Silent Boy [ENGLISH]

23.

Thomas soon left the house of Bianca and Nicolas Schmidt with a picture of the boy, and with the promise that he would return it. He headed to the only place that made sense to him at the moment - Home for neglected children "Second chance". A little ironic, isn't it?

He thought of calling Scarlett, since he knew that she was an early riser, but he quickly rejected it. He did not want to talk, set certain hypotheses and come up with various theories until he had all the necessary information. That is rational. And now he had to think more rationally than ever. He must not rush into a black hole. He knew he was approaching the killer, he could almost smell the rot of his inhumanity.

Elizabeth Hallow.

Wrong piece of the puzzle that didn't fit anywhere no matter how you turn it. Who exactly is Elizabeth Hallow? Her name hasn't popped up anywhere so far. One thing he knew for sure, and that was that she was definitely not a killer. Primarily, it did not fit the theory. The behavioral profile of the culprit, which was done by experts, determined that it was definitely a man. A man who is selfish and in fact is damaged and full of issues to the core. Maybe they were wrong? Hard, almost impossible. They were specialists in their field.  It was especially not possible since Sebastian used the pronoun he in the last meeting with Scarlet to address a mysterious adopter.

Sebastian's case, which once seemed so obvious and easy to close, became like an equation for a person who had dyscalculia. Thomas sighed unconsciously and was still carried away by his thoughts. His brain was working two hundred an hour; he could almost see steam coming out of his ears from so much strain.

When he arrived at the entrance to the Second Chance, he realized how old and dilapidated the place really was. The windows were dilapidated and the walls old and cracked. White has long since become dirty gray, almost unbearable to look at. It was not clear to Thomas how someone allowed the children's home to be in such a state. He shuddered at the very thought of a child spending most of his childhood there. He saw a couple of boys and girls playing on the neatly trimmed grass and giggling loudly. They raised their heads when they heard the creak of the gate and saw Thomas on it. Thomas nodded to them with a warm smile, which formed an even bigger face on their faces. As he entered the dilapidated building, he heard one of the girls whisper to one of the children, "Maybe today is someone's lucky day.''

His heart broke to pieces.

Surprisingly, the interior of the facility seemed much more appropriate than the exterior. It was clean, tidy and modest. Not far from the entrance was a reception desk where a girl with long blonde hair worked covering her larger back and chest. She looked very young, almost like a teenager, but he assumed he was mistaken for a decade more. She raised her left eyebrow with interest when she saw him at the door and checked him out not so discreetly. It was obvious that Thomas's appearance suited her as well. She immediately put on a generous smile and tossed her hair, completely ready to flirt with an unknown visitor.

Thomas instinctively raised his eyebrows briefly in wonder, almost embarrassed. He didn't like the fact that she was ready to flirt openly with him. He wouldn't have minded that before, but now, apart from Scarlett, no woman was on the radar for him anymore.

He cleared his throat, to which she greeted him.

"Hello, welcome to Second Chance," she grinned even more, revealing her perfectly groomed teeth. "Can I help you in any way?"

"Actually, you can," he said, resting his elbows on the counter. "I'm Detective Calligan and I have a few questions about one case I'm working on."

At the mention of his profession, her eyes lit up with excitement. It looked like she was falling for the guys in uniform, and it seemed to Thomas that the charge of tension and discomfort was growing by the second.