It was midnight in the city of Castalda but not every member of the household of Cosmo the Castalda's bank manager was asleep. His teenage daughter was wide awake as she fumbled with her new phone her dad got for her as a gift on her just concluded fourteenth birthday.
While she pressed her phone, she heard strange noises coming from outside. She quickly placed her phone on her bed and tiptoed to her window. She opened the shutter slowly and she saw her dad being paraded by muscled men all dressed in black with guns in their hands and bullets arrayed on their necks. They looked fierce and deadly. Tasha's eyes moistened as she watched them brutalize her father, he was the only surviving parent she had and losing him to those criminals was gonna be devastating for her.
She joined her two palms together, her eyes fixed on her father. She cried and asked God to save him but before she could say Amen, one of the men sent a bullet into the man's head and he dropped to the ground immediately and died shortly. Tasha covered her mouth with her hands trying as much as she could to stop the sounds that wished to escape her mouth while looking on to see what they'll do to his body.
The criminals grabbed something from his waist and immediately got out of the compound. Next thing she heard was the robbers shooting sporadically as they headed to the bank. The bank was just a few meters from their house. People had warned her father not to live close to the bank but he was too stubborn to listen.
Tasha later slumped to the floor when she saw that the three security men who were on duty that night lay dead too in pools of their blood.
The next day, the bank manager's house was crowded. The press had arrived to cover the scene, the police were involved and the crime scene was marked "out of bounds". Tasha had woken up from her slumber and when she saw the crowd outside, she wept even more. Her father's corpse had been taken to the mortuary and she being the only heir of her father was yet to speak up.
The rest of the members of her father's household were mere servants and distant relatives. Tasha never uttered a word to anyone because it was too heavy for her to let out and the police perceived that she may have witnessed something.
A professional sleuth was brought in to follow the hidden trails the criminals left behind as half of the bank's resources were gone. It was the first time such a thing was happening in Castalda and they are yet to uncover the mystery behind this but before then they had to get Tasha to speak up.
To be continued…
Hope you enjoyed my little piece? Your honest critics or contribution would be highly appreciated. Leave me a comment and I'll surely respond to each one. Thanks for taking time to read.