Sands Of Time 4

Chapter 2: Denial

* words with an asterisk/star has additional information at the end of the chapter

September 15, 2019 | 10 a.m

Tubbo got up early to check on the autopsies of his father and two brothers. He asked Tommy if he wanted to come with, but to no avail. Having no one to drive him there, he commuted riding a *jeepney to the police station. In just a few minutes, he reached his destination.

Upon his approach to the doors of the station, many of his adoptive father's old colleagues had given him their condolences for his loss.

Phil is a role model to many in the industry he works in. Being a chief of police with zero kills during his term was impressive to the masses. His ways of handling injustices are almost always peaceful. In his death, however, he did not look peaceful at all.

Dr. Liam met up with Tubbo outside the crime lab to discuss what caused his relatives's deaths. Dr. Liam flipped through his clipboard, checking if he had everything in line. "Okay, so," he started. "We did the autopsy, got a lot of help from other doctors just for you, and we got the results." He handed over an envelope containing the autopsy to Tubbo.

"We found 48 stab wounds on Chief's body. Wilbur was strangled," he paused, taking a deep breath. "It went pretty deep that his vocal chords are all messed up." Dr. Liam looked at Tubbo's face, pity is all that he felt when he saw the boy's almost teary eyes. "Techno, however, was poisoned."

Dr. Liam urged Tubbo to open up the envelope, flipped to the page where the causes and times of deaths are shown. "The odd thing here is that Techno didn't die several hours before his body was found. It seems that he drank tea with poison in its contents."

"How could he have been poisoned," Tubbo asked, confused at how it was possible. "Tommy and I talked to him over the phone 2 hours before we found Phil." Dr. Liam's eyes widened.

"Funny you say that, because Techno's body was already 2 hours dead when his body was found in his own office."

September 15, 2019 | 1:30 p.m

"Tommy, I'm home," Tubbo called as he entered the house. He looked up and saw Tommy was standing on the side of the couch, looking at the very spot he found Phil the night before. Tubbo closed the door behind him and placed his bag on the side of a different couch in the living room. He starts walking to the kitchen to settle down the take-outs he bought from a fastfood chain.
"You wanna eat?" Tubbo turned around to look at Tommy, but he saw no one there. Tommy went up the stairs into his room.

"I guess not..."

Meanwhile, Tommy started muttering to himself in his room, pacing back and forth with the look of frustration plastered on his face.

"How... How一who could've done this?" He slammed his hands on to his study table, which at this time seemed to be what he did most. The poor table was about to break at the amount of times it's been hit.

Suddenly, Tubbo knocked on his door. "Tommy, can we talk," he asked. Tommy stopped and stood still in his place, wondering if he'll let his brother in. Eventually, he opened the door and Tubbo walked in.

"What happened to your room?"

Tommy looked around as if he was new to the place. "Uhh... I was, um, redecorating." He looked back to Tubbo and asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

"About that, um, I had a talk with the investigators earlier after the visit to the crime lab for the autopsies." Tubbo seemed hesitant to tell Tommy, but he needed to know the findings.

"Tommy they're thinking that Phil and Wilbur was murdered by Techno, then he poisoned himself in his office after."

After those words went out from Tubbo's mouth, rage filled Tommy. How dare they even think of such a thing. "He would never do that."

"That's what I told them as well, but they insisted that there was no suspect because the suspect is dead一!"

"THE SUSPECT IS NOT DEAD! I'll bet you my own life that the murderer is out there having margaritas in the Bahamas as we speak."

Tubbo combed his hair to the side with his hand and took a deep breath. "You're saying that the authorities are wrong."

At this point Tommy was raging. He was standing up tall, hand curled into a fist ready for a fight. "They are dead wrong and I will prove it."

"Tommy... You're in denial."

"I'm not. I know I'm right."

"You're always right in that brain of yours. You don't listen一"

"They don't have evidence!"

This time, Tubbo stood up, he started getting riled up. "They provided me proof, Tommy!"

Tommy's expressions hardened, he heard something he did not believe.

"W-what?"

"They found Techno's finger prints on Wilbur's chair. The one they found used to frame Wilbur's suicide."

Tommy didn't believe it. He knew Techno was innocent, and he'll do anything to prove it.

"They are wrong."

"Tommy, please don't be difficult."

"YOU DON'T BE DIFFICULT. You'd at least deny this stupid accussations they are doing if you actually cared about our family. You'd let me prove something"
"I do care! It's just that they have proper evidence一."

"What? A single finger print? You think that's enough to prove a man's crime? What if I accused you for eating my pudding just because of a single finger print on the lid? It wouldn't make sense, would it? YOU DON'T JUST BASE OFF OF A SINGLE EVIDENCE."

Silence laid between them for a few seconds. Tubbo realized what Tommy was saying. For the first time, despite his expertise in these sorts of things, Tommy had the clearest of heads between the two of them. Grief was taking over him to the point that any evidence served up to him by a platter he'd take despite it lacking any other evidence.

"I'm going," Tommy said as he took his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

"To where?"

"To Schlatt's. I'm going to investigate."

* a jeepney is a mode of transportation in the Philippines for those who don't own a car but doesn't need to travel too far. 9 Php (Philippine Peso) is required to ride in it.