Kairen didn’t know what the woman talked about, but when Ben and lieutenant Thain exited the room, their expressions were grim. lieutenant Thain ordered someone to take the woman to the prison. The woman didn’t resist or deny anything she just silently followed behind the officer.

To be honest, Kairen was dying from curiosity. He wanted to know what they talked about. And it wasn’t just him, others were also trying to find out what happened. Everyone was waiting for Ben to leave lieutenant Thain’s room.

“Hey Ben, why did you capture that woman?”

“What did she say?”

“Did you find out something?”

“I want to know as well!”

The moment Ben exited the room, everyone attacked him with their questions. Ben sighed and turned to Rhys.

“I guess you don’t need to search about Reclawa’s Mascry Company anymore, Rhys.”

“Hmm? Why?”

Ben leaned against the wall while folding his arms.

“That woman just told us everything. Well, we should first check to make sure if her story is the truth or not.”

“What story?”

Ben started telling the story that he heard from that woman moments ago.

Reclawa’s Mascry Company was a well-known company that was founded about 10 years ago. It used mascry, a precious crystal, to produce different kinds of equipment for anyone who needed to deal with mascry.

Brett Reid was a man who had inherited his parents’ money at a young age after their death. He decided to build a business with that money. But it wasn’t an easy task, his money wasn’t enough and he knew little about how a business worked. So he asked two of his best friends for help, Ain and Zak. The two people he was friends with since university. With their help, the company was founded. The three of them mixed their own names and created the company’s name, Reclawa.

Little by little, the small company became well-known and brought them lots of benefits. Their products which had better quality and lower price than that of other companies earned the attention of the public. Rich people would fight to buy the company’s stacks and lots of professionals would quit their jobs to work at the company.

But those good days didn’t last forever. Their problems started with small disagreements in the management issues and reached monitory problems after some time. Ain and Zak thought that their share of the benefits wasn’t high enough. That caused a lot of problems and arguments.

Just like everywhere else where everything would begin because of money… their problems also began because of it.

The fight between three business partners got even worse as time passed, so much that it started affecting the business itself. As the managers of the company were busy fighting, the quality of the products dropped significantly, causing the stacks price to decrease as well. After a while, even some of the shareholders got involved.

In the end, Aid and Zak requested their money to be given back to them. They wanted to leave the company. Brett declined their request at first, but he couldn’t resist it in the end. And finally, they arranged a meeting to discuss how they were going to pay the debts and fix the company’s reputation, how they were going to divide Ain and Zak’s shares, and how to fix the quality of their products… such things.

“But apparently, an accident happened at the meeting. They couldn’t reach a certain decision and when the quarrel got out of control, a real fight broke out. And then… Brett was killed.”

“Ah?”

“Wha… they killed him?”

“Because of money…?”

Ben nodded his head at their question.

“After seeing what they have done, they all got scared. That was the day that the company was burnt. They set the whole place on fire, faking it and calling it an accident. They could somehow fool everyone, getting a huge amount of money as insurance. They all agreed to keep that a secret and it was kept a secret until now.”

“What happened to their depts?”

“All of them were paid from Brett Reid’s money. His wife who inherited all his wealth spent the whole thing to pay off the debts and the money of the shareholders and such.”

“….”

‘Wow! It feels like a situation from movies!’

That was the only thought on Kairen’s mind. He knew very well that there were people out there who would do anything for money, so he wasn’t that surprised. Be it earth or another world, trashy people exist everywhere.

“But then again, if all of them agreed to keep it a secret, then who is kidnapping and murdering those guys now?”

“That’s the thing you are supposed to find.”

That was lieutenant Thain’s voice.

“Bring the other witnesses here and interrogate them. Investigate the scene of the crime. Bring here Brett Reid’s wife as well.”

“YES.”

Hearing her orders, everyone quickly went to work. Kairen was also dragged somewhere by someone.

***

Brett’s wife’s words were more or less the same as what that woman had said.

“He was threatened. Those two threatened to really do something to him if he didn’t listen to them. He told me that if anything happens to him, it would surely be those two’s faults. I… I couldn’t prove anything back then… I..”

The woman clenched the hem of her clothes and started crying. Apparently, she and her daughter had to go through a hard life because of all those depts in these past years.

“Where is your daughter now?”

“She studies abroad. I sent her away two years ago when she was 13. I didn’t want her to be here and suffer more.”

“Where did you get the money to send her abread?”

“I had to borrow it from others. She doesn’t know that. I told her that I sent her with his father’s remaining money.”

“I see.”

“My daughter… she had to grow up without a father. It’s all their fault. I shouldn’t say that but I am really happy that they are dead.”

She said those words with hatred visible on her face. Well, kinda understandbe.

Other witnesses were also willing to confess, maybe because they feared being killed by the murderer as well. It was all clear now, the only problem was finding the culprit.

***

“From 10 people who went missing, 4 were found dead. All three of them were in the same location where dey disappeared. This leaves us 6 more people. I don’t want to say this as it really sounds heartless but the only way we have is to wait for the next corpse to appear. Wait for the murdered to show up in the locations where people went missing.”

“What the hell! You want us to sit back and watch people get killed?”

“Then how else are we supposed to find the murderer? This way, we may be able to save the remaining 5.”

“….”

Even Kairen felt like it was a heartless plan, but what he said made sense. One more day has passed and there was still no progress. Kairen could literally feel everyone in the department going craze. The news talked about the murders every day and people went around saying how useless the police were.

Lieutenant Thain gathered everyone’s attention to herself.

“So we are dispatching people to guard those areas secretly. One of the locations is in another city so the local police will take care of it, but the other 5 are all on us. What you have to do is simple, just stay there and wait for the murderer to show up. Try to capture them if possible but don’t act rashly as it may be dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“Then, I will call the names of those who are going to take part in this mission. Officer…..”

Lieutenant Thain started reading the names of those who were going to patrol at night.

“…..And cadet Kairen Steyton.”

“Huh?”

Kairen flinched hearing his name.

‘What? why me?’

The lieutenant didn’t wait for him to ask anything.

“I apologize but we are currently in need of your help. We can’t cover the whole area by ourselves. Thank you for your hard work.”

‘No no, I don’t want to wait for a murderer to show up the whole night!’

Despite his inner thoughts, he just did what they asked him to do. He wanted this damn mission to end soon.

***

“Why is it so cold?”

It was spring, but the weather became really cold at night. Kairen hid behind a wall, using it to avoid the cold winds.

“Why was I sent alone? I am scared. I AM SCARED!!”

He was scared af. Being sent to a place with the possibility of a murderer showing up was scary by itself, but being sent there alone was even scarier.

SWOOSH

“AOJSDFJ!! What was that?”

Kairen looked around. There was nothing around him. He was startled by the sound of the wind once again. He massaged his beating chest and started praying.

“Please dear murderer, don’t come this way. Don’t come here. Please. Please.”

Kairen peeked around. No one was there, not even a car. It was 3 A.M now it was obvious that any sane person would be asleep at this time.

“Please don’t come. Please don’t come.”

He took out a sandwich from his pocket and bit it. Being scared wasn’t a reason for him not to eat! Nothing can stop him from filling his stomach! While chewing his sandwich, he anxiously walked around and observed the whole area.

SWOOSH

Kairen jumped up again at the sound that came from behind.

“ACK! Ah, wind again…”

SWOOSH

But when he turned back, what he saw wasn’t an empty alley. Something black was floating in the air, making sounds.

SWOOSH

Tap

And another something fell out of the floating black something. Looking closely at it, Kairen could recognize what it was. A cut-off hand.

“….”

Tap

What fell on the floor this time was Kairen’s sandwich. He looked up at the thing that was floating in the air. He could sense something behind it.

Kairen moved his shaking body, walking a few steps closer to the object. Something fell out of it at the moment with the sound of splashing water and a disgusting smell.

‘HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT’

Why did you do this to these guys dear murderer? Isn’t it a bit too much? Come on! Think logically! They were trash but all of them didn’t deserve to be killed!

Kairen took one more step closer, now exactly standing under the floating thing. He bent his body and peeked at it.

“….”

“….”

One pair of eyes stared back at him.

“…..”

“…..”

SWOOSHHH

Suddenly the black thing started shaking. It felt as if it was about to disappear.

“Wait.”

Kairen reached out his hand to grab the black thing but his hand moved past it and what he grabbed was a thin and long something. It felt like…

‘Did I just grab the murderer’s arm? AAAAAAAAA!!’

“….”

The black thing, the portal, shook once more. Kairen acted fast. He cast and spell just before the portal was closed. He placed a tracker on the arm of the murderer in his grasp before taking back his hand from the portal.

SWOSH

The portal shook once more before disappearing completely.