[✔] White over Red (boyxboy)

֍CHAPTER 39: Suspicion

A month and a half later, Kirill began to suspect that Stepan might be hiding the truth from him. The news that casted on the TV perplexed him and made him become doubtful of Stepan's words at first. Emanuel and Louis were declared by the news to be missing and they were then related to Kliment's case. The people on the TV and also the public opinion seemed to conclude that the three missing teenagers were abducted by the same person who could be a serial killer or a sexual offender. Not only that, there were also cases of teenagers that were found in the outskirts of Krasniy with their fingers, toes, tongue, and parts of their ears missing. Even though they were alive, the kids were too traumatised to even help the police with the investigation. One of the kids also couldn't stand the questioning that he committed suicide by jumping off from the hospital's rooftop.

He questioned Stepan regarding this. But he was slowly coaxed by him. He also told him that he knew nothing about it. Deep within, Kirill doubted him but he refused to think much into it. But still... Later on, he found out that the kids who had those fingers and toes missing were those who were with Louis at the time. He didn't notice it at first because he wasn't the type to really pay attention to the details since he only cared about finding Kliment. He was also bad at remembering faces. Other than that, he was also distracted by Stepan at the time that he was ignorant of it. When he realised this fact alone, he became doubtful of Stepan's words and deeds.

He suddenly remembered to contact his PI whom he had neglected for so long only to find that the number could no longer be reached. Therefore, he decided to try calling the agency where his PI was from. The phone was picked up by a woman who speaks in Russian. "Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Naiti Agency?" Kirill greeted and asked her in fluent Russian.

"Yes. May I know whom I am speaking to?"

"I'm Mr. M. I'm calling to find contact information of one of your P.I.; Mr. Fedorov. It's Ivanov Federov. He helped me investigate a case for me 8 months ago but I lost his contact number."

"Ivanov Federov? We don't have that person as one of our staff, sir."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yes. We only have three private investigators and they are all women. Naiti Agency never had any male private investigator. Are you sure he was working with us?"

Kirill was dumbfounded that he could not utter a single word to that. He was lost in his own thoughts for a moment and could no longer comprehend what the woman on the phone was talking about.

"Hello? Sir? Hello?"

He finally heard her and realised that he had been silent for a while. "Aa! Nevermind. Thanks for your time," Kirill quickly replied and hung up. His heartbeat was beating wildly in his chest. 'No way...' He slowly thought to himself. 'Have I been scammed?' He wondered. But he was unsure of what to do. He felt lost. He then began to randomly reminisce about the past in order to organise his own thoughts.

How did he get in touch with the Naiti Agency in the first place? To think back, the Agency sent a message to him around the time when Kliment had disappeared suggesting him to contact them since they are interested in the disappearance. They even went as far as to mention that they had an insider to provide them with solid information.

'An insider?! Why didn't I think of this before? Who could this insider be?' Kirill thought. 'This person should be someone who lives in Krasniy. Maybe someone who went to the same school as Kliment? Or maybe...' He felt chills at a sudden realisation. 'Maybe one of the four boys?'

He researched about the Agency before agreeing to hire them. But... he used the link given in the message to their website! It could be a fake website. He needed to check the link again. Kirill quickly looked through his phone to find the old message. After a long while, he finally found the link and clicked on it only to find that the website had been taken down!