Suspicious man

"What did he say?" Layla ran to Elizabeth as soon as she left the room. Elizabeth walked past her with a sigh.

"The lead he gave isn't very reliable."

"Just tell me what he said, Elizabeth." Layla nudged Elizabeth and walked side by side with her.

"He said something about the forest." Elizabeth replied.

"That creepy forest at the back of the town…again?" Layla questioned with a raised brow.

"Yes, he said Gary went missing in those woods. The same one where you and that kid went missing years ago." Elizabeth nodded and turned to look at Layla, who had stopped walking at a point.

"Are you okay, Layla?" Elizabeth asked with worry.

"Ha, I now regret not having any memories of that place. Not just regret, but…fear also. It scares me." Layla choked as she spat out the deepest of her emotions in words.

"It's not your fault, Layla…Maybe, it is for your own good that you lost those memories." Elizabeth walked towards Layla and consoled her with a hug.

"Haha, I'm so embarrassed right now." Layla let out a small chuckle and wiped her tears with her sleeves.

"Yes. It's not every day you see a grown police officer cry." Elizabeth said teasingly and led the way, with Layla following behind her.

When Elizabeth turned, she missed the small frown that formed on Layla's face, Layla turned back and stared intently at the place Elizabeth passed through when she went to search for 'clues'.

****

"Aren't you going to visit your cousin? The one who was about to deliver?"

"Nope." Elizabeth nonchalantly gave a brief reply and munched on her hamburger, her eyes scanned the cafe area out of habit.

"Why?" Layla asked again.

"Nothing. But, is it just me or Officer Layla Louise is getting a bit gossipy." Elizabeth mocked and chuckled with food food in her mouth.

"It's not wrong, after all, you're my partner." Layla quickly defended herself.

"Of course, unofficial partner." Elizabeth said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"You want to tell Chief Alejandro about it? Tell at your own risk then." Layla relaxed on the chair and slowly sipped her coffee.

"Fair enough." Elizabeth shrugged and asked, "Where are we headed next? We still have four days before our vacation ends."

"I have no relation to visit, why don't we visit your family?"

The smile on Elizabeth's face cracked.

"What?" Her eyes shook as she managed to let that one word out.

"I said why don't we visit your family?" Layla innocently repeated the question, probably unaware of Elizabeth's struggle.

"We can't!" Elizabeth banged the table with her fist, earning surprise stares from other customers in the cafe.

"...I mean, we can't go." Elizabeth said again with a softer voice and a smile that did not reach her eyes.

The only family she and her sister had were her father's relatives and they hated the fact that the two sisters were born as girls and could not become heirs to their family's company and they hated the fact that their mother was of low blood, from a poor family. Even when their parents were alive, that hatred was there, it was even worse now that both parents were dead.

"It's fine, Elizabeth." Layla forced a smile and chuckled, "We should live soon, we can go to a mall after this, or maybe a park."

"..." Elizabeth just nodded blankly and continued eating her hamburger even though she had lost her appetite. The atmosphere had been spoiled just at the mention of 'family'.

…

Their great vacation had finally come to an end and both officers had returned to this all-so seemingly peaceful town.

And something to note was that, their peaceful days in the town would still come to an end as the festival would be taking place in a few days, a week approximately. But this time, no one has disappeared, every body was preparing dorbthe festival but nobody had disappeared like usual.

The girls sat quietly in the police car, with their note books in their hands and continuously scanned the area with their eyes, the bustling street sounded all to quiet to them. They feared the fact that things might be happening at the top right now but they'd be too blind to notice, or even worse, they might be looking at the wrong direction.

"Don't you think we would have visited the forest before the festival?" Layla's voice broke the silence in the car.

"I don't think so, we would miss it if anything was to happen here in town and we might even jeopardize our own safety." Elizabeth answered with taking her eyes of the road.

Her eyes stayed on one man, who was sitting on a chair under a shade, outside a cafe, he had a newspaper covering his face and he sipped the cup of tea from time to time without exposing his face. He was clad in all black, in contrast with the colourful town. His dark figure was not hard to miss, with black coat that had long sleeves and black pants, with a black hat on his head.

"Do you see that guy?" Elizabeth asked and gestured at the man's direction with her chin.

"Who?" Layla blinked blankly. 

"That! The guy clad fully in black, doesn't he look suspicious to you?" Elizabeth asked again, the man can be noticed anywhere in this town, so why could Layla not notice him?

"I don't know what you're talking about, Elizabeth. Are you okay?" Layla was really confused this time.

Elizabeth glanced at Layla and immediately turned to the man's direction but he was gone.

Her eyes widened and she immediately got out of the car.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Layla asked aloud but Elizabeth had already closed the door and walked away.

Elizabeth blinked but the man had really disappeared. She walked to the table he was sitting on before. The newspaper was gone too but his tea cup was still there. She dipped her finger in the remaining tea and the liquid was still hot, she sniffed the liquid, the smell of jasmine flower filled her nose, it was Jasmine white tea.

Elizabeth entered the cafe and walked to the counter.

"Hello." Elizabeth greeted the waitress with a smile.

"Hello, Officer." The waitress replied with a wide smile on her face.

"Do you by any chance sell Jasmine white tea here?" Elizabeth asked.

"Huh? No. We don't sell expensive tea here, Officer, but we do have other kind of tea that would sooth your taste bud."

"Uhm, thank you. I'll just take coffee." Elizabeth bought coffee and walked out of the cafe.

She walked to the car, entered and sat beside Layla.

"Where did you go?"

"I went to get coffee for you." Elizabeth passed the coffee to Layla with a smile.

"And why did you stop by the table at the shade?" Layla probed.

"It's nothing, I just wanted to see what's written on the newspaper and I perceived a fragrant tea but too bad, the cafe didn't have it." Elizabeth quickly gave an excuse. She wanted to tell Layla the truth but she couldn't…No, she didn't want to.

"Oh, thank you. But why would…"

"Oh, our dear Layla. Stop being so gossipy, you are even more nosy than detectives." Elizabeth chuckled half heartedly, cutting Layla's question half way.

Layla smiled, one that did not reach her eyes and sipped her coffee slowly with her eyes on the table where that man once sat.