Chapter 1

SNAKE

(Fiction. With the exception of place names (if any), all components are fictitious)

Mr. FREDERICK’S SON ABDUCTED AND KILLED

When he arrived home on that cloudy Thursday afternoon, Mr. Frederick embraced his wife and said, “Darling, be strong. Life is full of pitfalls and surprises.”

“What is it?” Ms. Laura asked anxiously looking directly at her husband’s eyes.

“This time, the Snake’s victim was our son.” Mr. Frederick said in a grave tone of voice.

“No, it can´t be! Tell me that it´s not true. Tell me that you are joking. Tell me Fred.” Ms. Laura said in anguish.

“Unfortunately it’s true, darling. Snake killed our son Bob this morning. It abducted Bob this morning when he was going to school and at about 8 it called me at work. I recorded the phone call. Listen to what it said. Mr. Frederick put a small digital recorder on a small table and pressed the play button. The Snake’s voice came alive,

”Frederick, your son Bob is with me. I’ll keep him alive until twelve if you do the following: send me in a text message the codes that open the main safe in the bank where you work. I’m planning to make an assault to the bank. After confirming that the codes you sent me are correct, your son Bob will be with you at home. Your deadline to send me the codes is 12 o’clock. Not even a minute more. I cannot run the risk of being caught by the police. If until 12 the codes do not reach me, I’ll kill your son, just as I killed the other boys and girls I abducted and whose parents did not comply with my requests. And one more thing: be as Smart, Noiseless, Astute, Keen-sighted, and Emotionless as a snake.”

When the recorder went silent, Ms. Laura asked, with her eyes immersed in tears, “You didn’t send the codes, did you?”

“No, I didn’t”, Mr. Frederick, said as a long sigh came from him. “I could not do that. If I did that, it would disgrace me for the rest of my life. My career, my reputation, everything I acquired over all these years of hardworking, would be gone forever. I am not sure, however, if all that is more important than the life of my beloved son. Oh, my Bob, my dearest Bob, pardon me for not having saved your life!” Mr. Frederick was now wiping a tear that came rolling on his face.

“Calm down Frederick, as a Deputy Director of the Bank you could not, actually, betray your superiors that trusted on you.” Ms. Laura said, crying. “Have you informed the police?”

“Yes, I have”.

“And where is our son’s body now?” Ms. Laura asked.

“Snake said I would find it at a yellow abandoned building near the Golden Bridge.”

“You should tell that to the Police. They would bring the body to us.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Frederick said, “I did. The police said they would take care of it.”

In fact, some minutes later, a police car stopped in front of Mr. Frederick’s house. Mr. Frederick and his wife went to the door. Two police officers were carrying the dead body from the car. Then they handed it over to Mr. Frederick. One of the police officers said, “I, I mean we, the Police force, are very sorry about what happened. As we promised to all other parents who lost their sons and daughters at the Snake’s hands, we are doing everything we can to identify and catch this Snake. That’s all we can do. Be strong on this terrible moment.” Then the police officer embraced Mr. Frederick and Ms. Laura and left the house.

Well, what followed on the next three days were the funeral ceremonies at Mr. Frederick’s home. Friends and family members, and especially those parents whose sons and daughters Snake killed, came to Mr. Frederick’s home to present their condolences and solidarity.

But… who is Snake? Actually, nobody knew for sure. All what people knew was that Snake abducts young boys and young girls and then asks a ransom to their parents and if the ransom asked is not given to it in the next three or four hours, the victim is killed. Usually the ransom asked by Snake is very difficult or even impossible to meet, so in most of the cases, the abducted boy or girl never returns home alive. After killing his/her victim, Snake calls his/her parents to tell them where the body is, so that they can go and take it. This has been happening for the last seven months and, during this time Snake kidnapped and killed six boys and four girls. The Police have been making every effort to identify and catch Snake but, so far, with no success. The only clues that the Police managed to identify is the name, (it calls itself “Snake”) and the last words (which are always the same) of the telephone call when it asks for a ransom. In fact, Snake’s ransom call last words are always the same, “Be as Smart, Noiseless, Astute, Keen-sighted, and Emotionless as a snake.” The first letters of the adjectives in the above sentence form the word “SNAKE”. The Police have found no other clue. Parents are worried about their children and the public, in general, is feeling

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.06.2019
ISBN: 978-3-7487-0739-4

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Widmung:
I dedicate this book to all my readers around the world.