“What are these for? I know 1149 and 1148. But what is 1033?” On their way to a separate safe house owned and operated solely by Captain Ko, Kevin asked as he flipped through some of the pages of the folder marked with “1149”.

“It’s an accident, well, sort of.” Captain Ko sighed: “I was just promoted to sergeant around that time -  I think. It’s basically - a worker from one of the electric companies was doing a relatively mundane maintenance and inspection on a transformer. It’s not even supposed to be any heavy work, alas, sometimes things just happen.”

“What happened? ” Keryn asked as she opened the folder marked “1033” and read the first few lines out loud: “‘The cause of death is deemed to be electrocution by high voltage electricity’. Why - why is the ‘death’ in quotes?”

“Read on.” Captain Ko sighed: “I’ve - I’ve heard the rumors and gossip, if I’m not misremembering, the guy kept on working for a while after - ”

“‘The worker, Yunyi Liu, a senior engineer employed by the Thuller Group Power Company, was reported to have stopped checking back into his company-provided dormitory right after the accident. However, he kept coming into work for a week post-accident. It was not until his on-call shift was over that the next engineer on the rotation reported finding his burned corpse near the transformer.’” Keryn continued: “‘This case was investigated by the Precinct - redacted, by Detective redacted and Detective redacted, who proposed that experts from South-Eastern District be brought in. The detectives were later reassigned as this case was put on hold. ’”

“Well, this was surely something new and worthy of the Blue Envelope statues.” Kevin shrugged: “But - why is it such a large folder? Did the detectives really find that much?”

“Let’s see…” Keryn flipped through a few pages: “See here ‘... the only theory we have right now is that this is a paranormal phenomenon, where Mr. Yunyi Liu’s ghost lingered after he was killed in the accident, not really knowing his own demise. For he left almost all the marks in his work station like that of a normal human, he took notes, he performed numerous relatively simple but still technical tasks for the company… Mr. Liu’s department at Thuller Group could not produce more work logs or any more details about his daily duty at the time of this report, citing infrastructural safety regulations in the city.’”

“Do they have sign in sheets and stuff? ” Kevin asked from the side.

“Let’s see - yes.” Keryn nodded as she pulled some photocopied pages from the back: “The dates are redacted, but looks like the dude signed in for seven - eight consecutive days. I guess that’s - that’s normal? The second day’s signature is circled - looks like this is the day the man died.”

“Is there anything about what kind of job he did? And what kind of ‘accident’ it was?” Kevin urged.

“Okay, let me find it.” Keryn flipped through the unbound paper and individually stapled reports, then she pulled out a thin pile, held together by a tiny file binder clip: “Accident report: he touched a live wire with his bare hands, against safety protocol. ”

“That’s it?” Captain Ko and Kevin asked at the same time.

“Looks like it.” Keryn sighed and shook her head: “The other files are - journals from the man, notes from the two detectives, a bunch of files from Thuller Group, probably a bunch of garbage anyway, and - some journal pages.”

“Journal? Of that worker? What’s it said?” Kevin immediately pulled the page closer to him: “‘On day - redacted, I completed daily maintenance of the substation. I ate lunch. I fixed the broken bar on my chair.’, ‘On day redacted, I completed daily maintenance of the substation. I ate lunch. I fixed the broken bar on my chair.’ ‘On day redacted. I - ’” Before he could even finish, chills rolled down Kevin’s spine and made his back tensed for a brief moment. All the journal entries for several days, they documented the same thing. What was worse, even the handwritings were almost the exact same, the only notable difference was from the ink of the pen.

“That’s - that sounds like a spirit trapped in a cycle. Yeah.” Captain Ko nodded at Kevin and Keryn through the rearview mirror: “Look closer, see if there’s any mentioning of the - the occult. Like rituals, sigils, incense, pendants, personal charms, or even just unhappy married life, kids, dogs, whatever keeps him going.”

“He’s single, divorced, only limited contact with an ex-wife. No children, no pets of any kind.” Keryn frowned at the profile of the dead hand written by one of the detectives: “He’s been living in the company provided dormitory for at least 2 years now. Some savings, a small rental warehouse to store the excess personal belongings after the divorce. And - oh, he goes to the same nameless internet cafe every weekend. He’s a creature of habit, it kinda -  kinda makes sense.”

“Okay - but how? Don’t most ghosts need a reason to stay?” Mick shook his head, frowning: “I - I don’t really get it.”

“Did he not know he’s dead? That - that could happen too, right?” Keryn looked at Kevin.

“Yeah, in theory. But it’s really rare. From the few stories I heard, the situations are really out of the ordinary, sometimes extreme.” Kevin shook his head: “That’s it - but the thing is, even in those cases, they were not able to perform complex tasks. Just live their daily lives, they could. But fix things and perform tasks? That’s - a bit stretched.”

“Well, without the work logs it’s hard to say if he really performed those tasks.” Mick shrugged: “Any - any of that in there?”

“I’m afraid no.” Keryn shook her head: “Let’s check when we sit down - there should at least be something.”

“We’re almost there.” Captain Ko pulled the car into a small side road: “Remember, no signal, only use the wifi in the house. ”

“Sure. And you’ll let us know? Captain?” Keryn sighed and closed the folder.

“Yeah. Hopefully soon.” Captain Ko made a right turn, driving into a narrow underground driveway.

Shout outs to my patrons:

mant06

Jonathan

Thank you very much for your support!

Also, I will be taking two weeks off starting next week I've been experiencing some burn out so need some time to reorganize thoughts, clear my head and prepare for the ending of the book!

Thanks again!