The Real Culprit?

In a room with more modern finishes than the rest of the rooms, a news channel was shown on a television set in the middle of one of the walls, the reporters were reporting how the trial against those responsible for the kidnapping of more than 50 people was developing and, adding now, the discovery of three more corpses that were related to the previous crime.

- It seems that the trial has been bought ... they have not even let them breathe. - mentioned a man who was in that room and at the same time preparing some tea.

- It doesn't seem, it was. - answered a lady who was sitting on one of the pieces of furniture in front of the television while she had some papers in her hand.

- What do you think of all this, my lady? After all you had a direct dialogue with them. - asked that young man of about 24 years of average appearance.

The seated woman sighed- Lorenz, you know well that the people wanted to find those responsible, but now they just seem to simply want to blame someone to let off steam ... it's as if they were beasts deliberately looking for someone to devour. - commented the girl.

- Wasn't the necessary evidence found against them? - asked the man who was carrying a prepared tea set to the living table among the furniture.

- You seem to be in favor of Vincent now ... weren't you the one who was most suspicious of him? - asked sarcastically the woman who took one of the cups.

The wavy black-haired male smiled, but without malice.

- Victoria, you know well that it was the only option we had for the moment; the situation was reaching a dead end almost two weeks ago ... thank God, that in these last two weeks suddenly the kidnappings and murders stopped, but again it has started and people will no longer accept the excuses we were giving them. - said Lorenz.

With some chagrin, Mayor Victoria agreed with her assistant- But there is no objective proof that this pair was involved, the cameras at the recent scene indicate that the bodies had already died early on and that boy had the misfortune to find them. - he objected, too.

That man named Lorenz sighed as if he understood the mayor's position.

- I know, we needed scapegoats, that's why it was necessary to record the conversation they had yesterday as evidence, after all ... our report on Alicia Enid has several similarities with the profile of one of those responsible, and her 'partner' was just unlucky ... but, yes ...- before he could finish speaking, the sound of a phone call stopped Lorenz.

In that call, Victoria was about to read a document about the investigation of the scene of the three corpses found the day before, but, as she continued reading, something made her shudder.

"What does this mean ... Only the two corpses belonging to the women found could be checked ... What happened to the third one!" was what she thought.

Immediately, Lorenz alerted Victoria that the unofficial scouting team had had an incident.

- A man in black clothes?

- Yes ... they say he suddenly attacked them down Portal Street a few moments ago, but when he saw people coming, he ran away. - reported Lorenz.

- Were there any injuries?

- No, my lady. - replied the assistant- Besides ... there is something else they claim to have found. - he added.

Immediately Victoria headed for the forensic department, instructing Lorenz to tell that team to meet her there.

Passing through one of the main streets of the city, there was an establishment with a large sign that read Valdelomar, and inside the place, in one of the rooms, sat a young woman with three bodyguards. Two of them were of age, while the other was a young man of similar age to the woman.

Those were sitting, except for the youngest one who was behind attending a call, on the furniture watching the news mentioned about the sentencing for the two most wanted criminals of Luesia.

- How is the exploration team doing? - asked Lois.

- They say they found a hooded man who dropped a small book. - replied the young man who had finished his call.

- What book? - asked Hayato, one of the bodyguards.

- They don't know well ... they say there are names and sort of scribbled maps. - replied the black-haired young man wearing a black shirt and black pants.

- Is there anything else? - asked Hayato again.

- Hanzo informed me that the mayor wants them to go to the forensic department immediately.

As he finished answering, the older bodyguards remained silent as if waiting for the order from the one who would be their boss.

- Eric, go where Hanzo is ... you know what to do ... and don't let him do anything foolish. - Lois replied with great seriousness.

- Understood.

The young bodyguard immediately left the room.

While the news mentioned about the immediate execution of the criminals tomorrow, one of the remaining bodyguards asked- Even though they are acquaintances, why are you going so far away? You know well that you put yourself in danger, don't you?

- For that very reason ... after they execute them and see that the kidnappings are still happening, my head will be the next to be cut off. - he replied with a cold stare at the one who asked the question.

- Leaving the bad news aside, we must know who that guy was with whom the boys encountered ... and, if we could, know the contents of the book they found. - Hayato commented.

At the headquarters of the Forensic Department of Luesia, in the security room where there were several monitors recording the different environments of the facility was Lorenz with three more officers.

- Is this ... something possible ... ... ... and do they say that Vincent tried to hide it? - asked the mayor's assistant with great disbelief and fear.

- Yes, sir ... the DIS chief ordered it so as not to raise commotion and that he would inform them today. - replied one of the officers.

"What report! ... He should have told us right away!" thought Lorenz.

- Although we did not understand why the order to delete the video and the backup copy, we were able to have another copy recorded by the IA.- commented another officer.

- I see. - replied Lorenz monotonously, as he thought, "Delete the original and the copy? ... I knew he couldn't be trusted."

While those men had been conversing, the monitor in front of them again showed the replay of that much talked about video.

It showed how, in the morgue of the hospital where the three corpses found resided, they were lying on sliding beds being covered by light sheets, as they appeared to have been the first two bodies inspected.

However, the third body, which belonged to the male, began to tremble. Suddenly he stood up and remained seated for a few seconds. The image showed the appearance of a young man, perhaps 16 years old, who without waiting any longer fled the scene.

The form of his walk was strange, as he was limping as he walked. After a few seconds, it was seen how he withdrew through the entrance that was left half open and he was no longer seen, later two technicians had entered and were confused when they did not find the body.

Other cameras showed the following recordings of how the body was seen walking and leaving the morgue until it reached the outside. It was nighttime, the hospital was considerably empty and no one had come across the body.

No, it was rather that the corpse knew how to avoid the others in its escape.

The last sighting was how from one of the back doors he was seen leaving until he was lost among the avenues in the distance.

In a reception room on the third floor of the establishment, the mayoress was with the group of young people who had found that hooded guy; the story itself was not the important thing, but what that man had left behind.

- So, did he attack them with a scalpel? - Victoria asked incredulously.

- Yes ... it was strange at all ... he didn't even walk well ... besides, where would he get a scalpel? did he come from the hospital? - replied one of the young men.

- Then, they say ... Did he notice people coming and run away?

- Yes, he ran into a kind of quite narrow alley, we thought he didn't want to be noticed and decided to run away, but after we chased him, out of nowhere, there was nobody in that place. - replied one of the young men.

Lois' attitude was quite skeptical of what the group was saying, but she put that aside and asked about what they had found.

The third young man of the group, who had red hair, took out, from an inside pocket of his jacket, a small book, quite simple, but its cover had a hard cover as if they wanted that object to be resistant.

Upon opening the book, which had no title or any name to identify it, Victoria saw what the boys were describing.

It was just a set of random names and some maps drawn or rather scribbled, but the interesting thing was that those maps showed cities in the region, where Luesia was one of them.

Because of the color of the cover, they called it Pbook, for its acronym in English Purple Book, since they didn't really know who it belonged to.

- When we saw that he was gone, we thought he had hidden in the small clearing and dumps that were around; but there was nothing ... then, after we started to check the walls, Renzo saw that on a curved staircase leading to the street that connected to the second and third floor of a house something was about to fall ... the funny thing was that he didn't say anything until it fell on Hanzo's head ... it was then that we found this book.- commented the young woman in the group.

- And it hurt ... but nothing happened to me, thanks for asking. - added comically the young man who was referred to as Hanzo.

The situation was getting more and more complicated for Victoria, but it was even more of a dilemma when suddenly Lorenz appeared in a hurry with a couple of officers behind him. Those young men referred to him by the title 'boss' with the exception of Hanzo.

Lorenz recounted everything that had happened in the video camera office.

The concern on the mayor's face was evident, in all these months that the kidnappings had been unleashed she still had no clear clues as to what or who the real perpetrators were.

In the distance, the entrance of a young man with black hair and a long dark jacket was seen, and on his right shoulder was a badge that read Valdelomar.

As he approached the group with the mayoress, he spoke- It seems that you need help, Lorenz.

- Eric ...

The mayoress and the others noticed where the young man in dark clothes was from when they saw the badge on his shoulder.

- What are you doing here? - asked Lorenz.

- Well, I came to give my thanks about the fact that no sentence was imposed on the representative of the Valdelomar group.

No one understood the boy's actions, for he spoke with a tone as if he was indifferent to that matter as he slowly pulled out a letter from one of the inner pockets of his coat.

- Just as your men did, please accept this invitation to tea tonight at the Valdelomar residence. - said Eric in a defiant tone.

 Victoria was taken aback, but as many eyes were on that group and in order to no longer draw attention to herself, she quickly accepted it. That being so, the young man named Eric withdrew.

- How did he know he was here? - Victoria asked between murmurs.

One of the young men looked away slyly, turning a blind eye.

As night came, in a prison, he found Aren awaiting, according to the sentence, tomorrow's day for his execution. However, Aren's silhouette had not changed at all, incredibly, his serene demeanor persisted.

The prison where he was held was not entirely hygienic, but it did carry the necessary. The ward where he was confined seemed not to have many 'guests' which allowed the young man to reflect quietly.

"... It's only been three days ... and ... "

Yes, only three days since he arrived in Luesia and already everything had happened to him, but more interesting was the fact that he didn't seem worried about what would happen tomorrow, but the thought of the place where he had found the three corpses lingered in his mind.

"That boy...why was he pretending to be dead?"

Unexpectedly, Aren knew from the start.

For an instant the young man's gaze wandered to the door of his cell as if he had sensed someone approaching; perhaps an officer or a new inmate, but no one was in the hallway.

Doing the only thing he could on that day, Aren continued meditating until he fell asleep.

However, on the side of Alicia, who could be seen how her silhouette had greatly declined and how madness flooded her mind, because in her delusions she had come to think that Aren had really killed those three people as if she wanted to blame him for everything.

That woman kept condemning herself of several things, especially the fact of having made a bad decision, having come to Luesia and this happened while other women mocked her during her stay.

And so, it went on until sleep took hold of her.

At night, inside the Valdelomar group's facilities, in a room two groups led by two young ladies were sitting facing each other, the atmosphere was tense.

- The appearance of that unknown guy and about the recording that one of your men tried to hide from you ... I see that luck is not on your side. - Lois commented cynically.

- What a way of talking and you didn't say anything yesterday, didn't you, Miss Valdelomar? - replied Victoria to Lois' provocation.

The young Valdelomar smiled and said- I know that the regional government is pressuring you to solve this case as well as the people... I wanted to know if you still have that courage that they talk so much about?

Justly, as if attesting to those words, Victoria spoke boldly- Everyone has their problems ... plus remember that you're not entirely sure ... since you're next on the list.

Lois smiled.

- Well, let's stop the meaningless talk and get to the point ... I wish to prove Alicia's and my innocence ... therefore, the Valdelomar group will give support to the police force to find the real criminals. - he declared firmly.

- Innocence? Shouldn't you prove that before a jury? - replied Victoria sarcastically.

- Well, you know those juries are bought ... it does me no good to fight in enemy territory; however, if you give me the opportunity, I will give you results that your own people have not done. - Lois replied convincingly.

- Really, and what guarantee will that give me?

- You must know ... what the team of officers found in the Wilbur company warehouses, the fact that we were participants that day ... I will tell you that we sent out a search team ourselves that day and found this. - explained Lois while one of her bodyguards placed on the living table, which was between them, a kind of paper folded in several parts that when unfolded could be seen the appearance of a giant map of the city of Luesia which was carefully traced some places.

In total there were three places marked, in addition to that they mentioned certain numbers as if they were hours and to the side others more that were the following ones: 51, 29 and 37, but the most important thing was that behind that map were written two names: Maribel Figueroa P. and Ester Valentina Ulloa Z.

Below the names there was a date: 26/01/96 and another written 'Le Front'.

As if Lois' mood became sad, she commented- That was the only day that my men noticed and followed three people who had come to our store and had contact with two employees of mine previously ... those people were seen together with those two workers on the last day they were alive.

The mayor was beginning to understand some things, but she tried not to interrupt the young woman.

- That day, my men, following those people, arrived to the Wilbur warehouses where they saw between the night how those people met another group; however, they realized and, out of nowhere, they started shooting at my people ... obviously my group was armed and they responded to the fire, after a half hour they could catch one of those three people ... but this one snatched himself and escaped dropping what he had in his hands; although he tried to pick it up, the bullets prevented him from doing so. Fortunately, none of my people died, but there were wounded ... as you can see ... this map was what we got that day. - testified Lois.

The mayor was able to gather her thoughts and looked at the map again. Certainly, more than that pair that were arrested, it was the Valdelomar group who really had contact with those guys and, therefore, the biggest suspect, but because of the doubts that were already circulating in Victoria's mind, she doubted everything told.

- If I were willing to accept your proposal, who would you send? - asked the mayoress carefully.

- My two best men, Yoshida Hayato and Thomas Davies.

Victoria sighed and remembered the words her assistant Lorenz had said to her before she came.

- I don't think it's a bad idea to trust the Valdelomar group...I say that from experience.

Relying simply on her assistant's comment to calm her suspicions, Victoria agreed.

"I hope I didn't decide wrong again."