2. Is This A Cutscene?

{Alfred's perspective}

I opened the safe and it had gone. No one had the code, who could have opened it?

"Jack! It's gone!" I barged into the office Jack was working in.

"What is?"

"My alarm clock!"

Jack got up from his seat and bent to me. "Are you drunk, you are underage you can't."

"Tch." I shoved in his face a folder. "Read."

Jack twisted his lips and ran through the papers inside the folder. "Yeah, you told me about it. Missing boys from your class...does this have anything to do with your missing alarm clock?"

"It's not the alarm clock, it's the minute hand in it. The key to my locker." I murmured, agitated at how could anyone have broken into my safe which was safely resting outside the open-room in the foyer.

Jack stared at me with a vacant expression. "You hid your keys there? Do you do smuggling business behind my back that you need such a secret to hide the key to your locker? And," I tapped my fingers on the table and paced back and forth while Jack continued to grumble, "You could always get a new key."

I stopped and glunched at him. "I already emptied my locker a week back because it had gotten dusty."

"C'mon then there's nothing you need to be so panicky about. I'll give you a new locker with a k- but wait. Your locker has a code. Key?"

"My room key." I folded my arms and Jack held his head with both hands. Dramatic are we now. "I have another safe in my room and it opens with a key. And I think whoever stole the clock must want to break into my safe. But no one except me knew about it and it has all my important stuff. The key was inside the clock which I had kept in the locker that had a code. The common lockers."

Jack rolled his mouth and fist-bumped his palm. A phone call interrupted us. He received it and nodded aghastly.

"Sunshine is calling me to the gallows!" He called out as he left the office running with a file in his hand. Mr.James Theodore, huh...why's the director calling him now?

Well. I'll just empty my safe to be safe and carry the important stuff with me.

Ah, school time. I popped a honey sandwich in my mouth, packing two more for my lunch too. Jack had kept a tuna sandwich for me. But, I preferred honey.

I needed to be aware of Rickster the Trickster who might be here waiting to pull pranks on me colluding to what happened a day before.

Though, it was all based on a coincidence.

Yesterday when we dragged him from the school to BPRO after he got bullied and knocked himself out in our van, he was noisily screaming which nearly had blown up my eardrums. I had beckoned Henry to fix him up. He was fixed. Yes, knocked out. A nuisance. Jack had remarked how worried he was thinking I might become a criminal one day. And believe me, I might if the dude behind me ceases to poke me during classes.

"Why were you doing that?" I turned to face a disheveled-headed Patrick Adams.

The dude was scratching his forehead. For a minute I thought, is that a monkey? Wow. You are supposed to have conversations with a monkey.

"Asshole! You're an ass, right? What does your name mean, anyway?" The monkey laughed at the donkey. Bray. Bray. Now communicate.

"Why..." How am I supposed to ask a question like this? "...What can you do?"

He swallowed and blinked at me twice. Taking a look around the room, he blinked again; as if to confirm he's surrounded by humans. Alright, I did sound silly.

"I can do so much. You don't know what all I can."

This had me curious. Was he trying to invite me to a fight? An open challenge? But wasn't he a good-for-nothing?

The bell rang and we assembled for P.E on the grounds. Patrick followed me. Just leave me alone.

The day was long, longer than my will to survive but like all things, it came to an end. Jack was waiting for us, flashing his fancy sunglasses standing against his car, and waving at me.

Are you trying to put on an impressive face for the newcomer? But this Patrick Trickster hadn't agreed to be a trainee psychic under BPRO yet. We drove to the agency and I walked soullessly to my room.

A quick bath does wonders to one's mood. I pulled on a full-sleeved magenta Tee and dark cargo pants. I brushed my hair and let the long strands of hair rest loosely on the sides of my forehead. I touched my stomach. Hungry.

Hunting for food in my room is always hard, a bag of chips would do. I rubbed my abdomen as I opened the bag and crunched on a chip.

Burn pain with entrapment of nerve endings can persist for years. But I had no idea why it stung even now. Curse mark or something...? That's funny.

A series of knockings came one after the other. Can't Jane be a bit polite? Well, how about me? Am I? Nope. Not. Some people just want to be alone for a time of peacefulness. But others don't understand that.

"Come in," I said, as I hurried over with documents and my smartphone.

"Hey, Alfren. Have you eaten?" Jane asked, walking over to me. I nodded, showing her the bag of potato chips, and bent to pick up a sheet that had fallen off. Oh, Evangeline Parkinson. She had a talent show for her school at...which place?

"Jane, Evangeline. Any news?"

"Oh, she won't be coming until a month or so. She has a show to attend to and lately, she's getting a bit busy."

"Very well. Any replacement yet?" I wrapped my neck with a red muffler and pushed my hands inside my pockets.

The case yesterday was left unsolved when the family found the baby and were content to have found her and had returned home. Although they did ask us to investigate the matters further as to how had the infant been found inside the van. The mother, however, had believed it was the evil spirits that had distanced the baby from her because she hadn't been a good mother, or yeah...

Jane told me to have an afternoon nap after the lunch Patrick and I were gonna have in the cafeteria on the ground floor. The food there is great. I asked Jane if Jack had come back yet but according to her, he was on an important case with Madam Aurora and Cynthia and it was gonna take a while.

Figures. Whenever Madam Aurora is involved, the case is either having to do with exorcism or the 'spiritual encounters' Jack had once told me about. That was, although, a rarity.

After having one hell of a tiresome lunch with Rickster, I found my energy levels to be decreasing and found an energy drink to refill my power. Jane was on the phone as she walked with boots towards the main entrance. Where's she going? Henry is already home. Is she going back to her home? But the director had asked us to stay here for a week until our department has recruited enough trainees able to become future psychic detectives.

"Going for picking up clues for yesterday's case? I'll tag along." I smiled as she let out a sigh and gave a nod. "Wait I've to empty my safe."

She gave me a quizzical look as I washed and returned with a bag filled with my valuables from the safe.

When we reached the forest, the trees waved a gust of wind at my face. Jane excused herself for a moment to go bring her beanie from the car due to the cold weather.

I took a stroll around the greener area. The rustling of leaves was heard which invites doom as per my knowledge, when alone in a forest. Something stirred in the bushes behind me. I took my bag off and put it on the ground. Jane should get the idea that I am busy.

I quietly crouched and peeked in the bushes. A cat stared at me and purred. Why a cat? In a forest? I tried to hold her but she shrieked and ran away. Her? Well, I think most cats are female. So agile.

I got up and walked a little further. I switched the flashlight on, of my smartphone. It wasn't night yet but the dentist of the forest blocked most of the peaking sunlight through the leaves. Also, there was barely any sunlight. In the woods deep and far, I spotted the figure of a person. Maybe, it was a woman? I couldn't see her face very clearly. I ran to catch up to her. But the rocky surface made me tumble over and I saw before me some scarecrow. Oh, just my misunderstanding. Hmm, so there is nothing of use in here?

As I turned to leave, I saw a bunch of girls treading their way obliviously, towards the main quiet road. Somehow, I camouflaged my presence in the bushes.

"It's late, guys, we must return to the camp now. After Ashley and Marigold left the camp, Miss Olivia has been quite upset. We should go back now, she would be worried." A girl in a jacket spoke as she held onto another girl's arm.

"Worried? Why would she be? She's busy on the phone with her ex, you know. Quite close they've gotten since his marriage to Sandra Williams." Another spanned up as a tall girl clutched her shrug tight and looked around.

"Where do you get all these news clips?" A third one speaks, bending to tie her shoelaces.

"Oh, I'm well-updated...unlike you."

A cat-fight? No way. A cat just went past me and I have to face another scene involving cats. Can my day get any better? Nope. Hence, my life continues lifelessly.

The girls had gone back to the camp or wherever they had come from. They were from Marigold McKenzie's camp, huh... And the gossip from these girls, is it reliable?

I had no mood to look into this matter but now I'm curious. Although I wasn't legally a detective or a researcher due to age problems. Yep, age matters because I wasn't an adult yet.

I looked up at the sky. Ok, I should do something.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Pardon me but I'm here for my cousin who had called me here but now I can't find her. Has she gone back?" I spoke brightly after minutes of tracing the camp and finding a woman sitting on a desk inside the caravan, leg-on-leg.

She looked up at me, questioning my entire existence with a single glance. "How did you come here?"

"Ah, with my mom. She's waiting for me on the road in a purple coat."

The woman peeked from the window of the caravan and turned to me. "Her name?"

"Ah, Marigold McKenzie."

She sighed and threw the book she had just opened to look into, across the couch. "She went home yesterday after getting lost in the forest and causing unnecessary chaos."

"Oh okay. Thank you." As I turned to leave, I paused and asked, "Ma'am, would you also know if any girl here is named Olivia?"

She shifted and sat upright, "Why..."

"Uh, it's nothing...a man called Mr. Ben Atkinson wanted to meet her. It must be her dad because the camp is in a forest and parents get worried so..." I eyed the caravan. It was a simple vehicle with a small couch in the back, a desk, and a few lights plus two mini ceiling fans. The woman's desk was smeared with food and drinks and her phone was in the hand as she stood up and walked to me.

"I'll tell the girl, no problem. Where's her dad? Should I send her now?" She smiled as a few strands of her platinum blonde hair fell over her eyes and she tucked them behind her ears. She had bags under her eyes.

"Um, some agency he said...which is near this forest."

"Ah, okay. I'll tell her that. Thanks."

I gave a nod and walked away. A girl ran past me to the woman shouting, "Miss Olivia! Lily found a huge cave in the woods!"

Wow, she is too concerned to be just an ex. Jane was fuming with anger when I met her again on the road. Before she could ask me where and why about my short disappearance, I cued her to sit in the car. She sat and steered the car away. When we were out of sight of the caravan, I told her what I had done and she clicked her tongue and called me crafty in various dialects.

I reminded her about our special rescue mission yesterday which was in fact, a mission to find Marigold McKenzie and recruit her as a trainee at BPRO in place of Eva.

When Ashley had come running toward us with the baby, I almost had my suspicions right but when the mother had returned the bracelet to her; I saw that even though she was smiling her eyes weren't. They looked at the bracelet as though it was a thing she had just now noticed. Psychologically speaking, if a person is genuinely happy or sad, they show it with their actions. On their face, with a smile or a depressed look. Here, it was fine seeing her happy but her eyes were looking elsewhere. At her husband, as she handed over the bracelet to them. And when Ashley and Marigold walked a little farther from the cheers, I happened to hear their conversation. The baby was in the van. In our van. How?

"Yeah. Oh...you doubt her? Because our van was here to pick Marigold, the camp too was here and the connections all lead to her. You think she kidnapped the baby? Hmm."

Jane didn't give her opinion any sooner. She was waiting for the time when Ben Atkinson meets Olivia and we'd get a clear idea.

_________________________________________________________________

"My costume!" Patrick cried as well entered the BPRO and Jack was seated comfortably on the sofa in the lobby watching the Trickster stomping around. "It's all spoiled. I didn't know my room was in the process of being painted and it was dark so some of it got onto my clown costume! I need it for Halloween! If I don't get one, I'll go back home!"

I rubbed my forehead and went up to Jack who patted me like I was his pet.

"Mr. Patrick, you agreed to stay until the next morning. You even said that you've told your parents you'll be staying over at a friend's. So now, you are contradicting what we had agreed on." Jack said politely, making the monkey calm down.

"I'm not contradicting. I just need to bathe, eat, and a costume to rehearse in. We have the play tomorrow and I'm a clown." Rick said as he ran his fingers through his overgrown hair. And there was the band-aid I had given him, on his forehead. Oh, that wound was when the bullies knocked the air out of him and he had lethargically, crept inside our van and dozed off. All of what little blood flowed from that wound had spoiled our seat.

I ignored his rants and proceeded to narrate the entire experience and plan to Jack who had been smoking for a while.

"Sandra Williams...is the mother of the missing child? So, how are the words of those girls and this case related?"

"My doubt rests on their in-charge. What was her name again...? Olivia. Yes. And Williams is Mrs. Sandra's maiden name."

Jack blew the smoke from his cigarette on my face as I grabbed the cigarette and disposed of it in the ashtray. "This kid never stops behaving like he's an adult..." He grumbled, snatching the files from me but threw them back on the table due to his weak resistance to documented pieces of evidence, I suppose.

"Hey, Alison Asshole, why is your name so similar to the swear word?" Rick questioned as he sat beside me to ensnare.

"My name is Alfren Robinson. Who told you my name is Alison?" I demanded, trying to sound angrier than I was.

"Oh, it was Jac-!" he began but Jack dragged him away saying he's wasting his time talking to me.

Matt rushed to us speaking like his train was about to leave the platform, "The Atkinsons are in the waiting room. Where's Jack?" He informed, taking his cap off. So, you returning from playing, now? And, you're asking about Jack. Wow.

"Don't sweat it. I'll come. Just give a call to Jack." I said as we went over to the waiting room.

I called and asked Jack to request the family to wait in the office, by messaging him. Then I went over to the office. I sighed as I sat in the seat. Sandra Williams married Ben Atkinson for eight years. Has three kids. Two are girls and one's a boy. Lily, age four, and Philip, age three; while the baby girl is a year old. When the kid, Lily was interrogated by Jane, she said her father often talks to someone on the phone. It was also noted that even before coming here, he had been on the phone. And according to the girls of the forest...or cats...Miss Olivia, their in-charge has an affair with her ex.

"I feel the perpetrator is the in-charge, Miss Olivia." I blurted out loud, absent-mindedly.

"Oh, obsessed aren't you? You should be having your dinner now, I believe." Said Jack, penetrating through the gap in the entrance. He's slime, is he?

"Oh, Jack...the family-" Matt commenced, as Jack beckoned him to shut up. Oh, not really. But I perceived it that way.

"They're coming." He said as I got up explained my theory and my doubts on the in-charge to Matt.

"Otherwise, tell me why would they come to a forest for a field-trip? But to risk the girls too, I don't get that part. From what I know...they're a bunch of high-schoolers. And, not all of them came. Only a selected few." I explained as we got out and heard from Henry who had been keeping a close watch on the family that Ben Atkinson just now excused himself to go to the Men's room.

I broke into a thin-lipped smile and danced my shoulders from left to right. I winked at Henry who looked puzzled.

"His criminal self has returned. Look how happy this kid is." Jack said, swishing past me up to the family for further questioning.

I flashed a peace sign at Henry and he raised an eyebrow. "Pictures? Oh, I got you. I dunno maybe he's not speaking because he sold his tongue I guess but right now, a video and pictures for backup pieces of evidence...is what you need huh?" The Trickster spoke sense and I narrowly looked at him while he shone a grin at me and disappeared with Henry.

"Matt, when exactly had the family come inside the BPRO?" I asked, holding the file in my hand after about twenty minutes when all of us had gathered in the investigation room. Mr. Ben's phone was ringing. He wouldn't let go of it. Lack of trust among family members. Why? He could've kept the phone aside or made one of his kids hold onto it. Rick, in his clown get-up, tried entertaining the kids and peeked in at their father's phone. Ok, kid. I caught you.

"Huh? Oh, not sure...but it was around 8 pm." He answered, scratching his bald head. Now, I get it.

"Excuse me, everyone." I cleared my throat as Matt went away saying he needs a rest. "Sorry to interrupt the celebration, but some last-minute interrogations are left. Just for our convenience. We'll need it to show it to our department's head. So please co-operate." I said a much softer version of me sprung up. Sometimes I too wonder if I have a personality disorder. Although it's a thing not to be joked about.

Everyone looked at one another. Some shrugged and nodded. "It's fine, sweetheart. We'll be returning to our home soon, anyway." Ben said, holding his wife's hand. "Yes, it's ok." He announced.

Sorry, Jack but I'm gonna handle this in my way. These people probably thought a kid interrogating them and leaving them would just be some brief questioning and nothing too worrisome. Too bad. I'm hypocritical about being a kid.

"Ok. So, from what I first understood; I'll be stating them. But before that, I want all of you to be honest." I began as everyone nodded, "Mrs. Atkinson, be frank. Do you doubt your husband?"

Jane gasped and corrected, "He means to say, you two must share a very close bond so there'll be no space for not trusting, won't there?"

"Of-of course, I do trust him. Why do you ask? We've been together for 8 years and there has been no one who came in between us." Mrs. Atkinson said, clasping the baby close to her chest.

"No one? Not even his ex?" I recommended, beckoning Rick to come to my side.

"What do you mean by that, you kid?! She has nothing to do with this!" Ben protested, putting an arm around his wife.

"But haven't you been speaking to her for a while now? All those messages and calls received secretly..." I said as Mrs. Sandra frowned at him.

"Why aren't you getting to the point? Where did you find the baby?" Ben said, holding the chair on which his wife sat. "You people are behind this, aren't you?!"

"We'll get to it later. Rick, please say what you saw on Mr. Ben's phone just now." I said, letting Rick into the spotlight who gave me a look of awe.

"You'll have to pay me back, Asshole." Rickster the Trickster warned as I nodded. Time will say if I keep this promise. Not me. "Forty messages ten calls only from one person-Olivia. Ugh, Isn't she a little too obsessed with only an ex?"

"I knew it. You had been talking to her for a while now. Now my suspicions are not for naught. Well, does she have anything to do with our baby going missing? Why won't she-?! She's been chasing after you for a year now! That cousin of mine had gone out of the country and that's why you two had broken up. But now, just 'cause she's returned means you can resume your love story?!" The mother barked. Whoa, women are scary. Better not to be involved with them. Thank god, my school is an all-boys one. No love-comedies there.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Calm down." Jane gave her a glass of water.

"Hey, she's here. Miss Olivia. Ashley had informed her of what happened and She got here says she." Henry said as he brought her in.

"Whoa. Yes, I wanted her here." I shouted out in excitement. Everyone glared at me. Oops. It's I who had mentioned previously that some people like to stay quiet for no reason and it is I who shouts in a situation where no one has chosen to speak. That's a mistake.

"Please have a seat." Jane insisted as Olivia sat down and Ben looked at her. These gestures are so sickening.

"Ok, so I'll give you an insight into what happened previously on our show. You and your ex, the man before you, have had an affair for about a year, and you are accused of kidnapping their baby by the mother. What's your say on this?" I asked, looking at her bewildered gaze. She jumped off her chair, furiously. Man, these people had just asked her to sit down, very kindly and she got up so suddenly.

"I agree we have been in contact but no, why on earth would I kidnap their baby?! It's not me!" she protested.

"Then why would you take your students to a forest calling it a field trip? And why would you keep the baby in our van?" I argued, just a little more and I would pick out the culprit. Or better to say, the culprit would come out on their own. Just a while.

"'Cause they had been saying they wanted to camp in an adventurous place. So I had to officially give it a name of a field trip. And the rest, I don't know what happened. When I came to know the little one went missing, I tried calling Ben but he answered only once before they contacted some police agency saying he won't be able to talk for a while. And I had been depressed over my cat's disappearance. When I heard from my students she was dead; I was overcome with grief and wept inside the tent. I didn't notice that they had gone wandering off into the wilds. That's it." She replied, looking to the right and a few tears came out. Ok, she's trying to recollect something, her way of expression shows it. She's speaking the truth. Psychology, duh.

"What about you, Mrs. Atkinson? Aren't you responsible for the disappearance of your baby?" I said, recollecting the file.

"You dare try to accuse me? Why would I do that to my baby? Ben, tell him to shut his mouth." She screamed tugging onto her husband's sleeve.

"Oh shut up, you dramatist! I'm losing my patience. Look. You arrived here yesterday at 8 p.m then you people came later into the office giving us a reason that Mrs. Atkinson had gone to the washroom because she had been bawling her eyes out. A convincing reason, ok. But during that time, Mrs. Sandra, you went outside and placed your baby inside the van and Ashley came later to discover it there, unluckily for you. Now, the question I have is...when you called us, where was the baby? Missing? Or about to be 'kidnapped'?" I spoke and Jane gave me a frown. Yeah, you were thinking I was doubting Olivia, didn't you. I didn't know either.

"Am I just gonna sit here and get accused by a kid while you good-for-nothing detectives will stare at the scene he created?" Mrs. Sandra folded her arms and pointed her finger at us all.

"Mr. Atkinson. Where was your wife yesterday at 6 p.m.?"

"At home, I guess because I was at the office."

"Henry show them the clip."

The clip was recorded by Henry through Rick's phone. Olivia had met up with Ben as planned and began to cry when she had seen the man. She had said that when she had gone searching for her cat, Sandra had come inside the camp and hid the baby in the caravan because she had seen it herself but hadn't approached her thinking it might be some robbery in the hood. Not until had she gone completely out of sight had Olivia managed to look at the little thing wound up in a cloth. Panicked, she had taken the baby in her arms and upon seeing us walk towards the forest, rushed to the van to place the baby there. When she was crying, Ben wouldn't believe her and asked for them to break up also because his wife had been suspecting them for a long.

"Marigold had taken some selfies when she had got lost in the forest and it captured Olivia in the background behind the trees walking towards the van. The silhouette isn't clear but the blurry blonde hair is unmistakably hers. Since Mrs. Sandra's are black. What proves Mrs. Atkinson guilty is...the bracelet. It wasn't the baby's. It was yours. And we found a bead on our seats which was missing from the bracelet. We can say it's yours because you showed it yourself, on your Instagram post in a selfie with a waterfall." I showed her the photo on my phone where she posed with a peace sign and the bracelet was visible, yes I had been stalking her online. "Peace."

I gave her an assuring look with my eyes. You can't escape the law. She sunk back in the chair. Very good to admit defeat, good. But that was too quick. Well, that wraps it up, I guess.

"I only wanted them to break up. He was having an affair behind my back! Who wouldn't be infuriated? I had thought of accusing Olivia of kidnapping our child and they would fall apart is what I thought. When I found the opportunity, it was that she was taking the kids to the small forest in the small town with barely any people. I had read Ben's messages and I got to know. But my baby had to suffer. I'm sorry, dearie." She wept, clinging to her child.

As we wrapped the case up, Jack approached me and said, "Hey genius...didn't know you were a detective."

"I was only curious. Also, credits to Rick, Henry, and Marigold. Bye. And I will sleep now." I yawned, holding my bag and putting my books in. Damn homework.

"That got you tired, ah. You're generous for not taking all the credit to yourself, kid! Respect!" Jack saluted as I brushed his arm off.

As I walked out, I remembered Jane had my room keys. When I went into her room, I saw Marigold sleeping. Oh right, her aunt and uncle are away so she's gonna stay here.

I broke open my door and crept cozily in my bed. I saw my wallet on the ground. I picked it up and a photograph fell off. It showed me, my kid brother, and a little girl in a crib. Was the other girl my sister or neighbor? I don't know nor do I recall any memories. It was from long back anyway. If my brother were alive...how old would he be...if only all of my family were alive...

I dozed off and didn't notice someone coming into my room.