Solution or Another Problem?!

CHAPTER 7

-PART THREE-

-AFTER THE INTERROGATION-

No sound in the room, yet everyone is moving, just moving and not talking. Someone walks back and forth by the front window, always in easy reach of the phone, either doing the jobs that has been meaning to do for months, somehow they are now pressing, urgent even. I sit, unable to read, foot tapping up and down like some dumb wind-up toy. We sit knee deep in silence. The faucet drips into the mini sink, each one reverberating around the room like a cymbal, yet no-one blinks or moves to stop it. Outside there is no traffic or bird song, by now it must be afternoon the time in which today becomes nearly tomorrow. When it does the men will move, gather the arms and head out. The air is so brittle it could snap, and if it doesn't, I might. No-one speaks, what is there to say? Platitudes won't cut it right now. An hours ago they were all anyone was saying, anything to ease the terrible burden of worry. In this suspended horror that we all will to end and to last an eternity at the same time, every eye is on the anywhere. In seconds we will know, we will cheer the roof right off or pain will engulf us entirely. The water sits coolly in the glass before me, condensation beading the outside. I run my finger around it as if slicing the top off and watch the transparent "blood" drip to the pristine mirrored table below. In this bloody maroon room of feminine perfection that my ancestors have created, but I am forbidden to drop even a crumb lest I spoil the magazine cover replica of relaxation. I can feel the fear in my chest waiting to take over. I can feel the tension around coming from everyone. Perhaps it only wants to protect one another specially me but there really isn't any danger. I switch the radio off and stand from my seat and go to the nearest window. The air is sweet, the weather is fine, there are birds in the sky and I can hear water not far away. There's something about being outside that evaporates my fear, maybe the fresh air scent reminds me of fresh washed laundry, I'm not sure but my body has already begun to relax. I let out a slow controlled breath and attempted to loosen my body movements. I've been walking like a clockwork soldier and that was no way to be in this room. The wall clock ticks like the timer on a bomb. I can't stop it, reverse it or slow it down. Each tick drags me forward, helpless and nervous to the allotted time. I can no more avoid it than the beating of my own heart as it pounds with futility against its cage of bone and cartilage. The dread is an invisible demon sitting heavy on my shoulders and only I can hear the sharpening of its knives. I sweat and become pale, then the tremor in my hands begins. My head becomes a little giddy and my stomach nauseous. All I can do is wait on through window.

"Should we Trust them?"

I look behind to see who broke the silence that is covering everyone.

"Maybe yes either no" Gray utters as he drinks his glass of elixir

"first of, we should think inside the box" as Pendelton spoke

Walking back through the direction of my seat while listening through their argument.

"Then we should discuss what Bailey Peterson says through his set-up interrogations" Lock suggested while drinking his coffee

"The question is, should we trust Bailey Peterson and that Reed?" I stated while sitting on my couch.

"there's nothing we can do but to trust their words" Knight-lock stated firmly

"but they can actually manipulate us" Gray opposes his idea

"And lie to us" Price utter while getting some brewed for each one

"I get what Knight-lock wants to say" I stated "We can trust the two or maybe their team yet we can manipulate them as long as we want" looking at their faces seems they couldn't believe on what they just heard.

"she has a point everyone" Price agreed on my idea "Peterson was Copper's best friend since he chooses that varsity, do you think he might kill his own buddy? Either Lock can't do it to Pendelton"

"then shoot! Trust their words and have a back-up plan I guess?" Gray added

"we can say that Peterson was telling all his own version of so-called truth but what he means on his interrogation was tentatively right and tentatively wrong" Knight-drain stated

"how can you say that tentative properties?" lock curiously ask

"First of, remember his statement where he and Copper go to Le Club de Minuit and drink rum until they become wasted? That might be true yet I immediately check the footage of the surveillance of the bar and streets" Pendelton stated while grabbing his suitcase thingy and get his hard drive containing the delivered footages. He was sort-of determined to prove his idea.

…

-FLASHBACK-

As one of the major eye looker finally stated his side willingly, a feeling of uncertainty or doubt, faltering moment before deciding to believe at every actions, or a silent second of indecision, something was not right.

"Hey Pendelton! We should Head down to Reed, come on" Price says while handing a cup of brewed for everyone

"yeah! Give me a moment. I just… uhm… going to clarify something" I stated and I saw him nod. When I saw him enter the lodge area of this room I immediately dialed the trusted one.

"Adam Campbell, how may I help you?" he answered through the mouthpiece

"It's me Pendelton" introducing myself

"oh! Mr. Chase, any requests for any particulars?" he utter proudly

"I'll go straight to the point, it's urgent. I want you to get the surveillance at the Le Club de Minuit on October 01 1901" I exclaimed as I hissed after stating what I want

"Okay! I'll send it to you right away" he said and I ended the call.

After that breathtaking phone call, I decided to go to the Lodge and sit on a chesterfield in front of everyone. Observing each of them.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

…

Walking towards the computer and inserted the hard disk to the drive. As he enters his password to the sort of private documents, Lock assist him to connect his files towards the cinematic view sort type of screen.

As the footage on October 1st starts to play, each one was attentively watching every lapse of the scene.

"viola!" Price pointing the direction where Copper and Peterson located

"as we can see, Copper and Bailey only drink a couple bottle of rum, which means they're not wasted drunk as they leave my place" Peterson explains while pointing to the scene where Copper and Bailey finish a two bottles of honey rum, he was right with that conclusion that those guys wasn't wasted as they leave the place

"They leave the place same path yet Bailey Stated that he was left behind, dumbfounded and Richardson leave immediately" Gray amazingly stated

"I told you we can't trust him either that bastard called Reed" Knight-lock exclaimed as he intensively watching the scene.

"that's not the point. The point is they just drink two bottle and they cannot be drunk easily even though they're light drinkers" Pendelton exclaimed

"how can you be so sure Knight-drain? What if the two of them was just a light drinker?" Price explain

"Let me repeat what I stated a while ago, my rum which I personally formulate was way too light than the other rum so it is impossible that a light drinker can be drunk in just two bottles. I'm sure of it because as I've said, I formulate every inch of that rum" he proudly stated that gives me chills.

"Do you have any footage on where did they go after Le Club de Minuit?" Knight-lock asks while seriously staring at the footage. His seriousness is a sign that his hiding his emotions

I know him too well

"We can access to that" Pendelton again speaks, as a respond to his adopted brother's request he smile and access himself to enter the city hall's files which contains the footage in the whole town.

Amazing

"there! Drive street, here we can start viewing up until we can identify where do they go" He stated happily

"where in the District and here we can start" he added while pointing to the footage where their cars pulled the road.

"Traffic cams of the whole town, well this is so exciting actually!" Gray utter as he looks attentively to the footage.

I focus my sight observing the footage, after they go from the bar they drive across the street, nothing suspicious at all. It's like watching a boring trivia shows on how to drive your car smoothly.

"They're gone" I whisper as I notice that after a couple of driving and turns they're cars gone.

"where did they go?" price utters

Our attention was focuses on Knight-drain, he smirks towards us and hit another button from his clicker.

"if I were going to do such hilarious and suspicious things I'll turn this way where no cameras would notice even shadow" he stated as he points out the footage where the car turns and disappeared

"viola! Shortcuts from Westfield Drive" he utters

We amazingly watch the footage inch by inch as the driving goes smooth until they reach the 1720 house.

"that was the house from 1720?" I utter

"yes it is" Drain looks at my direction and smiles

"what happened there?" Price impatiently murmurs

A little fast forward happens to the footage and after a minute Richardson run outside the house carrying his bloody abdomen.

"the one of the knives I found was the knife used to stab Copper" Knight-drain utters

"what is the reason for him to stab his best buddy?" Price asks question

"remember when I say it's tentative truth and tentative not? This part says that Bailey tentatively not telling the truth about what happen that day of October 01, and intelligently speaking we will notice that the incident happened in the middle of afternoon which opposes to his statements that Copper leave him late at night. In that case he lied to us on the first part, yet on the second thought he tells his own kind of truth, he didn't stab Copper and that was the truth" he stated carefully line by line.

"how come he didn't stab the victim where the footage clearly shows that Copper was injured when he comes out?" Gray confusedly asks

"the forensic results show that the blood sample matched Copper's blood yet it didn't match Peterson's finger prints" Price explains his knowledge about the thing.

"you didn't tell us that thing Twin" Gray stated

"so owns that prints?" Lock asks

"the finger print sample from the knife matches Copper's finger print." Price utter

"So you mean, Copper Richardson stab himself? But why?" I curiously ask

"I don't know the reason behind sweetheart. The exciting part, the other knife that Pendelton also gathered has been matched the blood sample of Peterson's blood" he simply murmur

"so you mean, they stab each other?" Gray Confusedly ask

"No. Peterson didn't match the sample from the handle. It matches to Copper Richardson's prints also" he says

"Richardson stabs Bailey and stab himself to protect his reputation once Peterson tells it to the police" Drain calmly stated to everyone

"what is the reason why Richardson stab his buddy?" Knight-lock utters

"I'm surely that he discovered something that deals with Richardson" He stated while sipping his cup of brewed

"Fuck, unbelievable" Gray utters out of disbelief on every idea he has heard

"So it simply means that he doesn't tell the truth on some other parts of his own version of stories" Price clarify his formed idea

"but why do he needs to lie?" Gray stated as if he can't absorb each ideas

"it's just because Peterson Protects his buddy" Knight-lock answered Gray's question and sip his cup of brewed

"but what is the reason?" Gray asks again

Stubborn!

"and that thing for us to discover" Pendelton gaze upon each one of us

A sudden urge of silence envelope each one of us. the ones of still telephones and silent clocks, having the random sounds that came sailing in the breeze; the birdsong came so sweetly, almost tangible, as if it were softly spun sugar. The feeling that I would sit there upon the clouds that were my dreams until, as the ones above are so prone to do, they condensed to form the random ideas that quench my mind. It was on those in types of quiet days that ideas came as natural things do from the sunshine, rain and earth.

Savoring my imaginations through this temporary silence

The song was the gentle hum of the coffee maker machine and the rhythmic hum of the air conditioner. I guess to someone unaccustomed it could be less than therapeutic, and these were the sounds of home. It was a chance to enjoy pottering about. With the music on and nothing but the trees look out from the window, I slowly put my small world in order. I can honestly say that those days were my salve, a chance for the spinning top of ideas, that carousel of duties to slow and occasionally stop. It was as if I had truly been given the day, and I could bow to the way the world is, this insane notion if someone had granted me a button to stop the world for a day, so that I could breathe and have the serenity of wakeful rest. It is like were feathers without hurry, moving this way and that in the air, happy to change direction according to the wind.

Easy to manipulate and easy to play.

Whatever can silence be?

For is there not always the sound of your own heart?

Just as with whiteness there is light, and blackness is a canvass for dreams; if there is a soul present, there is always something. And so as the quietness grows deeper and I hear my own steady rhythm from within, I call this silence. The silence lay on my skin like a poison. It seeped into my blood and paralyzed my brain, my pupils became dilated and there was a tremor in my hands. Looking to everyone's face was one of awkwardness, not even hurrying to save feelings, to fill the void with a non-comital statement of appreciation. The void was a cruelty inflicted unintentionally, but had been aware would not have cared one iota. Looking at him, he picked his eyes off the gravel with the weariness of one who is fatigued with the whining of a small child and raised his eyebrows. I know tensing against the shaking of my limbs is useless but I do it instinctively, trying to suppress for a few more moments what I know I cannot. It was like I need to drink in silence to counteract the fear that threatens to engulf me. This kind of thick silence would normally chill everyone, especially on an inky day devoid of even sun or clouds, but tonight Now the silence is my enemy. That noise that would be lost in the daytime will travel far, perhaps as far as the edges of the wood. The silence inside the room made everyone's blood as cold as the autumnal air that crept through an open window. Bereft of any wind the leaves outside hung limp until they fell of their own accord, there was no whispering noise or rustling. It was as if nature conspired to keep us in the dark, not daring to whisper the reassurance craved. Then hurried footsteps and the squeak of a door brought my heart racing as fast as a gunshot. Her head snapped in an instant from gazing out

It was Price holding a milkshake, Strawberry milkshake to be precise.

"I didn't know you start drinking Rum?" Price utter to break the silence; it feels like their attention gaze upon the two of us

"Just a sip" I simply added against my twin brother

"Here take this, instead of that sweetheart" he sweetly stated and take a seat beside me.

Didn't make an effort to glance with him, I took a savory sip to the rum and there is something about a fragment of warmth that can show the coldness, something in the kiss of the sun's rays amid the cold almost-winter wind. In that moment, I pour the rum through the glass that makes a clicking sounds from the ice. In the day-shine we were blessed to follow the passions of our hearts in our work; come the star-shine we were blessed to sit around a rum bottle or two. Within the rum bottle was the sweetness of the sun, so much goodness God-given. A thousand perfect honey based liquid, the gifts of the rich brown earth and a generous sun. Typically, humble, as was the custom in the town.

what was inside was a matter of upmost importance to all, the bottle?

It was just a vessel, right bottle was the customary grey transparent, yet deeper where the brown elixir sat within. Unlike the bottles in the cellar it had a shine to it that accentuated the age of the label, time-yellowed with corners that curled. Its neck poked cheekily from the rucksack. I poured my soul into that wine glass every moment and drunk it dry, fingers so warm on the coolness of bowed glass, never held it by the stem, not that I ever saw, but cupped it in my right hand as one might drink water from a clear river. The glass had travelled far from the heat and soot of the glass district to sit among the finery of this place. It was slender, the sort that brought alcohol to mind.

"Since when you start drinking that elixir?" Gray utter while walking forward to my direction

"The other day, I guess" I calmly answer as the soothing effect of the rum flows through my throat

"Give me that glass" Gray murmur, assuming he had a drink of my own, I gave it to him, wondering he will drink and taste its sweetness but I mistakenly thought, he pours the alcohol into the sink to dispose it.

As I supposed to protest I hear footsteps at behind.

"Sweetheart, drink this instead of rum" His voice was as soft as the cloud that makes my heart flatters

I protested and grab the milkshake from Price. Hearing the two of them chuckles make me annoyed and flash a death glare.

"Anyways, what are we going to do with that Reed?" Knight-lock asks to everyone while glancing on each one of us.

"what's with the cyanide thing?" Knight-drain curiously asks

"The night when Lycko Louise left the quarters, I take the responsibility to find her and I encounter that bastard" Lock started to tell his story

"as I bite to that fucking bate he created, I saw the second man, Reed. He thought that you and Bailey are together and we had a fight until I can manage him… as I put him to the car I saw a silhouette of man, when he saw me looking at him, he bolts out and run… as I hold his arms, I felt somethings odd. It was like I knew that man and that idea makes me froze" he keeps uttering his words "but I can't see his face"

"Cyanide" Price murmur

"The poison was made to mimic an efficient virus, to spread illness rather than kill the host fast. It made the host aggressive and emotionally indifferent to others, enough to make them a sort of social poison machine. A few drops here and there and the decay set in, a sort of race to the bottom, survival of the nastiest." I utter as took glance at the ceiling

"what do you mean?" Pendelton asks sitting on his famous chesterfield

"The poison targeted the prefrontal cortex, taking out their self-control, empathy and logic. They became a sort of retarded, others may know as primitive monster. If the criminals found someone inconvenient they shot them, but if it was a vendetta then they used the poison. Even a saint would turn into a demonic predator once it took effect, it was the poison we all feared, the stuff living nightmares are made of." I explain everything to them, hearing them grasp and sigh.

"Few people have the knowledge on how the cyanide works and few people know how to use it as a poison" I clearly utter "I indeed myself know how and that Supremo that Hermano encountered"

"who else?" Gray curiously asks

"Andrew" Knight-lock exclaimed he seems out of itself

"Who's Andrew?" Price questioned

"He was the psycho that Sheriff Castillo caught" Pendelton stated clearly as he looks towards Price

"Why do that Criminal arrest a psycho?" Gray murmurs out of disbelief

"because the Psycho admit that he knows something about the murder of Richardson" Knight-lock utter

"Shit" –Gray

"Fuck" –Price

"No scars, no bullet holes, no bruises and even blood… fuck? Did he use cyanide?" Gray caress his forehead

"Maybe yes or Maybe not" Pendelton speaks again

"Fuck? Again? Damn tentative" Gray hissed

"As all we know, the town doesn't know that I'm still alive. The night where Knight-lock reported me his interrogation from the Psycho Andrew, I'm also having doubt that maybe Copper experienced poisoning" Pendelton starts to speak out. "So I decided to check his autopsy report for some results but the Richardson's seems released a huge amount of money to keep everything silent."

"So what our plans now?" Knight-lock asks

"To know the truth" Pendelton utter as he stands from his chesterfield and sat on the table top

"If Reed, Peterson and Andrew have a connection to that Poisonous Supremo then maybe Copper either the Richardson's too has their connection to that man?" I stated in between of my sips.

"So genius twin" Gray giggles like a five-year-old boy

"My girl was right" Pendelton stated smiling sweetly "We should know the possibilities, if the Richardson's has the connection with the culprit"

"If Copper himself still alive"

"If my brother was still alive"