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Chapter 5-1

The street was quiet. Everyone in town had gone home for dinner. As Louise drove by the narrow road near York Lane, her car's headlights illuminated the small restaurant ahead of her. She parked her car outside and stepped in.

A bell chimed after the door closed behind her. The aroma of Chinese wontons and chicken fried rice filled the air, making Louise's mouth water. The restaurant was small, but was packed with people who did not have time or effort to make dinner. The man behind the counter noticed Louise and asked,

"Welcome! Table for one? We have a special promotion tonight offering you spectacular sweet and sour pork, spicy red pepper soup and-"

"Hi, I'm looking for Mr Garcia." Louise cut him short.

Astounded to have been cut off from his script, the waiter showed Louise to the kitchen behind the dining area.

"Ben? A Ms Thompson is here to chat with you."

Louise thanked him as he turned away and left.

A middle-aged man with a white apron put down the knife he was using and turned around. Under full light and without the black cap, Louise was able to see that the man had small dark eyes and dark curly hair. To her, he looked none other than just an average town folk that worked at the local Chinese restaurant. Definitely not capable of kidnapping children, was he?

"Who are you?" He asked, looking startled.

"I am Louise Thompson, the local detective. What were you doing in the afternoon of September 30th?" Louise asked assertively.

"September the 30th...Hmm... Let's see. Well... the 30th-" Ben trailed off.

"That's right. The 30th. Two days ago. What were you doing?" Louise was growing impatient.

"I-I was just out doing a delivery service for the restaurant. You know, picking up fresh vegetables and meat. The usual thing. I came back here right after the delivery. Yes. There was only one single delivery that day, you see, so I remember being glad to be back so quickly after that one delivery." He explained as if he was being asked if he had stolen a jar of cookies from the countertop.

"And what sort of vegetables do they sell in the parking lot? Who were you waiting for in there?"

"I-what? I have never mentioned the parking lot. I was just picking up that one-"

"One delivery. Yes, I heard it the first time. But this video here tells me that you were lying." Louise took out her phone and showed him the security footage. The chef went pale and started to stutter.

"That...that's not me. I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Oh I know it's you. It's' you, all right. You were clever enough to have exposed your car license plate to the camera. Do you know how easy it is for me to trace a plate number back to its registered owner?"

Ben looked over his shoulder uneasily, worried that others could hear what she was saying.

"Okay okay you got me." He confessed in a hushed voice. "That was me. I was lying before. I-I just wanted to make a little extra money. It was a busy day at the restaurant, and I was working both night and morning shifts but it was not enough. I had to do hard labor for the delivery and load up tons of boxes up and down from the van..." "A lady, dark hair, and young, came by while I was loading the things up and told me that she could give me a hand. I said I was glad of course, and that was kind of her. But then she said she didn't mean it literally..." Ben, now whispering, held up his hand over his mouth.

"She was talking about money. Five hundred. She would give it to me after I did her a favour. This was the weird part. She gave me a cap and told me to put it on, and said all I needed to do was to drive through the parking lot. Slowly, not fast. And to stop where the camera was." Louise couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I didn't know what that was about. I swear! She told me to keep quiet about it. I didn't do anything! She just..." Ben continued to explain, but Louise didn't have to hear it all to know who that lady was and what she was doing. She was planting fake evidence. Louise went out and drove home.

What was Scarlet thinking and why did she do that? Did she have anything to do with the children at all?

Thousands of questions and contradictions flooded Louise's already throbbing head as she tried to wrap her mind around it. Why give out five hundred dollars and cause such a scene at work just to convince me that this restaurant chef was the suspect? She wondered.

She thought of the first night in town when they went out for dinner. They were sitting by the lake, families were chatting over fire pits. The yellow lights were dimmed above their heads, and they were talking about TV shows. And the baby was crying.

The baby.

Scarlet was upset throughout the night after the baby incident and emphasized how she didn't like them.

They're just "organisms eating up energy and asking to be punished".

As quick as this thought flew through Louise's mind, her phone rang. It was Scarlet. How funny.

"Louise! How was the video? Did you find it helpful at all? I hope-"

"Oh it's much more helpful than you could ever imagine." Louise replied. "How stupid did you think I was to fall for it, Scarlet? Manipulating and bribing someone to plant fake evidence? Did you manipulate me with your emotions just now too? Gosh, I was indeed stupid." said Louise as she tried to maintain a calm voice, her hand covering her eyes as she shook her head. "I should've known. And the actual two pieces of evidence from the investigation were hidden from me for almost one week. One week of precious time! Do you have any idea what we could've done in that period of time?"

" Louise, listen," Scarlet started.

"Don't. Did you take them?" Louise asked, her voice strained.

"I...it's not..."

"Just tell me. Did you or did you not take the children?" Louise feared for the worst scenarios and was hesitant to hear what Scarlet had to say next.

"No. No, I did not." Scarlet sighed. The sound of ice swishing around glass could be heard from her end of the line. Loud music was booming from the phone and there were people laughing and talking boisterously. Louise wondered if Scarlet was at a bar. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was thinking. I was just that close from being promoted to a proper detective. I was working my butts off. I had been working here for almost ten years and had never been shown even a single appreciation from anyone. It isn't only you that works hard, you know. I was close. Real close, you see, from getting there. I even acted all nice and stuff towards Henderson. But then, you came around. You, with less experience than I do, who didn't even know what this town was all about, just turned up here and stole my spot."

Louise clasped onto her phone tightly to prevent it from falling off of her trembling hand.

"I figured, if I somehow could manage to slow you down a little, maybe Henderson would see the faults in you."

"By misleading me and hiding crucial evidence? How is that logical?" Louise cried.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"Listen. I'm going to pretend that none of this has ever happened. I don't believe in seeking revenge or any of those highschool teenage girl drama. I just want to focus on doing our task and moving on as soon as possible." She ended the call.