It took the men pursuing them a while before they could get back to their car and went into the road Keryn, Kevin and Mick went on, and it did not take much effort for Kevin to lose their tail.
“Who are these people? Are they from the community collective?” Mick pulled out his phone and was about to dial a number: “How fucking dare they? Do they have no concern for the peace treaty?”
“It’s probably not. Not all of them.” Keryn pushed Mick’s hand down, stopping him continuing to dial: “Don’t call anyone up yet. I don’t know if we can trust anyone.”
“What - what do you mean? Why?”
“Because we’re investigating something that could be connected to a bunch of dangerous people. People who might have connections to some very dangerous people.” Kevin sighed: “Sorry you’re caught up in all of this, Mick. But we’ve gotta stay radio silent for now.”
“I just warned Sai. He should know what to do.” Keryn put her phone away, before completely shutting her phone off and pulling the battery out. She then looked at Mick, her voice stern and commanding: “That means you - shut your phone off and pull out the battery.”
“I - I can’t with mine.” Mick’s lips shivered: “It’s an integrated - ”
“Then pull your sim card out!” Kevin raised his voice: “Do you have anyone you wanna leave outta this before we go dark?”
Mick thought for a while, then pressed a button on his phone to eject the sim card: “No - not really.”
“It’s okay, we’ll tell you about it later.” Keryn patted Mick on his shoulder, then she turned to Kevin: “Where are we going?”
Kevin shook his head: “I don’t fucking know - I’m thinking maybe we find a place to ditch the car, change one and then we go to a safe place.”
“We don’t have the time.” Keryn looked back, he saw a few quite reckless vehicles coming in from far behind: “Do either of you have a car stashed somewhere?”
“No.” Kevin sighed, defeated.
“No. That’s - that’s a criminal move.” Mick scratched his jaw while looking back.
“Let’s go to the captain’s place first.” Kevin nodded at Keryn and Mick through the mirror: “We can’t go to any of the places on file. The safe houses are not safe either - assuming some of them are already inside our system, then we can’t go to any of our places.”
“But - wouldn’t the captain’s house be on file as well?” Mick asked.
“That's why we go there FIRST. We need to alert the captain, then we figure out what to do next. The captain’s in the system much longer than we have, he must know something or some place we don’t.” Kevin shook his head: “We go there, we knock on his door, if he could help us then he helps us. If he can’t - then we find another place.”
“Why can’t he help us?” Mick asked again.
“Can’t explain right now. ” Keryn sighed: “It’s - it’s very complicated. But the gist of it is, the captain has limitations on his part as well, and there are some things he can do for us, and there are things he cannot, because if he’s involved it would mean that the city has stepped in.”
“Okay - I’m pretty sure the captain’s weight. But what is it that you’re looking into? And why the secret?” Mick raised his voice as he looked around at Kevin and Keryn for answers.
“Ghosts. Mick, how much do you know about ghosts?” Keryn held her hand on Mick’s shoulder and signaled him to calm down.
“I - I - well - ” Mick calmed down just like Keryn asked. Then he looked down at his right arm, where he was once “hurt” by a bagua mirror. “I - I think they CAN exist. And that’s what you’ve been looking into? Ghosts?”
“Not just ghosts.” Keryn shook her head: “Cases that involve ghosts. Cases where the presence and behaviors of ghosts serve as indications of large scale foul play. And cases where ghosts are at the centers of everything.”
“Large scale foul play? What do you mean?” Mick started rubbing his face, then he looked at Kevin through the rearview mirror: “Wait - is this the reason you’ve never gotten back to me on the processing of that evidence room security cam footage? The case with Lydia Mu and that Benson kid?”
“Yes. Exactly.” Kevin made a swift and unsafe turn at a crossroads, making the cars behind on to their right honk: “And it’s the captain’s order as well. Because we want to keep things for those who are on the need to know basis.”
Mick was stunned for a few seconds, before finally throwing the question: “Why?”
“Because it’s the city's position that investigations do not take indications or theories of paranormality into consideration, unless the factors are hard to ignore.” Keryn looked back once again, the reckless cars had spread out, it seemed that their pursuers did not know where they were going: “And when a case is in that state, we’re looking at a blue envelope situation and things will not get solved.”
“... shit!”
“We’re almost there.” Kevin drove into a ramp to a highway: “Just ten more minutes.”
“So - Lydia Mu - ” Mick laid on the back of his seat: “I guess - in her case, her ghost appeared on that security cam footage?”
“... yes.” Kevin nodded: “Only for one or two frames. And we believe, that her grudge lingers on the body of the Benson kid, her killer, even after death.”
Shout outs to my patrons:
mant06
Jonathan
Thank you very much for your support!
