"What do you mean you are not going to share that information?" Officer Chen furrowed his brows, staring down at Captain Hunt, who was sitting on his desk, flipping through papers.
"Why are you even asking me this? I told you the information is credible. Go look for the toy of the dead guy in that boy's house." Without looking up, the old man grunted.
"The lead you are referring to was a dead end." Officer Chen finally snapped; he no longer cared about treating the man with respect. "Now those people from the order are displeased that you wasted their time."
Captain Hunt finally raised his head; his expression was no longer smug as before. "They think that my informant tried to derail their investigation."
"Of course they did that. Did you bother checking their credibility? Or if that person was being vindictive."
"I—" the old man tried to defend himself, but officer Chen cut him off.
"You never think about anything else beside closing the game, and if someone steps over you… your pride cannot take that."
The old man's face turned red with anger, but he could not do anything because officer Chen had joined the order of the seven and he would soon outrank him.
"Because of you, I had to interrogate a little child and call him a murderer." Officer Chen's chest heaved up and down. He said a few more words and soon left the room with the name of Captain's informant.
On his way out, officer Chen slammed the door, attracting the attention of other officers. The entire room had turned silent; they could even hear his whisper to himself from a distance, "to think he got conned by a child."
Once officer Chen was gone, the office broke into a cacophony of gossip. It did not even take much time for the rumors to spread.
As soon as he left the building, officer Chen's serious look morphed into a cheeky grin.
"That should teach him…" His voice disappeared in the downpour slamming into the streets. A stream of water was moving down the street, dragging all the trash along with it.
***
Mr. Acosta and Miss Angelia stared at the muddy grounds behind the school building of the orphanage with matching looks on their faces. The rain came pouring down from the skies, but not a single drop touched their body.
Their bodies were enveloped with different colors.
"What do you see?" With her eyes covered in a veil of dark blue, Miss Angelia looked over at her partner.
Mr. Acosta blinked his eyes, and when he reopened them, his whole demeanor had turned colder than before. His eyes gleamed with obsidian black , and a pair of horns made of the same glow spurted from his forehead.
"There are some faint traces left, but they are barely even traceable. If they had called us earlier, we might have caught something." Shaking his head, Mr. Acosta returned to his original state. His skin gained a warm hue, even though it was only a little.
"Then, we move to the next destination." Mr. Angelia spoke in a cold voice.
It did not take long for the two of them to reach the class where the janitor was hanged.
As soon as they entered the room, Ms. Angelia narrowed her violet eyes. "There is something wrong here."
"Indeed." Mr. Acosta nodded in agreement; he entered his magical state once more, regaining the horns and the cold grace.
"The presence here is thicker than the previous one, but..." He said as he looked around the room.
"But?" his words alerted the woman.
"It's different, and it also feels familiar. There is no physical evidence, just a lingering trail."
Although Miss Angelia could not see it herself, Mr. Acosta's eyes were fixed on a glowing mass of silver gas floating in the air all around the room.
"Can you give me something to track the owner of his trace?"
To her question, the man with the feminine voice shook his head.
Clicking her tongue, the lady took out a pen-like device from her pocket. "Tell me the direction."
Following the path where the man was pointing, Miss Angelia directed the tip of the device. When she pressed a button on the side of it, the tip glowed with a golden brilliance.
The golden light emerged from the device, shot into the air, and collided with the mass, allowing her to see the silver glow as well.
The light enveloped the colorful mist cloud and pulled it back into the device, securing it inside. Once the device turned off, the woman raised her hand to see a silver liquid shimmering in the glass section of the device.
"We shall move on to the next location."
Mr. Acosta nodded before leaving the room with her. Their final destination was the very place where the first death took place.
A murder disguised as a suicide!
While the two investigators were determined to uncover the truth about the incidents that had occurred in the past few days, Jinn, the boy deeply connected to everything, was engaged in a heated argument with a very rude and unyielding girl.
"Why do you keep disappearing?" Sally growled, making Kyle shiver in fear. "For the sake of all that is holy, you were almost accused of murder."
"Accused. Not charged." Jinn corrected with an annoyed huff. He was regretting telling the girl what had happened in the center building.
"Why are you getting so angry about this? I am just going to take a stroll around the garden beside the dormitory."
Sally did not like Jinn's responses at all; her expression only grew worse with each word he said.
"The whole orphanage is on lockdown, and you want to roam around?" sally raised her voice in disbelief. "Even if you have to tie me to the bed here, there is no way I am letting you leave alone."
'This better work out as I planned. Her voice almost drilled holes in my head.' Jinn gritted his teeth inwardly and spoke with a cheeky grin, "Why don't you come along with me then? Because even if you come or not, I am leaving this place."
He turned his head to the scared little boy with curly hair, sitting on the bed, watching them fight with a tearful look in his eyes.
"You can come too, Kyle."
"What?" Sally wanted to refuse him on the spot, but the little guy suddenly cheered up and asked, "Can I?"
The desperation in his voice and the innocent look in his big misty eyes made her heart melt.
'There is no way we will encounter any danger with those powerful people from the church present, so it should be fine.'
Her thoughts were more assurance for herself than analyzing the situation. In the end she agreed and left the room with Kyle and Jinn.
The rest of their dorm mates only spoke once they were gone.
"Should we tell the teachers?"
"Are you an idiot? To tell them we have to leave this place, and we would be scolded if we did that."
"Makes sense."
***
Jinn, along with Kyle and Sally, reached the ground floor. Until now, no one had stopped them, and the building's front gate was also deserted.
"It's raining! We will get sick."
Jinn ignored sally and walked towards the exit when a voice suddenly made the three of them pause.
"Where are you going, Jinn? On your way to commit another murder?"