12 Chapter 12: The Guests

This chapter and some chapters ahead will be events that happened sometime between chapters 6 and 7.

Caron's POV:

My friend asked me to end his life due to his guilt. I almost granted his wish, but... I couldn't. He fell into a coma, and I became a fugitive due to attempted murder. A silly situation, I should say...

I thought I would be caught by the police, slowly dying from hunger, or killed by someone on the street.

I was desperate, but Detective Lersne, a friend of Leader, believed in my innocence and helped me to hide. I was very grateful for that. For now, everything was okay...

PRAANG

Everything was okay, except for Detective Lersne favorite cup that I accidentally dropped.

"Everything okay over there?"

"Don't worry about it!"

The guest heard the noise. Hopefully, he would just let it slide.

Detective Lersne's allowed me to be her assistant as my cover. She even backed me up when somebody questioned my identity. Nothing would be enough to express my thanks for that.

I cleaned the broken cup and threw it out, then made a new cup of coffee for the guest. Sorry, detective Lersne's favorite cup, rest in piece...

"Sorry about that."

I said my sorry as I put the new cup of coffee in front of the guest.

"Don't worry about it."

The client seemed to be a polite old man, at least not a rude customer type.

It felt weird to talk to people like normal while being a wanted fugitive. Detective Lersne helped me to wore a disguise to cover my identity, so nobody noticed me this far, but... nothing felt safe enough...

"Detective Lersne is out. I will note your problem and submit it to her later."

I took out a pen and a small notebook from my coat pocket. Some pages were full of scribbles, but it supposed to be used to take notes.

"I need you to look into my wife. I'm afraid she might see another man behind my back..."

The old man showed the photo of his wife. She was around twenty, had long brown hair, and a tall body. She wore a brandy handbag with a lion logo. Not sure which brand, but I could look into it later.

"Any other details that might help? The person she might see, or time and place?"

The conversation went on as I noted various things.

"May I borrow the restroom?"

"Sure, turn right from that hallway."

The man brought his bag as he stood up and went into the restroom.

"You can leave the bag here."

"Thanks, but I prefer to keep it."

The high crime rate in this city made it difficult to trust anyone at all. It was always better to be extra careful than regretting it later.

Sometime later, the guest came out from the restroom and went home after noted down his contact info.

Something was bothering me about this case, but what was it? Oh, it was the disturbing age gap between the husband and the wife...

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Another guest came. She was a middle-aged woman with an expensive-looking suit. She might have a car and personal driver waiting outside. No one would be bold enough to walk around looking like that with many thieves around.

"Please make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you."

The guest sat after a very brief statement. She seemed to be a reserved person.

"Tea or coffee?"

"Water, please."

A cup of water was delivered safely to the table. Nothing broke this time.

"Detective Lersne is out. I'll submit your case to her when she's back."

"So you're her new assistant?"

"Yes, I am. You know Detective Lersne?"

"An old friend, yes. I didn't expect she would get an assistant. She always preferred to do everything by herself."

"Maybe she's at the age where she needs some helping hands."

"Maybe you're right." 

After a light talk, she gave her name. Her name was Joanne Fernandez. She didn't reveal anything more than that and proceeded to talk about her case.

"I suspected that my husband might be seeing another woman."

Another adultery case... again...

Miss Joanne showed the picture of her husband. He was a middle-aged man wearing an expensive-looking suit. 

There was a fancy-looking car behind him, with a crater-like crack on its windows. It looked like it just survived a bullet. The windows might be bullet-proof since they didn't completely break. Not everyone needed a customized bullet-proof car unless they were an important figure, crazy rich person, or a car enthusiast.

Was it okay for me to see the car? It felt like something you shouldn't just show to anyone. Maybe she was okay showing it because Detective Lersne was a trustworthy friend.

"Any suspect in your mind about who might seeing your husband?"

"Unfortunately, no, but I know that he met her around nine to eleven at night on bar 'Red Heel' under the guise of late-night business."

I noted everything down. As I wrote, Miss Joanne suddenly opened a different topic...

"By the way... have you heard about the murder that happened recently?"

"There's a lot. Which one are you talking about?"

"It's about the weird case of Caron Dvail."

WTF, my name suddenly came up. I should stay calm and be casual about it.

"Weird? Wasn't it just an attempted murder case?"

"The culprit called an ambulance to help the victim himself. Weird, isn't it?"

"It might be a fight that escalated too far. The culprit regretted it, and that's why she called an ambulance."

"Firing five bullets without killing the victim doesn't sound like something that accidentally happened. If it was an accident, the culprit would stop after the first shot."

"...It sure does sounds weird. Hopefully, we could hear more from the victim himself after he awakens."

I had to be invested in the conversation rather than avoiding it. At the same time, I have to be sure not to mention anything too specific that only I knew.

"I finished noting it. Anything else I need to know?"

"I want to know what's your perspective about Caron Dvail's case. I'm interested to know why the detective trusted you."

"Trusting me? It was nothing deep. Pretty sure the detective just wanted a helping hand, and I happened to be available."

Miss Joanne seemed to insist on talking about this case. She didn't see through my disguise, did she?! I hoped she didn't!

"But... I might be able to guess the motive."

"Interesting, do tell me."

Maybe Miss Joanne wouldn't be satisfied with a half-hearted answer. She wanted me to be more assertive with it. I should only give a wrong answer to keep my cover safe. I hoped it would end the conversation.

"It was revenge."

"A revenge?"

"The culprit left the victim alive so she could torture him again. Even for the next attack, she won't kill him. The culprit will keep doing it until the victim is consumed by fear and kill himself."

"And what was it that made the culprit hate the victim so much?"

"It's something that we will figure out after the victim awakes. If he ever wakes up at all, that is."

This made-up scenario gave me a lot of second-hand embarrassment. I hoped my stupid answer would be enough to end the conversation.

"Sounds like a plot for a horror movie."

Miss Joanne chuckled. She was so tense that I didn't expect to see her laugh.

"I'm not a fan of a horror movie, but I might watch it if there's one."

I also caught myself laughing. I laughed at my stupid scenario and how embarrassing I might sound when I said it with fake confidence.

"Well, you seem to be eager to learn. You should see yourself when you explain the motive. It was really... something."

"So, did you figured it out why detective trust me? I would like to know."

"No, I didn't."

Again, both of us laughing at ourselves.

At least, the conversation ended without me accidentally revealed anything important.

Miss Joanne went home after using the restroom. She also brought her bag with her. At this point, I might think of it as a norm.

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"Caron, wtf did you mean by I'm getting old?"

"Umm... What?"

"Also, you broke my favorite cup and expected me to let it slide?!"

"I was going to tell you about it later... How did you know about that?"

Detective Lersne let out a suspicious smile. I don't think I would like the implication behind that.

"Check this out, Caron."

Detective Lersne played a recorder, the content of the recorder was...

"The culprit left the victim alive so she could torture him again. Even for the next attack, she won't kill him. The culprit will keep doing it until the victim is consumed by fear and kill himself."

It was... my voice....

"DETECTIVE, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! TURN IT OFF!!"

Detective Lersne chuckled and turned the recorder off. I felt like dying out of embarrassment just by hearing it.

"How did you get this?! Did you tap me?!"

I franticly search for a listening device that might be hidden around here. But there was none...

"Caron, the two guests that you saw today, they were ME."

"...I'm sorry, but what?!"

"I tested out my disguise. Just making sure I didn't lose my touch."

"How did you do it?"

"The explanation would be a long one."

"I have time, tell me."

Detective Lersne sat on the sofa as she started to explain her fancy little trick.

"I arrived here with my disguise as an old man. My large bag contained my usual clothing and another bag. The large bag was the core of the trick. You saw me bringing it to the restroom."

"What's with the bag?"

"I'll get to that later. For now, I have to tell you that just a bit further after the door to the restroom, there was a secret door to a room where I put a lot of my disguise assets there."

"There's a secret room?! Here?!"

"Surprised?"

"Yes, very much surprised, but continue anyway."

"The next part was, I entered the secret room. I took out my usual clothing and the other bag from my old man bag and replaced it with my Joanne disguise and a new bag that I used as Joanne. Then I leave."

"Did you change your bag to make sure I wouldn't notice that you were the same person?"

"That's correct."

I didn't say anything to that because I knew her explanation hadn't reached the end.

"After that, I visited the nearest public restroom and changed to Joanne disguise. I put back my old man disguise and old man bag inside Joanne's bag. Then I arrived as Joanne Fernandez. I used a new bag for the reason you mentioned before."

"I put back my old man disguise in the secret room. Then I took back the usual outfit and bag that I previously took out. I went out after that, changed to my usual clothing in the public restroom. Put my Joanne disguise and bag into my usual bag and then come back here."

"Here's the proof."

Detective Lersne pulled out various things from her bag. It was Joanne's outfit, wig, bag, and shoes. The shoes were wrapped in plastic to ensure that no mud touched other items.

"Why... would you do this?"

"I wanted to ask you about your case to check your reaction. Someday you may need to talk about that topic with strangers. It would be dangerous if you accidentally give yourself away."

"So, did I hid it well?"

"At least, you were casual about it."

"That's it? All of those setups just to check my reaction?!"

"I planned to teach you how to do it. That was a demonstration so you can see how useful it is."

"So... all the cases that I noted down today..."

"I just made it up. No need to file it."

"How about the people in the photos?"

"They're my friends."

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Today felt like a joke, but I got to see how to do a more advanced disguise. That was neat... If only it wasn't used to fool me...