CHAPTER 10: JEOPARDY
Cops and their cars surrounded the house of the Santonios. The ambulance was there too. People from the forensics came to do their job of analyzing and taking records. The Santonios and Arlene were all seated in the living room, looking pretty devastated.
“So, Arlene,” a cop took out his notebook to jot down the details, “tell me again what happened?”
Arlene looked down forlornly, hugging Kitty close to her chest and said, “I was playing hide-and-seek with Roberto and Kitty. I was supposed to be looking for them. And then…”
“And then what happened?”
Arlene moved herself closer to Isabella and continued, “I heard some noises in Mama’s room. I thought it was Roberto, so I went to the room. Then I saw a man come out of the room and ran away. Then I saw Roberto on the floor…”
“Did you see how he looked like?”
Arlene shook her head, then clutched Isabella’s sleeve and asked, “Mama, I’m scared. Am I in trouble?”
“No, Arlene. You’re not in trouble. It’s alright,” Isabella hugged Arlene tearfully, seemingly sad about yet another loss of a child.
“Alfred, what’s the status here?” the cop turned around and asked a forensic who was doing his rounds around the house of the Santonios.
“Seems like our suspect tried to break in and rob this house,” Alfred replied as he pointed to the backdoor of the house. “Notice this smash on the glass of the door. It was done by a punch in the hand and it was done from the outside, judging by the glass that fell inward. It wasn’t too strong, ‘coz the suspect was either not wanting to alert the people in the house or he was a small man. He made sure he took off his shoes because we can’t find any footprints here or anywhere else. Looks like he didn’t get to steal anything. And he was probably wearing gloves because we’re unable to find any prints from the curtains in which the victim was struggling with the suspect.”
“So my guess is,” the cop checked his notes, “that our suspect was about to steal from Mr. and Mrs. Santonio’s room but was found by the victim, and therefore he tried to shut him up. What a cruel way of silencing a 5-year-old boy.”
“Will you find this evil man who had killed our son?” Paulo asked, his face full of remorse and hate towards whoever done this deed to a boy who just came into the family.
“We’ll try, Mr. Santonio, but without much evidence I guess it will take some time,” the cop replied. “We’ll do whatever we can to solve this.”
As the people finished their investigation and were ready to leave, Arlene stayed protected behind Isabella until they were well away from the house, all the while her eyes were gleaming like polished jewels under the light.
“That little girl is a real devil!”
Paulo’s angry yells and shouts could be heard in the Santonios’ room. Isabella tried to calm her raging husband down.
“Paulo, honey, be reasonable. Roberto’s death was an accident. He was attacked. It had nothing to do with Arlene…”
“Why are you always protecting that little devil?! Haven’t you noticed that ever since we brought her into our family, nothing good has ever happened?! We were being criticized by our family for having a robot for a child, our Angela died and now this! It’s like ever since she came here, there is always something happening to the new family member!!”
“Hush, Paulo. Don’t say such a thing,” Isabella looked towards the door to see if Arlene was around and heard them. “She means no harm. She didn’t do anything. You can’t be sure about that.”
“How would you know she didn’t do anything? I tell you, she’s a living devil! She’s a spawn from hell! She is walking disaster ever since she came here! She’s bad luck, I tell you!”
“Well, you brought her here,” Isabella huffed and walked towards the bed, not wanting to argue anymore.
“Well, it was a mistake! I’m taking her back to Cybertronics to get her checked out. If possible, I want her dismantled!”
“Paulo, that’s too harsh…”
“You’re not stopping me, Isabella! Not this time! I brought her here; I can bring her back, where she really belongs!”
Isabella wasn’t able to protest. She knew her husband very well—once he had made his mind about something, you have to cross over his dead body if you ever want him to change his mind. She didn’t argue, but sighed in defeat.
She hoped that she was right about Arlene not having anything to do with these recent happenings. Arlene was such an upright girl.
Her little girl.
Paulo drove in silence with Arlene besides him, hugging Kitty. He wasn’t about to tell that little android where he was going to take her. He hoped that his suspicions were right—that there was something wrong with Arlene and that she had something to do with all the bad luck he and his wife had been through and hope that the staff of Cybertronics will dismantle her and give him a reasonable refund.
“Where are we going, Paulo?” Arlene finally asked, breaking the ice.
Paulo remained silent. If he were to tell her, Arlene would probably instinctively jump out of the car and his efforts would be wasted.
“Where are we going, Paulo?”
Still Paulo remained silent.
“Where are we going, Paulo? Are we going shopping for Mama?” Arlene had that eerie, winning yet innocent smile.
“…Yes, Arlene. We’re going to buy something for Mama for her birthday,” Paulo had to say something to stop her from asking.
“But her birthday’s not till 2 months later.”
“We’re going to get it early…’coz it’s a limited edition. We want to make it a surprise for her.”
Arlene glanced sideways at the computerized map that was showing where the car was heading. She had been shopping with Isabella before and the data saved in her brain told her that it was definitely not the road to the supermarket or the shopping complex.
“Paulo, we’re going to the place where I went to see the doctor to clean my stomach,” Arlene said coldly, her aquamarine eyes blazed with suspicion as she remembered the route it led. “Why are we going there?”
“There’s a new shopping complex there,” Paulo answered quickly. “New shopping complexes always sell limited edition gifts there. That’s why we have to go early.”
“You’re lying.”
Paulo was quite shocked by Arlene’s abrupt accusation, but he tried to keep his eyes focused on the road. “Of course not, sweetie. Why would I lie to you?”
“You’re lying to me, Paulo. Mama doesn’t like people to lie.”
“Arlene, listen…”
“You want to take me away from Mama, don’t you?”
“Arlene…”
“DON’T YOU?!”
Paulo was very shocked now to hear Arlene’s shout. He had never heard Arlene raise her voice before at anyone. When he turned to look at Arlene and explain, he was even shocked to see that her eyes no longer expressed the innocent, angelic-looking Arlene who first stepped into the Santonio family, but the eyes of a cold, vengeful being full of hate that would destroy anything that stood in her way to get what she want.
“I will not let you take me away from Mama!” Arlene hissed and, without warning, grabbed the steering wheel. Paulo and Arlene wrestled with the steering wheel, sending the car swerving from left to right like some drunkard trying to drive the car right. After much struggle, the car finally screeched towards a tree and hit it squarely with a loud bang. Everything became really silent for a minute or two. The crashed car seemed pretty much intact with only the front crunched like a tin foil.
Slowly, Arlene could be seen crawling out of the car with Kitty in her arms. She coughed a little bit before getting up to her feet. Her eyes caught sight of the tool kit that was flung out of the car by the crash, and the tools were scattered all over the grassy ground. She walked towards the fallen tool kit, ignored Kitty’s plead and picked up a wrench. She walked stealthily towards the driver’s seat and opened the door.
Paulo was quite alive, with a bleeding forehead and his leg stuck between the brakes. In fact, his body was pretty mangled in a jam he couldn’t get out of, but he was alive nonetheless.
“Arlene…go get help…” Paulo breathed, but stopped when he saw the coldness flashed across the android’s eyes.
“No one is going to take me away from Mama,” Arlene said before she brought the wrench down onto his already bleeding head over and over again…
When Arlene finally stopped, she saw the wrench drenched with blood and smeared with pieces of Paulo’s brain and skull fragments. Her clothes were stained with droplets of Paulo’s blood and brain juice but she took it pretty well. Paulo’s head—needless to say—was way beyond recognition. She eyed at the wrench absent-mindedly for a while before throwing it casually back into the car like it was just a piece of trash. She looked around the smashed car and her clear eyes caught sight of the bottom of the car leaking oil. She knew Paulo had a mild smoking habit, so she stuffed her hand into his pockets to find a lighter. She found a box of matches and slowly took out a match.
“No, Arlene, this is not right,” Kitty tried to reason with her but Arlene laid a finger on his furry mouth and hushed him with an innocent smile, as innocent as the first time she met her Mama.
“This will be our little secret, OK?” Arlene said sweetly before she struck the fatal match.
Soon, Arlene could be seen walking away from the burning car with Kitty cuddled lovingly in her arms and was well away from it when it finally exploded.
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