Chapter 49: Doubts
"Okay," Vale said, his stare still piercing Athar. "Let us assume, for a moment, that you ran away from that place after hearing a scream, Dervin’s scream and that it frightened you."
"But, Mr. VonCruz," he continued sharply, "that only explains what happened then. The real question is why did you not go to deliver your quota on the following holiday?"
"You only heard the scream," he pressed. "You did not know he was dead. So why did you not go back three days ago?"
Athar paused again, carefully choosing his words.
"I was not sure what to do," he said slowly. "That scream... it startled me. And I had a gut feeling, it was the kind of scream someone makes right before they die. The really painful and horrendous scream!"
"I thought... if everything was normal, and if Dervin had survived, someone from his side would have contacted me again. But no one did, for the whole week."
Vale raised a hand to cut him off.
"You were away the entire week for the camp," he said with a frown.
"Yeah," Athar acknowledged with a nod.
"But Dervin claimed he was part of a vast network," he added, his gaze shifting meaningfully to Vale as if to say, you are part of it too, aren’t you? Vale felt that too but did not react.
"So, I figured, if they really wanted to reach me, even while I was away, they could have."