her account."
Transfer success...
Charmaine looked at him. "Now how are we going to find the kidnapper"
Mike thought for a while. As a great idea crossed his mind, he smiled "We don't have to find him. We will make him find us"
"How?" Charmaine asked.
"Check if his account has still some balance left"
Charmaine immediately realized what he meant.
She clicked on Balance Enquiry
Fetching Balance....
Available balance = $50,000
Charmaine looked at Mike and smiled. "You want me to transfer this too?!"
"Exactly"
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