We are on the case

"Thud. Thud. Thud."

Before the door opens I quickly scramble by the Shadow side.

House is quiet. There are no sounds of a normal family during dinner time when usually everyone is back at home.

"Maybe they are not home?", I ask in a small voice.

"Not possible. Connor already hacked the next door neighbor security camera. They are inside.", Shadow also whispered.

Our conversation interrupted soft steps merely audible from behind heavy front doors.

Click. Screech.

Someone needs to grease the hinges. This sound is straight out of an 80's horror film.

Doors open and we still see no one. Don't tell me this house is really haunted…

"What can I help you with?"said a squeaky disembodied voice, almost making me piss myself.

"Mister? Everything alright?", ask this voice again and this time I look down and there is a small girl.

Honestly if I didn't hear Shadow snickering at my shocked face I would assume she is indeed a ghost.

She has the deadly pale face of a Victorian child and the center of her ghostly face is adorned with deep black eyes. Her dress is blue with white frills and from her hand is hanging a ragdoll dressed in an exact copy of the dress she is currently wearing. There is no expression on her face, just blank.

Freaky!

"Hello, Miss. Are there any adults at home? I'm from the police."

Shadow quickly interjected. Huh. His voice sounds completely different. He sounds like he smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. Deeper and scratchy.

"I'll get my mom."

If there are adults at home why did they send a child to open the door?

Weird.

There is barely audible, "Mom police came to speak about uncle", which was answered by "We just got back from the police station. What would they want now."

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Steps get louder and louder, like a person is coming from underground.

Then in the crack between the door frame and door a woman shows up. Her face is pallid but not ghostly. She's blond and dressed smartly in suit pants and white dress shirt. Although she looks put together, her eyes tell a different story. They are tired and sad.

"Hello, Sir. I know it's your job and you want to throw every Goblin member behind the bars but we need time to grieve too. We won't be able to come to the police station for a second time today. We just came back and you have had us since noon. We really didn't have contact with Richard during the time he was drafted to Goblis. I swear. Please we just really need a moment for the family to take all this in. "

She sounds realy frazzled. This poor woman.

"I'm sorry Ma'am. I know it's a hard time for the whole family. I'm detective Ed Bodry. Earlier today you were talking with a squad leading a case of gang crimes."

He lays hand on his chest with the righteous face.

"I was assigned to your brother's case in connection to his sudden disappearance. I was notified that one of the Goblins fished from the river was in fact my missing person after you left the station. I know it's a lot to ask but can we talk a little bit more about your brother in connection with him being missing?"

"Oh." She sounded intrigued by the possibility.

Her shoulder slumped and eyes became less vigilant.

"Someone is still looking into it. Well he's been found already. No need to search anymore." her voice breaks like she's seconds from bursting into tears.

"My condolences Ma'am. I know we found his body but I feel there is the need to investigate how he went missing. Was he in a gang under duress? What were the circumstances of him just leaving his family behind. Without this I can't close this case with a clean conscience."

Shadow fidgets like he is anticipating her negative response. His face showed a guilty look and slumped shoulder showed how defeated he was or supposed to be as a police man that didn't crack the case in time and let a person die.

Man he is good at it.

"In that case please come in. We also want to know how quiet and polite Richard all of sudden got into the gang. There's so much unknown. He's not like that."

She stepped aside and opened the door full on, beckoning us in.

I can't help but wonder how often Shadow does this judging how smoothly it's going.

"Scuse me", Shadow says, slipping in.

Inside the house is rather cozy. Walls are painted in warm oranges and inoffensive beige. Coming in you can see straight into the living room. There is a massive couch, various knick knacks and flat screen TV.

Perfectly normal from the looks of it. One weird thing is that its residents are nowhere to be seen. Only women who open the door are here with us. Little girl is gone too.

"Where is the rest of the family? I'll be needing accounts from everyone."

Women open doors hiding in the not well visible alcove.

"They are in the basement. My brother had his room there and now that we know he will not need it in the future we decided to organize his things."

Her voice shakes a little when she says it.

"Should I get everyone up here or we go to the basement officer?"

'Please not the basement. No one lived there for so long. Spiders must have taken over that place.'

"Would be better to talk in the victim's room, Ma'am. Who knows. Maybe we find some clues in his things that were earlier overlooked."

'I know he's right but I don't wanna.'

"Right, this way."

She goes first and we are behind here. Steps are narrow and steep. Knowing my clumsiness, if I lived here I would fall off them at least a hundred times especially If I ever come home drunk.

Right on cue I stumble over my own foot and fall straight into Shadows back. Luckily he has a good grip on the stairs railing and doesn't fall too. It would be a pretty awful domino effect ending in broken bones for all us three.

"Kid watch your steps. It would be too funny if the stairs got you in rather than being kidnapped by a gangsters", he says under his breath so only I can hear it.

I wanna sas him but if I open my mouth now I'll probably shout at him and this would blow the whole operation out of the water.

"Hymph."

I can only pout silently.

We get to the bottom of the stairs where there are open doors waiting for us.

"Please come in but it is a bit of a mess."

"Don't fret. We won't be doing white glow tests or anything like that."

Shadow wiggled his fingers to demonstrate he was in fact not wearing any gloves.

She smiled faintly at this comment. Indeed he is a pro.

Stepping inside Richard room is like teleporting into the 90's teen room. There are posters of old games like DOOM or Wolfeistein. Floor is covered by quirky carpet in geometrical shapes. There are old consoles and even box TV.

Only thing breaking the vibe is super high-tech computers.

Also the whole family is inside.

On bed is lying an older woman clutching in her hands an old picture frame. She's weeping.

"I'm sorry, Richars. Mom couldn't save you. I'm so sorry." she sobbed.

Beside her was a slumped older gentleman holding her hand like he wanted to pull out here from all this anguish.

Younger man is sitting on the carpet with two children. It's a girl we saw before and a small boy looking roughly four years old.

This man must be this child's father because he is trying to avert their attention from sobbing women who must be their grandmother.

"Mom, Dad, the detective came to ask us about Richard's disappearance.

It seemed at first that women didn't hear that over her loud sobbing but then she whipped her head with great anger in mine and Shadow direction.

"They don't care why he went missing! They only want to uncover more Goblins members. We know nothing about them. Leave us alone!"

She clenched her hand into the fist like she would gladly make us do what she said.

"Ma'am I know you've been treated poorly by my colleagues but I swear I want only what is best for Richard and his family."

If look could kill, Shadow would be long dead. For someone not involved this could sound like a good choice of words but for grieving mother this sounded like taunt.

"Richard is dead! What good you can do for him! Pin some gang crimes on him!?"

Old school alarm-clock found its way to her hands and she threw it with all her force at Shadow. Fortunately Shadow has better reflex than me and he dodged quite smoothly without a lot of moves. Clock smashed on wall behind us.

"I mean I want to know the real reason Richard went missing a year ago. I have some suspicions about the whole group fished out from the river. They have all been missing for year or months."

This gives him the whole attention people gathered in this not spacious enough room.