Dead Presidents (An Aria Raymond Thriller Book 3) by Thomas Ransom (that summer book txt) 📕

“You haven’t heard? I thought Tanya must have told you.”

“Shoot! She did mention that there was something important she wanted to tell me but not in front of Aria. We were celebrating that day, and then it completely slipped my mind. What happened to him?”

Sanjay nodded, “Yeah, but keep Aria away from all this. She is finally moving on.” He cleared his throat, “Someone attacked him. Brutally. He is in critical condition.”

“What!!!”

“It has been almost a week now, and he hasn’t gained consciousness. The doctor said if his condition doesn’t improve soon, it might result in permanent damage. A masked guy attacked him with a hammer and escaped.”

Diaz gasped. “But … why?”

Jake added, “We think he might have found something. He had replaced Aria when she got arrested for Coon’s murder. He must have seen or heard something.”

“That position seems to be cursed,” Diaz replied. “First Coons was murdered, then Aria had to spend months in prison after being accused of his murder, and now Wayne.”

“They are getting rid of anyone who comes in their way or whoever they feel might be close to finding out the truth. I wonder what Wayne must have found,” Sanjay said. “I need to find a way to connect these cases so that I can investigate Wayne’s case too.”

“I am trying to find an angle,” Jake started. “But it is coming off as a random freak accident. There was nothing out of the ordinary about him that day. Nothing was stolen. The three of us know all these incidents and murders are connected but can’t prove them enough to begin a combined investigation. However, I have access to the case files, so we can easily keep ourselves updated. Which reminds me,” he placed a few bulky files on the table and pushed them towards Diaz. “These are the investigation files on Coon’s murder and Aria’s case. You already know everything, but something here might catch your attention that we might have missed.”

“This is great!” Diaz opened the first file and glanced through it, “Thank you so much. I am going to start thoroughly examining them.”

“Let’s hope you find something,” replied Sanjay. “In the meantime, Whitney’s murder has led to the reopening of Coons case. We were able to convince them that these cases are connected. I am going to reach out to the officers in charge of investigating the three other murders that have occurred after Whitney’s. I am willing to bet my life that all of this is connected.”

“Ugggh! Don’t say that.” Diaz made a face.

“What?”

“You said you are willing to bet your life…” Diaz looked at him sadly, “It just… feels wrong…. With so much brutality happening… We can’t lose anyone else. This has gone far enough. We have to take these people down.”

Sanjay squeezed her hand, “We will. I promise we will.”

“I sure hope so. It is getting messier by the second. Who knew this thing was so deep. The extent to which people can go to … just for the money.” Diaz stammered.

“It’s also about the power…” Jake shook his head. “With money comes power. They can do anything. Buy anyone, destroy lives, and of course, kill them, like it was nothing.”

“We will take them down. There is a lot we have now. We just have to find the right direction to get to them. I am sure there is something that will lead us to them. They must have made some mistake. No one plans this perfectly,” Sanjay added.

“Let’s get started then.”

After two hours of discussion and going over the events repeatedly, the group departed. They didn’t make much progress, but they knew that their hope was the guy in the hoodie. They had to find him. The distributed the video footage they had gathered during their initial investigations among them so that they could quickly go through each one carefully without missing anything. Diaz arrived home to find a large bouquet of roses outside her door. She gasped. She could smell their exquisite scent all the way down from the corridor. The bouquet was enormous! Diaz hurried towards her apartment, her heart jumping with joy. She had never received a bouquet, let alone such a massive one, in her life. The card attached only said, “I love you.” She smiled. “Mark”, she whispered, her heart fluttering.

With a wide, goofy smile on her face, she entered her apartment and her jaw dropped open. The entire living room floor was covered in rose petals and the only source of light was the fairy lights hanging from the wall. She took a few steps forward, looking dazed. It was then that she spotted her small dining table loaded with food, and two candles. There, sitting on the chair, with a huge smile on his face, was Mark. Diaz couldn’t believe it. It was better than she had ever expected from anyone. She wiped the tears that were now flowing from her eyes and raced forward to embrace Mark in a hug. After a long lingering kiss, she looked around again, completely lost for words, “how… I can’t… when did…?”

Mark chuckled, “Just enjoy it, my love. You deserve all of this and much more.”

“But… but… why?”

“Because I wanted to show you how much you really mean to me. This,” he gestured towards the rose petals and the lights, “… is nothing, honestly. I wanted to do more, but this is what I could manage with the short span of time I had.”

“No. This is perfect. Seriously! I don’t… I don’t even have words…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Nicole. You have no idea how grateful I am that you are giving me another chance.”

Diaz just shook her head, tears flowing down her cheek once again. She hugged Mark tightly, her heart light as a feather.

“Come, sit.