Jean Moore's Past

Ryan's heart was heavy as if it was made of lead. He could not help but regret his actions from this morning. If only he did not go search for him this morning… If only he did not insist on asking that fatal question that Bill did not want to answer…

"Captain?"

Julian's voice woke him up from his trance.

"Sorry. Continue." Ryan said as he took his jacket on the chair and prepared to leave.

"Yes, Captain. The victim was found by neighborhood kids near his house. "

"The report just came in?" Ryan checked his watch to see that it was already 10am.

"Yes, Captain"

"Ok. Let's go"

Just as they were leaving his office, Shelly walked towards them.

"Jean's parents just came in, Cap. They want to know what happened. Now they are at the morgue"

Ryan nodded. "You two go to the crime scene first. I will follow later"

Then he looked towards another pair of detectives and ordered. "Go to Anios. Find out when Bill left"

Ryan also wanted to find out about the customers of the night before Jean's death but he stopped himself. The club won't provide them with real information anyway.

"Yes, Captain." The detectives replied.

"Come with me" Ryan gestured towards Allen.

They walked towards the car parking to drive to the morgue.

"Don't blame yourself" Allen said as he started driving.

"You knew?" Although Ryan asked, he already knew the answer. Allen was his only friend in this city and they had been working together as partners for two years. Of course, Allen would know what kind of moves he would make.

"He wasn't angry at me. He even said that it would be safer for him to be in prison and yet, I had to destroy his little hope" Ryan continued as he smiled bitterly.

Allen sighed. "Even if you didn't go meet him, even if he got into prison, do you actually believe that he'd be safe? You know what kind of people are behind this case. They'd rather kill than give any 'benefit of doubt'"

Ryan understood that fact. It was just hard to accept. All of his superiors had warned him when he requested to be transferred to this city.

"In City X, there's no law. They don't value human life. Here, even if you make some mistakes when dealing with big shots, the harshest you would have to face would be demotion or dismissal. You can still keep your life even if you can't be a cop anymore. But there, if you just slightly offend someone you shouldn't, you'd be lying cold in the street without knowing what hit you," Ryan remembered his former captain's words.

"We've arrived."

Allen woke Ryan up from his daze. They worked into the building to find Mr. and Mrs. Moore sitting a bench in the hallway. David was explaining about Jean's death while Mrs. Moore started to weep.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Moore" Ryan greeted with a slight smile.

All three of them looked up and Mr. Moore nodded in acknowledgement while Mrs. Moore softly greeted "Hello".

"Captain" David also greeted. When Ryan nodded his head towards him, he knowingly retreated back leaving the four people alone.

"I'm the captain of 'X' City Police Station, Ryan Carlos and this is lieutenant Rogers" Ryan introduced himself and Allen to the couple.

"As you have already known, we are Jean's parents. We just want to know how our daughter met such a terrible end" Mr. Moore replied with a shaky voice.

"I'm really sorry to inform you that it's still under investigation" Ryan paused for a bit before continuing.

"In fact, I'm not even sure if we can catch the culprit"

Both of the couple's faces darkened when Ryan finished his sentence.

"What do you mean by that, Captain Carlos?" Mr. Moore angrily asked.

"You should know that this city is different from others" Ryan said as he studied the couple's expressions. And just as he thought, both of their faces fell.

"Why would you send your beloved daughter to this city unless she had something to hide?"

"You aren't even doing your job and now you are questioning about our poor daughter? She had always been a good girl" Mr. Moore bellowed.

"Indeed, she doesn't have any records. That makes us think if she's really clean or… is her crime hasn't been recorded… yet. You should know no clean person would come to this city, not even to commit suicide cause they won't be sure their corpse would be whole if they died here"

Ryan's nonchalant tone just added oil to the fire and Mr. Moore's face turned red with rage.

"The police are too capable nowadays. They are turning the victim into the culprit" Mrs. Moore louder weeps accompanied Mr. Moore's harsh remark.

"Mr. Moore, please pardon our captain. It's not that we want to be rude while you are grieving but we can't search for the truth without getting all the clues. If you are hiding something, we won't know who was after your daughter's life," Allen interjected politely.

"You…" Before Mr. Moore could reprimand further, Mrs. Moore reached out to hold his hand.

"We understand, officers" after responding in a weak voice, she turned towards her husband "I think the officer is right. What if they are the ones who killed our daughter? And I don't think what our daughter did is something to be shameful about."

Mr. Moore sighed helplessly before dropping a bomb.

"Back in our town… Jean killed someone"

"Who did she kill?" Ryan was expecting something but not murder.

"No! She didn't kill a person. He was a dog! Even worse than a dog!" Mrs. Moore suddenly cried out in sharp voice.

"Honey, calm down" Mr. Moore pulled her in his embrace where she kept sobbing.

"It was not intentional. It was only self-defense" Mr. Moore continued.

"There was a teacher at her high school. He's also our mayor's brother and kind of untouchable, at least in our town. Well, he…"

Mr. Moore became emotional and unable to complete his sentence. Allen walked to the nearby water cooler and brought a cup of water back which he gave to Mr. Moore.

"Thank you" After drinking the water, Mr. Moore continued.

"He was harassing the girls at his school and no one knew about it. I guess the knowing ones also turned blind eyes. At that time, we, parents were truly ignorant and could not even help our own daughters while they were facing the danger by themselves. Until one day, when he tried to rape Jean's best friend and Jean accidentally pushed him off the window, trying to save her friend. When he died, his whole family went after our daughter like hungry wolves both legally and using underhanded methods. She doesn't have a record because her friend confessed in her place, freeing Jean of suspicion completely. But the Mayor's family kept threatening us with underhanded methods and we had to make her run"

Allen let out a sigh. "You could've sent her to any other city. Why here?"

"My parents live in a town in this state and we were going to call her to that town as soon as the Mayor stopped pursuing her. We didn't plan for her to live here alone for a long time. Who would have known that it would take this long for the Mayor to give up and for this city to be so… terrible?"

"Thank you for cooperating. Sorry for our rude questions earlier. You can ask for our help if you have any trouble while staying in this city."

After Allen gave his number to Mr. Moore, the two detectives left the morgue.

"Do you think that Mayor could be a suspect?" Allen asked.

Ryan shook his head. "He doesn't have any reason to kill Bill, too. And it's not that easy for an 'outsider' to move this aggressively in this city. Remember that our victims are not just killed. Almost all their blood got drained out"

"Do you still think we should drop this case?"

"Of course. It's even getting more dangerous. I still have to protect our officers" Allen looked at his friend's face in doubt as he did not even sound displeased. When did he become this easy to persuade? As he had guessed, Ryan's next words confirmed his doubt.

"…but not you, Mr. Smarty pants. I don't need to protect you as your brain will do the job. And you don't even have a wife or family to feed. So, you… and I, we are gonna make some ruckus in this city."

Ryan smirked as he hooked his arm on Allen's neck.

Allen was praying hard to be able to keep his corpse intact as his future became darker all thanks to his arrogant friend.

"Oh. By the way, what happened to that grass?"

Ryan's question reminded Allen of the strange grass near the first crime-scene.

"I sent it to a friend in the capital city, mixed with some other things so people won't be suspicious. I can't trust the lab here"

Ryan guffawed as he pulled Allen closer with one arm hooking his neck and the other arm messing Allen's hair, bullying the poor guy using his height advantage.

"That's why you are Mr. Smarty Pants!"